today to the letter of Philemon. I'm fairly confident this morning
that most of us here today are familiar with this small letter. It was written, inspired by God
the Holy Spirit, It was written by the Apostle Paul while a prisoner
in Rome. And of course, he's interceding
here for a runaway slave by the name of Onesimus, who had made
his way from Colossae to Rome. And under the sound of the preaching
of the gospel, the Lord had saved him. You notice in verse 10 where
the apostle refers to him as his son, my son whom I have begotten. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus
whom I have begotten in my bonds. When Paul refers to him as his
son, of course, he is telling us that Onesimus was saved under
his preaching of the gospel. James tells us of his own will,
that is of God's will, of his own will, hath he begotten us
with the word of truth. the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's why it's so important
to be in a place, to have your children in a place where the
gospel, where the truth is proclaimed. Because God is going to use the
truth in saving his people. He's not going to use a lie.
Men stand up in the pulpit and they lie on God and tell you
that God is this and God is that and God is the other and none
of it's true. I heard recently Brother Scott
Richardson was preaching second in a conference one time, and
he got up and he preached. He had his notes, and if you
knew Scott, they were on a piece of paper about that size, all
scribbled up. He just threw them down. He said,
I have a message, but I'm not going to preach it, because everything
that man just said is a lie. He said, God is this. That's not true. God isn't that. And he just went down the line.
No, God saved this man Onesimus under the preaching of the truth,
the truth, the gospel of Jesus Christ as Paul was a prisoner
there in Rome and Paul is sending him back with the letter to his
master by the name of Philemon. And he asked Philemon to receive
him as he would receive Paul himself, not as a slave, but
as a brother in Christ. In verse 18, I call your attention
to verse 18, where Paul told Philemon, if he hath wronged
thee, or oweth thee aught, put that on mine account. What an
illustration that is of the suretyship work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the surety of the new covenant. And in effect, that's what he
said, whatever his people owed, whatever you owed God, whatever
I owed him. And we owed a debt, didn't we?
We owed a debt. Sin is a debt. Sin is a debt
and it's a great debt, a debt we could never have paid and
the Lord Jesus Christ for his people said, put that on my account,
I'll pay it. And that's what happened at the
cross when God made all the sins of all of his people. to meet
upon Christ and he paid that debt. As I said, I'm confident
most of us here this morning are fairly familiar with the
letter, but I was reading it this past week and two words
stood out to me in verse two. And to our beloved Afia and Archippus,
our fellow soldier, fellow soldier. And I asked myself this question,
how often do those of us who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ,
how often do we think of ourselves as soldiers? We refer to our
brothers and sisters in Christ as fellow believers. But how
often do we think of ourselves as fellow soldiers? All of us
here in this building this morning who are saved by the grace of
God, we are fellow soldiers. Fellow soldiers, not only fellow
believers, but fellow soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen
to a few verses of scripture that come to mind. In 2 Corinthians
10, in verse 4, Paul, and he's writing to the believers in the
church at Corinth, and he said, for the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal. Now, who carries weapons? Who
carries weapons? Soldiers do. Soldiers, they're
outfitted. When you join the army, that's
one thing you're sure to be issued. A rifle, fellow soldiers. And then in 2 Timothy 2 and verse
3, Paul said, thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier
of Jesus Christ. And in Ephesians 6 and verse
13, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that you may
be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Who wears armor? Of course, you
know, in that day, the soldiers did wear armor, and they do still
today. Armor is for soldiers. We are
to think of ourselves as soldiers, and soldiers are engaged in battles. They're engaged in wars. And
every child of God, every Christian, the moment a person is saved
by the grace of God, is automatically in a warfare. In 1 Timothy 6
and verse 12, Paul said, fight the good fight of faith. Lay
hold on eternal life. The fight begins immediately,
and it will continue. This fight, this battle that
we are engaged in, if we are children of God, it's going to
continue until we leave this world in death. Now William Gurnall lived in
the 1600s and he wrote a book which has become a Christian
classic, 600 pages of the Christian in complete armor. And he gives
five battles, he names five battles that every true believer will
be engaged in in this life. Five battles. And that's what
I want to speak to us about this morning. About a battle. The first battle is the battle
of sin. The battle of sin. John said,
if we say that we have no sin, and when he said we, he's including
himself, an apostle, as well as believers. If we say we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We
all should know that a Christian has a new man who is created
in righteousness and true holiness. When a person is born of the
spirit of God, There's that new man that's created. And that
alone should tell us that salvation is of the Lord created. Only God can create. Man can't
create. How could man create a new man
within himself, created in righteousness and through holiness? He cannot
do that. But when God saves a sinner,
He creates a new man within. We refer to it as a new nature. But here's the thing. He doesn't
remove the old nature. He doesn't take the old nature
away. It's not removed and it's not
changed. And listen, it's not improved. Our Lord said to Nicodemus, that
which is born of the flesh, and we're all born of the flesh,
is flesh, and it will remain flesh till we drop this robe
of flesh and rise, as the hymn writer said, to seize the everlasting
prize. Yes, we've got this flesh that's
still part of us. And I'm not just talking about
this physical body, which is flesh, that's true, but we're
talking about an old man, an old nature, who still loves sin,
who loves sin. The new man loves the Lord and
the new man loves righteousness and true holiness, but not the
old man. The old man still loves the world
and still loves sin. And so that's the reason we know
there's going to be a battle. And if a person says, well, I
don't have any problem. I'm not in a battle. That's not good. Let me tell
you, that's not good if you're here like that this morning.
No, dead people out in the cemetery, they don't feel any warfare either. They don't have any problems.
But a person who is alive, yes, absolutely. There's going to
be a battle raging. And notice that word Paul used,
the word wrestle. We wrestle not against principalities
and powers. Wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities and powers. Wrestle. Have you
ever thought about that word that he used? Now we think about
soldiers maybe in a battle. And you've got soldiers over
here and a foxhole, and soldiers over here, and they're shooting
arrows at each other. No, no. This battle is mano a
mano. When you wrestle, you're engaged
with that person you're wrestling. Aren't you, Don? You're engaged. This is a wrestling. It's not
just sitting at home and shooting an arrow or shooting a bullet
over here. No, no. It's a wrestling. Temptation to sin. You know,
in Hebrews 12, Paul said, let us lay aside every weight and
the sin which does so easily beset us and run with patience
the race that God has set before us. Now, we usually think of that
sin as the sin of unbelief, because that's sin that's common to all
of us. Before we were saved, before God gave us faith, we
were filled with unbelief. We were filled with unbelief.
And when God saves a person, gives that person faith to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, there's going to be that fight immediately,
that battle between faith and unbelief. But I point that scripture
out to us because while many people believe the sin that does
so easily beset us is the sin of unbelief, most of the older
writers, the Puritans especially, they believe that that wasn't
necessarily the case. That every person has what they
would call a bosom sin, a bosom sin. And it's different for different
believers. For one believer, it might be
envy. He's eaten up with envy. Always
had a problem with envy. Another person, it might be jealousy. I heard a preacher say his mother-in-law
told him one time, well, I've always been jealous. That's just
the way I am. Yeah. That's that old nature. That's the flesh. Yeah. With
another person, it might be gossip, speaking evil of others. Another person, it might be drunkenness,
might be fornication, whatever. Every individual believer, according
to the belief of those men, had a special sin. They called it
their bosom sin. And it's a wrestling with that
sin. a struggle with that sin, a battle,
a battle. And I asked you this morning,
I asked myself preparing the message, is there one particular
sin? What is sin? What is sin? It is disobedience to God's law. Anything that is contrary to
God is sin. You know, when I first, I guess, got religious, I grew
up in a church, I thought smoking cigarettes and drinking a can
of beer, that was sin. And I'm not saying it's not sin.
But I've come to realize sin is what we are. It's what we
are. It's not necessarily what we
do. It's what we are. And many people would never take
a drop of alcohol. I remember a friend of mine's
mother, the doctor told her one time, you should drink a glass
of wine before you go to bed. And I, oh, no, no, no. I never
touched that. But she would take narcotics. No. Boy, people get the idea,
you know, these brazen things that you can see, like drunkenness. And now today, I guess, they'd
be addicted to drugs, and that's a different day, a different
generation. I understand that. But what about
the sins that, like I mentioned, like envy and jealousy and speaking
evil and gossip Pride. Have you ever been proud? Are you proud that you're not
proud? Pride. What are you saying, preacher?
I'm saying that we are in a battle. We are in a battle every day. Sin in us and sin around us. And we're not ignorant. Paul
says we're not ignorant of Satan's devices. Let me give you three
ways he works in this matter. You feel conviction in your heart
over something. And what does Satan insinuate
to you? Well, that's just a little sin.
That's just a little sin. After all, you didn't go out
and get drunk. You didn't murder anybody. That's just a small
thing. But let me remind us that all
sin is against God. All sin. That's what David said
in his prayer of repentance. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned, O Lord, and done this evil in thy sight. All sin is
against God who is infinite. So that means every sin is infinite
in degree. There's no small sin. Don't fall for that. That's one
of Satan's devices. It's just a small sin. A second
way that he sometimes works, it's a hidden sin. Nobody can
see that. Nobody knows that. It's not her.
It's just you. Nobody knows what's going on.
And a third way, tomorrow. Procrastinate. Tomorrow I'm going
to deal with this sin. You know, in the book of Hosea,
God's speaking to Israel there. And we know that there's a spiritual
Israel, there's a natural Israel. Spiritual Israel is God's children,
those who are saved. And God admonishes them, take
with you words and return unto the Lord. And the words that
we take unto him that are given to us there is take away all
iniquity. Take away all iniquity. No, it's
not put it off till tomorrow. It needs to be dealt with. How
are we to fight with the sins of the flesh? Well, Charles Spurgeon
said, take it to the cross. Take it to the cross. Let it
be crucified there, but let it be mortified, put to death there.
And Paul, tells us in Ephesians, put off the old man with his
deeds. Just put it off and put on the
new man. Well, that's one battle. Here's
a second battle, a battle with the world, the world. Love not the world, John said.
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
What does John mean here by the world? It's not the physical
world. God would have us. God would
have us observe the beauty of creation and acknowledge that
he's the creator. For people to deny that this
is God's creation, that's not pleasing to God. That's a sin
against God. No, God would have us see the
beauty in creation and observe it and acknowledge it. It's from
the Lord and God's given it to us here. Think about this, the
goodness of God. What if God had created this
world and there would be no green grass? It'd be an awful place
to live, wouldn't it? If there was no grass on the
planet? It's beautiful grass. And sometimes
you may be out and you see the sun setting over in the west
and the sky, so beautiful. I mean, the colors. Yes, that's
not the world that John says we're not to love. No, no. What
does he mean when he says love not the world? It's this corrupt
and evil customs of the world. The philosophy of the world.
You say, what is the philosophy of the world? Well, one thing
is, you only live once. You only go around once. And
I warn you young people especially, you'll hear that. And sometimes
you'll hear it from people you never would have thought would
have told you something like that. You only go around once. Like
you're on some kind of a merry-go-round or something, you better enjoy
it. No? You better serve God. Better
seek the Lord while he may be found. Yes. The philosophy of this world.
If it feels good, do it. You know? Makes you feel good?
Feels good? Well, do it! Do it! That's the
philosophy of the world. Yes. That's the world that John
said, love not the world, neither the things of the world. The
world, I thought of it like this. The world that we battle lives
by the exact opposite of our Lord's words when he said, therefore,
all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you Do
you even unto them? Sometimes that's called the golden
rule, isn't it? Well, the philosophy of the world
is just the opposite. Do unto them first before they
can do unto you. I had a friend years ago. I was with him at
different times at night. We'd be driving, and cars would
come, and they wouldn't dim their lights. So he wouldn't dim his
either. Someone told him one day, he
said, well, brother, do unto others as you would have them
do unto you. He said, I am. If I didn't dim
my lights, I'd want them not to dim theirs, so I'd know. No. The Christian soldier is to fight,
to be honest in his conversation. And to swear even to your own
hurt. When a person, man, gives his
word and he says, I'll do this for this amount of money, shakes
hands on it, we've got a deal. And then he comes back and he
learns something and he says, listen, I'm not going to be able
to do that because I found out something. No, the Bible speaks
about a man swearing to his own hurt even, being honest. in business, honest not only
in business, but in our relationships in our home, with our spouses
and with our children. Third, so first of all, every child
of God is going to be in battle with sin, second with the world,
and third, battle to continue through scandals of religious
professors. Let me say that again. Battle
to continue through the scandals of religious professors. You
know, the world loves to magnify the falls of anyone who professes
Christianity. Some pastor, some Sunday school
teacher, turns out to be nothing but a big fraud. And the world
just loves to talk about that, don't they? That's your religion. That's your religion. You go
down there to that church, you know. Yeah. I'm thinking of a man that I
attended Bible college with years ago. I know of two churches that
he pastored. I preached in both of them. I
encouraged my parents to attend his ministry, and they did for
a while. But then one day he just ups
and leaves his family, denies the faith that he had preached.
Now, that's an experience I've had, I'm sure you've had some. And you read in the newspaper
about this guy or that guy or this person or that person, you
know, they're a cheat, they're a fraud, they've been found out,
they've been stealing money all the time. No, you know the Psalmist David,
he had an experience like that. Look back with me to Psalm 55. In Psalm 55 and verse 12, David said, for it was not an
enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it. Neither
was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me,
then I would have hid myself from him. But it was Al. a man mine equal, my guide, mine
acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together,
and notice this, and we walked unto the house of God in company. He had that experience. There's
someone that he trusted, someone he had confidence in, someone
he believed, someone he worshiped with, went to the house of God
with, and they turned out to be a traitor. Turn out to turn on the King,
King David. You're going to have those things
happen. You say, well, that's disappointing. I know it's disappointing. But remember this, men, I don't
care who he is, man at his best state is still a man. That's
just so. And we're not to be looking at
men to begin with. We must keep our eyes upon Christ. looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, coming to Him. If we start looking at
other men and women, you say, well, that's disappointing. I
know it's disappointing. I know it's discouraging. You
don't have to tell me about that. I've been a pastor long enough
to know things People that loved you said they loved you and loved
the gospel and they just disappear, you know, one day. They just
say, well, I'm tired of that. Yeah, it's discouraging. But
it doesn't change my relationship with the Lord. That's a battle. You maybe haven't gone through
that, but you will if you live long enough in this world. Someone
that you have had confidence in and loved and and had fellowship
with, they're going to disappoint you, but not Christ. He'll never disappoint you. You'll
never see anything in him that disappoints you. And here's a
fourth battle that William Gurnall mentioned is to continue to trust
in a withdrawing God. Let that sink in. To continue
to trust in a withdrawing God. Look with me in Isaiah chapter
50. Most of the writers really call
this a hiding of God's face. You may go to bed one night and
my, you're just rejoicing in the Lord and you're ready to
shout hallelujah. The next morning you get up and
you're as dead as a doornail spiritually. You try to pray and you think
there's no way I'm even in the presence of God. My prayer is
hitting the ceiling, bouncing back, that's all it's doing. continue, battle to continue,
trusting in a withdrawing God, hiding his face from you. That old illustration is still
good. When the clouds, the clouds are
cloudy, you can't see the sun. It's there. It's there. You can't see it, but it's there.
And as a child of God, when you experience This withdrawing of
God's presence, you don't sense His presence like you have in
the past. You know He's still there. He
won't leave you. He won't forsake you. Look at His advice here in Isaiah
50 and verse 10. Who is among you that feareth
the Lord? Now that's a good sign, isn't
it? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Who is you
that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant? You
listen to the prophet, the preacher. You hear him, preach in his message,
that walketh in darkness. Is that possible? Man fears God, listens to the
servant of the Lord, the message of God, but he's walking in darkness. Well, what's he to do? Give up? Some people do. Turn back? You remember Pliable. I think
of Pliable in The Pilgrim's Progress, don't you? He got in that slew
of despond or despair and what'd he do? He turned back. Turn back. No, what does God say to this
man who feared the Lord, who listened to the Lord's servant,
but now he's walking in darkness? What's he to do, turn around
and go back? That's what Pliable did. Ran back to the city of
destruction. Oh no. Let him, and has no light. Let him trust in the name of
the Lord and stay upon his God. Amen? Stay upon his God. He's not going to change. He
loved you yesterday. He loves you today. If you've
ever experienced any spiritual light from the Lord, it may not
be shining today, but what does the scripture say? It says to
stay upon your God. Here's a fifth. Here's a battle to persevere
in your course to the end of life. Mr. Gurnall said, a Christian's
work and life must go off the stage at the same time. A Christian's life and work must
go off the stage at the same time. This taking up the cross
daily, isn't that what our Lord said? Daily, taking up the cross. This praying without ceasing,
isn't that what Paul admonishes us to do? I remember reading The Conquest
of Mexico by Cortes. It was written, the memoirs that
I read were written by a soldier that was in his army. And he
told that many times they had to sleep in their armor. You
can just see the armor that those soldiers at that time had on. They had to sleep in their armor.
Yes. This work, this battle, as I
said, it's going to last until we leave this world. But don't
you, and I know you do, if you're a child of God here this morning,
don't you want to be able to say like the Apostle Paul, when
you come down to the end of the road, maybe you're on a deathbed,
maybe you're not. You can barely speak. To be able
to say with him, I fought a good fight. I've kept the faith. I finished my course. Don't you
want to be able to say that? I do. I do. Keep on fighting. Keep on fighting. Well, fellow soldier, I remember I remember that order, at ease. About face. You know those orders, don't
you, Nathan? You remember that, sure. That's the order that God gives
us as fellow soldiers. Stand up. Stand your ground. And never about face. Never. Well, everyone is invited to
stay and eat lunch, and I hope everyone