Beloved congregation in the Lord Jesus Christ, this little epistle to Philemon really brings a poignant punch to us as Christians, realizing what our responsibility, our duty is as those who are forgiven by the Lord. The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 4 that we are to be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven us. In the same manner, in the same way that God has forgiven us, so we are to forgive one another. We are to be continually forgiving people as we saw last Lord's Day with the unforgiving servant. And what is called to us as the commandment of the Lord comes forth, commanding us to forgive one another. This is not an option. God calls us to be forgiving people in light of the fact that we have been forgiven in Jesus Christ. Now, all of your sins have been forgiven. Christ has dealt with all the sins of all those that were given to Him. So all the elect, all those predestined unto salvation and them alone, but He has dealt with all the sins of His people. And because He has dealt with all of their sins, all of our sins, all of the believers' sins, those who are believing are the ones that demonstrate that they were the elect of God. They were called out of darkness into the marvelous light in Jesus Christ. And you can have the assurance from the teaching of Scripture that God has forgiven all of our sins for the sake of Jesus Christ, for the sake of His work. This is the testimony of God's Word. And yet that is a judicial sense. Judicially, I now wear the robes of Jesus Christ. I have been forgiven of all of my sins and therefore the guilt and the consequences of my sins have been dealt with once for all time in Jesus Christ. I am never in a case, in a position, in a condition where I am under the wrath or condemnation of God. Christ has bore the condemnation of all of His people. There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. In the same manner, I will never be cast out of the household of faith because Christ was cast out once for all time in my place. And therefore, as the Apostle Paul says, that I am persuaded that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor heights, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing separates us from Jesus Christ. Nothing. This is a judicial sentence. So this is my position. I am righteous before God in Jesus Christ. As righteous as Christ is righteous, because I am covered in clothes with His perfections. His holiness, His righteousness, His perfect satisfaction has been imputed to me. And that's how I stand before a holy God. But that's not all the story. Because we also have a practice. We have a position and we have a practice. The goal of the Christian life of putting on Christ every day, putting off the old manner of living, is to be practically who we are positionally. Now that is coming, beloved. That is the perfect state which is after this life. But we are on the highway to holiness and we must be growing in those virtues. This is not a stagnant life. This is a life of growth. It's a life of repentance. It's a life of confession. It's a life that continually is being conformed into Christ's image. What is the image of Christ? Perfect holiness. Perfect righteousness. Perfect law-keeping. Perfect love to the Father. So our love is growing. Our faith is growing. Our confidence in Christ is growing. Our behavior is more and more righteous as the Holy Spirit is working within us. That makes for a separation in our world. The unbelieving world, those that are in darkness, are becoming more and more wicked. Those that are in the light are becoming more and more consistent in conformity to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. So I have a judicial sense of forgiveness with God, but I have a relational sense as well. The relational sense is that I come to Him when I sin. I am not asking to be justified. That happens once and once only. You are justified by the imputation of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But sanctification is a daily work. It's a daily progress. It is progression. It is consistent. It continues as the Holy Spirit works in us. He conforms us to the image of Christ. Incrementally. It seems as if the wheels of sanctification grind slowly in the Christian life. But nevertheless, we are beholding Him as in a mirror of the glory of the Lord. We are being transformed into that same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord. So I have a relational sense with the Lord that I daily come to Him and ask for forgiveness when I've broken His commandments. In thought, in word, or in deed, in a relational sense. as one who is forgiven of all of our sins. That's judicial. I'm no longer under condemnation. But unless and in case sin disrupts the fellowship that I have with God, I keep short accounts. Lord, I've done this, I've broken this, help me, strengthen me, make me, guide me, direct me, teach me, give me understanding. We recognize our weakness, our frailties. We recognize our stupidities. And beloved, we all have a lot. Well, let's confess that and let's cry out for the Holy Spirit to do His change within us. Because of ourselves, we do not have the power of ourselves to be faithful, to be consistent, to be diligent. We need the continual work of the Holy Spirit within us. All things being equal, we would be able to do it. But because of the pull of sin that is still within us. And we need the strengthening of the Spirit of God. So there is the relational. And that spreads out then from my relation to the Lord, to my relation with every Christian. With all that are in the body of Christ. And because I sit against the Lord, and it's never done in a closet, it always affects everybody that's in the body of Christ. That we keep short accounts with one another as well as with the Lord. And we strive to forgive. We strive to repair. We strive for that reconciliation. You may have union with somebody because you are forgiven by God and you are engrafted into the body of Christ, but you may have broken fellowship. And that is always a result of sin. And so you strive to keep short accounts, forgiving. You remember Joseph when his brothers sinned against him. And you read Genesis 50, you find Joseph forgave his brothers. That was horrendous sin, what they did. They sold their brother, their own flesh and blood, their family member. They sold him to Ishmaelite slave traders to then be brought into Egypt to sold on the slave block to become a slave of Pharaoh of Potiphar in Egypt. But Joseph forgave his brothers. I think about Paul and Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas. Paul came to faith when the Lord Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and regenerated his soul. And he tried to join the brethren. And they only saw him as Saul of Tarsus, the hater of the church. It was Barnabas. His name means son of encouragement. who gave him the right hand of fellowship and brought him in and took Saul of Tarsus to the other apostles and to the body of Christ. And he was forgiven. And here is Paul and Barnabas going on missionary journeys. And in Acts 15, so we have Acts 9, the conversion of Paul. Acts 15 is when a great dispute takes place between Barnabas and Paul over John Mark, who was Barnabas' cousin. Barnabas wanted to take him on missionary journeys for what they had ahead of them, and Paul did not. Why? Because he had turned back when they began their first missionary journey and didn't want to go along with them. And then you read Colossians chapter 4, and Paul says that John, Mark, bring him, he is helpful to me in ministry. He had forgiven him. And even though at a certain point Paul was angry, Paul did not want to bring him along, he then forgave him and brought him in. This is what you find that goes on in the life of the body of Christ. Think about the Lord's Prayer. Forgive us our debt as we forgive our debtors. Now, this is not a financial debt. It means sins. What we owe to God. We are asking the Lord to forgive us our sins as we even forgive those who sin against us. Not an option. It's a command. And beloved, it's not always easy. As I said last Lord's Day. It's not always easy. It's not easy to be sinned against and go to that person. But that's the paradigm of Scripture. It's not easy to be confronted by somebody when you sin. But that is what the Lord calls us to. And therefore, we need to come and we need to receive with the spirit of humility. And the Holy Spirit alone can give that to us, and we ought to be praying to that end. When you are unreconciled to somebody because of a sinful situation, and there hasn't been forgiveness granted, there hasn't even been confession of sin, you need to go before the Lord and keep your heart sensitive. Keep your heart, before the Lord, pliable. That you are ready to forgive. If in fact that person does own up to their sin and they confess it to you, you must be ready to forgive them. This is what we find going on here in this little epistle with Philemon and Onesimus, the runaway slave. And Paul is dealing with this situation of what is the responsibility of Philemon to bring back Onesimus, who became a Christian. The Lord caused him to be born of the Spirit of God. He regenerated his soul while he was a runaway slave in Rome, and he came across the Apostle Paul in the providence of God. He brought him into that condition, and the Gospel was proclaimed to him. And the Lord opened up his understanding, and he believed the truth. He was engrafted into the body of Jesus Christ, and Paul understood him to be a brother in Jesus Christ. He's communicating that now to Philemon. And understand something, that this little epistle that Paul writes to Philemon, it is delivered to Philemon by Onesimus. The runaway slave brings the letter back to Philemon. And the mercy of God, for the courage of Onesimus, Tychicus comes along with him. This is what Paul writes in Colossians chapter 4. So he has one as a companion that comes along with him, bringing the letter to Philemon, who has the ability, he has the Roman law to do with his slave who has run away anything that he wants. And yet he's a believer in Christ. So this means that he is a man who's merciful. He's kind. Paul's appealing to him to be forgiving. And this is what we find in our text. Notice, Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon. He says in verse 10, I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains. He is a co-laborer with God, brings the gospel. God regenerates his soul. And he says, who once was unprofitable to you. in the flesh, as fleshly, as when he was an unbeliever, he is unprofitable to Philemon. But now, he is profitable to you. Because in the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, the mind of Onesimus has changed. His understanding of his responsibility. His recognition that he is not his own. He is understanding his responsibility and obligation before the Lord, and how to treat the one who owns him, which is Philemon. This changes the whole venue, the whole organization, the whole ball game. Everything is changed now. He comes back to Philemon. Clearly, he came humbly. It reminds me of the prodigal son. who came back, as it were, make me like one of the hired servants. That's humility. Understanding, ready, willing, confessing. And he's hoping. He has great hope that Philemon will treat him in accordance with this new nature in Christ Jesus. So Paul is sending him back, he says. Sending him back to you. You therefore receive him. There it is, the forgiveness. Now, praslambano, receive him, doesn't mean make him like the hired slaves. It doesn't mean put him in a house that's three miles from you. It means to take him to yourself. There is an embrace. There is a change of relationship. He's bringing him in. When Joseph received his brothers, when he forgave them, he received them. He hugged them. He wept on their necks with them. There was a bringing back into the household. So you have it also with Paul and Barnabas receiving John Mark back into the household. Think about what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 5, about the man caught in adultery with his father's wife. Paul then speaks to them about casting this man out and not gloating in this sin. Violating the seventh commandment, cast him out. He's unrepentant, cast him out. And they do. They were real lax in bringing discipline upon him, but then they cast him out and he's repentant. He comes back to the church, he asks for forgiveness. And Paul says, forgive him and receive him back. Notice, forgive him and not stand outside as a second-class citizen. He is restored. There's restoration that takes place. He's moved back into the body where he belongs. And this is what the apostle Paul says, forgive him and receive him back. That's what forgiveness does. It strives for that. Beloved, that's hard. That's hard to receive people back who have sinned against you and to pick up, as it were, the relationship right where you left off. Just be real. Usually it does not happen. It's hard to get over things. And don't buy into the false notion of what people say, forgive and forget. We can't will to forget. If I could will to forget, I would forget a ton of things. And so would you. But we can't. Isn't it strange? You're driving along and a song comes on and it takes you back to 1970. A smell, there's certain smells that smells like my grandma and grandfather's old farmhouse. And when I would go, especially when I was in Menno, those homes smelled like that. I'd walk in and it would just be, it would bring me back to my childhood days, just the smell. We can't will to forget. But you know what I can will to do? Not bring it up again. I can will not to bring it up again against that individual anymore. Some of you still haven't learned that lesson. That when you forgive, you don't bring it back up against that individual. Some of you wives haven't learned that lesson. Some of you husbands haven't learned that lesson. Because what do you do? You know, that's the third time that you did that. But I thought you forgave me. I was in an examination at a classes meeting. It's probably 25 years ago. And the man being examined had written a paper on the Holy Spirit. And in that paper, great theological paper, but on the cover he put an image of a dove. It was just like, it gave apoplexy to some of these guys. To me, they're straining at gnats and swallowing camels. But anyway, that's what happened. That was in committee. He presented it to the committee, not to the body of classes, to the committee, which may have been six or seven guys. And he was confronted on that issue, and the man said, you're right, please forgive me. And they forgave him. And then they got to the floor of classes for the exam. And one of the examiners said, in his theological paper, he had a dove on the front cover. And the man being examined astutely said, I thought you forgave me of that. Lesson learned. Once it was dealt with in committees, it is just simply affirmed that what he wrote was orthodox. It was reformed. And that's all the body is privy to. Nothing else. And they brought something in private, public. And we do the same thing. When you deal with somebody and you keep bringing up the sin, Oh, and we forgave and they forgave. It's nobody's business. It's you two alone. Deal with it. And then it's done with. And you don't bring it up. Beloved, that's Christianity 101. Why can we not get that? Because we have a problem with our mouth, don't we? What should we do? Lord, forgive me. Forgive me for my mouth. Forgive me that I don't keep my mouth shut. Forgive me that I keep prattling on and causing more problems. Lord, teach me. Restrain my mouth. David says, restrain my mouth as with a muzzle. Psalm 141, put a muzzle over my mouth. Shut me up. That's what we need, isn't it? forgiving and receiving back and not bringing it up again. You know, and it's hard. Emotional things get all twisted and tangled up. And then we struggle with one another, struggle seeing one another. And yet we've said we've forgiven. So we need to strive at working at it and praying for the ministry of the Holy Spirit, for that ministry of mercy in your soul. Lord, have mercy upon me. that I might demonstrate, reflect your glory in forgiving. Forgiving this individual and bringing him and receiving him back. Which is hard, but that's the high road, isn't it? This is what Paul is saying to Philemon. Can you think about what Philemon was going through with a runaway slave? Swami had probably purchased for a sum of money, who's now ran off. He's taken off and he's no longer profitable. Now it's a great hardship. Now there are other things other people have to pick up because he's abdicated his responsibility. Paul says, receive him back. This is a real admonishment, isn't it? He appeals to Christ receiving him. Who am I ever to hold a grudge? And yet we do, don't we? And we do because we don't think on the right things. Christ has brought me in. He's embraced me. He's not only forgiven me, he's made me favorable in God's sight. And all I have done is sinned against Him and blasphemed His name, denied Him. All I have done is continually rebelled against Him and said, who is this man that He should rule over me? And He brings me in. You see, if we look at it from that perspective, who is it that you wouldn't forgive? Those that come and ask for forgiveness, you shall forgive them. No option. Command of the Lord. You're not going to lose your salvation if you do not forgive somebody. You will be disciplined by the Lord and driven to forgive that individual. You will forgive that individual one way or another. For those whom the Lord loves, He chastens, He scourges every son that He has received, brought into the household. Beloved, if you want a spanking, Go and keep on with unforgiveness. Somebody comes to you confessing, you shall forgive them. And so Paul is saying, receive them even as my own heart. You love me Philemon. You know the friendship that we have. You know the brotherhood that we have in Jesus Christ. You know how I love you. And I gave my life for you as well. receive Onesimus back, even as you would receive me. Look at him, look at me. But that's an old perspective, isn't it? It's like looking at a child and seeing a parent. It's hard not to love. You have a friend, and their child comes to you, and you see the image of that child. You see the image of that parent in that child. It's hard not to love them and embrace them, isn't it? To bring them in. This is what Paul is saying. He's saying the same thing to Philemon. As you, Sionisimus, see me. Receive me as my own heart. And he says in verse 13, Whom I wished... That's not a good translation. Wished. The Apostle Paul is not a wishful thinking. When the Scriptures speak about hope, it is a confident expectation that God will provide. The boulomai is the Greek term. It means will. It means something that the Apostle Paul, in his mind, decided to do, wanted to do. He was one who was going in this direction. He willed to keep Onesimus with him. Because he found him, notice he says, I willed to keep him with me, that on your behalf, hupere, in your stead, that he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel. He found Onesimus to be a great blessing to him, serving him. Diakonia and also Doulas, a slave that serves. That's what Onesimus was doing in the life of the apostle Paul. And Paul was desiring to keep him there. He had the mind to keep him there. It was his will to keep him there. But Paul understood something. Notice that he's in chains. He's in my chains for the gospel. Paul was in chains for the gospel. And he wanted Onesimus to stay there and minister to him for the gospel's sake. But he says, notice verse 14, without your consent. It was Paul's mind. It was his thinking, right? That I am going to keep Onesimus here. He is a handy dude. He's good to have around. He really helps me while I'm here in my chains. He has a love for me. And that often happens. When God uses an instrument in your life to bring you to salvation, some other pastors, some preaching, some teaching, whatever it is, you have a heartfelt affection for that individual. That's normal. You have a love for that individual. This is Onesimus. He had a great love for the Apostle Paul now, as the Apostle Paul was the instrument of God's salvation to Onesimus. It was Paul bringing the gospel. So he had a mind. I'm going to keep him. Because I love him too. He is a great servant of the Lord. And he loves me and he cares about me. When everybody else had abandoned him, here is Onesimus, whose name means profitable. But he says, here's the right thing. Notice Paul making a check here. This is my desire, but it's not right. It would not be right for me to do this. It would, in effect, be violating the Eighth Commandment, wouldn't it? It would be stealing from Philemon, his runaway slave, which has a duty to go back to his master. So Paul says, I wouldn't do that. I thought about it, I wanted to, but I knew it was the wrong thing to do. Beloved, we live by principle. Not by emotion, not by feelings, we live by principle. Precepts and the principles of God's Word are to instruct our mind. Which then, in the logic of sequence, is to instruct how we feel. The Word of God informs how I feel, my emotions. When I'm angry, is it legitimate? Is it in keeping with God's Word? There is a righteous indignation, but most times we don't have righteous indignation. We have unrighteous indignation. Why? Because we're led by feelings and emotions, rather than by the teaching of God's Word. We live by principle. This is how we are. And the more that you live by principle, the easier it gets to live by principle. Although the circumstances, the situation may be difficult, the ease of living according to the principle, you are stealing up your spine to do that which is right, God says such. This is what the Lord has said, this is how you will live. And so he wanted to do it so that it might be on behalf of Philemon, but he didn't want to do it without consent. So he says that your good deed might not be compulsion, but as it were voluntary. What he's saying there is that maybe he'll send him back. Maybe Philemon will know that Paul, the ages, the difficulty of being in a Roman prison, the dark, the dingy, the damp, the suffering, probably had much arthritis. He was beaten to a pulp. You know, his body was scarred up greatly by the Roman authorities. He was hated by the Jews. And here he is needing some help. And maybe it was that Philemon would send him back to care for him. But Paul wanted it to be not voluntary. or not compulsion, but voluntary. He wanted to do that. He wanted him not to feel like he was constrained to do it. You ever felt that way? You feel constrained because of this. How do you feel when you come walking out of Walmart and you got the bell ringers there? What is that? I forget what the... Salvation Army, there you go. How do you feel? Feel bad? Feel constrained? I mean, that's what that's for, right? It's to pull on your heartstrings. You watch those commercials and you see dogs out there in the frozen weather and they're shivering and they're all chained up. What's that meant to do? It's meant to pull on your strings so that you'll give. It's meant to make you emotional. So we've got to be people that are not just compelled to do that, but it's voluntary. You willingly, you have a desire to do that. It's like giving above and beyond. Nobody told me I have to do this. I want to do it. I want to give in that way. That's what Paul was hoping for here with Philemon. And he says, perhaps he departed for a while. He departed for this purpose. The providential hand of God. That being departing from Philemon, that you might receive him forever. Not just simply as a slave, but now a brother in Christ. This changes the whole dynamic, doesn't it? It changes the whole relationship. Onesimus is no longer a slave. He is a free man in Jesus Christ. But yet now he is a servant. for Philemon. The relationship has changed. Philemon recognizes this. Philemon is striving to love him in this way, to take him back, even as the Apostle Paul is commissioning him that, is appealing to him for that. He departed for that reason, that you might receive him forever. No longer a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother. You see that relationship dynamic. How could Philemon look at Onesimus the same way? How could he even see him when he there appeared at his doorstep with this letter from the Apostle Paul and Tychicus with him? How could he even see him as he's reading this letter as he once saw him as a slave in the flesh? He can't. There is a complete change of relationship now as the two are engrafted into Jesus Christ. He sees Him. He must see Him. He must view Him as a beloved brother. That's the dynamic of the working of the Spirit in the soul. There's rejoicing. There had to be rejoicing. Can you think a picture of this? Of Onesimus coming back and praising the Lord. Which he never did when he was an unbeliever. He simply complained and moaned and grumbled about the condition that he was under working for Philemon. Now it's completely changed. I come back. I come back to serve you. I come back as a beloved brother. I come back to love you. I come back to worship with you, to pray with you. To the God who has redeemed us from all of our sin and misery. But especially, he says, to me, how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. Onesimus was greatly profitable to the Apostle Paul. But now, he says, not just in the flesh, in the body, but in the Lord. That's the designation of the redeemed. Are you believing on the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you born of the Spirit of God? Is the Holy Spirit testified to your spirit? that you're a child of God. Because your name is not seen in Scripture. It doesn't have any one of our names listed there as one of the redeemed. The Holy Spirit ministers through the Word. And He is the one who testifies to us individually. He doesn't testify to me about you. He testifies to you about you through the Word of God. Has He testified to you? That is clearly a designation of being in the Lord. That you are in Jesus Christ. You are engrafted into Him. Your spiritual condition is changed. You are no longer in Adam. You are in Christ. You are in Jesus. You are in the Lord. That's the sphere in which you dwell now as one of the redeemed. You're in Christ. So is everyone who believes the promise of the gospel. They are in Christ. We are in Christ. We are the body of Jesus Christ. This is Onesimus now in his relationship to Philemon. He says, lastly, if then you count me as a partner. Koinonos. It has koinonia, fellowship. If you have fellowship with Me," that's what he's saying, partner, one who is enjoined in the work, in the labor, you in your part and me in my part, but all for the same goal, the glory of God and the edification of the body. If you count me as a believer, as one who has communion and fellowship with you, receive Him as you would me. Boy, that's really putting the screws down, isn't it? That's really tightening it down now. You have, if you love me and you care about me and we're both believers, and I was instrumental in your salvation, we have that fellowship and that communion with one another, will you receive Onesimus in the same way as if I was standing at your doorstep? That's how we are to see one another in Jesus Christ. This is a great epistle for forgiveness. It's a great epistle for reconciliation. It's a great rebuke to all of us. It's a great rebuke to the evangelical world that doesn't much understand forgiveness today. There's all of these aphorisms, these phrases that go around, colloquialisms, you know, do this and forget this. None of it is biblical. Forgive them in your heart and go your way. I've forgiven him in my heart. The Scripture knows nothing of that, beloved. And it constantly is a refrain that goes on in the life of the church. There must be an exchange. There must be a release. There must be words of forgiveness granted and a receiving back. There must be that. If there is biblical forgiveness. So that's what we are to strive for, even as it doesn't matter how bad, how deep we have been wronged. This is what God calls us to. Because we have wronged the Lord. Every one of us. We have broken all of his commandments. We have despised his authority. Think even as believers. Think about when you want to do what you want to do at a certain point, and you go that way, and you have despised the Lordship of Christ at that point. You're casting off the Lordship of Christ. He doesn't cast us out. He disciplines us. gently at first, and as we harden ourself in that sin, becomes a little bit more difficult, becomes more stern, and it goes on until there's change. The change of the mind, which changes the action of the individual. We have absolutely no biblical right to withhold forgiveness from that individual. Think about that, Lord, people of God, and think about what the Lord does in our hearts and go to him and ask. We all need the strengthening work of the Spirit, all of us. None of us have arrived. We need to forgive one another. There is a great virtue and a release and a comfort and a joy that wells up in the heart when there is reconciliation. Do that for the glory of God. because he has done that for you in Christ Jesus. Amen, shall we pray.