Amen. All right, let's go ahead and begin reading with Ephesians chapter four, verse 32. As I said earlier, that this is gonna be a 13 week series entitled From Forgiveness to Faithfulness. And so this morning, we're gonna look at the perfect example of what it means to forgive. And I think it was Martin Luther that said this. He said, the perfect example of being like God is forgiving. The perfect example of being like God is forgiving. And as we go throughout life, there are many times of where we are hurt emotionally by others, we're hurt maybe even physically by others. We're hurt emotionally. We are hurt verbally. You know, the person that came up with this phrase that sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me, that person's an idiot. I think he really was. That person had absolutely no clue what he was talking about. It should be sticks and stones may break my bones and they will heal, but words last forever. because words do hurt, and words do when told that, you know, it does take a while to get over things that are said. Todd, good to have you back. When'd you get back? When'd you get back? Okay, all right, did you have a good trip? Cold? Yeah, did you have a lot of snow up there? Oh yeah, you got called in that mess? Yeah. Okay, well we're glad to have you back. All right, good. But like I was saying, that the most that we can be like God is to have a forgiving spirit. So let's look at verse 32 of Ephesians chapter four. Well, I'll tell you what, let's look at verse 30. And there's so much that we could unpack with this, just in these verses here, that we could unpack with this. And then we're gonna go over to the book of Philemon. And it says, in verse 30, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. That word grieve simply means to, I think in the other translations it says, do not quench the Holy Spirit. Do not quench him. In other words, when the Holy Spirit is speaking, don't say no. Then when the Holy Spirit is speaking to you through preaching or through teaching or through confrontation by someone, the Lord uses others maybe to bring out faults in our lives that we need to work on, that we need to straighten out. I can remember, in fact I was thinking this morning when I was getting ready for church, I remember, you know it's amazing how things come to your mind that you hadn't thought of in years. and I used to work, I was a bagger. My first job was at Cypress Lakes Golf Course. I was a cart boy. My second job was a bag boy or a bagger at Big Star Grocery Store. How many of you remember Big Star? I think it got bought out, Kroger, I think bought it, or they just went belly up, and I think all the big stars then either closed up or they, I know Utah had a big star, and it's the IGA now, where Manna is on Ramsey Street, the Manna Church, that was a big star, and that's where I worked. And remember the boss man called me in, and he said, Dwayne, you're a nice fellow, you're a good boy. But you're lazy, and if you don't straighten up, your next paycheck is gonna be your last one. Well, guess what I did real quick? I straightened up, okay? So there are times that people tell us things that are meant to build us up, and he was just as nice as he could be about it. He didn't yell at me. He called me into the little cubicle there where the manager was. And he'd tell you, he said, Dwayne, you're a good boy, you're a nice fella, but you're lazy. So there are times that we are taught things or told things that we need to straighten up in our lives. But as we look at this this morning, And we see that in verse 30, it says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. In other words, as we're reading the Bible or we're listening to preaching, we're listening to teaching, we're listening to sometimes confrontation, that the Holy Spirit is using those things to help us to grow in our sanctification. So do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed. Boy, that is a comforting, that is such a comforting phrase there. I wonder what the people that believe you lose your salvation have to do with that verse. But then it goes on, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor, which means the arguing, and slander, which is gossip, be put away from you along with all malice or anger. But then in verse 32 it says, be kind to one another. Tenderhearted, now note this expression, forgiving each other. Or as it says in the King James, forgiving one another. And note the rest of this verse. Just as God in Christ has also forgiven you. Now let's go over to Philemon. If you don't know where Philemon is, it is in between Titus and Hebrews. It is one of the shortest books of the Bible, but there is so much to unpack in this one-chaptered book. Okay, so this morning we're going to look very quickly this morning at a great story of forgiveness, a great story of forgiveness. So let's kind of give you a little bit of an introduction this morning. So let's go ahead and look at verses one through three. Where the Apostle Paul wrote this letter and he wrote it to a man by the name of Philemon. I'll give you a little bit of history behind their relationship here in a few moments. But the Apostle Paul addresses it at the very beginning. It says, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus and Timothy, our brother, To Philemon, our beloved brother and fellow worker, and to Apphia, our sister, and to Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Now, I want you to note, how does Paul introduce himself in this letter? He says, Paul, a what? No, prisoner. A prisoner of whom? Jesus Christ. Now why did Paul write that, of being a prisoner of Jesus Christ? Because he was in prison. But I want you to note here of who he says he is in prison for. He doesn't say, I'm in prison because of Caesar. He doesn't say, I'm in prison because of not paying my taxes or not paying my debts. They had a debtor's prison during that time. He says, I am a prisoner of Jesus Christ. In other words, he was in prison because he was a preacher. He was in prison because he was a preacher. If you have never read the book, The Pilgrim's Progress, I'm in my third reading now. Charles Haddon Spurgeon read it a hundred times. Now, Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a quick reader. He would read one book a week, and these books that he read were not like Reader's Digest kind of books. I mean, they were some deep reading. He read one a week. It is said that Theodore Roosevelt read one book a day. One book a day. It is said that he is the most well-read president that we've ever had. It is said you can read, and he was also not only the most well-read, he was the most well-written because he would write quite a bit. Wrote many books. What I'm reading right now to Pilgrim's Progress, so I did a little bit more research. In fact, when I was in London back in March of 2020, one thing that I asked Justin, I said, look, before I head back to the States, there's really, and we'd already gone to the Tower of London, we'd gone to see the White Cliffs of Dover, and we had gone to, we had seen Buckingham Palace, and we had done all those things, and I said, he said, is there anything else you wanna see? I said, look, I said, there's two things I wanna see. I said, the first thing, the next is I want to see Spurgeon's Tabernacle. Secondly, I want to go to Bunhill Fields. Bunhill Fields, during the days of the Puritans, like Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, who wrote Robinson Crusoe, forgetting there's several famous people, but Bunyal Fields was the graveyard for the people that were not allowed to be buried in a public cemetery. They were basically outcasts of society. Well, Bunyan, because he was a Puritan, And because he was not considered to be part of the class, he was in prison for 12 years for preaching the gospel. It was while he was in prison that he began writing the book of the Pilgrim's Progress. So Paul was in prison because he was a preacher. He was under house arrest in Rome and was waiting his trial before Caesar. So his jailing was a part of, was a result of him preaching. He did not break any human laws. He was there because he was a preacher. Timothy was also with him, but Timothy was not in prison because Paul was in house arrest, which meant that he was in a house, he was under arrest, but people could come and go and visit with him. If you remember at the end of 2 Timothy, Paul tells Timothy, he said, when you come next time, will you bring my cloak, which meant he was probably cold, he was in the wintertime, will you bring my cloak and also bring me the parchments, which was the scrolls, will you bring those things to me? So Paul, so Timothy was basically his associate. Timothy was a young man, so we have Paul the old man and we have Timothy the young man. So he writes this letter to a man by the name of Philemon. Now I want you to note how he addresses Philemon. He says, to Philemon, our, so Paul and Timothy, our what? Beloved brother and fellow worker. So Paul was writing this letter to Philemon And it was a man that he loved as a fellow brother in Christ, but also not only as a fellow brother in Christ, but also as a fellow servant of Christ. It is believed that Philemon was a wealthy businessman, but also an elder of the church there in that area. He also writes it to two other people. He mentions Aphia and Archippus. Aphia was, by most people believe, that was the wife of Philemon. And Archippus was possibly their son. So Paul encouraged Archippus to fulfill the ministry. Back in Colossians chapter four, he writes to Archippus and says, continue in your ministry. So Archippus was probably a pastor of the church that met in Philemon's home. Now I want you to also note in verse 2, he addresses Archippus as a fellow soldier, a fellow soldier. I was listening this morning a little bit to Joel Beeky's sermon on the life of the Puritans, especially on John Bunyan. And John Bunyan considered himself to be a soldier. He said in his book, Grace Abounding to Sinners, he said that the Christian life is a life of warfare. Now, as we look at this, he says that he is a fellow soldier. Now, what did he mean by that? Well, I'll write these things down. Now obviously Archippus did not fight the same battles that the Apostle Paul fought. They were not the same magnitude that Paul fought, because we see no evidence that Archippus had ever had to go to prison. They were not at the same magnitude, but yet They fought basically the same battles. Now what were these same battles? Well, if you want to write them down, I'll give them to you. The first one is this, they stood for the truth. They stood for the truth. Paul was constantly having to defend the faith. Many of his letters especially 1st and 2nd Timothy. 2nd Timothy, he was encouraging his young associate Timothy to stand for the faith. Confronting false teachers, to stand for the faith, stand against those that false doctrine. So stand for the faith. Next thing is this, is false accusations. False accusations. Paul was constantly having to fight false accusations. That was one of the deals with the book of 1 Corinthians was his name was being slandered of false accusations. Thirdly is fighting criticism, of fighting criticism. Someone in a Q&A a couple of years back Especially during the COVID deal, during a Q&A, somebody wrote on a three-by-five card, and they got, all the three-by-five cards got sent up to MacArthur, and the person doing the interview would bring out a three-by-five card and ask the question. And the question was asked to MacArthur, it said, what do you do when you read on social media of people criticizing you? He said, very simply, I don't read it. I just don't read it. He said, I don't need to read it. I don't have to read it. And if someone does bring it to my attention, I don't listen to it. So the Apostle Paul had to constantly stand for the truth, stand against false teaching, stand against false accusations, fight criticism. The next thing is this, fight discouragement. Fight discouragement. I think that that is the major issue that Satan uses in the life of the pastor, is discouragement. And then lastly is fighting depression. I think there were times that the Apostle Paul was depressed. I think there are times that even, I don't think Christ was ever depressed, like clinically depression, like today we have you know, that person is just clinically depressed. I don't think that Christ was ever clinically depressed, but I think there was that time that always sticks in my mind of where Christ gave out the ultimatum and said, if you're not willing to die the death on the cross and you're not worthy to be my disciple, then what did all these disciples do? They all left except for the 12. And Christ looked at them too and said, are you gonna leave me too? I think that broke the heart of Christ. I think there were times that Paul had to fight depression. It is significant here that Paul included the church also in verse 2. He says, and to the church in your house. So let's look here at this quick map here real quick. So we see where Paul is in prison, and then I want you to look here over in Galatia there, that is where Philemon was, and that is the area of Colossae, or where we have the Church of the Letter that was written to the Church of Colossae, which we know as the Church of, or the Book of Colossians. This is a pretty lengthy journey there. So when Paul wrote this letter, that is the route that Onesimus took to get away from Philemon, and we'll look at that here in just a moment. Why did he run away from Philemon, but then also for Onesimus to go back to Philemon? That's a pretty, if you look at it, that's not a plane ride. That is a, a lot of it is on foot. And then you had to get on one of these old Roman ships that had to go across the Mediterranean to get back to where Philemon lived. So let's look at Roman numeral number two. And that is Paul's prayers for Philemon. Paul's prayer for Philemon. So let's look at verses four and five. Now, although Paul was in prison, he mentions a constant, or he maintained a constant prayer life. And I don't think that when Paul was in prison, it was not a why me kind of deal. I don't think he was there and said, boy, this is just my lot in life, I'm just stuck here for the rest of my life. I think he maintained a constant prayer life. I think he mentioned Christians throughout the world by name and commended them in his prayer life. Oh, exactly. Exactly. That's exactly what he did. Yeah. If you note, some of the places where he went, he was bivocational. In some places, he didn't get a paycheck. He had to work. So let's look at verses four and five here where it says, I thank my God always making mention of you in my prayers. Because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints. Paul was thankful for Philemon because he had received some very good reports about him. He had heard that Philemon was standing strong in his faith, was being very supportive of the church there in Colossae. He also mentions that, the reports I have heard about you of love and of faith toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints. Now, if you know anything that happened recently with the Roman Catholic Church, The pope that was before the current pope that had stepped aside, he died last week. And they had his, I don't know what they call him. Mess. Mess. You know, and this one was not as broadcast as much as John Paul II and those. But nonetheless, they still had, you know, the little deal, mass, mess, whatever they call it. But one thing that I was just kind of thumbing through the news the other day, and they had one of the American Roman Catholic priests on there that's kind of way up there in the Roman Catholic Church, and said, do you think that he will be nominated for sainthood? I think it caught this priest off guard and he said, well, I'm not so sure about that. Because there were some issues in his life that caused him to kind of have to resign. That's been revealed lately. Now, he just kind of, I don't know about that. Well, according to God's Word, which is 100% correct. When you become a believer in the finished work of Christ, you are a saint. And I've always found this curious, that when you read 1 Corinthians, the very opening verses of 1 Corinthians, Paul addresses the church of Corinth as saints. And if you go into the book of 1 Corinthians, Saints, they ain't. They lived nothing like a bunch of saints. But yet, they were believers. They were Christians. Yes, they were very immature Christians. There was a lot of issues in the Church of Corinth. But yet, the Apostle Paul said, you are saints. In the eyes of God, you are saints. Now let's look at faith's part of forgiveness. So prayers of thanks, there's Philemon's faith and his love, but then let's look at this next little part here, this next slide here. Let's look at faith's part of forgiveness. Okay, there's about two of them. The first thing that is the part of faith of forgiveness. Now, let me mention this, that when it comes to forgiveness, There are times that we are offended, and a person comes to us and says, hey, you know what, I said those words, and I wasn't feeling well, or I was just having a bad day, and I kind of flew off, and I let you get underneath my skin. I shouldn't have done that, and I'm sorry, and please forgive me. We can say, hey, no problem. I think men, now ladies, don't take offense here. I think men are more easily to forgive than sometimes women. Women sometimes, they have memory of an elephant, and they don't forget. Am I right here, or am I wrong? Just correct me. I don't hear ladies saying, no, no, no, we forgive very quickly. But you know, we can say, hey, no problem, I understand, yeah, I forgive you. But then there are times where we are offended, and we are offended very greatly. And even if that person comes to us and says, hey, I was wrong, please forgive me. Well, I don't know about that. I don't know. You hurt me really deeply. And I just don't know about that. Well then, that's where we have to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to grant us the ability to forgive. And that's where it comes by faith. So let's look at these next two things. First thing is this, we need to trust God that forgiving Onesimus was the right choice. Now I'll get into the whole thing here between Philemon and Onesimus here in just a few moments. But then secondly, trusting God to help him to have a forgiving spirit. I think those are the two things that Paul was praying for in this relationship between Onesimus and Philemon, was that Onesimus would make the right, that forgiving Onesimus would be the right thing to do. and then secondly that trusting God to help him to have a forgiving spirit. Now what is love's part? There's two things here. Fully forgiven Onesimus would take love for God. That goes back to that very beginning phrase of where I said that When we forgive, that is the most accurately way that we can be like God. And then secondly, fully forgiven Onesimus would take love for Onesimus. So there's the prayer of thanks, and then there's the prayer of request. That is in verses six and seven, the prayer of request. So let's look there. It says, and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake. For I have come to have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother. Now you note how Paul is beginning this letter to Philemon. He could have started it with, hey, Philemon, yes, Onesimus was wrong, you need to make it right, get over yourself. He could have easily done that. But no, he opens it up with what? Praising him. He looks at all of his good qualities in his life. It's just like when I used that illustration of my boss man from, from Big Star called me in and said, Dwayne, you're a good boy, you're a nice fella, but then he goes into, you're lazy. Okay, he kind of built me up a little bit, and then told me I was lazy. Well, here Paul is kind of, he's uplifting him. He sees all of these good qualities in the life of Philemon that in reality gives him now the encouragement to be able to forgive Onesimus. So let's look at the glory to Christ of forgiveness. How do we bring glory to Christ by forgiveness? First thing is this. We praise God verbally when they respond to our love and kindness. Secondly, it responds by pointing out God's love and kindness toward us. That goes back to verse 32 from Ephesians chapter four, that we forgive as Christ, as we forgive as Christ said, He also has forgiven us. Yeah, I think in my lifetime, I think the most obvious Testimonial to forgiveness was the Amish family that forgave that man for shooting up that schoolhouse and shooting up those young girls. And some of them died and a couple of them lived, but one is basically brain dead, very handicapped for the rest of her life. And what did that Amish family do? They took food the day of. They took food to the family's house. They went to the funeral, the graveside of that man and said, we have no ill will towards him and we have no ill will towards his family. They said the family didn't do anything to us. And they said, that is just what we do. We didn't even have to think about it. That's just what we do. So let's look at the third thing, and that is Paul's appeal for Onesimus. His appeal for Onesimus. What is the basis for the appeal? Let's look at verses 8 and 9. Therefore, though I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper, Yet for love's sake I rather appeal to you, since I am such a person as Paul, the aged and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus. So here's the basis of appeal. The basis is what? Love. That's the basis. The basis is love. That love is Philemon's love for Paul, and specifically for both Paul and Timothy, but also for fellow believers in general, but also for Philemon's love for the Lord, that the Lord has worked in his life as a believer. So what has Paul been doing now from verses 1 through 9? He's been laying the groundwork now. He's been laying the groundwork in order for Philemon to forgive and to accept Onesimus back. So that leads to the next thing, and that is the occasion of the appeal. Verses 10 through 16, it says, I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whom I have forgotten in my imprisonment, who formerly was useless to you, but now is useful both to you and to me. I have sent him back to you in person, that is, send in my very heart. whom I wish to keep with me, so that on your behalf he might minister to me in my imprisonment for the gospel. But without your consent, I did not want to do anything, so that your goodness would not be in effect by compulsion, but by your own free will. For perhaps he was for this reason separated from you for a while, that you would have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. Let me give you a little bit of a background here. I'm going to go very quickly here. There's a lot to unpack in these few verses, but I'm going to be very, very quick. Onesimus was a slave to Philemon. Slavery back then was basically an employer-employee relationship. It wasn't like the slavery of where we think slavery in the United States, of where, yes, they would buy them, but they wouldn't abuse them. And after a few years, the slave then had the choice to either remain as a slave, or they could buy back their freedom. So here is this man by the name of Onesimus was a slave to Philemon. So evidently Philemon was a very wealthy businessman. Onesimus was his slave. We do not know what happened. The scriptures does not give us the offense other than Onesimus ran away underneath the cloak of darkness from Philemon. The best estimate, yes, that we can give here is that Onesimus stole from Philemon. We do not know what he stole from him, but many believe it was money. But then it says here that we see here that in verse 11, who formerly was useless to you. He could have been just a lazy worker. Just a lazy human being. And that Philemon just did not have any use for him. So he may have withheld his wages from him. Or maybe he stole from him. Talking about Onesimus here. So he runs, he gets on a ship, he goes to Rome, which Rome was a haven for runaway criminals. So he goes to Rome, and he's living in Rome. Somewhere along the lines, he hears the apostle Paul. He becomes a believer and he places himself underneath the spiritual discipleship of the Apostle Paul. So he is growing in his sanctification. Well, in his salvation and in his sanctification, he then gives to the Apostle Paul why he had run away from Philemon. Paul has seen such growth in Onesimus, that he no longer looks at him as someone useless, he looks at him as someone useful. He no longer is a slave. He is now a believer. What he is doing for Paul, we don't know. But evidently he is doing something for the Apostle Paul that changes. There is a change in Onesimus. He is now a useful person to the Apostle Paul. So much so that the Apostle Paul is tempted to keep him. He is useful to me in the ministry. He is an encouragement to me. But instead of keeping him, he writes this letter, gives it to Onesimus, and says, go back to Philemon. You need to give him the opportunity to forgive you, and you need to give yourself the opportunity to earn his forgiveness. So Paul wanted Philemon to know that Onesimus was now useful to him. Let's look at the next thing, and that is the heart of the appeal. The heart of the appeal, verses 17 through 20. It says, if then you regard me a partner, accept him as you would me. But if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, this is where some people believe that he may have stole some money from him, charge that to my account. In other words, I'll pay you what is owed. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will repay it, not to mention to you that you owe to me even your own self as well. Yes, brother, let me benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ." So he, in this letter, he is appealing to Philemon to do what? Receive Onesimus. Not only receive him, but also when he gets there, if he owes you anything, you let me know it. He goes on to say, you also owe me. That I have invested so much of my ministry to you, you owe me. But I'm not gonna make you pay me. So the same thing, the same gratitude that you show me, you need to show that same gratitude to Onesimus. And what is this going to do? It's going to be great joy, refreshment to the Apostle Paul. Let's look at the last thing, some concluding remarks of Philemon. Verses 21 through 25, I'm having confidence in your obedience. I don't think, if the Apostle Paul had any doubt whatsoever that Philemon would not forgive Onesimus, I don't think that he would have sent him. I don't think he would have wrote the letter. But I think he knew the heart of Philemon because he says, I have confidence in your obedience. I write to you since I know that you will do even more than what I say. At the same time, also prepare me a lodging, for I hope that through your prayers I will be given to you. Paphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and we'll talk about him in the morning worship service this morning. Luke, my fellow worker of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, be with your spirit. So what do we need to do? What are some marks of the faithful? First thing is this. Now I find this very curious. And I didn't seek this lesson out to go with our theme. This is what popped up in the next series. What are some marks of the faithful? Well, we forgive others as God forgives. We forgive others as God. Did you have something to add? Yes, exactly. Yeah, it's a great way to put it. Yeah. Yes. Exactly. All right. Well, let's go and pray together, maybe. Our Father, we do thank you, Father, for the spirit of forgiveness that we receive through Christ, through you. But also, Father, we pray that as we go throughout life, that when we are offended, that when we are hurt emotionally, mentally, maybe even physically, that we would be very quick to have the spirit and the attitude of forgiveness. And now, Father, I pray now dismiss us with a blessing. May our hearts and lives be ready for the preaching and teaching of your word this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, we'll be back here in about 10 minutes.