Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Our gracious, all-wise, all-powerful, all-knowing Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to assemble together And we do pray that you would bless us in the furtherance of this service to honor you and that what is said will be to the edifying of the saints. We know that the preacher can have his say. We can meet and assemble and go through our routines. But unless you sanctify the word to our hearts, then it will just be another worship. another service. We're made to think often of what the Apostle Paul said to the congregation at Corinth. When they were not partaking of the Lord's Supper because of their divisions, they were going through the form. But he said that they were coming together for the worse and not for the better. We don't want to do that. And we do not know exactly how we can measure whether we have or whether we haven't. Sometimes because our own emotions seemingly are more joyful to us, we would apply that to the blessings of the Spirit when we recognize that sometimes it may be just the emotions of the flesh. And then there's been other times when speaking for myself as a minister, it seemed like that everything that I said fell to the ground. And individuals that heard it spoke about what a great blessing it was to their hearts and souls. So we recognize it's not the eloquence or the lack thereof of the man. It is not because of the energies of our flesh, but it is of you. And so we would ask our God that you would bless us and strengthen us in the inward man, while the outward man is perishing day by day. And yet we do not know how the emotions or the sentiments of the flesh and the spirit work together. They do affect each other some way. We recognize that. And so we would ask our God that you would Bless us according as you see fit. We pray that you would be with other men, faithful men who are proclaiming your word, men that you may have called that are in error in one degree or another, for who of us have all knowledge, that you would open our understanding and cause us to see the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, and that you would raise up other men to be faithful to the preaching of the gospel, and that you would bless the preaching of the gospel to go forth. We would pray for revival in this nation if it would seem fit unto you, though it appears the dark clouds of judgment has not only creeping over the horizon, but has risen fairly high. Nevertheless, thy will be done. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Today we come to the book of Philemon. One of the shorter chapters of the Bible. though not the shortest. We have preached through the book of Ephesians. I think we preached through Galatians after that. But then we preached through Colossians. And our plan is, when we get through Philemon, is to preach through Philippians. But as you know, Ephesians and Colossians and Philemon and Philippians were written while Paul was in household arrest in Rome. That's where we found him at the end of the book of Acts. Bible commentators have tried to say which epistle was written first. I believe B.H. Carroll thought that Colossians was written before Philippians, and so on. But really we have no way of knowing. But we do know that, like I said, this epistle was written during that time when Paul was in household arrest, waiting to see Nero for the first time. And it's generally believed that Paul saw Nero and was dismissed from court, as it were, and then later on was apprehended and his head was cut off under the reign of Nero. It does appear, as we saw in looking at the book of Colossians, that this epistle and the one to the Colossians are companions, because it's generally believed that the congregation at Colossae was meeting in the house of Philemon. And we also know that the letter from Colossae was sent to the Colossian saints and to Philemon by Tychicus and Onesimus. And we saw that in the book of Colossians. So we see that Colossians and Philemon are connected together. I'm going to read this book, one chapter, so kindly set the stage for the looking and studying through it. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy, a brother, and Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborers. laborer, and to our beloved Appiah and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the congregation in thy house. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers, hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all saints, that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother, by thee, brother, Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now a prisoner of Jesus Christ, I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds. which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me. Whom I have sinned again, thou therefore receive him that is thine own bowels, whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel, but without thy mind I would do nothing, that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly. For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him forever, not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, especially to me, But how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord? If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself. If he hath wronged thee or oweth thee aught, put that on my account. I, Paul, have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it. Albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me thine own self besides. Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord. Refresh my bowels in the Lord. Having confidence in thy obedience, I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say. But withal, prepare me also a lodging. For I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you. There saluteth thee Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow laborers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. There's a lot in this epistle, and yet you could see Paul's overall goal was in Onesimus being taken back by Philemon. Paul could be quite diplomatic when needful. We usually think of Paul as that straightforward speaker, telling it like it is and letting the chips fall where they lie. But he was quite diplomatic when need be. I'm going to give you an outline of the epistle Then I'll give you my outline of preaching through it. But I want to give what John Gill had to say about it. I thought he gave a good outline of the epistle or the design of the epistle. First, he said it was to reconcile Philemon to his servant and to entreat him to receive him again, not only as a servant, but as a brother in Christ and the most proper and prudent methods and arguments are used to engage him to it. Second, he said, the epistle, though it is a familiar one and short, is very instructive. It shows great humility in the apostle, and that he did not think it below him to be concerned in doing such an office to reconcile a master to his servant, which is worthy of imitation. It also, this epistle teaches, the right that masters have over their servants, which is not lost by their becoming Christians, and even ministers of the gospel. Now think about that. Philemon was a minister. He had slaves. He had a servant. He had a slave. Paul didn't say that Philemon was wrong for having a servant. And I get aggravated at people that professed to know the Bible to talk about how that the Bible condemns slavery. The Bible never condemned slavery whatsoever. It did condemn kidnapping, and it did condemn a master treating his slave unjustly. And I know that's a touchy subject, particularly in this society in which we live, when the socialistic philosophy has produced class warfare in this country, as it has in every country that it has overtaken. But we cannot ignore God's Word. So this third point again, Gil talks about, that it teaches the right that masters have over their servants, which is not lost by their becoming Christians, even ministers of the gospel. And that recompense should be made unto them for injuries done by them. Likewise, it displays the riches of the grace of God, in the conversion of such a vile creature and the wonderful providence of God in overruling that which was sinful in itself. Running away from his master, that was sinful. To the greatest good, even the conversion of him. And it's also an instance of surprising grace. And from hence it may be learned that there is salvation in Christ for the chief of sinners, and that the conversion of them is not to be despaired of. I can say this with all confidence. that if salvation was not for the chief of sinners, there'd be no salvation for me. My outline is that we're going to look at verses 1 through 7, Paul's salutation. Verses 8 through 9, Paul's diplomacy. Verses 10 through 21, Paul's entreaty for Onesimus. Verse 22, Paul's expectation. Verses 23 and 24, Paul's fellow laborers. Verses 23 through 24, Paul's fellow laborers. And then lastly, verse 25, Paul's benediction. So we'll take up now with the salutation. Though we've read the epistle, I'll come back and read the first seven verses again for the salutation. Another preacher might divide it up differently than what I have. But anyway, this is what I did. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy, our brother, and Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, and our beloved Appiah, and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the congregation in thy house. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God making mention of thee always in my prayers, hearing of thy love and faith which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all saints, that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother." I don't know that I made the connection in my outline. I didn't go back all through it again this past week, but I want to make this statement while I think of it. When Paul said in verse 4, I thank my God make ye mention of thee always in my prayers. Paul believed that prayers were positive things. Notice verse 22. He said, Prepare me also a lodging, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you. Paul's in jail, but he knew that not only the saints at Colossae and the saints at Philippi and Ephesians at Ephesus, he not only knew that they were praying for him, but he believed he was going to get out of jail because they were praying for him. How's your prayer life? Is it positive? Negative or indifferent? What do you expect out of prayer? Well, let's not go down the trail chasing that rabbit. Let's get back to this epistle. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, He was a prisoner for the cause of Christ. But furthermore, Paul considered himself a slave of Jesus Christ. Now, he doesn't note that so much here. But notice, and we could go back to several other epistles, but I just want to go back to the epistle to Rome, the book of Romans, chapter 1. Paul's writing to a master on behalf of a slave, And Paul somewhat puts himself in that condition in many ways. But notice here in Romans 1, verse 1, Paul, a doulos, that's that word for slave, servant, Romans 1, verse 1, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. Notice that Paul puts his slavery to Christ before his apostleship as an office. That's quite different from man. Man usually tells of his accolades first. Paul was a prisoner of Jesus Christ, according to Philemon 1. He was a prisoner. Not only was he in Roman captivity, but Paul also was a prisoner of Jesus Christ in the fact that he was bound unto Him as His servant. In reality, each child of grace is a bond slave to Christ. Beloved, if you consider yourself to be a Christian, if you consider yourself to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you should also consider yourself to be a slave, a servant of Christ. This is a Christian principle. Look at Romans chapter 16, verse 1. I commend unto you Phoebe, our sister, which is a doulos of the congregation, which is at Sincreia. That word servant is doulos. That's the word for slave. Paul mentioned that Phoebe was a servant of the congregation at Sincreia. Every member of a New Testament assembly should consider themselves as a servant to the rest of the congregation. If we had more attitudes among memberships like that, there would be less division in Christianity. Look at Colossians chapter 4. Colossians chapter 4, verse 12. Epiphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you." In other words, here this preacher was designated as a slave, but he was a servant of Christ. He was also a servant of the congregation. Look at Titus chapter 1. Titus chapter 1 and verse 1. Paul, a servant of God, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ. Notice there again, he put his servitude before his apostleship. James chapter 1. James chapter 1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. James considered himself to be a servant, a bond slave to Christ. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 1. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. Peter did like Paul. He put his servitude before his apostleship. Jude 1. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and so on. So you see throughout Scripture, whether it's a woman, whether it's a minister, whether it's a fellow laborer, whatever, a Christian is a servant of God. He's a servant. And as we saw with Paul, so we saw with Peter, Before they mentioned that they were an apostle, they mentioned that they were a servant. They were a slave of God first. Servitude, servitude is before elevation, we should say, or maybe before accolation. Not only that, which we will get to when we get to the book of Philippians, but in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 7, Jesus Christ was identified as a servant, a slave of God, who made himself of no reputation, but took upon him the form of a due loss, a servant, a slave, and was made in likeness of men. Yes, Christianity is a religion of humiliation. We don't like that. Vain man likes to have his likes to be noticed. We all do. If you don't think you'd like to be noticed, if you were walking down the sidewalk or in a shopping mall somewhere and a crowd of people and somebody called out your name, you'd stop and look. You wouldn't say, oh, well, that's just somebody. So we all have to realize that we have to fight against this. And we are servants to God because Christ redeemed us from the marketplace of sin. We were in bondage to sin, beloved. And we still are to some degree. because we live in this sinful body. But look first at the bondage of sin. Look in Galatians chapter 3. Galatians 3.13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Galatians 4, verse 5. To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Titus, chapter two. Verse 14, "...who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Isn't that a classic passage in 1 Peter 1, verse 18? For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by the tradition of your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of lamb without blemish and without spot. Yes, the whole of salvation centers around being bought out of the marketplace of sin and to become a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Servitude. Servitude is the center of Christianity. Servitude is the center of Christianity. And this is brought out in this epistle of Philemon as a whole. Now Paul sets forth his apostleship in all of his letters except the epistle to the Philippians and to this one, to Philemon. Paul doesn't mention his apostleship in this epistle at all. Paul is writing to Philemon as a friend, as a fellow believer, as a fellow laborer, rather than writing in an official capacity. And then notice he says, Timothy, our brother, Timothy, our brother. Paul was under household arrest. It does not appear that Timothy was under arrest, but he was accompanying Paul to assist him in any way that he could. And since Paul listed other fellow laborers at the end of this epistle, that is in verses 23 and 24, it would appear that Timothy was to be considered officially in some capacity, separate from the others. However, In 1st Timothy and 2nd Timothy, chapters 1 and verses 2 in both of them, Paul talks about Timothy as being his son in the ministry. But Paul was writing to Timothy. But here Paul is not writing to Timothy, he's talking about Timothy, and he doesn't put Timothy on a lower level. He puts him as his brother. This young minister, this young man that he picked up at Iconia and Derby some years beforehand on his second journey, he calls him our brother. our brother. I made mention of this in going through the book of Colossians, but I will mention it again. While an older minister may behold a younger minister as a son in the ministry or even younger in the ministry, this older minister should not present himself as one superior or over and above the young minister. Though a young man is to be considered a brother. And I mentioned, I believe, before that I have young men that are in the ministry. I say I have. I should say there are young men in the ministry that I actually taught in school, in grade school, in high school. But they're ministers now, and I consider them my brother. I think of them first and foremost as a fellow laborer. I don't think of them as a young minister that needs to learn this, that, or the other. And I'm also thankful to know that I can learn from those younger ministers. I've learned things from a lot of different folks, and I'm thankful for that. And here, this aged minister, Paul, because he calls himself As we read, Paul the aged. Timothy, our brother. I like that. I like the way that sounds. Yes, he was not put in the class of those other fellow laborers at the end of the epistle. He was there in some capacity with Paul and ministering to him. And he was to be noted as a man of importance. Because Paul used Timothy in many ways, and we're not going to study the life of Timothy, but he calls him a brother. To me, that just speaks volumes. And in reality, You know, earlier we talked about being bond slaves and how that every member of a congregation should consider himself a bond slave to the rest of the assembly. This should be likewise the spirit of all believers that one another, that they're either, they're affectionately known as brother or sister. I know that we call our ministers elders. We do not like the name reverend, because that's only mentioned one time in the book of Psalms, and it's referring to Christ. And while I have noted, or so it appeared to me, that some of our ministers really latch on to that word elder and like to say, well, I'm an elder, as if that's something. But to me, the highest label that you can put on me is brother. I cannot think of a more precious term or label. I recognize that I can sign official documents as an elder, so and so, and this and that, and so on. To me, to be called brother is more special to me. In fact, essentially every letter that I have ever written, as far as I know, unless I may have been writing a letter in the capacity for the congregation, but I always signed it Brother Jimmy, brother so-and-so. Beloved, this is the spirit, I believe, of Christianity. Timothy, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, to our beloved and unto Philemon, our dearly beloved, and fellow laborer." Philemon, our dearly beloved, and fellow laborer. There he's classified with those others in verses 23 and 24 as a fellow laborer. And he talked about the congregation that was in his house. And it's likely, as we've already said, that the congregation at Colossae met in the house of Philemon. Now, it's possible that Colossae, the congregation of Colossae, met somewhere else and there was a separate congregation in the house of Philemon. There were such things as household assemblies. In fact, let's just look at some of them in Romans chapter 16. Notice, by the way, when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, or to the Galatians, or to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, he identified them as a congregation. But when he wrote his epistle to the Romans, he said to the saints at Rome, not to the church or the congregation at Rome. Which indicates from chapter 16, I believe, that there were several congregations in Rome. Look at Romans 16.10. Salute appellees approved in Christ. Salute them which are of Aristobulus's household. Indicating possibly an assembly there. Verse 11. Salute Heronian, my kinsmen. Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus, which are in the Lord. Possibly another congregation. Verse 14, slewt Assycritus, Pelagius, Hermas, Petrobus, Hermes, and the brethren which are with them, possibly another assembly. And then verse 15, Sloot, Philagogus, and Julia, Nerus, and his sister, and Olympus, and all the saints which are with them." And so there were household assemblies, and it's possible that Philemon's household was a separate assembly from that of Colossae, but it's generally believed, and I would lean toward that, though scripture doesn't tell us exactly, but I would think that this congregation at Colossae met in Philemon's house. And then he says in verse two, our beloved Appiah, Appiah is a woman's name, and it's generally believed, and I have no objection to it, that this was Philemon's wife. Philemon's wife. Paul was well acquainted with this family. though he may have learned it through Onesimus. And then he says, and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the assembly in thy house. Archippus. Now we studied Archippus back in the fourth chapter of Colossians. His name means horse ruler. So it may be that Archippus You know, the last name a lot of times designates your ancestry, what they were. And very likely that possibly tracing my ancestry back, my ancestries were barbers. You know, they'd say, go to such and such town, and they would say, Bill the Barber. Later on, the V was dropped, called Bill Barber, and things of that nature. Brother Ray Hoggard, that you all know, his ancestry, based on his last name, Hoggard, they guarded hogs. They guarded hogs. And so you can see, here we find, Archippus, his name means horse ruler, very likely that was part of his trade as well as being a minister. He was a fellow soldier with Paul and likewise a minister in Colossae. He was to take heed to the ministry assigned to him. We saw that back in Colossians, the word take heed in Colossians is the word to look into, study. When in high school, in biology, when we had to learn the anatomy of a frog, we looked into it What did we do? We diagrammed it. In college, in my entomology class, one of my assignments was I was to take a cricket's head and cut his face off and boil the inside of the face out and draw the inside of a cricket's face as what it would look like on the inside. That was one of my assignments. Well, you had to look into it. You had to do it in quite detail. A minister worth his weight in salt, he'll look into not only the Scriptures, not only will he dissect the Word of God and study diligently, But He will give attention to His congregation. Think about them. Pray about them. What He can do to encourage them, if anything. That's the idea behind this word, look into. In fact, it's the Greek word blepo, which means to look. And it was to fill up His ministry. This salutation of Paul, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not have time to go into it. In fact, our time is about up. But this is a common salutation. in the epistles of Paul. For example, Romans 1.7, 1 Corinthians 1.3, 2 Corinthians 1.2, Galatians 1.3, Ephesians 1.2, Philippians 1.2, Colossians 1.2, 1 Thessalonians 1.1b, second part, 2 Thessalonians 1.2, 1 Timothy 1.2, 2 Timothy 1.2, Titus 1.4, and Philemon 3. And I can assure you, though we are not going to do this, a plethora of sermons could be preached on grace, peace, and in many places, mercy. Grace to you. You remember when Paul went to the Lord with his thorn in the flesh? We don't know what it was. Some people think it was his eyesight. Some people think a lot of different things. But it just says a messenger of Satan. But what is your thorn in the flesh? What bothers you? What besetting sin that you have to constantly deal with? What do you need to fight against that? What did the Lord tell him? My grace is sufficient. My grace is sufficient. Grace was no small thing with the Apostle Paul. Grace was no small thing to the Apostle Paul. It is a great consolation and comfort to live in an environment of peace. This country has lived in the environment of peace for many decades, over 200 years. There's been wars in other countries, We, our country's been involved in wars in other countries and things of that nature. But for the most part, we still live in an environment of peace. But it is a greater to possess peace within every circumstance. Jesus said, my peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Peace in the midst of trials and afflictions. You know, the woman that was going to Elisha, I think it's Elisha, it might have been Elijah, but I think it's Elisha. Her son had died, and she went to go to the prophet, and the prophet called out, is all well? She said, all is well. Her son lay dead. She needed the prophet, but she had peace. She had something inward, not outward. The last instruction our Lord gave prior to entering into the Garden of Gethsemane and being arrested and tried and dying on the cross was, quote, These things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. And also, he said, peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Because of our justification in Christ, we have peace with God. And because of the faith that God has given us, we not only have peace with God, we have the peace of God. Not only judicially peace, but experimentally peace. Well, our time is up. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this epistle. You preserved it on record for our edification. Help us to bring forth the sweet nectar that resides therein. that would benefit our souls as we live out our lives here upon this earth. In Jesus' name, amen.