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I'm glad for a place called heaven,
aren't you? My heart is stirred this morning.
Trust you'll turn in your Bible, if you would please, to the little
book of Philemon. This will be the last time that
we visit this little postcard epistle in this series of messages,
and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time. in this book of 25 short
verses. But yet the Lord's allowed us
to learn so many wonderful truths. A little note from a friend to
a friend. But yet we realize that while
it is a short book, only one chapter in our New Testament,
it packs a powerful punch, doesn't it? And has so much to say to
us. Bursting with truth. Philemon,
verse number 10. If you don't have a Bible, the
text of verses will be on the screen. Notice he says in verse
number 10, 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 sent again. Thou therefore receive him, that
is, mine 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 would I
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, specially
to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in
the Lord. If thou count me therefore a
pardoner, receive Him as myself. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth
thee aught, put that on mine 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 even thine own self besides. Yea, brother, let me have joy
of thee in the Lord. Refresh my bowels, my heart in
the Lord, having confidence in thy obedience. I wrote unto thee,
knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say." What a wonderful
passage of Scripture. If I were to write a theme for
the entire book of Philemon, it would be our series theme,
A Story of Grace. You're going to find that grace
is prevalent throughout this wonderful book. And we've learned
that the grace that saves us is the grace that changes us. Aren't you glad that God does
not leave us where He finds us? I'm glad that God did not leave
me in my sin. God didn't leave me in my past
misery. God didn't leave me in my past
iniquity. I'm glad, as the psalmist says,
He lifted me out of the miry clay. set my feet upon a rock,
established my goings, put a new song in my mouth, even praise
to our God. And so the grace that saves is
the grace that changes. When we come to this book of
Philemon, we realize that it's written by a man by the name
of the Apostle Paul. He's now an aged man. He has
served the Lord now for probably 30 years. He's in prison there
in Rome. He calls himself the prisoner
of Jesus Christ. He's writing to his friend Philemon. Philemon's probably a very well-to-do
Christian in Colossae. The church meets in his house.
He's not a pastor. He's not a missionary. He's not
an evangelist. He's a servant of the Lord in
a local church. Can I just stop and say something?
You don't have to be a pastor, a missionary, or evangelist to
do something for God. God wants to use each of us and
all of us for His glory. We just all want to be all in
for Him. Amen? And we find that the church
met in His house. There's a third person in our
story, in our book, and he's a man by the name of Onesimus.
We met him last week. Onesimus is a man that God has
worked mightily in his life. He was an outcast. He was a man
that was branded, so to speak. He didn't have much of a future.
But God came on the scene in his life and he experienced the
grace of God. And that grace changed him. Paul
is sending him back to Philemon and he's a changed man. I believe
when he gets there and he knocks on the door and Philemon looks
at Onesimus and he says, Onesimus, what are you doing here? And
I believe he said this, By the grace of God, I've been changed. Can I ask you this question?
Have you been changed? Have you been changed? Because
the grace that saves is the grace that changes. Let's pray together.
Lord, we love you today. We thank you for the goodness
and the greatness of God. Father, I thank you for grace.
Lord, I'm so unworthy. But yet, Lord, in your love,
you've bestowed grace upon us, and it's grace on top of grace. Lord, thank you for the grace
that saves, but also thank you for the grace that changes. And
Lord, I pray that this morning as we finish up this little book
of Philemon, we look at this man Onesimus, that we'll see
the grace of God that's been at work in his life. And Lord,
that you would work in our lives this morning. There's someone
maybe here today that they've never been saved. never put their
faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. They don't know if they died
they'd go to heaven. I pray they'll come to know you today. I pray
there's Christians, Lord, that maybe there may be wrongs in
their life that need to either be made right or forgiven. And
I pray that, Lord, Your grace, that they would avail themselves
of Your grace to deal with these areas of their lives, Lord, that
they might be fully right with You as their children, as Your
children. And, Lord, that we'd all be changed
today. And we'll thank You for it. In
Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Well, Onesimus is a picture
of ourselves. I believe it was Martin Luther
that said we are all Onesimuses. That there's a sense in which
we were outcasts, we were slaves to sin and to self and to Satan. But thank God for grace. Amen.
The grace that changes us. And we looked at his life, and
the first thing that we noticed as we looked at this matter of
being changed is the grace that redeemed him. We saw grace redeeming. Remember, Onesimus is a prodigal.
He's a runaway slave. He has stolen from his master. He fled to Rome to try to, in
the midst of all of that, hide himself in the masses and get
lost in that great metropolis where nobody could find him.
And we've already learned this, you can run away from life, you
can run away from people, you can run away from places, but
you'll never run away from God. And you're going to find that
he runs away from Philemon, his master, but he didn't run away
from God. God's been at work in his life
all along, and God's going to bring him providentially into
the presence of the apostle Paul. We don't know if he comes there
as a prisoner, we don't know if he goes there because of the
guilt of his own heart and conscience, but he sees Paul, he comes before
him, and they're in a prison cell. There in Paul's prison,
he begins to share with Onesimus the grace of God in Christ. He begins to share with him his
need of a Savior. He tells him of his sin and the
truth of salvation. And there Onesimus, in that jail
cell, bows his head and receives Jesus Christ as his Savior. Onesimus, by the grace of God,
becomes a redeemed man. Look, if you would, verse number
10. Notice Paul's writing now to Philemon, I beseech thee for
my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds. What he's saying is that God
has given me the privilege, Philemon, of leading Onesimus to a saving
knowledge of Jesus Christ. Can I help us to understand today
the best decision, the greatest decision, anybody will ever make
in their life is to receive Jesus Christ and Him alone as their
Savior, to come into a saving relationship with God, to be
redeemed by the grace of God. Oh, the great doctrine of redemption
that God has bought us. He bought us off the slave block
of sin. He set us free. Jesus said, if
the Son shall make you free, you're free indeed. Frank, can
I tell you, there's nothing like the freedom that we have in Jesus
Christ. And so we find that the grace
of God has redeemed him. Preacher, why would God do something
like that? Well, we saw it in verse 9, it
was for love's sake. Because He loves you. And God
loves me. And you say, preacher, does God
really love me that much? Absolutely. Friend, can I tell
you, if you just wonder about the love of God, look away to
Calvary and there you'll see the great love of God. And so
we saw grace redeeming. Redeemed how I love to proclaim
it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed by His infinite mercy, His child, and forever
I am. And so in that moment, Onesimus
became a part of the family of God. But then, it didn't stop
there. Not only grace redeeming we saw
last week, but grace is restoring him. You see, whatever relationship
Onesimus had with his master Philemon, before he ran away,
before he stole from him, it's now broken. It's fractured. I mean, there is a wrong that
has been done. And now, Onesimus is a saved
man, and Paul says, Onesimus, I'd love for you to stay with
me. I'm rejoicing how you're growing in the grace of God.
I'm just watching the change in your life, and it's blessing
my heart. You're such a help to me as you're
ministering to me here in my bonds and caring for me and meeting
needs, but Onesimus, it can't stay this way. There's a wrong
been done, and Onesimus, it needs to be made right. And so he begins
to send Onesimus back to Philemon, I believe with this letter in
his hand. He has this letter here, and
Paul is now Onesimus' mediator. He is his go-between. He's pleading
the case of Onesimus, asking Philemon to receive him, to forgive
him, and to restore this relationship. Look, if you would, please, in
verse number 9. He said, Yet for love's sake
I rather beseech thee. He's pleading. Verse 10, I beseech
thee, I plead with thee for my son Onesimus. Look down, if you
would, verse 15. Perhaps he departed for a season
that thou shouldest receive him forever. Look down at verse 17. If thou count me therefore a
partner, receive him as myself. You know what he's saying? Listen,
there's been a wrong done Philemon. I understand that. But Onesimus
is coming to make it right. And I want you to receive him. He is a mediator pleading the
case of another. Frank, can I tell you, I've just
got good news for you. The grace that saved me and the
grace that redeemed me is the grace that restored me. You see,
I was wrong with God, but through Christ we've been made right
with God. There was a relationship that was broken that is now restored. We have a mediator. The Bible
said there is one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. Listen, folks, can I tell you,
we have one in heaven pleading our case. We have one in heaven
that makes the wrongs in our lives right. Isn't that a blessing?
There's one in heaven that says, Father, this is Kevin. I want
you to receive him as you receive me. Receive him as myself. Friend, can I tell you, in Jesus,
God welcomes us into the family. Isn't that a blessing? We've
been not only redeemed, but by grace we've been restored. And
I'm glad for the mediatorial work of Jesus because He continues
to represent me before the Father and present us. We're accepted
in the blood. Friend, grace redeems us. Grace
restores us. But now, number three, we're
going to see grace repaying. Grace repaying. Look again at
verse number 18, would you please? If he, this is Onesimus, Paul
writing to Philemon, if he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught,
put that on mine account. Here's what he's saying, Philemon.
I know that Onesimus has done you wrong. I know that he has
run away. I know that he's stolen something
very precious from you that may not even be able to be replaced.
But I want you to know this, that if He owes you anything,
I want you, after all of this takes place and He comes back
to you and you receive Him, if He owes you anything, I want
you to put that on my account, I will Repent. I'm going to make the wrong right. Grace... Paul didn't have to
do it. Paul wanted to do it. Can I just stop and say something?
God didn't have to save us. He wanted to save us. God didn't
have to redeem us. He didn't have to restore us.
But thank God He wants to. Amen? Isn't that a blessing?
It's called grace. But here, not only do we see
the great doctrine of redemption, but we see the great doctrine
of imputation. Okay? You say, what in the world,
preacher, this great big word doctrine of imputation? Well,
let's just break it down here, put the cookies on the bottom
shelf where me and you both can get to them, okay? And that's
what we want to do. Because the doctrine of imputation
is found throughout Scripture. It goes all the way back in the
Old Testament to the book of Genesis to a man by the name
of Abraham. Abraham was promised a son. He's
now been in the land that God promised him for decades. And
he's talking to the Lord, and Abraham says, Lord, you know,
you promised me a land, and you promised me a seed, and you promised
me an heir, but I don't have a son. I don't have an heir to
receive it. The heir in my house is my steward,
my servant, Eliezer. God talks back to Abraham when
he's in that tent, and he said, Abraham, Eliezer is not going
to be your heir, but one that comes out of your own bowels.
You're going to have a son, you and Sarah, in your old age. Okay? And he says, Abraham, come
out here. I want you to come out here and
walk with me a bit. And so they come outside, and God says to Abraham,
look up to the heavens, look at the stars. I believe it's
one of them Middle Eastern nights, where I mean the stars were twinkling,
they were shining. I believe it's some of those
nights where you just feel like you could reach out and touch them.
And Abraham begins to count. He said, I want you to number
the stars. And Abraham starts saying, Lord, Lord, there's too
many of them. I can't number them. I can't count all those
stars. And God says, Abraham, that's how many children. That's
your generation. So shall thy seed be. They're innumerable. And the
Bible says, Genesis 15, 6, that Abraham believed in the Lord
and he counted it. He imputed it to him for righteousness. You see, God credited righteousness
in that moment. to Abraham's account. It's the
doctrine of imputation. You're going to fast forward
about a thousand years. You're going to come to a man
by the name of David. He's going to write a penitential psalm
in Psalm 32 about forgiveness. And here's what he says, Blessed,
happy is he whose transgression is forgiven. If you don't have
anything else to be excited about, You don't have anything else
to be happy about. You don't have anything else to shout about.
Friend, you can shout if your transgression has been forgiven.
Amen? And he says, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man
whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. So that word impute or imputeth
that's implied here in Philemon verse 18, put that on my account. It's an accounting term. It's
a banking word. Alright? So if you work in the
financial banking world, you understand imputation or this
matter of imputing or crediting to an account. It means to reckon. It means to credit. It means
to put to one's account. So, you go to the bank. That's
not something I do a whole lot of. My wife goes to the bank,
okay? If I was to go and cash a check with my name on it, they
would think it was forged. I let her do all of that. So
you make a deposit. It was crazy the other night.
She's sitting there, standing there at the bar, and she's taking
pictures of a check. I said, what in the world are
you doing? Why are you taking pictures of a check? I'm depositing
it in the bank. You see, I didn't realize you
didn't have to go to the bank anymore. You can just take a
picture of it and send it to them. How many of you knew that? Wow. See, I tell you, I don't
go to the bank. When we're in the car, listen,
when we pull up to the bank, I'm not gonna tell you which
bank we go to, but I pull up to the bank, and I put something in
that little thing that goes to the lady or whoever's there at
the teller window, and they're looking at it, and they're looking
at me, and then they look around me and see Lori, and they say,
oh, hi, Miss Broyhill. I'm like, who am I, a chopped
liver? But whenever you make that deposit,
they impute that money or they credit it to your account. Alright? And so an account has
a debit column, has a credit column. So imputation means they've
imputed, they have credited it to your account. Put that on
my account. I will repay it. Impute it to
me, Paul says. Take it off of Onesimus' account
and put it on my account. That's the doctrine of imputation
because, I want you to get this, we're bankrupt spiritually. We
have a debt we cannot pay. It's called the debt of our sin
and our rebellion against the God of heaven, and the list of
our sins, so to speak, in heaven, on our account in heaven, our
crimes, so to speak, against God, what we owe God. We're bankrupt. We can't pay it. But thank God
2,000 years ago, Jesus walked up Calvary's mountain and there
God laid on Him your sin and my sin. There was a great transaction. God took my sin off of my account
and He imputed it, He placed it, He transferred it to His
Son, listen, Jesus wasn't guilty. I was guilty. But He voluntarily
took my place and God imputed my unrighteousness to His account. Are you with me? And the Bible
said He took it away, nailing it to His cross. Christian, listen
to me. Friend, listen to me. Jesus didn't just pay for some
of your sins. He didn't pray for most of your
sins. He paid for all of your sins. Put that on my account. And He paid it in full. For if you're saved today, your
sins are forgiven. Oh, Jesus said, it's finished. Paid in full. It's done. It's
done. The great transaction is done. The work of redemption is complete. When a person is saved and they
trust Jesus Christ, let's imagine it in banking terms. Can we do
that so that we understand what takes place in this doctrine
of imputation? I'm not saying at all that you
have some kind of written record in heaven, although I believe
there are written records in heaven. Wouldn't we agree with
that? Alright? But I believe that if there was
a physical record in heaven, let's just say that, that listed
all of the number and the nastiness of my sin and your sin. Well,
the day I trusted Jesus Christ, do you know what happened? God
the Father, so to speak, took a stamp and He stamped on my
debit column in big red letters, PAID IN FULL. Jesus paid my debt for me. Paid in full. I love it when
I pay something off and I get that little letter in the mail,
the record back and stamped on it is paid in full. And I can
say, see there, I don't owe you anything. Friend, when it comes
to my sin, I don't owe anything. But on the other side of the
column, See, on this side, there's a whole big list. It's called
the unrighteousness side. That's the debit column. But
it's been paid in full. But it didn't stop there. Oh
no, on the credit side, where there was nothing, because I
don't have any righteousness, in bold letters, it's stamped,
The Righteousness of Jesus Christ. Christ, because Jesus took our
sin and He gave us His righteousness. That is the doctrine of imputation,
that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them. For He hath made Him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Friend, God took my sin and He
laid it on Jesus and He paid it in full. And then the day
I said yes to Jesus Christ, that Sunday night in 1984, God transferred
the righteousness of Jesus Christ onto my account and I stand before
God righteous in His Son. Friend, thank God that we're
clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is the
doctrine of imputation. Isn't that powerful? Put it on
my account. Friend, all of your sins have
been placed on Jesus. He paid in full the debt of your
sin. All He wants you to do is receive
it so that He can place His righteousness on your account. You're right
with God. Isn't that amazing? But there's
times even since I've been saved that I've disobeyed my Heavenly
Father. that I've been less than what I should be, life, what
I've said, or maybe what I've thought, or what I've done. The
old accuser would say, look there, there it is, there's sin. Put
it on his account. He deserves that. God, you said
the wages of sin is death. He deserves to die. But I'm glad
I have an advocate. His name is Jesus Christ, the
righteous one. Send me the right hand of the
Father." And he says, Father, I know that Kevin sinned, but
you put that on my account. I paid for it. And that's why
1 John 1, 9, we can confess our sins. And He's faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth
us from all sin. Oh, what a Savior. Thank God
for the wonderful doctrine of imputation. Put that on my account. Aren't you glad, friend, that
Jesus took your debt that He might give you His righteousness?
Oh, that's grace repaying. But then there's one more thing
I want you to see and I'm done. Grace rearranging. You see, the
onesimus that's coming back to Philemon is not the same onesimus
that ran away from Philemon. It's different now. His testimony,
I can see him standing before Philemon. He knocks on the door,
his head's down in shame. And he said, Philemon looks at
him and says, Nesmus, is that you? Yes, sir. What are you doing
here? Well, sir, I just want to tell
you, by the grace of God, I've been changed. I'm not who I used
to be anymore. Can you imagine that? I believe
that's what takes place. You see, the grace that saves
is the grace that changes. Listen to Titus 2, verse 11.
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all
men. It appeared in Jesus Christ.
Teaching us, watch this, grace teaches us that denying ungodliness
and worldly lusts or desires, we should live soberly. That's
not just avoiding being drunk, it's more than that. It's meaning
to be serious minded about life. Life's not a game and it's not
a joke. Life's serious business. Doesn't mean we can't have fun,
doesn't mean we can't cut up, doesn't mean we can't laugh,
doesn't mean we can't enjoy life, but life's serious business. We're going to live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world. You see, the grace
that saves is the grace that changes. And it's an ongoing
change in our lives as we grow in His grace. Oh, I think it
went like this. Oh, what a wonderful... My voice
is not going to let me sing this morning. Oh, what a wonderful
change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into my life.
I believe Onesimus is saying, Philemon, it's different now.
I'm not who I used to be. Friend, I'm glad. Sunday night,
1984. It's different. I'm not who I
used to be. Thank God for that. You see, the moment Onesimus
robbed his master and fled for Rome, he was a condemned man.
Now, months later, he's returning home a changed man. Returning
for Onesimus' church was serious business. It was dangerous matter. Under Roman law, and we were
just talking about the culture of that day, there was harsh penalty for a
runaway slave, and they were completely at the mercy of their
master. They could be crucified. They
could have had experienced a lesser punishment, if you want to call
it that, being beaten with the cat of nine tails. They could
have been forever branded with the letter F in their forehead
for fugitive. So everywhere they went, it was
a deterrent to try to keep them from running away again because
wherever they went throughout the Roman Empire, that letter
would remind everybody who they were. They were a runaway slave.
They were a fugitive. And that would be on the forehead.
It could be a combination of things. They could be in prison.
It could be any number of things that could happen. But Onesimus
was willing. He was willing. to face whatever
would come his way to make the wrong right in his life. It was an evidence of the change
that had taken place. He was a different man. I'm reminded
of Zacchaeus, the tax collector that got saved. He was a robber.
He was robbing the people. And then after he got saved,
met the Lord, he started going from house to house, and he started
writing checks back, reimbursing those he had stolen from. You
say, preacher, what? He was making wrongs right. Let
me just say something, and I'm trying to be kind as I can say
it, but saved people make wrongs right. That's what Christians do. We make wrongs right. And we
forgive wrongs. I'm going to quickly tell a story
because I've got a few things to say and I don't want to keep
us all morning. We're going to go back probably
1990. I'm getting ready to take Temple Baptist Church as my first
church and become their pastor. But God reminded me right before
my ordination and assuming that, that there was a wrong in my
life. See, in Bible college, back as a freshman, I was a vacuum
cleaner salesman. Imagine that. Didn't go very
well. And the day... It came, I left my job, and I
was to turn everything back in, and when I did, there was some
damaged equipment, and I sort of just turned it in, in a sneaky
fashion, and left. Because I didn't have the money
to pay it. You say, Preacher, that's wrong. You're right. Time went by. Probably a couple
years. I'd forgotten about it. But God
didn't forget. I was getting ready for my ordination,
preparing for all this, and God said, He didn't say it out of
heaven, but God reminded me of that wrong and what I owed. These people, listen, probably
the same people weren't there anymore. The manager probably
wasn't there. They probably didn't even know who I was. But none
of that mattered. I remember sitting down, I looked
up the address, and I remember sitting down at my table, and
I explained the story to my wife. And I said, honey, I need to
make this right. God's dealt with my heart. I can't go forward
and have His blessing on my life because there's a wrong here.
I've got to make right. I've basically stolen. I didn't
think about it that way as an 18-year-old kid, but now as a
20-some-year-old man, With a wife and a child on the way, I realized
things were different. And I remember having my wife
and we wrote out a check for the amount of money that it was.
And I remember writing a letter explaining the situation to them
and saying, you probably don't remember who I am. This is what
I did. This is what I owe. And I put
in there, God has reminded me that I need to make this right
because, see, they knew I was a Christian. And I didn't know
who was going to get that letter, but I wanted it right. And I
wrote in there, shamefully, I wrote this letter and I mailed that
check. You say, well, what happened?
I don't know. They got their money and I got
a receipt back. They didn't write me a letter
back, but I did get a receipt that they had deposited that
check. But let me tell you what happened. There was a burden
lifted off of me. And there was a peace that came
to my life because there was an area of my life that wasn't
right. And God wasn't going to let it go on any longer. And
he said, before you take another step forward, this wrong's got
to be made right. And Christian, there may be wrongs
in your marriage that are deep seated. But if you want God's
blessing on your relationship, you're going to have to get some
wrongs right. There may be some wrongs in your family. The grace that saves is the grace
that changes. And this is a change that God
wants to bring in our lives. It needs to be gotten right.
Maybe relationships. I don't know. But I'm just saying
that as Christians, we need to make wrongs right. And we need
to forgive the wrongs that are done to us. And that's what Philemon
is all about. And so let's say a husband and
wife have a wrong in their relationship and one comes and says, honey,
I've wronged you. And the other one said, well,
you might have wronged me, but I'm not giving in. And then you
refuse to forgive. You're just as wrong as the person
that did the wrong. You're both guilty. Grace rearranges and changes
how we live. And if we want to be holy people
that have the blessing of God on our lives, then we seek forgiveness
and we grant forgiveness. That's powerful. That's called
revival. He's going to go from a slave
to a son. You see, God rearranged his life.
He was a slave, but Paul calls him his son. But more importantly,
he's God's son. Isn't that a blessing? Can I
just stop and say, it doesn't matter who we are or what we
are, the ground's leveled at the foot of the cross. Isn't
that a blessing? He's going to go from unprofitable to profitable. Look at verse 11 of Philemon. You see this? He said, which
in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and
to me. And so you know what Onesimus'
name meant? It meant useful or profitable. And there's sort
of a play here on Onesimus' name, and he probably was a useless
worker in the household of Philemon, probably got very little out
of him, and he probably would say, you know, Onesimus, your
name's useful, but you're just useless. But he's coming back,
and Paul said, I just want you to know where he was useless,
now he's useful. He's a different man. And you know what? There was
a day that I was unprofitable so far as heaven's concerned,
but I'm glad that by the grace of God that we've been made profitable
or useful for heaven. Isn't that a blessing? And then let's get the last one.
We'll go from fugitive to forgiven. He was a fugitive on the run
who gets right with God. Aren't you glad God forgives
us? And then he's going back to get right with his master.
You know what the good news is? The good news is that when God
forgives us, it's gone. Isn't that a blessing? And their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. That means I'll never
face my sin again. I've heard preachers talk about
how that one day we stand before God and it's almost like there's
this big picture movie screen up there and God's going to replay
our life before everybody and everybody's going to see what
we've done. I don't believe any of that. I don't believe any
of that. You say, preacher, why? Because
my sins are gone. There's no skeletons coming out
of the closet when we get to heaven. No bones gonna rattle because
my sins are gone. And God said, your sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. That's not to say we wouldn't
stand before the Lord and Him say, Kevin, you know, this area
of your life you weren't faithful in. You could have been more
faithful here. You know, why was your motive
wrong here in my service to Him? I believe that we'll all have
times before the Lord that we wished we'd have been different
and done better. Wouldn't we agree with that? But so far as
my sins, friend, I'll never face them again. They're gone. And God had forgiven Philemon.
I mean, excuse me, Onesimus. And now Paul says, Philemon,
I want you to forgive him. And Philemon is a story of grace
and mercy, of friendship and forgiveness and reconciliation
and renewal. And that's the very heart of
the gospel, that God not only restores our relationship with
him vertically, but he restores human relationships horizontally. That's what he does. And I'm
just gonna ask you, is there a wrong in your life that needs
to be made right? And number two, is there a wrong
done to you that needs to be forgiven? And I'm gonna give
you a couple reasons why you ought to forgive it. Number one,
it's for love's sake, verse nine, yet for love's sake. Philemon,
I want you to forgive him for love's sake. Because God's loved
you, Philemon, and you love him, and out of love, you need to
forgive him God's love. I want you to do it for his sake,
for the Lord's sake, because you've been forgiven. He tells
him that. You owe me. He tells Philemon
this. He said, brother, you owe us
me. What he was talking about, Philemon was saved and right
with God because of Paul's ministry in his life. And he was saying
that, look what God's done for you, Philemon. If God can forgive
you, you can forgive Onesimus. And what I'm saying, dear child
of God, is this, that if God can forgive us, we can forgive
each other. Isn't that right? That's where the revival comes.
Now here's what's interesting and I'm done. We're not really
told in the book of Philemon how things turn out. You know
how we're left? We're left in my mind with Onesimus
standing on the doorstep of Philemon. with the confession coming out,
but we don't know what happens after. Paul doesn't tell us.
There's no book of the Bible. There's no sequel. There's no
Philemon 2 that says, oh, here's what happened. But you know what's
interesting? As I was studying the life of
Onesimus, that there is a historical letter written to a church by
a man by the name of Ignatius. And Ignatius is on his way to
be martyred. And he writes to the church at
Ephesus. And guess who their pastor is?
You got it. Onesimus. And I believe Philemon forgave
him and restored him. And God used him to become the
pastor of one of the great churches in the New Testament. Can I read
the quote out of the letter? Are you ready? This letter is
thousands of years old, this quote. This is Ignatius writing
to Ephesus, and he said, I received therefore your whole multitude
in the name of God, probably multitude of encouragement, maybe
a love offering, through Onesimus. a man of inexpressible love,
and your bishop, pastor in the flesh, whom I pray you by Jesus
Christ to love, and that you would all seek to be like him. And blessed be he who has granted
you being worthy to obtain such an excellent pastor." The grace
that saves is the grace that changes. Isn't that amazing? There's an old, worn gravestone
in a churchyard in St. Peter and St. Paul's Church in
Olney, Buckinshire, England. On that gravestone is an epitaph
and here's what it says, John Newton, Once an infidel and libertine,
that's just a good way of saying a wild man, a servant of slaves
in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ preserved, restored, pardoned, appointed to preach the faith
he had long labored to destroy. He's the man that wrote Amazing
Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once
was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. I believe you could sum up John
Newton's testimony, Onesimus' testimony, and every other Christian's
testimony in three simple words. You know what it is? I've been
changed. Now I'm going to ask you a question.
Have you been changed? Let's bow our heads in prayer.
I’ve Been Changed – Part 2
Series Philemon: A Story Of Grace
I've Been Changed – Part 2 | Philemon 10-21 | Kevin Broyhill
| Sermon ID | 92924148271142 |
| Duration | 41:42 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Philemon 10-21 |
| Language | English |
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