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"...to Timothy our brother, and to Philemon our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, and to our beloved Appiah and Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house." So he's writing to this man Philemon. He starts out by saying, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Basically, he's writing from prison. And a lot of Paul's epistles are written from prison. You remember in Ephesians, he says, For which I am an ambassador in bonds, that there even I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. He talks often about being in prison, and he was cast into prison many times for preaching the gospel, for preaching the word of God without apology. And that's where he's writing from right now. And he's with Timothy, so Timothy's probably in the slammer with him. And so Paul and Timothy are writing unto Philemon, and he says also to Appiah and Archippus. Now, since Appiah is a woman's name, and Archippus is a man's name, probably can assume, because he says the church in thy house, singular, and he's talking to these three people, it's probably his wife and child. You know, we don't really know for sure, but since he's greeting Philemon, and then this lady, and then this other man, it's probably his family. Appiah is probably his wife, Archippus is probably his son. And notice how it says, to the church in thy house. Now, those of you who've been around here for a long time know that our church started in my house. You know, when I first moved here at the very end of 2005, three days after I moved into my house, and pretty much I just blew into town, and got into my house on a Thursday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, did soul winning, and then we had our first service that Sunday. Now, that is not the way that anybody starts a church, just so you know. And people think, oh wow, that's crazy, but you know what, really, I believe that's the right way to start a church. Because of the fact that so many people today are hung up on things that are not the main thing when it comes to starting a church. Now, a church, according to the Bible, is a congregation. It's the assembly, it's the people, it's the born again, baptized believers that are gathered together. And yet, today, when people go to start a church, the first thing they start looking for is a building, instead of looking for the people. Now, my logic was this, why don't I get some people to put in the building? You know, instead of just going around and spending a bunch of money, and spending a bunch of time having a meeting place, and renovating it, getting it ready, you know, my concern was, let's go soul winning, get people saved, win people to Christ. You say, well, why did you start it so fast? Because I wanted to go to church myself. You know, I got into town, and you know, there's not a church right around here that I would line up with enough to where I'd really want to hang my hat there. And that's why I started a church here, by the way. And so, there are other churches around the area that are pretty good, but I didn't want to go to a church that was pretty good. I wanted to go to a great soul winning church that was going to be doctrinally sound and preaching what my family needed to hear. And so, I got to town in three days, like, you know, being sent out from my church in Sacramento that I'd gone to for years and years, Independent Fundamental Baptist Church that sent me out to start the church. And I started the church after being here for three days in the house, and we met in that house for a year and a half. And who was here? Put up your hand if you were here at all when we were in the house. You know, several people raising their hand. On Sunday I counted, we had eleven people here on Sunday that were here when we were in the house, even just that very first year. And guess what? It was the same then as it is now. I mean, did it feel like church? It was the same preaching. And, you know, we weren't sitting around the couch and, you know, having a share session. I mean, we had a whole room in the house emptied out. We had all the chairs set up. The kitchen counter was my pulpit, and I preached, and we had a great time in that church. And eventually we outgrew it after a year and a half, and we ended up getting a different building. And then now here we are in our third building, because we've had to grow out of that building. And the point that I'm making here is that starting a church in a house is very biblical. Now, I don't believe in what some people have termed the home church movement, where they basically are against having a building. Now that's silly as well, because if you're meeting in your house, you can only get so big. Now, in the Bible, we read about the church in Jerusalem having thousands of people in it. We read about other churches that were very large, and they had multitudes being saved, both men and women, and all kinds of people being baptized. Obviously, you can't fit several hundred people in your house. You can't fit a thousand people in your house. But when you're starting a church, it's very biblical to start that church in a house. And so I'm not against someone starting in a building, but I would recommend starting in a house following the biblical example. Let me give you some other scriptures on this. Turn to Romans 16. While you're turning to Romans 16, I'll read for you Colossians 4.15, where Paul says to those at Colossae, salute the brethren which are in Laodicea. That's another city besides Colossae. He's saying, hey, say hi to them as well, and Nymphos and the church which is in his house. So this man, Nymphos, living in Laodicea, had a church meeting in his house, and Paul wanted to salute that. In Romans 16.5, it says, likewise, greet the church that is in their house, referring to Priscilla and Aquila. Salute my well beloved Epinatus, who is the firstfruits of Achaea unto Christ. 1 Corinthians 16.19, you don't have to turn there, but the churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord with the church that is in their house. And even beyond that, if you go back to the four Gospels, you'll see many services where Jesus was preaching to a church there in a house. People were hanging out the windows, people were outside, people were trying to get into the house, because Jesus often used a house to preach. He also preached from a boat to people that were on the shore. He also preached on a hillside. It's the people that make up the church, not the building. It's not these churches with fancy murals and paintings. They've got stained glass windows and everything, and a high steeple. It's not the building, it's the people. Here we have our fancy mural, but before we had the mural, when we were just looking at my wife's cooking spoons and things in the background of the kitchen, it was the same church as it is now. We were winning souls, the power of God was present there, lives were being changed, people were being baptized, and it's the same thing today now that we're in this building. We've just grown. But this home church movement that says, well, you know, you've just got to keep it small, and we just kind of sit around the couch or in these really small groups. You know, God's not the God of small numbers. Now you've got to start out small, right? You start out with one, and you go from there. But you know what? God wants us to preach the Gospel to every creature, and would to God we could get as many people saved as possible, as many people baptized as possible, and get as many people in the church as we can as possible, and eventually you're going to grow out of the house if that's what you're doing. You're going to grow out of it. You know, it's going to be too small, unless you just have a really big house. And perhaps Philemon had a very big house. Maybe he had a huge house and he had a pretty big church. We don't really know. But I think that there's a good chance that Philemon had a decent-sized house because of the fact that he had a servant, and that's what we're going to talk about tonight, his servant Onesimus. He had an employee, so we know that he must have had some kind of money, some kind of means. He definitely was not a poor man. We don't know what size house he had, but you've got to figure that it's a house. You know, how big could it be? But that's where churches start, and that's a good place to start. And I thank God for men today that I know of that are starting churches and houses, and that has a stigma associated with it. And people will look down on you if you start a church in a house. I mean, people gave me a bad time about it. Every time you saw anybody, it's like, you still meeting in the house? You know, every time. And they'll look down on you for that, but you know what? I've never tried to please man with this church. And this church is not a man-pleasing church. It's a church that's scared to please God. And so we will do what God wants, and we don't care what people think about it. And we didn't care then, and we don't care now. So this Philemon, he's got a church meeting in his house, and he's being greeted by Paul here. And Paul has a lot of great things to say about this guy. He says in verse 3, 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. And Thee is singular. So he's talking just about Philemon specifically that he names in his prayers. By the way, we ought to name the people that we love and care about in our prayers. When we spend time praying to the Lord, we should be naming people of this church, we should be naming people that are dear to us, and praying for people by name. Not just a generalized praying, you know, Dear Jesus, you know, sometimes we just chant something. You'll see people at a dinner table sometimes, you know, bless his food, amen, you know, now he laid me down to sleep, and this kind of stuff. We ought to pray from the heart, and we ought to name people that mean something to us, and we ought to pray for God to bless those people, and call them out by name. And so I hope that you pray for me, and I hope that you pray for my family, and I hope that you pray for your fellow church member by name, like Paul prayed for his friend Philemon, and he said, 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. He's saying, you are such a great guy, and you've been so helpful to many of the saints, and your love and your faith is spread abroad to where I'm hearing about it, even in a far country. You have a great reputation for serving God, and I've been hearing all these great things about you, and it's refreshing to hear about it, is what he's saying. It's a refreshment when I hear about someone who's serving God and doing great things for God, and who's filled with love and joy and faith. So he says in verse 8, wherefore, for this reason is what he means there with wherefore, because of this, 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 and one as Paul the Aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. He's basically saying here, I really could just command you to do this, because I could just boldly tell you, but he said, you know what, I love you, and I respect you, so I'm just going to ask this of you as a favor. I'm just going to kindly ask you. Now, before we get into the rest of the verses here, I just want to quickly give you an overview of what the book's about, and then we'll blow through these verses beginning in verse number 10. What happened is Philemon had a servant, okay, and this servant that he had, well, turn back, if you would, while I explain this, turn back to Leviticus 25. While you turn back to Leviticus 25, I'll explain this to you. Philemon had a servant named Onesimus, and this servant basically had done Philemon wrong. Basically, he was supposed to do a bunch of work for Philemon. He was supposed to be working for him for a certain period of time, and basically he took off, and he did not do what he was supposed to do, and he basically ripped off Philemon and left. Well, Paul met this guy Onesimus when Paul was in prison, so Onesimus was probably in prison too, so he'd probably done some other dirty dealings somewhere else and got thrown into jail. He definitely wasn't in jail for preaching the gospel because he wasn't saved. Paul's the one who got him saved in jail, and so when Paul got him saved, when Onesimus got out of jail, Paul was still in jail, and basically Paul and Onesimus figured out that they had this friend in common, Philemon. It was Paul's friend. It was Onesimus' former master, and so Paul sent this letter with Onesimus to bring to Philemon, and basically Onesimus is going to come back to Philemon. Now, Philemon's going to be mad probably because Philemon has been done wrong by Onesimus, so Paul is basically writing this letter asking Philemon to accept Onesimus back and forgive him for the wrong that he has done to him. Now, you say, what do you mean by servant? Servant? Is that like an employee? What is that? Now, I want to go into this because a lot of people will try to say that the Bible teaches slavery or condones slavery. Who's ever heard somebody say that? Yeah, the Bible promotes slavery, and literally in the United States of America when there were debates going on about slavery in the Congress when people talked about this, because in the early days of our country, slavery was legal, right? In the southern states, they had slavery in parts of this country, and when they would have debate about this, there were people who literally entered the Congress of the United States and tried to use the Bible as a justification for slavery, and then others would try to bring the Bible and say no to slavery, but today a lot of atheists and people will try to say, oh, the Bible promotes slavery and teaches slavery, just to make the Bible sound outdated or to make the Bible sound wrong. That is not what the Bible teaches. Let's look at what the Bible does teach about being a servant, and by the way, the NIV and a lot of modern versions, they'll take out the word servant and replace it with slave in many scriptures, and that is not the right translation. The King James Bible is right when it says servant. Look at Leviticus 25, 39. It says in Leviticus 25, 39, And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, that means he becomes poor, and be sold unto thee. Okay, so you got that? So somebody gets poor, and they get sold unto you. Thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant, but as an hired servant, and as a sojourner he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of Jubilee, and then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with them, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. For they are my servants which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as bondmen. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear thy God. Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you. Of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land, and they shall be your possession. And you shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession. They shall be your bondmen forever, but over your brother and the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigor. And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family, after that he is sold he may be redeemed again, one of his brethren may redeem him, either his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him, or if he be able he may redeem himself. And he shall reckon with him the price, I'm sorry, reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him, unto the year of Jubilee, and the price of his sales shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant, shall it be with him. If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give the price of the redemption out of the money that he was bought for, and on and on, look at verse 53, and as a yearly hired servant shall he be with them, and the other shall not rule with rigor over him in thy sight, and on and on, and I don't have time to read all, and there's tons of scriptures about this, and we go on and on, but let me just, I'm showing you this one just to give you the gist, but you got to study the whole Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, there's a lot of talk about this, because there are basically a couple different types of servants. Now, if they went out to battle in warfare, against one of these heathen nations around them, and they basically defeated the enemy, then those people became like perennial bond servants to them and so forth, and that was a thing where like, it was like a POW type of a thing, and again, we could go and turn to those scriptures and go into this all night, that's not what the sermon's about, but he talks about the fact that when they would go out for war, and they would defeat the enemy, then they would basically take those people and make them be their servant, instead of killing them, basically, because they had invaded them and all this, and so forth. Now, when they first went into the possession of the promised land, they were supposed to kill all the heathen that were around them, because of the fact that they were all perverted, and practiced sodomy, and practiced a bunch of other disgusting things that I'm not even going to list, but God said in Leviticus 20 that they had partaken of all of those things, and so therefore, they needed to be wiped out, but of course, they did not obey that, they would have rather taken them as their perennial servants, and by bringing those people in, they brought in a lot of sin, and witchcraft, and a lot of bad things. I don't want to go too much into that, because that's not what we're dealing with here with Philemon. There was another type of servant, those were the bond servants, is what those are called, the ones that they would take as a prisoner of war from the opposing army. But then there were hired servants. Now, the hired servant was basically someone who got themselves into debt, or had bills that they couldn't pay. They would have to be sold as a hired servant and work that off. I think the best way to explain it would be like, let's say you're in a restaurant, right, and you eat all this food, and you order dessert and everything, and then, oh no, I don't have my wallet with me. Now, I don't know if they really do this, but as a kid, I was always told that they'd make you go wash dishes and go work off. Who's ever had to wash dishes to work off your bill at a restaurant? Okay, so that's from your generation. I've heard that my whole life, you know, you've got to go wash dishes and so forth. And it makes sense. I mean, if somebody owed me money, and they didn't have the money to pay it, I would expect them to work, to work it off and pay for it. Well, in the Bible, a lot of times, people would really get in over their head, they'd get really poor, and they'd borrow here and they'd borrow there and borrow there, and they'd get to a point where they just couldn't pay their bills. And so they would have to be sold as a servant, and they would have to go work for somebody. Now, God said, you know, that they shouldn't be treated bad, you know, you shouldn't be whipping them or beating them or something, but they had to be forced to work. A lot of the judges, you know, you take somebody to court and say, hey, this guy owes me money. Then the judge might look at the huge amount of money that they owe and say, you know, you're going to have to serve this guy for a year or something. You're going to have to be his servant. You're going to have to work for him for a year to pay off that debt. Now, today, we just don't pay our bills, right? We just go bankrupt. But, you know, back then, it was not so. A lot of people teach that the Bible teaches bankruptcy, but I don't see that in the Bible. The Bible teaches that you're supposed to pay back what you owe. The closest thing to bankruptcy in the Bible is what's called the Year of Jubilee, which happened every 50 years when every debt was erased. Just across the board, it was just a reset button. And God says, you know, financial dealings will differ as you get close to that Year of Jubilee because you know that that reset button is going to be pushed. And God is so wise and the law of the Lord is so perfect that it was such a great system. It stopped people from just amassing too much wealth and just passing it down to their children. Like, for example, I'm a strong believer in private property. God promotes the concept of private property throughout the Bible. But here's the problem with just unfettered private property. What could happen is somebody could just keep getting richer and richer until they just buy the whole state of Arizona and they just own every square inch of it and we're all their slaves, and they can buy us all. So God basically set it up to where you can't buy too much land outside the city because the Year of Jubilee comes, it all goes back to the original owners, all the debts are wiped clean, and that's the whole sermon in and of itself. But it was a reset button that took place every 50 years. But then not only that, the longest that somebody could be sold to you for, like let's say they went to court and it was like they owed you money, the longest, no matter how much money they owe you, the longest that they would have to work for you is six years. And at the end of that six years, you've got to let them go free. And again, I can turn to all the scriptures. The six years is found in Deuteronomy 15. There's a lot of places you need to do a lot of study to really understand all the nuances of this. But basically, God teaches throughout the Bible that we have to pay our debts and if you can't pay your debt, you've got to work off the debt. And that's what the Bible teaches and that's what they used to do. Somebody would have to be a servant. And so we ought to just try not to get into debt over our head and make sure that we don't obligate ourselves beyond what we can pay. But there are a lot of examples in the Bible where good people did get in that situation. For example, there was the man who got all into debt and messed up and he died. And then his wife is a widow and she's left with two children and she comes to Elisha and says to Elisha, you know, my sons are going to be sold off as workers and these are my two sons and I need them to support me and we're in really bad shape. And she said my husband was a prophet, he was a great guy, he was a preacher and all this. And so basically, Elisha performed a miracle where he had to borrow as many vessels as she could. Borrow all the pots and pans and jars and they basically filled them all with oil out of one little cruise of oil and the oil just kept coming, kind of like when Jesus fed the 5,000 and she was able to sell the oil, pay off the debt and live off the rest. Anyway, you get the idea. Turn, if you would, back to Philemon. So if you understand this guy Onesimus' position, he owed Philemon some service. He owed him work. He had owed him money or owed him whatever or maybe he was sold unto Philemon to pay off his bills to pay off the debt. Well, he just basically runs off and doesn't do the work that he was supposed to do. And so here's what happens in verse number 10. It says, I beseech thee, this is what Paul is saying, I beseech thee for my son Onesimus whom I have begotten in my bonds. So when he says I have begotten him, he's saying basically I want him to Christ. Let me prove that to you. Go to Titus chapter 1. Keep your finger there in Philemon, just one page back in your Bible. Titus chapter 1 says in verse number 4, Paul is writing and he says, to Titus, mine own son after the common faith. Look back at 2 Timothy chapter 1. Go to 2 Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy 1, 2 says, to Timothy, my dearly beloved son. Now, Timothy was not Paul's physical son because if you remember, the Bible tells that Timothy's father was a Greek. Paul was not a Greek. Paul was an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin. Go to 1 Timothy chapter 1. 1 Timothy chapter number 1, Paul says in verse number 2, I'm to Timothy, my own son in the faith. Look at Galatians 4.19. So basically Paul's calling Timothy his son. He's calling Titus his son. He's calling Philemon his son. These are all people that he won to Christ. Look at Galatians chapter 4. This is Paul speaking to the Galatians. He says in verse 19, my little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. The Bible is basically likening me winning someone to Christ or Paul winning someone to Christ as begetting a child. Paul said to the Corinthians, he said, though you have many teachers, he said, yet you have one father. He said, I've begotten you in the gospel. That's what Paul told the Corinthians. Because he was the one that had preached the gospel in them and won them to Christ. And so he called that begetting them. You see, God uses this as an illustration, being born again. Now, when you were born physically into this world, you had two parents, right? Like it's not possible to be born from just one parent except, of course, the virgin birth, which is a miracle. And so when you're born into this world, you have a mother and a father. Well, in order for a person to be spiritually born into this world, there are a few elements that have to be present. Look at 1 Corinthians, your Indulations. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 3. In 1 Corinthians chapter number 3, the Bible reads in verse number 4, For while one sayeth, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos. Are ye not carnal? 1 Corinthians 3, 5. Who then is Paul? And who is Apollos? But ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. So what did God give to every man? Ministers by whom they believed. You remember Romans chapter 10? For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they did not believe? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? Remember the Ethiopian eunuch? He loved God. He was reading the Bible. He was studying the book of Isaiah. And Philip ran unto the chariot and said to the Ethiopian eunuch, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? You see, the reason why is that the Bible is spiritually discerned. The Bible says, The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. The natural man in his unsafe condition, he doesn't have the Holy Spirit, he is not the new man, he is not the spiritual man, he is the natural man, is therefore unable to understand the Bible. An unsaved person who has never been preached the Gospel or preached anything by a saved person, if they just pick up the Bible and start reading it, and a lot of unsaved people go to prison, for example. I'll knock on somebody's door all the time and they'll say, Oh yeah, when I was in jail or I was in prison, I read through the Bible this many times cover to cover. But they didn't understand it until someone preached them the truth. I can tell you there are many people who've read through the Bible cover to cover many, many times and didn't understand a thing because they were not saved. And unsaved people can't understand the Bible. That's why they need someone who's saved. They need a minister by whom to believe. They need someone who's saved to preach unto them the Word of God. And when that person who preaches unto them the Word of God begets them in the Lord. You say, Well, that's a strange idea. Well, you know what? Read it in Corinthians. You read it in Galatians. We saw it in Timothy, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and here we are in Philemon. Go back to Philemon. He said, I've begotten Onesimus and my bonds. He said I want him to Christ. Now, these bunch of Calvinists, dead as a doornail, preachers out there and phonies will try to say to you, Oh, you don't win anyone to Christ. It's God that does the saving. And how dare you talk about soul winning and say that you won somebody to Christ and you're not giving God the glory. You know what? That is such a bunch of garbage. It comes from the mouth of someone who wins no souls. Anytime you hear somebody say, Oh, you know, how dare you say, You got him saved. It's God the God. We don't do it. It's all the Holy Spirit. That's coming from the mouth of somebody who does no soul winning because the greatest soul winner in the Bible was the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Paul said, I've become all things to all men that I might by all means save some. That's what the greatest soul winner in the Bible said. Can you show me a greater soul winner than Paul who took the Gospel all over the world in a bunch of foreign languages and preached the Gospel and started churches everywhere he went and he said on the end of the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, I labored more abundantly than they all, referring to Peter and James and John. And you know what the great soul winner said? He said that I might save some of them. He said, I've begotten you in the Gospel. I've begotten you, Onesimus. I've begotten you, Corinthians. I've begotten you, Galatians. He wasn't trying to take any glory away from Jesus Christ. We know Jesus Christ is the Savior. We know that all glory and all majesty belongs unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that he's the one who died on the cross. We know that we are as nothing to him, but it is very scriptural to say that we got someone saved or that we want somebody to Christ. Or would you rather I say, hey, I've begotten them. Would you like that better? It's funny, people will get offended if I say I got them saved. But what if I just say I saved them? Because that's what Paul said in Romans 11.14 when he said that by any means I might provoke to emulation them that are my flesh and might save some of them. And when he said I'll become all things to all men that I might by all means save some. So it is very scriptural to say I got someone saved. And it's not a thing about trying to take credit or get the glory. Is that what Paul's doing here? No, Paul's just stating a fact. I've begotten him in the Gospel. And I think there's a special relationship that exists, a special bond that exists between you and the person who won you to Christ. You appreciate that, that they gave you the Gospel, that they've begotten you in the faith. And let me say this, and a lot of people don't agree with this, but ask me if I care because it's all throughout the Bible. God needs us to get people saved. Look at 2 Corinthians 5, and this is going to tie into the sermon in a different way as well. Now look, without him we can do nothing, right? Jesus said, without me you can do nothing. But guess what? Without us, nobody's getting saved. It's true. Just as there are two parents, whenever a child is produced in this world, there has to be a mother and a father. That's the illustration, my friend, because in order for someone to be saved, they have to have a preacher. And I'm not saying a pastor, it could be a man, woman, boy, or girl. It could be a five-year-old boy that brings the Gospel and brings his Bible and gives the Gospel to somebody and wins somebody to Christ. It could be a five-year-old boy, but they need someone with the Holy Spirit inside of them that can preach unto them and explain unto them the Gospel. And that is the person who begot them in the Gospel. And a lot of times one water, you know, one sows another waters, another reaps. Hey, we know that God gave the increase, but yet God uses human vessels to do His work. Now look, if you would, where did I have you turn? Second Corinthians 5. That's what we'll look at then, Second Corinthians 5, okay. Second Corinthians chapter 5 says this, in verse number 18, And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God, for ye have made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So basically, it's our ministry, it's our job to reconcile people unto Christ, we are ambassadors for Christ. Christ is not going up and down the streets of Tempe, knocking doors, giving people the Gospel. He's given us that job. He's committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation, and if we don't go knock those doors, those doors aren't going to get knocked, and people aren't going to hear the Gospel. God is not going to miraculously just appear unto those people and give them the Gospel. You say, well, you did it with the Apostle Paul. No, he didn't. No, he didn't. He appeared unto the Apostle Paul, and just told him, go talk to Ananias, and Ananias will tell you what you need to do. And Ananias told him to call upon the name of the Lord, washing away his sins. And that's what he did three days later. Read later in the book of Acts, when Paul recounts the story in more detail, I believe in chapter 22, he explains that he didn't get saved until three days after the road to Damascus. And people will try to say, he got saved right there on the road to Damascus. No, he got saved three days later when somebody preached unto him the word of God named Ananias and got him saved. You know why people try to twist that and say he got saved on the road to Damascus? It's because he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And they say, see, that's salvation. When you surrender your will to his and you're willing to do what he wants you to do. That is not salvation. Salvation is for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And he did that three days later once it was explained to him by Ananias. So who begot Paul in the gospel? Ananias. Ananias was the one. And at first, Ananias didn't want to go. Remember, God told Ananias to talk to Paul. Paul said, no way. He said, I've heard a lot of bad stuff about this guy. And God told him, no, you need to preach to him and get him saved and tell him. And that's what happened. You know, you look throughout the Bible. God appeared unto Cornelius. But did God himself get Cornelius saved? Right there without a human instrument? No. God sent Cornelius to the man that could get him saved, which was Peter. And then God also came in a visit to Peter and showed Peter what he needed to do. And he looked those two up and Peter preached unto Cornelius and those people and they got saved at the mouth of a human instrument. God uses man and these bunch of Calvinists and these bunch of non-soul winners will try to criticize and attack anybody who's doing God's work. You know why? You want to know why? Because they're working for Satan, that's why. And they want to discourage God's people from doing God's work. It's true. I mean, when somebody comes to me and wants to discourage me on soul winning and throw a wet blanket on soul winning, I want to say to them like Jesus said, you know, get thee behind me, Satan. That's the devil talking when somebody comes up to you and starts telling you, you know, oh, soul winning. I remember when I first started soul winning, I had so much opposition because I was a total neo-evangelical when I was a teenager because I spent five years going to these churches that were all NIV preaching and those were all my friends. And I remember people would just tell me, they would mock me for soul winning when I first started soul winning, all my neo-evangelical, liberal friends. And they were Baptists, but they were just non-soul winning and Calvinist and phony and whatever. And all these friends, they'd mock me and they'd say, you know, you're not getting anybody saved, you're not getting anything done, it's God's going to do it, and if they want it, they'll get saved magically through osmosis. You don't need to go out and knock their door. And I remember some of my friends even said to me, they're like, well, I guess what you're doing isn't wrong. I guess it's okay. And I'm thinking to myself, no, you're wrong because you're not doing it. Because God has commanded us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. God commanded us to preach the Gospel, to open our mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel. And you're going to tell me, I guess it's okay if you do it. Why, thank you. Or I remember this is what people would say. I'd say I'm going soul winning and they'd say, have fun. I'm not going to have fun. Yeah, that's what we do for fun. No, we're going out because people are lost and dying and on their way to hell. That's why we're going out. It's not fun. Now sure, we might have fun doing it, but we don't go out to have fun. But you know what, that's just the devil talking to you. And that was the devil trying to discourage me, and I realized that at the time. And thank God I stayed with it. And at first I wasn't a successful soul winner. You know, I didn't know what I was doing, but I worked hard, I prayed, I read my Bible, and I kept doing it, I kept at it. And I've won many, many people to Christ. Did you hear me? I've won people to Christ. I've begotten them in my bonds. Well, I wasn't in bonds, but you know, it sounded good. Alright, I've begotten them when I wasn't in bonds. But look at Philemon here, let's get back here. So he said, I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I've begotten in my bonds. How dare you say that, Paul? Don't you know it was all the Holy Spirit and you had nothing to do with it, Paul? See what I mean? And look, we're not downplaying the Holy Spirit. You're downplaying us. Don't downplay us. We are ambassadors for Christ. We have the ministry of reconciliation. It's both. It's God and us that gets people saved. Okay? Because it's us in the yoke with Jesus. It's him using us to get people saved. I'll put it to you this way. If there's the light, let's picture this. Somebody's drowning in the water, right? And there's the life raft. Well, that life raft is what's going to save them, right? Well, what if I yelled at them, hey, there's a life raft right behind you. Reach out and grab it. Well, you didn't save them. It was the life raft that saved them. You know, but hey, I'm the one who pointed them under the life raft that they didn't see. And they were sinking fast. Well, that's how it is with soling. You know, Jesus is there with the power to save them. But how shall they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? We've got to be the one to point them to Christ and say, hey, salvation is right within reach. The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. But he says here in verse 11, which in time past was to thee unprofitable. So this man Onesimus, this servant, was unprofitable, right? He did not make a profit for Philemon because he basically ripped him off. And so he said he was unprofitable in time past, but now profitable to thee and to me. So basically he's saying, look, this guy was unprofitable. He was a crummy worker. He was a crummy employee. He was a crummy servant. He ripped you off. But he said, now he's profitable because I got him saved. I've begotten him in my bonds. And really you've got to figure Onesimus must want to do the right thing. If he's going back and facing, you know, instead of running away and like, oh, I'm embarrassed to ever see him or whatever. He said, you know what, I'm going to go back and make things right with Philemon. So Onesimus has got his heart right now because he wants to go back to Philemon and make things right. So he says in verse number 12, whom I've sent again, thou therefore receive him. That is mine own bowels. He said, I love this guy Onesimus. And of course you love the people that you win to Christ. That, you know, and he says in verse number 13, just like you love your own physical children, right? You love the people that you win to Christ also. And these bunch of non-soul winning churches need to get some love. I'm sick of their loveless, heartless services. And people say that we're hateful. The SPLC says we're a hate group. You know, I want to list, I'm going to make my own list of hate groups. Every Baptist Turk that doesn't do any soul winning, I say it's a hate group. I'm sick of this bunch of hate speech that says that we don't need to go soul winning. You love the people that you win to Christ. The soul winner is the one that has real love. But he says here in verse number 13, whom I would have retained with me, he said I would have just kept him here. I would have rather had him that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel. He said, I would have just kept this guy just as my soul winning partner, just as my worker. But without thy mind would I do nothing. That thy benefits should not be as it were of necessity but willingly. He said, I don't want to just take the liberty to just take over your servant and say, okay well Philemon owes me big time anyway so I'm just going to keep his servant and he's going to be my servant now. He says, you know what, I'd rather have you offer that than to just take that from you. So he says, I'd rather that it were willingly. He says in verse 15, for perhaps he therefore departed for a season that thou shouldest receive him forever. Now this is a significant verse. Paul is saying, you know what, maybe the reason why he even ran away and ended up getting busted and thrown in jail was just so that he would run into me and I would win him to Christ. So that you could actually receive him forever, not just 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. You see, we need to watch the events and circumstances of our life if God is bringing people across our path. Or bringing circumstances that we might get people saved. Stop and think about that. When sometimes things will happen, sometimes bad things will happen. And God can work it out to where somebody might be saved. We need to have our eyes open to that for these kind of divine appointments where God crosses our path with someone that needs to be saved. For example, let's say you break down in your car and you're really upset and you're mad and it's a financial catastrophe. But you know what, maybe you can win that tow truck driver to Christ and maybe that's why it even happened. Seriously, things like that have happened to me in my life. I've seen things like that. I think about a few weeks ago when we got stopped by the police. And they wasted our time for a half hour and put me on the ground in handcuffs and everything. Because my light bulb was out on my license plate and threatened to kill me and everything. But one of those officers, I was able to win him to Christ. And so right there, you can see, I literally look at that event that happened on our way, Victor, when we were coming back. I literally look at that, that that whole event happened, that we were even running late, that we even got stopped for going 50 in a 50. Because our license plate light was out and put on the ground in handcuffs and threatened with death. I think that the reason that that happened was just so that that guy would get saved. I think the whole thing was just orchestrated by God to get that guy saved. And you know what? Any bad thing that happens to you, if you can turn it into getting somebody saved, it's worth it. My wife, she had to go to the hospital and have surgery. This is many years ago. How many years ago was that, honey? Six years ago my wife had to go to the hospital and have surgery and spend the night. It was a financial catastrophe. You know, we paid off the bill, thank God. We didn't have to be anybody's sponsor or anything. But anyway, we paid off the bill, but you know what? Through that horrible ordeal, my wife was able to win the lady next to her in the hospital room to Christ. So doesn't that make the whole thing worth it? I mean, that whole medical bill, the whole pain and suffering, hey, if you could get one person saved, that's worth it. And God leads these things into our path. And Philemon was probably angry when he was ripped off by Onesimus and he saw the whole thing happen. And Paul's saying, look, Philemon, maybe those events happened just so that he could get saved. Isn't that worth it? Aren't you glad this guy got saved? And so he says, for perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him forever. He said forever because he's going to be your brother in Christ. You're going to see him in heaven. Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, especially to me. Especially to me, why? Because I want him to Christ, he's saying. 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 ought, 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 o'est unto me even thine own self besides. Actually, you kind of did just say that, Paul. I'm not going to bring up the fact that you owe me a lot more than this anyway. Actually, I think I just did. But anyway, I'm not going to say that you owe me more than that, but you know, you just, if the shoe fits, you know? So he basically is just telling this guy, look, Philemon. I think he's just really worried that maybe Onesimus is really going to get a bad reception when he comes to Philemon, so he's really laying it on here. Look, pretend that he's trying to get through to Philemon here. When you see Onesimus walking onto your property, pretend that it's me. Treat him how you treat me. You know, I can just see Onesimus, he might have just kind of sent the letter on ahead. He's kind of holding it out while he's walking out. I'll read this before you attack me. And so basically, this is a picture here of salvation. God's using the book of Philemon. You know, really every book in the Bible, every chapter of the Bible in some way is pointing us toward Jesus Christ. That's the theme of the Bible. And here there's a great picture of salvation because just as Paul is saying, you know, put all Onesimus' sins on my account, that's basically what Jesus Christ did. He bore in his own body the sins of us all. And he basically imputed our trespasses to him, we read in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. And then all of our sins were put on Jesus' account. And then all of our righteousness, I'm sorry, all of his righteousness was imputed unto us. So he took all our sins and we took all his righteousness. And basically when God the Father looks at us, you know, because of the blood of Jesus Christ, he sees us as justified in his sight, as righteous in his sight. Paul said, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God by faith. And so here, a picture here of Paul saying, you know what, put all his wrongs, all his sins, everything that he did that ripped you off, put it on my account. And then conversely, when you see him, all the good stuff that you owe me, all the good things I've done for you, it's as if Onesimus did those things. So that's where we are in Jesus Christ, that's our standing. Basically, God the Father looks at us and sees Christ's righteousness. That's why we're able to enter the kingdom of God. Because Jesus said, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. But the reason that we're going is because we don't have our own righteousness, we have the righteousness of Christ imputed unto us. And that's what the book of Philemon is teaching us here. He said in verse 20, yea brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord, refresh my bowels in the Lord, having confidence in thy obedience. He's really telling them, you're going to do this, you know. Having confidence in thy obedience, I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou will also do more than I say. I don't know if this book is supposed to be funny, but there's so many parts of Philemon that make me laugh. Just because he's just so vehemently telling them, you know, you're going to do this. I mean, you know, receive him, you're going to treat him good. You love this guy, he's special to you, you know, aren't you glad? I mean, this is the whole reason why he ripped you off, was so he could get saved, you know. And now he's back, and isn't that great? You know, he's just going on and on. But you know what, doesn't it seem to you when you read this, like this is kind of a tough sell? Like this is really a tough sell, like this guy on estimates must have done some bad stuff. I mean, he's really having to say it over and over and over again. But you know what, if you think about it, how do sinful people like us make it into Heaven? And get to live in a perfect place for all eternity, right? That's a tough sell, you know. And thank God, I think that's what God's trying to illustrate to us here, is that look, just as Paul is really doing a lot for Onesimus here, Paul is really putting himself out there, isn't he? And he's really doing a lot, and Paul here represents Jesus, the mediator. You know, the mediator, basically mediating between Philemon, the master who's been wronged by Onesimus, Paul steps in as the mediator and says, put it on my account. Here's my righteous, here's what Jesus said, here's my righteous perfect life for 33 and a half years. Put that on the account of Stephen Anderson, and I'll take all of Stephen Anderson's sins and unrighteousness upon me. I'll die on the cross, descended to Hell for three days and three nights, and pay the price. For Stephen Anderson's ticket into Heaven, or your name entered in there, into Heaven. Isn't that great? And so God's showing us here the mercy of God through the mercy of Paul and the mercy of Philemon, because, you know, we don't really know the story, but I'm sure that Philemon accepted him, you know, after all this. And so he says here, I know that you'll also do more than I say. And then he says in verse 22, but withal prepare me also a lodging, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you. There's Seleuthy Epiphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, basically he's got another preacher there with him in jail. Isn't it amazing how all these preachers are in jail? You say, well, that kind of stuff doesn't happen anymore Pastor Anderson, because now we live in this really righteous society. Really I think a lot of it is just because a lot of people just aren't preaching. You know what I mean? Because when you preach hard, I'm not saying you're necessarily going to jail, but you're going to be persecuted. And all that will of Godly Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And notice the persecution of God's people. Paul's in jail, Timothy's in jail, Epiphras is in jail, and they're writing a letter from jail. They already won this guy to Christ. I mean, it doesn't sound like they're just in there overnight. It sounds like they're in there for an extended period. Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow laborers, he's saying they're saluting you as well. Hopefully they were out in freedom. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. So it's a great book in the Bible, two meanings. Number one, it shows us basically a servant who done wrong, he got saved, he wants to get right, he wants to make things right, and basically Philemon's being told, you need to forgive. So it's a great lesson in forgiveness here. And if Philemon should forgive Onesimus because of the great things that Paul had done for him in the past, he said, you owe to me even your own self besides. I'm not going to say that, but it's true, you know. Stop and think about this. What about the Onesimuses in your life that have wronged you? Or maybe it's the Onesimi. Think about the Onesimuses that have wronged you in your life. You say, I could never forgive so and so. You don't know what they've done. Well it seemed like he'd done some pretty bad stuff too. But yet because of the good things that Paul had done for Philemon, he was supposed to forgive and let it go. You know, Jesus Christ has forgiven us a lot. And if you read Matthew 18, there's a great story about how there was a man who was forgiven his debt, a number of 10,000 talents, and then he went out and found somebody who owed him 100 pence, grabbed him by the throat and said, pay me that to owe it. And so one guy owed this massive debt, was forgiven, and then went out and would not forgive his brother. And Jesus Christ said, look, you've been forgiven a lot more than I'm asking you to forgive your brother. You haven't forgiven anything like what I've forgiven every sin in your life that you've done since you were born. Tens of thousands of sins you've committed. We ought to be able to forgive every single brother in Christ because of what's been forgiven unto us. Jesus Christ has forgiven us. He's done so much for us. We owe him our own self besides. And I think that Philemon, in a way, is a letter that's written unto us telling us to forgive our brother in Christ. Just as this is written to Philemon telling him to forgive Onesimus, I think also God's telling us we need to forgive everyone who does wrong to us. Because that's what Jesus Christ preached. He said, forgive everyone that wrongs you. You know, he said that if you forgive your brothers your trespasses, I'll forgive your trespasses. And he said, I've forgiven you, therefore forgive them. And so this letter is really written to us. And then the other meaning, of course, is just that Jesus Christ is the intercessor here. And he's represented by Paul. And so let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you for this short little book in the Bible. It's just a tiny little book. But there's so much great truth packed into this book. It's a great picture of Jesus Christ. It's a command for us to forgive others. It's a great testament to the great soul winning of Paul that even while he's in jail, he's begetting people to the Lord. He's begetting souls and he's winning people to Christ. Help us to be a great soul winner. And when bad circumstances happen, when we get ripped off or break down our car or get sick, whatever it is, or get arrested, whatever. Help us to turn that into a soul winning opportunity. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, let's sing one more.