his son, our fellow soldiers, and to the church in thy house, who the man that assists in his house. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God making mention of the always in my prayers, hearing of thy love and faith which thou hast towards the Lord Jesus and toward all things. That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. We have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brothers. 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 ages, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus. Whom I have begotten in my bond, 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 bow. Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel. So without thine mind would I do nothing. that thy benefit should not be as it were a necessity, but willingly. For perhaps he therefore departed for a season that thou shouldest receive him forever. Not now as a servant or a slave, but above a slave of brother-beloved, especially to me that how much more unto thee both in the flesh and in the Lord. If thou count me therefore a partner, to receive him as myself, If he hath wronged thee, or o as he ought, put that on mine account. These are golden words. I want to read verse seventeen again in these next few verses. If thou count me, therefore, a partner, receive him that slave. Receive him as my servant. If he hath wronged thee, or o as he ought, put that on mine account. I, Paul, have written it. with my own hand I will repay it. Albeit I do not say to thee how thou o'est unto me even thine own self also or 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. For with all prepare me also a lodging, but I trust that through your prayers, I shall be given unto you. Dear Salute ye, pastors, 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. You have sixty-six books in your Bible, and here you have a beautiful story, a lovely and charming little letter selected by God. out of all the books that might have been included in the canon of Scripture. The sixty-six we have under the direction of the Spirit of God were collected from many, many letters. Many of Paul's letters are not found in our Bible because the Spirit of God did not leave or guide in the selection of all such. And so we can look upon what we had as those that were definitely inspired by God and selected and gathered together and compacted together by men led by the Holy Spirit of God. And here is one that reveals God tender love and grace for a slave. I tried to think this week, why was it that God selected this one little note, if you will, just a little letter? and had it incorporated in the Word of God in the Bible. What is there about this little letter? This little note to a friend about a slave who had run away, there must be something very significant. Something lovely, something charming, and there is. It's a revealing little window that you might trade by which you peer through the window into a lovely palace, a lovely home, and you see all the interior because of that one little revealing window. And you see the heart of God as you read this little letter, the little epistle of Solomon. It reveals courtesy, tact, and spiritual values that we'll see as we go along. I think the best point to emphasize, and that which I believe it reveals the most, is God's grace. Here is God's grace manifested to a slave. a despised slave, a man who was worth very little in those days. And yet here is a slave. He comes to know Jesus Christ, who's lived in detail later on. And God has chosen to have it recorded. The local newspapers wouldn't put it on the back page, but God gives it a place in his canon of Scripture Because it reveals, I believe, His grace, His wonderful, matchless grace to a poor, worthless slave. You know God's grace is glorious grace, it's redeeming grace, it's abundant and abounding grace, for where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Not only so is costly grace. Do you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor that he through his poverty might become rich? How costly is this grace? Is it treating riches of this grace? You cannot be bought. You cannot buy this grace, this foundation. It's beyond price. God is too rich to sell it, and man is too poor to buy it. And so this little letter tells us the marvels of God's wonderful grace. It's all of God. By grace, see our faces, faith, and let not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. It's not of grace unless any man should boast. Salvation is purely of grace. He tells you that in that text by just quoting Ephesians chapter three. pride grace, i.e., pay to faith, and that none of yourselves is not what you are. It's not of works. It's not what you do. It's a gift. And we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good work. Good work follows salvation. They do not perceive salvation. And so as salvation is all of grace, you see it displayed marvelously in the conversion of the eponessimus. this runaway slave. Now the story. Paul had won this man Philemon, evidently a very rich farmer. He had lots of slaves. And Paul had won Philemon for Christ. It tells you that in the letter we read. And in that home the apostle established a church. He says, the church that is in thy house, that goes to prove that a church is not bricks and mortar. A church is composed of a handful of born-again believers, where two or three are gathered together in my name, says the Lord Jesus. There am I in the midst of them. A church is composed of living souls, men and women who are born again, men and women who are saved by the grace of God. This chapel is not the church. It's only where the church meets. And no building is called a church. The word church in the Greek is ecclesia or called out one. A group of people, a group of people gathered out and gathered together with Christ in their midst. That's the church. And he speaks here of the church that is in thy house. A group of believers meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus in this wealthy farmer's home, Halimun Salad. Philemon had a slave, he had many of them undoubtedly, one of them by the name of Onesimus, sold from his master and made for Rome a modern New York. Well, we would say in terms of today, New York, a large city as Rome was then. A good place to hide, a good place to be lost, then being sought by the authorities. And here Onesimus, after stealing from Philemon his master. He makes for those. They're hoping to be more or less swallowed up by the crowd of that large city so he wouldn't be found and apprehended. But you know, God has his marvelous ways of doing things. Onesimus knew the severe punishment that could be meted out to him if he were apprehended, even death. Alimon should have had him put to death, for that oft-times were inflicted upon a slave who ran away from his master. You do not know how it came about that he contacted the apostle. The apostle Paul at that time was a prisoner of Jesus Christ in Rome. He was in his damp chair tied to a Roman soldier. There is the aged apostle, he says, such an one as Paul the aged. And it was possibly about sixty years of age that he sees himself as ages. So if you're sixty this morning, you're old according to that. Such a one of Paul the ages, tied to a prisoner, or tied to a guard in that prison. Now we do not know how the Apostle met Onesimus or how Onesimus met the Apostle in Rome. Did God arrange it? I believe he did. Was it that Onesimus got into trouble in Rome, who was cast in prison, and there met the apostle? Or was it that he heard, for he ever knew beforehand about this man, Paul? He had pointed his master, Philemon, to Christ. Had he heard that the apostle was there in Rome? And did Onesimus in that large city seek out the apostle Paul? coming to become tired and weary of his life, generally living in fear and apprehension, lest he be laid hold of by the law because he was a runaway slave. Did he seek out the apostle? Did he think here's a man who can help me? Here's a man who can get me reconciled to my master. Furthermore, I believe this apostle Paul can point me to Christ. I'm tired of the way I live. And he sent out the Apostle Paul, and isn't amazing for a man to go to a place like New York, a runaway slave, a cultist, a criminal, and seek out a preacher whose ultimate business is Christ-based. That's exactly what happened. We don't know who suggested his return to his home. The Apostle led him to Christ. pointed him to the stage. Well, there are wonderful things. Did Anethema say, Paul, now that I'm saved, I want to go back to Philemon, my master? I want to go back and set things right. Or did the Apostle Paul suggest to him, Philemon, you go back now to Philemon. Did he suggest to, Anethema's rather, you go back to Philemon, your master? Oh, but I'm afraid to go back, Paul. why he could have me punished. He could have me put to death. No, Philemon's a Christian, he wouldn't do that. And I'll tell you what I'll do, O Necimal. I'll write a letter, and I'll explain this. And I'll write this letter to Philemon. I pointed him to Christ in the measure he's obligated to me. And I will write a letter, and I'll give it to you. And I want you to take it back to Philemon. And I think when he reads that letter, everything will be all right. And we read it just about ten minutes ago. That's the letter that we read. The letter that the Apostle Paul wrote in the prison at Rome and gave it to this runaway slave whom he had just pointed to Christ and told him to take it back to Philemon as master. And that would straighten out the whole situation. How wonderful then that God finds a light in recording this little incident of a conversion of a runaway slave. Not a king, not a prison, or a prince brother, not a high dignitary, but just a slave, a restless slave. Anethymus had been enjoying the favors and the privileges of Lumen's house. He became dissatisfied. He covered him. He stole. He ran away. And now I want to require my message to look upon Onesimus as a picture of you. A picture of man and gender. That's exactly what Adam did. Here is God who created Adam and Eve. He placed them in that garden. They had all that heart could live. That beautiful dwelling. That lovely estate. All they had to be was God's caretaker of the Garden of Eden. The poor Eve, she fell for the gates of the wicked ones. She stole the tips of the tree of the knowledge of good news. She listened to the voice of the church's statement. She turned her back upon her great benefactors, God. Another turn she did just like Monephimus did. He stole and he ran away. He turned his back upon his master. That's what Adam and Eve did when they ran and hid behind the trees of the garden. That's what you're doing this morning if you're not a Christian. You're robbing God of your good, of your servant. Robbing God of the good things he's given you. you should thank him for it in return. But you don't. Just like Onesimus robbed his master of his goods, he robbed his master Philemon of his service, but he was his slave. And most of all, he robbed him of himself because Philemon owned him. That's exactly man's picture and such today. If you're not a Christian friend, you are A robber. A runaway slave. You have enjoyed God's bounty. God's goodness. All the good by which he has blessed you. Not only have you robbed him of the rose strings or your gratitude for those sins. But you've robbed him of your service. All he's gotten is their sins. Not only so you've robbed him of your self. But after all, God built it within you, not what you have in particular. You're robbing God of your sense. And that's exactly what Onesimus has done. He was a robber. Will man rob God be redeemed in Malachi to ye? That passage so worked over by preachers when it comes to money? But I'm not applying it in that sense this morning. Will man be so daring, so impudent, so unjust, so unkind, so ungrateful, so unwise? Should God at the time rob God? Take from God, steal from God? Yet that's exactly the story. That's what this man did to his master. That's what man is doing to God. What men say, where in have you robbed God? God says, you've robbed me all right. The man says, where in the we rob God? You read that in Malachi. He pleads not guilty. He pleads not guilty. Man today won't plead guilty. God says, you're a robber. You're a runaway. You owe me plenty. You owe me everything you have. You owe me your thirst. But you're not paid. You owe me God. Men say, no, I'm not guilty, but remember the law was given that every mouth may be stopped and all the world becomes guilty before God. Every man and every woman is guilty before God, guilty of many things. But of all, guilty of the most heinous crime of all, that is, rejecting Jesus Christ to be your Savior and your Lord. What are you robbing God of? Your robbing him of glory, of honor, of praise, of your kind, your talent, your love, your attention? These are the things you're robbing God of, the things that God wants most. The things that he covered, he yearned for are the things that you're robbing God of, or robbing. son robbed God secretly like Ananias and Sophia in the book of Acts. But they were exposed. You can't rob God secretly. You might as well come out of this. Down in your heart you know you're a robber. You wouldn't want to tell others that. But down in your heart you know that God knows you're a robber of God secretly. Others rob God openly. They don't mind coming right out and saying, I'm old Christian. So profess to be one and don't intend to become one. I know I take all that comes my way. I take more. Whoever sends it, God sends it okay. Let him turn some more. How about paying him something? Getting him some returns? No, I'm not interested. They're brazen about it. They're open about it. that thing is when they're robbing God unconsciously. Some do it suspiciously. Some do it openly. But some do it unconsciously. They're not aware of the fact that they're robbing God. It hasn't dawned upon them yet. They haven't been convicted of it. But they are one of them of God. Robbers will be all must. You know you read in John chapter ten verse like this, He that enters not by the door into the seat pool, but primes up some other way, the string with a seat and a rubber. What's the Lord Jesus saying? Christ is the door, he says, I am the door by me, if any man enters in, he shall be saved, and shall go in an open kind pasture, but he that primes up some other way, and entereth not by the door. The same as the thief, the same as the robber. If you're trying to get to heaven other than through Jesus Christ, if you're trying to get to heaven other than going through the door which is Christ himself, then says, God, you're a thief and you're a robber. You're robbing Jesus Christ of becoming your savior and the redeeming son of God and the glory that is his doom. for accomplishing the work that stays a precious to us. For instance, the person who says, if I do the best I can, if I live a good life, I'll get to heaven. You're getting the glory for that. If it were possible for you to get to heaven that way, you can. You want the credit, you want the glory for being your own savior, taking your good life, your good works will take you to heaven. Do you know what you're doing? You're robbing Jesus Christ as the glory that belongs to his, as the only one who can save his soul and save his heart. You're trying to climb up some other way. If you're ignoring the door, Jesus Christ, and you're trying to climb your way to heaven, crying the mountains with saggy rocks that did worse than you slipped and you fall and you cry again and you slip and you tumble and you cry again. You're trying to work your way to heaven. All the time there's a door standing right open for you to ask. You're trying to climb up some other way. You're trying to climb up Mount Sinai or the Ten Commandments where there's where the commandments were given at Mount Sinai. You're trying to keep the law, the Ten Commandments hoping they'll get you to heaven. Friend, they'll not get you to heaven. The law was given that every mouth may be soft. And all the world becomes guilty before God. The law makes you a guilty sinner. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The law never saved any man. The law shows you your need of being saved. And the Lord shows you the one who can save you. Just like the schoolmaster teaches the children lessons. Objective lessons. The law says, I've got something to tell you. You're a sinner. The same commandment looks man right in the eye and says, You're a sinner. You've broken every one of my commandments. So down the list, you've broken all ten of them. You're under the curse. You're under the condemnation of a broken law. What am I to do then? If I'm a law person, what am I to do? There's only one thing for you to do. who escaped death and eternal punishment. Pleaser, Jesus Christ, for he kept the law and the only one who did. He bore the curse of the broken law by dying in your stead upon the cross and shedding his precious blood, that satisfied all the claims of God and met all the righteous requirements of a holy law. And only Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone can save you. Pleaser, Christ, yes, he's the only one. The Lord has true, Master, to bring us to Christ. The people say, I don't want Christ. I think my good life will suffice. I think if I try and keep the same commandments, I'll get the help. If I give a sense of my impact, if I pay so much money, if I live a good life, I'll get the help. You're climbing up some other way. You're ignoring the door and God says you're a thief and you're a robber. You're going to get all the credit yourself if you get to heaven. Whereas Jesus Christ gets all the glory. Jesus Christ alone gets all the credit. He gets all the worship for every soul that's going to be in the glory. And so man says, wherein have I robbed God, Oh, you've robbed us. You're trying to get to heaven without the new birth. You're trying to get to heaven by being a member of the church. Just the formality of being a member of the church. Although we believe all wholeheartedly in baptism by immersion as you'll see tonight when seven obey the Lord. But baptism then does not save a soul. Baptism does not put away one sin. The blood of Christ alone puts away sin. Baptism is the answer of a good conscience toward God. Jesus Christ went through the reality of death. When you go through the shadow of it, the figure of it, then you will obey the Lord in baptism. Jesus Christ was baptized in death and judgment upon the cross. For you, he did it publicly. Now he says, when you go through the waters of baptism, I identified myself with you with Calvary. Will you identify yourself with me by going to the waters of baptism? That's it. The baptism at Trump and church membership at Trump will not save anyone. That's climbing up some other way. You are a thief. And you are a robber. And I mentioned Solomon that he not only was he a robber, he was a runaway. ran away from the monster by saying he can't succeed. Jonah tried that. He tried to run away from God. He went out of Joppa to flee to Tarshish. Tarshish means destruction and Joppa means pleasure. He was going to destruction by way of pleasure. But he went down to the ship. He went down into the ship. went down first to Jaffa, then he went down to the ship, and then he went down into the bottom of the ship, and then he went down to the bottom of the sea. When the sailors threw him out, then the fish took him to the bottom of the sea. Four times he read the word down, then Jonah experienced. He went down to Jaffa. He went down to the ship. He went down into the bottom of the ship, and he went down into the bottom of the sea. God kept bringing them down, bringing them down, bringing them down until he hit the body. And then Jonah was ready to come to terms. Then he cried out in chides, but this is certainly the salvation of the Lord. In chapter two gives us his remarkable experience. That's what he is doing. And God said to the rich, Jonah. And Jonah was on the road on dry land. Then he came to an end of his runaway career. He came to turn. Then he experienced that as saying, God's after you and breathing hot on your neck when you're trying their best to run away from God. But David would say, Do I take the wings in the morning and cry to the uttermost parts of the earth thou art there? If I ascend to the heaven thou art there, if I make my bed in hell thou art there, Yes, man is making his own bed in hell. And the bed is not always a place of rest. I go to hospital to find a bed is often a place of agony and anguish. And that's always hell. Do I make my bed in hell? Oh, there will be God consciousness in hell. The God you rejected, the God you resumed, the God you despised. You'll have that awful, awesome consciousness of God in hell. You can't get away from God. Though you fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, behold our barracks is there. I can't get away from God wherever this place is God's place. God is on this peasantry everywhere. One time I led the incident of a young man brought up in a Christian home in England. Young fellow had a godly mother who constantly spoke to him about his soul that he resented him. One day he ran away. I'm going to get away from this religion. I'm going to get away from home. I'm sick. I'm tired of hearing. He went and joined the marine, the nature marine, but on his ship jumped in that state. Boy, when the ship pulled away from God, he died. This is why. I'm away from that religion. Fair from that godly atmosphere. It's a mighty wide, wide world. I can do as I like now. But after a kid pulled away, he turned around. And a man met him. Another one of the boys on ship. Happened to be a Christian. He said, Buddy, he said, Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as a Savior? And he liked to have a ship. He thought, I just left all that stuff. And he hadn't gone much further. And another man spoke to him and handed him a little gospel clap. And he made a morpher. And he turned away and said to the fellow, Where can I get away from this? And the fellow like a sailor could get in hell, buddy, in hell. That's the only place where he didn't get away from salvation. God wants to save you right here on earth. But there's no salvation in him. But the awful awareness that you could have been saved on earth was for no reason to let you join us. No lesson was a runaway. He was a slave. Man today is a slave of his sin, of Satan, of the law. Slave to sin. You can't get that habit. You can't break it. You're a slave to Satan. He tells you what to do and you do it. God tells you what to do when you don't. God telling you this morning to get saved. He's telling you this morning to accept Christ and become a Christian. The devil says, don't you do? You're going to obey when you go out that door. Will you be a slave of Satan or a son of God? If you go out unsaved, you're a slave to sin and Satan. You said, Jesus Christ, when you are a son of God, who will you obey? Who slave are you? man today is a slave of sin and Satan and he's subject to the bondage of the law. Unprofitable. That's what Paul says here. He before was unprofitable. Unethicalness was unprofitable to you. You know, man's unprofitable to God all the time he's unpaid. All God has gotten out of you thus far in your life, your sins, your inner ears. What a bad investment you have done. He all matters. He invested a lot in you. Thus caused him a bad investment. He's got nothing in you, sir. An estimate is unhappy. Robbers of this life may enjoy their lease. If you can't rob God and run away and be happy, you won't let it be. You'll be miserable. He'll be dishonest not. He will be. How can you be satisfied until you come to know Christ? Without Christ's satisfaction is absolutely impossible. Temporary satisfaction with the fleeting presence of life is possible. But real solid, deep, permanent satisfaction only comes when you come to know Jesus Christ as his Savior. And so, an estimate is unhappy. And he was far off. He ran away, all the way to Rome. Well, the grace of God in arranging this meeting, undoubtedly God's providence that brought Paul and Onesimus together. You know it was like the God's grace and providence that brought you here this morning. It wasn't an accident. God and his sovereign grace brought you here. If he might hear the gospel, God has brought his eye on you like he had his eye on Onesimus when Onesimus stole from his master and ran to Rome. God was following every step of the slave. God's watching you. And he has so maneuvered it that you're sitting listening to the old batch in Brockshire, the message of salvation, the message of his grace here this morning. I wonder what really I am going to be. Now those golden words that I emphasize in reading. Paul says in this letter right into Philemon concerning the message. If he has longed thee, verse H.B. Oh, the wrong we have done. We've wronged God in word, in prophet, and in deed. Oh, the wrong we've done. Look at how you've wronged God. You've wronged Jesus Christ. Paul says, unless you must have wronged me. Jesus Christ didn't say this morning and speaking to the Father, if so-and-so, It used to be, unless the Wilson has wronged me, father. And what? Poirot, if he ought. Yes. He owed him plenty. And then from his old Shaliman, what he had stolen, the money he had stolen. He says, Paul says, does he owe anything? Does he owe anything? Does he owe anything? What do you owe God? Can you figure it out? Can you use a machine to tabulate it? No, you can't figure up your debt to God. Not only the debt of sin, but all the things you owe God that he hasn't gotten as far in your life. But you owe God, only God knows. Man's a debtor, he's a potter, he's a beggar. Says the apostle that he owes it to you. Now notice this wonderful word. Put that to my account. Oh, how wonderful these words are. This is really the language of the Lord Jesus. Put that to my account. Yes, he has wronged the away of the off. Yes, Christ put that to my account. I'll take it. I'll take it. That's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross. When he wanted to be saved this morning, I can't. I never have been able to put. If I lived another hundred years, I couldn't put the day of salvation any simpler than you had in these words. If he has wronged me, if that sinner has wronged me, Father, if he owes me off, put it for mine account. Charge it to me. I repay it. And God put to the account of the Lord Jesus Christ my sin. Adam's fallen nature was imputed to me through him all of sin. But my sin was imputed to Jesus Christ when he was on that cross. When I accept Jesus Christ as my Savior, God's righteousness was imputed to me. It's a transaction of imputation. I'm a sinner because Adam's fallen nature was imputed to me by my birth into this world and my life to that. But God on that cross entreated my sin, my iniquity, my awful, fearful death, the intrudence of Jesus Christ. The moment I took Jesus Christ as my Savior at the age of nineteen, then God entreated righteousness, divine eternal acceptance unto me. That's how I got there. Put that to my account of Jesus Christ, prodigal me. All the judgment that left the broken sins of those All the wrath, his iniquity is deserved, says Jesus Christ, while hanging on the cross, put it to me. Give me his deserve. That's the way of salvation. He says, I will repay it. There's no wonder. I will repay it, says Paul. Charge everything. All the wrong that I must have done. The money is sold, sold from you. All embarrassment. All the wrong. Charge it to me. I'll be responsible. I'll affect. I'll make all amends. I'll set everything right. That's exactly what Jesus Christ did on the cross for the rest of you. And that's exactly what he believed in you. He will only believe. I will repent. He was groomed for my transgressions, he was groomed for my iniquities, the chastisement of my creatures laid upon him, and give his Christ unto you. Christ also at once suffered for sins, he that grasped for me the unjust that I might be brought to God. How wonderful, Jesus, Christ, stated God. But that's not the end. There's something else. He says, receive him as myself. Paul says, not only charge everything to me, I'll take But he says, receive him as myself. When he comes back to you and knocks at your door, just let you receive him as me, the apostle, and not the former slave. Receive him as myself. Receive him as myself. Love, near, holy, pure, righteous, innocent, as a son and prophet of God, and no more a worthless, despised slave. Did you take that in? God says to the Father, Lord Jesus says to the Father this morning, if there's one soul here who wants to be saved, you're going to take Christ as your personal Savior believing all your sins were laid upon him, Jesus bore them on the tree, God who knew them laid upon them and believing you are free. If you take Christ, if you confess Christ this morning, Christ says I've paid it all, paid every penny, Now, Father, receive that sinner as you receive me. For the Bible says we'll accept it in Jesus Christ. God will receive you in Christ. He'll receive you because he will receive his son as I've already said. He loved his son. God loved you. His son is near to him. So will you be. So nice or very near to God. Nearer we could not be than the person of his son. I am as near as you. Holest. You'll be holy in Christ. Pure. You'll be pure in Christ. Righteous. You'll be righteous. Innocent. You'll be innocent. And a son, not a slave. Paul treasures people met from us. Not now is a slave, but is a son. Not now unprofitable, but profitable. You'll be the prophet to draw. Only if you come to Jesus Christ. How long is this deception to be? How long is Philemon to receive Onesimus? Verse fifteen, forever. Forever. How long does God receive a sinner to accept Jesus Christ? Forever. I give unto my sheep eternal life. They shall never take. Paul says, Onesimus likely departed from you for the season. But Paul might assist him forever. Friend, that's the point. God received a poor sinner forever. It's just another lasting life. What's the proof of all this? The proof of it all is a little letter I read to you. Picture on that one that's going back to Philemon. With the tears and tremors in his heart? For what? former master might do. He knows under Roman law he could be put to death. What will the lesson must be thinking on the first day of the morning? How will I approach my master? How will I begin to talk? How will I make my apology? What am I worrying about? I've got Paul's letter. I've got Paul's letter. When he reaches the big house, Polemon stands there, an austere looking man now, because he's runaway slave, he stole from his return. Polemon hardly can open his mouth. It's a pride that a slave would be there. Polemon doesn't, or Onesimus doesn't say a word. He just hands him a piece of cake. And it's the letter I'm here. Polemon reads it. Release all these lovely steps. Receive him as my step. Paul has settled the whole situation. Am I to receive a lesson? Not now as a slave is called, but as a brother, a brother to love. In fact, receive him as my step. All the lesson of this fear is of despair. His sole confidence of acceptance with his former master is the letter that he carries, the word to be upon. He asked me this morning how I know I'm saved. I'll tell you then from the authority of that spirit. An Eshmeralda said nothing about his feelings or how he said. He made no promises of what he'd be in the future. All he did was hand that letter. the situation itself. All you've got to do this morning is hand this book back to God to follow. The Lord Jesus says, come unto me all you at Laban are heavy laden and I will give you rest. And you say, Father, your son said, I would come. He did me use, did me rest. I take that word. I believe it. I'm coming as a fool sinner. It's up to you now to give me that death. When you say also, him that comes unto me, I will in no wise cast out. Lord, I'm coming. Your word says, do not cast me out. You are born again by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, for in the first Peter one can be saved. And the authority of this book, I am the Son. Father, you've given me this word, and I believe everything in it, He that here is my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come as his brethren to this fast and death and to life. Father, I'm bringing the words that you've left on record. This is my plea. This is my argument. It's not my work. It's not my life. It's not my feeling. Lord, it's Christ. And I'm coming this morning as a poor sinner. I'm coming to Christ. And you tell me your word if I accept Christ, I'll be saved and you'll receive me in Christ. Thank you, Father. The Father will take you in as we put him on earth, for he will be a world-welcome and rejoicing in heaven that he will come right now as if we were lost when there was the unconscionable spirit. Our Heavenly Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, we ask thy blessing upon thy grace. We thank you, Lord, in lovely little letters, that we have read together how to express with thy thought of heart, thy thoughts of thine heart, the love of thy heart, who will pull the wrongdoing run away from it. Oh, that this morning stand with thunder. And say the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, that instead of running away, turning and turning to Christ, And God grant his pen may be so. Right now. Right now. Amen. Amen. There's two hundred and twenty-sixths. May do you have received Christ this morning or some peter this morning? You haven't told us. Now is your opportunity to make it known. Come and tell us. Or you're not yet a Christian. You want to be. Make it a Christian. May your very action coming up be your declaration. I'm going to take Christ. I'm going to take him this morning. Maybe you want advice. You think I can help you with the Bible. I'd even like to take the Bible into in many ways and find answers to your questions. Tell me, let us know your desire.