A WAYWARD SAINT COMES HOME BY PAUL S MESSAGE OF LOVE. Bringing Life to the Book of Philemon

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2 A WAYWARD SAINT COMES HOME BY PAUL S MESSAGE OF LOVE Bringing Life to the Book of Philemon Thought for the book taken from the Message delivered on March 8, 2015 Dawsonville, Georgia U.S.A.

3 2015 by Ben Howard All rights reserved. This book cannot be sold, nor in any way be used for the soliciting of funds. All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version Bible Published by the Sound Of Liberty 7286 Hwy 53W, Dawsonville, Georgia U.S.A.

4 A WAYWARD SAINT COMES HOME BY PAUL S MESSAGE OF LOVE Bringing Life to the Book of Philemon I m going to minister today from the Book of Philemon, which is a very little book, a letter from Paul with only one chapter. I ve been preaching for over fifty years and I don t recall ever taking this one particular chapter and speaking on it. But I just felt led of the Lord to read and speak on it today. At this point I don t know how the message will go. But I m not scared of being a failure. Being a failure is a given for humanity, and from time to time we all do fail. But the problem for many is that when they fail in certain things, they let it affect them for too long; not realizing that being a failure is part of being successful. So when we fail, we just put it behind us and go on serving God. And sometimes the enemy will try to get us to feel like a failure, when in fact we are not a failure. And our consolation is in the scripture that says, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28) So our mentality is this: Our failures contribute to our success. We have a sermon entitled, God s Success in All His Failures. (This message is included as a chapter within the book called, Now That Which is to Be Done Will Now be Done.) It shows us that if we look back, starting even before the Book of Genesis, it looked as though God had failures. But it all ends up successful in the eternal age. Before I begin reading, let us pray.

5 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 2 Heavenly Father, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come to you praising and thanking you for your love, goodness, and mercy upon us. Lord, we pray that you will continue to move for us, as you have already blessed us this morning. We know that your Word is what gives us lasting life; that s where the life is. So I pray that you will bless and anoint me that I may speak words that will benefit the people for your glory. Amen. Now the title of my message is, A Wayward Saint Comes Home by Paul s (letter) Message of Love. We are going to be reading in the Book of Philemon about a wayward saint coming home. In this letter, Paul is being a mediator between a runaway slave and his owner. This slave s name was Onesimus. He was converted to the way of God and he was wanting to go back to his owner, Philemon. In the letter, Paul was instructing Philemon as to how he should treat Onesimus, as well as what Onesimus should do. Let s start with Verse One. It says, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ (He was a prisoner of Christ in two ways: He obeyed Him, loved Him, and he lived just to serve Him; and he was also a prisoner in Rome for preaching the gospel.), and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer, Now to Philemon, Paul is sending a message of love, mostly concerning Onesimus, whose name means profitable. When Onesimus left Philemon he went to Rome; and while there, he met Paul who was in prison. We read in the last chapter of the Book of Acts these facts concerning Paul s imprisonment. I m telling you this so that you can make the connection here of how Onesimus came to know Paul. While in prison Paul had his own hired (rented) house in Rome for two years. There were those that wanted to hear what he had to say, and no man was forbidden. And that s a miracle of God in and of itself that Rome would permit such liberty. He was under house arrest for part of his time in Rome while waiting to go before Caesar. They probably had a soldier or two there guarding him; but for the most part, Paul had freedom as long as he stayed within his

6 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 3 approved perimeter. He rented a house by special permission and people came in to hear what he had to say some believed and some went away doubting. Evidently amongst those that came to hear Paul was a man named Onesimus. After hearing Paul speak, he became a believer as he saw the truth of the gospel and was converted. But he knew that he had a problem that he needed to take care of. He was a slave who had run away from his master and who had been accused of theft. Apparently, his master (Brother Philemon) had been converted under Paul at an earlier time, and evidently he was a man of some wealth by the fact that he had slaves (servants) in his household. Onesimus was one of Philemon s servants. He had run away from Philemon but he now wanted to go back; but he was afraid to go it alone, because a runaway was usually punished, especially if they had been bought. We saw that in some of the Southern States here in America concerning the African race when many were brought over from Africa and sold as slaves. If they ran away they were in big trouble. Onesimus was such a man; but he found Paul. And upon finding that Paul knew Philemon, he sought his help in intervening for him. He was now a wayward saint, but Paul wrote a love letter, a message of love, to Philemon; and he used the wisdom of Christ to help his new friend Onesimus. As we read this letter, we can certainly see the wisdom of Christ coming out in the personality of Paul. And by the way he wrote, it s obvious that he knew Philemon quite well; and now he knew Onesimus well and was willing to mediate between them. That s what we see here in the Book of Philemon. To me, this is a beautiful lesson on the love of Jesus Christ. So having said that, let s go on to Verse 2; Paul says, And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellowsoldier (here Paul is naming other saints in the church), and to the church in thy house. That s where they had their meetings. They didn t have big Cathedral s with steeples reaching to the sky. They usually had

7 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 4 meetings in a home or the great outdoors. Many times the groups were small. They were not some crowded organized system that was called the church. Well, this man Philemon had meetings in his house, where a few of the believers would come together and study the Word and read Paul s letters. So Paul is saying, the church that is in thy house. Verse 3, Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This scripture shows that Paul was neither extreme Oneness when it came to the Godhead, nor was he a Trinitarian. But he knew that God was a Spirit, and that there was only one person (the word person denotes a physical body) in the Godhead which is the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, There is no other name given under heaven whereby you must be saved, except the Lord Jesus Christ. I like the way he started his letter, the church that is in thine house, and then, grace and peace. This letter shows us the way he looked at what the church was. Paul is letting us know that in this day what we see out here in the world is definitely not what he called the church; this is made so clear to us. It takes God s grace upon us in order for us to see this, and He has given us His peace. Verse 4, I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers. Now here Paul was trying to present the letter in a way that would address this man properly and maybe touch that soft spot in his heart; because his slave had gotten converted and Paul wanted to help him return, and he wanted Philemon to treat him right and not punish him, for he could see how profitable and good Onesimus was. So Paul used all his skill and wisdom to convince Philemon of the value of this wayward man as a brother in Christ. So in reading this letter we could get the idea that what Paul was doing is what we sometimes call, buttering him up a little bit. In other words, he spoke real good to him. He says, Every time I pray, I make mention of you; I pray for you. Verse 5, Hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast towards the Lord Jesus

8 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 5 Christ, and toward all saints. Here he is saying, Your reputation goes before you. You have a good reputation, you love the Lord, and you love the saints. I ve heard of your love and your faith. Verse 6, For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother. He is saying, There are many good things in you. But as we know, we have no goodness of ourselves, only in Christ Jesus. We can all, in different ways, look at ourselves as an Onesimus as he was before he came to Christ. But what a change was wrought in him through Christ! Even so now let s be an Onesimus in the likeness of the new Onesimus in Chirst. Now Paul is going to make a request of Philemon. We might ask, Paul, why go through all of this uplifting first? Because when he made the request, he didn t want Philemon to turn him down. Paul was making a way for a wayward saint to come home on his letter of love. That is what this letter is all about. And one thing that really caught my attention was that Paul was willing to go all out for Onesimus. Notice, this whole thing was for only one person, but that didn t stop Paul from doing this job. I think of some of the meetings that we had when I was in the Philippines. Some of them were big meetings where hundreds upon hundreds of people came (some of the photos can be viewed on our website). But when I left the big meetings and went out to small gatherings in little villages, some criticized me for that. I had previously gotten letters from some of those on other islands that were wanting me to come. They wrote to me saying, We want you to come to us, but we don t want you to be disappointed, because there is only a handful of us in this village. But please come to us. So I went to some of the other Islands; even walking far distances to get to them. Paul did similar things; he wrote this letter for one person, and God even allowed it to be put in the Bible. I tell you, Jesus Christ died for one person, and that one person was you just one person! And

9 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 6 if you were the only person on earth, He would have done the same. He didn t have to have many people. He died for you and for you and for you. But to you it has to be personal The Lord took my place at Calvary and He took the curse off me. And He did it just for me. Some people will say, There are so many people in the world better than I am, why would He choose to die for me? There are many who know a lot more, who are more sociable, and who are better fit to be a witness; why did He choose me when there was all these people that know how to talk good, educated people that know how to get through the world? Why would He choose someone that doesn t know these things? By doing it this way, He gets all the glory. Give all the glory to Jesus, and tell of His love, His wonderful love. We see a good portion of this love in Paul. He sees this situation here, and he is going all out just for this one person. That is the way it is with us, we are going all out for this gospel. And that s the way it was with Philip in the Book of Acts, Chapter 8. The Holy Spirit spoke to Philip and told him to go by the way of Gaza, which is desert. So Philip left Jerusalem and headed off into the desert and came upon a man. He was a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch. He wasn t part of the Jewish society and he didn t know the Savior had come. The man invited Philip to sit with him; and Philip accepted. He was reading in Isaiah, Chapter 53. I love that chapter! It tells about the Lord Jesus, the lamb who was slain for our sin and diseases, and how He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and He opened not His mouth. That s what this eunuch was reading about. As Philip came up to the chariot to sit with him, he asked him, Can you help me? Please tell me who this prophet is writing about. Is he writing about himself or someone else? Philip took that one scripture and began preaching Christ to him. The man gave his heart to God and Philip baptized him. That is when the Spirit picked Philip up and he was found over in another city preaching the

10 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 7 gospel. All of this for one man because one man was interested. That is the way God does things many times unconventional. He deals with individuals. He doesn t have to have a big group, just one person. There are churches where the preachers will say, I would love to have you come, but we have only a handful. It doesn t make a bit of difference. How about one? How about a whole book here dedicated to one person? That s what we are reading here. Paul was wanting to help fix things between Onesimus and Philemon as they both were Christians now. And Paul went all out to get it done. Verse 7, We have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother. Paul was pouring it on heavily (as the saying goes), because he wanted to get all the rough edges off first, before he asked Philemon his request. Now Paul is saying all this, yet he still hasn t given one slight hint of what he was wanting Philemon to do. See, that is going to come later. Paul loved his new found brother, Onesimus, and his friend Philemon, so much. But Onesimus was wayward in the things of his stewardship to Philemon. But things had changed; they were both Christians now and both were in the Kingdom of God. Here Paul is calling on Philemon to do something that could be difficult. Sometimes things get this way, even in the body of Christ when we let our minds have free reign. Sometimes we have to make adjustments in our way of thinking by letting the mind of Christ think through us; and in doing so we have to bring our minds in captivity to the law (love) of Christ. I preached a message in Glen Daniel, West Virginia, some months back entitled, How to Adjust with the Thinking of the Mind of Christ, showing that we have to cast down imaginations, because to be carnal minded is death, and that is our own thinking. Sometimes we may still think with our own mind, even if we are part of the wife of the Lamb, because we are not translated yet. This is what the Word means in Ephesians 4:13-

11 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 8 16 where we are inside the body of Christ, yet we are told to grow up into Him, and that to be spiritually minded is life and peace. That is what we are yielding ourselves to in Christ; His very own mind. We want to just leave our mind out and just take His. We do it by hearing this message, studying the Word, and living by revelation. We do it by our dedication to Him. And that is how we grow inside the body of Christ. That is what we had in the message last week, We Reach Our Fullness in Christ. That is a process, we grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. We grow up into Him. We reach our fullness. That is what it is all about. So here are these two brothers, Philemon and Onesimus. Verses 8-9 says, Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ (He is saying, Now what I am going to say is going to sound a bit bold on my part. ) to enjoin thee that which is convenient. Yet for love s sake, He is saying, I know this is going to sound like I m meddling into your business, but this is something that is important. This may sound a little forward, a little bold, but listen to what I have to say. (See, this was Christ in Paul.) Paul said, We stand in Christ s stead. When we see Paul, we see the expression of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wasn t the Lord Jesus Christ, but we see the expression of Christ in him. And that s what we see when we look at the wife of the Lamb today. The Word says, We reach the fullness of the stature of the man Christ Jesus. Paul goes on to say, Yet for love s sake, I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged. He s saying, I m getting old. I ve been here a long time and I have climbed a lot of mountains and crossed a lot of streams. He didn t spare anything. Then he said, I want to make a request of you. Now watch as we go. being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I m not only old, but I m a prisoner for Christ s sake. So please consider what I m saying on behalf of Onesimus, our beloved brother in Christ.

12 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 9 Remember in the message entitled, A Message to Facilitate the Furtherance of our Joy and Faith, that many waxed bold seeing Paul s condition and how he was brutally treated and put into prison. As Paul continued to encourage them, telling them, Just keep pushing on, some that were lax and half-hearted Christians became much bolder (Philippians, Chapter One). They stepped up to the plate after they were inspired by Paul s example of his love for Christ and the Word for the saints. I jokingly told someone the other day, If I do something halfheartily I have a good excuse, because part of my heart is damaged from a severe heart attack. But seriously, I go without regards to my condition. People say, You can t do this, and You have to be careful. Well, maybe so; but I am here today and I want to lend my voice to what God is doing, without fear and without favor. And I am going to do it with all the wisdom that God gives me. I am not going to come in here and say, Every one of you are going to hell. And you are this and you are that. I m ashamed of you and the way you do. You need to straighten up your life. That was not Paul s message; he had a message of love. Now the message of love didn t mean that he let things go; because he was bold enough to speak when he saw something that really needed to be dealt with. But he dealt with it in a way where you could actually see Jesus Christ in the way he did things. Now here is a brother that Paul knew, and he also knew that this situation shouldn t be the way that it was. His thinking was, Both of these brothers love what I preach. They both love the Lord, but Onesimus left and he is reluctant to go back, fearing what Philemon may do to him. So Paul stepped in to bring them together. A Wayward Saint Comes Home by Paul s Message of Love. Paul brought a message that they could walk in. And it s the same today, as we have a message that we can walk in, bringing us to the place where we are changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Jesus said, Walk in the light. And

13 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 10 Paul said, You are saints of light, and you have been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light. And as we have walked in the light, God has brought us into a message that fits perfectly on Paul s foundation; fitting seamlessly together. It s called the last trump of God. It brings us all home. It brings our hearts and minds together as we are baptized into the body of Christ. So now it s clear to see that more and more we are letting Christ think through us, as we yield ourselves to Him. And in Him we have found our home, the place we belong, where we are treated with love and respect. Recently, I saw a movie about a little girl named Julia that had no home of her own. She was put into one foster home after another, until finally she was put into a home where they loved her and treated her as their own. After being in this home for a few months she began to feel like she belonged. She was a troubled little girl after she had been in so many homes that really didn t want her. And the sad thing about it was, she knew it. Different people kept her, because the government paid them to do it. She was lonely and didn t have any friends. But she was given a little rabbit that she loved; it was her only friend. Finally she was placed in a home where there was love; and here she gained a brother that tried to be her friend. But by this time in life she had become very troubled and would not give herself over to be a friend to the family. Luckily, the family was very patient with her (and her little rabbit). They just kept on loving her until she began to feel that she had finally found where she belonged. But then she overheard the husband and wife talking, saying they were going to have a new baby; just when they were getting ready to adopt her. They were saying they had to go into town and make certain arrangements concerning Julia. And because of a previous situation that she had come through where she was taken back to the authorities and left, she had it in her mind that she would now be taken out of this home. So she got up that night and with her little rabbit she slipped out of

14 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 11 the house into the woods and disappeared. The next morning upon finding that she was missing from her bed, the family called all the neighbors and began to search the woods until she was found, cold and scared. As they brought her back home, they told her how much they loved her and that they wanted her to be their daughter and to be a full member of the family. And when this happened, she became so happy and hugged them all and asked, Can my rabbit stay with me? They said, Of course, your rabbit can stay. Then she asked, Is this where I belong? And everyone said, Yes, yes, this is where you belong! I tell you, You may have been cast into foster homes here and there from this church to that church, until Christ found you in the denominational wilderness, cold and scared; but this is where you belong in this message, inside the body of Christ. That s where we fit. That s why we kept moving until we met Him in this trumpet message. As we journeyed, it was acceptable to God that we settled down for a while in some of these places, as the light was on that portion of the Word, even though they weren t our permanent home and we couldn t claim them as our home. But now the light of the Word has led us to our portion of the Word possession of the little book of Revelation, Chapter 10, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. Here Paul is saying, I m aged now, and I m a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and I have a request. Verse 10, I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds, Watch now. You talk about a mediator. Jesus Christ is the mediator between us and God. But sometimes we need a mediator between each other; meaning that we, in our service to the wife, facilitate by assisting or edifying other members to grow in grace and faith and to be of good courage in God s work. So here is Onesimus. He had met Paul in Rome where he was teaching everyone that came. And when Paul heard his story and had this information about him being a servant of Philemon, he said, I know this man Philemon. Paul might have even seen Onesimus before at

15 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 12 the home of Philemon, because before he was in prison he would stay in the homes of the saints as he traveled from place to place. And we know for a fact that he said, The church in thy house; even naming some of the brethren in that fellowship. Evidently Paul had been there and preached. So it was very possible that Onesimus might have even heard him speak. He was once a runaway slave but he came home on Paul s message of love. So I say to any wayward one today, Come home on this message of love! Verse 10 again, I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds. Paul is showing us here how much he loved this man; he knew by revelation that he belonged to Christ. When we look at Acts, Chapter 28, as I previously mentioned, many came to Paul in his hired house; even some of the Jews came. And after Paul told them about Jesus coming, some of them went away with great reasoning. Some believed, and some believed not what he said. But Paul kept right on testifying. That s how Onesimus got involved; for this is the place that he met the Lord Jesus Christ. That s when he told Paul, I m a runaway slave. I know I need to go back and make things right. And he may have taken some things when he ran away. But Paul set in motion a plan to help him; starting by writing a letter. He threw himself right in the fight and got the job done. It became his mission at this particular time to bring these two brothers together, because they both loved the Lord. But Onesimus might have been embarrassed or he might have been afraid that he would be thrown into prison; for some reason he didn t want to return. And Paul said, I will write a letter on your behalf. So Onesimus went home on this letter of love. Verses 11-12, 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. In other words, receive him he s part of me. Now watch. Seldom would anyone throw themselves out on the line for anyone. But Paul could see

16 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 13 Christ in Onesimus; that s why he wrote this letter to Philemon. Paul put himself out there saying, To receive him is to receive me. Verse 13, Whom I would have retained with me (I ve kept him here with me, and he is very profitable.), that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel. He was saying, Philemon, I know you would like to do this for me. I know you would like to help me every way you can, so I ve retained your servant, knowing that you couldn t be here; and he has been ministering unto me in your stead. Paul was writing a letter that was going to be hard to lay aside and ignore. Then Verse 14 says, But without thy mind (Onesimus still belongs to you. I need your approval, your mind, on what to do about our brother.) would I do nothing; that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly. I know if I wrote and told you that I would like for Onesimus to stay a bit longer, you would do it out of necessity. You would just do it because you felt like it was a requirement on your part. See, we want to do things from the heart. It s not someone saying, I know I have to go to meeting this morning, because it s my duty. That s good, but there s something that s better. It is, I want to! It s not just a necessity, but I want to get in the presence of God. I love to hear the Word of God. I love to meet with the saints. Paul says, I don t want you to do this just out of necessity. I don t want to make you feel bad if you don t do it. I want it to be voluntarily. I want you to do this because you want to. Verse 15, For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him forever. He is saying, All things work together for good. Who knows why he felt the need to get away; maybe he needed to see what was on the other side of the mountain. Yes, he needed to get away and you lost him for a little season, but now you ve got him forever! Paul left no stone unturned. When Philemon read this letter, can you imagine? He could have said, Ole Paul is closing all the doors. He s making sure that I don t have an excuse.

17 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 14 There s a saying, If you put a rabbit in a fenced in area and stop up all the holes, there is no way that rabbit can get out. We know if there is a hole left open, the rabbit will find it and get out. What Paul is doing is stopping up every hole. Paul is saying, You may turn down my request, but you are going to turn it down without an excuse, because I know this brother and he has ministered to me and he wants to come back. It may be that he left you for a season that you should receive him forever; for this may be God s doing. And God is always right in everything He does! Continuing on with Verse 16, Not now as a servant, but above a servant, Paul is saying, When he left he was just one of the servants looking after the cattle and working in the fields, or maybe he was a servant inside the house, keeping the house and bringing to you things that you might need. When he left as a servant (slave) he slept in the servant quarters that the slaves slept in, and many times those quarters weren t as elaborate or up to par as the house was; it probably just had the bare necessities. He probably didn t eat at Philemon s table. And after the servants served everyone, then they could eat. But it would not be this way with Onesimus anymore. That s the way it was when he left; but it is different now. He went away as a servant, but he came back as a brother. Verse 16 again, Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me (He s trying to get through the hard-shell and get to the man s heart.), but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord? In other words, He is going to be such a changed man. He is going to be better for you better to have around and trustworthy. And he s better for the Lord, too. He is someone that the Lord is using. Paul was lifting up Onesimus pretty good. Onesimus had something to live up to after this, didn t he? Verse 17, If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself. Now don t tell me that Paul couldn t turn the charm on

18 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 15 if he needed to. How about that? This brother went home on a letter of love that Paul wrote, on a message of love. That is what we go home on. We go back to where we left from. We were slaves out in the world, but here is a message to bring us home on the letter of love, on the message of love. Hallelujah! Do you see it? But how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord? He s saying, This man is going to be so much more to thee and much more unto the Lord. And that is what we are more unto the Lord; because we heard a message and it brought us home. When we got home we weren t afraid of getting rebuked or put into prison, but we were welcomed just like the prodigal son that went astray. His ole denominational brother didn t want anything to do with him. When the father saw him coming back, he killed the fatted calf and got the people together and they started playing music and took the best robe and put on him. The father put a ring on his hand and began to say, My son, who was lost, but now is found. He began to welcome him. Do you know what the denominational brother said? He said, You have never killed a fatted calf for me. You have never made merry with me so that I could have a party and have my friends over, and I ve been here all along and have done what you said to do. Now comparing this with carnal minded church goers I ve read and I ve went to church and I ve given my tithes, but you haven t done that for me! But here my brother comes that has been out there wasting all his living and you are acting like you are proud to get him back. Yes, he was thrilled to get him back! The prodigal son may have lost his earthly inheritance because he took his half and went with it; but when he came back he wasn t caring about an inheritance. His new inheritance was to be there with the father; to be there in the father s house as part of the family. The denominational brother didn t like it, but too bad! Let s get Verse 17 again, If thou count me therefore a partner receive him as myself. Verse 18, If he hath wronged thee, or oweth

19 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 16 thee ought, put that on mine account; That is something, isn t it? If he has done something to you and you are blaming him, just blame me. (This is a good reminder of what Jesus Christ did for us there on the cross by taking our sins upon Himself and paying all of our sin debt for us.) God gave Paul a lot of wisdom and knowledge like when he said, These whose names are in the Book of Life. He noticed their lives and what God was doing in, and for, them. And those that are part the wife of the Lamb, their names are in the Book of Life. That s why we have accepted this message of the last trump of God. And as it goes forth it is setting our hearts on fire as we have eaten the little book and we can t help but prophesy. That s telling about it. Before the service began today, we were looking at the scripture in Psalms 142 where it tells us to use our voice to praise the Lord. We have a voice; let s use it for the Lord. We can walk down the street saying, Glory to God, I love Jesus! That is wonderful if it is coming from your heart. (But if you are doing it for a show, then don t do it.) If the praise of God is in your heart, don t be ashamed of it; because He is the greatest thing that has ever happened or could happen to you Jesus, you are the best thing that ever happened to me! And it happened to this man Onesimus, who was a slave (just like we were a slave to sin and denominations); but Paul is saying, It s going to be different now. How many know that we are not a slave to a denomination, we are not a slave to the world, and we are not a slave to some kind of traditional religion? We may sound and look unconventional, but we come to Him with our hearts open. Jesus said, They that come to me I will in no wise cast out. Some may think that Paul was wasting a lot of time on one man. No, he was not wasting time. The same thing could be said about us as we talk much about the little book of Revelation, Chapter 10; because Revelation 10:8-11 shows the wife of the Lamb taking possession of the little book and eating it up. This shows the intimacy between Christ (as the Spirit of the body of

20 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 17 Christ) and us (the elected members) as we are baptized into Him. This coming together took place only after Christ came in spirit form as the Mighty Angel and we bring our bodies and present them unto Christ as per Romans 12:1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. This fulfilled Ephesians 5: Thus Christ takes on flesh and bones, making us the body of Christ or Christ the wife as shown in Revelation 19:7-8, clothed in fine linen, clean and white, which is His very own righteousness in this final stage of marriage. This is the fulfillment of Ephesians 4:13-16, and the dead members are raised and we are changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye as this last trump sounds. (1 Corinthians 15:51-52) And after our testimony is complete (we the living) and the raised dead are caught up to meet our Lord Jesus in the air. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) And just as Paul dedicated an entire little book in the Bible to help Onesimus to be accepted and to be able to go home, we can see that God dedicated an entire little book to the Lamb s wife that is her letter of love that will get her back home! The Book of Philemon has been here all these years dealing with one person, as the little book is dealing with one person, the stature of the man Christ Jesus, as a many member body. The Book of Philemon was for one, but that seed that was planted has multiplied, it has grown and produced revelation for us, and now we can receive of that revelation that Paul was giving in this letter to Philemon. Verse 19, I Paul have written it with my mine own hand, I will repay it: albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides. His eyesight was bad and he couldn t write much with his own hand. But here he s telling Philemon that he had written this letter with his own hand. Paul was saying, No one wrote this for me. I took the pain to write it myself because it is personal. And when you are dealing with the Lord it is personal to you. This is personal. It is not something that is just

21 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 18 in general. God is big enough to be personal to each person. Though the number may be as the sands of the sea, yet He knows where that one grain of sand is which has gold in it. Yes, He knows exactly where that gold grain of sand is located. I want to make mention here a point that Paul brought up in Verse 19 that surprised me. After he told Philemon, If Onesimus owes thee, I will repay it, he said, albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides. He is saying, Now listen to me, Philemon, before you get out of shape about what Onesimus might or might not owe you in a natural debt, just think for a moment of what you received from this gospel that God used me to bring unto you. He has even made you a partaker of my grace. (Philippians 1:7) So before you bill Onesimus for something in the natural, think of how much it was worth to you to receive or be a partaker of my grace. This tells me not to mess with Paul; for he knows what he is doing. Verses 20-21, Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord: refresh my bowels in the Lord. Paul says, Let me have joy; let this brother come back. I know that he left you, but he found the Lord; it is a different story now. At least give me this, let me have the joy of knowing Onesimus has come back and that he is progressing in the Lord. Having confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say. Well Paul, if you had that much confidence in him, why did you butter him up so good? Why did you go around the mountain when you could have gone over the hill? See, he wanted to present it in a way just like God presents things to us. Many times He doesn t just throw it out here and say, Take it or leave it. No, He explains and He presents it in a way that we may eat thereof. The Word of the Lord is good. Like honey in the honeycomb, have you tasted that the Lord is gracious? I love Him and I want to walk with Him throughout eternity; not as a necessity, but as a pleasure. We serve God because that s what is in us.

22 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 19 Verse 21, Having confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say. He is saying, I know that you are not just going to do what is necessary, but you are going to do a whole lot more. The Bible says, Be good to all men, but especially to them that are of the household of faith. Do you love Him a whole lot more than you did yesterday? That is what we do, we love Him more today. As the song says, It gets sweeter as the days go by. It gets sweeter as the moments fly. It gets richer, fuller, deeper, sweeter; sweeter as the days go by! Verses 22-24, But withal prepare me also a lodging: for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you. Paul is saying, Fix a little place for me; if I get out of here, I am going to come by your house. See, it is going to make it even harder on Philemon to refuse Paul s plea to honor this request and accept the brother, knowing that Paul may come by. Therefore salute thee Epaphras, my fellowprisoner in Christ Jesus; Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers. Paul laid this in there in such a way that when we see someone out of the way, we can with confidence say, Come on brother, though you have been slack and though you have been half-hearted; we are at the end time. We don t have time to try to straighten out a lot of nonsense. Many people want to go back in their lives and try to straighten up this or that. They say, If I could just go back and straighten that out. Well, Jesus is the Great Un-doer! I preached a special message called, Jesus Christ the Great Undoer! And it is one of the chapters in our book entitled, Christ the Wife: A People without a Country. This message lets us know that there are many things in our lives that we wish we would have done differently, but to relive any day is impossible; but in Christ the Great Un-doer, we become a new creation with a new beginning. Today is a new day. Yes, you ve made mistakes and you ve stumbled, but Paul said, Perhaps it was for a good

23 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 20 reason. Sometimes God does things to humble us down a little bit. Paul finishes up by saying in Verse 25, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. I didn t know when I read the Book of Philemon whether I would speak on it or not. But I have really enjoyed reading it. To me this message has put life back on this little book that Paul wrote to Philemon to facilitate the return of his servant. It was also at this time that Paul used Onesimus, not only to deliver this letter to Philemon, but also to help deliver a letter to the assembly at Colosse. We find in Colossians 4:7-9, Paul saying, All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved, and a faithful minister and fellowservant in the Lord: Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate, and comfort your hearts; With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all things which are done here. So A Wayward Saint Comes Home by Paul s Message of Love. Do you love Jesus? Jesus said, You can t love God whom you have not seen unless you love your brother whom you have seen. And unless you love His wife, who is here now manifesting the Lord Jesus Christ, you can t love Jesus Christ. That s a fact. So what will we do? (Singing): We ll walk in the light, the beautiful light, come where the dewdrops of mercy are bright. Shine all around us by day and by night, Jesus the light of the world. He s still the light. He s the Painter of painters, the Painter of Light! If anyone has eyes to see, ears to hear, let them now see and hear. And if they have a mouth, let them say, Halleluah! Jesus! Lord, I love you. Though the world may turn you down, though the world may reject you, we love you and you are our very own life! We are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God. Father, we come thanking you for your love, goodness, and mercy. I pray that you will take these words and use them for your glory. There may be just one, or many, who needed this message today. And as it

24 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 21 was said to Esther, Perhaps the Lord has raised you up for such a time as this. Lord, this message has been laying here since the days of Paul, and I have read this little book with one chapter many times and wondered about it. But perhaps you have reserved it for a time just like this. I pray that you will take it and use it for your glory. And may God bless each one, we pray in the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

25 2015 A Wayward Saint Comes Home By Paul s Message Of Love 22 AUDIO/VIDEO SERMONS AND BOOKS All sermons by Brother Ben Howard are recorded on Cassette tape, CD's, DVD's, and Mp3 formats. Also, there is a collection of published books that are available for download or by request as well. Please feel free to visit us at our website often as new materials are constantly being added, or write to our postal address below. Sound Of Liberty 7286 Hwy 53W, Dawsonville, Georgia U.S.A. TwoAnds@soundofliberty.org