Well, I want to bring greetings to you this morning from Arbor Church. If you heard prayer requests over the years, it would have been from Kemp Road Baptist Church. But as Pastor mentioned, we moved about a year and a half ago into East Dayton and changed our name. We're still the same Reformed Baptist congregation that we've been for quite some time. Some of you perhaps have heard names like Pastor Mark Chansky. Pastor Mark Chansky used to pastor Kemp Road Baptist Church. Some of you have perhaps heard of men like Pastor John Wakefield. He used to pastor, John used to pastor Kemprow Baptist Church. So we have quite the history in the Reformed Baptist movement. The Lord has helped us and blessed us. And we just recently passed 10 years there ourselves. I was thinking about some of the connections that we had. There were a couple things I forgot to mention in Sunday school. It's possible some of you might know my mom and dad, Dave and Gwen Woodman. I'm thinking my mom, Gwen Woodman, might have come over here for a ladies retreat or something. They come in winter here sometimes in the Florida area. For a couple years, it was in Sebring, and now they're on the Gulf in a little town called Inglis, and they come down for the winter. After decades of Ontario and New Brunswick and Michigan winters, it's about more than my dad can handle, I think, anymore. But you might have met my mom. I'm not sure if it was here she came. The other thing that someone brought to my attention that I thought I would mention as well, you know how sometimes you, You just know you know, but you don't know why you know, and I don't want it to bug you the whole time this morning. So it's possible some of you might actually recognize me. My wife and I, although we knew, if you were in Sunday school, you know that we met when we were 13 and we've known each other a long time. We actually moved as singles to Owensboro, Kentucky, and we both started teaching as singles at Heritage Christian School, and I continued to develop for the ministry under the oversight of Ted Chrisman and Keith Maddy and Tim Hoke in Owensboro, Kentucky at Heritage Baptist Church. We were there from 92, got married in 93, we were there until 2001 when I went into the ministry. And during that stretch, living in Kentucky, we went to the Southeast Conference two, maybe three times, and at least once, my memory's fading now, but at least once, maybe twice, we did the kids program at that conference, and that was in Dayton, Tennessee at Bryan College. And I know one year I just remember carrying my acoustic guitar and I was just wandering around doing music in the classrooms and stuff. And so it's possible some of you might remember us from there. In fact, there was one year a friend of mine from the church in Owensboro and I took our bikes, our bicycles, our hybrid bikes, and we rode bikes from Owensboro, Kentucky to the conference in Dayton, Tennessee, taking the week prior to do that just to enjoy something a little bit more. Well, I'm gonna ask you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Philemon as we're actually continuing on with our youth retreat, but we're continuing on with what I'll call sessions five and six here today. If it's kind of a small book that you're not used to getting to, it's tucked in neatly between Titus and Hebrews. The letter of Paul the apostle to the man Philemon in the church in Colossae. want to mention to those of you who are a part of the retreat, I know that for some of you this will be your last session and you'll be heading home or heading out this afternoon. So I'll just go ahead and tell you while I'm thinking about it that really what I'm doing this morning and tonight are really just kind of part of the same thing. I'm going to bring two messages that really address Paul's final appeals as he just kind of gets everything out of the toolbox and throws it at Philemon, if you will. And so I'm going to begin this morning. I don't know if I'm going to get through three or maybe just two. And then whatever I have left, I'm going to come back and finish tonight. So basically, it's a part one and part two. So you'll have most of the retreat by the end of this morning. I assume perhaps a recording is made, and that might be available if you did want to come back and finish out what we covered tonight. Now, what I would like to do is, I would like to just go ahead and read this. It's maybe a little more than I would sometimes read, but we've already done this a couple of times at the retreat, because one of the things I wanted us to do over this retreat was to begin to think about this book and analyze it ourselves, and if you were in the adult Sunday school class, you saw some of the ways that we tried to do that, and it's been a real joy to do that with you guys, and I'm glad for the opportunity that we've had. Because this is a letter really kind of it's a personal letter from Paul to Philemon But it was also addressed to the church in Colossae And so it's like a personal letter, but an open letter if you will and it's helpful I think to kind of get the whole thing So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna read the whole thing this morning and then tonight we'll just we'll just read the section that we're especially focusing on today So here's Paul's letter to Philemon. He says, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy, our brother, to Philemon, our beloved friend and fellow laborer, to the beloved Aphia, Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers, hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother. Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, yet for love's sake, I rather appeal to you, being such a one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me. I am sending him back. You therefore receive him, that is, my own heart, whom I wish to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel. But without your consent, I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary. for perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, as a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. Then guys, here's the passage I'm especially going to be focusing on today, and that's 17 through 22. If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me. But if he has wronged you or owes you anything, put that on my account. I, Paul, am writing with my own hand. I will repay, not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides. Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. But meanwhile, also prepare a guest room for me, for I trust that through your prayers, I shall be granted to you. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow laborers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father God, as we Come to this book, this letter today, one more time this morning and then again tonight. We pray that you would send your spirit, Lord, to show us Christ, to help us to understand the ways in which we can learn from and profit from this letter, glorify you in the way that we use wisdom and tact and persuasion. the way that we are gracious and gentle, the heart, Lord, that we can develop that is bent toward reconciliation. Lord, help us to continue to learn, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so at this point, because we've already had three sessions at the retreat, a fourth one this morning, just the way the whole schedule is, this is the way it's going to work. We've already worked through a significant amount of this letter, and so for you guys, this is largely going to be review, okay? And I'm just gonna kinda briefly overview things so that everyone else can come up to speed. So for you, it's review. For y'all, we'll call it introduction, okay? But I just want to put the book in its proper setting so that we can kind of profit from 17 through 22. So we've been talking about how this book was written by Paul, most likely when he was, sometimes we say in prison, technically you could say under house arrest in Rome around AD 60. I'll mention something more about that I think later on today. Well, since there were Colossian believers meeting in Philemon's house, you can tell from verse 2, it's very likely, especially when you compare this with Colossians 4. We're not going to take the time right now, but Colossians 4, 7 to 9 mention Tychicus and Onesimus. And so the likely scenario is that the book of Colossians written by Paul to the church and the letter to Philemon came together at the hands of Tychicus and Onesimus. It really makes this come alive when you imagine at least something of what that must have been like for Tychicus and Onesimus the runaway slave who is now coming back to become not just a slave again but a brother and a part of the church and yet he hasn't talked with Philemon since all of this went down. And it's an interesting scenario to consider what it would have been like for them to return, particularly Onesimus. Well, the Apostle Paul is obviously the author of the book described here, and this is a little bit unusual, as a prisoner of Jesus Christ as opposed to an apostle, which is usually how he introduces himself. In fact, he does that in Colossians. So one book coming back is Paul introducing himself as apostle. With Philemon, he chooses to de-emphasize that. He's not denying the reality, but he's de-emphasizing his apostolic authority because of his desire to emphasize the relationship that he had with Philemon. So instead of writing Philemon with apostolic authority, he does it more as a friend in order to persuade Philemon to do the right thing. Philemon, and again, we just have a little glimpse, we don't know much, but there's indication he may have been a businessman in the church in Colossae. And the reason we say that is really just two things. We know, first of all, that he was wealthy enough to have at least one slave, and he had a house that was big enough for worship services. And so there is some indication that he was a man of perhaps some substance. Well, Paul had been instrumental in Philemon's conversion, perhaps when Paul was ministering in Ephesus. But we also have indication that Paul had not actually been to the church in Colossae. So Paul knew Philemon, but didn't know him well and had not been to his church. Well, then there's Onesimus, right? Profitable. Onesimus was Philemon's runaway slave. And here in this letter, the context is that he's hiding in Rome from charges that included some kind of theft, most likely. And we'll talk a little bit more about this later, but he may have even been facing the death penalty. God has mercy on him, and somehow, you know, somehow, he finds the Apostle Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ, even while he's trying to run away in Rome. and he comes to faith in Christ and he wants to go back and make things right with Philemon but you can imagine he's probably a little bit scared to go back because of what he has done. So Paul's letter to Philemon is being written to pave the way for Philemon to receive Onesimus back into his household and really back into the Colossian church or maybe we could say into the Colossian church for the first time. Wanted to point out Epaphras as well from verse 23, who's Paul's fellow prisoner, and had himself very likely been influenced during Paul's Ephesian ministry as well, described in Acts 19. And he appears to perhaps have planted the church in Colossae. Well now, Epaphras has traveled to be with Paul and to inform Paul about the doctrinal heresies that were now threatening the Colossian church. So one of the questions we asked in our retreat is how did Paul know so much about Philemon? If he had just maybe met him when Philemon was converted perhaps, but Paul hadn't really intimately been involved with the church in Colossae, how did Paul know what he did with the confidence that he describes here in the first part of the book? Well, the very obvious answer to me is Onesimus and Epaphras. Onesimus had made his way to Paul. Onesimus was Philemon's slave. Epaphras had traveled to be with Paul to talk about the doctrinal heresies threatening the Colossian church. And Epaphras may have been the one who planted the church, certainly an instrumental man in the church in Colossae. And that helps to fill in some of those blanks. Now, when we began looking at this letter, we started out looking at the first seven verses. And guys, I'm not going to re-preach that, OK? So don't worry. Let me just summarize it. And you know what? It's Cole, right? Cole did a good job. Basically, he did this already in the adult Sunday school class, but not all y'all were there. So Paul is thankful. He's thankful to God for Philemon's faith toward the Lord Jesus and for his love toward all the saints and he prays that Philemon would continue to be empowered by the Holy Spirit as he lives out his relationship with Jesus and refreshes the saints with his life and his possessions. Philemon's reputation for loving the saints brought great joy and consolation to Paul in prison when Paul heard about it. Then in verses 8 through 16, and Cole correctly identified this as really the heart, this is the plea that Paul makes on behalf of Onesimus to Philemon, and this is what I would call the substance of the letter, this is the main plea, this is the high point, and we looked at verses 8 through 16. Now we've already seen that instead of commanding Philemon with apostolic authority, Paul appeals to him as one who himself, Paul himself, being a mature believer, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and a friend in the faith. But he doesn't take his apostolic authority and rub it in Philemon's face. He actually backs off from that and comes at it from another direction. Well, Onesimus' conversion had obviously radically changed him And Paul then pleads with Philemon to receive Onesimus as now a profitable servant. But not just a slave who would be profitable now, but a profitable servant, a fellow believer, and a brother, right? A brother in Christ. Well, in the time that Onesimus had with Paul in Rome. Paul had grown to love Onesimus. He even wished to keep him there for his own encouragement. He was benefiting from whatever way Onesimus was ministering to him. But Paul didn't want to be presumptuous, so he sends him back for the time being, although there's indication that if it works out, Paul wouldn't mind having him come back. and minister to him further, we don't know for sure if that ever happened. So Paul challenges Philemon to consider God's gracious providence. He says, could it be that Onesimus' flight to Rome was by God's design really a journey of redemption? He left as a guilty criminal and is now coming back as a beloved brother, one who is useful for both the affairs of this world and the affairs of the spiritual world, both at work, you could say, and at church. Here was a man who was truly profitable. Now here's where we're going to kind of move forward a little bit. So if you're struggling a little bit, I understand. It's been a long couple of days. Now here's a chance to kind of sit up and we're going to start moving forward with a little bit of new material and transition to this last section. I think the Apostle Paul here is a good example of using everything at his disposal to address the problem between Philemon and Onesimus. And in doing this, as he kinda empties his toolbox, if you will, he shows care, he shows wisdom, he shows determination to do everything that he can do to bring about a God-honoring result as a spiritual leader who had providentially been brought into this situation. Now, think about what has comprised Paul's argument so far. Paul has talked about what when he wrote this letter to Philemon. He talked about Philemon's own character and testimony and how Paul was thrilled with what God had done in Philemon. Paul talks about the Christian love that Philemon had so obviously and consistently shown and generously shown to the saints in Colossae. Paul also brings up his own position as an aged man of God serving Christ in bonds. He brings up Onesimus' conversion as well as his transformation from useless to useful. He mentions his own love for Onesimus that had grown in his heart. the value of Onesimus as one who could minister to the saints and the sovereignty and the providence of God in all that had occurred. Now you could say, that's pretty powerful right there, and it is. But what we're going to look at today, it'd kind of be like the Apostle Paul grabbing his toolbox or his belt and just grabbing everything. So I'm going to use this, and I'm going to use this, and I'm going to use that. I mean, everything that I have, I'm going to use it gently but persuasively to try to build my argument so that Philemon's heart will be swayed and he'll do the good and godly and honorable thing. So what we're going to look at today, and what I'm going to mention right now is really my outline for the rest of the day, alright? So we're going to start this morning, and quite frankly, I don't know if we're going to get through two or three of these this morning, and we'll come back and finish tonight. We're going to look at, in verses 17 through 22, the appeal of fellowship. the appeal of restitution, the appeal of indebtedness, the appeal of ministry, the appeal of confidence, and the appeal of accountability. And by the way, those are all in your notes on the last two pages in your black folders, so if you still have those, then you have my outlines in there. So we're going to move through those six things starting this morning and finishing tonight as we see Paul use everything that he has in his arsenal to make his case. So starting with verse 17 then, we're going to look at the appeal of fellowship. Now we've looked at this concept, some of these things have been mentioned previously, and he comes back to this issue again, this issue of fellowship or partnership, or we're back to this word koinonia, Koinonos. Paul says, if then you count me as a partner, one who is with me in the fellowship of the gospel, receive Onesimus as you would receive the Apostle Paul. Now, we're talking about a friend. We're talking about more than a friend. We're talking about a partner in the gospel, a Christian friend who shares in the same fellowship. We talked about that koinonia, didn't we? Fellowship is not, guys, pizza and Coke. Fellowship is not cake and coffee. It might involve those things, but that's not what it is. Fellowship, koinonia, is you know Jesus Christ, I know Jesus Christ, because we have union with him, we have union with one another. We have a common bond because of what our Savior has done on our behalf. We share the same faith. We share the same Savior. We labor together in the same kingdom. We have the same goals with the same Holy Spirit at work in our lives. And you know, by the way, sometimes it's good to remind ourselves of that during this election season, that there is so much more than that, that we are citizens of another country, that we're actually working for something that includes the United States but transcends the United States. And it's good for us to remember that. But that wasn't in my notes, so I'm continuing to move on. Receive him, Paul says. Receive him as you would me. And there he's kind of picking up the theme of verse 12 again. You guys remember verse 12? We've already kind of touched on that. You therefore receive him, that is my own heart, my affection, the one I love. Well, Paul comes back to that and says again, if then you count me as a partner in the fellowship of the gospel in this way that I've just described, then receive Onesimus as you would me. Well, that's a pretty powerful argument. Paul wants Philemon to receive Onesimus into his house, into his heart and affections, Gil says. Gil, the commentator, says as he would receive the apostle himself should he come to him. Well, that kind of changes things. I mean, think, how would you receive the Apostle Paul if he showed up at church or he showed up at your doorstep? And Paul says, receive Onesimus that way. That kind of changes things a little bit, not as a slave, but as more than a slave, as a Christian brother, the same way that Philemon would receive the Apostle Paul. Hendrickson puts it like this. Guys, that's one of the commentaries I was telling you about, right? Hendrickson says this, let therefore all the rights and privileges pertaining to anyone who is included in this blessed fellowship be given to the one who is now returning as a humble penitent, a sincere child of God. I've mentioned to the young people that I actually have another preparation that addresses the issue of slavery, and we didn't really get a chance to go there. And so I'll probably provide those notes. I'm going to talk about some of them here in a moment, but I'll provide those if you would like them. I'm not an expert on the issue, but I've looked into it to try to make sense of this situation here as it comes to us in this book. Well, I will just say this right now, that this spirit, this spirit of receiving Onesimus as a brother, as he would the Apostle Paul, this is the spirit that would eventually destroy the abuses of slavery. Even though we don't see Paul here commanding Philemon to free Onesimus, and I think there are complicated reasons for that in the cultural context, you will have to say that if he receives him like he would the Apostle Paul, if he receives him like a brother into the church, then the abuses of slavery, if any existed in that relationship, would begin to evaporate. Now, think about that a little further with me for a moment. You know, Onesimus being received like family, like a brother, is really a beautiful picture of a believer being received into the family circle of the Heavenly Father. Runaway slaves in this day were in some pretty serious trouble. For a case like that of Onesimus, Roman law gave almost complete control of slaves to their masters. Philemon would have had the say over Onesimus' fate. So when a slave ran away, the master would register the name and description with the officials, and slaves would then be on the wanted list. Any free citizen who found a runaway slave could assume custody and even intercede with the owner. There were some for whom slave catching was a trade. The slave who had run away would not automatically be returned to the owner and not necessarily automatically sentenced to death. It's possible that this runaway slave could be sold to a new owner, especially if there was the idea that that might help get rid of whatever problem was a part of that relationship. Sometimes a runaway slave would be branded with a letter F. for fugitive. Obviously not in English, but you get the idea. Sometimes they were beaten. Sometimes they were condemned to double labor. Sometimes they were put to death, such as being thrown to the beasts in the amphitheater. As a runaway slave, Onesimus was a criminal. And Paul mentions that Onesimus, in some fashion, owed Philemon money. Now, it might be a reference to the fact that Onesimus was depriving Philemon of his services. I mean, all right, let's just get crass here for a sec. Philemon, in some sense, owned the rights to Onesimus, and if Onesimus was gone, then that asset, that value, was no longer there. But it's also possible, we don't know the details, it's possible that Onesimus might have outrightly stolen from Philemon as well. Now think about everything that we just said concerning runaway slaves in that culture. Onesimus' life, you could say, was in Philemon's hands. Onesimus had greatly offended Philemon and sinned against him and apparently committed crimes against him in this culture and in this context. You could say Onesimus embarrassed Philemon, he sinned against Philemon, he took advantage of Philemon, committed crimes against Philemon, made it difficult for Philemon, Perhaps Philemon's estate took a blow because of this event. And now Paul is writing Philemon and saying, receive Onesimus as a brother, as you would me. Receive him as family. Like a brother who is loved. Like a brother who belongs. like a brother who has the same father and mother. I thought, what a picture this is. You know, guys, if we were doing the Swedish method, this is where I think some of you might have, you know, you put crosses by some of this kind of stuff, because right here we have to stop, and we have to worship, and we have to say this is a picture of our salvation. We start out as guilty sinners who have broken God's law and assaulted His very being and holy character with our attitudes and our behaviors and our violations of His holiness. We are described naturally as God's enemies. but because of Jesus Christ and His righteousness, those who turn from their sins and believe on the Lord are received as family. Paul writes to the church in Ephesus and says, having predestinated us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved. Beautiful picture. that we, who you could say were guilty runaway slaves and rebels, have been made a part of the family of God by the work of our Savior. So Paul then in verse 17 brings the appeal of fellowship. If you count me as a partner, koinonos, part of the fellowship of the gospel, then receive him as you would me. The second appeal that Paul brings, and what you could call these further appeals that he brings to Philemon in this letter, is the appeal of restitution found in verse 18. But if he has wronged you or owes you anything, put that on my account. Well, what is Paul saying to Philemon here? Well, what we have here is actually the language of a legal promissory note. In other words, Paul is saying, I am good for this debt. It's almost as if Paul is saying, here it is with my own signature, in my own handwriting, and it's as good as my word, and it's as good as, I mean, I stand by this. I am good for it. just as if this debt had been Paul's. Now the reality is, is that Onesimus could not have likely paid Philemon back. He probably hadn't made very much in Rome, if anything, as a runaway slave. He was at a bit of a disadvantage there for making much of an income. The implication is that he'd been serving Paul quite a bit, And so the idea that Onesimus was in a position to restore how he had offended Philemon and whatever financial hit Philemon had taken that Onesimus could do much about it, that's just not likely. In fact, Not only was it going to be difficult for a Nesimist to pay back, but a lot of slaves, some slaves, had a reputation. Not everyone. Of course, it's far more complicated than that. We need to not think too simplistically. But some slaves had a reputation for taking things that weren't theirs. How do we know that? Well, because when Paul wrote his letter to Titus, do you remember some of his instruction to Titus? He says, exhort bond servants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well-pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. So some of the specific instruction of the Apostle Paul to Titus, and when Paul was saying, Titus, here's how I want you to teach the pastors, here's how I want you to lead those churches in being theologically instructed, one of the practical outworkings of our relationship with Christ affects slaves. And this gets interesting, right? Because Paul, again, is not saying, you know, necessarily slavery is wrong, we need to get rid of it, that's the main thing. Rather, Paul says, right now, things are this way, we're not going to radically change the way our culture is in the next week. How do we honor the Lord in this relationship? How do we honor the Lord as slaves and masters with the way things are right now in a fallen world when we really aren't going to make much difference here in the next few days? We're going to have to answer that question. How do we honor the Lord in less than desirable circumstances? How do we give glory to the Lord Jesus Christ in a fallen world where things are broken all around us? And part of that instruction is that Paul actually said, slaves, there are specific ways, particular ways that you can honor God as a slave. Let that soak in this afternoon. And Paul is saying sometimes, There are particular sins that are often associated with particular people or people in particular roles. So for instance, what do children do? They disobey their parents. So what does Paul say? Children, kids, you know this, children what? Obey your parents in the Lord, right? Now what do dads sometimes do? Dads sometimes provoke their children and make them angry. Paul says, fathers, don't provoke your children to wrath. Well, there's specific instruction here to bond servants because of the particular temptations that they would have. Paul says, be obedient to your own masters. That'll blow you away. Be well-pleasing in all things, not answering back. Of course, many times in our day, we make these applications to the boss-employee relationship. not pilfering or skimming off the top or taking things from your surroundings that aren't yours. Now, why would that be a temptation for slaves? Well, slaves would certainly not own as much as their masters did. They might have seen their situation as more destitute, and maybe they felt like they didn't make what they should. They didn't have the advantages that they should. For whatever reason, especially for an unconverted slave, one of the very natural temptations for an unconverted slave would be to take things that aren't theirs. Paul says, if you know the Lord, don't pilfer. The Holy Spirit can help you resist that temptation, and I know that some slaves are known for that, but Christian slaves should not be known for that. So it's kind of like Paul is maybe addressing this with Philemon saying, I know the reputation, Philemon, that some slaves have with regard to material things, and I don't want this to stand in the way of your relationship with Onesimus. I mean, maybe you have wondered, I don't know this, but maybe for some time Philemon had concerns about Onesimus taking things from him. A lot of times stuff doesn't just happen all at once. There's often a pattern. I don't know. But it's possible as an unconverted slave, Onesimus had done some stuff maybe before, or maybe he was suspected of doing some things. Now he obviously and certainly had done enough to become a runaway criminal slave and end up in Rome. And Paul is sending him back. And now there could be a real concern here that Philemon could say, you know, he's taken from me before. I mean, he'll do it again. Or he already owes me all of this. How can I take him back as a brother when he owes me all of this? I mean, it's going to be awkward. That's why I think we see Paul using everything at his disposal to try to provide a path to reconciliation for now we're brothers. I think it was right for Philemon to demand restitution from Onesimus as a part of repentance. It wouldn't have been wrong. What is restitution? I mean restitution is replacing or restoring what you took away from someone because of your sin. Restitution is replacing or restoring what you took away from someone because of your sin. Question for the young people, who does that remind you of? Go ahead and say it. He was a wee little man. And a wee little man was he. Do you remember that, Zacchaeus restored, he had stolen so much and he restored after he was converted, made restitution because of what he had taken. It would not have been unjust for Philemon to say to Onesimus, you owe, you should provide restitution for what you have taken. But you know, it would also be appropriate for Philemon to forgive the debt in Christian love. But Paul was not going to presume upon Philemon's benevolent spirit. Now we've talked about some of the ways Onesimus might have owed Philemon. He might have stolen directly from him in order to finance his run to Rome. Or maybe it was the other way, you know, he stole stuff and then had to run to Rome. Philemon was certainly inconvenienced and may have lost valuable time and money with the departure of Onesimus. And again, as crass as this might sound, because of the way things were, Philemon may have had to purchase a replacement or make some sort of adjustment because of the hole left by Onesimus's departure. So it obviously had a pretty serious impact here because Paul says if he has wronged you or owes you anything put that on my account. Now how could Paul have done that? Yeah, is that a question? You know what, when we're reading, did any of you put a question maybe there, or maybe it came to your mind, a question mark, you know? Okay, Paul is under house arrest in Rome. How is he, you know, how can he do, is he just saying this? Is he just kind of like bluffing or, you know, saying, well, I would do this if I could? Actually, I think Paul did have some way to do this. We don't know if Paul had come into an inheritance or who he knew, but the scriptures seem to indicate that he either had money or he knew how to get it, how to raise it. At this point in his life and in his ministry, he probably had some friends with resources. And there are a couple of things that indicate Paul had either resources or access to resources. In Acts 24, 24 to 26, we're told that Felix, the governor, was hoping that Paul would give him money and then he would release him. So there was something in Paul's situation that gave Felix the idea that maybe he would be able to extort something from Paul in that situation. And in Acts 28, 30 and 31, we're told that Paul was dwelling at this time in his own rented house. And by the way, some of you were asking me about this the other day. at the retreat, you know, how do we know that Paul was in, we say he was in prison or under house arrest. Okay, so here is the passage in Acts that we go to and see, okay, this is what was going on. In Acts 28, 30 and 31, toward the end of the book of Acts, we're told that Paul was dwelling at this time in his own rented house with a guard. That's why we say he was under house arrest. He had the ability to see people, people could visit with him. Obviously, even in this situation, men like Tychicus and Hephaestus were able to go and be with Paul. Well, my point here is that Paul had somehow the resources to be living in a rented house that was under Roman guard. So when you look at those little glimpses from Acts 24 and Felix and Acts 28 and that rented house, you have the idea that Paul maybe had some access to resources. So I don't know that Paul was just making some kind of a point that he couldn't follow up. He may have actually been able to. to do something about that debt if it were indeed required by Philemon Adonesimus' hand. Well, you know, I think here again, as we look at this A concept here in verse 18 in the appeal of restitution, we have another beautiful picture of the believer's relationship with Jesus Christ. Paul paying Onesimus' debt, or the offer that was there to pay Onesimus' debt, basically saying that, consider Onesimus' debt to be mine. You could also say there's a sense in which even if it went the other way, even if Philemon chose to forgive the debt, there's kind of a similar picture there. Here's the point, Onesimus had a debt he could not pay. Paul took his debt upon himself so that Onesimus could have a right relationship with the one he had offended. Does that remind you of anything? By the way, these guys were picking this stuff up before I even started preaching, so. Onesimus had a debt that he could not pay, and so here Paul takes this debt upon himself or encourages Philemon to forgive it so that Onesimus could have a right relationship with the one that he had offended. Well, of course, it reminds us of our Lord Jesus Christ who takes care of our indebtedness so that the Father will receive us. And in that accompanying book, the book of Colossians, or to the church in Colossae, In 2, 13, and 14, Paul writes, and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. legally in God's court. We stand guilty. Even if we were to just violate one part of God's law, we're guilty of it all. The law accuses us, and we stand condemned, and it's impossible for us to completely and perfectly obey. But Jesus as our substitute, came and lived a life that was in complete and perfect compliance with the law. We call that accomplishing a positive obedience on behalf of his children. And on the cross, those violations, the sin, the nastiness, the rebellion, of all of God's people are placed on the Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrificial lamb. And as Paul wrote to the church in Colossae, it says that Jesus has wiped out the handwriting of requirements, the debt, everything that was against us, that which was contrary to us has been taken out of the way and nailed to the cross. You know, in our church, we call that the great exchange. Maybe you use that terminology as well. Have you heard of that? The great exchange, that double exchange where we often talk about how our sins are placed on Christ on the cross. He gets our sin. and pays the penalty for it. And that's part of the exchange. But I think you've been well taught. You know there's the flip side of that, right? The righteousness of Jesus Christ is declared legally in God's court to be ours. It is reckoned to be ours, considered to be legally ours. And so in the courtroom, it's so. And so when the father looks at us in the Lord Jesus Christ, he sees us in Christ as having been washed clean of our sin and clothed in the perfect righteousness of his son. That's why we stand uncondemned in Christ alone. because of that double exchange where we've been washed clean and clothed with his righteousness. And what a beautiful picture that is, not only in the theology of the accompanying book, Colossians, that would have gone to the church and to Philemon, but then even in this letter to Philemon itself, where Paul says, if he has wronged you or owes you anything, put that on my account. And what a beautiful picture we have of our Lord Jesus Christ. I think this is a good place for us to stop here this morning. We've made it through the first two, but we also covered quite a bit of introduction and review. And so tonight we'll have much less review, and we'll move pretty much straight into the last four appeals, and we'll conclude with that. And for those of you that have to leave, I just want to say it's been a joy. Good to meet you, and if you have a desire, you can look back at your notes or find this evening's message online if you really wanna finish out the retreat all the way to its completion. But I think having looked at that picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, that's a great place to stop for now. Let's ask the Lord to bless, and then we'll come back by his grace and finish tonight. Our father God, we want to thank you for all that we have in our savior Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sin, the relief of our debt, the reception into your family as sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. Lord, we thank you that we stand clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ no longer under condemnation or wrath. We worship you and praise you for your love and for your plan of redemption that accomplished that on our behalf. Lord, we thank you for the time that we've had together, especially some of us with the young people this weekend. I pray particularly for them. Some of them head out this afternoon, Lord, that you would richly bless them. that if there are some who are still in unbelief that you would save them, show them the beauty of Christ and the absolute necessity of repentance and faith. For those who do know you and love you, Lord, go with them. Sometimes it's hard to be a teenager. It's hard to live a godly life in a fallen world. I pray, Lord, that your blessings would go richly with them, that they would continue under the sound preaching of the word, that they would continue on in personal devotion and Bible reading and Bible study, that they would be like Philemon and have a testimony of faith in Christ and love for the saints. that in the days to come, Lord, we would even hear reports of how this next generation is coming up, taking their place in your kingdom for the glory of Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray, amen.