You Need This!
Philemon 1-3
Introduction:
Illust: You may not be familiar with the name of Edward Teach (Thatch), but you are familiar with the name, “Blackbeard.” Edward Teach or Blackbeard was one of the most feared and famous pirates to ever sail the waters off the coasts of Virginia and the Carolinas during the “Golden Age of Piracy” in early colonial America.
Blackbeard’s most notorious vessel was the “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” a former French slave ship turned pirate ship. She was outfitted with 40 cannons. Blackbeard was known for his terrifying appearance: he was tall and muscular with a long black beard, which he would often tie with ribbons and light fuses under his hat during battle, giving him a fearsome, almost demonic look. This image was so intimidating that many ships surrendered without a fight when confronted by Blackbeard.
Blackbeard’s notorious pirating career only lasted about two years. His pirating days ended abruptly when he was killed in battle with the British naval forces off the coast of Ocracoke Island, N.C.
During his short career, Blackbeard amassed a vast fortune in gold, silver, and precious jewels. Many historians believe that he buried his treasure somewhere along the coast of North Carolina, but it is so well hidden that has never been found. When the wreckage of the “Queen Anne’s Revenge” was discovered off the coast of N.C., treasure seekers found many artifacts but no treasure.
Blackbeard’s treasure has captivated treasure hunters and historians for centuries. More than one person has spent their lives searching for his elusive treasure only to come away disappointed and empty-handed.
Blackbeard’s treasure, even if you found it, would not bring lasting satisfaction… eventually leave you disappointed and empty-handed. Everything in this life is perishable, it has not lasting value.
Good News: there is a treasure that is lasting! Found in the treasure chest of God’s Word.
Discover two precious jewels right her in the little book of Philemon.
Read Text: Phil. 1-3
“Grace & Peace” = two treasures that only God has that everyone needs!
v.3 – usual greeting you find in Paul’s epistles… yet its different.
Note: “To” = remember this book of the Bible is personal note from a friend to a friend… Paul saying, “Philemon, you need this!”
When it comes to grace and peace… you need this!!!
TS: We need God’s…
1. Grace for the Struggles of Life!
“Grace” = found 159x’s in Scriptures.
1st Time = Gen. 6:8 – “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”
Last Time = Rev.22:21 – “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”
From start to finish, from beg to end the Bible is a story of God’s amazing grace!
Grace = the sweetest word in the Bible!
“Grace” = 2x’s in this little postcard to Philemon – vv.3, 25
• Bible = Book of Grace
• God = God of Grace
1Pet. 5:10 – “But the God of all grace = (lit) all kinds of grace – the grace of God is as varied as the experiences of life. No matter the situation you find yourself in, God’s grace is sufficient. Grace doesn’t just secures our salvation, it also strengthens and sustains us. There is grace for every mile of the journey from earth to glory!
• Grace is the free, unmerited, and undeserved love of God in Christ, which meets man in his sin and shame and brings salvation.
• Grace is the downward stoop and reach of God’s love for lost mankind.
• Grace is what everyone needs, what no one deserves, and what only God can give.
• It is God’s love lavished on undeserving sinners.
A. The Manifestation of His Grace
Phil. 3a – “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Grace = always comes to us from God through His Son Jesus Christ.
Jesus = bringer of grace!
John 1:14 – “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
John 1:16,17 – “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
Titus 2:11 – “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,”
“Hath appeared” = to shine forth, to become visible or known – God manifested or shone forth His grace in the Person of His Son Jesus Christ.
Heb. 2:9 – “that He (Jesus) by the grace of God tasted death for every man.”
“Tasted” = to drink to the fullest… Jesus didn’t sip the cup of death… drank it to the dregs.
Calvary = great transaction – Jesus took our sin upon Himself that He might give us His salvation.
Quote: “Grace has made it possible for all men tragically lost in sin to be triumphantly lifted out of their sin.” – unknown
Titus 2:11 – “to all men” = not some, part, most but ‘all’ – that includes you and me.
Illust: John Newton – author of “Amazing Grace” … in his unconverted days served as the captain of a ship involved in the trafficking of slaves to England. Felt that he had sinned so terribly that God could not possibly save a man like him.
Reading: “The Imitation of Christ” by Thomas
`a Kempis
Ship caught in a typhoon off the coast of Africa…wave swept him from the deck of his ship… facing a watery grave and fear of death… John Newton came under great conviction of his sin.
John Newton = cried out for to God for salvation.
Wave = swept him back aboard his ship – a forgiven man!
Rom. 5:20 – “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”
God = grace is greater than all our sin! God is a greater Savior than we are sinners!
That is the manifestation of His grace – Paul, Philemon, John Newton, I’ve experienced and so has many in this room… you can too!
B. The Message of His Grace
1) Save Us
Eph. 2:8,9 – “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Salvation = totally of grace – it is not rooted in the merit of man but in the mercy and grace of God… it is not a reward we earn but a gift we receive.
Men spell salvation…
D-O = something you must do in order to be saved.
D-O-N-T = if don’t do certain things like murder, lie, cheat, steal
God spells salvation…
D-O-N-E! = God in grace has done everything necessary to save us. All you must do is receive it by faith.
2) Sanctifies Us
2 Pet. 3:18 – “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Grace = that redeems the sinner; refines the saints.
Grace = that saves us is the grace that changes us!
Philemon 10,11 – Onesimus = before unprofitable now profitable… changed!
Baptists = believe you can be saved and live any old way please – I don’t believe that… live as God pleases!
Grace doesn’t give us a license to do as we want, but the liberty to do as we ought.
Titus 2:12 – “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;”
Both a Neg and a Pos in this verse:
• Deny = ungodliness & worldly lusts – to discard anything in our lives that is not pleasing to God.
~ Philemon = needed grace to teach to instruct him… easily become bitter at Onesimus.
Heb. 12:15 – “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;”
Grace = that delivers us from our sin… is the same grace that enables us to overcome our sin!
• Live = soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world – grace that enables us to do that.
o Saved by Grace!
o Live by Grace!
Paul = by the grace of God I am what I am!
3) Sustain Us
Cf. saving grace, sanctifying grace, strengthening grace that sustains us.
Grace = is divine enablement for the struggles of life
2Tim. 4.1 – Why Paul told Timothy to… “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
Phil. 25 – “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.”
Illust: Paul’s Thorn – 2 Cor. 12:7-10
v.7 – “thorn” = not like a rose thorn – it means to be impaled with a stake… like someone had taken a stake and thrust it through Paul’s heart… on the brink of despair… couldn’t go on.
We all face times like that on the journey of life.
Exp: ongoing struggles… deep loss or hardship…
Paul = prayed 3x’s for God to remove it.
God’s = answer – “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
“Sufficient” = to have enough; be possessed of unfailing strength.
Psalm 23:1 – “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” = He is enough! He has this!
In those moments when we feel we are without strength… so weak we cannot take another step… it is then that we experience the sufficiency of His grace at work in out lives…as God infuses us with His strength enabling us to go on!
Deut. 33:25 – “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.”
Our strength will equal our days!
Quote: “The same God who guides the stars in their courses, who directs the earth in its orbit, who feeds the burning furnace of the sun, and keeps the stars perpetually burning with their fires—the same God has promised to supply thy strength. . . . As thy days, so shall thy strength be.”9
Morgan, Robert J.. The Strength You Need (p. 14). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.
2Cor. 12:9,10 – “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
Heb. 4:16 – “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
C. The Measure of His Grace
Jas. 4:6 – “…he giveth more grace>”
Just as you can never drain the oceans of God’s mercy; you will never empty the storehouse of His grace.
Illust: Missionary Darlene Deibler Rose illustrates the sustaining power of such comfort in her book "Evidence Not Seen." The following events occurred when she was separated forever from her husband and unjustly imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp.
"I never shed a tear before or during the hearings. But when the guard had returned me to my cell, and the sound of his footsteps had vanished–when I was certain that no one could hear me– I wept buckets of tears. In desperation I poured out my heart to the Lord . . . . When there were no more tears to cry, I would hear Him whisper, 'But my child, my grace is sufficient for thee. Not was or will be but is sufficient.' Oh, the eternal, ever present, undiminished supply of God's glorious grace!"
"Just two weeks before I was brought to this prison, the Lord had laid it on my heart to memorize a poem by Annie Johnson Flint. Now I knew why. After drying the tears from my face and mopping the tears from the floor with my skirt, I would sit up and sing,
'He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater.
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase.
To added affliction, He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace."
When we have exhausted our store of endurance
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.
His love has no limits, His grace has no measure;
His power no boundary known unto men
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth and giveth and giveth again.
- Annie Johnson Flint
