RETURN OF A RUNAWAY SLAVE

WILLIAM JOHNSON

Philemon 18, 19 (all scriptures quoted from King James Version)

Before I speak from this passage, I will briefly sketch the circumstances which led to the writing of this letter, without which the canon of Scripture would not be complete. This letter was inspired by the Spirit, and Scripture would not be complete without it. It appears this beloved man had a servant or bond-slave named Onesimus; this Onesimus was a stiff-necked, cantankerous fellow who loved to have his own way. The meaning of the word Onesimus is unprofitable, and he was true to his name. We may also safely gather from the letter that this Onesimus was the subject of many prayers. These slaves were part of the household and they were often kindly treated, and in a godly household like Philemon's we may safely conclude that Onesimus was the subject of many prayers. I think I am speaking to some here who are the subjects of many prayers, and my cry to God is that these prayers may be answered tonight. We see here, as the story goes, that Onesimus got tired of his praying master, so he departed from his home and went away. I speak feelingly with regard to this, for I see in this man a picture of myself; I was the subject of many prayers. I had a praying mother, but I was stiff-necked and loved to have my own way. One of my greatest punishments was when my mother took me and knelt down with me (and she often did it when I was naughty) and said, 'O God, save my boy! Make him a servant of Thine!' I said, 'I must get away; I have had enough of this. I will go to sea'. I well remember my mother saying, 'I will never let God alone about you'. Off I went over the sea; I wanted to see life, but my mother's prayers spoilt everything for me. In every letter she wrote were these words, 'I am praying for you'. I got away from my home, but I could not get away from God. I cannot refrain from speaking in this way, because I see in this man Onesimus a picture of myself, and I do not think I need make an apology for it, because it is quite scriptural. Paul speaks of himself, and I think it is the Lord's way that preachers should tell how they have been blessed.

I travelled about, and at last I came home in my ship to Glasgow; I thought I would go ashore and enjoy myself, but God was working in my soul. God made me feel in the theatre the soft touch of my mother's hand and a pall came over my soul: I had to give in. I said I would go and hear a preacher, so I went to hear a great preacher who was preaching at one of the kirks there. I went up into the gallery; my heart was aching.  I wanted God.  The preacher said, 'I take for my text Colossians 1: 19: “For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell”'.  You say, that was an extraordinary text!  An extraordinary blessing came to me. I do not know whether the preacher preached well or not, but I know what happened to me: my mother's God drew near to me.  I got introduced to Him on that occasion. He looked right down into my soul, and He said to me, 'I am for you, and you are for me'. I said, 'I am a poor sinner, Lord'. 'Yes', He said, 'but I will make you happy; all the fulness is pleased to dwell in Me'. All I needed for time and eternity was found in Him, and I cast my soul on Him.

I came to Jesus as I was,

Weary, and worn, and sad; I found in Him a resting place,

And He has made me glad.  Hymn 248

My mother's prayers were answered. I went down to my ship as fast as my feet could carry me, and I got out my paper and wrote a letter. I said to my mother, 'I have come to Christ tonight; your prayers are answered'. I could not tell you what that letter was to her. Oh, if you only knew what you are causing your parents!

Young man sitting there, your father has been praying for you! You think Christianity will make you miserable. I never knew real pleasure till God looked down into my soul and mind, 'I will make you happy'.  I could not refrain speaking of myself, because I see myself here in this man Onesimus.

This man went away from his master, went to Rome and was lost to sight. Only yesterday I received a letter telling me about a young fellow I knew in London, who, a year ago, went off to Canada and went on a farm; a sister who was there was continually speaking to him about his soul. He said, 'I thought I should get away from that by coming here'. Away in the solitude there that young fellow has come to Christ. Parents, cheer up! Sometimes God keeps us waiting, but I trust there are some here in whose souls God is working. Come to Christ to-night! Let your father's God be yours. This young man went off to Rome, and in that great city he was converted. Paul could say of him, “Whom I have begotten in my bonds”. This letter was written that the young man might go back; he was sent back to his servitude. The apostle said, 'I must send you back, because you belong to Philemon; you must go back to where you have been in self-will and serve the Lord'. He was willing to go back. That is the beauty of Christianity. Oh, dear young Christians, do not think there is anything commonplace about Christianity! It is morally beautiful, you are left here to serve the Lord. In painting pictures of the saints, people always put a nimbus round their heads: Christians should have the nimbus of the glory of the Lord. I can scrub a kitchen just as much for the glory of God as preach. We can serve the Lord just as much in our daily circumstances as in preaching. Preaching is a small part: the great thing is practising.

Having said this much, I am now coming to the letter itself, to the verses to preach from. You would expect to find in this letter some beautiful expressions about the gospel.  This letter could only be produced by a Christian. You will find expressions here which convey to us the beautiful simplicity of the gospel.

I want to speak of four words – clearance, acceptance, relationship, and moral result. Let us come back to verse 18. I make use of Paul as a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ; Philemon, a figure of God who has been offended; and Onesimus, a figure of the sinner. We have one man making himself responsible for another. “If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account”. It is one man making himself chargeable for another. Do you know the gospel after this fashion? Do you know in your soul the import of the fact that Jesus died? What did He die for? You say, He died for sinners, He died for the unjust. He did, but can you say as you sit there, He died for me? There is very great insensibility with people as to their being responsible to God. People are alive to their responsibility to their fellow-creatures, but have you ever faced your responsibility to God – your sins and God? What can be more terrible than to have sins and to be insensible with regard to them? The Lord said, “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins”, John 8: 24. Die you must, but to die in your sins, how terrible! No man in his conscience is infidel – he may be in his brain, but not in conscience. I never preach to a man's brains, but to his conscience. Your conscience proclaims your responsibility to God.  Unconverted young man, young woman, old man, your life proclaims your responsibility to God! The eye of God rests on the pages of your life; you are writing page after page of history, and not a single line has given God pleasure yet! Your whole life has been marked by self-pleasing.  Wake up to it! I do not charge you with stealing, with being dishonest, but with pleasing yourself. It is written of Jesus that He “pleased not himself”, Rom 15: 3. You have been pleasing yourself: your whole life has been terribly wrong. If you don't face your responsibility you will never know the grace of God.

The story has been often told, but I tell it again because it illustrates what I am saying. It is related of a czar of Russia, who was a mighty warrior and a very strict disciplinarian, spending more than half his time in war, that on one occasion when he had been out on campaign, there was a poor young officer who had got deeply involved in debt. One night he took a piece of paper and wrote down, 'I owe Messrs. So-and-so so much, and Messrs --- so much'. Altogether it was a great sum. At the bottom he wrote, 'I owe all this, but who is going to pay?' He knew the czar was very particular about such things, and that he would be turned out of the army. He could not answer it, and he sought refuge from his sorrow in sleep. The czar was going through the officers' quarters, and seeing a light there went into the room where the young man was. He took up the paper and read it, and his heart was touched. He wrote two words at the bottom, 'I, Nicholas'. Towards morning the cold aroused the young man from his slumber, and, taking up the paper to have another look at it, he said, 'The czar has been here, and the czar promises to pay'. When they were on parade that morning the czar came down the ranks, and the young officer said,

'Thank you, Sire'. 'What! what!' he said. 'Thank you, Sire'. He had the czar's promise to pay and his burden was rolled away.

Out on yonder cross was the blessed Jesus, who wrote a history under the eye of God of which every line gave God pleasure, everything was bright with His glory; yet out there on yonder cross He was nailed between two thieves, “numbered with the transgressors”, Isa 53: 12. His hands – you would not like me to know what your hands have done – but His hands were never outstretched for His own pleasure. His feet – you would not like me to know where your feet have taken you – but His feet ever ran in the way of God's commandments: His hands and His feet were nailed there. And there all that I owed was put to His account.

A divine Person gave divine satisfaction in regard of our responsibility, but never ceasing to be what He was by reason of what He became. Think of it. Blessed Lord Jesus! He had to say, “All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me”, Ps 42: 7. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Ps 22: 1. Come and learn at the cross what your sin is, what the holiness of God is. He has settled it all there, met it all there; it was His glory to do it. He it was who spangled the heavens. He spake and it was done. Even when He was bearing sins, He was upholding the universe by the word of His power: He was greater in bearing sins than in creating the worlds. He has done it: it is not a promise to do it, He has done it. How do we know that? He has gone back to the spot where He undertook to do it. He said in the past eternity, “I delight to do thy will, O my God”, Ps 40: 8. It is done. What is the meaning of it? ''Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”, Heb 10: 17. That blessed Saviour who died for our sins was raised the third day. The work is done.

Let us go back to verse 17 and put the two verses together: “If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself.” These are the words you want, dear Christians. “If thou count me a partner, receive him as myself”. How is God going to receive us? In the same way as Christ, who died for our sins. You will never get peace until you get into the presence of a risen Christ and of the God who raised Him. You will never lose your burden at the foot of the cross, but at the feet of the Saviour who was once there, but who is in resurrection now. “If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself”. There is no difference in the way God receives Christ and the way He receives you. Where you get solid peace is in the presence of the risen Christ and of the God who has raised Him. He took our place in death because God disapproved of us, that we might have His place in resurrection because God approved of Him. You get peace at the feet of the Saviour who has done it. We believe in Jesus who was raised up out of death. I would like to sit down quietly by your side now. I ask you one question. Is there the 'ruffle of a leaf', as we speak figuratively, between God and the risen Christ? Where is the risen Christ? In the presence of God. He took our sins and bore the judgment; but He is risen now. He is before God, and there is not the 'ruffle of a leaf' between Him and the God who raised Him. He took my place in death because God disapproved of me, that I might have His place in resurrection because God approved of Him. Are you on that solid platform with God, the platform of a risen Christ? You say, I am shaky sometimes. There is no shakiness in the presence of God who has raised Him from the dead, not the ruffle of a leaf! It is not only Christ who died, but Christ who is raised. You must be either on the ground of your responsibility to God, or on the ground of the risen Christ who has cleared it all away.

The majority of Christians have not got peace; they know that Christ died for sinners and that He died for them! But what God wants you to see is that you are on the same solid platform with Him as Christ who has done it. I have got that peace, my soul has been there for many a long day; I do not look inside, I look away there; He is my peace, He has made peace. Let me give you a nautical illustration. A ship is coming into harbour for shelter.  It is important for the anchor to be dropped in good holding ground. They do not drop the anchor inside the ship, but outside in good holding ground.  Many try to find anchorage within in their experiences, but the anchor must be outside. “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus”, Heb 6: 19. Jesus is there, and it is good holding ground within the veil.

Verse fifteen is very sweet: he went away for a season that he might be received for ever. I went away for a season, but I am received for ever. And how are you received? The prodigal said, “I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants”, Luke 15: 18. Did he receive him like that? No, he did not. So we have here, “Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved.'' There is relationship.

You will be received as Christ is received. He will put His arms around you, you are never more to go away; it is an eternal relationship. I am received as Christ is received; I am a child of God, a child with the Father; I am received for ever.

I have clearance, acceptance, relationship, and now (verse eleven) I am profitable. “Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me.'' I was a poor worthless thing, a brand plucked from the burning, but now profitable to the Father and the Son. We are here for God.

This is a beautiful unfolding of the grace of God. I have clearance by the death of Christ; I am accepted in a risen Christ; I am in the relationship of a child, and I am profitable to the Father and the Son.

I make another appeal to you. After all the gospel is an appeal to man from God. Am I speaking to anyone here who is the subject of many prayers? Would you not like to be able to write to your mother to- night and say, 'Mother, I came to Christ to-night, I came to Him at the meeting; your Saviour is now my Saviour'? May God grant it for His Name's sake.

Copied from Tidings of Light and Peace 1905

A collection of our brother's ministry is available in Addresses and other Ministry by William Johnson, from www.lulu.com – this article is not included as it has only just come to light.