Colossians chapter 4, this message
tonight and these two verses that we are going to look at,
this is very important to me. This is very personally important
to me. And what I mean by that is I
want to learn this. I want to truly learn this. What is said right here is very
kind. It's very tender. It's very becoming of a believer. And I believe these verses are
very instructive. I believe they're very helpful.
And the reason is because I know that all of God's people wonder
about this very issue. This is something that all of
God's people sometimes even struggle with. Tell me if this question
has ever gone through your mind, okay? How do I respond to that? Has that ever happened? Has anybody ever said anything
to you that, That thought comes through your
mind. How should I respond to that? Well, the end of verse
six, the last two lines of verse six, it says that you may know how you ought
to answer every man. How should I respond to that?
Paul tells us how we ought to respond to every man. Now the text tonight is verses
five and six, which say, walk in wisdom toward them that are
without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with
grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to
answer every man. Now let's notice that what he
is saying here, he's not just applying it to God's sheep. He's
not only applying this to the brethren. He's applying this
to all men and women in the world. He said at the end of verse six,
every man, every man. Look with me at first Thessalonians
chapter five, just a few pages over. First Thessalonians five, verse
14. It says, now we exhort you brethren,
warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the
weak, be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for
evil unto any man. Well, if you're gonna treat me
that way, I'm gonna treat you that way. Verse 15, see that none render
evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good,
both among yourselves and to all men, all men. Look with me at Titus chapter
three. Titus 3 verse 1, it says, put
them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to
obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak
evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness
unto all men. For we ourselves also were sometimes
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after
that, the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, toward
man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have
done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. by the washing of
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being
justified by His," and here's the key right here, grace, that
being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. He said, grace has been shown
to you and grace ought to be shown from you to all men, to
all men, whether they deserve it or not, whether they deserve
or not. He said in verse three, we didn't
deserve it. If you look back at verse three
again, he said, we were foolish. That's what we were. We ourselves
also were sometime foolish. We were disobedient. He went
on down and said, we were hateful, hating one another. Verse four
says, but after that, the kindness and love of God, our Savior,
toward man appeared. After grace was shown. After
grace was shown. He said in verse seven, we were
made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. For that reason,
our Lord said in Matthew five, if you turn with me over to Matthew
five, Matthew 5 verse 38, he said,
you have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth. You did that to me, I'm gonna
do that to you. He said, you've heard that it
hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,
but I say unto you that you resist not evil, but whosoever shall
smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And
if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let
him have thy cloak also. Give him more than he sues you
for. Whatever man sues you for, give
him more than that. Verse 41, and whosoever shall
compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. A man says, walk
a mile with me, walk two with him. Verse 42, give to him that
asketh thee, And from him that would borrow of thee, turn not
thou away. You have heard that it hath been
said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say
unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you. that you may be the children
of your father, which is in heaven. For he maketh his son to rise
on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and
on the unjust. He said, if you want to be as
the children of your heavenly father, if you want to bear the
image of the heavenly son, be kind, be generous, be loving,
be merciful, be gracious. Be gracious. Now let's go back
to Colossians 4. Colossians 4 verse 5 says, walk
in wisdom. Walk means live. Wisdom is Christ. He is our wisdom. His Word is all the wisdom we
have. His Word is all the wisdom we
have. Man lives a little bit and he gets some experience in
life and he thinks that he's gained a little wisdom. This
is all the wisdom we have. This is it. His Word, that's
all we have. His Spirit is the one who brings
that wisdom, His wisdom, into our hearts and minds. So he's
saying, live in the word and in the heart of Christ himself. In verse five, he said, toward
them that are without. That's amazing to me. That's
wonderful to me. Do it toward them that are without.
Without means without Christ. Without a knowledge of, as we
looked at this morning, the mystery of Christ. without faith in Him,
outside of the fellowship and the union of His saving work
and His blood that unites all of His people with Him. We should
use wisdom toward those that are without because, and this
is the reason why, may God teach us this. We should use wisdom
towards those that are without because we don't know if God's
gonna bring them within. That's the reason why. We may be dealing with one of
his elect who is yet to have his eyes opened, yet to be called to see the glory
of Christ. You know, we fleshly humans can
be pretty lifted up with pride, lifted up with self, lifted up
with religion, and we can be pretty obnoxious at times. We're all guilty of it. And if
God will give us patience and give us grace with each other,
The Lord is able to teach us. He's able to bring us to a knowledge
of His truth and His Word. And we may be dealing, as we
have dealings with people, we may be dealing with God's elect.
Time will tell. Somebody who's yet to see this
salvation, which is not by works of righteousness which we have
done, Completely by the blood of Christ
that He shed on His people. God reveals that to His people
in time. We don't start out knowing that.
But God reveals all of the things of His mercy and all the things
of His grace. And all of His people start out
looking like they are without. That's how we all start out.
Looking like we're without until God brings the evidence that
we are within. That's the very reason why Paul
said in 1 Corinthians 9, if you'll turn with me over there to 1
Corinthians 9. 1 Corinthians 9 verse 19, he said,
for though I be free from all men, Yet have I made myself servant
unto all that I might gain the more, and unto the Jews I became
as a Jew that I might gain the Jews, and to them that are under
the law as under the law, that I might gain them that are under
the law, and to them that are without law as without law, being
not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might
gain them that are without law, To the weak became I as weak
that I might gain the weak. I am made all things to all men
that I might by all means save some." Does Paul really believe
he can save some? No, sir. He's the very one who
wrote, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy, he saved us. It's just that Paul knew that it pleased the Lord to use
the means of the preaching of the gospel to call out his people. Therefore, he determined not
to be a personal hindrance to anyone hearing the message of
the gospel. That's why I started out saying
this is so important to me. I want to learn something about
this. He completely determined to not be a hindrance in any
way, shape or form to anyone here in the gospel. Verse 23
right here. He said, and this I do for the
gospel sake that I might be partaker thereof with you. He said, I'm
just hoping God will call some from someone from without within
that we might be partakers together. We need to walk in wisdom toward
those that are without. because we don't know if God's
going to bring them within. God is a merciful God. He is
a kind God. He is an able God. And he will,
in time, call all of his people to himself. And I was thinking
about this. How ashamed would we be if God
did call someone into his fold who we were terrible to. We just treated him terribly.
Come to find out he was a brother or a sister. We need to walk in wisdom toward
those that are without, whether God ever calls them to himself
or not. And the reason is because we don't want to bring a reproach
on this gospel. We don't want to give any man
or woman a reason to blaspheme the name of Christ. So back in
Colossians 4, if you turn with me back over there, Verse five says, walk in wisdom
toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Redeeming
means purchasing, owning. Own the moment at all times,
be ready, be prepared. Verse six says, let your speech
be always, that's redeeming the time. Always, let your speech
be always with grace, grace. He said, seasoned with salt. The word salt translates graciousness,
grace. He said that you may know how
you ought to answer every man. It's a, it's a great privilege
to be, as the scripture says, taught of God. That's something
we so take for granted. He said, all my people are going
to be taught of God. And that is such a great, great
privilege. Taught his word. Do you know
how many people don't know this word? Most everybody owns a copy
of it and they don't know it. Either they just sit in places
that never open the Word, or they open it from time to time
but don't understand a word of it because God hasn't revealed
it to them. But it's a great privilege to be taught of God
and taught the things concerning Christ. And as the Apostle Paul
said, we have not arrived yet. We haven't arrived yet. We still
have so much learning to do. We still have so much growing
to do. We are still so far. We're so far from what we will
be when we're finally conformed to the image of our savior. That's something that our eye
has never seen. Our ear has never heard. It's
never entered into the imagination of our hearts that what that
will be like, but in what we've been taught so far with what
has been revealed to us so far about Christ, about the truth,
about salvation. As we have dealings with people
who are in the world, those who are currently without, we're
gonna hear things that are contrary to sound doctrine. Okay, based
on what we've learned, we're gonna have dealings with people,
we're gonna hear things that are just flat, not the issue.
Not the issue. Christ and His blood And His
righteousness is the issue. That's the issue, and that's
what God's people come to realize. All of these, what's called baggage,
that baggage gets stripped off. And as we grow, everything gets
more and more narrow. It all comes into Christ and
His blood and His righteousness. Men want to talk about doctrine
less and Christ more. Christ, His blood, His righteousness. Everything that is not Christ
is not the issue. But we're going to hear all kinds
of things that are just error. Error. And when that little question
rolls through our minds, it will, it'll happen to you very soon.
When that little question comes in, how should I respond to that?
The Word of God says we need to respond with grace. We need to respond with grace. Our response needs to be seasoned
with grace. It needs to be grace, and it
needs to be seasoned with grace. And let's say it this way. It
needs to be of grace, it needs to be with grace, and it needs
to be in grace. Let's redeem the time. Be ready,
be ready to have dealings with people from a heart of grace. A heart of grace. Let's not seek war with people.
If war comes, let them bring it. Let them bring it. But let's, let's seek peace. Let's redeem the time. Not looking
for a fight, not looking for, we're not trying to fight people
with the truth. Let's seek peace. If it can be had, let's approach
men and women in peace from a heart of grace. A heart of grace desires
good for others. That's what it desires. Don't
turn, but over in Luke chapter nine, our Lord and the disciples
entered into a Samaritan village and the Samaritans did not receive
him. And it became obvious very quickly
that they were not receiving Him. And when James and John
saw that, they said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to
come down from heaven and consume them like Elijah did? It says, But he turned to them
and rebuked them and said, You know not what manner of spirit
you are of. He said, I did not come to destroy,
I came to save. The scripture says, the wrath
of man worketh not the righteousness of God. I pray God would give
us a great concern for men's souls. I've told you before I
was called to pastor, I was filling in at a place preaching and the
man who was conducting the services stood up and read scripture and
in his prayer he said, Lord give us a greater concern for men's
souls. I don't ever want to forget that. It just, oh, I thought,
that's what we need. That's what I need. If I'm going
to go around preaching the gospel, That's what I need. If God is
going to equip me to preach the good news of the gospel, I need
a greater concern for men's souls. May our dealings come from a
heart of grace, a heart of grace. All right, the next thing in
our dealings with men and women, those that are without, Our response
should always be with grace, and I pray this is a help. It
should always be about grace. We should respond with things
that are consistent with God's grace. As we answer people, we
need to tell men and women the truth. I want to really encourage
us to tell men and women the truth. Tell them the truth. If they don't ever know the truth,
they're never going to be made free. God is sovereign over His
people. God chose a people. Christ redeemed
the people, all of them. The Spirit will call all of them. And He will use the means He
said He would use. And if they don't hear the truth,
then they're never going to be made free. They need to hear
words come out of our mouths that are consistent with God's
grace. They need to hear us say, we
are what we are by the grace of God. All these things are
going to come in. You're going to hear all these
things. How do I respond to that? Men and women need to hear. We
are what we are by the grace of God. By grace are we saved
through faith. And that is not of ourselves.
That's the gift of God. Being justified freely by his
grace. Through the redemption that is
in and only in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is grace? Well, I'm glad you asked. Grace
is unmerited favor. That's what it is. Nothing about
our salvation was owed to us. Nothing. We earned not one drop
of that precious blood of Christ that was shed for us. Not one
drop. We did not deserve one drop. Every drop of it was a free gift
of God's grace. By grace, you are saved. by grace. There's no work that
needs to be done. No rule that needs to be kept. We are kept
by the power of God. There's no line that needs to
be walked. It's done. It's paid. It's free. It's all of grace. That's what
men and women need to hear. It's all of grace. It's all of
grace. Try this, okay? This is something
that I try to do in answering those that are without. Because
of my, career is not a good word, but
this is what I do. People ask me, what do you do?
And this is what I do. And so therefore, everybody wants
to immediately talk religion, and you get a lot of this. But
in answering those that are without, when an outlandish statement
comes to you, Respond with the word of God's grace. Just respond
with the word only of God's grace. If you hear someone make a statement
like, well, you know, God helps those who help themselves. Which that statement is not in
the Bible. I mean, that's just, that's just not in the scripture.
That's total error. But if somebody says to you,
you know, God helps those who help themselves, just reply with,
just immediately respond with, when we were yet without strength
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Just answer with grace, answer
with the word of grace. If you hear, well, it's all about
how you live your life, it's all about your good works, just
respond with not of works, lest any man should boast. We need to tell men and women
the truth. We need to tell the truth of God's grace. Our response
to those that are without needs to be with grace, needs to be
of grace. It needs to be with grace. It's
the only hope they have. With that being said, all of
it needs to be in grace. It all needs to be in grace.
Verse six, right here in Colossians four, it says, let your speech
be always with grace, seasoned with salt. Let that true word
be given, seasoned with salt. Speak the truth and may it be
seasoned with salt. Turn with me over to Luke chapter
4. Boy, this is a glorious passage.
Luke 4, verse 16. And he came to Nazareth, where
he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into
the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me. And can you imagine hearing the
Lord Jesus Christ say that? The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me. Because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted. To preach deliverance to the
captives. and recovering of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and gave
it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all
them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he
began to say unto them, this day is the scripture fulfilled
in your ears. And all bear him witness and
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
And they said, is not this Joseph's son? Oh, they said, what gracious
words. Oh, what gracious words. Every
man and woman who had been given ears to hear him, There was some
who actually said this, but every man and woman said this in their
heart and knew this, who had been given ears to hear him. They said, no man spake like
this man. Grace poured from his lips. When something is seasoned with
salt, it tastes good. That's what it all comes down
to. It tastes good. And when you speak the words
of grace to men and women, it should taste good. It's grace. It's free. It's a present. And it should taste so good.
David said, taste and see that the Lord is good. Peter said,
if so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. The goodness
of the Lord is what leads men and women to repentance. The
goodness. So go back to our text. We're
going to close with this little story. The man told years ago. And I want to take this to heart.
I want to take this to heart and I pray this will sink in
with all of us. as we deal with those that are
without, or those that are within. Long time ago, one of the members
of a congregation came up to his pastor after the service
Sunday morning, and he invited the pastor to come over to his
house for lunch with his family. And the pastor agreed to go.
So they went to the man's house, and his wife was getting everything
ready, getting lunch ready, and the man said, why don't you come
on out here with me? I've got to feed the chickens.
So he and the pastor went out there, and he got him a bag of
feed, and he was shaking that bag of feed, and here come all
the chickens. They knew it was feeding time, and they all came
right up to that man. And he reached in the bag, and
he had a handful of feed, and he put it down, and they came
right up to his hand. They were eating right out of
his hand. He'd just throw some to some of those that were two
or three rows back, and man, all those chickens were just
loving that. He put a little bit on his boot, and they ate
it right off of his boot, and they were just all right there
up close to him. And then he reached into the
bag again and got another handful, and he just threw it at them,
and they all scattered. And the pastor looked at him,
and he looked at the pastor and said, Dear Pastor, that is how
you have been feeding us lately. You have been angrily throwing
the food at us, and it's scattering the chickens. That's important,
isn't it? I believe this is one of the
most important things we could learn about the Word of God's
grace. God's grace. May God give us
this Word of grace. Verse 5 says, Walk in wisdom
toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your
speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. that you
may know how you ought to answer every man. Lord, teach us grace. I pray that. Teach us grace. Teach us what grace is. Teach
us what grace means and what you've done for us and teach
us how to be gracious. For Christ's sake, it's always
for Christ's sake. Because of His grace to us, Lord,
teach us. All right, let's all stand together.