I'm just convinced that woman
knew the Lord. She says, Thou art the bread
of life, O Lord, to me. Thy holy word, the truth that
saveth me. There's an inseparable connection
between the written word and Christ's incarnate word. An inseparable
connection. The whole book is His word. and concerning him. All right,
Colossians chapter 4. Colossians 4. I want to look at one verse. The
difficulty in preaching, part of the difficulty, is not finding a message to preach. This book is a vast resource
of messages in every word, every line. Nor is it difficult, really,
to find words to say. But the difficulty is what to
leave out. There's so much, and we can't
take it in. Our Lord one time said that.
He said, many things to say unto you, but you are not able to
bear them now. You ladies that prepare food,
and so many of you have fed me so many times. And I thank you
for it, but you keep bringing course after course after course. And I say, and we say, I can't
hold anymore. So what do you do? You bring
another course. And then dessert until finally you say, really?
I can't take it. But it's all good. And what do
you leave out? What do you leave out? There's
so much in this one line. Verse 6, Colossians 4, let your
speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may
know how ye ought to answer every man." This is written to God's
people. Again, this is written to the
saints, to those in Christ. He said, let your speech, not
speaking to unbelievers, their mouths are full of cursing and
bitterness, but to God's people. Let your speech be always with
grace. Just like in chapter 3, he said,
let the peace of God rule in your heart. Scripture says, keep
thine heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues
of life. Well, now he's telling us, let your speech. Keep your lips, keep your tongue. He said, watch over your lips
and your tongue. One of the verses I gave you
one time was, he that keepeth his lips keepeth his soul. from
trouble. My, my. So, let your speech be
with grace. Grace. Now, when speech was created,
Brother Ron, look at Psalm 19. Brother Ron wisely read from
Psalm 19 tonight. I did not have this written down,
but I want you to see this. When our Lord, when speech was
created, when it was generated, God's the first one that spoke,
right? Genesis 1, 3. God said. It's the first mention of anybody
speaking. What did He say? Let there be light. Everything
God said was light, truth, good, pure, just, right, to man, promises,
love, and mercy, and grace, and kindness, and created, that means
edified, built up. Everything God said was Wonderful
speech. You can't speak any other way.
Did our Father and His Son, the Spirit, speak together before
the world was created? You know they did. What was their
speech? No language for it now. But God
spoke. There's no recorded words of
Adam. to our Lord. He spoke. You know He did. It
was just the Lord and Adam before He. You know they communicate. Speech is to communicate. What
did Adam say? What are the first words Adam
said, do you think, to the Lord when he woke up? Grown man. Perfect understanding. Realized,
understand. God had just created him. What
did he say? I think I know. Thank you, Lord.
Praise be the Lord. Hallelujah. out of his mouth. Just good, wholesome, wonderful
words. Alright? In chapter 3, somebody
else spoke. The next person that spoke was
Satan. Lies. Nothing but lies. And then so all of Adam's posterity
come forth from the womb, speaking lies. Speech was generated for the
glory of God, and speech degenerated into the dishonor of God. Listen to Romans. I'm going to
read a lot of scripture to you tonight. You don't have to turn,
but you know these scriptures. Romans 3 says, There's none righteous,
none that wanteth. There's none that understandeth.
No, there's none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out
of the way. This is talking about all human beings by nature. This
is the way we're headed. There's none that doeth good.
Now, the first thing it says is, their throat, is an open
sepulcher. With their tongues, they've used
deceit. Poison of asps is under their lip. Their mouth is full
of cursing and bitterness. Even before it begins to tell
about their feet swift to shed blood and so forth, it talks
about the mouth. The speech was created with the
glory of God. The glory of God, right? But
speech degenerated. And now, have you ever heard, can you believe what you're hearing
out of the mouths of everybody? It's just filth. Does it ache? Does it bother
you? It ought to. Lot, before the Lord destroyed
Sodom, it says that Lot was vexed with the conversation of the
wicked. That righteous man vexed his
soul. Day in and day out. Oh, he was
here. Does it hurt you? It ought to. It does. I know it does. Alright. That's
man. Enter the second Adam. The Lord
from Gloria. Okay? the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, the words and the speech
of the Son of God. John 1, turn there. I just got
a chill up my spine thinking of it. The Son of God came, full
of grace and truth. Grace poured into His lips. And nothing but grace came from
His lips. John 1, don't you love this?
Helen, you love this? Her mother was her favorite,
Mary. Terribly her favorite passage, I believe, I think she can quote
most of it. But John 1, verse 1, In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Verse 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,
Grace and truth. Verse 17. The law was given by
Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Man can do nothing
but speak evil until he is regenerated. But Christ could not speak evil.
Only words of grace, seasoned with salt. And I'll go ahead
and tell you what salt is. It's truth. It's the truth. Okay? I quoted Psalm 45, grace
was poured into his lips. I love the story of when the
Pharisees sent some officers to take the Lord. He was preaching
in the temple. Don't you love that? They went
to take him. And they came in, and they had
to sit down, like everybody else. And they listened to him, and
they sat there for the whole message. And then they left. And they
went back, and the Pharisee says, where is he? They said, never
man spake like this man. Never man spake like this man.
Always. How did he speak? Always with
grace. Salt, truth, always. Proverbs 8, I do want you to
return there. Proverbs 8, this is the speech
of our Lord who is wisdom. Proverbs 8, and oh, you could
turn anywhere, couldn't you? Talk about his word, but
Proverbs 8, look at this, this is wonderful. Verses 1 through
8. Doth not wisdom cry? This is cry. And understanding
put forth her voice, she standeth in the top of high places, by
the way in the places of the path. She crieth at the gates,
at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the door. Under
you, O man, I call. How blessed we are that the Son
of God came and spoke to us. Because no man knoweth the Father,
but the Son, and He to whom the Son will reveal. And He came
to reveal the Father. He didn't have to, but He did.
Oh, ye simple, verse 5, understand wisdom, ye fools, be of an understanding
heart. Here, I will speak excellently. Oh, the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus, my Lord, Paul said. Excellent thing. The opening
of my lips shall be right things. Everything he says is right,
righteous, just, true, holy. My mouth shall speak truth. Where do you find the truth today?
Can you find anybody who can believe? It's in him, I believe. You can believe him. Everything
he said. My mouth shall speak truth. Wickedness
is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are
in righteousness. There's nothing fraught or perverse
or wreathed or hidden in them. It's all plain to him to understand.
And it's right to them that find knowledge. I love what David
said, I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right. Let God be true. Every man in
my heart. Look at this, chapter 10. Proverbs 10 verse 11. Look at
this. The mouth of a righteous man
is a well of life. That's him in it. He's the water
of life. His words, the words that I speak
in are life. Look at verse 13. In the lips
of him that hath understanding, wisdom is found. Verse 20. The tongue of the just
is as choice silver. Verse 31. The mouth of the just
bringeth forth wisdom. You want more? There's more.
Look at chapter 12, verse 14. A man shall be satisfied with
good by the fruit of his mouth. John, whose mouth? His mouth. I'm satisfied, aren't you? Oh,
what he said. I believe everything he said.
Verses 18 and 19. There is that speaketh like the piercings of
a sword, but the tongue of the wise is health. The lip of truth
shall be established forever." One more, chapter 13, verse 2. A man shall eat good by the fruit
of his mouth. Oh, the words of our blessed
Lord. Words of truth, words of salvation,
words of life, words of comfort, words of peace, words of consolation,
words of our salvation, words of mercy and grace and truth
and love and righteousness and peace and reconciliation and
salvation and redemption and forgiveness and reconciliation.
Keep going. Oh, the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the word of life, the gospel. All right? The exhortation
and the command to us is, let your speech, if Christ be in
you, let your speech be always like his speech, with grace,
seasoned with truth. Now here's our speech, grace
with truth. If, well turn to Proverbs 26,
you're already there, Proverbs 26. If grace is in our heart, it will come out of our mouth.
Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So let it always be like peace,
let peace rule and let the word of God dwell. Let it be by the
grace of God. Ask Him to let it be this way
with you, with grace. With grace, what is that? Well,
it's to speak wisely. We just read Proverbs 8, the
Lord wisdom first spoke. He's first spoken wisdom. All right. We need to speak wisely. And we just looked at walking before others, redeeming
the time. Why? to say a word in season
to them. All right? Now look at Proverbs
26. We need to be wise when to speak
and when not to speak. To whom and how and what? Verse
4. Answer not a fool according to
his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. And you've talked
to people, you know, you've talked to people, Peter said this, and
it's in our text that you may be to give every man an answer
that you may be able to answer. Peter said that you might be
able to give a reason to him to ask you. Do you have people
asking you? Do you have people asking you
the truth, asking you questions? Do you start talking to them?
Do you have anybody ask you any questions? They're telling you. They quickly want to tell you
how religious they are and how it's all right. And if, you know,
you're talking to somebody and you quickly find out that they're
not interested, you're casting your pearl before swine. Jacob one time said, I'm not
worthy of all the truth you've spoken of. And our Lord said, it's not fit
to give children bread and dogs. They trample it underfoot. Now,
somebody really wants to know? Right? Keep hurling scripture,
hurling scriptures at people like that. So we need wisdom to know who
to speak to and who not to. Verse, it said, you'll be like
unto him if you just keep answering a fool. Verse 5, answer a fool
according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.
Now there's a time when somebody says something, you need to say
something. I remember one time a man made
a joke, I was working on a railroad, a man made a joke about Jesus
Christ. And it was like a hot knife hitting
me in the heart. We were in the middle of the
room, big people, and they all laughed. Man, I spoke up. And I doused cold water over
their party, but it just, it was horrendous what he said. You've got to say something,
don't you? Somebody's got to tell that story. We need the
grace of wisdom, don't we? When to speak, when not to speak.
We need the grace to speak sparingly. Do you know how many scriptures?
How many have I got here, sparingly? I've got 104. Let me just read a few to you. That's to say it likely there
are more than that. Listen to this, I'll read them to you,
a few of them. In a multitude of words there wanteth not sin.
You keep talking. He that refraineth his lips is
wise, is wise. Listen to this. Proverbs 13,
3. He that keepeth his mouth keepeth
his life. He that open wide his lips shall
have destruction. You know Ecclesiastes 5, don't
you? Be not hasty to utter anything
before God, for God is in heaven and thou upon the earth. Therefore,
let your words be few." We need to be conscious, not only who
we walk before, but who we're talking in front of. Our Lord
is here. All right? And James 1.19, you
know, that, Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak. Slow to wrath. Slow to wrath. And how much did James talk about
the tongue? Hmm? How much? My, my. Sparingly. We need grace to know, to speak
sparingly. We need grace to speak lovingly. Speaking the truth in love. Oh,
I've preached too many times and I've spoken too many times
to people like Peter who took out that sword. He meant well,
but that's not, our Lord said, put up your sword. That's not
how you do it. The Holy Spirit, you know, it's
up to him, isn't it? Why should we get mad and upset?
Dad used to say, and I got all that from him anyway, but later
on he said, We ought to speak to people and we ought to preach.
We ought to preach expecting people to believe. That's the
truth. Why don't you believe this? You
do believe that, don't you? It's the truth. Why wouldn't
they believe? So we need the grace to speak
lovingly, tenderly, tenderly, tenderly. What does the scripture
say about a soft answer? Everybody knows that. Turn it
the way around. Get in a heated conversation. We all have. Nothing is complicated. You might as well stop. Might
as well stop. We need the grace to speak kindly.
You remember that threefold criteria for repeating a matter? For saying
anything? Is it true? Is it kind? And is it necessary? That's good. So we need the grace to speak
humbly. Speak humbly. We read in Ephesians
4, this is why we read that, because Paul speaks more of speaking
in that one or two chapters than in any other scripture. And he
said, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. Did
not. That which is good to the use
of edifying. can tear somebody down, can hurt
bad. Get it? We've all been hurt by
it. And we've hurt people by it. It hurts bad, doesn't it? And a brother who has offended
his heart, or one that has sinned. And we've all hurt, and been
hurt, and this time we'll hurt. But oh, the mouth of the just,
he said, is health. That no corrupt communication,
but the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the
hearers. And the next verse, grieve not
the Holy Spirit of God. Let all bitterness, evil speaking,
be put away. And then he went on to say, filthiness,
foolish talking, jesting is not convenient with giving a thank.
Now let me say this. to think about our Lord with
those twelve disciples for about three and a half years. They
were grown men. They were in their thirties most
of the time, maybe in their forties. That's young. That's really young. You
know them. You know what they were doing.
They were cutting up with one another. They were ribbing each
other. They were, you know, playing practical jokes on each other.
You know they were. You know they were. You think the Lord
was Came down hard on him. Oh, no. You know how little children
just play. Keep it clean. Keep it clean. No, he wouldn't have tolerated
that. But he looked like your little children play with one
another. You're just a delight. They're having a good time together,
okay? But, you know, too much sarcasm
and, you know, poking fun, it can hurt sometimes. It can hurt. It degenerates to the point of
belittling somebody. It can hurt. So we need to watch
that. But his disciples, you know that Peter was always giving
somebody a hard time. Smile! I'm trying to give you
some comfort here. He's not telling us, don't ever
tell a joke. In the context here, filthiness. Foolish talking. Filthiness. That just feeds the lust of the
flesh. Don't do that. Don't do that. Okay? And that's what he's saying there.
And on and on it goes. He said, speaking with grace. Speaking with grace.
Grace is speech. So let our speech be always with
grace in our Lord. Now, here's what our speech needs
to be with. It needs to be of grace. With
grace. It's good that the heart be established
with grace, and the speech needs to be of grace, the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Our speech. Let men talk about
what they will. Let us talk about the sovereign
grace of our Lord. Let that be our conversation.
When we speak, let us say, by the grace of God, I am what I
am. By the grace of God, I have what I have. By the grace of
God, it's all God's grace. Let's speak of what all God has
done for us. We were reminded recently about,
you know, our vocabulary needs to change. We say things like
this, well, it rained today. No, it doesn't rain. The Lord sent the rain. And we
need to give Him the glory for it. We really do. The Lord sent rain. Well, thank you. Shouldn't we
say that? The whole world says, it rained.
When is it going to rain? When the Lord in great mercy
and grace sends us this water from heaven. Let our speech be seasoned always
of His grace. Because what do we have? We have not received. And the
greatest gift? What's the unspeakable gift?
Where is our conversation, our speech? It's of Him whom God
gave, the unspeakable gift of Christ. We dare not speak of works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy and
His grace, He saved us. By grace are you saved. That's
our speech. That's our speech. Seasoned with
salt. Now the reason salt is not grace
is because it just said grace. Although it is. It's always with
grace. But I just examined what could
this mean. Salt, salt, salt, salt. One of
the first uses of salt in the scriptures, in Leviticus 2 verse
13, where God said, talked about the salt of the covenant. The
salt of the covenant. Okay? And our Lord said this
in Mark 9. He said, every one will be salted
with fire, and every sacrifice will be salted with salt. What
is that? Truth. Truth. The covenant of truth. Oh, don't
you love God's truth? Our God is a God of truth. His
word is truth. Christ is the truth. The gospel
is the word of truth, truth, truth. Let our speech be seasoned
with truth. Speaking the truth, every man
with his neighbor. Speaking the truth in love. Truth. Our speech seasoned with truth. Now the Son of God, I mean the
God of this world and the people of this world and all the people
in the world are speaking lies. But we're saved, we're kept,
we're freed from that, we're brought out from that. How? By the truth. You know how many
times the Scriptures talk about mercy and truth? Righteousness and peace are kissed
together. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and
peace are met together. And grace and truth, grace and truth, truth,
truth were saved, were kept by the truth. The Lord came to Nazareth
as a 30-year-old young man. And as the custom was, he stood
up to read. And he read from Isaiah 61, Spirit
of the Lord is upon me. And after he spoke, it says,
everyone wondered at the gracious words that came out of his mouth.
Words of grace came out of his mouth. And everybody, oh, isn't
he a good, isn't that, nobody spoke like, nobody read the scripture
like, wouldn't you have loved to have heard him read the scripture?
He wrote it. He read it like he wrote it.
He read it like he was there. He read it like he was talking
about him. It was. Oh, and everybody, even his enemies
said, oh gracious, words came out of his mouth. Then what did
he say? Then what did he say? The truth. He said there were
many widows in the days of Nahum and Assyria, and God didn't save
any of them but one, a Gentile. There were many lepers in the
days of Nahum and Assyria. He spoke of sovereign electing
grace. That's what he spoke. God's sovereign
election. That's the truth. You know that?
You know this is where the truth started? This is where the covenant
started, isn't it? Covenant of salt, covenant of
truth. God, in the beginning, before the world began, chose
a people in Christ and gave them to Christ. Sovereign election. That's the truth. And you know
what everybody did? They took him to the brow of
the hill to throw him off. Nobody could have spoken that
more mercifully and graciously and lovingly and kindly and from
the heart than he did. Nobody. But they hated him more. I've got to speak the truth.
It's because, you see, all this preaching going on today, and
I hear a lot of it, and even on the sermon audio, there's
a lot of this And you can speak in such a way
as to cloud or to cover over, gloss over the truth. To take
away the offense of the cross. You can speak the truth in such
a way that nobody understands what you're saying. Well, you
haven't spoken the truth. You've got to preach the truth.
It's got to come out, doesn't it? It's got to come out. That
every man speak truth with his neighbor. Speaking the truth
of love, truth, truth, truth, truth, truth. Let your speech
be always with truth and it says in our text that you may be able
to answer. That you may know how you ought
to answer every man. According to the truth. Christ is the truth. There's
an answer for any question. that arises, the answer is found
in Christ. He's Christ is all. Let me tell
you a few things about truth or salt and truth in closing. Truth, like salt, purifies. Salt has a purifying effect. You know that? People used to get sick and take
a dose of what? Salt. I'm sure they'll probably
come back around to that eventually. And here's what Peter said. He
said, seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth. That's what he said. Believing
the truth. What's that? It's Christ. You
purified your soul. It has a purifying effect. John
said this, we know the Son of God has come and has given us
an understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we're
in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is
the true God in eternal life. The truth. The truth. You can't
speak the truth if you're not speaking of Christ. And it may
sound real gracious. And you may be talking of grace,
but the grace of God is for Christ's sake. Right? So truth purifies,
like salt, purifies. The truth, like salt, preserves.
The gospel is the power of God. And we're kept by the power of
God. Listen to this. I have so many scriptures. I
don't have enough little markers to put in my bag. But listen
to this. The truth, like salt, the truth... preserves. You know, you ladies
put up pickles and things like that, put salt in it. Well, listen
to this. Psalm 40 verse 11. Yeah. Withhold not thy tender mercies
from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy
truth continually preserve me. The truth will preserve us from
lies. Keep us from lies. Preserve us. Keep us. Listen
to this one, Psalm 61. Just a few more. Psalm 61. I wish we had the capacity. It
says in Psalm 61, verse 7, Oh, prepare mercy and truth which
may preserve me. So will I sing praise unto thy
name forever. Truth like salt preserved. Truth
like salt. permeates, meaning, fills. When you put salt in something,
it's going to fill it all up. Whatever you put salt in, it's
going to touch every part of it. It fills it up. Of His fullness
have all we received. Grace for grace. And John spoke
of this, John in his second, first, second, third epistles.
How much did John speak of the truth? Huh? All through John, I just quoted
the last second, the last verse. But here he says in his second
letter, listen to this, the elder unto the elect lady, he can't
speak five words without talking about election. That's the truth. And it's God's glory, isn't it?
It's our salvation. The children whom I love in the
truth, not only I, but also they that have known the truth, for
the truth's sake which dwelleth in us. Grace be with you, mercy
and peace from the God, the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of the Father, in truth and love. I rejoice greatly,
I found thy children walking in truth." Truth, truth, second
epistle, the third epistle, on and on it goes. I had so much
to read. I rejoiced greatly when the brethren
came and testified of the truth that is in thee." And you're
walking in the truth. Thank God for the truth. I want
to preach on the faithful witness soon. Is there anybody that we
can believe? Yes, there is. And then, lastly,
the truth seasons. Salt. Truth. Truth, like salt,
seasons everything. It makes it savory. Savor. You know what makes the Word
of God savory? It's Christ. It's Christ. He is that sweet-smelling savor
that's unto God. When Noah got off that ark and
sacrificed those animals unto the Lord, he says, the Lord smelled
a sweet-smelling savor. What was it? Christ. The sacrifice
of Christ. That burnt offering, that lamb.
It was of Christ, blessed sacrifice. seasons and makes it savory and
it's always Christ. We must always season every message
with Christ. Right? The truth as it is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's another thing about
salt. If you ever get a taste for salt, You can't go without it. And
my dad, that's what killed him. You know that? Finally, he died.
He ate too much salt. Mom would say, don't salt, I've
got enough salt to just pour it on, just pour it on. I'd say,
Dad, 95. She'd say, Dad, it's going to
kill you. I'd say, I'm hoping that it will. You know what I'm saying? Now I find myself doing the same
thing. They say it's rude to salt the woman fixes your meal. Don't salt it. Taste it first.
Sorry. I like salt. Don't you? You get a taste for it. You've
got to have it. You've got to have it. And you
can tell when it's missing. I've heard lots of messages.
Something's missing. Right? Have you done that? You
heard something like, I just can't put my finger on it, there's
just something lacking. Truth! Christ. That's what it
is. Sovereign grace. And once you taste it, you want
more, you need more. And I'll tell you what salt does,
it makes you thirsty then. It'll make you thirsty. Oh, bless her day, the thirst,
the truth. Like the woman, she finally heard the truth. The
woman was aware. And it made her so thirsty. She said, give
me this water. Give me that water. Only you can give me. Truth stings. I have a hundred
more things. Truth stings like salt. That's it. That's all I got to
say. Stand with me. Our Lord, we thank you for your
blessed word. Again, we thank you for it. We
can't thank you enough. You said in your revelation,
blessed are they that read the words of this book. Blessed are
they that hear the words of this book. Oh, how blessed are they
that keep it, that lay hold on it, that hear it, saved by it,
cling to it as words of life, the truth, as it is in thee,
our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for it. In Christ's
name, amen.