May it be rest upon me as I sing
the lulls to bed, and may they forget the dead, singing only
me. Thank you, Gabe and Hannah. I
go back to the book of Colossians with me, chapter 4. Sometimes there's a little letdown
after a meeting like we had. Everybody was so up and thrilled
by it all. I was, I know. There doesn't
have to be a letdown. Same book, same gospel, same
message. Same Holy Spirit. We depend on
the Holy Spirit every time we meet. So you pray with me that
the Lord bless this time tonight. But verse 6 is what we're going
to dwell on in a few minutes. Verse 6 says, Let your speech
be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know
how you ought to answer every man. I'm dealing with this in
order. as it comes. I'm dealing with
it. I'm going to try to teach it,
not because I've got it mastered, but because it's God's Word and
because we need it. I need it, beginning with me.
I need it worse than anyone. Your speech with grace, gracious
speech, seasoned with salt. What does that mean? Salty speech. Salty speech. But before we look
at that, I want us to go back and just review a little bit,
okay? This whole book. There's not
a more wonderful book in God's Word than the book of Colossians.
And review is very good. Chapter 1. Go back there. Chapter
1. These were vital messages. Some of these verses we looked
at by themselves. And do you remember in verse... Verse 2, we looked at the grace
of God and peace from God our Father. What that means. If God
is our Father. God is not the Father of all
men, but those to whom He is a Father. Oh my, what that means. Everything. Everything. If you
then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children,
how much more shall the Heavenly Father Christ said. In verse 5, it talks about the
hope slayed up for us in heaven that you heard of before in the
truth of the gospel. Hope in heaven. The only reason
it's called hope is because we're not there yet. But it's a good
hope. It's a sure hope. And that hope
is Christ Himself. Our hope of glory. Look at verse
12. You remember this? We thank God
who hath made us meet or is making us fit to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in life. Making us fit. Molding us. Giving us a love
for and an interest in Christ and the gospel. Making us fit
to dwell in eternity where that's all we're going to be doing is
enjoying Him. You remember that? Making us
fit. Verse 13. He has delivered us
from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son. We looked at that. The kingdom
of His dear Son. What that kingdom is going to
be like. What it is like here on earth.
Verse 19, go down there. It speaks of all the fullness.
It pleased the Father that in Jesus Christ all fullness dwell. You remember that? Don't forget
that. All the fullness of the Godhead,
all the fullness of grace and mercy and peace and salvation
is all in Him. Remember this, verse 20, He made
peace through the blood of His cross and reconciled all things
unto Himself and you, verse 21, were aliens and enemies in your
mind, yet now hath He reconciled. Remember that? Reconciliation
to God. Reconciliation to one another.
One way. One thing brings us together.
The blood of Jesus Christ. Christ and Him crucified. Verse
27, go down there, God made known unto us the riches of the glory
of this mystery which is Christ in you. We looked at that, what
that means to have Christ in you, the new birth, the hope
of glory. Look at chapter 2, verse 3, in
Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. What
a book. What a book. It says, In Him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are
complete in Him. All the religion you need is
Jesus Christ. The way that we are accepted
of God is in Jesus Christ. You are complete in Him. You
don't need anything or anyone else. Him. Verse 12-14, buried
with Him in baptism, risen with Him. Verse 13, you that were
dead hath He quickened with Him, forgiven you all trespasses. Not some, all of them. Past,
present, and future. That's the gospel. Blotting out,
verse 14, blotted out the handwriting of ordinances. That's the law.
Everything against us. Clean slate. And he made a show
of these principalities and powers openly, triumphing in them in
himself. Chapter 3, look at this. You
remember this? It says, set your affection. Verse 2, set your
affection on things above. What's that mean? Verse 3, you're
dead. Your life is hid with Christ
in God. Oh boy, we need to go over that
again. Christ our life, verse 4, when He appears, we'll appear
with Him in glory. In glory. What does that mean?
Verses 9 and 10, He talked about putting on the new man, putting
off the old man. Wasn't that vital? What does
that mean? Verse 11, Christ is all in all. All in all. Verse 14, above all
things, Put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness or
maturity. Charity. Now by the faith, hope
and love, but the greatest of these is charity or love. Verse 15. Remember this? These
verses have stuck in my mind. I hope they have yours. They
have stuck with me and I'm thankful for that. Verse 15, let the peace
of God rule in your hearts. The peace of God? God said, I know my thoughts
towards you. Talking about His people, those in Christ by faith.
He said, I know my thoughts towards you, thoughts of peace. Let that
rule your hearts and minds. Be not troubled. Let that rule. If it would, we'd have peace.
to which you are called in one body, that is, to make peat.
And be thankful. Thankfulness will eliminate much
of our sorrows and our trouble. Verse 16, remember this? Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Thank God
that verse has been dwelling in me lately, since we looked
at it carefully. I keep thinking about that verse.
The Word of Christ dwelling in you richly. Teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing
with grace in your heart. Singing. Remember that? Singing. Singing. If you can't read, sing.
If you can't pray, sing. I meant to bring this illustration
up when we looked at that, so I'm going to do it now. Remember
when Paul and Silas were cast into prison? No one could have
been more in more suffering or pain than they were. They'd been
beaten and been thrown in prison. No one's outlook could have been
more bleak, seemingly bleak, in a dark, damp dungeon, thrown
in prison. Had they started questioning
their God, our God, they could have said, why are we in prison?
We were out preaching the gospel. What good could come out of this?
Why are we in prison? They didn't do that, though.
You know what they did? At midnight, at midnight, it says, Paul and
Silas began to sing. They began to sing, and lo and
behold, an earthquake. And the prison doors fell off,
and the chains fell off. And the reason they were in there
is because there was a jailer out there who needed to hear
the gospel. and came springing in with a light and said, Sir,
what must I do to be saved? Sing. Sing. Your outlook will
be much brighter. Your faith will be stronger.
Sing. Sing. And look at verse 17. Whatever you do in word or deed,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Give thanks to
God and the Father by Him. In everything, give thanks, for
this is the will of God in Christ concerning you. Peter wrote one
time, he said, if need be, you're in heaviness through manifold
suffering. If need be. Well, if it be, it
need be, or it wouldn't be. Right? Because God did it. He's the one that sent these
trials and sufferings. So if it be, it need be, or it
wouldn't be. If need be. Whatever you do,
do it all in the name of Christ. Give him thanks. And then he
gives these instructions and exhortations to wives and husbands
and children and fathers. I need instruction as a father,
don't you? As a husband, don't you? As a wife, don't you? As a child? As an employee? Those of you who have employees,
your employer, you need this, don't you? So those were wonderful,
wonderful things. Verse 2 of chapter 4, remember
this? Continuing prayer and watch. Praying always. Praying always. Watching the same. With Thanksgiving. It keeps bringing that up, doesn't
it? With Thanksgiving. The Lord told Paul to write this
many times. Be thankful. Be thankful with
thanksgiving, giving thanks to God. Praying always with thanksgiving,
knowing that if we're thankful, the Lord will give us more grace. But if we're murmuring and complaining
and unbelieving, He might leave us to sleep in our misery. Okay? So he says, be ye thankful. And
he says, pray, and always for us who preach the gospel, that
the Lord will open the door and speak the mystery. But it is
a mystery. It's not by might or power. It's not by a preacher's
ability. It's by his spirit. And he must
open the ear and open the eye to hear the truth. And verse
5, you remember this, walk in wisdom toward them that are without.
Walk in wisdom. What does that mean? We need to go over that again,
don't we? Walk in wisdom. Now, let your
speech be always, always with grace, seasoned with salt. Oh, my. Oh, my. Do we need this? Do we ever need
this? Mac, do you need this? I more. Let your speech be always with
grace. Anything more needful? When to
speak? When not to speak? What to speak? And how to say
it if you're going to speak? And what attitude? Is there anything
more convicting than this? Not to me, there's not. Listen
to James. James said, in many things we
offend all. If any man offend not in word,
now that's a perfect man. That's a mature man. I ain't there yet, because I
do. I do. He said, you know, you're
able to bridle a whole body. You can bridle a tongue. He said,
we put bits in a horse's mouth and they obey us. Turn about
the whole body and a ship, a great thing, and a little helm, a little
rudder will turn that great ship. And the tongue is a little member,
but oh my, what a great matter, a little fire kindler. This is
a dangerous thing. It's not only a dangerous thing,
but it's a good thing if it's used properly. And so he tells
us, let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. Seasoned with salt. I don't know
how many times I've spoken rashly, hurtfully, spoken when I shouldn't,
not spoken when I should have, or spoken the truth and yet did
it in a bad way. Anybody guilty besides me? I
need this. I needed it. David said this.
David said in Psalm 39, he said, let me turn back there. He said,
I said I would take heed to my ways that I'd sin not with my
tongue. He said, I'm going to keep my mouth with a bridle while
the wicked is before me. He said, I was dumb with silence.
I held my peace even from saying anything good. My sorrow was
stirred. My heart was hot within me. My
love was musing. The fire burned. And I spoke. And boy, if it ain't the right
spirit, you're going to pop off, aren't you? And say the wrong
thing. And so he said, O Lord, in Psalm
141, he said, set a watch, O Lord, over my mouth. Set a watch over
my mouth. Keep the door of my lips. In
other words, when it starts opening at the wrong time, say, shut
up. Brother Jack Shank used to say, take every opportunity. to shut up. We're in a time, a day of big
talkers, rash talk. Everybody's got something to
say, but the Scripture says, be swift to hear and slow to
speak and slow to anger down. Scripture says, God is in heaven,
you're upon the earth, and He's listening, so let your words
be few. He said, be not hasty to utter
anything before the Lord. My, my. Lord, set a watch over
my mouth. Don't let me open it unless it's
worth saying. Let your speech be always with
grace, always gracious. Now, what that means is gracious
speech. Gracious speech. Seasoned. Every
part of our speech somehow seasoned with a taste of this salt, which
we're going to look at in a minute. You know what salt is? Well,
stay with me. All right? And we'll learn together.
Is it any wonder He told us to pray always? Let your speech
be always with grace? I can't do it. Can you? With
man, it's impossible. I feel like Paul who said, How
to do that which is good? I'm fine not. I don't know. I
know what I should say, but I don't. I know what I shouldn't, but
I do. Help me. Lord, help me. Help
me. Without Him, we can do nothing. The tongue, speech, like I said,
can do a world of hurt, but also a world of good. Where are we
going to go to learn how to speak graciously? Who could we listen
to of how to speak graciously? It was said of the Lord Jesus
Christ, grace poured from His lips. I want you to look with
me at Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. I was going to
just apparently read it to you, but you need to look at it yourself.
Luke chapter 4. Look at this. Wonderful. Wonderful. He who is grace personified. I'll give you a clue what the
salt is. It says, The law came by Moses,
but grace and truth came through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look at Luke chapter 4. They delivered unto him, verse
17, he came to his supposed hometown of Nazareth. He had no beginning
of days, did he? But that's where he was. And they delivered unto him the
book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he opened the book and
found the place where it was written, 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
captive, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
that the Lord is accepting people. Every application for mercy,
He accepts it. That's great. Read on. It said,
He closed the book, gave it to the minister, and sat down. The
eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on
him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture
fulfilled in your ear. And all bear him witness and
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
Gabe, wouldn't you have loved to have heard him actually say
that? His enemies came to him one time
to take him. The ruler said, Go after him,
this Jew. And they came and they were so
mesmerized. They were so smitten by what
he was saying and how he was saying it, they couldn't take
him. And they came back and the people that sent him said, Where
is he? He said, No man spake like this man. Grace, Lord, from Him. Not only
what He said was infinite truth, and how He said it with ultimate
authority. I think one time they said, He
speaks as one having authority, not like the scribes. You've
heard the scribes, haven't you? Turn to the first chapter of
the fourth epistle, Paul, to the Corinthians, and we shall
read it and you'll hear it. Fully on that stuff. This was
His Word that He wrote. from the heart of God to the
heart of... He could speak right to the heart.
From the heart to the heart of man. And do it with absolute
authority where you had to believe what He was saying. My, my. My, my. I would have loved to
have heard Him speak. For no man speak like He speak. He is grace personified. Grace
and truth. You know, Christ is not only
the one we look to for grace. He is the grace of God. We look
to Him for help, for salvation, for everything. We look to Him
for all grace that we need. But He's the one we look at,
too. We look at, we listen to, to know how to speak with grace.
What to say and when to say. What to say and when to say. Well, this is in Luke 9. Turn
over there. You're there already. Luke chapter 9. One time the
disciples, like us, they got a little puffed up with the knowledge
and a sense of their own greatness. Can you imagine that? In the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ, they were arguing over who was the greatest preacher.
I know exactly what they're saying. We're in the presence of the
Lord. He's talking about foolish. Like a little child popping off,
you know, his parents sitting there listening to him brag and
boast when everything he has and does and has been received
and learned, he learned it from his parents, and he's acting
like he didn't. In Luke 9, the disciples got
a little proud in verse 51. Look at this. Verse 52, He sent messengers
before Him into one of the villages of the Samaritans to make ready
for Him. And the people did not receive Him, because His face
was as though He would go to Jerusalem. And when His disciples,
James and John, this is James and John, mind you, they saw
this, they said, Lord, let's command fire to come down from
heaven and kill them all, consume them all like Elijah. But he
turned and rebuked them and said, you know not what manner of spirit
you are of. The Son of Man has not come to
destroy men's lives, but to save them. I've wanted to call down fire,
I can't tell you how many times. Have you? That's not the attitude
we're to have. Simon Peter got puffed up one
time. Several times, actually. He got puffed up, even over his
brothers. They may forsake you, not me. Ooh, Peter. And then when it
was all over, that horrible trial he went through and brought down,
brought very low, just thankful to be a part of the Lord said
to him, now Peter, when you're converted, Strengthen your brethren. Strengthen your brethren. That's
what you're about. That's what you're about. Paul. Romans 9. Turn over to Romans 9. There's
not a more salty passage of Scripture in all the Bible than Romans
9. We talk about salt. I think of
Romans 9. Paul. He called himself the chief of
sinners, didn't he? Because he really felt like
he was. He said, I persecuted the church.
I was injurious, a blasphemer. But I obtained mercy. Great grace. And so, you know, those that
have been forgiven much will love much, won't they? And such
was Paul. Paul had received great grace.
He said, I'm a pattern. I'm the chief of sinners. I've
received more grace than anybody. By the grace of God, I am what
I am completely, 100 percent by the grace of God. So he was
a gracious man. Oh, I need that. If you've received a lot of grace,
we need to show a lot of grace, don't we? Speech with grace. Romans 9, look at how he starts
this chapter out. I say the truth in Christ. I
lie not. My conscience bearing me witness
in the Holy Ghost. I have great heaviness and continual
sorrow in my heart. I could wish myself were cursed
from Christ for my brethren. Who? My kinsmen according to
the flesh. Israelites. Yes, those no good
Jews. Yes, those self-righteous Pharisees.
Yes. But Paul had a heart for them.
I'm not sure I know anything about that, do you? But I want
to. And so I know how he must have
delivered this, Brother Gay, Romans 9, which speaks of the
sovereign election of God. I know how he must have delivered
it. Verse 11, the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to
election, might stand. It is not of works, but of him
that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the
younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I
hated. It is said to Moses, verse 15, I
will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So it is not of him that willeth,
but of him that runneth. It is of God that shall have
mercy. How did he say that? How did he write that? How did
he deliver that? Well, with boldness, with authority,
and yet with compassion. And so do I want to do that.
By the grace of God, we may speak boldly without being rash. We
may speak with authority without pride. We may speak of sovereign
mercy without meanness. We can speak the truth dogmatically. You know, if any man preach any
other gospel than the gospel I preach, he's going to be cursed. I believe that with all my heart,
that I preach the same gospel that Paul preached. If anybody
preaches any other gospel than I preach, they're going to go
to hell. Brother Greg was saying, anybody
that believes this false gospel that men have been perpetrating,
that God loves everybody, Jesus died for everybody, man's got
a free will, and your faith is what saves you, and so on, is
a false gospel, and they believe that, they're going to be damned
for it. But I want to say that with a
tear in my eye, because that's where some of us, that's where
all of us, Such were all of us. Why do we know the truth? Why
do we believe the truth? What do we have we have not received?
I'm speaking for myself here. I can't tell you how many times
I've looked at people like you dumb ignorant. Well, yes. Everybody
is. A rebel? Yes. So was I. But God. But God. Rich in mercy. Let your speech
be always with grace. With grace. We can even speak
of the wrath of God. We must. We must. Who hath warned thee to flee
from the wrath of God? Paul said in his final words
to the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20, he said, I cease
not to warn you night and day with tears. We need to warn this
generation. We don't have a silly smile on
our face all the time. That's not what it means to speak
with grace. Have a silly smile on your face all the time and
fake religiosity and fake like everything's happy all the time.
Everything's not happy all the time. Not smile God loves you. No, maybe He doesn't. Not peace,
peace, when there is no peace. We don't go around telling everybody
that. Can you lift up your voice and
do it with authority and still do it with care and concern?
I hope. That's why you lift up your voice
sometimes, isn't it, Dad? I remember, you know, sometimes
dealing with your children and they just weren't listening to
you, so you keep lifting your voice. Listen to me! Like with
an urgency. Like if you don't listen to them,
you're going to hurt yourself. Right? You can do that. Speech with grace. Speech with
grace. And this grace, my, my, how convicting. It starts at home. It starts
at home. Sometimes, most of the time,
we're more short and abrupt with our family than we are anybody
else, aren't we? Isn't that right? Anybody besides
me? It says, "...the fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace by them that make peace." If we want peace,
then make peace. Speak peaceable. Alright, what
is this season with salt? Season with salt. Go over to
Mark chapter 9. You know, the Scripture speaks
a great deal of salt. Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke of
salt. In his Sermon on the Mount, he
said to his apostles, his disciples who came up to him, that's who
he was speaking to primarily, his disciples. He says when he
was sat down, his disciples came unto them. And he sat down and
taught them. And he said unto them, blessed. And he went on to say, ye are
the salt of the earth. If the salt, but if the salt
has lost its savor, Wherewithal shall it be salted? It's no more
good but to be cast out and trodden underfoot. In Mark chapter 9,
look at this. Verse 49, our Lord said, Everyone
shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice salted with salt. Men are going to be salted with
fire. Either the fire of hell or fiery trials. And every sacrifice, he said,
shall be salted with salt. Salt is good, but if the salt
hath lost its saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt
in yourselves, and have peace one with another. What is this
salt? He said the salt of every sacrifice,
salted with salt. Over in the Old Testament, it's
called the salt of the covenant. Every sacrifice was a sacrifice
of flesh. Remember that? They brought lambs
and turtle doves and bullocks and so forth, goats. And every
single flesh offering was to be salted with salt. The reason
being is flesh is corrupt. Just as soon as you kill it,
it starts to corrupt. Dead flesh is corrupt. You men, Brother Henry, you've
given us Virginia hams for years, cured in salt. If you didn't
wrap them in salt, you couldn't come near the room that they
were in, could you? Flesh is corrupt. What does God
think about flesh? It's corrupt. God looked down
on the children of men and said they had corrupted His way. All
the earth had corrupted His way. Flesh. In my flesh dwelleth no
good thing. What is this salt? It's the grace
of God. It's the mercy of God. It's the
salvation of God. It's Christ. It's the blood of
Christ. It's everything that has to do
with the gospel. It's the truth as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are not acceptable to God. We're putrefying. Is that too hard? It's true,
isn't it? Dare we not say what God says?
We better. Men have too high of an opinion
of the flesh, don't they? When God says it's very low and
corrupt. There's only one thing that preserves
it. Only one thing that keeps it from putrefying. Only one
thing that will make it savory. The grace of God. Salt is the
sovereign mercy of God. The sovereign grace of Christ.
Sovereign grace of God. The truth of God. Let your conversation, let your
speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. Seasoned
with salt. And everything we say, may it
somehow or another redound to the glory of God. It has something
to do with the truth. Truth. The truth, this salt is
the truth of who God is, the truth of what man is. Truth of
who Christ is. You know, what you hear most
around you today are lies, lies, lies. Prophets, our Lord said,
they're prophets of lies. And people believe them. They
have a refuge of lies. This is what David said, I said
in my haste, all men are liars. Let God be true and every man
a liar. Well, those who have heard God,
believed God, received the truth, they speak the truth. You can
hear them. And in this day when there's
so much lying on God and lying to men and people believing lies,
we're the salt of the earth. We have the truth. The Lord has
given it to us. How are they going to hear it? That's what
Romans 10 says, doesn't it? How shall they hear without a
preacher? Dare I stand up and not tell the truth? Too many men and women doing
it. Salt is who God is. It's what man is. The truth of
what man is. The truth of who Christ is. What
He did. Why He did it. The fact that
He did do it. Where He is now. Where He is
now. The truth. You know, salt is
a very distinct taste in it. You can just get just a little
bit of it. Salt. You recognize it immediately,
don't you? Salt. A very distinct taste.
And this gospel, this salt is what distinguishes the truth
from a lie. Hopefully, if we say it clear
enough, that it will clearly be distinguished. That's what
we endeavor to do to preach. One time a fellow said this about
Brother Mayhem wrote him a letter. A man or woman, one, wrote him
a letter and said, You and Jimmy Swagger are my two favorite preachers.
And I remember Dad saying, I didn't say it clear enough. I'm going
to try it again. If they didn't catch the difference.
If they didn't catch the difference. This salt is a distinct flavor. In everything, let the salt be
in everything. In every preaching, in every
message, somehow or another, we're going to have to hold forth
our sovereign God. And the utter depravity and helplessness
of man. We're talking about Tulip is
what we're talking about. Total depravity. Is man dead? He's
graveyard dead. Is it up to man? No, it's up
to God completely. 100% by the grace of God. Like
Brother Greg. When Greg comes around, I call
him Gabe. And I'm down there, and when
I come back, I call Gabe Greg. Anyway, Brother Greg. All that
he said, so distinct, wasn't it? So clear. Clear message. It's what distinguishes a truth
from a lie, what distinguishes a true God from the false God
that men have. God who is God, not trying to
be God. The God of today is running for
election, hoping everybody will vote for Him. The God of the
Bible does the electing. God of today, the false God,
the God of men's imagination, is a bystander in the affairs
of men. I'm just shouting this because maybe somebody is standing
outside. But the God of today, the so-called
God, small g, can't do anything unless men let him. He's a bystander
in the affairs of men. That's not the God of the Bible.
That's not the living and true God, the God in whose hands our
breath is and all our ways. Known unto this God are all His
works from the beginning of the world. The God who purposed all
things, He said, I'll do it. I've spoken it. It will come
to pass. The God who will work, and nobody's
going to let Him do anything. They say, let God. Let God do
what? If you let Him do anything, He's
not God. This is salt. Salty speech. You say it about sailors, didn't
you? Didn't the sailors? Salty speech. He meant that in
a bad way. This is good salt. And we can
do that and say this, hopefully with grace. Say it boldly, but
with grace. Speaking the truth in love. It's impossible to do without
God's help. But this salt is what distinguishes
the true Christ. And our Lord said, and Sam, you
read it in the study a while ago, in John 17, our Lord said,
this is life eternal. You want to know what it is to
be saved? Our Lord said it in John 17, 3. This is life eternal
that they might know Thee, the only true God. That means there's
some people that think they know and are believing a God who's
not God. And Jesus Christ, whom He has sent, that is, the One
who came from God to do a job, sent. Did He do it? If he didn't
do it, he's not the Christ. If he didn't do it, we're still
in our sins. Still in our sin. I know you heard this Sunday,
but at the mouth of two or three witnesses, the thing is established.
This is salt. Our Lord said, if the salt has
lost its savor, savor is the strength of it. Right? It's the
strength of it. Have you ever had salt and it
lose its savor? Salt down here in this basement
we've had for years in those little plastic, those little
glass jars, you know, over the years. I went in there one day
and, well, number one, couldn't even get it out of the jar. And
then when I got it out, it didn't taste like salt. What's it good
for? Nothing. Nothing about it to
distinguish it as salt. It won't make anything savory.
It won't help anything. It won't help the taste. It won't
do any good. This is the strength. When he told young Timothy about
preaching, Paul, he said, hold fast the form of sound words
because therein is the power of God. When God says, say it,
say it. That's the power. But men cloak
for fear of men. They cloak or cover up the offense. and try to save a little bit
of it to save their consciences, don't they? The power lies in
the very Word that God spoke. It's a distinct thing. I tell
you what, if you ever get to where you use salt, you can't
go without it. There was a while back there
that, you know, men tell us everything that God made is bad for you,
don't they? realize it's not. It's not. Everything man-made is bad for
you. At any rate, there was a while there, and they told me don't
use any salt, so I quit using salt. Man, food sure was bad. I was salting everything. It's
not proper to salt your food before you taste it, is it? Not
proper, is it? I did it anyway. My mother was
forever saying the beans need salt. All my life, you've said
that before, the beans need salt. And one day I was at her table
and I grabbed the salt and she said, don't salt the beans. I
like salt. The point is, I like salt. If you give a taste for it, you
can't eat without it. If you ever taste this gospel, you'll not be able to listen
to another message that doesn't have any salt. Right? It may sound good, it
may say some good things, but if it's not this gospel, it won't
do you any good. Modern gospel is all sugar and
syrup, isn't it? Sweetness, honey. I kept a man
told, Barnard one time. A man told Barnard, he said,
Brother Barnard, he said, you can catch more flies with honey
And Barnard said, I ain't catching flies. I'm trying to preach to
lost sinners. I'm not catching flies. Paul said, if I yet seek to please
men, I'm not to serve them, cry. You're the salt of the earth
in speech and preaching and witnessing, testifying. What do we testify?
Let your speech be with grace, seasoned with salt. That is the sovereign mercy and
grace of God. Everything we say and do. We're down to the glory of God.
Everything. Seasoned with salt. Too much
salt is a bad thing. Right? And no wind to use it
when not. Like, you know, you don't beat
people over the head with it. Our Lord said, well, in Proverbs
16, Proverbs 16, it talks about, you know, Anyway, in the Proverbs,
it says you need to answer a fool according to his father. And
the next verse says, don't answer a fool according to his father.
You need to know when. You need to know when to talk
about that pearl of great pride. And you need to know when not
to cast it before swine. Who is fishing this time? Lord,
help me. That's why we pray in all things. Lord, help me. I'm going to speak
wrong or I'm not going to speak. I'm going to speak of the bad
attitude. Lord, help me. May my speech be with grace, seasoned
with salt. And if the salt is lost, it's
saved. My, my. And as I said, oh my,
modern religion has made such a mockery of God and His Word
and His Christ. There's no fear of God, only
contempt. There's no sin, no right or wrong,
no consequences, no judgment. The name of God is on the lips
of men, women, and children without fear, and everybody's in danger. It's time for some salty speech,
isn't it? It's time. Salty speech. Let your speech be always with
grace. Remembering your own selves,
he said. Remember that? Remembering your own self. Humbleness
and meekness. Speaking the truth in love. And if some make a difference,
Lord, help. Help. We need help, don't we? But is that a needful exhortation
then? It is to me. I hope it was to
you. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
You for Your Word. Where would we be without Your
Word? We'd be in darkness, even as others. The entrance of Thy
Word, though, giveth light. That Word is a lamp unto our
feet and a light unto our path. Oh my, Lord, the people that
sat in darkness have seen a great light, the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank
You, Lord. shining that light, the light
that has come into this world of darkness. Thank you. Thank
you for your Word. We ask, Lord, that you make us
light in this dark world. Salt this unsavory place. Lord, use us somehow. Use this
church as a witness to the truth. Bring in, we pray, for your glory
and honor. and for their salvation. Bring
in sheep to hear this message, the gospel of salvation. May
we speak it with boldness, but speak it with love. May we speak
it with authority, but yet speak it with compassion. Give us grace,
Lord. We need it. We need great grace.
And it's in Christ's name we have met here tonight and ask
these things. Amen.