Grace, Salt, Answer to every man

Q: What does the Bible say about grace in our speech?

The Bible instructs us to let our speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt (Colossians 4:6). In Colossians 4:6, the Apostle Paul emphasizes the importance of grace in our communication, urging believers to let their speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. This means that our words should reflect the grace we have received from God, as well as being wholesome and edifying to those who hear them. Speaking with grace involves embodying Christ’s message and character, sharing love and truth instead of criticism and condemnation. Just as salt was used in offerings to signify acceptance before God, our conversations should bring healing and life because they are grounded in the truth of the gospel.

Q: How do we know grace is essential for Christians?

Grace is essential for Christians as it represents God's unmerited favor and our salvation through Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9). The Bible teaches that grace is an essential aspect of the Christian faith, serving as the foundation of our relationships with God and others. Ephesians 2:8-9 emphasizes that it is by grace we have been saved, through faith—it is not of ourselves, but a gift from God. This underscores that our acceptance before God is based solely on Christ's merit and not on any personal effort or work. Living in grace transforms our lives, enabling us to extend the same grace we have received to others, reflecting Christ in our actions and words.

Q: Why is being gracious important for Christians?

Being gracious is important for Christians because it reflects God's character and leads to edifying relationships (Colossians 3:12). Graciousness is vital for Christians as it mirrors the nature of God and the grace He has extended to us. Colossians 3:12 reminds believers to put on kindness, humility, and compassion, indicating that Christian character is meant to be defined by grace. Gracious responses foster an environment of understanding and reconciliation, allowing us to witness to the transformative power of Christ in our lives. By embodying grace, Christians promote peace and unity within the body of Christ, demonstrate the love of God to a watching world, and affirm our status as recipients of God's grace.

Q: What does the Bible imply about the relationship between grace and works?

The Bible teaches that grace and works cannot coexist as means of salvation (Romans 11:6). According to Romans 11:6, the relationship between grace and works is clear: if it is by grace, then it is no longer based on works; otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. This theological principle highlights that salvation is a gift from God, entirely unearned and not contingent upon our efforts or good deeds. This understanding liberates believers from the burdens of trying to earn God’s favor and allows them to rest in the finished work of Christ. Instead of striving for acceptance, Christians are called to respond to God's grace with lives of gratitude and obedience, fulfilling the good works He prepared in advance for them.

If you want to turn to Colossians Chapter 4, with me, Colossians Chapter 4, that's where we're going to be today. When we get there, I will read the verse 6 with you. This is the subject of our sermon today, Colossians Chapter 4 and verse 6. It says, Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. So I've entitled this message the same thing, Speak Always with Grace, but I really want you to remember those three things. Grace, salt, and an answer, an answer to every man, because that's what this is saying.

If you remember what we just read there in James chapter 3, I want to refer to that with you. James is one of those books I don't read as often, I have to admit, as I do some of the other places in scripture. That shouldn't be, but that's just the way that it is. It says in verse 13, again, reading from James 3, verse 13, who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you?

Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness and wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, don't boast, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

But the wisdom, and this is the part I want you to focus on, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality, without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. All right.

These words are saying in much more detail a lot of what's in Colossians chapter 4 verse 6, where it says, let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. I also want to read to you from Colossians chapter 4. And I know Harmony pretty well, she'll quiet down in a minute. She gets tired of being so exuberant. But Ephesians chapter 4, it says in verse 29, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that you may minister grace to the hearers. and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor, and clamor is just strife and it's trying to lash out, especially in retribution.

We know about that, don't we? I do. And evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice. This desire that evil would come on others. for my sake. But be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. So what the Lord is teaching us here is we do everything we do in this knowledge, with this light shining upon us from heaven through God's word. God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Consider what God has forgiven you. Consider the price that he paid to forgive you.

This is what he's saying here. Now, in these words in Colossians chapter four and verse six, I want to begin here by considering, first of all, the grace, the grace. He says, let your speech be always with grace. Sometimes preachers give examples from everyday life. I'm going to give one. There was a man I knew pretty intimately. He was prone to not being gracious.

And his daughter was learning to drive, and so he bought a little car. It was a Junker. So if she was banging the car up, it wouldn't cost much. We had a nice car and so we parked the older car in the garage. She backed out of the garage in the old car and banged into the new car. Unlike me, I went out and saw the side of the car all mangled up and I laughed. I said, honey, don't worry about it. For some reason, I acted contrary to my nature.

But that's one case I can think of in my life where I was gracious. This scripture is telling us to be gracious, to be gracious. There was a man, an older gentleman who used to preach, a very good preacher, his name was Maurice Montgomery. I loved his preaching, very simple, very plain. And he said this, you can always be gracious. You can always be gracious.

We don't think that, do we? You know, there's something that's natural to me. It's called criticism of others. And of course, it's because of pride. We think they don't meet my standard. I'm critical of them. I find fault with them. I find fault with people around me, people in government, people in school. It doesn't matter where they are, people at work. There's something wrong. I can see something wrong. It's much easier for me to start with other people's work and criticize it than it is to come up with the work myself. That's just my nature. It's a bad, bad trait.

And the scriptures say in Proverbs chapter, I think it's chapter 13 or maybe it's chapter 10, it says, only by pride cometh contention. So if there's strife, it's because of pride. In James and in Ephesians 4, we just read, we saw that envy leads to contention, envy. You know what envy is? Envy is a desire that bad comes on someone else because they receive good, I think I deserve, but didn't get. I'm a person prone to envy and it's a shameful, shameful thing. I hate it. But it's just part of my nature. I'm always having to confess this propensity to be envious and critical of others. So here he says, right off the bat, he says, let your speech, what you talk about, and the way you say it, be always with grace.

Now, when you think of grace, we just sang this song on page 138. not or nothing, nothing have I gotten but what I received. In other words, I didn't get it, it was given. I didn't out of ambition or my determination or my intellect or my labor or my strength or by deserving nothing. No, it was freely given. He says, I don't have anything but what was freely given to me and I received it. I was not looking for it. I did not deserve it. I didn't even ask for it. God gave it by grace. Yes, that grace came and out of that grace given, I believed. That's what the song says here. He says, grace has bestowed it by which I believe. Boasting excluded. Pride, I abase. I'm only a sinner. That's my only claim. I am a sinful man. but I'm saved by grace.

That's what he's saying here. Such a good song. It goes perfectly with this text of scripture here. He says, let your speech be always with grace. What do you say when the Lord has saved you? He saved me. Isn't that what we say? He saved us and he called us. not according to our works, but according to his own grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

So this is good news, isn't it? Grace is one of those words that when, as a sinner, we hear it, we just delight to hear it. And we can't live without hearing about God's grace. I love this word, and I'm looking for another song on purpose here, so I'm not distracted. Let's see. I'm prepping up for this one. It's actually in my notes, but I want to have it in front of me, too.

Grace is what we think about. Grace is what we seek. Grace is what we are thankful for. The grace of God is the subject of our praise. The reason for our worship is God's grace to sinners, isn't it? And if we haven't learned that we are sinners saved by grace, then we have yet to learn it. And we need to learn this. This is the lesson. Jesus did not come to call the righteous. He didn't come to heal the healthy. He came for the sick. He came for sinners to call them to repentance.

This is what a complete change of mind. Here you are. wallowing in the filth of your envy and pride and striving and criticism because of your pride out of a self-serving lust to gain recognition from men or gain from men or blessings from God or to remove your guilty conscience or whatever it is. And God says, your thinking is entirely wrong. There's not a right thought in you. and you need to change your mind about God, about yourself, and about his salvation.

The only way that can happen is when the light shines, the light of the glorious gospel. That's what he's saying. I don't have anything but what was given to me. Now this is what we're supposed to talk about, grace. When we think of grace, we think of the one who is gracious. When we think of grace, we're to think of Christ who is the very definition of grace. I'm gonna read a text of scripture to you in Ecclesiastes in chapter 10. It says this, in Ecclesiastes chapter 10, and verse 12, the words of a wise man's mouth are gracious. That's what James said in James 3. Is there any wise among you?

You can't control your tongue. It's a world of iniquity. No one has been able to tame the tongue. Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. It shouldn't be that way. But notice this, the words of a wise man's mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself. That's Ecclesiastes 10, verse 12. And that reminds me of Luke chapter four. We're talking about the grace of God. And how do we know it? Luke chapter four, listen to these words here.

In verse 16, he says, and Jesus 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 to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. When he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, and this is what he read.

Verse 18 of Luke 4, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me, notice, to preach the gospel, the glad tidings from heaven itself to sinners, to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. Their heart has no use, it's broken. 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, the year of Jubilee, everything goes back, all is redeemed.

He says in verse 20, and he closed the book, He gave it to the minister and he sat down and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say to them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.

This is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the wise man that Solomon was talking about in Ecclesiastes. The words of the wise man's mouth are gracious. His words are God's words. His words are the words from heaven. In John chapter one it says, the law was given by Moses, but grace And truth came by Jesus Christ.

The King of truth is preaching grace. The King of truth came preaching grace. And that grace was by the Spirit of God in him. Preaching how he would preach the gospel to the poor and heal the brokenhearted, set at liberty the captives. The acceptable year, the day of God's redemption by Christ. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He spoke God's word. He spoke out of his own heart.

The very nature and character, the fame of God was revealed in Christ and we saw it was a revelation of the grace of God by the truth of God. There's nothing more pleasant than that, is it? Grace. Let your speech be always with grace. With grace. What a wonderful thing that is. Can you think in scripture of all the gracious things that the Lord has said to us? These are from God. In 1 Timothy chapter one. The apostle Paul said, I was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. He was blamed. He was to be blamed for that, but he did it ignorantly.

And the grace of our Lord, the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant. The grace of our Lord Jesus was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. You who are sinners and need a savior, this perfectly matches your situation. that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. That's the reason he came. The king of truth came to bear record and witness to the truth that God is gracious. This is his glory.

He told Moses, when Moses asked him, show me your glory, he said, I will be gracious. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. The Lord, the Lord God, gracious, merciful, abundant in mercy, forgiving thousands. This is the grace of God, isn't it?

In Romans chapter four, I want to read these words to you about the words of Christ, the gracious words of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says this. To him that worketh not, this is very important, grace and works are mutually exclusive. Now that's a fancy way of saying it.

You can't have them both. You can't trust in one and trust in the other. You can't trust to be saved by something you do, something in you, something from you, something you're going to become, and also trust that you're saved by grace. Those two things are incompatible.

And so he says, to him that worketh not, Because this is the only way you're going to be saved, is that if you do not do anything to get saved of yourself, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly. This describes those God saves. They're ungodly.

His faith is counted for righteousness. The one we believe is counted to us as our righteousness. That's what he's saying, the author and finisher of life and faith, the one who reveals God's grace and is himself the grace of God given to us and the truth of God given to us. He's the one we believe and in believing him, we have his righteousness, not our own, but his, counted ours, given freely by God.

And then he says these wonderful words in verse six, even as David also, describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, blessed. Oh, the blessednesses, that's what the word means. Oh, the blessednesses are they whose iniquities are forgiven. and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

That's grace. That's what he's saying here. Grace, saved by grace alone. And these are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let your speech be always with grace. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is something that we are given when we don't deserve it. Grace means God gives us blessings we didn't deserve, but on the basis of what Christ has done, He gives them to us freely by His grace.

And there's a favorite verse of mine in Romans chapter three. I often quote it, and it's good that we memorize it, so I'll quote it again in case you haven't. In Romans chapter three, it says, all have sinned. and come short of the glory of God. When Jesus was on the earth, he said, Father, I have glorified thee on the earth. He's the only one who did. Here, he says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Notice the next words, being justified. Being justified by God who does not justify the wicked, who does not condemn the just, yet he says here, we are justified by him freely. not by what we deserve, without cause in us, no cause found in us, freely by His grace, reasons that arose within God to the praise of His grace through on the basis of the ground of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That redemption came by the propitiation of His blood and we have faith in His blood. This is what God has done for us. Grace freely given from God on the basis of Christ. God forgives us for Christ's sake. That's it. freely by His grace. That's grace. Jesus told many parables. One parable He told was about two debtors. One owed 50, another owed 500. Neither had anything. They had nothing to pay. And when they had nothing to pay, He frankly forgave them both. that was free. It was by grace. He told another parable how there was a man who hired workers to work in his vineyard.

And they came and they agreed to him for a penny a day. Those who came in the morning, a penny. Those who came an hour later, a penny. Those who came at the end of the day, working only one hour, a penny. They all got the same. And those who came at the beginning said, it's not fair. Didn't we agree to a penny a day? Yes. But he got a penny and he only worked one hour. And the master of the vineyard said, is your eye evil?

Because I am good. You see, grace is good. Grace is good. It's given by God. It seems good to God. His nature compels Him to do it. He's gracious, and His words to us are gracious. And they're concerning His Son, who is the grace of God, the one who gives us grace. In 2 Corinthians 8, these are familiar texts of scripture, I'm sure, but I want to read this to you. 2 Corinthians 8. So powerful they are.

In verse nine, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich. The way we become rich in righteousness, in faith, in love, and all these things that God gives freely by His grace is because Christ became poor. Remember John 18, if you seek me, let these go their way. He drank the bitter cup that we might drink the cup of eternal blessings and life.

That's grace. Grace gave us a standing before God that is as good and as holy and as pure as Christ himself. We couldn't earn that, can we? Can we earn the gift of the Spirit of God to see these things and know them and believe them? Could we earn the gift of the Son of God given by the Father? He did not spare him, but delivered him up for us all. Can we earn any of these things? Of course not, because it has to be by grace.

And one more verse on this in Romans chapter 11. He says this in Romans 11, verse five. He says, even so then, he says, yeah, I'll read this from verse five. Even so then at this present time also, notice, there is a remnant, a very small leftover portion that God says, that's mine. A remnant according to the election of grace. God choosing us because of his grace, not because of our works. But grace given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

Second Timothy 1.9, given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

And if by grace, notice, if by grace, then it excludes everything in you. I'm paraphrasing. Then it is no more of works. Nothing from you, everything from God, everything in Christ. God gives you what belongs to Christ because Christ emptied himself and gave himself, offered himself to God in sacrifice for our sins. God's riches at Christ's expense, everything given to us by God freely because of His grace He gave everything in His Son. He did not spare Him. He delivered Him up for us all. And with Him, He shall freely give us all things, because He gave His Son. If it's by grace, it absolutely excludes your contribution. It's not your sincerity. It's not your commitment. It's not your dedication or your rededication. It's not your attitude. It's nothing in you.

It's what God found in Christ, period. That's it, only two factors. What God did, what Christ did, what God thinks about it. This is all God's doing, it's grace. Grace alone, and it's according to truth. God's own nature is not compromised in showing grace to sinners because it's grace given out of the holy sacrifice of the Son of God.

All right, so grace excludes all works. Jesus said, you can't serve two masters. You cannot serve two masters. You can't serve grace and works. You cannot come to God by your works and attempt to be saved by grace. You're gonna have to come with nothing for everything based on Christ. You're gonna have to come to God by the offering God made of his son and that Christ gave of himself or you will not be accepted. You have to come as a sinner saved by grace.

All right, then there's a next word here in Colossians chapter four, salt. He says, let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. So there's something about speaking. graciously, and speaking in grace, and this can comprise just about every situation we face. Just a few verses before this, he told husbands, you'll notice I like to preach to myself, husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. This is a complete contrast to that. Don't only not be bitter, but you be gracious to them.

What has God shown you? Well, he saved me when I was opposed to him, and I was an enemy of God, and in my mind, and by wicked works, I was a child of wrath like everyone else. And what did he do? Well, even when I was like that, dead in my sins, for his great love wherewith he loved us, out of the riches of his mercy, he made me alive with Christ, and raised me from the dead. and gave me a new light, a light of the glorious gospel of Christ with life that lives upon Christ by faith. God did this. It was all of his grace.

Well, then how are you going to treat your wife? Oh. Well, I guess I'm going to exact from her exactly what I think she should do. No, no, that's contrary to Christ, contrary to everything. Well, what about the people you work with? What about that person at work? who seems to be rewarded more than you and your livelihoods is at stake because he seems better, more qualified, does a better job. What are you going to do?

I'm going to entrust it all to the Lord because what I have is given to me and I'm going to be gracious. I'm going to be honest. I'm going to be transparent about these things. I'm going to speak about Christ, who is the grace of God, in truth. And I'm going to speak honestly about myself, that He saved me. I did not save myself. I didn't keep myself saved. He does it all or I'm lost and deservedly so.

And yet God in His good pleasure would please God because of His holy nature and His graciousness has not only saved me from the wrath I deserve, but has brought me into a relation as a child of God and made me join me to Christ and brought me into His presence to present me in His presence by His grace without fault, blameless, holy in His sight with exceeding joy.

That's grace, isn't it? That's grace. So he says, with salt. Now, salt is one of those things in scripture that has always been curious to me. Let me take you to a couple of scriptures. I don't want to belabor this because I will easily get distracted from the thrust of this text of scripture. But in Leviticus chapter two, he says this, very helpful, verse that explains this. In Leviticus chapter two and verse 13, he says this, that every offering must be offered with salt. He says in verse 13 of Leviticus two, every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt. Neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering. With all thine offerings, thou shalt offer salt. Okay, so now the Lord is saying everything had to be offered with salt. And that this salt was because of the covenant, the salt of the covenant. Well, that sheds abundant light here on it, doesn't it?

Because God says that the sacrifice was effective, it was only accepted if it was offered with salt. And the salt was an indication of, or it made the covenant. So what have we learned from this? Well, we learned that salt was used to signify God's acceptance of the sacrifice because of the way it was offered with the salt. And that this also was how God showed the covenant to us and made the covenant with this offering that was with salt. So that's the first two things I want to point out about this salt. It was what made the sacrifice accepted and it was what made the covenant. It indicated that the covenant was made. And this covenant is an everlasting covenant, so we see some things from that immediately.

But before I explain it and join it all together, let me also say this. that in the Gospels, Jesus told the disciples, you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has lost its savor, and if you look that up, it means become foolish. Then what are you gonna do? There's no savor to it.

So if you take all these things together, what we learn is that the Lord Jesus Christ himself is the one who made the sacrifice accepted to God, wasn't he? When he offered himself to God, he says, Christ has loved us and gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor.

Remember that? In Ephesians five, verse two. So that we see that Christ is the one who is accepted because What he suffered was accepted. He himself was the one who suffered and made his holy life and his sacrifice of himself, made that offering acceptable to God. And his blood we know also is what made the covenant. Remember he said, this cup is the New Testament in my blood. The blood of the everlasting covenant, Hebrews 13 verse 20. So the covenant is made in his blood.

The sacrifice is accepted because Christ offered himself for our sins to God to be a sweet smelling savor. And the disciples were the salt of the earth because they carried this. They carried Christ and him crucified as the message that they brought. And so the salt was savory, the salt made the sacrifice savory because the salt was really represented Christ enduring, enduring the judgment of God to make satisfaction to God for our sins. He was the propitiation for our sins.

So he himself is both the sacrifice and the salt representing himself sacrificed under this judgment of God. Now, our speech is to be with grace seasoned with salt. In other words, we're to talk about God's grace and be gracious because of Christ's sacrifice for us and accepted by God. His blood made this covenant, God's everlasting covenant. The perpetuity of the covenant is indicated by the salt of Christ's sacrifice of himself to God. Christ is the salt.

2nd Kings chapter 2 was in Jericho and the men of that place said the water here is bad. It's there's nothing growing It's corrupt water Well, it was so because remember Joshua Destroyed Jericho and said whoever builds it again. It'll be cursed and And so that area was cursed and the water was cursed. And so Elisha said, well, give me a new crew, something that holds things like wine and such, one that's never been used for anything else, and put salt in it, fill it up.

And he took that and he cast the salt into the spring of those waters and the waters were healed. Now, if you remember what Brad read in James 3, he says, out of the same fountain cannot come both salt water and fresh. And yet the salt that Elisha threw into that spring made the water fresh.

You see, because the Lord Jesus Christ was cast into the bitterness, of all that was due to God and God's judgment was poured out on him. And because he sacrificed himself for us, what was bitter and deserving of wrath and cursed was taken away because he was cursed for us. So the Lord Jesus Christ, again, represents that salt. The healing of those waters was because Christ was the one who healed the waters of our sickness, of God's blessings, that the curse was taken away and God's blessings were given because of his sacrifice.

Let me read this to you in 1 Peter 2. And see if you can recognize the pattern here. It's throughout these things. But he says in 1 Peter 2, in verse 24, Speaking of Christ, he says, actually I'm going to read in verse 21. Here unto were you called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, no lies, no sin, who when he was reviled, reviled not again.

That's gracious, isn't it? When he suffered, he threatened not. But he committed himself to him who judges righteously. He knew God was going to raise him from the dead, having offered himself for the sins of his people. And when they were nailing him to the cross, he said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Stephen said the same thing as I was telling him. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He said, lay not this sin to their charge. Notice verse 24. Here's the basis.

Who his own self. This is why he didn't bring threats against them or speak threateningly against them to revile them. He said, who his own self. It stacks it up, doesn't it? It's just a layer to emphasize this. Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree that we, here's the salt poured into the spring making the water fresh, we in his death by him bearing our sins on the cross being dead to sins. should live unto righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. Healed by His stripes. That's substitution, isn't it? That's grace, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let this be your speech. Let this be the reason you speak graciously. When someone offends you and you feel you have a right to speak ill and critical of them, I know better. Why that? And we want to call them names and use harsh terms and bring judgment upon them. No. Grace. Let grace be your speech.

And seasoned with salt, Christ crucified, sacrificed for us. He loved me and gave himself for me. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. And so he says in Colossians 4, 6, that you may be able, he says in verse 6, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. This is the way you answer every man.

How? Grace. They have a question. What is the reason for your hope? Grace in Christ. I myself, no hope. All my hope, Christ Jesus the Lord by God's grace. Isn't that a reason? Isn't that a reason? For by grace are you saved through faith. That faith that enables us to see with persuasion from God that Christ is enough. Christ is everything. My acceptance, God's blessings, the removal of the curse, the taking away of my sins, my holiness, my blamelessness, my being presented to God, my being accepted in the presence of His glory without fault, with exceeding joy, all of grace because of Christ.

That's it. I don't talk about what I'm going to do or what I've done. what I might be or could be if I was given enough time and the right circumstances. All those things are grasping for a basis that is not grace. Grace is I'm a sinner, but Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's your speech.

That's the answer. And it's mixed with salt because Christ is everything in this. and I could talk more about this, but one of the questions that always came to my mind about these things was Lot's wife. She was turned to a pillar of salt. Remember that? Jesus said in Mark chapter nine, salt is good.

Everyone, he says, who offends one of these little ones is going to be, is going to be, Let me see how this is. Let me read it exactly in Mark chapter 9, because I'm going to misquote it if I don't read it. Mark in chapter 9, the very end of the chapter, he says this. It's one of those places that always troubled me. He says, everyone shall be salted with fire. He's talking about those who offend one of his little ones.

It would be better for them if a millstone were tied about their neck and cast into the deepest part of the sea because of this. They're going to be salted with fire. And it means here that like the preserving nature of salt, that this fire won't consume them. And every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.

That's the salt that Christ Every sacrifice is only made acceptable and savory to God because of Christ. He's the sacrifice. Salt is good. Christ is good. But if the salt is lost, it's saltness. Wherewithal shall you season it? Have salt in yourselves and have peace one with another. Let God's grace in Christ Jesus to you be the salt and have peace because of it with one another.

If God has forgiven you for Christ's sake, What are you going to do? You're going to have to live accordingly. You're going to have to live with the knowledge and the persuasion of this that they haven't sinned against me. The Lord is the one who has to, that I have to deal with and he's dealt with me by Christ in grace. Let's pray. Father, we pray that we would be enabled to know this grace of Christ in our hearts, that by him you have brought us near. The just for the unjust was given that we might be brought to God.

He did it. We didn't do it. We don't have it in ourselves to want to or to make it happen. But the Lord Jesus himself has accomplished everything. And it's his merit and his power alone we trust. And by trusting him alone, we find no reason for doubt, every reason for assurance. We don't look for something that we must do to fill a requirement some person set up for us. We don't trust in the religious nonsense. that's abounding in our day and in every time in history. But we come like Abel with the sacrifice that you made of your son, and we come by him, trusting him and calling on him to give us this life by grace to believe him. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Grace, Salt, Answer to every man

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about grace in our speech?

How do we know grace is essential for Christians?

Why is being gracious important for Christians?

What does the Bible imply about the relationship between grace and works?

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Grace, Salt, Answer to every man

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about grace in our speech?

How do we know grace is essential for Christians?

Why is being gracious important for Christians?

What does the Bible imply about the relationship between grace and works?

Sermon Transcript

About Rick Warta

Comments

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