Let's turn to Mark chapter 9.
Mark the 9th chapter. We'll begin our reading at verse
38. John answered him, saying, Master,
we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth
not us. And we forbade him, because he
followeth not us. But Jesus said, forbid him not.
For there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name that
can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us
is on our part. For whosoever shall give you
a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ,
verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward. And whosoever
shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is
better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and
he were cast into the sea. And if thy hand offend thee,
cut it off, for it is better for thee to enter into life maimed
than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that shall
never be quenched. Where the worm dieth not, and
the fire is not And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off. It is
better for thee to enter halt into life than having two feet
to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched,
where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee,
pluck it out. It is better for thee to enter
into the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes
to be cast into hell fire, where the worm dieth not, and the fire
is not quenched. For every one shall be salted
with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. The
salt is good, but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith
shall you season it? Have salt in yourselves and have
peace with one another. The first thing to be learned
from these verses is the proper place for religious tolerance. In verses 38 through 42, we see
this lesson set before us. The apostle John said to the
Lord Jesus, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name
and he followeth not us. and we forbade him because he
followeth not us. Now the man was doing good. He
was casting out devils, casting out devils in the name of Christ.
That means casting out devils, calling upon the name of Christ,
casting out devils for the glory of Christ, casting out devils
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not just saying in the
name of Christ we do this, but truly calling on the name of
the Lord, worshiping him. But this man was not numbered
with the Lord's disciples. He was not a member of their
little band. He was fighting the same war, but in a different
battalion. And that didn't set well with John, so he rebuked
the man, said, you stop doing that. However, John's rebuke
did not set very well with master. Our Lord said to John, forbid
him not, for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my
name that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against
us is on our part. Now, I grant that it was a strange
thing for one to cast out devils in Christ's name and not be numbered
among his professed followers and disciples publicly identified
with them as a believer. I acknowledge also that it was
a strange thing for one to cast out devils in the name of Christ
and not be in any way associated with the apostles of Christ.
Perhaps this man was a disciple of John the Baptist. Perhaps
he was not. We're not told. But this man, we are told plainly,
was one whom the Lord Jesus defended in what he was doing. He rebuked
John for rebuking the man. And there's a reason why we're
given this picture. The sad fact is we are all so
proud that we are all prone to think that nothing can be done
unless it's done by us or by one with whom we're identified. We kind of have a tendency to
think nothing really good and spiritual and profitable can
be done by anyone unless we do it or someone with whom we're
closely associated does it. We must never, never, now I'm
going to preface some comments by this statement. We must never,
never, never be tolerant of those who oppose the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now I do not mean that in a civil
way. I don't suggest by any means
that we do what Protestants and Papists have done through the
years and take up arms and imprison folks who differ from us. That's
not what I mean. I'm talking about we must never, never, never,
give any consideration that that which opposes the gospel of Christ
is the true worship of God and the truth of God. The scriptures
are abundantly clear. Let's look at a couple of them.
I'll call your attention to just a few texts and then I will read
some others. 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse
17. Now let men call us bigots, slanderous
and narrow-minded sectarians if they choose. Our responsibility
is clear, absolutely crystal clear with regard to every form
of false religion. Some of you will remember when
you first spoke to me about coming here as your pastor, I said to
you first time I was here, If there is any place in this town
or within a reasonable driving distance of this town where you
can worship God, where you can go hear a man speak the truth
of God, don't call me here. Go worship with those people.
And if you call me as your pastor, then you are declaring to me
that there is no one else here declaring the gospel of God's
free grace. In a town of this size, not any
need for two congregations. I'll go somewhere else. And we've
been here and nothing has changed. The scriptures are abundantly
clear. Now hold your hands here, 2 Corinthians, and just listen
for a minute. The prophet Isaiah says, go forth out of Babylon,
flee ye from Babylon. They said, well, that's talking
about physical Babylon. Oh, no. That picture of Babylon,
the physical city, that captivity that the Jews had, was only a
portrayal of spiritual darkness and spiritual delusion. The prophet
says again, Depart ye, depart ye, go out from tents, touch
no unclean thing. Go ye out of the midst of her,
be ye cleaned by the vessels of the Lord. What's he talking
about? He says you cut yourself off from every form of idolatry
and works religion. And that's exactly the text to
which the Apostle Paul refers in 2 Corinthians 6 and verse
17. Wherefore, come out from among
them and be ye separate, saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean
thing, and I will receive you. Now this passage of scripture
is often used with reference to believers being mingled with
unbelievers in various realms of society. I had a letter recently,
a fellow asked me if it's all right or improper for him to
be part of a labor union where there are unbelievers. And he
referred to this passage of scripture and those preceding it, be not
unequally yoked together and so on. Now, certainly, certainly,
without question, We must not form for our companions, husbands
and wives and so forth. We must not choose for our companions
and friends, those who are constantly influencing our lives and our
family's lives, those who do not know our God. But in this
text of scripture, Betty, the passage is telling us to have
nothing to do with false religion. That's the text. Have nothing
to do with Arminian free will works religion. Have nothing
to do with idolatry. Have nothing to do with it. Do
not in any way give any consideration to that form of religion that
does not declare salvation by God's free grace alone. It is
absolute idolatry. And for us to promote it is for
us to damn the souls of men in doing so. Look again in the scripture. Revelation 18 verse 4. Well,
you know, the church I go to, they don't preach anything, but
they've got so much to provide for the children. You know, they've
got youth programs, and they've got old people's programs, and
they do so much good charitable work, and they've got a ball
team, and they've got a gymnasium, and they've got all the stuff
that'll keep folks happy while they go to hell. So I'm going
to keep my kids right there. I'm going to keep my family right
there. Listen to what God says. I heard another voice from heaven
saying, Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of
her sins, that you receive not of her plagues. You better come
out. In 2 Chronicles 19, folks, you're
a little hard on these folks. Jehu said to Jehoshaphat the
king, shouldest thou help the ungodly and love those that hate
the Lord? Therefore is wrath come upon
thee from the Lord. The apostle Paul said concerning
the Judaizers at Galatia, those who taught a mixture of grace
and works, he said, if any man preach any other gospel unto
you, let him be damned. Look in 2 John 1, verses 9, 10,
and 11. We're urged over and over again
in this regard. 2 John, verses 9, 10, and 11. Here the apostle writes to us,
this apostle who is known as the disciple of love, the beloved
disciple, tender-hearted, compassionate John. This was not some old grouchy
man. This was the tender-hearted,
compassionate John. He says, whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. Anybody who does not believe
the revelation of God concerning his son in this book does not
know God. Read on. He that abideth not
in the doctrine of Christ, the teaching of substitutionary atonement,
satisfaction by his blood, salvation by his grace, those who abide
not in the doctrine of Christ have not God. He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son.
If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, you
say, well, we'll pray for you. The Lord bless you. No, receive
him not into your house, neither pray for him. Don't bid him Godspeed,
don't wish him well. For he that biddeth him Godspeed
is partaker of his evil deeds. What on earth does that mean?
What does that mean? You come here and listen to this
preacher, declare the gospel of God's grace, and then sometimes
you go down and worship with the papist, or you go worship
with the free willers, the Arminians, or you go to this thing or that,
you go to this religious exercise or that religious exercise. As
you do, as you do, you give credibility to that form of religion. and
in giving credibility to that form of religion, you say to
folks all around you, this is all right. And you are just as
guilty of proclaiming the lie as if you stood in the pulpit
and did it yourself. Just as guilty. Well, pastor,
what are we to do? Come out. Have nothing to do
with it. Stay away from it. I recall the
first time I talked to you was James Jordan sitting here. And
we chatted a little bit. James was the first Baptist,
and that fellow probably hear this, that'd be all right. Shelby
and I came home and discussed it, prayed about him, said, well,
if he's God, God'll take care of it. God'll take care of it. And he will. And he will. Believers forsake idolatry. They
forsake darkness. They forsake free will works
religion. That place where man's will is
worshipped is not the place where the Son of God is worshipped.
Those who declare salvation by what you do, do not know the
gospel of God's free grace wherein we declare salvation by what
Christ has done. Now there is an absolute Absolute
demand here. There is no place for compromise
with regard to the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace
in Christ. Brother Todd Nybert and I were talking about this
recently. Did you ever wonder what it was so bad that Balaam
did? You read about Balaam. Go back and read the book of
Numbers. I don't read a single thing he said that was wrong. Not a single thing. But Balaam
was a false prophet. Held up as an example of the
most odious form of false prophet. What did Balaam do? All he did
was persuade Israel to go along with the religions of Canaan.
That's all he did. Don't tell them that's wrong.
Don't tell them Christ alone is the way, grace alone is the
way, this alone is the gospel. You go ahead and worship God,
but mingle the worship of the idolaters with the worship of
God. The way of compromise is the way to hell when it comes
to the gospel. Bend over backwards everywhere
else. Compromise on everything else, but not the gospel of God's
free grace. We must never yield to this pressure,
constant pressure to compromise. Those who do not believe and
preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ are not with us,
but against us. They are not the servants of
Christ, but the servants of Satan. They do not do good to the souls
of men, but ruin the souls of men. With regard to such men,
our Lord Jesus speaks very plainly in Matthew chapter 12. Listen
carefully, you can read it later. Verse 30. He that is not with
me, with me in doctrine, with me in the message I preach, with
me in spirit, with me in purpose, with me in determination for
the glory of God. He that is not with me is against
me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Now then, let's look at this
passage here in Mark 9. Here, our Lord Jesus teaches
us to bend over backwards. and always be lenient with those
who preach the gospel, who truly preach the gospel, but for some
reason or other do not identify themselves with us. Now that's
a white horse of another color. That's a different story altogether.
Sometimes, regrettably, sometimes good men are divided. That's
sad. That's a sad, sad fact, but it
is a fact. There came a time when Paul and
Barnabas, both faithful men, faithful servants of God, preached
the same gospel, the gospel of God's free grace in Christ. But
there came a time when they had a division among them because
of Barnabas's nephew and John Mark. Paul said, no, I'm not
going to put up with that man again. I'm not going to be disappointed
in him again. Don't have time to fool with
him. And they had such a strong division that Paul and Barnabas
parted company on that particular occasion. Now, that's sad. It ought not happen, but it did. That's just the way things are. Sometimes faithful men, because
of personality clashes, because of events in providence, because
of things that come between them, part company and no longer labor
together. As it was in Elijah's day, so
it is today. God still has 7,000 prophets
who haven't bowed the knee to Baal. He still does. I don't
know them all. I've been around a bit and I
know a good many of them, but I don't know them all. Every
now and then I meet up with a new one, meet up with someone that I didn't
know before, been preaching the gospel of God's free grace. I
go down and preach with Brother Linwood Campbell down in North
Wilkesboro, just outside of my hometown. And he'd been down
there for years and years and years. I didn't know it. Didn't
know anything about him. But now do, and we rejoice in
the fact that God's brought us together. But the fact is, there
are many who preach the gospel of God's grace. The same message
that's preached here every time we meet together, who serve our
master, the same Lord and Savior that we serve. And they are our
brethren, though we may not have any particular association with
them. Even if they act out of envy,
jealousy, and strife, and that happens. If they preach the gospel
of Christ, truly preach the gospel of Christ, let us never be found
fighting against them. Just don't do it. Man preaches
the gospel of God's free grace and you just stand back. Support
him and don't be found fighting against him. Now there are two
relevant passages that I want us to look at. Numbers chapter
11. Turn to Numbers chapter 11 and then Philippians chapter
1. I want you to see these two texts. These are relevant to our understanding
of this statement by our Lord. You understand what I'm saying
now? Those who preach another gospel, there's absolutely no
room for tolerance. There's absolutely no acceptance
of our many and free will works religion. We look upon it as
the most damning form of heresy the world has ever known. It
is the most damning form of idolatry men have ever perpetrated. So
we will not in any way embrace it. But those who preach the
gospel of God's free grace in Christ, Though they may not particularly
like your pastor, or particularly like you, though they may not
even have any knowledge of your pastor or of you. Though we may
not know them, nor them us. And though they might even act
out of personal envy and jealousy toward us. If they preach the
gospel of God's free grace, leave them alone. Look here, Numbers
11, verse 27. There ran a young man, Joshua. and told Moses and said, El-dad
and Mid-dad do prophesy in the camp. Oh, those fellows, how
dare they? And Joshua, the son of Nun, the
servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said,
My Lord Moses, forbid them. Stop them from doing that. They're
taking your place. And Moses said unto them, Envious
thou for my sake. Don't be upset for my sake. You
don't have to worry about me. I'm God's prophet. I'm God's
servant. He put me here. You don't have to envy for my
sake. Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets and
that the Lord would put his spirit upon them. Now the apostle Paul
speaks in the same vein in Philippians chapter 1. Paul was in prison. And he says in verse 15, some
indeed preach Christ, even of envy and strife, and some also
of goodwill. Now notice the key. They preach
Christ. They preach Christ. No matter,
no matter what they personally are, they preach Christ. That's
the key. The message, Ron, is Christ crucified.
That's the message. To one, verse 16, preach Christ
of contention. and not sincerely, supposing
to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing
that I'm set for the defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether
in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. That is, whether
in pretense or in sincerity, so long as Christ is preached,
I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. Man comes and preaches
the gospel of God's free grace. And I'll be honest with you,
no matter what happens to him, no matter what he is in sincerity,
I rejoice that he preaches the gospel of God's free grace. I've
known a few men over the years who proved themselves to be reprobate
men. After a while, they departed
from the faith, departed from the gospel, departed from the
things of God altogether, gave way to their lust and went their
own way. But while they preached, they
preached the gospel of God's free grace. And some of them,
I had my own concerns about why they were doing it, but they
preached the gospel of God's free grace. I rejoice when the
truth is preached. The issue is not the man, but
the message. Do you understand that? The issue
is not my relationship with a man, but the message. The message
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I rejoice when Christ is
preached, and you ought to as well. Now then, let us never
be found opposing Christ. Look in verses 41 and 42. Whosoever
shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, And notice
how he explains that. Because you belong to Christ. A man looks at you and says,
this man belongs to Christ. He's my brother. I want to serve
him. If he needs some water, I'll
give him a cup of water. If he needs a place to sleep, he can
sleep downstairs in our guest room. If he needs a place to
eat, he can come over here and eat with us. If he needs something,
we can provide it, we'll take care of it. He's one who belongs
to Christ. Verily I say unto you, he shall
not lose his reward. Now what does that mean? That
means those who serve Christ in any way, no matter how insignificant
it may seem to be, those who do what they do for Christ's
sake, for Christ's sake, they shall be honored of God always. man gives a cup of cold water
because you belong to Christ. I'll honor him. I'll honor him. And then in verse 42, our Lord
says, and whosoever shall offend one of these little ones, one
of these people who just gives a cup of cold water for Christ's
sake, one of these little ones that believe on me, It is better
for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he
were cast into the sea. It's better that a person had
never been born than that he be found persecuting and opposing
the Lord's children. So you'd be real careful. You'd
be real careful. I hear fellas sometimes speak
real harshly, and usually it comes from young men, young women,
particularly from young men who haven't been converted long,
usually naive fellows who haven't experienced much, and they seem
real quick to judge fellows. He's false prophet. He doesn't
know God. You be careful. You be careful. Better to keep your mouth shut
than to speak the wrong thing against one of God's servants
or one of God's people. Don't be rash in what you say.
Be careful how you speak. Now with those things in mind,
Let us learn to be lenient and tolerant toward those who profess
to be our brothers and sisters in Christ. I remind you again,
we simply do not know who belongs to Christ and who does not. We
do not have the ability to discern between sheep and goats, tares
and wheat. We simply can't tell. Remember,
he that is not against us is on our part. Now then, Immediately
following his instructions about the proper place for religious
tolerance, our Lord shows us the necessity of rigorous self-denial. We always have a tendency to
be terribly severe on others and real lenient with ourselves.
That's the reason the Lord speaks as he does here. First he said,
now you be tolerant. You be tolerant with those who
are not against us. Those who preach the gospel of
God's grace, you be tolerant with them. Be severe on yourself. Be tough on yourself. That's
what we find in verses 43 through 48. In these verses, our Savior
tells us plainly that we must willingly give up anything and
everything that stands between us and Him. Anything and everything. The hand and the foot which are
to be cut off and the eye that is to be plucked out if they
offend, if they keep us from following Christ, are idols which
must destroy our souls or must be destroyed by our own hands.
Did you hear me? The hand to be cut off, the foot
to be cut off, the eye to be plucked out represent idols. which will destroy our souls
if they are not destroyed by our own hands. Though they are dear to me as
my right eye, my right hand, and my right foot, anything that
stands between me and Christ Anything that keeps my soul from
him, from obedience to him, from worshiping him, from doing his
will, no matter how painful or costly it is, it must be cut
off, plucked out, and buried. The fact is we must all go to
the cemetery and bury our idols the sooner the better. This dear lady sitting over here
to my right, there is nothing and no one walking topside of
God's earth that comes close to comparing with her in my heart's
love and admiration. I esteem her more highly than
any human being I know. But I have long ago and I do
again today. Take her to the cemetery and
bury her. Insofar as my obedience to God
is concerned, she can't be considered. You understand that? That's what
he's talking about. What about your daughter? I have
long ago buried her and do again this day. What about your friends? I've long ago buried them and
do again this day. Nothing must be allowed to stand
between me and my God, nothing. Preaching the gospel of God's
free grace over the years, I say this without any regret, without
any lamentation. I'm not calling for pity, but
preaching the gospel of God's free grace as I do has cost me
many a friend. many a relationship, and it will
cost many more. And every time I have to deal
plainly and candidly with those things that are opposing to men's
flesh and man's religion, I count the cost. And I realize that
when I say this, when I write this, oh, that old boy is going
to hear it. He's going to read it. That'll
be the end of this relationship. Unless God opens his heart, that'll
be the end of it. I know ahead of time that'll
be the end of it. What do you do? Well, I preach it anyhow. Nothing
can stand. Nothing can stand between me
and my master. Years ago, John Gill, back in
those days when things were published, his commentaries and things like
that, they would have subscribers. Subscribers would back up the
publishing. They would be the ones who had
the money and they would pay for it. You didn't have big publishing
houses like we do now who would pay a man to go and publish a
book, or you could hire him to publish a book for you, but they'd
have subscribers. And if you published, let's say,
a thousand commentaries or a thousand copies of a book, then this fellow
would back it up primarily, and then you'd sell it to people
out there before it was ever published and the money would
be taken care of and all that. Well, Gill was dealing with the matter
of believers' baptism one time, and one of his most generous,
wealthy subscribers was a pedo-baptist. And someone said to him, as he
was about to publish his tract against infant and expose it
for being just a remnant of Romanism as it is, someone read that tract
and said, well, you can't do that. That'll offend this fellow
here. Then where will you be? Well,
that was the wrong thing to say to Gil. He said, don't speak
to me of being poor. I will publish the tract and
publish it he did, regardless of cost or consequence. And so
must we faithfully serve our God. Our Savior said, if any
man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and
children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he
cannot be my disciple. and whosoever doth not bear his
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. So likewise,
whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot
be my disciple. What does that mean? Well, it
means exactly what you think it means. Exactly. What does it cost to be a Christian? Nothing from you, but all of
you. That's what it costs. You save your life, you want
to contain your life and continue to rule your life, make decisions
for yourself, go ahead, you'll go to hell. But if you lose your
life to the rule and dominion of Jesus Christ, now you've saved
it. That's it. At first sight, our
Lord's teaching in this passage may seem a little hard and rough,
but there's a reason for it. Compliance is absolutely essential. If we do not tear every idol
from its pedestal in our hearts, the idol we most cherish, will
drag us to hell. Therefore, the apostle says,
they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affection
and lust. But I keep unto my body and bring
it in subjection, lest that by any means when I preached unto
others, I myself should be a castaway. If we would follow Christ, if
we would be his disciples, we must consecrate ourselves to
him. I told Shelby this afternoon
I had never really observed in the Old Testament that word consecrate. Back in Exodus and Leviticus
when the Lord commanded Moses to tell Aaron and his sons to
consecrate themselves, to consecrate the priest, to consecrate themselves
to the Lord, the marginal reference, you know what it constantly is?
Let them feel their hands. Feel their hands. That's what it is to consecrate
yourself to him. Fill your hands for Christ and
you must drop everything else. Thirdly, in this passage of scripture,
our Lord shows us the reality of everlasting hell. Verses 43
through 49. Now this is a subject I don't
much like to talk about, but faithfulness to God, to his word
and to your soul demand that I do. I get calls fairly often
from people who talk almost in glowing terms about hell, fire,
and damnation. Folks call me up and say, you
preach hell, fire, and damnation, don't you? I abhor that attitude. They seem to gloat in the fact
that some people are going to hell. And yet I must tell you
plainly that hell is real. Judgment is real. And some of
you are going there right now. I don't know what hell is. I
don't know where it is. I don't know what the fires of
hell are. I don't know what the blackness and darkness of hell
is. But I know this, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, warns us repeatedly of a place of torment
reserved for the damned. A place he describes as a place
where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched. Lightness and darkness forever. Those are awful expressions.
They call more for meditation than exposition. Ponder them. Think about them. Consider them. Reflect upon them. While you
try to ignore my voice, I pray that God will cause you to hear
these words, and when you lay on your bed at night, you consider
what I'm saying. fire, unquenchable fire, worm
that never dies, blackness and darkness forever. It doesn't matter whether you
regard the language as figurative or literal. If these things are
taken figuratively, then the worm and the fire and the darkness
describes things that are real. This much is certain. There is
a place of eternal torment called hell. In hell, there is a worm
that never dies. And I know what it is. I don't
have any question what that worm is. It is the gnawing worm of
a keenly awakened conscience that never dies. The rich man
in hell lifted up his eyes and he saw Lazarus and Abraham. And in hell, he understood everything
he had done and everything he had despised and everything he
missed and his conscience tormented. In hell, the fire of God's wrath
is never quenched. The torments of the damned can
never satisfy the wrath and justice of the Holy Lord God. And therefore,
our Lord makes reference to the sacrifices of the Old Testament
here in verse 49, in which God required that every sacrifice
be salted with salt. Now, I saw something here today
studying this passage that I had never noticed before. Back in
Leviticus 2, verse 13, the Lord required that every sacrifice
be salted with salt, that a covenant of salt be honored, and that
those sacrifices offered with salt be burnt as a burnt offering,
a sweet-smelling savor to the Lord. Now, why? Why the salt? It wasn't for taste. The sacrifices
were burned up. Why the salt? The salt is that
which preserves and keeps and causes things to last indefinitely. It represents the justice of
God that demands satisfaction, that satisfaction that cannot
be made by any human sacrifice. It could be made only by Jesus
Christ and His shed blood. Here in verse 49 of Mark 9, for
everyone, that is everyone in hell, shall be salted with fire. What on earth does that mean? If you die in your sins, if you
perish without Christ, you'll be cast into hell to suffer the
everlasting indescribable horror of God's wrath. And there the
worm of your tormenting conscience will relentlessly gnaw at your
soul. The fires of God's wrath will
burn forever. This is what the Lord is telling
us. The fires of God's wrath in hell will do the same thing
to your body and soul that salt does for meat. Some of you will
remember before the days when everybody had freezers, you'd
kill a hog and you'd take it and put it in a salt box, and
you'd leave it there, salt it down. And you'd go out there
all year long and cut you off some meat, go in and fire it
up, and you got food fresh preserved, kept by salt. The salt kept it
from rotting and decaying. And thus the fires of God's wrath
in hell will preserve your body and your soul to endure his wrath
unquenchably forever. Your conscience will not die.
Your knowledge will not cease. Your sensitivity will not cease. Your lust will not cease. whole
being intensified with keen awareness, but kept in life to suffer death
forever and ever. Who can describe the horror of
hell? This is the second death. There'll be no mercy for your
soul, no blood atonement, no gift of repentance, no hope,
no grace, no Christ. Now, look at verse 50. Here our Lord speaks about the
salt of grace and peace. Salt is good. But if the salt
have lost its saltness, wherewith shall you season it? And look
at this last line, have salt in yourselves and have peace
one with another. Let me give you these two things
and I'll quit. Number one, give diligence, my friends, to make
your calling and election sure. Have salt in yourselves. Make
sure, Rex, that you don't have just a religious profession.
Make sure that you've got something more than a religious knowledge
and religious experience. Have salt in yourselves. Make
sure you've got the real thing. Make sure you've got the grace
of God, which alone will preserve you into everlasting life. Don't
be satisfied with having Christ on your lips. Make sure he's
in your heart. Don't be satisfied with talking about grace. Make
sure you've got the grace of God in you. Give diligence to
make your calling and election sure. Examine yourselves whether
you be in the faith. Be certain that you know the
Lord Jesus Christ and give no rest to your soul until you do.
Secondly, have peace with one another.
Children of God, have peace with one another. In the Old Testament,
in Numbers 18 and 25, the covenant of peace is called a covenant
of salt. And here our Lord It takes the opportunity to admonish
his disciples who had just been disputing, you recall earlier
in the chapter, about who's going to be greatest. I believe I deserve, well, you
know, I wouldn't say this out loud. I believe I deserve the
place of preeminence. After all, look what I've done.
Look what I've given up. And our Lord says to his disciples
now, you have peace, one with another. It is the unity of the spirit
and the bond of peace, which is the salt, the strength, and
the preserving quality of God's church in this world. If you
would truly promote peace, if we would truly promote peace,
we must always season our speech with the salt of grace. Always. Listen to this. Let your speech
be always with grace, seasoned with salt. Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use
of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers. If it be possible, As much as
lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Let us therefore
follow the things which make for peace, and things wherewith
we may edify one another. Promote peace when you speak. Wise was David when he said,
set a watch, O Lord, set a watch before my mouth. Ask God to give us grace. Ask
God to give you grace, and me, that we may bridle our tongues
and speak with grace one to another. Have our speech seasoned with
salt. At the risk of embarrassing my
friend, Brother Merle, I said this to others, I say it publicly.
In 18 years, I've never heard that man say anything that wasn't
profitable. Never. Never heard him speak
evil or critically or harshly of another man who believed the
gospel of God's grace. Oh, what an example. What an
example. Most of us run off at the mouth
way too much. too quick to give our opinion.
I read a thing in Reader's Digest on the airplane the other day.
It said, let's see, how was it? It said, good constructive criticism
is never so admirable as it is in the mind of the one who gives
it. And nobody wants it. Nobody asks for your opinion.
Keep it to yourself. Don't be critical and harsh and
judgmental, don't always have something to say, just listen
sometimes. And when you speak, speak that
which is good to the use of edify. What does that mean? Command,
encourage, comfort, strengthen one another. Don't be pointing
out faults. My soul, I can look in the mirror.
You don't have to tell me what I look like. You don't have to
point out my faults. I see them. The Word of God points
them out. But rather, let us speak edifyingly
one to another, building one another up, promoting one another,
honoring one another. and thus promote peace. May God add his blessings now
to his word. Lindsay, you come lead us in
a hymn. Me and we'll serve the Lord's table. Bobby, you and
Ron assist him if you will.