Would you turn back to Colossians
chapter 4? I hope it goes without saying,
pray for me as I attempt to preach the gospel. Pray for yourself
that you'll be able to hear. I feel all day long I've kind
of been pressed with the fact that my words are so unaffectual
unless the Lord is pleased to bless them. I've entitled this
message words of grace. In verse 6, in the latter part
of the verse, we read about our words being seasoned
with salt that you may know how you ought to answer every man. Now, the word answer in verse
6 is not the same word that Peter used in 1 Peter 3, verse 15,
when he said, always be ready to give an answer to every man
that asks you a reason for the hope that's in you. When Peter
used the word, it was a different word than Paul used in Colossians
chapter 4. It is where we get the word apologetics
from. It's giving a defense. The word in our text is giving
an answer to a question. That's how it's always used,
giving an answer to a question. The Lord would sometimes answer
people who hadn't said anything, but he read their thoughts. He
read what they were thinking, and he would give them an answer. Now, men ought to be seeing things
in us and hearing words come out of our mouth that causes
them to ask questions. Did you know that? Let me repeat
it. Men ought to be seeing things
in us and they ought to be hearing words that come out of our mouth
that cause them to ask questions. Now let's back up to verse 5
where Paul says, walk in wisdom toward them that are without. You know, the thought of being
without, without God, without Christ, without hope. We want those who are without
to be within, don't we? We really do. We want them to
be within. And the reason the Lord has left
you and I here on earth and not brought us into glory is to be
his witness. That is our primary purpose here
on earth is to be his witness. Now witness is somebody who's
seen something. I don't mean just spitting out secondhand
information. To be his witness to all men. I love what The Lord
sent Ananias to Paul, saying, Though God of our fathers hath
chosen thee, that thou shouldst know his will, and see that just
one, and hear the voice of his mouth, for thou shalt be his
witness to all men of what you've seen and what you've heard. Do
you remember when the Lord said, Follow me? and I will make you
fishers of men." Now that lets me know that if I'm following
the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm actively engaged in this thing of being
a fisher of men. Walk in wisdom toward them that
are without God, without Christ, without grace, without hope.
We really do want these people to know our Lord and be saved
by His grace. We want them to know and love
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Paul says, walk in wisdom
toward them that are without, those who are unbelievers. Walk
as a Christian. That's simple enough. That's
all he means. Be kind. Be gracious. Be forgiving. Be concerned for them and for
their welfare. We're going to look at a passage
of scripture in just a moment where Joseph was looking at the prisoners
and he said, why are you so sad? He looked at a couple of guys
who looked downcast. He said, why are you so sad? He was showing
a genuine concern for their welfare. Let him know you care about him.
Be nonjudgmental. Be non-threatening. Treat them
in fairness. Do not be disrespectful. Let them see by your walk that
you really believe what you say you do. That's what he's saying
when he says walk in wisdom toward them that are without, toward
unbelievers. Turn with me for a moment to
Genesis chapter 45. This is an example of walking
in wisdom toward them that are without. This is when Joseph makes himself
known with brothers. Now, his brothers had sold him
as a slave. You know, whenever you read in
the paper about human trafficking going on, it gives you the creeps
even to think about something like that. Well, that's what
they did with him. They sold him as a slave, not caring about
him at all. And now he makes himself known
to these men. They didn't know who he was.
But look at this passage of scripture in Genesis chapter 45. Verse
1, then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that
stood by him. And he cried, cause every man to go out from me.
And there stood no man with him while Joseph made himself known
unto his brethren. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians
in the house of Pharaoh heard, and Joseph said unto his brethren,
I'm Joseph. Can you imagine how flipped out
they must have been? This is the man we sold. We hadn't
seen him in years, and now here he is in this powerful position. What's he going to do with us?
They were scared to death. They were shaking in their boots.
You see, they projected on him what they would have done, and
they thought he's going to do the same thing, and they were
very scared. I am Joseph. Doth my father yet
live? And his brethren could not answer him, for they were
troubled at his presence, terrified. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
come near to me, I pray you. And they came near and he said,
I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. You know, I've heard people say,
well, if you don't forget, you haven't really forgiven. Joseph
didn't forget, did he? I'm Joseph, whom you sold into
Egypt. He remembered that. Now therefore be not grieved
nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither, for God did
send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath
the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years
in which you shall neither be earring nor harvest, and God
sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth
and to save your lives by great deliverance. Now it was not you
that sent me hither, but God. You know, he really believed
in the sovereignty of God, didn't he? He demonstrated he believed in the
sovereignty of God. He said, you sold me into Egypt. You did
this. But you didn't do it. God did. God sent me. this way to preserve life, a
great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent
me hither, but God. And he hath made me a father
to Pharaoh, and Lord over all his house, and a ruler throughout
all the land of Egypt. Haste ye, and go ye up to my
father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath
made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down unto me, tarry not,
and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be
near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children's children,
and thy flocks, and thy herds. and all that thou hast, and there
will I nourish thee for there yet five years of famine, lest
thou and thy household and all that thou hast come to poverty."
Isn't that beautiful, the way he, that's walking in wisdom. Turn
with me to chapter I spilled tea on my notes before
church service, and there's a lot of blotched out, bleeding, and
I'm trying to get through it, so you'll forgive me for that,
I know. Genesis chapter 40. walk in wisdom toward them that
are without. This is when he was in prison,
and Joseph came in unto them in the morning and looked upon
them. These were not his friends. And behold, they were sad. And
he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of
the Lord's house, saying, Wherefore look ye so sadly today? I think
that's interesting. I mean, just, he looked at these
people. Now, the Lord put him in this, and he's going to tell
these, he's going to interpret their dreams, and through his
interpretation of those dreams, he's going to be brought to Pharaoh,
and he's going to make these other interpretations, and you
can see God's glorious providence in all of this. But look at,
just he's there, and he sees these two people, and he sees
them sad. He says, why do you look so sad? That's walking in
wisdom towards them that are without. Look in Genesis 39,
verse 7. And it came to pass after these
things that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph. And
she said, Lie with me. But he refused, and said unto
his master's wife, Behold, my master what is not what is with
me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to
my hand. There is none greater in this house than I, neither
hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art
his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against
God? And it came to pass, as she spake
to Joseph day by day, that he would not hearken not unto her,
or to lie with her. And it came to pass, about this
time, that Joseph went into the house to do..." Well, you know
the story of what took place, but how he walked in wisdom toward
those that are without. Now, I realize that Joseph is
a beautiful and a glorious type of Christ in this passage of
Scripture, and that's why his life seems so spotless. He had
sins like you and I do, but they're not brought up. They're just
not brought up. I mean, his brother's sins are
brought up, but his aren't. But oh, how he walked in wisdom towards
them that are without. And what I thought of was Philippians
chapter four, verse six, where Paul said, let your moderation
be known to all men. That's what it is to walk in
wisdom toward them that are without. Let your moderation be known
to all men. Now that word moderation does not mean you're real moderate
in eating and drinking. You really control your diet.
You're a real disciplined person and you show everybody about
how moderate you are and how Christians are. That has nothing
to do with what that word means. That is the word that's generally
translated gentleness. Humane. Forbearing. Patient. not insisting on the letter of
the law. That's what you want men to see
in you. Your moderation. Understanding the facts behind
what someone was doing that makes you understanding. Now, Paul
says back to our text, walk in wisdom toward them that are without. And the next phrase he uses is
redeeming the time. Making the most of every opportunity
to do good to the souls of men and to adorn the doctrine of
God our Savior. Redeeming the time, making the
most of every opportunity. Now that doesn't mean you want
to grab somebody and say, are you a Christian or hand them
a tract and just everybody you can get around to, I need to
witness to this person. No, but you want to redeem the time.
You want to conduct yourself in such a way that folks are
asking you questions. And I want to speak in such a
way as people are asking me questions when they hear the words of my
mouth. Now, look in verse 6. He says, let your speech, and
that word speech is just word, let your word be always with
grace. seasoned with salt, that you
may know how you ought to answer every man." Literally, let your
words be words of grace. How often? Always. All the time. Now, if our conduct is gracious
conduct, and if our words are words of grace, people ought
to be asking us about these words of grace that come out of our
mouth. Let the speech that comes out of your mouth, your words,
be words of grace. It was said of the Lord Jesus
in Psalm 45 too, that grace was poured into his lips. And John
said, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld
his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now, I want us to look
at some words of grace. Turn to Luke chapter 4. You know, while I was thinking about
this passage of Scripture, I love this passage of Scripture, I
was thinking, I hope I can not simply tell what this means,
but enter into it. In verse 22 of Luke chapter 4,
this is after our Lord had come into Nazareth. and everybody
had already heard about him and he came into the temple. It says
in verse 22, and all bear him witness and wondered at the gracious
words which proceeded out of his mouth. And that's literally
words of grace. These people heard these words
of grace. Now, what are these words of
grace that they heard? What happened at this time? Look in verse 16.
And he came to Nazareth where he'd been brought up. And as
his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath
day and stood up for it to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written. And he began to quote
that passage of scripture. Wouldn't you have loved to heard
the way he quoted this? The spirit of the Lord is upon
me. And I know he gave that emphasis. people knew what he was talking
about. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel, the glad
tidings to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance, to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of jubilee. And as he
closed the book and he gave it to the minister and sat down,
and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogues were fastened
on him, and he began to say unto them, this day is this scripture
fulfilled in your ears. What words of grace. Now I think of the people he
speaks of. He talks about folks who are
poor. It means they don't have anything. They don't have anything
to recommend them to God. Not a thing. That is the person
he preaches the gospel to. That's the only person who finds
this as good news, is that person who is bankrupt, poverty-stricken,
and poor, spiritually poor before God. And then he speaks of the
broken-hearted. Now everybody here has had their
heart broke. I've had my heart broken over
girls when I was in school. It didn't last very long, but
at the time it seemed like it was the worst thing that would ever take place. That's not the kind of broken
heart he's talking about. He's talking about a heart that's
broken over sin. Would to God that I could enter
into what it is to have a heart broken over sin. Broken. It doesn't work. It's
no good. That's the broken heart. No good. Broken. Broken stuff doesn't
work, does it? It doesn't do what it's supposed
to do. A heart broken over sin. To that person, God sent him
to heal the brokenhearted. He healed them. that had need
of healing. And I know how he did it. By
his gospel, applying his gospel, giving me ears to hear how God
can save sinners for his son's sake. And really believe the
gospel. And then we read about captives. Do you know anything
about being a captive? In a cell and can't get out. If you could get out, you wouldn't
be captive, would you? You feel like a captive, captive
to sin. And he said, he sent me to preach
deliverance to the captives. And then he speaks of recovering
of sight to the blind. I love this thing about being
blind. Somebody who's blind, they can't see why God would
ever save them. They can't see why God would ever have mercy
on them. They're not arguing about God's fairness, about how
could He elect some and pass others by. No, they know why
He would cut them off. They can't see any way as to
why He would look in favor their way. Well, He came to give them
sight. Here's why. Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. And then we read, to set at liberty
them that are crushed, to set free those who feel crushed underneath
the load of their sin, and then to preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. Now, you've all heard of the
year of Jubilee. I love to think about the year of Jubilee. It
happened every 50 years. Every 50 years, a silver trumpet
would blow throughout all the land. Now, one thing that I've
got to say, we never read anywhere in the Bible where this was ever
observed. Not once. But here's what was supposed
to take place. Every 50 years, a silver trumpet would blow and
whatever debt you had was canceled. You didn't have it anymore. Whatever
you lost was restored. If you were a slave, you were
set free. And you were given a year's rest,
nothing to do. Now, I understand. If I had money
owed to me, I wouldn't want that silver trumpet to go off, would
you? If I had all this stuff that I was going to lose by it,
I would try to stop the year of Jubilee. The only people who
rejoiced in the year of Jubilee were the ones who gained by it.
The ones who lost by it, they made sure it didn't take place.
But the Lord said, today, while you're looking at me, I am the
fulfillment of the year of Jubilee. I'm it. I'm the fulfillment.
And what a glorious thing. Slaves set free. He opened up the cage. Debt,
sin debt canceled, blotted out. What a loss restored. And all
I've got to do is rest. Rest. Rest in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, those are words of grace,
aren't they? Gracious words. Those are the words that they
heard. Now, when people hear us, they
ought to hear words of grace, shouldn't they? Folks around
us, they ought to hear, you know, somebody's around me very long,
they ought to hear me saying, by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. People ought to be hearing that.
They ought to hear me say things like, being justified freely,
I love that word freely, don't you? That means without a cause
in you. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. Oh my, that's the kind of words
people ought to be hearing coming out of our mouth. 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. We believe that by the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they. Now there are several things
we think of when we think of grace. And here's the first thing
I think of when I think of grace. I think of unmerited favor. Unmerited. Now, I have said this
on several occasions when I have perceived someone has treated
me in not the way I wanted to be treated. I thought I didn't
deserve that. The reality is I deserve worse. I deserve worse. I deserve to
be in hell. If you want to talk about what
we deserve, that's what I deserve. I deserve to be in hell. Any favor I'm going to have,
it's going to be unmerited. Completely unmerited. God positively giving me what
I do not in any way deserve His favor. His mercy, His love, His
grace. I think of unmerited favor. And
the next thing I think about when I think about grace, the
next word that pops into my mind, I was trying to see what comes
into my mind when I think about this. Next thing I thought about
was forgiveness. The forgiveness of sins. If I'm stopping at a red light
and all of a sudden somebody plows into the back of me, I'll
either get real mad. Why did he do that? Why wasn't he watching what to
do? But maybe I'll be in a gracious mood and I say, I forgive you. It's okay. I mean,
things like that happen, but hand me over your insurance card. That's not really a complete
forgiveness, is it? But what if I did this? What if I said,
you're forgiven. Don't worry about it. I'll take
care of it. I'll pay for it. Now that is forgiveness, isn't it? And that is the way the Lord
forgives. Much more strong than that. I mean, that's any human
illustration will fall to the ground. I realize that. But oh,
the complete free forgiveness of sins. When I think of someone who really
believes grace, I look at someone who doesn't look down their nose
at anybody. They don't have a feeling of moral superiority. They're
nonjudgmental. When I think of someone who really
believes grace, and when I think of grace, I think of acceptance. Ephesians 1, 6 says, He hath
made us accepted. Literally, He hath graced us
in the beloved. Now here's the Lord's kind of
acceptance. I couldn't help but think of
the prodigal. I thought of the prodigal returning. Man, he's
made a mess of things. He's spent every dime he had
that his father gave him. He's wasted it in riotous living. He comes to himself. He's coming
back, and he doesn't even dream of being a son again. He figures
out his speech. Make me as one of thy hired servants.
I wouldn't dream of being a son. And he comes to his father with
his speech, getting ready. And what does his dad do? He
comes running. knocks him down, he's been looking
for him for years, and he kisses him with many kisses. Full, complete acceptance. And he starts to say, tries to
get out his speech, make me what, stop, stop, bring out the best
robe. the robe of my righteousness,
and put a ring on his hand signifying my eternal love, and shoes on
his feet, grace to walk in my gospel." Now that's acceptance,
isn't it? That's the way the Lord accepts. Let your words be words of grace,
and back to our text. He says, and let them be seasoned
with salt. That means make sure they taste
good, these words of grace. Grace is not to be presented the way,
or forgiveness or acceptance is not to be presented like men
do in a narrow, difficult, half-hearted, with strings attached away, still
wanting some form of punishment to the offender. I remember when
I was listening to Bruce Crabtree in Crossville a couple of weeks
ago. He was talking about the prodigal,
and he said he always thought that the father should say, come
around the back door, and you can stay with the servants. You're
not ready to be a son yet. I'll receive you, but it's going
to be gradually and slowly. You're going to have to earn
your way back. No. That's not word seasoned with
salt. That's word seasoned with vinegar. That's word seasoned
with habanero sauce. That's not salt. Salt makes it
taste good. Now, let me say this about God's grace. Let me give you three things.
Words of grace. This is what we want people to
hear. Words of grace. God's grace, first of all, is
free. There's nothing you need to do.
It's absolutely free. There's no condition you need
to meet. There's no amount of knowledge you have to have. There's
no sin you need to have conquered. His grace is absolutely and positively
free without cost. Right now, God's grace is free. There's nothing keeping you from
it. You can't think, well, I need to fill in the blank. No, it
is absolutely free. And let me tell you the next
thing about God's grace. It's full. You know what that means? It covers
every sin. Every sin. It's completely full. There's nothing that it does
not do. That's God's grace. And God's
grace is everlasting. That means it never had a beginning
and it will never have an end. And you know what else that means?
By implication, it's irreversible. God can't give you grace and
then take it away. You see, if you've got grace, you've always
had grace in Christ. 2 Timothy 1.9 says, He saved
us and He called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which were
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. That tastes good, doesn't it?
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is gracious. May the Lord give
us this taste of his grace. Now, I'm persuaded, brethren. I'm talking to every one of us.
I'm persuaded if by the grace of God, we have gracious conduct towards
them that are without, those that the Lord brings our way. We have gracious conduct, not
religious fundamentalism. You know, I can't stand that
kind of stuff. But gracious conduct, kind. And I'm persuaded that
if we speak of grace, words of grace come out of our mouth,
there's going to be some folks asking us some questions. May the Lord enable this to be
us by his grace. Let's pray together.