[The apostle Paul wrote,] 

[Colossians 3:1 ¹ If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.]

[As a child of God you are an heir to His glorious kingdom and you are a child of the resurrection.  Glory to God, you are, right now, living the resurrection life!] 

[As we have worked our way through the book of Colossians we have discovered much about this resurrection life we enjoy.  We have discovered our,]

• [Resurrection Renewal – Putting on the new man and putting off the old worldly man.]
• [Resurrection Relationships – What a resurrection husband, wife, child, and servant looks like.]
• [Resurrection Connection – Our direct and personal communication with our Heavenly Father.]
• [Resurrection Communication – First, communicate intimately with God through prayer.  Second, communicate the glorious gospel to those around you.]

[What a wonder and glory our lives will be if we live the resurrection life every moment of every day.]

[Last week we focused on the resurrection proclamation that ought  pour out of our lives as we discover the delight of living this Christian life in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Is there a delight permeating your walk with Christ?  Is there joy deep down in your heart?  Is there joyfulness in your home and family?  Is there an evident joy in the lives of your children and youth?  If not why not?]

[Christians, living this resurrection life, spoken of by the Apostle Paul ought to be happy and rejoicing.  Now, someone might say, “Preacher, do you have any idea how my week has gone?  My marriage is a wreck.  I have aches and pains in my body.  The doctor looks at me with great concern in his eye.  My children are struggling in life.  And you say there ought to be joy and happiness in my Christian life?”]

[Do you know where Paul was when he was writing to the Colossian Church and encouraging them to live out the resurrection life?  Paul is in prison, and prison in ancient Roman days was no pleasant place to be.  What Paul is saying is that in spite of your circumstances and situation in life you can know and live out the wonder of the resurrection each and every day.]

[In living out the resurrection life you have in Christ there ought to be a clear resurrection communication with all those who are around you.  They ought to see the wonder of the resurrection in your body language and hear about the Lord of the resurrection from your words.  Last week as I preached this resurrection communication to you I ended by sharing with you that there should be a resurrection compassion that ought to permeate your resurrection proclamation.  But due to the time I did not have time to preach that point to you last week.  Therefore, today we will focus on this Resurrection Compassion that MUST permeate our Resurrection Proclamation]

Three Things That Must Permeate Our Resurrection Compassion, 

A.    A Purposeful Promotion (vs 6; Eph 2.8-10; Rom 6.23; 5.18; Matt 12.34-37) [– Let your speech be alway with grace, . . .  – Our words ought to always be permeated with GRACE.  What is grace?  We best understand grace by comparing it to justice and mercy.] 

• Justice is getting what you deserve
• Mercy is not getting what you deserve
• Grace is getting what you do not deserve

[We are saved by God’s grace.  The bible says,] 

[Ephesians 2:8-10 ⁸ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.]

[The Apostle Paul wrote,]

[Romans 6:23 ²³ For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.]

 [Many have said that grace is the unmerited gift of God, and indeed it is.]

[Illustration – The giving of a gift – If I were to give you this pen as a gift (hold out an ink pen), when would it become yours?  Many might answer, “When you give it to me.”  I am holding it out, is the pen yours yet? (Them not having taken it.)  Many will then give a corrected answer, “The pen becomes mine when I take it.”  That is correct.]

[If I were to give you this pen for a dollar, is it a gift?  The obvious answer is no.  That is because the pen would have been purchased for a dollar.  Salvation is the free gift of God.]

[Romans 5:18 ¹⁸ Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. ]

[Our money merely represents our work, and when we purchase something we are buying it with money earned by the sweat of our brow or our work.  But our work cannot earn us salvation, for salvation is the free gift of God given us through grace.  God has given us something we do not deserve and He provided this gift through what the Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary’s Cross.]

[This same grace, this characteristic of giving someone something they do not deserve, must permeate our Resurrection Compassion and Proclamation.]

[Giving Them What They Deserve -   Think about this for a moment.  Have you ever given much thought to where divisions between people come from?  Where do hard feelings come from?  Where does hatred and bitterness come from?  Where do fights and struggles come from?  They come from someone who believes that they have been wronged and feels that someone owes them something.  Whether a mere apology is owed or some recompense is owed, they feel like something is due and they decide to hold that debt to the other persons account.]

[When Christians exercise the grace modeled by our Lord Jesus Christ, then we will forgive the debt, whatever it is, and provide grace to the unworthy recipient.  We will give far more than they deserve.  This is what Jesus did for us.  Many born again Christians cannot truly give grace in their communication because there is no grace in their heart.  They are bitter and harbor some perceived wrong and as a result their communication is permeated with bitterness rather than grace.]

[Where Our Words Come From – Do you remember where our Lord Jesus Christ said your words come from?]

[Matthew 12:34-37 ³⁴ O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. ³⁵ A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. ³⁶ But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. ³⁷ For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.]

[If grace is in your heart, then grace will permeate your communications.  Grace will be evident in your body language.  Grace will be seen in your eyes.  Grace will flow through your words and no hypocrisy will be mingled in them.  The problem Christian’s are having today is that they fail to realize that having your speech always with grace is far more than what you say.  It is more about who you are in your heart and mind.]

[Think about a life permeated with grace,]

·         [Between a Husband and Wife – How would a grace filled marriage relationship be if it were permeated with grace?  It would be glorious and joyful.  Not without tests and trials, but even those trials could be transformed by a healthy dose of grace.]

·         [Between Parents and Children – Those differences that strive to divide us could be brought under a new light.]

·         [Between Us and Those Who Have Wronged Us – There would be the potential of healing present.]

[Permeating your communication with grace, and giving someone more than what they deserve, must start in your heart and work its way out of your communications.  It will bring the resurrection life into your daily affairs and transform the way you talk to people.  Our Resurrection Proclamation must be permeated with Grace.] 

[Hence, the Purposeful Promotion implied by our Grace filled speech means that we elevated other people to the point where they are more important than our hurts or our perceived offenses.  This is what our Lord Jesus Christ did for us.  He sacrificed all of His rights and honor and in grace took our offenses upon Himself.  This is what we must do if we will be the Resurrection Christians we want to be.] 

B.     A Purifying Preservation (vs 6) [- Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, . . . – What does salt do?]  

1.      Salt Purifies (Psalm 119.9; 34.11) [–Years ago if someone cut themselves and didn’t have anything else to purify the wound with they would use a little salt or salt water.  Pour some salt water on a sore and it will sting.  Why does it sting?  Because the salt has a purifying effect on the sore.  Even today if a person gets a certain kind of condition on their feet they might be told to soak their feet in Epson salt.  The salt will work to purify the condition.  Salt has a purifying affect.] 

[Hence, our passage tells us to temper our graceful communications with a kind of purifying agent or salt.  What this teaches us is that our communication must be a graceful gift, but it must be a gift with a purpose, it must have a purifying effect on those we communicate with.  So, how do we apply purification to our graceful communications?] 

[Psalm 119:9 ⁹ Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.]

[The Psalmist said,] 

[Psalm 34:11 ¹¹ Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.]

[When a Resurrection Christian communicates he should speak with grace and purifying purpose in his heart and words.  The psalmist called out to his children and spoke to them of the fear of the Lord.] 

[My Christian friends never use love as an excuse to obscure the truth.  The salt of the Resurrected Lord within us causes us to be a purifying factor in our communications.] 

2.      Salt Preserves (Psalm 37.30-31;119.46; Rom 1.16) [– It wasn’t too many years ago when just about everybody used salt to preserve meat.   They would take the salt and rub it into the meat and the meat would be preserved.  The idea of the preserving effect of salt teaches us that we, as Resurrection Christian’s, ought to be a preserving influence in our communications.  Our communications ought to bring a preserving influence upon those around us.] 

[The Psalmist wrote,] 

[Psalm 37:30-31 ³⁰ The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. ³¹ The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide. ]

[Psalm 119:46 ⁴⁶ I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed. ]

[Romans 1:16 ¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. ]

[My friends if the preserving influence of the salt is never rubbed into the meat then it can have no effect.  Likewise, we must proclaim the resurrection message, declaring the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the truth of God’s Word without shame.  For the Word of God is our Message.]

3.      Salt Promotes (vs 6; Matt 5.13) [– . . . seasoned with salt . . . - Salt heightens flavor, it seasons.  Spiritual salt, or the salt in our commination ought to add to our lives, not detract from our lives.  We all know how just a touch of salt can greatly season the food that we eat.  It elevates the flavor in the food and makes it taste better.  Likewise, our Resurrection Proclamation ought to greatly enhance the gospel message of our Lord Jesus Christ.] 

[Jesus Said,] 

[Matthew 5:13 ¹³ Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. ]

[Some have argued that Jesus did not know what He was taking about, because pure salt is the most stable compound on earth.  Salt never loses its savor.  These folks just do not know the chemistry of ancient salt around Jerusalem.] 

[The salt was collected from around the Dead Sea and was not pure salt.  It was salt rich with minerals.  Moisture would affect the salt over time.  The salt would melt away leaving only the minerals which were bitter and could even be harmful in large quantities.  Hence, once the seasoning salt was gone the minerals were often dumped out in the streets for the minerals would even keep plants and crops from growing.] 

[The word picture here is that of a Christian losing their seasoning influence on their culture and the world.  If we lose our savor or saltiness then what worldly good are we?  Without our salt we will have no purifying, preserving, or promoting influence.  My friends don’t ever lose your saltiness.  Bring flavor to life by being a Resurrection Christian.] 

C.    A Planned Proclamation (vs 6) [- Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. – Two things are contained in this last phrase of our text and these two things help us to understand what we must do if we would be Graceful and Salty in our Resurrection Compassion and proclamation.] 

1.      The Preparation (2 Tim 2.15) [- . . . that ye may know how . . . – This preparation reminds us of,] 

[2 Timothy 2:15 ¹⁵ Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. ]

[Far too many Christians have become lazy in their faith.]   

[Is there a Jehovah’s Witness you need to witness to?  Then figure out how to witness to a Jehovah’s Witness.] 

[Is there a Muslim you need to witness to?  Then figure out how to witness to a Muslim.] 

[Is there an Atheist you need to witness to?  Then figure out how to witness to an Atheist.] 

[Make your preparations and witness to them in compassionate grace seasoned with salt and give them a worthy answer.  You ought to know how to witness to those God has given you to witness to.  If you really love them then you will make your preparations.  Indifference is the worst kind of hatred, it is far worse than all out wrath, for it just does not care about the eternal soul of a human being.] 

[Christians ought to know how they ought to speak and hence ought to study to make their preparations.] 

2.      The Proclamation (Rom 10.13-17) [-  . . . ye ought to answer every man – The Apostle Paul desired that a door of utterance would be opened to him.  He wanted to share the mystery of Christ with all the world, regardless of who they might be.  Why? 

[Romans 10:13-17 ¹³ For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. ¹⁴ How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? ¹⁵ And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! ¹⁶ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? ¹⁷ So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.]

[My Christian friend you ought to want to go to our lost world and you ought to go,] 

·         [With Great Delight]

·         [With Determined Diligence – being prepared.]

·         [With Grace Filled Desire] 

CrossRoads Baptist Church, June 27, 2010

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