"The Christian's Public Witness"

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If you have your Bibles, turn with me to the fourth chapter of Paul's letter to the Colossians.
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And hold your place at verse 4.
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So we're at Colossians chapter 4, I'm sorry, verse 5, pardon me.
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And today's going to be based on verses 5 and 6, and the title of today's message is The Christian's Public Witness.
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Columbian novelist and Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez said these words.
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He said everyone has three lives.
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He says we have a public life, we have a private life, and we have a secret life.
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Our public life is what is portrayed before the world.
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Our private lives are shared only with a few, and our secret lives are really known only to us and God.
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And oftentimes we consider our secret lives to be the most in need of renewal, because we know the things that we struggle with in secret.
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And everybody said amen.
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John Owen said what you are in secret is what you are for real, what you truly are.
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And we remember how Jesus condemned the Pharisees because their lives were lived out as a show in public, but in private they were evil.
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Jesus said they were like whitewashed tombs, their outward appearance was very righteous, but inwardly they were filled with dead men's bones.
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So it is certainly true that who we are in secret does matter, but it is also true, and in the subject of today's sermon, that who we are in public also matters.
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How we behave and how we speak actually has consequence to who we are.
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And I would never in my life try to encourage any form of hypocrisy where we are to put on a show.
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And by the way that's what hypocrisy means, it means to put on a show for others.
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We are not to be hypocrites, but we are to be reminded today of the value of how we live our lives before an unbelieving world.
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That it actually matters how we live our lives.
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That it actually matters how we do our business.
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That it actually matters how we treat people.
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That we are ambassadors for Christ, and are we good ambassadors or are we not? So that is the subject of what we're going to look at today.
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I invite you to stand as we go to Colossians chapter 4, and we read again only two verses.
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The Apostle Paul writes as he begins to draw the letter to a close, these words.
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Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.
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Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you that now we have the opportunity to sit down together and study your word, and I pray Lord that we would seek to study your word to determine and understand not only what it means, but how it applies to us.
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How this should change us.
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Lord, if worship doesn't change us, if studying the scripture doesn't change us, then we have not truly worshiped and we have not truly studied.
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James wrote that we should not come to the scripture like a mirror and leave, not considering what we have learned, but we should come and consider who we are looking in the mirror of the word.
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So Lord, today as we consider what this word says to us and about us, I pray in those areas that we need to repent, that we would repent, and that we would repent with joy knowing Lord that you have shown us something about ourselves that needs to change.
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And Lord, for those who may be here who do not know the gospel, I pray that they would hear today the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And if the greatest act of repentance, turning from unbelief to belief is what you have ordained for today for some person in this room, or maybe many, I pray Lord that you would do that work that only you can do.
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Only you Lord can truly apply the words of your scripture to the hearts of men.
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So I pray, O God, that you would do that now as your word is preached.
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Keep me from error, may I decrease, may Christ increase, and may you O Lord receive all the glory in the preaching of your word, in Christ's name, Amen.
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We have been in our study of the letter to the Colossians now since the middle of last year and we're coming very close to the end.
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Today is probably third from the end.
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We'll have one more message next week on the text and then we're going to have one final message that draws everything to a close.
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And as we begin to look at the final verses of Colossians, we come now to what is the last practical admonition of this letter.
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After today, Paul is going to speak about his fellow co-workers.
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He is going to give a little bit of an overview of his ministry and who he's working with and what he is intending to do with this letter, and then he's going to close.
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But this last section, verses five and six, draw this application section which began at the beginning of chapter three.
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It draws this application section to an ending.
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And he is calling the Colossians to cooperation.
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Last week we talked about the subject of prayer and how the Apostle Paul was encouraging them and telling them how they are to pray, not only to pray for themselves but that they are to pray for his ministry, that they're to pray that doors would be opened for the witness of the gospel, that they would pray that he would be able to proclaim the gospel with clarity.
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So he's asking for them to come together with him and cooperate with him in prayer.
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Well today we see he is calling them to cooperate also in their witness.
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So not only is he calling them to prayer, he's calling them to bear witness to their faith.
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At this time in history, it is important that we understand that the church was under a tremendous amount of suspicion from the world around it, kind of like today.
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People often accuse the church of all kinds of things today.
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Well, it was the same then.
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There were rumors about what early Christians were doing.
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There were rumors that early Christians were insurrectionists, that they were seeking to overthrow Rome.
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Because the Christians would not say Kaiser Korias, which means Caesar is Lord, but rather they would say Yeshua Korias, Jesus is Lord.
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There were accusations of blasphemy because the early Christians would not worship the gods of Rome.
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They would not bow to the statues.
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They would not give incense to the Caesar.
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So they were accused of blasphemy and atheism.
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One of the things that early Christians were accused of were being atheists because they did not believe in the gods of Rome.
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And strangely enough, historically speaking, early Christians were accused of cannibalism.
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That one's a little odd, but every time we take the bread and cup, what do we say? This is my body.
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This is my blood.
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So there was this weird accusation that went around regarding the early church that the early church was engaging in some spiritual form of cannibalism.
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So in light of all of these accusations, in light of all of these outward attacks against the church, the Apostle Paul admonishes the Colossians to be wise in the way that they engage those not in the church.
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In essence, he wants to ensure that the witness of the church is not being unduly harmed by the bad reputation of its members.
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Let me tell you something.
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We have enough that we believe truly to offend the world.
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We don't need to add our own offenses.
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Brother Mike does street preaching, and I love to go and listen to him street preach.
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But he and I both know there are men out there who street preach who bring a great offense against Christ in their words, because they don't preach as Mike does with love and care and concern for the people walking by, calling them to repentance and faith, but they call names and call women whores and all kinds of stuff.
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That is not good.
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That is not gospel, and that is not wise.
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Having signs that God hates, fags and things like that, that's absolutely repugnant and should be denounced by God's church, because that is not being wise to the world.
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You understand what Paul is saying here? He's saying we have a responsibility to the outside world, and our responsibility is to walk with wisdom towards the outside world.
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I want to say this, and this may tread upon the tops of some shoes today, but that's okay.
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Paul writes this short two sentences assuming and envisioning a church that is actually going to be active in the world.
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In fact, one of the commentators that I read wrote this.
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He said that the church is not cut off in a holy huddle, speaking only in the language of Zion to insiders, but is engaged in regular conversation with others and in such a way as to allow plenty of opportunity to bear testimony to their faith.
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You see, it can be very tempting to want to cut yourself off from the world.
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It can be very tempting to want to run off into our Christian communes and shelter ourselves from the world and never have to engage with those who would disagree with us.
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We see this in church history.
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It's called the monastic movement.
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It began in the 3rd century as people began to think that the very best way to be Christians was to divorce themselves from the world, run away to the cloister, and hide themselves away, not being salt or light, but instead hiding in the shadows, hidden away from view.
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But Paul sees an intrusive church.
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As I was writing, I got to thinking about that idea, intrusive.
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Paul sees an intrusive church, not a reclusive church.
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Paul sees a church that invades the culture, not one that runs from it.
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Paul sees a church that affects the culture, not hides from it.
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And if you don't think that this is right, consider the words of Christ when He said, You are the light of the world.
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A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand, and it gives light to all the house.
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In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
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It is tempting to run.
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It is tempting to hide.
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It is tempting to get our own communes and fence them up and keep the world out and keep us in because there's great safety in that.
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There's great comfort in that.
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But beloved, we're not Amish.
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You say, well, I like the Amish.
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I like the Amish, too.
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They make really good furniture, and they're proud of it, too, it's very expensive.
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But beloved, that's not the call.
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That's not the call of the Apostle Paul to run as if we have something to fear.
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We have nothing to fear from the world.
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We have absolutely nothing to fear.
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We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us, and the very best that they can do is take our lives.
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But in the words of William Wallace, they can take our lives.
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They can't take our freedom.
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You're unfamiliar with that.
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They can't take away our Christ.
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They can't take away our truth.
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They can lock us away and throw away the key, and what do we do? We witness to the guards.
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That's what Paul did.
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They can kill us, and what do they do? They deliver us to Jesus, and to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
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This is the blessing of Christianity.
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We have nothing to fear, and we have nothing to run from.
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Paul is telling us to engage with the world.
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He's not telling us to be like the world.
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There is to be a distinction between believers and unbelievers.
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There is to be an, oh, this is so offensive to the world.
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This is so offensive to people in many churches.
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There is to be an us and them.
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There is to be the inside and the outside, because Paul says what in this passage? What does he say? He says, looking again, he says that we are to be concerned that we walk with wisdom toward who? Outsiders.
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What does the word outsiders indicate? What is the natural assumption we can make off the word outsiders? There will be those outside, and there will be those inside.
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There will be those who are of us, and there will be those who are not of us.
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Remember what John says in his first letter, a little letter in the back of your Bible.
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He says there are those who were among us, but they went out from us, and what did they prove by going out from us? That they were not of us, for if they had truly been of us, they would have remained with us.
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But they went out to show what? That they were not truly of us.
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See the Bible makes this clear distinction between the world and the church.
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Between the us and the them.
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And so I'm not saying that we should be like the world.
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What I am saying is that we go to the world as the us to the them.
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I want to show you a passage.
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So we're going to come back to Colossians, but I want to show you a passage in 1 Corinthians 5 that goes with this, it's very important.
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Because I think sometimes we forget about this outside inside distinction and dynamic, and I think sometimes we expect the world to act like us, and we get real mad when the world doesn't act like us.
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But I want you to see what Paul says about the people on the outside, people who are not in Christ.
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So turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 5 and go to verse 9.
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Now 1 Corinthians 5, Paul is talking about a man in the church who had done something specifically egregious, immorally.
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According to the text, he had his father's wife, which probably means that he had an illicit affair with his stepmother, which at that time in Roman law was still considered to be incest.
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So this man was not only guilty of breaking the law of God, but he was also guilty of breaking the law of the Romans.
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And so he had committed sin not only against God, but he had considered, he had went against legal precedent as well.
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And then in verse 9, the Apostle Paul says these words.
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He said, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.
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Full stop, right there, just stop.
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Paul has already written them a letter we don't have.
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Paul wrote to the Corinthians a letter previous to 1 Corinthians.
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So technically what we have is 2 Corinthians and there's, and by the way, probably when I finish Colossians, I'm going to take a little bit of time off, but when I come back to another book, it'll probably be 2 Corinthians, that's what I'm thinking of.
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But Paul had written a letter previously to them and he told them not to associate with sexually immoral people.
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But now I want you to note his qualifier.
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Notice qualifier in verse 10.
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Not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters since then you would need to go out of the world.
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Notice what he's saying.
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He's saying, I told you not to engage with sexually immoral people.
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But understand this, I'm not talking about unbelievers.
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Because if you stopped associating with every unbeliever who was either sexually immoral or a swindler or an idolater, you would never talk to nobody.
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You would never engage with anyone.
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Because let me tell you, when you go out into the world, you're dealing right away with a sea of idolatry.
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Even if they're not sexually immoral, you're dealing with idolaters right off.
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Because if they ain't worshipping Jesus, they're worshipping something.
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And the only one to be worshipped is the triune God.
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And if they're worshipping anything else, they're an idolater.
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And Paul says, when you go out into the world, this is who you're going to deal with.
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You're going to deal with people who don't believe in your God, who don't worship the way you do, and who don't trust the way you do.
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And he said, and the only way that you're going to get around that is not go into the world.
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The only way you're going to do that is to become a monk.
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The only way you're going to do that is to build a commune and all run behind it.
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And I've had conversations with folks, and I joke, I say, boy, wouldn't it be great if we could all just move to Tennessee and live on a mountain? Those of you who love the beach say no, but I contend that Tennessee's Beulah Land, I mean, it's just beautiful.
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And I love it.
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But we're not called to go live on a mountain.
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We're not called to hide behind the walls.
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Paul says, if you never engage with the world, then we're not doing what we're supposed to do.
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But notice he goes on, I don't want to leave this out.
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He says, but now, verse 11, I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler, not even to eat with such a one.
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For what have I to do with judging outsiders? It is not those inside the church whom you are to judge.
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God judges those outside, purge the evil person from among you.
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Okay, so here's the situation.
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Paul says there is a difference between those who are outside and those who are inside.
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What's he talking about? He's talking about believers and unbelievers.
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And yes, among believers there is a standard.
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Among believers there is something called corporate discipline.
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You guys know what corporate discipline is? Church discipline? Matthew chapter 18 says what? It says that if someone sins and they continue to sin after having been rebuked, after having been corrected, after having been called to repentance, after having been brought before the church, if the person continues and will not repent, they are to be removed from the body.
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They are to be excommunicated.
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I know we don't like to hear those terms.
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They sound very high church.
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They sound very medieval.
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But they're biblical terms.
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And yes, they happen.
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But guess what? If somebody walks into this room and they're an unbeliever, and they're living in open rebellion against God, we should not expect any difference if they're an unbeliever.
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The difference is between those who claim Christ and those who do not.
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And there's a ton of different ways in which we can apply this.
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I'll make an application in my own life, and this may be a little personal.
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And perhaps some of you may get uncomfortable, but stay with me for a moment.
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I have six children.
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I only have one believing child, my daughter, Ashley.
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She's an adult.
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The rest of my children have not yet proclaimed faith.
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I pray for them every day.
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The younger ones are still younger, so I wait on God for them, because I don't want them to make professions of faith simply to please me.
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That's wise.
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I hope that you guys all understand what I mean by that.
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But my son, Cody, is not a believer.
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And therefore, I do not expect of him what I expect of Ashley.
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Now, that does not mean that I don't allow Ashley to make mistakes.
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That does not mean that I expect her to be perfect.
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But when my son says something off the wall, and he do say things off the wall, while I am not excited or happy, and I'm not proud, I do understand that he has not yet been regenerated.
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And therefore, I am to treat him, as Paul says, like I would anyone who's not yet a believer, with grace and mercy and understanding and love, and point him to the cross.
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I'm sorry if that's too personal for some of you.
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I just want you to know that this passage is important, because it helps us understand there's a difference between those who are inside and those who are outside.
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And those who are outside, we have to handle with love and grace and mercy, understanding that they're still in the bondage of sin.
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And until God releases them, we ought not be surprised when wretches act like wretches.
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Now, that doesn't mean I like Drag Queen Story Hour.
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It doesn't mean I like OnlyFans or any of the rest of this garbage that the world has brought.
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It doesn't mean I support that.
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That's why I say the church should be going into the culture and engaging the culture and preaching the gospel so we can see things change.
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But at the same time, I'm not a post-millennialist.
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If you don't know what that means, I don't expect that the world is going to convert to Christ wholesale.
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I believe as Jesus Christ himself said, he says, the wheat and the tare will grow together until the end, and when Christ comes, he will separate the wheat from the chaff.
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So I know between now and the time Jesus comes, and it could be tomorrow, it could be a thousand years from now, we could still be in the early church, it could be 10,000 years from now, but when Jesus comes, he will separate those who are inside from those who are outside.
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Between now and then, I have to learn to walk in wisdom to those who are outside and be a witness for Christ as I do.
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This is why I wanted to show you 1 Corinthians 5, because I really think this is such an important passage for us to consider.
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There are those who are outside.
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How are we to consider those who are outside? Two things, here's a two-point today's sermon.
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We consider how we walk, we consider how we talk.
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We have that on a Baptist sermon right there, it's a two-point sermon and it rhymes.
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But that's what Paul says.
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He says we are to consider our walk, and we are to consider our talk.
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We are to consider our behavior, and we are to consider our speech, all with a mind to those who are not inside.
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Now does that mean we don't have to care about how we treat each other inside? No, we should love each other inside even more.
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We should be considerate, and loving, and encouraging, and gracious, and wise even more to those who are inside.
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But to those who are outside, we must walk in wisdom.
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And we must talk with grace and truth.
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So let's look at the text and we'll see how that works itself out.
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He says in verse 5 here, he says walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.
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Some of your Bibles say redeeming the time.
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I do like that phrase a little better, and I'll get to why in a moment.
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But let's look first at the word walk.
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He says walk in wisdom toward outsiders.
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The word walk with the apostle always relates to our behavior.
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It relates to our Christian life as it is lived out.
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And we know this because oftentimes, and I've talked about this before, in fact we've already talked about this in Colossians three times.
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In Colossians 1.10, he says walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.
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In Colossians 2.6, he says as you receive Christ Jesus, so walk in him.
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That means to walk by faith.
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And in Colossians 3.7, he says there was a way you once walked, which meant in sin that you don't walk anymore if you are in Christ.
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So we have this word walk, and it comes up over and over in the book of Colossians.
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And the word walk is related to our behavior, and we know that because oftentimes we use Christian lingo.
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We do have the language of Zion, as the commentator said earlier, where we'll say to someone, hey brother, how's your walk? What am I asking you if I ask you how's your walk? I ain't talking about your gait, Emma.
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I ain't talking about how well you stride down the street.
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I'm asking about how your walk with the Lord is.
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I'm asking about how your Christian life is going.
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So when Paul says to walk, he's talking about our faith, he's talking about our Christian life, he's talking about how we live that out.
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And he says walk in Sophia, which is the Greek word for wisdom.
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He's used this word wisdom six times now in the book of Colossians.
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Albert Barnes in his commentary on this passage, he says this, he says we should walk with our conduct upright and honest.
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And when talking about unbelievers, we should deal with them on the strictest principles of integrity so that we may not, so that they may not have occasion to reproach the religion that we profess.
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That was kind of a, I kind of stumbled my words there, but did you hear what I said? He says we want to walk in such a way that when people see us, they're not able to attack Christ because of us.
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That they're not able to attack our faith because we are not living out our faith before them.
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This is a note from Barnes' commentary.
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He says a lot.
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He actually has six different things that he relates to this walk, but I want to read to you number five, because if I tried to read all six, I wouldn't get any, I wouldn't be able to finish.
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But I want to read to you number five, and I want you to hear this, consider this.
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He says, no professing Christian can possibly do good to others who does not live an upright life for if you have cheated a man out of even a small sum, it is vain to talk to that man about the salvation of his soul.
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If you have never, if you have ever failed to pay a debt that was due or to finish a work that you have promised or to tell the truth in conversation, it is vain that you endeavor to induce that same person to be a Christian.
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He will feel if he does not even say it, he might even say it, that he wants no religion that would make a man as dishonest as you.
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Oh, that's too hard.
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You're putting too big of a burden on us.
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Really? I'm putting too big of a burden to say that you're actually to live with integrity? Because that's how we're called to live an upright life.
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You know, the elders are called to a particular qualification that they be above reproach.
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But do you understand that that qualification isn't to be unique to the elders, but that all Christian men at one way or another are called to be above reproach? That we not be men who do our business with lies and deceit? That we not be men who use uneven scales when we're meeting out justice and doing work with others? And we are not men who rob and steal and lie, but that we are men who our yes is our yes and our no is our no.
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Is that not what Christ taught us? Jesus said you shouldn't have to take a vow.
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That's why when my children, they'll say, Daddy, do you promise? I don't have to promise.
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If I said I would, I would.
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And if I said I won't, I won't.
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But don't ask me to promise if I said I will.
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If I said I will, that's my promise.
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There used to be a time, didn't there, when there was a spoken word was a bond among men.
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And a man need nothing more than a shaking of a hand to know that when it said it was going to be done, it was going to be done.
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Beloved, that is the life we are called to live.
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We are called to walk in wisdom toward outsiders.
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We are called to walk considering the fact that when they see us, this may be, as one old missionary said, the only Bible they ever read.
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And then he said making the best use of the time.
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Now I said earlier, I prefer the term redeeming the time.
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And maybe that's just because that's the way I've heard it said often.
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But the text does say in the ESV, making the best use of the time.
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Now what is the reason for that phrase? Paul says you are to walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.
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What is he referring to? Well the word making the best use, the word translated sometimes redeem means to purchase or to buy up something.
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Paul is saying to make the most of every opportunity that God provides and not to waste time, particularly not to waste time when we are engaged in the act of witnessing.
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Ephesians chapter 5 has the parallel passage.
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Ephesians 5.15 says, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.
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You ever heard that? What does that mean? What does it mean when Paul says the days are evil? Well it could refer to the fact that these are evil days.
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And we need to look for every opportunity to do good because the days are filled with evil things.
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One commentator says this, he said the fact that the times in which they lived were morally so corrupt was a strong reason for making every opportunity for good which such times might offer their own.
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We are called to live a positive godly life in a world that is ungodly.
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But it can also mean something else.
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And this I think is more aligned with maybe what we need to hear.
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It can also mean that the days work against us like an enemy because our days are filled with distractions.
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One commentator said this, he says there are great thieves of time that are minions of the world, the flesh and the devil.
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They may range in form from high tech, socially acceptable preoccupations to simple idle talk or ungoverned thoughts.
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But the natural course of our minds, our bodies, our world, and our days leads us toward evil not toward Christ likeness.
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Do you understand beloved that one day your time will run out? Jesus taught this in John chapter 9.
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He said we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day.
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Night is coming when no one can work.
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You know what Jesus is saying? He is saying we have a limited amount of time.
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Every one of us has a limited amount of time.
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We all have the same amount of time in the day, but none of us know how many days we have left.
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People say time is money.
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And there is some truth to that because we sell our time, especially if you are paid by hour.
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You realize what you are saying is an hour of my time is worth this much.
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So I am going to sell my time to you and this is how much I am worth for this amount of time.
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But here is the thing.
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Time is not money because you can get more money, but you can't get more time.
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Every day I use my time for something and that time I will never get back.
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And here is the real wild part.
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God has already fashioned our days.
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Before we were born, Psalm 139 says, his eyes saw my unformed substance and in his book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me when there was not even one of them.
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When I was in the womb, when I was conceived, God had already fashioned my days and he knew how many days I had.
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That doesn't make me a fatalist, but it does make me a realist.
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I know that my days are numbered.
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And the time is coming when there will be no more time.
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Jesus has a parable about the talents.
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He says each man was given some of the talents.
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One went and he made a profit, another man, and he made a little smaller profit, but he still made a profit.
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And one man took his talent and what did he do? He buried it in the dirt.
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And when the master came, how did you use your talent? You know, oftentimes we apply that to like physical talents.
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How are we using our talents? How are we using our money? But might I say, how are you using your time? Because it's the one thing you're never going to get more of.
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You can get more talent.
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You can learn new things.
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You can learn new skills and you can earn more money, but you'll never get more time.
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I was listening to a seminary professor preach a sermon a couple months ago and he's on staff with Kevin DeYoung.
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Now, if you're not familiar with Kevin DeYoung, he's a wonderful preacher, writer, podcaster, speaker, and Presbyterian, so, you know, he has superior theology.
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But this professor was talking about Kevin DeYoung and he just listed all of the things he does in a week, in a month, in a year, because he writes three books a year, he does a new podcast every week, he writes four sermons a week, teaches a seminary class, and as he was going through the list, I was exhausted just listening.
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But I was reminded, Kevin DeYoung doesn't have one more minute than I do.
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He doesn't have one more day than I have in the sense of time.
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And it got me to thinking about how am I using my time? Am I redeeming my time? Am I buying it up? Am I using it for the kingdom? Am I wasting it in lethargy and slothfulness? I'm not saying don't go enjoy things with your family.
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I'm not saying don't take the vacation or don't go to the pool or any of those things.
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Neither is the Apostle Paul.
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But he is saying our time is valuable.
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He is saying that it's limited.
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And he's saying particularly when we consider our lives, we are to walk in wisdom and we are to consider our time as valuable, particularly that time which is given to the work of the Lord.
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Lord, how much time do we waste and how much time can be devoted to Christ? Paul says make the best use of the time.
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Then back in Colossians he says, let your speech, this is verse 6, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
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So now he's gone from our walk to our talk.
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He says our speech, our logos, is to have two qualities.
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When we engage with the world, we are to have two qualities in our speech.
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The first quality is graciousness.
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He says let your speech always be gracious.
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Is your speech always gracious with the world? No.
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As I said, I'm not up here standing on a pedestal.
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But that's the call, right? We have a call to be gracious in our speech with those who are outside.
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But yet at the same time he says that our speech is to be seasoned with salt.
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Now there is a lot of debate among theologians and commentators about what that means, seasoned with salt.
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The pagans at this time in history use salt as an analogy for wit.
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So some people believe what the Apostle Paul is saying is that your speech should be gracious and witty.
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I don't agree necessarily.
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But I will say this, your speech shouldn't be boring, especially when you're talking about Jesus.
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So if there can be a little bit of wit in your conversation, make your conversations enjoyable.
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But I don't think that's what Paul is referring to here.
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Another one is that the rabbis use the word salt to refer to wisdom.
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And therefore Paul could be saying use wisdom in our speech, grace and wisdom, and I think there can be truth to that.
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But he's already told us to walk in wisdom, so I'm not sure that that's right either.
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But here's where I've landed, and again you can send a letter to Brother Mike or Brother Andy if you disagree.
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Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 5 that we are to be salt and light.
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And that means agents of change.
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What does salt do? It preserves, it flavors, it changes what it's added to.
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What does light do? Light casts out darkness.
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The light is coming to the world and the darkness has not overcome it, talking about Jesus.
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So when Paul says that we are to speak with grace seasoned with salt, it is my conclusion that what he is saying is that our language towards the outside world is to be a balance of grace and truth.
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Because if we speak to the outside world with nice happy words, but we never speak the truth, we will never be salt and light.
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We have to speak the truth.
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We have to proclaim the truth.
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We have to stand for the truth.
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Remember this analogy, it's very important.
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Grace without truth is hypocrisy.
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And truth without grace is brutality.
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Therefore Paul says our language with the outside world is to be grace seasoned with salt.
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Brother Mike has a phrase he's used ever since the day I met him.
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And the day we met we had about a four hour conversation in that back room.
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And the day we met, he talked about being a chainsaw to a blade of grass.
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And we all have the ability to do that with our words, don't we? Or we over use our harsh words like taking a chainsaw and trying to cut a blade of grass.
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That's not the call of the speech of the believer.
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But the believer is to be one whose speech is gracious, seasoned with salt, full of love and full of truth.
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Isn't that what the Apostle Paul tells us? That we are to speak in love and truth.
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Grace and truth.
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So that, and by the way this is what's called a hinnah phrase, it's a Greek term that means in order to or so that, because if you let your speech be gracious, seasoned with salt, you will know how to answer each person.
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What answer is he talking about, beloved? I believe in my understanding of this text and I think it is the right understanding.
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He's talking about that we would be able to give an answer for our faith.
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I want to ask you, do you know how to give an answer for your faith? I'll give you just a quick heads up.
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This is something that maybe will encourage some of you.
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When I finish Colossians, I'm taking a little break before I jump into the next book.
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And one of the things I'm going to do is I'm going to do a couple of weeks on giving an answer for the hope that is within us.
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Which comes from 1 Peter chapter 3.
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We call that apologetics.
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Apologetics is the giving of a defense for our faith.
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And I think that's what Paul's saying here.
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He's saying we are to have a speech that is gracious, seasoned with salt, so that we are able to give an answer.
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But if you look at 1 Peter, you don't have to turn there, but just know what he says.
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He says we are to give that answer, we are to give that defense with gentleness and reverence.
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Beloved, is that how you share your faith? Do you share your faith with gentleness and reverence? Do you care that when you speak to that unbeliever, that when you speak to that worldly person, that when you speak to that outsider, that you're actually speaking to a soul made in the image of God? And do you care that your words actually do have the power to encourage someone or discourage someone? You know, I know, I know, I know them health and wealth preachers love to misuse that verse that says life and death is in the power of the tongue, and they do misuse that verse, and they try to come up with all crazy interpretations of it.
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But the Bible does say that life and death is in the power of the tongue, but what does it mean? It means that we actually do have the power with our words to build up or tear down, to encourage or destroy.
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Paul says how we talk matters.
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How we walk matters.
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So as we close, I'll give you three thoughts.
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Number one, how we walk and talk to unbelievers matters.
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So let us consider how we do those things.
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Number two, we are not meant to run from the world, but to invade and to bring the gospel of Christ.
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And number three, our time is valuable and limited, and we should use it well.
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At the beginning of the sermon, I said we all have three lives.
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We should be just as wise about our public life as we are about considering our private and even our secret life.
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But a right relationship with our outsiders, right relationship with those around us, a right relationship with unbelievers, and a right relationship even with Christians begins with a right relationship with God.
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So I will say this, if you are here today and you are still on the outside, if you are here today and you're still an unbeliever, if you're here today and you have not bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, I would with the most grace and salt that I can say to you, what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? The Lord Jesus Christ calls and he says, come to me, all who are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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If you came here today without Christ, one thing you don't have is rest for your soul.
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So I encourage you, turn to Christ, repent of your sin, trust in the Savior, become his, and he will become yours.
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Only one life will soon be passed, and only what's done for Christ will last.
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Let's pray.
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Father, we thank you for your word and your truth.
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I pray, oh God, that even now as we have considered just these short verses, but the importance of these verses of what our witness is to be like, I pray, oh Lord, that even now you would work on all of our heart for the believers, Lord, that you would help us to understand the importance of our public witness, of the fact that when we go out into the world that we stand before the unbelieving world as representatives of the gospel, as ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And Lord, for those who are here who may not yet know Christ, I pray, oh God, that you would, by your mercy and grace, reach down into their heart and give them the gift of regeneration which leads to life and faith.
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I pray, oh God, now as we consider the table and we consider all that it means, Lord, that we would be reminded that this is, again, yet another way that we publicly testify to our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by remembering his body and his blood, which is symbolized in the bread and the cup.
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May all believers receive this cup and be reminded of the glory of Christ.
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And it's in his name.
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Amen.