Good morning. Good morning. Open your Bibles back to Romans chapter 1. Before we begin, I want us to get an image in our minds, if we can. Looking over this congregation, it's very small. If someone were to come in from the world, When you see this little congregation, it's like, man, I don't know what you guys are doing here, but it's not fitting in with the whole scheme of, you know, how to grow churches. You know, you guys got to get something going on here. You got to get a program going here. But I want us to get an image in your mind. You got two salt shakers on a table, okay? One of them you pick up and it just feels like it's empty. Shake it around a little bit, feels empty. The other one you pick up, Palm of the top, full. Now which one would you use? I want you to think about that for a minute. Let's go over to Romans chapter 1. We'll come back to that in a minute. Romans chapter 1 starting with verse 28 says, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful. That's what we're gonna deal with today. proud boasters inventors of evil things disobedient to parents without understanding covenant breakers without natural affection, implacable unmerciful who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death. Not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them. Let's have a word of prayer before we begin. Dear Lord and Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for the fact that you have a remnant. Father, that you have revealed your love, your sovereignty, your might, your power, your holiness, to a people. Lord, that you have not just come and smote us as we have deserved. That Father, you have not just come and wiped us off the face of the earth as we have deserved. But dear God, through the ages, through the Time that you have dealt with men that you have chosen a remnant. To bestow your great love upon. Father, may our hearts be filled with thanksgiving. For what you have done for us. For what you are doing. In lives father. for your great power and your great might that is seen in conversion. Father, we pray for this. We pray for true conversion of sinners. We pray, dear Lord, for true salvation. We thank you for a powerful, powerful salvation, Lord. Not just one that men have made up, not the one that is being proclaimed from pulpits all over the world today. But dear God, the salvation of truth, Lord, that sinners have become clean in Christ and him alone. Father, may this truth ring today. May you give your men who stand before congregations. Lord, may you give them auction. Father, may you fill their lips and their minds, their hearts, their mouths with words of truth. Father, may they not view the church building as something that is being needed to fill up, Father, to accomplish your purpose. But may their purpose be to proclaim the truth. Father, may you use that truth. To accomplish your purpose. Forgive us, Father. where we fail you. Forgive us for our lack of strength. We bow before you this morning, proclaiming that without you, we can do nothing. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. It is in your dear and precious son's name that we ask these things. Amen. Despiteful. What does that word mean? Despiteful. Well, there's many words here in the text that really kind of cover it. Maliciousness, malignity, hatefulness, envy. All these things are actions that would be something that you would associate with this word, despiteful. I think this word, despiteful, it implies or connotates a sin that goes against love, is really what it speaks to me of. It is a sin that goes against one that would do love to you, or one that is bringing a message of love. to you, and it is sin against that. As Christians in this world, we all of us, if you truly have been saved by the grace of God, we realize in our hearts that each day we do this to God. That each day we are despiteful to the God of this Bible. This Bible is full of promises. It is full of truths. that proclaim to us the goodness of God. It proclaims to us the love of God to us as his children, as his followers. And each day of our lives, each minute of our lives, we go against that. We sometimes spit in the face of God, do we not? in our unbelief and in our not having the belief that he is going to accomplish what he says he's going to do in our lives. We go against these things in our lives and we're very despicable. We were despicable before we come to know the Lord, were we not? We sat and we listened to the message of the gospel, the message of love that was proclaimed to us that God is a God that has died for sinners. And what did we do? We went against it, didn't we? We kicked against it. We fought against it until one day the Lord came with his power and with his might and revealed to us, you are a sinner. You are a sinner. You deserve hell. Look to Christ. He's your only hope. And what did we do? We were made willing in the day of his power, and we looked to Christ, and we were made whole. But this morning, I wanna talk more along the lines of what is the world's attitude towards us as Christians. Because this word, despiteful, is used in, the Lord Jesus Christ used it on the Sermon on the Mount, and let's go over to that, Matthew chapter five. And this is really what I want to try to deal with today, if I can, is the world's view of the Christian and why the world would treat the Christian in a despiteful way. That's what I really want to deal with this morning, if we can. The world would look at the Christian and they despise the Christian. For what reason? Well, let's look. Let's look what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 verse 43 and 44. Jesus said here when he was preaching to his disciples and those sitting around him and he's preaching to us today. He's teaching us. Listen to these words. He says, you have heard that it hath been said thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. Now this is not what the scripture taught the Jews. This is not what the Old Testament taught the Jews. They were not taught to love their neighbor and hate their enemy. But yet they had gotten this idea, I believe, probably from the fact that when they went into the Promised Land, what were they told to do? They were told to destroy all the nations of idolatry, were they not? They were told to go into Jericho and do what? utterly destroy everything in there. When those walls come down, you do what? You go in and you destroy every living thing that is in Jericho. You say, that's hard. Yes, that is hard. But what is that a picture of? It is a picture of what God does in our lives. He is coming in and He is destroying sin. And it will never be fully destroyed until we stand before Him at the judgment day and we see Him as He is and we will be just like Him. But yet that is what God is doing in our lives. He is mortifying sin, He is destroying it. Oh, there is much there. There is much to be destroyed. but yet that is the work of God. So, what is this saying to us? Well, he says over here, he says, but I say unto you, in the next verse, he says, I say unto you, love your enemies. This is really the message of the gospel, is it not? Love your enemies. You say, well, okay, what does that mean? Well, first of all, I wanna tell you this, that what this really means is that as Christians, our message of our lives, The message of the gospel is going to produce enemies. That's what this is saying. Jesus Christ is not saying to us that you may have enemies in your life as a Christian. That's not what he's saying. He is telling us you will have enemies. you will have those that hate you. Listen to what he says. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, you will have, as Christians, as those who walk in this world, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will have those that curse you. You will. He says, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you. As Christians, you will have those that will hate you. There's a reason for that. and pray for them which despitefully, there's that word, despiteful, pray for those that despitefully use you. As a Christian, you will have those that despitefully use you. That is what Jesus Christ is teaching us. That's what's gonna happen. And persecute you. That will happen in this world as Christians. Why? Why is that happening? Well, it's because Christ is in us. Is that not right? If Christ is seen in us, the world is at enmity with Christ, is it not? The world hates Christ. That's what the scripture says. The flesh is at enmity with God. It hates God. And our lives should be what? They should be a message of the Lord Jesus Christ. It should be, Christ should be being revealed in our lives. And that message of Christ being all and in all is going to be hated by the world. It is going to produce enemies in this world. That's just so. What did Jesus Christ say? Turn over if you were to five, let's see. Passive scripture is that. John 15, John 15. What did Jesus Christ say over there in John 15, verse 18? What he says. So first in 17, he says, these things I command you, that you love one another. If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my namesake, because they know not Him that sent me." If Christ is seen in our lives in any measure, the world's gonna hate it, gonna hate it. Okay, what does this say about what the modern day Christianity has to say about love, loving your enemies? Okay, modern day Christendom is this, that this love needs to be reciprocating. We love them, they need to love us. Okay, we love them because of this love, we're showing them we should be getting love back. So what is this love all about? It's about accepting, right? It's about, I'm gonna accept whatever they're doing so that they'll love me back. And that's love in the modern day Christendom. That is not love. What is love? Love is telling men the truth. That's love. Love is going to someone who is living in sin and explaining to them what the truth is. Not only with our life, but also with the scripture. That's hard. And what's that truth gonna do? Well, I'll tell you, what did Jesus Christ say over in Matthew 5, right across the page, right back up just a little bit, Matthew 5, verse 13. What does he say in Matthew 5, verse 13? He says, ye, the ones that are Christians, or true Christians, who've been saved by the grace of God, ye are the salt of the earth. Okay? But if the salt has lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot. Okay, now let me put this in perspective, okay? If you had an open wound on your arm, okay? Just it was an open wound and you took salt, And you came and you dumped it all over that wound. What's going to happen? It's going to hurt. It's going to sting. I mean, this is something that, it's going to be good for it. It's going to clean it, isn't it? It's going to draw out the impurities, and it's going to dry it up, and it's going to heal it eventually. But it's going to be hard on it, really hard. Let me show you something. Turn over to Isaiah. I know we're moving around an awful lot. But Isaiah chapter one, let me show you what natural man is, okay? What these words, what salt. The salt of the earth is going to do to natural man. Now listen to what he says here, starting with verse four. Oh sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. They are gone away backward. Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the whole heart faints. I don't know anybody like that. The world's full of people like that. Everybody outside of Christ is like that. Everyone, because their wounds have not been bound up. Listen to what it says in verse six. From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Now you tell me, the salt of the earth, if that is applied to that person, what is that person going to do? You're gonna rebel against it. That is gonna hurt. It's gonna hurt. And if he doesn't know what's going on, if it hasn't been revealed to him that this salt is his only hope, Christ is his only hope. If that is not revealed to him, he's gonna hate you for what you're saying. He's gonna hate you. He's gonna revile you. He's gonna be despiteful to you. He's gonna curse you. That's just truth. That's what's gonna happen. Cause it's gonna hurt. It's gonna hurt. This love is not reciprocating. It is not. The only way this love is reciprocating is if that person is made willing in the day of God's power. He is made willing to understand and believe that Jesus Christ is what he needs. And then the message is what? It's a sweet savor to him, isn't it? It's a sweet savor. That salt, even though it's stone, it's something that's gonna heal him. The Lord Jesus Christ is gonna heal him. It's gonna make him better. He's gonna bind up his wounds. He's gonna do this great work. Look over at Colossians. Colossians chapter 4. Paul teaches us in, let's just start with verse 1 of Colossians chapter 4. I'm going to read down through verse 6. But listen to what he says about our message, about what our message needs to be. He says, "...Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving, with all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in bonds, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak, walk in wisdom towards them that are without, redeeming the time. Listen to verse six. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man, seasoned with salt." Is that the message that we're hearing? Is that the message that is being proclaimed in this world? Is it a message that is seasoned with salt? Has the salt lost its savor? Has it? Is it worth nothing now? Let me ask you this. Can salt, true salt, lose its savor? If you just had just a little bit of salt, just a quarter teaspoon, and you were to have some food that you wanted to put it on, you took that little quarter teaspoon and you just sprinkled it on there, it's going to make it taste good, isn't it? I mean, it's going to season it. It is just that little bit. But let's say you took that little bit of salt and you just took the salt shaker and you had that little bit in the bottom and you took a whole thing of sand and dumped it in on top and shook it up real good. Now what's it going to do? Not much. You know what that's worth? I'll tell you what it's worth. It's worth, all you can do with that is take it out. Just what Christ said, if the salt has lost its savor, all you can do is take it outside. And what they used to do in the olden days with salt that had been corrupted, they would take it out and they'd put it on the walking path. And it would kill all the weeds so people could walk up and down the path on it. That is the message that's being preached this day and age. That is the message that's being proclaimed in churches all over this country. It's a message that isn't worth anything but just taking it out, throwing it on the ground, and people walk on it. Salt has got to be spread. True salt. And in order for that to happen, people need to be converted. They need to be converted. What is salt? Well, it's truly our message, isn't it? It's our message to a dying world. Jesus Christ said, you are the salt of the world. That's what he said. And it's our message. It's a message of love. It's a message of healing, is it not? It truly is, but it's truth. It's truth. I wanna go through, I took this word salt and I made an acrostic for it. And I want us to think about these things as we go out here in the world and we're proclaiming the message of the Bible, okay? What the scripture teaches about the truth. And I want you to think about these things and I want you to see, is this message going to be received by natural man? You see, churches have been filled to the brim with sand. That's what's happened. They're being filled up with sand and the salt has lost its savor in this world. Why do you think decisions are being made in the churches the way they're being made? It's because the decisions are being made by unregenerate men and women. That's what's happening. And it's easy believism, it's Arminianism. It's decisionalism that has caused this in the churches. It is. It's filled churches to the brim with sinners. With people that don't believe they're sinners, truthfully. Okay. Alright. Next thing. S. What is it? Sovereignty of God. Sovereignty of God. That is not being proclaimed. It's not being proclaimed. What is the sovereignty of God? You say, well, what are we talking about? Well, there's a good story for that. Arthur Pink wrote a book entitled The Sovereignty of God. And he wrote to this publisher. I don't know if I've told this story to you before, but he wrote to this publisher by the name of Herringdean. This man Herringdean was an Armenian. And he wrote him a letter and said, I have a book I want you to publish for me. And it's called The Sovereignty of God. Well, Herrington got the letter, and he read it, and he wrote him a letter back, and he said, I'll publish it, but I got to know what you mean by the sovereignty of God before I'm going to publish it. And Pink wrote him a letter back, and he put on there, he said, John 6, 44. That's all he did. He just wrote that on the letter, and he sent it back to him. And Herrington said he got that letter. He opened it up, and he said he took his Bible, and he opened it. Salt. OK? Salt. have two effects on hearing me. Two effects. Number one, it can make him mad, he could curse him, he would hate him, or he'd love him, one or the other. And he took that letter and he opened it up. Look at what it said, John 6, 44. Turn over there real quick. You know what it says. Just turn over there. Sovereignty of God. John 6, 44. It says, no man No man can come to me except the Father which sent me draws him. And I will raise him up at the last day." Herringbean read that letter. He read that verse of scripture. He said, it was like I was sitting in a dark room and the window curtains were just open, all of them were open. He said, the light just shone in. That salt had an effect on him, didn't it? It did. Christ was seen. The sovereignty of God was revealed. That has got to be preached in pulpits. It's got to be preached. It must be preached. The fact that God is absolutely sovereign over all things. You said, well, you're taking man's, everything away from man. Yes. Yes. And we're putting it in God's table. We're putting it over on God's, where it belongs. That's the truth. And that's gotta be proclaimed in churches, it must. And yes, it's gonna be solved. And there are many that's gonna be sitting in churches all over this country and they're gonna hear that and they're gonna say, I don't like it. I don't like that. They're gonna hate them for it. They're gonna hate men who stand up and preach on the sovereignty of God, but it must be done. It must be done. A. Hey, what alone? This is what I was thinking about when I was sitting there at my desk. Alone. Alone. Here's going to be a lot of men. If they get up and they start preaching this, they're going to be standing there alone. They're going to look out on their big salt shaker of a church, and they're going to see it dwindling. The sand's going to be leaving. There's going to be a remnant left. There's going to be some real salt left in the building when it's done. It will. They may stand alone. But listen to these other things that stand alone. Five solas of the Reformation. And they must be preached. They must be explained. They must be proclaimed in pulpits all over this country. Grace alone. It is only by grace alone that we are saved. Not of works. It's grace alone. God's riches at Christ's expense. That's it. By faith alone. Faith alone. Through who? Through Christ alone. Faith alone. There's faith in all sorts of things. It's the object of our faith that saves. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is Christ alone that saves sinners. Scripture is alone. This word right here, This Word is the Scriptures. What does it say? Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by what? By the Word of God. Paul told Timothy, he said, preach the Word. That's what he said, preach the Word. Oh, that we might understand the Word, the Scriptures alone. And why is it done? For the glory of God alone. Oh, that we would understand. that we could come to understand that. It's not about man's glory. It's not about men being raised up. It's for the glory of God alone. What is the scripture saying? We are saved by grace through faith and that not of ourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Boasting is excluded. Oh, that's gonna run a lot of people off. If that is explained in its fullness, and the Spirit of God is speaking to men, it's gonna run a lot of people off. It is. All right, L. Now this might sound different, but I'm telling you I believe this, and that is the Lordship of Christ. That Jesus Christ is Lord and King to His people. This has gotta be proclaimed. This whole idea of easy believism, the only way it works is if we water down what it means to be saved. We believe in a powerful salvation, do we not? We believe in a salvation that accomplishes something. We believe that salvation is truly Christ in us, is that right? Christ in us, the hope of glory, that's what we believe. And that changes a man. Conversion changes a man. Regeneration changes a man. That is not saying that what the Reformation said with faith alone, that that's putting that off. No, it's not faith. It's not Christ plus anything. It's only the Lord Jesus Christ. But with faith comes repentance. They are both gifts of God. Faith has never came without repentance. Repentance has never came without faith. They are twins, they are inseparable, and they come together. That must be proclaimed. It must be preached. That is not adding anything. The only thing that is adding to is the fact that Jesus Christ is everything, and He is powerful. If we get rid of that, what are we doing with Psalm 23? Does it actually mean anything? If the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. That seems to be where most churches just leave it off, right there. I shall not want, that's great. What's the rest of it say? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He leadeth me, he maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. Isn't that what he says? The Lordship of Christ. the Lordship of Christ. What is Christ doing in our lives? I tell you what, you preach that in a lot of churches, they're gonna run from it. They're gonna run from it. That's salt and wounds, man. That's bad stuff. You can't do that. You know, preachers say, if I stood up and I preached that, that Jesus Christ must be king in our lives, I'm not gonna have anybody left. Dear God, may it be so. I tell you what, revival's gonna look a lot different. It's gonna look a lot different than what most people think. It's gonna, it's gonna. T, T, what is that? Well, number one, the totalness of our inability is gonna have to be preached. It's gonna have to be explained. What that means, total inability. What it means when Jesus Christ said, without me, you can do nothing. You say, well, then what's the use? What's the use? You're not giving anybody anything to do. Well, you can't do anything. Not without the Lord Jesus Christ, not without the spirit of God. You are dead in your trespasses and sins. That is what this book reveals. Ephesians 2 verse 1 says, and you have bequeathed who were dead in your trespasses and sins. What can a dead man do? Nothing but corrupt. That's all he can do. More and more and more corrupt. Oh, but the power of God comes in our lives and he converts people. He makes them willing in the day of his power. Oh, that should cause all of us as God's people to fall upon our faces and pray to God that he will do a great work in our midst, that he will do the work. We know men can't make decisions. Oh, I pray that God would make decisions in men's lives, that he would make himself known to men and women, boys and girls. But we also need to teach the totalness of our responsibility. You say, that makes no sense. You say we're totally enabled on this side and over here you're saying we're totally responsible. Yes, you are. You must believe the gospel. And if you do not, you will go to hell. That's the responsibility of the sinner. You say, well, how do you coincide the two? It's right here. It's in His Word, it's by faith. You read the Word of God, you're gonna find that out. That men are responsible. If you believe, you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This must be taught. It has to be proclaimed in pulpits. It must. I tell you what, it's gonna make a lot of people mad before it makes them glad. It is. So, what is true revival gonna look like? What's it gonna look like? Well, I tell you what revival's gonna be in this country. It's gonna be Christ, the Spirit of God coming in and removing sand from the salt. You say, well, are we supposed to do that? No, that's not what the scripture says. The tares and the wheat are gonna be together. And if we try to go in and we start picking out people and saying, no, no, you're out, you're out, you're out, no, uh-uh. What are we to do? Spread salt. We're supposed to preach a truth. That's what we're supposed to do. God's truth will set men free. His truth is going to do this. Church's revival is going to look like that salt shaker full of sand. And in the end, when it's all shook out, there's going to be just a few grains down the bottom. I'm serious. This easy-believe-ism, Arminianism, it has caused so many problems. And what we're dealing with now, what the fundamental church is dealing with now, is just the effects of this easy-believism that has been preached in this country for 200 years. What upsets me so bad is that we have men standing up and going against all these outward things. Abortion, homosexuality, all these different outward things. And yes, we should, no question about it. But yet they'll go to church on Sunday and they'll sit under a ministry that promotes these things. It does. The truth must be proclaimed in churches. It must be. The truth of what is revealed in the scripture about who God is. The fact that he is sovereign. The fact that he is in utter control of all things. I know, I know it's only by faith. It's only by faith that these things can be seen. I pray to God that he will do a great work in the churches around this country. That if we're gonna see revival, that's what it's gonna be, isn't it? And then, and then when that shaker is poured out, there's gonna be a difference, isn't it? It's gonna make a difference. Right now, it's just nothing more than just shaking out on the ground to control the weeds. Oh, that in the future, that God's, this work of revival will happen in churches, and that the truth will be proclaimed, and that the truth will be spread by men who love the Lord, by sinners who have been saved by the grace of God. Oh, that that would be the case. Well, Lord bless you.