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Man, the title of my sermon this morning is Salt Without Prescribing How Much. Salt Without Prescribing How Much, if you look down at your Bible there in verse 21, the Bible reads, And I, even I Artaxerxes the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers which are beyond the river, that whatsoever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be done speedily unto. So he's basically saying, King Artaxerxes that is, he's saying that whatever Ezra needs, give it to him. You know, the commandment has gone forth to rebuild the temple of God in Jerusalem. And so this King Artaxerxes, who's the Persian king, is saying to the governors and officials beyond the river, whatever Ezra needs to get this thing going, you know, to get the temple built and to get it running, and to get the sacrifices going, and whatever he needs to make this happen, give him whatever he needs. He puts a limit on it. You know, he doesn't want to just give him a carte blanche and just give him just an unlimited amount of resources because, you know, obviously there has to be some limit, right? So he says, unto a hundred talents of silver. So he's saying, give Ezra whatever he needs, you know, as long as it doesn't cost more than, you know, two hundred or a hundred talents of silver to a hundred measures of wheat and to a hundred baths of wine and to a hundred baths of oil and salt without prescribing how much. So he says, you know, there's a limit on how much gold, there's a limit on the silver, there's a limit on the wheat, there's a limit on the oil, but give him as much salt as he wants. You know, just salt without prescribing how much. I'm not going to put a limit on how much salt Ezra can have. You know, the more salt the better, he's saying. Now obviously nothing in the Bible is incidental, coincidental, or accidental. So there's something that we can learn from this and this is a picture of the fact that God's grace is limitless because salt in the Bible actually pictures the grace of God. If you would flip over to Colossians chapter 4 in the New Testament, Colossians chapter 4. Now what is salt used for? Salt, obviously it seasons and gives flavor, but it is also an important preservative. And so a lot of times the symbolic uses of salt in the Bible have to do with its preservative quality and also salt is a picture of the grace of God. So the Bible says in Colossians chapter 4 verse 6, let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. So notice there that in this verse, salt is a picture of grace. Now if you would flip over to Romans chapter 5. The first point that I want to make this morning, Romans chapter 5, is that there is no limit to God's grace. And this is why this wording is used in Ezra chapter 7. Salt without prescribing how much. You know, there's no limit. As much salt as you need, it's going to be there. You need more salt? We'll give you more salt. Not prescribing how much. Look at Romans chapter 5 verse 18. Therefore as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Of course the one person whose offense brought condemnation is Adam. The Bible says wherefore as by one man, sin entered into the world, right there in verse 12, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. So it says by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. And so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. So through Jesus' righteousness, the free gift is made available unto all men for their justification. Verse 19, for as by one man's disobedience, Adam, many were made sinners. So by the obedience of one, Jesus, shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So the Bible says there that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. So God's grace is sufficient to cover sin. Now we are saved by grace. The Bible says by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God. Here it's called the free gift. It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. And so the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, and that grace of God is not limited in any way. It does not have any kind of a ceiling, like, well, you know, I know I said salvation was by grace, but I didn't expect you to commit that sin. You know, like that's just too big of a sin to be covered by the grace of God. No, it says the song goes in the hymnal, grace that is greater than all our sin. That's a biblical song. Is based on this concept here in Romans chapter five, that if we sin more, then grace will abound more. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. If I sin three times, then, you know, enough grace will be there to cover it, no matter how many times I sin. Now you say, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson, you know, what are you saying? Are you saying that we could just go out and just keep on sinning and sinning and sinning and grace will just abound and it will all be covered? You got it right. Yes, that is what I'm saying. That's what the Bible's saying, which is why the Apostle Paul follows this up in the next verse because he wants to deal with that exact thought. Look at the next verse in chapter six, verse one. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. Now, it's always so stupid when you see people who believe in a workspace salvation turn to Romans chapter six, verse one to make their point. It always blows my mind how people that are unsaved, they're blind. They're spiritually blinded. They will literally go to verses that prove them wrong and say, see, look, we're right. Like for example, people will try to tell you that you can lose your salvation and they'll take you to a passage that says, depart from me, I never knew you. And you're like, what? Excuse me? I mean, think about, well, not everyone that says, Lord, you know, depart from me, I never knew you. See, you can lose your salvation. It's like, hello, if he never knew you, how could you have lost your salvation? Lost your salvation would be, I used to know you, you know, or the Jehovah's Witnesses, you know, you know, there's none good but one and that's God. Jesus just, are you saying Jesus isn't good? Because if he's good, he's God, you know, it's like, they're so blinded that they'll literally take you to this verse. I can't even count. I've had literally hundreds of people who believe in work salvation say, well, yeah, but the Bible says, you know, you know, we, you know, what should we sin? You know, should we continue and send them? Grace be about God forbid, you know, see, you can't just keep sending or you lose your salvation. It's like, hello. He just finished saying that if we do sin, grace will abound that we're sin about it. Grace abounded more. That's why this question is even being asked because we're sin abounded, grace did much more about. So because we're sin abounds, grace abounds more. Should we do that? Should we continue and sin that grace be about? God forbid. But here's the thing. This question in Romans six verse one wouldn't even be worth asking unless grace was sufficient. Think about that. The only reason we're even asking this question in Romans chapter six verse one is because we're sin abounded, grace did much more about. And that we're sin abounds, grace abounds more. That's why the question is even worth asking, well, is that what we should do? Should we do that? And of course, the answer is a resounding no way. God forbid, absolutely not. We should not sin. Now, we are saved by grace and God's grace has no boundary. It has no limit. There is no sin that we could possibly commit that would basically go over the top where God's grace can't cover it. God's grace covers every single sin. But obviously as Christians, we shouldn't go out and do that. We shouldn't go out and commit all these sins because the Bible teaches, you know, first of all, that if we go out and commit sins after we're saved, we're going to get chastised and punished by the Lord. We don't want to, we want to avoid that chastisement, number one. We're still saved. God's grace still covers our sin, but we still have to reap what we sow on this earth, okay? Another reason why we don't want to just go out and sin just because grace will abound is because we want to earn rewards in heaven. You know, Jesus said, behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. We're going to earn those rewards. Okay, also, we love God. If we love God, we should want to do what's right whether grace covers it or not. We don't want to just grieve the Holy Spirit of God and we don't want to just sin and disobey God because Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. So we should want to do what's right to show our love for Christ, not because we're scared of going to hell. We're not going to hell. We're saved. We're preserved. We're sealed. We can't lose our salvation, but we should want to do what's right because we love Christ. I mean, do you only do what's right when you're being forced? If so, I'm worried about you, okay? You know, we should want to do what's right, not just because we're scared or forced. We should want to do what's right just out of love. You know, I hope that my children don't only obey me out of fear. I would hope that they would love me and obey me because they want to. Wouldn't that be the best form of obedience? That's what God wants from us. And also, we want to do what's right because we want to get other people saved. You know, I could just sit there and say, oh, no matter what I do, I'm going to heaven. Well, great. You know, I'll just go out and eat, drink, and be merry, but guess what? Other people are going to hell. So I'd rather dedicate my life to getting other people saved because I'm not just worried about myself. Whether I go to heaven, I'm worried about other people too. So there are lots of good reasons not to continue in sin that grace may abound. So should we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. He just gave you four good reasons not to continue in sin that grace may abound. But make no mistake about it. If you continue in sin, grace will abound, I promise you that. He just finished telling us that because it's a free gift. If there were some limit on the grace, then eternal life wouldn't be a free gift anymore and that wouldn't make any sense. So look down, if you would, at Romans 6.15. He has a similar statement. He says, what then? While we sin because we're not under the law but under grace, God forbid. Now look, we're not under the law, we're under grace, but does that mean that we should go out and sin? No, it doesn't. And there are lots of good reasons not to. But avoiding hell is not one of them. Because heaven and hell has nothing to do with how much good and bad you've done. It has to do with whether or not you've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. That's what determines whether or not you're going to heaven or hell. So first of all, we see that there is absolutely no limit to God's grace where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, and that's why it's salt without prescribing how much because there's grace that is greater than all of our sin. Number two, we are preserved forever by the grace of God. We're preserved. So the salt of God's grace preserves us forever. If you would flip over to Jude, verse one, Jude verse one, and while you're turning to that verse I'll read for you my favorite verse on this subject, which is John 5 24 where the Bible reads, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life. So according to the Bible, the one who has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ has everlasting life and he shall not come into condemnation but he is passed from death unto life and let me tell you something, that is a one way valve. When you get passed from death to life, you're not coming into condemnation, you are saved with a D on the end because it's done, saved, not a process. John 10 28 says, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. He's saying, they're saved, they're secure, they shall never perish. You know when I hear the word perish, it makes me think of food because I think about foods being perishable foods, right? And if you think about perishable foods, you don't want to leave them out in a warm temperature for a long time because they will go bad. So a lot of times I'll be going somewhere, let's say I'm going to go on a really long bicycle ride or let's say I want to go to, you know, the river or the lake or something, you're going to spend a day hiking or something and you want to bring some food that's not going to go bad. And sometimes what I've done in that situation is I'll get a subway sandwich, you know, and grab a subway sandwich, throw it in my backpack and that's something that's going to be good later to pull out and eat. But guess what? I'm not going to get a tuna sandwich from Subway. Would that be a good idea? You know, I'm out in Arizona and I'm going hiking all day and you think I want to pull out five, six hours later a tuna sandwich from Subway? You know, that's going to be food poisoning, right? It's going to be disgusting. I wouldn't even get a chicken sandwich. I wouldn't do the meatballs, you know, I wouldn't I wouldn't trust Subway's meatballs anyway. But anyway, you know, I wouldn't do that stuff. I'll tell you when I'm grabbing a Subway sandwich to do some kind of outdoors activity or something, I'll tell you what I get. I get the Italian BMT and let me tell you why I get that because it's salami, pepperoni and ham and these things are preserved. They're filled with preservatives. You know, that's what we need on a day like this though, right? So that, you know, they got all those nitrates and whatever, that stuff's not going bad. It can be left out warm all day and it's fine. You know, that's why whenever you read these old fairy tales, they're always taking like cheese and stuff on the, you know, bread and cheese, you know, because stuff like cheese and salami and ham, it's salted, it's preserved. It's not going to go bad, right? That's why I think, it's not going to what? Perish. OK. So that's why salt pictures being preserved because salt keeps food from getting preserved. You know, you've got things like salami and ham and whatever. You feel better about eating it like 10 hours later. You know, you'd pull it, you know, I don't know if you should pull it out the next day or not, but I'm just saying, you know, you feel a lot better about it when it's got those preservatives in it. OK. Well, here's the thing about that. Obviously there's still a limit to how preserved some of that stuff is and, you know, there's still a certain time limit on that. But the thing about God's grace is that there is no limit. It's preserved forever. It's just perpetually preserved. Now look at Jude, verse 1, the Bible says, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. And we talk a lot about the word of God being preserved, but you know what? We the people of God are preserved as well. We are preserved in Jesus Christ. Flip over to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. So we said, number 1, that there is no limit to God's grace. Salt without prescribing how much. And then number 2, we are preserved forever by the grace of God because God's grace is that preservative salt that will never run out. It will always keep us preserved. Look at Ephesians chapter 1, verse 13. In whom ye also trusted, which is a great synonym for the word believed, by the way, in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, notice how believed and trusted are being used interchangeably because that's what the Bible means by believed, it means trusted, in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory. Now think about that word earnest. It reminds me of a comic when I was a kid called Frank and Earnest in the newspaper. Who knows what I'm talking about? Only old people. But anyway, you know, we used to read Frank and Earnest. Earnest means serious is what that means. So basically when you're buying a house, when you put in your offer, sometimes you'll put down some earnest money with your offer and you know what that means? Hey, I'm serious about this offer because they don't want you to make an offer and then just be like, nah. And then they're like, okay, we'll take your offer. And then you're just like, nah, I changed my mind. So the earnest money says I'm serious because if you back out for no reason, you lose your earnest money. Once you put down that earnest money, you know, you can't just back out for no reason. It's showing you that, it's showing you're serious about your offer, okay? So God, when he saved us, he sealed us with the Holy Spirit of promise. And that sealing of the Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, meaning that it's the down payment and it shows that God is serious and that he's not going to renege on his offer of salvation unto us. It's the earnest of our inheritance until we mess up. No, it says until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory. So Jesus Christ has saved us, but we haven't really experienced the full effect of that salvation yet. Because here we are living in our sinful flesh, our bodies are the same old bodies from before we got saved. We still have the same exact sinful flesh that we had before we were saved. So we're not fully redeemed yet. We haven't been fully regenerated yet because our bodies haven't been regenerated yet. So we still have the flesh. We still have a sinful flesh, including a sinful brain because our brain is flesh. So we got a sinful brain, sinful body, sinful flesh, and we've got aches and pains and problems with our body. Some people, you know, could be blind or deaf or, you know, have heart problems or what, you know, we have problems physically. We have problems with our flesh. We're not completely redeemed and regenerated yet. When we got saved, we did receive the down payment. We received the Holy Spirit of God living inside of us. Which is the earnest of our inheritance. It's not our full inheritance. I mean, am I living in the mansion yet? You know, I have an inheritance coming from the Lord, but it's up in heaven. There's a mansion. He's in my Father's house for many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you. And so there's a mansion up there, rewards up there. I've got the promise of my vile body being changed into a glorious body, like unto his glorious body. That's all been promised to me, but I haven't really seen any of that yet, have I? But it's all coming. But I've got the down payment. I've got the earnest of the inheritance. I've got the Holy Spirit living inside of me, sealing me with that Holy Spirit of promise. And I want you to focus on that word, promise. The promise, okay? Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory. So has God already paid for this transaction? It's already paid for. It's already been purchased. Jesus already died on the cross. He already shed his blood. He already rose again from the dead. He already paid the price for the purchased possession. But he just hasn't picked it up yet. You know, he hasn't fully redeemed it yet. He hasn't fully taken possession yet. So we are paid for, and to let us know that he's serious, and to let us know how secure this is and how guaranteed this is, he has sealed us with that Holy Spirit of promise. Is God going to break his promise? Well, what is it, if the seal is broken, what broke? The promise broke. Because it's the seal of promise. Or sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. Is that seal going to be broken? That would be God breaking his promise, okay? And God cannot lie. The Bible says in Titus 1, 2, in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. He's not going to break that promise. He's not going to break the seal, okay? He is going to do what he said he would do. He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. You're sealed until the redemption of the purchased possession. He's not going to get a refund and say, you know, I want my money back. I don't want to, I don't want you anymore. No he said I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Look at Ephesians 4, 30. You're right there in chapter one. Let's flip over to chapter four. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. That's how long you're sealed for. The seal's not going to be broken because that would be a breaking of God's promise and God who cannot lie promised before the world began that we have eternal life by believing on Jesus. John chapter six, if you would flip over to John chapter six quickly and then I'll move on quickly to my third point. In John chapter six because, you know, I brought up a little bit earlier about people being so blinded because they're not saved and they don't have the Holy Spirit and so they believe in a works-based salvation and then they'll take you to Matthew seven to try to show you a works-based salvation or to try to show you that you can lose your salvation where it says not everyone that sayeth unto me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works and then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from ye that work iniquity. Now look these people they didn't think salvation was too easy and they're just trying to believe their way in. Hey that is the right way to get in. If you don't get saved easy you don't get saved. You get saved by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. He did the work. You can't work your way in. You can only rest your way in. You can only believe your way in, okay. Those people they're not saying well what I believed in you. What are they saying? Oh we've done all these works. What about our works? Those people are trusting in their works and as a result he says I never knew you not I used to know you but you sinned too much. So you can see how they're turning that verse on its head. But then another thing that they'll point to is where it says well yeah but you have to do the will of the Father because it says not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. And then these people are going to be like oh we did all these works and he's going to say I never knew you. Okay well let's see what the will of the Father is. Look at John chapter 6 verse 38. For I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me and this is the Father's will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day and this is the will of him that sent me that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day. So what's the will of the Father? The will of the Father is that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life. What are these bozos doing? Oh we did all these wonderful works. And then he says to them I never knew you and that their wonderful works are works of iniquity because unsaved people false prophets teachers of work salvation they can't please God they that are in the flesh cannot please God without faith it's impossible to please him and a church that teaching works salvation I don't care how hard they're working I want to know who they're working for. Because if they're working for their salvation that's a false doctrine they're actually working for the devil at that point if they're teaching people a false gospel. You know the Bible says if any man teach any other doctor any other gospel than that which you've received let him be accursed. So that's an accursed work. They're working hard evangelizing teaching people work salvation they're actually doing the work of the devil at that point. And so that's how their wonderful works are actually works of iniquity. What is the will of the father that everyone who sees the son and believes on him has everlasting life that's the will of the father. But what I really want to point out about this verse because that's already an important truth to grasp from verse 40 but back up to verse 39 and this is the father's will which he had sent me that of all which he had given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day. So it's God's will that nobody lose their salvation. It's God's will that no one be lost of those who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ who've seen him and believed on him and have everlasting life that none of them would perish. And that is the way it works. So thirdly this we said number one salt without prescribing how much? What does it represent? Number one it represents there's no limit to God's grace. Number two it represents that we are preserved forever by the grace of God. We have more preservative in us than an Italian BMT sandwich. We got more nitrates we got more salt we got more preservative than anything on Subway's menu okay. But number three we need to have grace with each other. Grace with one another and this also should be unlimited. Go if you would to Mark chapter 9. Mark chapter number 9 verse 50. While you're turning there I'll read for you Romans 15 7. This is a powerful verse from Romans 15 7. Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God. Receive one another as Christ received us. So Christ receives us in our sinful condition. Christ receives us and gives us grace and we're supposed to receive one another even as Christ has received us. The same way he received us we should receive other people. Look at Mark chapter 9 verse 50. Salt is good but if the salt have lost his saltness wherewith will you season it? Watch this have salt in yourselves and have peace one with another. Have salt in yourselves and have peace one with another. So it's not just that the salt represents God's grace toward us but the salt also represents the grace that we should have with other people. Extending grace unto others so that we can be at peace with one another. It's impossible to have peace with one another without showing grace because if every time somebody messes up we are unforgiving and don't show grace we're not going to get along very well are we? I mean imagine a marriage where nothing is ever forgiven. Imagine a business relationship where nothing is forgiven. Church friendships where nothing is forgiven. It could never work because everybody's going to mess up. Everybody's going to do something wrong and so you have to have salt in verse number 50 where you have to have salt in yourselves and have peace one with another because salt represents grace. Now flip over if you would to Matthew chapter 18. Matthew chapter number 18. Matthew chapter number 18 we need to have grace with one another. Now while you're turning to Matthew 18 I'll read for you from Luke 17 verse 3. Take heed to yourselves if thy brother trespass against thee rebuke him and if he repent forgive him and if he trespass against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him. Now that sounds like salt without prescribing how much because you could say well you know yeah but that eighth time you know but the point is he's using such a ridiculous example it's never going to it's never actually going to get to that point that somebody's actually going to seven times in a day say to you I repent. Obviously he's just using this wild example because it's so out there what he's saying is there's no limit like and here's the same thing in Matthew 18 verse 21. Then came Peter to him and said Lord how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times. So you know he didn't get the seven times a day reference he's just thinking like it's just seven total right? Seven times and then that's it. Jesus saith unto him I say not unto thee until seven times but until seventy times seven. Okay and for those of you that are mathematically challenged that's 490. Now here's the thing what he's not saying is to sit there and you know you you're just keeping tally marks and it's like that woman at church has sinned against me 437 times and I'm telling you what you know she's running out of slack because it's you know obviously no one is going to keep track of 490 offenses the whole point is just limitless salt without prescribing how much just an unlimited amount of grace an unlimited amount where basically no matter how many times people sin against you if they repent if they're sorry you've got to forgive them okay you know yeah and you should not hold grudges over people for things that they've already gotten right someone did something in the past but they've gotten it right you know you got to forgive and forget and look a lot of people don't necessarily agree with this because they're wrong about this but let me tell you something you forgive and forget and I do have Bible for that because God said their sins and iniquities will I remember no more that's what the Bible says you know I because people are like well I forgive but I'm not gonna forget you know to truly forgive is to forget you know we should at least and obviously sometimes things can be impossible to forget but because we're not God God can forget but but you know what we should strive to actually forgive and forget you know I I think that the best kind of forgiveness is where we literally forget that it even happened you know where years go by and years later it's like I don't even know what you're talking about now obviously that's not always possible like I said because we're human but that's the that's the goal to forgive and forget and let me tell you a secret to forgetting stuff quit thinking about it if you think about something every day yeah you're never gonna forget it but if you don't think about something for years you will truly forget it I've had people come up to me and apologize to me about stuff years later and I literally had no idea what they were talking about I'm just like I don't even know what you're talking about because it because it's just I just didn't think about it think about how many things we forget in our lives we are we are as human beings we're excellent forgetters and you know what everybody wants to have a good memory don't they you know hey eat this and it'll improve your memory or whatever we all go eat it but did you know that God designed us to be forgetful on purpose like if let's say we had this ability to just remember everything and we just read the phone book and recite it back that's actually a curse not a blessing okay a lot of people would think like all superpower but the thing about that is that like think about all of the painful experiences we have in our life all the rude things people say to us all the hurtful experiences do you want to just remember every hurtful thing in your life and just never forget it see we're just forgetting is like a way to cope with life forgetting about all the junk that has happened in the past you know the possible set forgetting those things are behind and reaching forth under those things are before now some things are worth remembering and our brain is constantly deciding is this worth remembering so you know it part of learning is you have to convince your brain yes we want to remember this this is important because if your brain decides it's not important just your brains just trashing stuff every day I mean think about you walk in the supermarket and you see like hundreds of thousands of products do you want to just memorize everything that you just saw no you walk out the grocery store and if someone asked you where something is you'd be like I don't know even two minutes later but like because you didn't because your brain just your brain like saw that looked at it and just said throw it away you don't need it so in order to learn stuff you have to keep reviewing right like when you're studying you have to review and then a week later you got to review it and then a couple weeks later you keep reviewing that's how you learn right you study by reviewing later so here's how you forgive people and forget quit reviewing the stuff later don't just sit around at night in your bed just thinking about all the bad things that people have done that you know once that once it's over just let it go and forget about it and forgive and forget we need to have grace with one another we need to have salt in ourselves and have grace with one another and have peace with one another now if you would go to Jeremiah chapter 17 Jeremiah chapter 17 so here's a good illustration for why it's important that we not only be recipients of God's grace but that we also have grace with other people is because we want to be a conduit of grace right we want the grace to flow through us we want to receive grace from God and then turn around and give grace to other people remember that remember that parable about the guy in Matthew chapter 18 where he is forgiven a great debt by his master but then he grabs somebody who owes him a little bunny by the throat and says pay me that thou always and throws him in jail so he's not letting the grace flow through him he's receiving grace but he's not putting out any grace everybody understand what I'm saying here's the problem with that the problem with receiving the grace and not actually putting out grace is that actually you can become sterilized by just getting so much salt like think about dirt or soil that gets too salty it becomes worthless it becomes unable to grow things it becomes barren look at Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 6 it says for he shall be like the Heath in the desert and shall not see when good cometh but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness in a salt land and not inhabited so is a salt land a good land is salt good salts good right yeah so it's good but is a salt land good no okay there's a body of water in the Bible that's mentioned several times called the salt sea now today we know this as the Dead Sea in the English language but it's still in Hebrew they call it the salt sea and the Bible calls it the salt sea and is this a place teeming with life and and no it isn't nothing can live there it's it's called the Dead Sea because nothing can live there now why does the salt sea exist the salt sea exists because you have water that flows into it but there's no outlet so water comes in but it doesn't leave so there's only one way out for water of the doll of the Dead Sea and what's that one way out evaporation so water if water comes into the Dead Sea and then it evaporates but what does it leave behind the salt well here's the thing all water out in nature has salt in it even fresh water still has salt in it okay it's just salt water has a lot of salt in it fresh water has a little bit everything has a little bit of salt in it okay that's why water conducts electricity because it's only the it's only the electrolytes in the water that even makes it conduct electricity distilled water does not conduct electricity so you've got even if you have a freshwater stream flowing right into the Dead Sea guess what it's bringing with it salt because even a freshwater stream contains salt all water in nature contains salt so basically what happens is you've got this salt being deposited into the Dead Sea then water evaporates from the Dead Sea the salt stays more water more salt water leaves salt stays and what do you end up with it just gets saltier and saltier and saltier and saltier and saltier until it just becomes barren and dead okay now we want to as Christians we want to be the good ground that bears fruit because the good ground brings forth fruit some 30 some 60 and some 100 so we want to be the good ground that bears fruit let me ask you something is a ground that is very salty a good ground no a salt land is not inhabited it's wilderness it's junk okay and there's even a passage in the book of Judges where they sow land in salt just to ruin it so people can't grow anything they put too much salt in okay so good soil has to have water coming in but then it also has to have water going out soil to be good soil has to drain well a soil that does not drain well and there are other reasons why it's bad but one reason that improper drainage could be bad is that soil could over time become salinified so this happened in Mesopotamia you know you hear about Mesopotamia the Fertile Crescent and it's sometimes when you read the Bible and you read about places in the Bible it doesn't really match what we see today like you'll read about these places that are really lush and fertile and and then you go there now and it's just like this desolate wilderness it's like a dead dry Middle East and you're like huh you know this is the Fertile Crescent what's the deal but what happened is that in Mesopotamia many thousands of years ago they were irrigating that area there and as they brought in water and they artificially irrigated that soil what happened was it didn't really have a drain so what would happen is water would evaporate off the fields and as they irrigated and irrigated and irrigated yes they're dumping water in but in the process they're also inadvertently dumping salt and so slowly over time their wheat crops would not grow as well because as they kept bringing in tons of water to irrigate because you know irrigating is working good to make crops grow but the problem is they don't see the invisible salt that they're adding with the water even though it's fresh water so then as they keep irrigating evaporating irrigating evaporating it gets saltier and saltier pretty soon they couldn't grow wheat anymore so then they start growing barley because barley can grow in soil that has a little more salt in it but then pretty soon the barley won't even grow and it just keeps getting saltier and saltier until it's just worthless okay there has to be a drain there has to be a removal of salt from the soil to make up for the salt coming in so if we want to be fertile ground if we want to be the good ground we need salt coming in and salt going out okay so if we are just recipients of the grace of God recipients of the grace of God but we're not testifying to the grace of God to other people we're not showing the grace of God to other people we could become like the Dead Sea where we were all in and no out and you know think about a church that does no soul winning you know and you've got people that are coming to church week after week and they're getting all this great preaching and they're getting all this water coming in in these churches right and the pastor is getting up and he's teaching them the Bible talking about a non soul winning church but where the Bible is being faithfully taught and he's teaching them the Bible teaching the Bible so they're getting the water of the word coming in water of the word coming in they're growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ grace is coming in water is coming in but here's thing they're not sharing that with anybody else they're not preaching that to anyone else they could become just a salty dead just too much coming in with nothing going out think about that so we want to be a conduit of the grace of God and we want to be a conduit of the Word of God you know the Bible says in Ephesians 5 26 that he might sanctify and cleanse it by the with the washing of water by the word notice the washing of water by the word you know with with washing there's water that's coming in and then there's water that's rinsed off and it's gone did we understand what I'm saying water needs to flow through us we don't want to be the Dead Sea right we want to be a lake where there's a way in and there's a way out you know so that it's yes we're getting the the fresh supply coming in but we're also putting it out otherwise we'll become stagnant right we could become salty overly salty we need the salt coming in and going out and we want the salt coming in to match the salt going out and we want the water coming in to match the water going out right this is a balance equilibrium is what we want and so the Bible is telling us to not only be recipients of the grace of God but also to be those who who are giving the grace of God to other people dispensers we want to be grace dispensers as well and I think that there's really two ways of doing that number one would be to preach the gospel of the grace of God to other people is an output right because we've got inputs and outputs okay so the input is God is showing us grace the input is we're reading our Bibles we're learning a lot of Bible we're learning a lot of truth and then we need some outputs output number one is going out soul-winning because if we tell someone else how to be saved if we preach the gospel to other people we're taking the grace that we got and we're extending it to someone else and we're passing that on to someone else and then output number two is just basically forgiving other people you know we've received grace now we're gonna show grace to others by when they do us wrong we forgive them that's another outlet so that we don't become the Dead Sea so that we don't become a salty uninhabited barren land where no one wants to dwell and where nothing can grow we want to be the good healthy ground and you know there are some people who have done a lot of sin in their life I mean they've been very sinful in the past they have a really sinful past right and you know what that means if they're saved that means they've received an incredible amount of grace from the Lord right because the more sin abounds the more grace abounds so the person who has done a ton of sins in their past also has received a ton of grace now in order for there to be a balance that person should then do what that person should really be extending a lot of grace to other people and you know it's often bizarre to me when you'll see the opposite of this you'll see a person who comes from a very sinful past they're saved they get forgiven and then they turn around and are very judgmental of others not forgiving other people not giving any grace to other people and and it just it's so mind-blowing like whoa look at all the grace you receive it's just like that parable in Matthew 18 look how you were forgiven this gigantic debt you ought to be forgiving a lot of debts too in order to balance that out so that the salt coming in and the salt going out are keeping you from becoming sterile and barren and dead and so we want to make sure that that it flows through us so again back to the text verse Ezra chapter number seven he said salt without prescribing how much you know there's a limit on the gold you know I don't want to just give you a carte blanche Ezra I want to give you everything you need and so I want to spend money here but obviously there's a limit you know I've written people blank checks before in business sometimes I would give people a check and written it as a blank check and said like here I'm gonna give you this check because I don't know how much this is gonna cost when you get down there you know you find out how much it costs and then fill in the amount once they give you the invoice you know in business you end up writing blank checks who's ever written a blank check for someone in business a couple people and basically but here's the thing you're obviously trusting someone when you give them a blank check right but here's the thing your trust and has a boundary because this is what I every time I write a blank check I always write above the amount do not exceed and you put a limit on it who knows what I'm talking about right that's the proper way to write a blank check so you write somebody a blank check and you write out like do not exceed $2,000 or do you know you know it's gonna be around six seven hundred bucks or something you just write do not exceed $1,000 and you write that on the check so that they can't just fill in you know five thousand dollars or ten thousand dollars and just take the money and run or something so you put that little do not exceed if you give someone a blank check that's what the king is doing here he's giving Ezra a blank check but he's saying do not exceed a hundred talents of silver do not exceed a hundred measures but he says salt no limit salt without prescribing how much now you say well you know why was he so well I was he so free with salt well number one so that we could have this illustration this morning you know because God wanted to have this illustration to know that his grace is unlimited that where sin abounds grace much more about and you're never gonna run out of God's grace just like Ezra is never gonna run out of salt okay but you know humanly speaking he's not worried about it because salts cheap compared to gold and silver I mean think about how much does gold cost how much does silver cost how much does wheat cost I mean these things are all going to be more expensive oil and wine and wheat and silver and things like that the salt is the cheapest item on that list we go to the grocery store right now and buy a little deal of salt you know the one with the little girl in the raincoat and the umbrella Morton's is it I mean how much does that little canister cost how much 99 cents anybody agree with that is it we're playing the price is right yeah it's it's it's like less than a buck it's like less than a buck and how long is that thing in the last I mean it's gonna last a long time right I mean that thing will be up in the cupboard for months you know depending on how much salt you use that thing's gonna last a long time and it's less than a buck so it's not like well you know we're doing our budget we got factor in our salt expense nobody has salt as a part of that pie graph because the salt is so cheap it's not a big deal okay so that's why he just says you know salt without prescribing how much but God had a reason for including this detail even though he's not thinking about the grace of God and forgiving people and everything you know things like this in the Bible also have a symbolic meaning so it's easy when you're reading a book like Ezra to think like well this book's kind of mundane or why don't I why do I care about all these details about baths of oil and bushels of wheat and talents of silver or white because it all means something it all has a deeper spiritual meaning even the books that seem boring or giving us kind of just unnecessary details it's all there for a reason okay and God wanted us to see that salt represents grace and that there's no limit to it now why is salt cheap it's supply and demand salt is cheap because salt is abundant if salt were not abundant it would be very expensive I mean can you imagine if there were a shortage of salt it would be a disaster because salt is so important we have to have it can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt no but but we need salt salt is critical salt is important but the good news is salt is abundant that's why it's cheap okay so guess what God's grace is abundant it's absolutely essential we've got to have it we must have it if we don't have it we're in big trouble but the good news is we never have to worry about a shortage you know the toilet paper might run short but the salt will never run short because salt is abundant it's everywhere and God's grace abounds and isn't that great because we definitely need it we've got to have it let's buy it's never word of prayer father we thank you so much for your word Lord and and and for all the things that we can learn Lord and and Lord if there's anyone here who isn't saved I pray that they would get saved before it's eternally too late and just realize that salvation is only by grace and and and to just get off this thinking of a workspace salvation and losing your salvation or that your grace is somehow not sufficient Lord I pray that every single person here would understand that salvation is a free gift purchased by your grace and that there's no limit Lord and those of us that are saved which is the vast majority Lord if not everyone Lord I pray that we would put this into practice in our lives that we would not just be a recipient of your grace Lord help every single one of us to actually be a dispenser of grace both by preaching about your grace by preaching the gospel and also by just showing grace to people who do us wrong help us to be forgiving people who show grace unto others and in Jesus name we pray amen