Wednesday Night Bible Study
by Billy McCool
First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
Kind: Bible study
Scripture: Matthew 5:16, Matthew 5:13-16, Job 6:6, Matthew 28:16-17

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/billy-mccool--wednesday-night-bible-study-79
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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let's try it again praise the Lord everyone is so good to see each one of you in the house of the Lord tonight what a joy it is to gather in the house of God to hear the word of the Lord and talk about the word of the Lord I'll make an announcement of two number one we want to be in prayer for brother J.D Pierce he lost his brother in death this last week and let's be praying for him and his family that the Lord would give him comfort and also sister Nelson brother Dr Joe Nelson's wife passed away and I think pastor and sister Jamie is going to be going up and representing our church at that that funeral we just buried a great friend of ours about a week ago brother Jack Madison and we're going one by one and we're giving our promotion and uh what a day the song said what a day what a glorious day that will be and I want to say how happy I am to see brother and sister huba tonight a strange not a strange thing but an interesting thing happened just today we were renting some equipment for the camp meeting this next week and sister McCool and I went out to Rothschilds rental and we had to look around to find out we've been there many times before for for different events and we finally found the door where the office supposed to be in Sister McCool went in and the lady met her with open arms and hugged her like an old-time friend she said sister McCool it is so good to see you I haven't seen you in a while she said I I remember we we were the ones furnished that big white tent for your granddaughter when she got married said we never saw a crowd like that said she had over said she had over 500 for her wedding and said what a great time it was and um system of cool and I just talked about that as we drove back to the house and we made remarks um you know we can be friendly with each other as well as we can be grouchy there are some folks that you feel like you have to somehow make friends but there are others that just right off the and of course brother but you are an old friend and of course uh all the families of the the Ministers of God down through the years we love all of them so very much the payments and then the prices before that and there's so many preachers across this country that we know and love and thank God for so very much um I I announced a strange thing the other night um in my Ministry I have preached a lot of strange uh funeral topics um I I would like for my sermons to be somewhat like my wife's cooking no matter what she fixes it is the best ever ever meal I eat is the best I'll tell her that and she she acts like she don't believe me but uh the other night uh she fixed a special meal she'd heard me and talk about I just love dip dogs and corn dog the same thing and she called me to supper and she had me two dip dogs and she had some corn green beans some tater tots and the best law that ever touched human lips and it always is and and those two dip dogs and that green beans and the the slow and the corn and the tater tots I got up from that table feeding like I had eaten a Christmas dinner I'm still thinking about it I might request that for breakfast I don't know but it was it was so delicious when I said that to say this I would like for my sermons to be that way I try my best to do my best every time I preach or teach a Bible lesson I sometimes give it some strange topics some of you might remember I preached sister prayer meetings funeral one time and uh had a gentleman come into a or I lived next door to him and he worked for Weber funeral home and he furnished beef he brought an ambulance out there hers and a beautiful casket with mirrors on the side of it and I preached sister prayer meetings funeral and and what a what a time we had and then I preached other a great topics such as uh seven ducks in a mud hole I preached on that and if you didn't know what that's about that was about Naaman that took seven dips in the river of Jordan to get his leprosy cleanse another one of my great sermons back then was giving the pigs a permanent wave and I preached about the Prodigal Son saying goodbye to the pigs he gave the pigs a permanent wave and and then I preached a message if it ain't broke break it so some of the things well here a while back uh I uh I I recited a poem that was written back in 1921. and in 1921 Myra Welch would say that she heard a speaker address a group of students on the power of God to bring out the best in people she said she herself became filled with light and that following poem was written in 30 minutes and the The Finnish poem was sent anonymously to the editor of her local church News Bulletin she felt it was a gift from God and didn't need her name on it a while back I recited that poem in service and Brother David Latham after the service he said brother McCool I would like for you to recite that at my funeral well I said Brother David according to our ages you'll probably go before me but just in case that's a situation I'm going to preach your funeral and I'll do that hesitation for you so tonight I'm going to preach brother David latham's funeral and brother Gary I don't have to preach his funeral because he's here tonight he was listening he was listening online last week when I said Brother Gary I know you're listening online I'm going to preach brother David latham's funeral but if you're not here I'm going to preach your funeral so he's here tonight Brother Gary along with the rest of my family we travel for five or six seven years uh in one car all over the country and brother Gary brother TC Montgomery adopted him called him Little Orphan and he said you don't have a twin so I'm going to be your twin and brother yeah would sing and he was a great addition to the McCool family Evangelistic party and I'm so glad to see brother Gary and sister Katie here and and their family there they're they're they're just they're just wonderful and I appreciate them so very much but of course if if I was gonna if I was gonna preach brother David latham's funeral uh first of all I would have to say I thank God that Brother David Latham had enough love for his family that he sent Darren to this school and then he graduated from this school married a fine girl Lena and they have two great uh sons and uh there's something to be proud of and he'll never invest in anything better than investing in him sending David to this school and they're still in the church today after graduation he's got two boys of his own now and what a wonderful thing it is and also Brother David and and and his first wife they were faithful to the church as long as as they live as long as she lived Doris and when she passed away uh after a while Brother David had the wisdom and the Good Fortune to marry a Godly Widow in our church sister Carolyn Mason now Latham and what a great partnership we've got there and then what I would say about Brother David also he's a great artist uh he's lettered several of our Silver Eagle buses he painted did the lettering to our gymnasium and he taught brother Marx and things about uh decorating the the gymnasium and he's been such a blessing down through the years and we appreciate him so very much but he's not dead by a long ways and I don't expect him to die anytime soon though he has been very ill and at one time he really and truly thought that he wouldn't be but another week or so that I would be preaching his funeral but what he wanted me to recite at his funeral goes like this it was battered and scarred and the auctioneer thought it scarcely worth his while to waste much time on the Old Violin but he held it up with a smile what am I bidding good folks he cried who will start the bidding for me a dollar who make it two only two who make it three three dollars once three dollars twice going for three but no from far back in the room a gray-haired man came forward and picked up the bowl he brushed the dust from the Old Violin tighten the loosened strings and played a Melody pure and sweet as sweet as the Caroling Angel sings the music ceased at the auctioneer and a voice soft and low said what am I bid for the Old Violin and he held it up with the bowl a thousand dollars well who'll make it two two thousand dollars will make it three thousand once three thousand twice going and gone said he the people cheered but some of them cried we do not quite understand what changed this worth quick came the reply Touch of a Master's Hand many a man with life Out Of Tune battered and scarred by sin is often auctioned cheap to a foolish crowd much like the Old Violin a mesopotamus a glass of wine a game and it travels on going once going twice going and almost gone then comes the master and the foolish crowd cannot quite understand the worth of a soul or the change that is wrought by the touch of the Master's Hand [Music] if you had known me before I knew him you understand why I love him if you had known me before I knew him you'd understand my love I haven't been much to offer just hearty and Pierce have a life that was filled with my rags he gave me riches for my grief he traded peace and for my old life [Music] you had known me before I knew him you'd understand why I love him if you if you had known me before I knew you'd understand my love [Music] [Applause] thank you and every time I preach I am preaching somebody's funeral and of course my own is included in that preaching 75 years this year I have no idea how many funerals I have preached but I know that one day I'm either going to take my flight or somebody will preach my funeral and I want you to know I consider it a graduation and a promotion Paul said for me to live is Christ and to die is gained so you and I have got a lot to gain Dr Rambo wrote the song Too Much to gain to lose all right let's get into the study I'm watching the clock and I'm not going to go over time I I like to make sure I wrote a book I wrote a chapter in the book requested by the organization techniques that will improve your preaching and one of the things I said there's two pitfalls preachers fall into and that is preaching too good and preaching too bad when a preacher starts enjoying his own preaching look out he'll preach too long he just he's just enjoying it and he's enjoying it longer than the congregation does and if you don't do too well he keeps on and on trying to resurrect a poor sermon I was in a meeting one time the preacher got up and he read his text and gave his topic and it's been about 10 minutes and he wasn't doing so well he said I thought I had the mind of the Lord but evidently that I'm going to change topics and he changed his topic and took a new text and gave a new topic and a new text and all he did was ruin two sermons so so my theory is be careful preachers if you get to preaching too good you'll preach too long you enjoy and you're preaching and people saying amen and rallying to you and if you're not doing too good you just keep on trying to resurrect it trying to do something but anyway so that you just make your own decision a lesson tonight is entitled the mission of a disciple the disciple is a learner a disciple is a student someone that is a student of someone else and this is what we're talking about tonight our focused verse is found in Matthew 5 16. let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven father we thank you for this service we thank you for this wonderful group of people gathered here tonight to hear the word of the Lord may they not be disappointed but may they get something from the word of the Lord in Jesus name we pray amen Jesus had just finished The Sermon on the Mount perhaps the most famous sermon that's ever been preached The Sermon on the Mount and now his telling his followers who and what they are he's talking to his disciples his followers and he'd preached that great message of the Beatitudes on call The Sermon on the Mount and Matthew 5 13 through 16. he said to his disciples his followers ye are the salt of the earth but if the salt have lost its savor wherewith shall it be salted it is therefore good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden Under Foot of men ye are the salt of the world you are the salt of the earth and common usage and I did a little research on that all-important Wikipedia and common usage salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride salt is essential for life in general remember that salt is essential for life in general and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous Foods seasonings and is known to uniformly improve the taste percept perception of food and uh perception food including otherwise unpalatable food you know I have heard I've heard sermons preach that it needs something to give it a little more flavor it's a little bit too bland it's a little too loud or a little too low or a little too monotone or it's a little too harsh or the tone is not exactly right but it needs you don't know exactly but it needs a little something now you say how do you know I know because I are one I've I've preached the many a sermon I've gone back and listened to it and I've said why why did I say that the way I said it I could have said that in a different way and it would have been far more acceptable the Bible said the preacher sought acceptable words there's nothing wrong if you're going to be a witness to somebody you don't need to get it in their face and say did you know it's Acts 2 38 or hell you don't need to get into somebody's face when we I I think of this so many times when Bobby and I put up the tent down the Lee and Baxter and sister McCool and the three of us we had a pre-owned we was on the cas Walker show and and and putting up the dent and wound up having a large crowd and until they found out we were Apostolic Jesus name but um I went across the street and there was a lady sitting on the front porch rocking and she said what what what are y'all doing I said we're putting up a tent we're gonna we're gonna build a church she said what kind of church I said it's going to be an Apostolic church he said bless God I believe it's Holiness or hell and she spent a mouthful of ambulance I had to dodge pray blessed God is Holiness or Hell well there's a way of preaching and Holiness there's a way of preaching baptism in Jesus name there's a way of preaching what we believe without being rude and crude and harsh if you're going to sell something you don't you don't tell how to have the payments of that you tell them how great it is and what a blessing it's going to be the the preacher sought acceptable work so we're talking about the salt now uh something is an important method of food preservation some of the earliest evidence of salt processing dates to around 6000 BC when people living in the area of present-day Romania bald spring water to extract salt was also prized by the ancient Hebrews Greeks Romanians Hittites Egyptians and Indians salt became an important article of trade and was transported by boat across the Mediterranean Sea along specially built salt roads and across the Sahara on Camel Caravans the scarcity and Universal need for salt have led Nations to go to war over it and use it to raise tax revenues salt is used in religious ceremonies and as other cultural and traditional significance now I'll pause from time to time as I read this now remember Jesus said ye are the salt of the earth now all these things I'm reading about salt Jesus knew all of this and this is what we are to this whole world where that important they may not know it but you see we are that which is a preservative that keeps things from rottening and we need a lot of help right now because this whole world is sure going Mighty rotten with a lot of its abuse the word salary comes from the Latin word for salt the reason for this is unknown the word salad literally means salted and comes from the ancient Roman practice of salting Leaf vegetables Wars have been fought oversaw been to spark Wars against you know what g-e-n-oa over the product and it played an important part in the American Revolution cities on Overland trade routes grew Rich by living duties and towns like Liverpool flourish on the export of salt extracted from the salt mines of Cheshire various governments have had at different times in polls salt taxes on their people the Voyages of Christopher Columbus are said to have been financed from Salt production in southern Spain and the oppressive salt action France was one of the causes of the French Revolution after being repealed this tax was imposed by Napoleon when he became emperor to pay for his Foreign Wars and was not totally abolished until 1946. so you see what I'm saying how important the Disciples of the Lord are when he said ye are the salt of the earth now there's something else about salt that's very important in the Hebrew Bible the 35 verses which mentioned Saul one of these mentions Lord's wife who was turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back at the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and they were destroyed when King abimelech destroyed the city of shechem he is said to have sown salt on it now there's one thing we've we've talked about all the greatness of what salt does I can well remember on the farm long before we had running water and electricity and refrigerators and things like that but we raised Hogs and when the weather got cooler got cold and the way over in the fall of the year and they called it hog killing time and they would kill Hogs and they'd have to bury a 55 gallon barrel and and build a fire around it and and it'd be scalding hot and take that that animal that had been killed and would Dows it down to that until the hair got loosened up then scrape anybody know what I'm talking about yep and then they'll take nothing to scrape the Harrow for that that hog well then they cut that hog up and then there was a special time we had a little building out from our house it we called they called it a Smokehouse and it was a small building but it had a table and my dad would take the hams of that hog and the shoulders and he would place them out on the this table and I've seen him I've opened that door and he would just totally covered those hams and shoulders with salt absolutely totally cover them and then he would build a fire and he would smoke them and that that that salt on those hands and shoulders of hogs it would preserve those hands and shoulders and almost year round we would have a having meat and shoulders and because the salt did the preserving I want to tell you something when Jesus said you're the salt of the earth he knew what he was talking about you and I are supposed to be the preservative that preserves the good that's in man or we're going to go to the bad there's a lot of folks that needs more salt today to preserve their goodness but then there's something else the salt was good for abimelech when he conquered shechem the next thing he did I don't want anybody else to ever use this city and I don't ever raise anything I don't want to ever grow anything so he sowed that area in salt so that nothing else would ever come up it would be a desolate ground let me tell you something the salt does in our life there's some things in our life that don't need to grow up again there's some things that we need to put an end to when we come to the Lord and we get baptized in Jesus name and filled with the Holy Ghost and dedicate all out to the Lord there's some things that don't need to come back you need to Salt it down and make sure that it's conquered and nothing else will ever grow there Give the Lord a hand clap [Applause] job said something interesting in job 6. we've got a man who was perfect and upright I feared God and issued evil the Bible said he was perfect he was one of the richest men in all the east and there's a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also and the Lord said where did you come from he said from going to and fro on the earth and working walking up and down on it and the Lord said have you considered my servant job does not like him perfect in our pride how would you like the Lord seek the devil on you I I appreciate I appreciate him thanking the lord of me but I don't know if I if I want the Lord to seek the devil but he did he said have you considered him and the devil said now I know all about this you've got a hedge built around him I can't even get to him he said you let that me take that hedge down from around her and I'll make him curse you God said all right I'll take that heads down said you can do whatever but said you can't take his life and the devil went out and right off he you see the devil misunderstands uh maybe in fact he even made the statement does job fear God for naught the devil don't understand love really loving because you love he thinks you got to get something out of it job's getting something out and no wonder he serves you you've made him the richest man in all the east well he's got cattle camels horses he's got everything he said let me take that Council go ahead well you can read it first second chapter of job how that uh all of his camels and donkeys and everything was taken from him his sons and daughters was having a party in the wind blew in only they were killed and and job was left with just about nothing and then he the devil said let me get to him his own his body the Lord said I'll let you do that but you can't take his life so he smote him with boils from the top of his head to the Souls of his feet and he was sitting down in a ash Heap and scraping his balls with a pot shared pieces of broken pottery as well I've said why don't you curse God and die you're not you're a mess he said you talk like a foolish woman you talk like a foolish one said we said we received good things at the hand of God since you were not receive some bad things and then when his friends came to comfort him they did everything but comfort him they accused him of everything and then job said and and job 6 and 6 he said is there any taste in the what of an egg is there any taste he said can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt you ever understand you ever I wonder what that means now salt by itself it's not good I don't like the things you get too too salty but job said can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt now you got to get the picture everything has got been taken away everything's bad but now job sees something in all of this something has happened to me that's put flavor to my life I've had nothing but good times I've had riches I've had camels and I've had donkeys I've had sheep I've had everybody come running I'm the most respected man in the east I need a little something to put a little flavor in my life I remember hearing brother Benson preaching at uh at one of the music conferences in Jackson Mississippi and there was a one of the good well-known preachers just been killed in a car wreck and brother Benson was a great piano player himself and he sat down to piano and he did something that I'll always remember and he made a chord he said this is such and such cord but he said if I just played in this court all the time it would just be so monotonous and then he said now a minor is a half a step below what I'm playing and it plays the same thing it puts that little half a step minor in there and it begins to sound different and then it begins to put other chords in that and it sounded so different and then he told us something that I always remember if life to you and me was nothing but a bowl of cherries and nothing but but but banana pudding you'd soon get tired of banana pudding life is going to let some things come your way that's going to put a little minor in your life it's going to put a little you're going to have a few sad days you're going to have a two a few days that's not too good but don't think too much about it because what's happened God is putting a little salt God is putting a little Savor into your life now some of us may say well boy I believe I've had plenty of salt well so be it but do you get what I'm talking about job said can that which is unsavory be eaten without is there any assault all right I had two the most delicious overload fixed just right eggs for breakfast this morning and just just right but the first thing I did I said would you pass the salt and pepper just a little bit of a little bit there and made it just right just right because I added a little salt and a little pepper don't get discouraged one of the few things comes your way that's not so so delectable and so delicious God may be putting a little bit of flavoring oh Hallelujah Hallelujah the difference in Champaign and 99 cent grape juice is the process I said the difference in champagne and 99 grape juices the process that both comes from grapes but that other part is put in a in the Bible days it was put in a wine skin and literally sewed up the the first of all the grapes had to be crushed and they'd be put in in the bat and then it literally crush them by trumping on them they've got to be picked from the Grapevine and then they're crushed sometimes we need a little crushing we don't realize it but sometimes we need a little crushing because that's what brings out the juice and then they take that grape juice and they took a an animal scan a goat skin and and they sewed up the the uh leg holds and poured that grape juice in that wine skin and they sewed it up and it had to stay there for so long a Time and it was a dark damp dreary world but something is taking place inside that wine skin though it's wet it's dark it's a terrible atmosphere but it's fermenting and as a ferment expands and and that goat skin begins to swell that's why the Bible said you don't put new wine in Old bottles because once that skin has stretched as far as it'll stretch that wine turns into that grape juice turns into wine and it is fermented and that's as far as the skin is going to go and then you open it up and then you pour that content into another vessel you can leave it in that wine skin and then you pour it in that vessel and there's a lot of drags in it and when you and then you pour it out of that into another one and then you keep pouring and it gets a little more pure all the time the Bible said so and so said he's not been poured out his uh drugs are still in him he needs to be poured out some folks are holding some things in too long it's going to turn to now what will happen if they don't do this process properly what is supposed to be wine turns out to be vinegar and if you don't pour yourself out to somebody else you got to pour this Smith into this vessel and because what's happening it's getting more pure all the time if I can just be faithful to the Lord and just let him pour me out I I may not understand what God is doing in my life right now it may I may be going through something that and you know my best companion said to me curse God and die I've got to see through the criticism I've got to see through this the unwise suggestions because if I'll let him pour me out it's getting it's getting more pure by and by he's going to pour me out uh maybe you know what the the book said said weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning oh Hallelujah we think may endure for a night oh it may be Darkness today it may be the old dark wine skin I may have lost something very dear I made it out understand what's happening but just hold on just Just Keep On Believing just keep on Holding On by and bye when God gets through with me and then before it's over I'm a valuable drink because I've gone through I've gone through God's process Jesus said ye are the salt of the earth you're the salt of the earth you're the salt of the earth church let me tell you something this world don't know what they've got in God's people they they may ridicule and criticize and they may have you know always um every every child of God is going to go through a certain amount of testing and trying they'll just hold on to God for here's what the book said you're the salt of the earth you've heard how why how valuable salt is but he said if the salt had lost its savor wherewith shall it be salted it is fence forth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot a man if I if the church loses its flavor um I fully believe subscribe to the idea I just talked about the wise the preacher said he sought except for Words acceptable words and I I fully believe that we do what and the salt has a good flavor and we're to have a good flavor about us came to the car today after she had come out of that roths house course we've done business with those folks through the years but she said she she hugged me like an old-time friend sounded like brother Huber and I I didn't remember being that friendly I I I just that's just what it was and I didn't know it but I uh that's the way I feel about God's people huh my dad when we were traveling as a family dad started operating a surface station the father drove in to eat gasoline and he got out and and dad thought he was a he looked just like an old brother we knew down in Georgia and His Name Escapes me but Dad thought sure he was that and when the fellow got out of his car then my dad just grabbed him and just hugged him and while he was hugging and he realized that what who he thought he was and he apologized to the manager sir he said I I'm I'm sorry so I thought you were so brother holler neck from down in Georgia all of the men said don't think anything about us I thought this is a friendly service I saw that for baby well let's go on you're the assault but it's if we lose our flavor now we you don't give up your Doctrine you don't give up the truth just to try to Win Friends and Influence People you're not you're not accomplishing anything if we're unable to preach them the truth can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt is there any taste in the white of an egg near the light of the world then he said a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick and to giveth light unto all that are in the house so let your light so shine there's a difference and letting your light shine and blinding somebody with two brighter lights I I declare that it seemed like these last few last years last days a lot of folks don't know how to dim the lights you meet him at night the the Elijah is so bright and the next to me and but you can try to shine your light so hard that you'll turn people away it'll be a blinding light instead of a Guiding Light you want it to be a Guiding Light not a blinding light and your attitude being uh assaulted with a good flavor a good personality have a have a nice respectful attitude about you and then they're going to listen to you but if you make a bad impression on them you're not going to be able to win them to the Lord then the 11 disciples Matthew 28 16 then the 11 disciples went away and together into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them and when they saw him they worshiped him but some doubted we're just down to be with us where at that point I'm going to keep with the clock he appointed them a certain place and and and the Bible say appointed them and when they saw him there was evidently it was a place they had been before when he said now if somebody says up would you meet me uh where we worship every week well then where would that be what theater would that be or what ball field would that be or no if you want to see me on Wednesday night looking for me at 5020 Pleasant Ridge Road I'm coming to see you and go to coming to visit you next Sunday well if you do be ready to go with me to church we go to 5020 Pleasant Ridge Road I'm going to go to the house of the Lord that's where we meet because I meet I met the Lord there last week and I'm going to meet him there this coming week praise the Lord father we thank you tonight for this service we thank you for the Blessed word of God Lord I Thank you that you have reminded us that we are the flavoring we are the preservative that we are the flavoring for this whole world and we're the preservative we are what's keeping the judgments of God from falling upon this world I pray o God that you will understand how precious we are in your eyes dismiss us from this place but not from your presence bring us back at the next appointed time in Jesus name amen you're dismissed in Jesus name Shake Hands and be friendly remember what we just talked about don't throw salt