Message from the Mount (week 11)

Matthew 5:13

Matthew 5:13 NKJV

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

A Chinese Christian came to a missionary one time and said, "I have learned to quote the entire Sermon on the Mount by memory." He stood before the missionary and perfectly quoted the sermon word-for-word. The missionary said, "That is wonderful. How did you do it?" The Chinese Christian said, "I spent the last year trying to live it."

Dr. James Stewart, a great British preacher, once said: The greatest threat to Christianity is not communism, it's not atheism, it's not materialism, its not humanism.

The greatest threat to Christianity is Christians trying to sneak into heaven incognito without ever sharing their faith, without ever living out the Christian life, without ever becoming involved in the most significant work God is doing on planet earth. This is exactly the problem Jesus was trying to remedy with this sermon.

Think about the crowd to whom Jesus was speaking. It wasn't a gathering of the United Nations; it wasn't the Congress or a Parliament, or even an assembly at City Hall. It was a crowd on a hillside in a tiny spot of land called Palestine. It was a group of common people living common ordinary lives. They were under occupation; they couldn't make their own laws; they couldn't plan their own futures; they couldn't determine their own destinies; yet Jesus said to them, "You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world.

"You may think you are insignificant, but I can tell you if you are a Christian you can make an incredible difference in this world.

I heard about a man that was walking through a county fair when he met a tiny little girl who was carrying a gigantic fluff of cotton candy on a stick, which was almost as big as she was. He said to her, "How can a little girl like you eat all of that cotton candy?" She looked up at him and said, "Well, I'm really much bigger on the inside than I am on the outside." That is true of all of us who are Christians. We are salt and we are light. But just what does this mean? Why does Jesus insist that we need to "pass the salt and turn on the light?" How are we to do that?

"You are the salt of the earth." (v.13a)

Why does Jesus refer to us as salt? Salt is a miracle. As you know, it is chemically composed of sodium and chloride. Now pour a little hydrochloric acid on your hand, and it will be burned away in less than a minute. Drink hydrochloric acid and you will die in unbelievable agony very quickly. But when you add sodium to hydrochloride you have salt, which is one of the most common useful substances on planet earth.

We need to understand how valuable salt was in the days of Jesus. What we take for granted today was like pure gold to them. You see, salt is a preservative, and 2,000 years ago people did not have refrigeration. Salt was so valuable in Bible days that it was often traded ounce-for-ounce with gold. Roman soldiers were paid in salt. In fact, the word salary is derived from the word for salt. If a Roman soldier didn't do his job, he wouldn't get all of his salt. That's where we get the phrase, "He is not worth his salt," if someone does not do a good days work.

Our world is decaying, our world is rotting, and it is our job as salt to preserve the holiness of God, and the goodness of Jesus as much as we can. As bad as things are, can you imagine how bad things would be if there were no churches? How bad would things be if there were no Christians? How bad would things be if there were no Bibles? How bad would things be if there were no preachers of the gospel? Yes, we need to be salt, but there's a danger. Jesus goes on to say, "*but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?" (v.13b)

Now any chemistry teacher will tell you that it's impossible, in a way, for salt to become un-salty. Sodium chloride is one of the most stable compounds in all of the universe; it doesn't change and it never loses its character. But there is truth to what Jesus is saying.

You see, much of the salt that was used in Palestine came from the Dead Sea, which is more than a mile and a half below sea level. The waters of the Sea of Galilee flow into the Jordan River and from there to the Dead Sea to the bottom of the earth.

Once the water gets there, there is no place to go. The hot sun evaporates the water and leaves behind a chunky white powder made up of a combination of salt and minerals. That powder contains enough salt to season meat or to flavor soup, and that's why people used to get their salt from the Dead Sea. But it's also mixed with minerals and its not pure sodium chloride. It's possible with a little dampness in the air for that salt to be dissolved and basically to dissipate. When that happens the "salt loses its seasoning."

Now what does that have to do with you and me? Well, one of the worst things that a Christian could lose is not his wealth, nor his job, nor his health, nor his family, not even his life; one of the worst things a Christian can lose is his testimony. Because when you lose your testimony, your salt loses it’s seasoning; it loses its flavor. When that happens Jesus goes on to say, "It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men." (v.13c) It’s literally "good for nothing."

I'm reminded of a little boy who came into his house one day, and he said, "Mother, if you'll give me

$5 I'll be a good boy today." She looked at him and said, "Why can't you be good for nothing like your daddy?"

You see, the one thing that can contaminate the salt of our life is the dirt of the world.

Let me give you an illustration of what I am talking about. When we conform to the culture, instead of transforming the culture, we lose our seasoning. You would think that Christian families would be the salt of the earth, and yet think about this: Children from Christian homes now consume more MTV than those from non-Christian homes. This speaks to the level of influence regarding other stats.

Evangelicals account for one in every six abortions in America.

Over half of Christian teenagers (55%) have engaged in sexual activity by the time they reach 18.

That's why Jesus says, "It is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men."

What does this mean? Whenever salt that was brought out from the Dead Sea would be contaminated with other minerals that would make it taste flat or even repulsive, the salt became worthless. You couldn't throw it on a garden or a field because it would kill what was planted. So instead, it would be thrown onto the roads where it would gradually be ground into the dirt and disappear, and then people could just walk over it.

The church is being walked on by the world today. There is no respect for the church in this world anymore. The reason is this: Because the church, in general, is too much like the world.

We use the same foul language, drink the same adult everages, see the same movies, ignore the same Bible, and the fact is the average person on the outside of the church looks at the average person on the inside of the church and says, "He's no different than I am, so why should I go to church or practice Christianity?" This is why it is so important that we, Southside Baptist, conduct ourselves differently. This is not an admonition but rather an encouragement and reminder. One of the things I heard repeatedly yesterday at the meal provided for the McCarty family was what a kind and caring church family we have. And I must admit, that is not uncommon for me to hear and it always make me smile because I know where your heart is. It is with holding the hurting, giving hope to the hopeless and showing a supernatural love to everyone you can. And you are making a difference. The caution is that we can’t quit, we can’t back up, we can’t give in.

As you know the majority religion in America is still Christianity, and yet we are dominated today not by the values of Christianity, but by the values of humanism and secularism. Yet, in Korea, even though there are 35 million Buddhists, and only two million evangelical Christians, Christian values dominate that culture. Why is that? It is because Korean Christians understand they are to be the salt of the earth. Incidentally, keep in mind that Jesus said "you are the salt of the earth."

Salt is worthless if it never comes in contact with food. It may look nice in the shaker, but if it stays in the shaker it is worthless. You see, the church is the salt shaker and the earth is the school, the business, and the neighborhood. We need to get the salt out of the shaker on to the earth where it can do some good.

I heard about a man that walked into the little Mom and Pop grocery store and said, "Do you sell salt?" The man said, "Do we sell salt! Just look!" The man showed the customer an entire wall of shelves stocked with nothing but salt-Morton salt, iodized salt, kosher salt, sea salt, rock salt, garlic salt, seasoning salt, Epsom salts-every kind of salt imaginable. The customer was amazed. "You think that's something. Come over here." He led the customer to a back room filled with shelves and bins and cartons and barrels and boxes of salt. The customer said, "This is unreal!" The man said, "You hadn't seen anything yet." He led the customer down some steps into a huge basement, five times as large as the previous room. It was filled wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling with every imaginable form, size, and shape of salt you could imagine. The man looked at him and said, "You really do sell salt!" The store owner said, "No, we don't, that's just the problem! We never sell salt. But that salt salesman that comes by every week, boy does he sell salt!"

Here's the point: Salt that stays on the shelf doesn't do anyone any good. It must get out and it must be different.