Savourless Salt

Text: Matthew 5:13-16

Place Preached - (Mississauga International Baptist Church)

Date Preached - (01/28/00)

Introduction:   

Our Theme as a church this year is “Souls To Be Won in 2001”

This world is lost, doomed and damned for a devil’s hell, and we will not save it.

Yet, if we fulfill our role of influence as God’s people we can rescue as many as possible from the judgment and the wrath to come.

The Pictures of the believer in this passage are of Salt and Light.

These represent the influence and consequent responsibility of all believers in, and unto this world.

Romans 14:7-8  For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.

8  For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.

Oh, the importance that the poor in spirit, the persecuted etc. represent to this world!!

There is a great work to be done, and the Spirit-filled, Christ-like believer will not allow even the fires of persecution to deter him from it.

What are the most outstanding qualities of these two agents?

Light is a penetrating agent.  While salt is a purifying, preserving and cleansing agent.

I. The Preserving Nature of Salt

“Ye Are The Salt Of The Earth”

There are many uses, of course, for salt,

(Some have suggested the whiteness of the salt = purity; it is cubed = integrity; it is a seasoning = Christians are to flavor their world),

But we will concentrate on what is clearly in view here and in keeping with the thrust of this passage, and is also the most prominent application of this type in Scripture.

Namely, the ancient use of salt as a preservative.

Meat was thereby preserved from corruption and decay.

Being possessed of purifying, perpetuating and antiseptic qualities, "salt" became emblematic of fidelity and friendship among eastern nations.

To eat of a person's "salt" and so to share his hospitality is still regarded thus among the Arabs.

So in Scripture, it is an emblem of the covenant between God and His people, Num. 18:19; 2 Chron. 13:5 (“Covenant of Salt”); so again when the Lord says "Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace one with another" (Mark 9:50).

In the Lord's teaching it is also symbolic of that spiritual health and vigor essential to Christian virtue and counteractive of the corruption that is in the world

A BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATION

The Healing of the Waters of Jericho by the hand of Elisha

LOOK UP & READ II Kings 2:20-21

Every meal offering was to contain it, and it was to be offered with all offerings presented by Israelites, as emblematic of the holiness of Christ, and a token of the reconciliation provided for man by God through the death of Christ, Lev. 2:13.

The Offering was cleansed then salted (Ezek. 43:22-24) Salt is the final ingredient which was included in the meal offering.

NEGATIVELY CONSIDERED

Salt is a picture conversely of …

1. The ultimate Permanence of Punishment upon Rebellion and disobedience.

Luke 17:32  Remember Lot's wife.

2. The preserving power of eternal punishment in Hell

Mark 9:49  For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. (The context is a literal burning hell).

A. Who?

YE – The disciples – all believers.

Not just the Apostles, not a select few, not only Pastors and Missionaries, but ALL Christians!

How are we enabled to function as Salt?

Salt was the token of faithfulness between the offerer and God. Christ is faithful. This is one of His many-faceted names. He is Faithful and True (Rev. 19:11). He is the Lord Jesus.

Christ offered Himself to God. We can offer ourselves to God because of His mercy. We ought to be found faithful. Christians are to be the salt in the world. We do this by offering ourselves as a living sacrifice to God (Rom. 12:1-2).

B. “Ye Are”

The context of the beatitudes is important here.

The blessedness of being a Christ-like believer makes us to be salt.

The Poor in Spirit, the Mourners, the Meek, those Hungering and Thirsting after Righteousness, the Merciful, the Pure in Heart and the Peacemakers.

The buffeting of persecution makes us to be salt.

We are not salt because of ourselves, personality, powers of persuasion, wisdom etc., but because God makes us to be salt.

1 Corinthians 2:1-2  And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

2  For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

C. “Of the Earth”

Not of the individual, but of the human race.

2 Thessalonians 2:7-8  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATION:

Sodom would have been preserved by God for a righteous remnant of just ten.

LOOK UP & READ Genesis 18:23-33

II. The Persevering Need for Salt

“But if the salt has lost his (it’s) savour”

Salt must continue to do the work of salt.

SAVOUR – Gk. moraino - primarily, "to be foolish," or “to make foolish”

Salt is literally made foolish by losing its “saltness”.

The same word is used in the following passages…

Romans 1:22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

1 Corinthians 1:20  Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

A similar thought using a different Greek word is expressed in…

Mark 8:33  But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest (Phroneo – to think, to mind) not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

Can salt lose it’s savour?

In 1690 a man named Maundrell found masses of salt south of the Dead Sea that had become utterly tasteless.  It is now a well established fact that the salt of this country becomes insipid and useless when in contact with the ground or exposed to rain and sun.

Such salt soon efforesces and turns to dust, not to fruitful soil.  It is not only good for nothing itself, but it actually destroys all fertility wherever it is thrown. – Broadus pg.95

If we would not be salt, then what are we here for?

What is the purpose of light held under a bushel basket?  Salt that will not season or preserve?  A believer who will not influence his/her world for Christ?

It is a great paradox.  It is meaningless empty and vain.

III. The Present Predicament of Savourless Salt

“Wherewith shall it be salted”

The object of the salting here is not the earth, but the savourless salt.

This verse does not ask “What will you then salt with?” nor  teach the idea that there is no substitute for salt, but rather…

There is no salt for salt!

IV. The Perishing Prospects of Savourless Salt

“It is thenceforth good for nothing”

Conclusion:     (Review)

LOOK UP & READ John 15:1-6