Saved for Saltiness
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President Woodrow Wilson told this story. He said, "I was in a very common place. I was sitting in a barber chair when I became aware that a personality had entered the room. A man had come quietly in upon the same errand as myself, to have his hair cut, and sat in the chair next to me. Every word the man uttered, though it was not in the least didactic, showed a personal interest in the man who was serving him. And before I got through with what was being done for me, I was aware that I had attended an evangelistic service, because Mr. D.L. Moody was in that chair.
“I purposely lingered in the room after he had left and noted the singular effect that his visit had brought upon the barber shop. They talked in undertones. They didn't know his name, but they knew that something had elevated their thoughts. And I felt that I left that place as I should have left the place of worship. My admiration and esteem for Mr. Moody became very deep indeed." Influence. Influence. (John MacArthur)
Matthew
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
I. You are the Salt
Jesus begin this paragraph with a very pointed statement. He states, “You are the salt of the earth,”
Who then is Jesus talking to? Who is he calling salt? Is it everyone who hears his voice? Is it everyone on the side of the mountain?
Or is it those who;
Are poor in spirit.
those who mourn
Are
those who are meek
those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
those who are merciful
those who are pure in heart
those who are persecuted?
These are the ones Jesus calling salt.
The ones who have the kingdom of heaven.
The ones who will be comforted.
The ones who will be satisfied.
The ones who will receive mercy.
The ones who will see God.
The ones who will be called Sons of God.
The ones who will inherit the kingdom of heaven.
These are the salt.
Here is my question for you this evening are you the salt of the earth? Are you a son or daughter of God? Have you recieved this promise inheritance of the kingdom of heaven not by fulfilling the beatitudes, but by receiving the gift of faith by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
If you come to faith in Christ, you are the salt of the earth. So what does this mean?
One commentator notes, Salt serves mainly to give flavour, and to prevent corruption. Disciples of Christ if they are true to their calling , make the earth a purer and a more palatable place.
Salt is also defined in a literal and spiritual sense.
lit. as seasoning for food or as fertilizer Mt 5:13b; Mk 9:50ab; Lk 14:34
fig., of the spiritual qualities of the disciples (cp. Diogenes 4 p. 94, 13 Malherbe, of the men at Athens) τὸ ἅ. τῆς γῆς Mt 5:13a; cp. Mk 9:50c
Do you see the dual purpose of salt? It is primarily a preservative used to prevent decay. Do you see how this applies to disciples of Christ, to his church?
II. The Usefulness of Salt
Notice how we are not only called to be salt, but specifically to the earth. Why does the earth need preserving? It is decaying, every since the fall of man when rebelled against God and allowed sin to enter into the wold decay and corruption has entered in. This brought on thorns, thistles, and natural disasters that destroy the earth.
What are some ways we see the earth decaying today?
Erosion and flooding,
Murder, rape, drug abuse, and neglect of God’s creation.
Bullying, racism, and abortion.
Drunkenness, Thievery, Sexual Immorality....And you can go one and one.
Before we get into the churches role in preserving the earth and those who live on it what are some other ways God has set in place structures to prevent corruption and decay?
Government
Law enforcement
Marriage and Families
Consider now the church and individual Christians role in being salt. In preservation of society, of God’s earthly Kingdom. How do we do it? How can we preserved God’s creation until he comes?
Preach the gospel. Testify to the truth of Jesus Christ! How else will those bound in sin and being destroyed by sin, and destroying others be rescued from this wicked ways, their destructive ways. They will only be rescued as we Christ disciples preach a message of redemption!
Salt also, is for adding flavor. You can take something bland like broccoli, or green beans and make them edible by adding salt. The message of the gospel also makes the current situation we live in palatable. Think about it, we didn’t have the hope of Christ how hard would it be to swallow what’s going on in the world around us?
More importantly than flavor Salt is for preservation. Let me give you an example.
At work we used to apply a paste preservative to wood power poles called “Osmoplastic” more commonly known as creosote. It was a black paste that smelled terrible, that stained everything, and would burn your skin. However, when you dig up a power pole, chip the rotten decayed would off and apply this preservative it would soak into the good wood and keep it from rotting, it would preserve it. You know what the key ingredient was? Sodium Fluoride or salt and toothpaste. But do you see how salt preserves?
Again how then are those who are children of God salt or preservers of the earth?
First, this little short succinct statement tells us something about the earth. That it is decaying, it is rotting and has been since the fall. Martin Lloyd Jones argues, this statement “implies rottenness in the earth; it implies a tendency to pollution and to becoming foul and offensive.” (pg. 131) This is how the Bible describes the earth. From the beginning after the fall God told Adam, he would labor and toil by the sweat of his brow because of the weeds, thorns, and thistles that would take over the ground. God flooded the earth because of the wickedness of men in the days of Noah. God rained down fire and brimstone on the city of Sodom in the days of Abraham. God quit speaking to his people for 400 years between the Old and New testaments because of the rebelliousness of his people. All throughout the Scriptures, there are droughts, famines, and earthquakes.
Paul tells Timothy
2 Timothy 3:1-
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
Do you see what has been happening to the earth, to the world, and to humanity since the fall? It is decaying and rotting. The earth is full of sin, sickness, and corruption. How can it be preserved? How can this rot be stopped? Only by the Sovereign work of God can preservation occur. And Jesus tells his disciples here, they are the salt. They are the preservative he will use to slow down this sinful decay in the world.
The Message of the Sermon on the Mount 1. The Salt of the Earth (13)
God intends the most powerful of all restraints within sinful society to be his own redeemed, regenerate and righteous people.
The Message of the Sermon on the Mount 1. The Salt of the Earth (13)
As R. V. G. Tasker puts it, the disciples are ‘to be a moral disinfectant in a world where moral standards are low, constantly changing, or non-existent’.3
How are we doing? As God’s regenerate, redeemed, and righteous children are we being a moral disinfectant or are we expediting the decay? Are we living lives that represent the gospel of Christ? Are we walking worthy of our calling? Are we working out our salvation? Or are we living live opposite of the man?
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
Are we living Christlike lives or are we walking with the wicked? Are we standing with the sinners? Are we sitting with the scoffers? Now I am not saying we are never around the lost, we must be in the world if we are going to provide be salt of the earth, but we must be different. Christ was different wasn’t he? He ate and drank with sinners, but there was no doubt he was different in his Words, Works, and Character. Jesus didn’t talk like the world, he didn’t act like the world, He goes as far as saying the world hated him and that if we follow Him the world will hate us.
Here is what we must remember about being the salt of the earth. We cannot do it on our own. We cannot have a saving, preserving impact on the world apart from Christ. This is why again we cannot separate this verse from the beatitudes. You and I am must be poor in spirit before we are salt of the earth. You and I must mourn over our sin before we can be salt, we must be meek, we must hunger and thirst for righteousness, be merciful, and we will be none of these things apart from Christ. Just in case I am not making this clear listen for a couple of minutes as Paul Washer explains.
Do you understand? We cannot do anything apart from being connected to Christ. Apart from constantly receiving life and power from Him through his Spirit! How much time do you and I spend pleading with God to fill us, to cleanse us, to forgive us of our sin? How much time do we spend seeking his Word, being fed by the reading, teaching, preaching, and meditating on his Word? There is going to be a direct correlation to that and our saltiness.
Let’s finish up by considering,
III. The Uselessness of tasteless Salt
Look again at
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
After Jesus tells his disciple “You are the salt of the earth” he goes on to ask them the question, “but if salt has lost it’s taste, how shall it be restored?”
Here is what I have learned about salt. Salt is made up of Sodium Chloride a very stable compound which essentially can’t lose it’s saltiness. But, it can lose it’s flavor by being contaminated, diluted, or mixed with other compounds. So the more other elements or compounds are mixed with pure salt the less flavour, or preservative ability salt has. This is where we can learn about maintaining our individual saltiness as Christians.
How then can we make sure we are not losing our flavor, or even saved to be salt? We examine our character. One commentator notes,
The Message of the Sermon on the Mount 1. The Salt of the Earth (13)
Christian saltiness is Christian character as depicted in the beatitudes, committed Christian discipleship exemplified in both deed and word. For effectiveness the Christian must retain his Christlikeness, as salt must retain its saltness. If Christians become assimilated to non-Christians and contaminated by the impurities of the world, they lose their influence. The influence of Christians in and on society depends on their being distinct, not identical.
Here is the deal, if we as Christians are to be salty, we must remain in the world but not of the world. We must go out and be in the midst of those who are decaying, who are dying in their sin and offer them the hope of the gospel.
Consider for a minute how salt works. I know most of the time you just sprinkle it on your food. But in the time this was written it was used to preserve meat. They they couldn’t throw their lamb shank in the freezer so they would rub it down with salt. To preserve it until they could eat it.
Even today when I am going to smoke some ribs, a Boston butt, or a brisket I take the “dry rub” usually salt based and rub the meat down with it. The more I rub on the meat the more flavor it adds. The longer the salt is on there the deeper it gets into the meat and the better it tastes.
John MacArthur brought up another good point. He said the “You” is plural in You are the salt of the earth.” Meaning we are not only to be salt on our on, but was are to be salt together as the church. When you salt something you don’t just throw one grain of salt on the meat do you? No, you cover it, you use a lot of salt. So we do go out as salt into the world individually, but we also go out as salt collectively as the body of Christ, as Christ’s ambassadors, as Christ’s vice regents, as His people. And we go out for the purpose of proclaiming the excellencies of Christ!
Jesus gives us another way to know if we are salt. Look with me at Mark 9:50
Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
Are a you at peace with one another? Are we living in peace and unity with our brothers and sisters in Christ or do we cause divisiveness and strife? What about with our parents our siblings? If you and I are poor in spirit, meek, mournful over sin, hungry for righteousness we will not be able to live in peace without being at peace with our brothers and sisters. If we are salt we will be peacemakers! Why because Jesus was a peacemaker and being like Christ will facilitate peace between man and man and man and God.
“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Let me give you another way to evaluate if your salt has lost it’s saltiness. Listen to what Paul told the Colossians.
Luke
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
How is your speech? How do you talk to those around you. Do you communicate with grace? The grace that you have recieved? In other words, do you talk and respond to your classmates, teachers, your parents with love, mercy, and grace or do you respond with sarcasm, rudeness, or haughtiness? Paul says when we respond with grace our speech is seasoned with salt. Jesus reminds us that our speech also reveals our heart. If hatefulness is constantly coming out of our mouth, it is unlikely our heart has been changed.
What does Jesus have to say about salt that has lost its’ saltiness?
It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trample under people’s feet.
Here is they way Luke recorded it in,
“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?
Not only is diluted, weak, unsalty salt no good for anything except to be trampled under people’s feet it is not even fit for the manure pile! It is thrown away. Do you see there is no middle ground, either we are saved and salty or we are lost and no longer good for anything. Maybe we are saved just realized we have been in sin because of our lack of saltiness. If that is the case we can repent and be restored.
How do we evaluate if we are salt of the earth or if we are like salt that has lost it’s saltiness? One simple question; Who do you love?
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:15
Do you love Christ? Do you have a longing to be like Him, to be conformed in to His image? Or do you love the world are you always working to be conformed into the image of the world? Do you love the desires of the flesh? Do you love and seek after the desires of the eyes and the pride of life? If that is where your heart and mind is set John says, the love of the Father is not in you. That your Father is from this world and the world is passing away. It is like the salt that is good for nothing, useless, not even good enough for the manure pile!
The good news even if we realize tonight that you are not salt of the earth, you have never been saved you can enter the kingdom the same way a believer experiences restoration. Trust and repentance! If you recognize tonight that you have no saltiness to your life, you never offer any preserving speech and gospel speech to the world, you don’t live a Christlike life so your character is not that of saltiness you can be restored. You can be saved, call out on the Lord. Ask Him to save you repent of your sin and God will save you for saltiness by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, for His glory alone!