WE ARE THE CHURCH: "Are You a Salty Saint?"
Matthew 5:13
INTRODUCTION:
How valuable is salt? 40 million tons are required each year to fill our needs in the U.S.
?Homer called it divine
? Plato called it a "substance dear to the gods."
? Shakespeare mentioned salt 17 times in his plays
? Perhaps Leonard da Vinci wanted to send a message about purity lost when he painted "The last Supper." In that painting an overturned salt cellar is conspicuously placed before Judas.
?In ancient Greece a trade involving the exchange of salt for slaves gave rise to the expression, "not worth his salt."
? Roman soldiers were paid with salt known as "Solarium Argentums" this is where we get the English word "salary."
? Thousands of Napoleon's troops died during his retreat from Moscow because their wounds would not heal--their bodies lacked salt.
?The human body contains about 4oz. of salt. Without enough of it, muscles won't contract, blood won't circulate, food won't digest and the heart won't beat a beat. Without a doubt, salt is the essence of life. And Jesus said, "Ye are the salt of the earth."
Mark 12:37
"And the common people heard him gladly."
This was said by Jesus, and was a great compliment. It was said, partly, because He used illustrations, which help us understand.
Following the beatitudes, Jesus gives us a couple of illustrations to help us see how we should affect the world around us, these are called the Similitudes - if Christ is truly in you in the 8 ways decribed in vs. 1-12 you can and will be blessed
The Similitudes say. We are to be like salt that penetrates, and light that radiates.
We are to be separate and different from the world.
2 Cor. 6:17
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
Romans 12:2
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…
Separation is not isolation [like a monk], but rather insulation. Jesus said we are in the world, but not of it.
So, don’t be conformed to the world, but rather ‘confront’ the world. We do this by being salt and light.
This morning, I would like to zero in on the idea of our being called "salty Saints.” In this one verse, Jesus makes several statements that need to be considered and understood by every child of God this morning. Let's take the time to look at them together as we consider the thought "Are you a salty saint?."
*** STAND *** READ *** PRAY ***
?Did you know that salt is a miracle? It’s composed of 2 poisons: chloride and sodium. If you ingest either by itself, you’ll die. But put them together and you have common, ordinary salt, and that which used to bring death somehow comes together to bring life, and that’s a miracle!
?So it is w/ the Christian life, poisoned by sin, w/ death looming in the shadows, but it’s confronted by the grace of God in His death, and those 2 negatives merge to form a positive redemption and salvation! Thats Grace!
Salt in the Bible is said to be:
1.) A symbol of a binding covenant (Lev. 2:13)
2.) A healing and cleansing aid (2 Ki. 2:20-21)
3.) A stimulant to the appetite (Job 6:6)
4.) A preventive of decay (Luke 14:34-35)
5.) A promoter of peace (Mark 9:50)
6.) A stimulant to our testimony (Mt. 5:13)
7.) An evidence of grace Colossians 4:6 (NKJV)
6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.
?“It took a miracle to put the stars in place / It took a miracle to hang the world in space. / But when He saved my soul / Cleansed and made me whole / It took a miracle of love and grace!”
So, what does Jesus mean by calling us salt in His illustration? ? We are called salt because of:
• 1.) Salt irritates. [in a wound]
And Christianity rubs many the wrong way, because it’s irritating to their wounds of sin. We shouldn’t purposefully try to be irritating, but also not surprised when it happens.( Example; ILL; drinking, sex, drugs, language)
• 2.) Salt seasons.
My good friend Al loves salt so much, that he may or may not decide to add some food under it sometimes when he’s eating! but my she is the opposite. It’s all what you get used to.
But we as Christians we ought to add zest and tang and some good flavor wherever they go. Your workplace should be better because you’re present (Ill Shawn H.) / You may be the only Christian in your house, but you should be having a positive effect. / Teachers, our public school needs some salt, and you can be the one! You may not be able to share Jesus but you can add some zest!
Job 6:6 (NKJV)
6 Can flavorless food be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?
Everywhere Jesus went on this earth a good spirit followed, and overtook those in attendance, which always grew, and even some had to enter thru the roof!
Some Christians think they have to be bland to be right w/ God, but no, we should be like salt!
• 3.) Salt creates thirst.
And our job as Christians is to make others thirsty for God. In John 4 Jesus compared Himself to a drink of living water. He said that out of our hearts would flow rivers of living water - John 7:37-38.
But we won’t create thirst unless we are a salty saint…walking to the beat of a different drum. We also have to be ‘out there’…in other words, not just hiding in here in church, which is the ‘shaker’, but getting the salt out of the shaker, and living it even when it’s not as popular!
? Like a zebra in a herd of horses…a salty saint will stand out, and get noticed, and make others long for something different as well.
WHAT DIFFERENCE A SALTY SAINT DOES MAKE.
The job of the church is not to impact the church, but to impact the world.
It’s like a huddle in a football game. 87,000 people don’t pay $35.00 a ticket to watch the Clemson Tigers huddle. What if you went to a Clemson game and for 3 hours you watched 11 men stand in a circle and talk? That’s not what you pay for!! 87,000 people pay $35 a ticket to see but what difference the huddle makes. What they want to know is, having called the play in secret, does it work in public?
The challenge for the church is not what we do when we call our Sunday morning huddle, but what we do when we break our huddle and head to our Sunday morning assignment. When Satan lines up against us, what difference does it make that we are SaltyChristians?
• 4.) Salt cleanses and heals.
Salt in a "Water Softener" cleans the lime deposits out.
And a salty gospel will convict and cleanse people of the deposits of sin.
A young American lawyer boasted that he was going West to find some place where there were no churches, no Sunday schools, no Bibles. Before the year was over, he wrote to a classmate, a young minister, begging him to come out where he was and start a Sunday school and preach, and "be sure to bring plenty of Bibles," closing his letter with these words:
"I have become convinced that a place without Christians and preaching and churches and Bibles is too much like hell for any living man to stay in." Would you come and bring salt.
These things are all true in application, but I believe the primary interpretation to be different:
Jesus is speaking to the original disciples, many of whom were fishermen in the Sea of Galilee. And how did they keep it from spoiling when ready for transport? They would salt it down!
• 5.) Salt preserves.
That says something about our society…it is rotting and decaying as there is less and less salt being shaken on it.
So it is in America today! I am convinced that the presence and the prayers of "salty” Saints has done more to preserve this nation than anything else we could name. It is the righteousness of God's children that made America great and it is what keeps this country from being judged today,
Just look at music over the last 50 years. It used to be that Dick Clark’s American Bandstand was considered the music of rebellion. But look at MTV today, and you’ll think Mr. Clark was a s.s. teacher!
Just look at television. 1 cuss word brought people up in arms at the end of Gone With The Wind, but today’s kids cartoons have more than that!
Everyone gasped when the first couple was shown, not in separate beds, but in the same one…Oh My Goodness! Don’t look at how it is today!
Humanism and evolution say we are getting better and better, but rather we are spiraling downward.
The Bible promises the trend is downward…so, why even try? Because, it’s our duty to stem the tide. We cannot save the world, but we can save one here and one there…our children and g’children, our neighbors, and those our missionaries can reach!
What would the world be like if there were no salty Christians? We don’t have to guess…just read the book of Revelation once the salt is removed! If you think we’re in a wild spiral now, just wait!
For now, we need some salty saints to do what’s right and take a stand at work when the plan is to be ‘shady.’ We need to be salty saints when it comes to the abortion holocaust, pornography, homosexuality and gay marriage, and so much more!
The Bible says: "You ARE"/ Not OUGHT TO BE / Not COULD BE / Not SHOULD BE /Not IT WOULD BE NICE TO BE / But "YE ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH and LIGHT OF THE WORLD"!
Now, the second part of vs.13 says what is this losing of the flavor? It’s the tang, the zip, it doesn’t mean losing salvation…it’s still salt, but it’s lost it’s influence / testimony. This happens when you stop trying to influence the world and the world starts influencing you.
? It Is a Passion Problem - Revelation 2:4-5
Jesus is saying “you have left your first love”. Jesus is saying that you just don't love Him like you used to. That friend is why you are not salty.
While all the words in that phrase scream for our attention, there are two that demand special notice. They are the words “left” and “first”.
The word “left” is an expressive word that means “to send away”. It was used of a husband divorcing his wife. It also means “to expire / to let alone / to omit / to forsake / to abandon / to leave one place to go to another / to disregard.”
Jesus is talking to a people who have walked away from their love for Him. They have abandoned His love. They have forsaken His love. They have disregarded His love. Like a man divorcing an unwanted wife, they have symbolically sent the Lord way.
The word “first” means “first in rank or importance”.
They still love their church / They still love their doctrines / They still love their activities / They still love their busy schedules / They still love all they do / They just don't love Jesus more than the other things.
? You might think that falling out of love with Jesus is a minor thing. You might think it is something that happens to a lot of people that it's not such a big deal. That it's something you can get fixed up at the next revival, or the next service you decide to attend. Let me show you why I think falling out of love with Jesus is a serious issue.
When we do not love Jesus as we should, we are in violation of the greatest commandment — Matthew 22:37-38 (NKJV) 37 Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and great commandment.
This opens us up to great sin! When we do not love Him as we should ,we are more likely to break the first four commandments.
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.
2. Thou shalt not make any graven images.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord Thy God in vain.
4. Thou shalt remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.
When we do not love Jesus we should, we are more likely to violate the second commandment — Matthew 22:39 (NKJV) 39 And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
When we are not in love with Him, we will not love others like He wants us to. Love is part of the Fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22 (NKJV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Love for others is the work of God in our hearts, This makes it far more likely that we will break the last six commandments.
5. Honor thy father and mother.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
10. Thou shalt not covet.
When we do not love Jesus as we should, we will not have a desire to be with Him.
? Honeymoon love — Always want to be with the object of your affection. That's how it is for a new believer. Over time, the love fades and the desire to be around Jesus and His people fades too. What is the problem? It can all be traced back t a loss of “first love”.
?When we do not love Jesus as we should, we will not serve Him as fervently as He wants us to. We may attend church, but we will not be faithful. We might say we are saved, but we will never share the faith with the lost. We might teach a class, preach a sermon, lead a prayer meeting, lead a Bible study, but there will always be something lacking. Fervent, emotional, extravagant love for Jesus will always manifest itself in active, public service for Him.
? There is much more that could be said about the dangers of not loving Jesus as we should. Many of us have been in that place where we were consumed with love for Him, and many of us have been in that place where the flame of passion became a dying ember. We know the difference and we know which honors Him the most.
Are you the dying ember or the bright burning flame? You are either warming the world, or the world is making you cold!
The last part of vs. 13 says 'and trodden under foot of men’ - Many Christians have become objects of ridicule, a laughingstock, because they prove to not be genuine and the world sees it and says, “Why should I receive Jesus? I live just as good as that crowd down at the church!” Fact is, they are often right! Let's live so that we prove them wrong. Our lives must be above reproach if we are to create a thirst for God in the world around us!
? We must never give anyone cause to say, “If that is a Christian, then I never want to be one.” Instead, our lives ought to motivate people to say, “That is what I want my life to be."
? Salt changes nearly everything it touches. (Food, ice, etc.)
? We are called to be thermostats and not thermometers in the world around us. We are to be the instruments that God can use to implement change in the world. When genuine, New Testament Christianity touches this sinful world, there will be change of some kind. We just need to be sure that we are changing the world and not the other way around!
? The modern mentality, “We have to be like the world to win the world.” We'll win more if we are like Jesus! "LOVE ALL, SERVE ALL"
CONCUSION:
Remember Lot? He was saved, but not living it. He was supposed to be salt, but he lost his flavor, and instead of influencing he was influenced, and couldn’t even win his own family over to the truth in the end! They laughed at him. God spared that city for a long time for his sake, but eventually the fire fell, tho’ Lot was delivered.
Remember Lot’s wife? The Bible says! She was so influenced that she looked back, and became salt herself! And that pillar stands to this day as a reminder of the fact that we are salt, but we need to hold onto that flavor, and get it out of the shaker!
As you consider your life this morning, can you honestly say that your life is like salt in the world? There is a tremendous need for every Child of God to be all that God wants them to be in these days. We have seen enough falsehood, hypocrisy and weak living to do us, and the world, a lifetime. We need to be about the business of purifying, preserving, penetrating, pleasing and promoting so that the Lord can use our lives and our testimonies for His glory. God help us to be "salty Saints."
