"Salt of the Earth" - Pastor Doug Batchelor

of her hidden treasures in God's Word today our message today is a title that probably isn't anything extravagant or very unusual you'd expect to hear in any Christian Church the salt of the earth and it's based on that verse we just read and also the famous one in Matthew five our scripture reading was from Mark in Matthew 5 Jesus said 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 salt is amazing it's you know just a ubiquitous food item it's in almost everything some of you who are watching the sodium in your diet you probably began to read labels and you had no idea how many things had salt added to it but those sometimes were cautious about that you cannot live without salt it is an essential to life I've got here a couple of samples of salt it's a sodium chloride how many of you have one of these in your house or something like it come on show your hands how many have one of these look at that it's a basic isn't it in life if you fly over the countryside you will see trails out in the wilderness leading to a couple of things you'll see animal trails that like a web all point to sources of water and you'll also find that there are trails that go to places where they're getting salt because this is an essential in life for all of us to survive now something I thought that I'd share I'm gonna give you about 10 or 12 points about salt and why I think salt is so important and we'll elaborate on these a little bit as we go Jesus evidently tells us that solved is something very important what occurred to me for the first time this week Jesus talks about you're the salt of the earth in Matthew in mark and in Luke and he says it differently in all three places which leaves me to believe that where Jesus traveled and Webber he preached one of the things he often said was you are the salt of the earth something else he said that was very important in all three verses if you cease to be solved not only is it dangerous for the environment we become useless and are cast out cast out trampled underfoot in the way in the dunghill good for nothing the terms that Jesus uses have to do with the terms for the lost and so we need to know what he's talking about when he says you are the salt of the earth well salt is a crucial element for life one thing that we know right away is salt has a preserving influence salt preserves in Bible times they would frequently rub salt into the different things like the fish and the the meat to help it to last it keeps things from decane we're in a world that is filled with decay things given to themselves decompose salt has a preserving influence and one of the things that preserves God's truth in the world is Christians when they work together as salt some examples of this in the Bible if you look for instance in Genesis you know the story of Abraham and lot when God told Abraham shall I hide from you what I'm about to do the wickedness of Sodom has come up before me and I'm on my way down there to deal with it Abraham remembers that his nephew lot and his family are there and he's worried that they'll be too Troi it along with the wicked and he said far be it from the Lord of all the earth to destroy the righteous with the wicked and then lay Abraham begins the labor and negotiate with God and he says in Genesis 18 26 if you find 50 righteous in the city would you spirit and God said if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city I will spare the whole place for the sake of the 50 and Abraham felt a little better and then he thought you know last time I was in Sodom it's didn't look too good I wonder if there's even 50 it says Lord how about if there's little five less than 50 45 Lord said if I find forty five righteous all spirit and Abraham then begins to worry this you know I don't know if anyone beside my my nephew said Lord how about thirty so don't be upset but I just want to know would you spare the city for 30 God's all spare Sodom and Gomorrah and those cities if I can find 30 righteous there thirty righteous there's hope that they will then diffuse their influence and preserve the place the neighbor him says how about 20 that's it yeah Hall I'll spare the whole place for 20 Abraham said look please don't be mad but you mind if I go a little farther how about 10 God said I'll spare at all if there's 10 in the place so even ten people in those sprawling cities of the plain Bible says they were watered like the garden of God before the catastrophe came God said I'd spare at all because there'd be hope that their influence would have a sanctifying influence and preserve the rest there's still hope for the gospel to spread but you reach a point where like when God said in the days of Noah you reach a critical mass of evil where man's hearts were only evil continually and God said I will destroy man from the earth and he saved Noah and his family but the rest of the world was destroyed because there just weren't enough believers to have a preserving influence and so it was destroyed not only there in the Old Testament in the New Testament it happens in families you can read for instance in first Corinthians 7:14 for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband or otherwise your children would be unclean but now they're wholly if you've got one believer in a marriage you are the salt in that family you are TD fuse the elements of salt we're going to talk about year to have a preserving influence the believer can preserve a marriage that otherwise would not survive and it's especially important for the children Peter says something similar first Peter 3 wives likewise submit to your own husband's that even if some do not obey the word they without a word may be one-one-one-one to the Lord by the conduct the behavior of the wife when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear so if we stop the message right here here's your in your answer Christians and being salt are to have a sanctifying influence to win others to the Lord whether it's a wife winning an unbelieving husband or our believing husband winning an unbelieving wife as they behold your behavior do people see us letting our light shine and is our salt having a saving influence in the community now salt another interesting thing about salt is salt brings out flavor you know what you can read in the Bible job six six can flavorless food be eaten without salt or is there any taste in the white of an egg eggs are sort of an abomination anyway but if you just eat eggs without salt I remember my mom used to put hard-boiled eggs in my lunch and I just got so tired of that but there was always some salt put in there too because even the Bible says is there any flavor in the white of an egg it's like tofu have you ever eaten plain tofu how many of you remember that commercial I got the lid on it how many of you were salivating while I was doing that any of you remember that a commercial years ago called Lay's potato chips nobody what's the adage nobody could eat just one and it had this old fella sitting on a park bench and this is kid eating potato chip and he said sir do you want one he said yeah there's one he takes one next thing you know he takes the bag from the kid because it's hard to salt to something addictive about salt well you you want it makes you crave more and if we're Christians and we're having the influence we're supposed to have an in the society people are gonna they're gonna want it you notice you can't smell salt you don't hear salt you don't even really see salt when it's mixed into food but it definitely makes a big difference that can be tasted is your Christian experience does it have tang to it you know in the Scottish version of the Bible it says if if the salt has lost its tang I'm not talking about that orange flavor at breakfast strength Tang you know how many remember the old meaning of the word Tang it means its zip and we're supposed to have that kind of influence where if someone's making some soup you know what the difference is between good soup and bad soup the amount of salt the right amount of pinch of salt can make just the biggest difference but what does it mean when it says if salt has lost its saltiness or its savor chemically salt is a very stable sodium chloride a thousand years later if you've got a dry vessel of sodium chloride it's gonna taste 100% salt so what did Jesus mean when he said salt savor can be lost how does salt lose its savor let me illustrate this I got one more illustration up here in Bible times and this is very important in Bible times when they got their salt they didn't get it from the salt factories up in Saskatchewan where you get your Morton salt and it's all clean and purified they used to carve it from the salt sea you know one of the big dead sea was a big salt flat they're still taking salt minerals out of there today and they would carve it in blocks but the problem was because they were low spots those blocks also had dust and seeds and other impurities and minerals in it and they'd take the block and they put it in a bag like this that water could leach through but not the salt and they put the lid didn't grind it up real fine the way we did to salt the loots easily and while they were cooking their soup or they had their mutton stew they were making the lady would take her string of salt like a big tea bag she'd dump it in a few times she tasted she'd dump it in a little more and she tasted she'd hang it back up but eventually the only thing left in the bag was the minerals and the dust and the seeds and the impurities all the salt was leached out and when they put it in it didn't have any savor anymore what good was this it was good for nothing except you had just enough salt in it to kill anything you put it on in the garden and so they just put it in the path to put it in the dung pile the leftovers from the salt bags was garbage it was useless and so this just helps us understand what talks about the salt losing its savor so how could salt lose its savor through it being diluted or being polluted can we be deluded as Christians where I you know I think I shared a message with you a little while ago about this corrupt pharmacist that realized there was this very expensive cancer medicine and he could make more money by diluting it down 50/50 and selling more of it and he did that with a lot of patients who didn't get enough to heal them they finally found out what he was doing and he's still in jail today but many people because he was diluting their crucial medicine for profit people die when Christians have our salt diluted because our salt is to have a preserving influence and if we don't have that ingredient that sanctified salt in our natures as Christians we're not doing the work in the community that God's called us to do amen so Seaver can be lost we don't want to be just nominal Christians we want to make a real difference in society something else about salt salt must be sprinkled when the Bible tells us we are the salt of the earth salt really doesn't do any good when you eat it in a big block salt is to be diffused how many of you have accidentally gotten too much salt before now I want you to fess up and be honest have you ever played a trick on your friends when you were a young irresponsible kid or a teenager and you loosen the lid of the salt bottle at the cafeteria in the school let me see come on how many did that least once alright I'm not alone how many did it more than once and you think it's so funny when your friend goes to shake their salt on their food you know and they they take the salt shaker and they go like this and push the whole thing falls out or what I would do up at workers meeting I'd sit down with John Lowe McCain he'd go to get his drink I'd take the salt lid off I'd pour some in one spot of his fruit would put it back on all the other pastors would sit there and watch me they would never tell John they're just as corrupt as I am which shows you I didn't outgrow this yet and then it's fun you all sit there casually eating and join your food you're waiting for him to take that bite of the Chop Suey or potatoes or whatever it was that's almost pure salt and he gets it goes all of this is really to say we like salt we all like what's a pretzel without salt but we don't like it all at one time I've had to get after my kids before when they used to make those little oriental noodles we get the the vegetarian the garden oriental pack and Nathan would take the little packet of seasoning he just beat when the season I thought don't do that that's too strong we all crave salt a little bit but normally salt altogether it's not good it needs to be diffused does the Lord want Christians to clump together in church you and I are not really being salt right now we become salt when we leave and we spread our influence for Christ in the community does Christ need his church to be solved in the world today and in our communities I in another chart America's most viable minded cities and what it did is it itemized cities took about a hundred cities in North America it tested them for how much Bible reading they do and how much they know the Scriptures are believed the scriptures and it's interesting the most Bible literate churches are all on the east side of the u.s. most of them as you would anticipate are in the Bible Belt and you can go to the next slide there you won't be able to read the cities but I thought it was interesting among the most you can just take my word for it among the most Bible literate cities you got Knoxville Tennessee Shreveport Louisiana Chattanooga Tennessee I thought that was interesting and Birmingham Alabama Jackson Springfield Missouri among the most unbiblical you've got Providence Rhode Island now do you know how Providence Rhode Island got its name because of a very godly man named Roger Williams who went in there religion was established it was freedom of religion and Christianity was very strong in Providence and now they in Connecticut interestingly enough and some of those very progressive cities on the East Coast are among the biblically most illiterate and they don't believe the Bible so what are we gonna do let's all move to Chattanooga right will we fulfill Jesus mission for us if we do that or does he want us to go where we can have an influence a great admiration for these Christians that move to dark counties places where there aren't a lot of Christians and try to be salt and light in those communities salt needs to be sprinkled you know sea water 3% salt you go to the coral reefs they're swarming with life a little bit of salt in the ocean water can still sustain a lot of life but you get too much salt in the water what happens you end up with a dead sea like the Salton Sea in India or the Dead Sea a great salt lake near in Utah they're in chronicles first Chronicles 1812 it says moreover a Bosch I the son of zeruiah killed 18,000 in the valley of salt one of the saltiest valleys in the worlds in the bible it is the saltiest valley Zephaniah 2:9 therefore as I live says the Lord of hosts god of israel surely moab will be like sodom and the people of ammon like gomorrah overrun with weeds and salt pits and a perpetual desolation if you get christians that all clump together in a christian community you end up with desolation now we all think wouldn't it be nice to live in a Christian town safe from crime and know everybody loves everybody and I won't that be nice in heaven that'll be nice but here you end up with all kinds of problems healthiest Christians are the ones who are out there like Jesus either mingling with people to reach them with the truth salt is not supposed to clump salt can sting is that a good thing or a bad thing sometimes it helps you know you're alive you ever go into the ocean water if you had any cuts or scrapes when you went in you found that where they were you ever get a paper cup and then pick up some popcorn unless we're eating popcorn without salt which is no good some of you're gonna say oh no dad put brewers yeast on it I know those of you who are eating brewers yeast on your popcorn so on your breath for about a week so I like it the old way sorry but salt can sting in the wounds it because it actually has the ability to there's something wrong you know real Christians if you're being salt into your community you will sometimes bring a loving conviction to those around you I've mentioned before that I play racquetball periodically with just a group of men from every stripe and type of humanity and sometimes when a new guy comes in and joins us men get wound up and someone misses a shot or they'll they'll say things I can't repeat in church and one of them will say brother Doug here is a pastor oh I'm sorry but it stings them a little bit that's all you gotta say it conversation changes why when people know you're Christian do you have some kind of a sanctifying influence on your environment you should if you're shining kind of like a river that runs through the desert things grow around it another important thing about salt salt melts ice now that's very important for us because Jesus said in the last days the love of many would grow cold Matthew 24:12 you ever been back east where they salt the roads and they even do it here sometimes but not very often it's kind of hard on the roads but it melts ice part of the reason that the oceans don't melt any farther than they do is because salt water has a lower melting temperature than freshwater so a little salt if you ever run out of antifreeze it's not really great for your radiator but in an emergency rather than have your engine block crack you can put salt in your radiator and flush it out later it'll lower the freezing temperature of the water do you have the ability in your life do you melt icy hearts is there a warmth about you that as you interact with other people that you take the chill off Christians ought to be warm and loving people right folks should be attracted to us in this icy cold world Colossians 4 verse 6 here's another verse on that same subject let your speech always be with grace Paul says seasoned with salt there should be something than our words where our words are seasoned with salt now in the world today you say well that fella has a salty vocabulary that's not a good thing right the way we use that but biblically when you say words seasoned with salt that was a good thing and you know the Bible says a soft answer turns away wrath and we should have that that grace in our speech believers in Christ should have a warm purifying influence sometimes we rescue conversation when it's going the wrong direction grace in our words salt creates thirst if we're being sold then we ought to have people thirsting for what we've got now of course salt makes you want water salt also prevents dehydration and but it can make you thirsty remember when Jesus talked to the woman at the well what did he do in his conversation with her he created through his conversation a desire for her to want the water he was offering she became thirsty Jesus said blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness we ought to be creating that thirst in others the woman at the well said serve this is John 4:15 give me this water that I might not thirst and come here to draw salt not only creates therus but it helps us retain water so when Jesus said you are the salt of the earth there are certain essentials in life water being one of them bread being one of them salt is another one and Christ said that weird to be mines of salt so to speak something else I think beautiful about salt salt has healing properties it even says this in the Bible Ezekiel 16 for as for you God is talking about the birth of Israel as a nation when he found them they were a nation of slaves said as for you you're in your Nativity on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut nor were you washed in water to cleanse you nor were you rubbed with salt and you might be thanking rubbing a baby with salt what were they gonna do eat the baby no they did that for healing properties you know most of our bodies are water and a percentage of that water is salt for instance when your tears are salty there's something healing in in the salt salt water in those fluids even the histamine in your body it's got salt in and they knew that salt and a wound can help work as an antiseptic property the Bible also tells us that salt was connected with every sacrifice salt was to be connected with every sacrifice Romans chapter 12 verse 1 and 2 the Bible tells us I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercy of God that you present yourselves as a living sacrifice you read there in the Old Testament Leviticus 2 verse 13 every offering of your grain and offering you shall season with salt you will not allow the salt of the Covenant of God to be lacking from your grain offering with all your offerings you shall offer salt why the same reason you're not to have leaven in the bread when you have the communion service the same reason the grape juice was to be unfermented the other offerings were to be salted because of the preserving influence God did not want decay in the relationship the world is naturally putrifying the world it naturally has decay and God wants to prevent that and so we're to have salt salt that just stays buried underground doesn't do much it needs to be brought up and then sprinkled and God wants you and I to be sprinkling the teachings and the influence and the life of Christ in our society it'll have a saving influence it's pretty sad when you consider that a growing number of people in the world are marking down religion none how sad God wants us to be a via Salaria I'll salt the road to the world to spread this influence we need to have that influence in our lives are you being salt are you being solved in your marriage in your family are you being a positive influence for Christ with your children where you work where the people you meet whether it's in the store or just on the street as you travel do you let people know that you're a Christian do they see there's something different about you are you having a healing preserving influence a purifying effect if you've got the Spirit of Christ in you that's what you'll be doing in the world you and I will be the savour of life unto life I want to be a Christian don't you if you've missed any of our amazing facts programs

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Length: 26min 59sec (1619 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 04 2019