You Are The Salt of The Earth - Tim Conway

[Music] we're moving along and that's exciting to me i really want to make some headway through the sermon on the mount i don't i don't want to spend too much time i did feel like it was necessary for us to look at each one of the beatitudes in a separate message but here we are matthew chapter 5. today we are going to be looking very specifically at verse 13 but let's take this in context once again we'll begin reading in verse three blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven now you want to hear this i recognize we're just opening the bible we're just diving in right here you need to recognize this is life and death if you have any concern for your soul look you're going to die what then what jesus is saying is this only those who are poor in spirit are going to find themselves possessors of the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn this is a mourning for sin they shall be comforted blessed are the meek not the proud the meek see what jesus is doing is he's describing kingdom people he's describing what the salvation of god does to people blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth he's talking about the new heavens and the new earth blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy i guarantee on judgment day one thing will matter to you and that will be to find mercy and only if you're such an individual that god has changed from the hard unmerciful realities of the vast multitudes of humankind into this rarified group of people that are actually merciful blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god if you're defiled with sin sin separates you'll not see him you'll not you'll not see him in a delightful fashion but all together in a terrifying way blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of god no one else blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake you see true christians live for christ's sake so much so the world persecutes rejoice be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you in other words you're in a good lineage when you find yourself attacked by the world now here's our text for today and i also want to read the two verses that i want to deal with lord willing next week you are the salt of the earth who's the you well the people that possess these characteristics 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 you are the light of the world a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lamp stand and it gives light to all who are in the house let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven i love these two metaphors that's that's what it is who knows what a metaphor is what's a metaphor a picture is that what somebody said it's it's basically where you call something something else like life is a roller coaster you ever heard we talk that way metaphors life is not a roller coaster but life has certain aspects about it that are comparable to a roller coaster roller coasters are up and down life is a roller coaster because there's something there's something parallel there there's a similarity that we draw from who knows who knows how a simile is different from a metaphor what do similes do that metaphors don't they use like her as so basically if jesus would have said the christian is like light that would be a simile the fact he says you are the light of the world that's metaphor and and we recognize what he's doing here we have something in common with light and we have something in common with salt this this is huge oh i i i want to be able to preach this in in a way that you all have a good sense of this you feel this salt here's here's the thing i want to get into the minds of the disciples we've got ideas about salt today but what did those guys think you know it's not always enough to for us to think salt well what do you think of table salt or pink salt you get himalayan salt today i mean there's all sorts of ideas people you know you shouldn't have salt in your diet and now they're thinking maybe that's not even right maybe we should have salt in our diet and you know what what do we think about what did they think about is what the real issue is what went on in their minds how did they process this well salt was valuable and you probably heard this i mean if you've been around christianity any amount of time you you heard and it's true roman soldiers were not always paid in salt and even when they were paid in salt typically it wasn't their whole salary that came to them in the way of salt but it is true that roman soldiers would at times and in seasons be at least partially paid their salary by the way of salt and you've heard you're not worth your salt well that's basically a bad soldier wasn't worth his salt what's interesting is salary that sal that is latin for salt that's where salary comes from when we even talk that way so it's valuable but what else can be said about salt you know if you just search this in scripture because i'm trying to think okay what are these guys hearing when jesus says you're salt of the earth and the reason that i want to dive into this a little bit is is this when he says you're the light of the world okay that's not that's not difficult to figure out because light you go into a dark room and light makes manifest we have this idea that being light in dark is is you know the world is dark and we're the light we shine the truth that's that's pretty easy to recognize what the relationship is there how we are like light but i don't think it's as easy with salt because he doesn't really say what is it that salt does what okay you go into scripture you just search salt there was a covenant of salt okay you know what's interesting listen to these verses a covenant you all probably recognize it's like a contract between two parties it's an agreement between it it specifies what the responsibilities are of both sides of a party we have an old covenant we have a new covenant there's various covenants in scripture that we could look at but listen to this i have given to you and your sons and daughters with you in ordinance forever it is a covenant of salt forever before the lord or said to david lord god of israel gave the dominion over israel to david forever to him and his sons by a covenant of salt a covenant of salt had perpetual obligation now why salt maybe because salt is used very specifically as a preservative we'll look at more of that in a second but you know you've put salt you put salt in meat and you can preserve it a long time that may be why it was used that way we're also told this when offerings were made it wasn't supposed to lack salt listen to this everything or every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your god to be lacking from your grain offering with all your offerings you shall offer salt anyway so the when they made offerings salt was supposed to be on there something else there was a time abimelech conquered his enemies and it specifically says he killed the people and he sowed salt on their land basically that would make the soil infertile what else salt gives flavor job said can flavorless food be eaten without salt i would say this even though there's not a text in scripture that says salt makes thirsty and even though from a from a medical standpoint it's questionable whether it does or not it there is enough evidence i think that it produces thirst typically we think that that perhaps is one of the things that we could think of with salt but salt is an antiseptic salt is a preservative and in ezekiel chapter 16 we get this as for your nativity on the day you were born your naval cord was not cut nor were you washed in water to cleanse you you were not rubbed with salt now he's talking about spiritual realities but he's using physical a physical picture to describe it they rubbed children with salt why it was an antiseptic and undoubtedly you had you had to chop the umbilical cord you anyway it would have it would have helped against bacteria the thing is salt has an antibacterial characteristic it sucks the moisture out of bacteria and kills them so also you throw it in a wound it stings so here's the question those are pictures that we get of what salt does how is a christian like salt listen to this you are the salt of the earth you christian how is the christian like salt that's the question do we bring a christless world a christ-like flavor i mean is that it the scripture does talk about us being the aroma i know that's got to do with smell not with taste but could that be we we add a flavor in this world it could be do we make folks thirsty for christ is that what he's perhaps i mean are we like salt that gets in the wounds of the world and stings you know if we're going to do what we were looking at last week where you're going to expose the evil deeds of the world and we're going to be light like that does that sting does that get in the wound of the world when you call out their sin and call it what it is it perhaps are we a preservative in the world to stop the decay i mean it's salt in the earth what is that well you know what jesus does not specifically say but probably we could take all those things i mean the reality is that any one of those or all of them together what jesus is saying is this you're the salt of the world we know what salt does salt does things if salt has its saltiness it has an influence on things if you put it in food it preserves it if if you rub it into meat if you put it on food and you eat the food obviously it flavors it is is there some reality that you could take salt and it makes you thirsty if you've ever eaten some like some salty ham or something and you feel tremendously thirsty you know something of that reality if you've ever gotten salt in a wound you know that it stings like that jesus doesn't specifically say but this we know salt that possesses its saltiness is profitable it was so profitable that roman soldiers were paid at least partially with this and here's the thing salt that loses its saltiness won't create thirst it won't create a good taste it won't stop rot and what he says is good for nothing but to be thrown out now listen this this is key because if you think about what jesus is saying he's looking at his disciples and he's saying listen you are the salt you alone if there's any word you want to connect with salt it's this it's influence now you know i know this isn't a good thing obviously it's a bad thing you typically in san antonio you did not want to buy a car that came from houston you typically did not want to buy a car that came from the seacoast because of the salt and salt has a particular effect on metal and of course you know if you don't have the right primer and the right paint salt gets through to the metal on a vehicle and it rusts i was i was out with the snow on my vehicle looking at it this morning and i saw that there was a place of rust you know what happens when salt touches metal and you have water there's a chemical reaction do you know what happens when a person consumes salt it does something within the person suddenly you have a greater salt content outside the cell than inside the cell and extracts moisture that's why they think it makes people thirsty there is a very interesting thing with salt when you when you basically put it on a wound it kills bacteria you take salt and you rub it into meat like beef jerky and the stuff can last indefinitely why because it kills the bacteria listen the thing about salt is influence when he says you are the salt of the earth he means you and you alone are one of the most massive influences in this world did you recognize that about yourself christian he doesn't say that the media is mass is going to be the salt of the earth or the politicians are going to be the salt of the earth or the learning institutions or whatever fill in the blank where you know where the world looks for the movers and the shakers the people that are really going to be the influence in the world well it's the politicians it's the movie stars it's the military might it's these different you know what jesus says you are the salt why because the power of god almighty flows through the christian and influence is the issue it speaks to christians influence on this earth and i mean i'll tell you this clearly in the context you know where this influence comes from it comes from having the beatitudes it i mean at least the beatitudes are there's many other things that could be said about the christian than just what's said in the beatitudes but that's the context here folks the reality is people that are poor in spirit that are not trusting themselves but they're looking to what christ did they're clinging to what god does for them not living in their own strength people that mourn over their sins people that are meek their pride has been busted by the reality that before god they're nothing they have nothing to boast in christ going to that cross speaks so loudly that we're wicked people you know the truth is by birth we're liars we're we're bad people we're not good people and that's what that cross says christ did not come into this world because man was good he came because we were broken because we were we were twisted not straight not right oh we have these ideas about ourselves oh we're pretty good people you know what the bible says no you are not good people and that i'm not just talking to you i'm talking to me too but what happens is god does something in our lives and he creates in us such such a an influence on this world it goes way beyond military powers and political powers and and educational systems and and hollywood we i mean we may say we're so small we're so insignificant listen this is exclusive i mean you understand what he's saying here you get this distinct sense this is emphatic the only salt in the earth is the christian who lives these kind of beatitudinal life and faith and conduct and we never want the persecution that was talked about in the verses right before this to prevent us from being this kind of influence you know what i mean we can look at it the smallness of it oh what can a small group of meek mournful merciful people against this out there this hard this tough world i mean aren't we too feeble to achieve anything significant especially being such a minority well jesus doesn't think so he doesn't think so at all our littleness never prevents us from being the salt of the earth you know what prevents us from being the salt of the earth not littleness losing our saltiness that's what does it and i'll tell you this apparently the devil doesn't ignore us even though we're in such a minority because i keep coming back to this that text there in revelation chapter 12 will never let us get away from it the devil has declared war and he is enraged with the woman and her offspring and who are those offspring the people that keep the commandments of god and have the testimony of jesus christ you see jesus thinks no matter how small we are we are the main influence in this world and the devil he knows we are and he's coming for us but he won't have victory and you know what the truth is he can't rub the saltiness out of us not if god is for us who can be against us he not even the greatest fallen angel you know what the thing is about the influence of salt is its distinctness you see the thing about salt is when you put it on a wound it is entirely distinct from the skin the wound the flesh the bacteria it has qualities that it introduces that weren't there before same thing with food you throw it on food you eat it well it tastes you see it's the distinctness of salt that makes salt valuable but it's i'll tell you salt has properties distinctly different than the thing that it influences it's never like what it influences salt is different and that's the reality it's the saltiness that makes it stand out from that which is not salt from everything else its usefulness lies in the fact that it is qualities entirely different from the salt you see what i'm saying you lose your saltiness here's here's what they did this is one of the ways that they got salt now they had various ways one of the ways they got salt in palestine in this day was from the dead sea region and if you know about the dead sea the the water is some of the most salty water in any body of water that we have on the face of the earth and so they'd go over there basically the sun it takes the moisture out you're left with the salt but so much of the salt it was mixed with sand it was mixed with other impurities and and the truth is the salt that they used it could lose its saltiness in other words the actual sodium chloride leached out of it so you were you could end up with something if you allowed moisture to get to it or whatever that basically lost the saltiness and when it loses its saltiness it's not distinct anymore and when the church listen you need to catch this it's when the church is absolutely different from the world that we are going to have the greatest influence it's not when you try to make the church most like the world you see what i'm saying our influence comes from being distinct from being absolutely different not like it the saltiness is lost its distinctness is lost there's no good if we christians are indistinguishable from non-christians you know what jesus says look at the words he says if salt loses its flavor how shall it be seasoned it's then good for nothing you want to be good for nothing just lose your distinctness listen this is what true biblical christianity is all about this this is what it is this is coming surrendered to god to have him forgive our sins based on what christ did on the cross and he so radically changes us this is what this is what it means to be born again to become a new creation in christ now i'm going to tell you one of the most important things about salt that i'm going to say today it's this word contact listen salt never accomplishes anything i don't care how salty it is it never accomplishes anything unless it comes into contact do you recognize every single use of salt if you wanted to use salt on your offering it specifically says in scripture you season it with the salt when it was meat you put it on the meat if you want to season food you have to put it on the food if you want to use it as a disinfectant an antibacterial on a child you had to rub the child with it do you recognize that if you're going to kill the rot and the putrefaction and the decay of the world the salt has to touch something to influence it you can't keep it over there in the shaker you can't keep it in the cupboard it's got to come into contact it's only good only when it's making contact with whatever it is going to influence listen very carefully the christian is not is not poor and mourning over sin and meek and hungry and right hungering and thirsting after righteousness and and merciful and pure and peacemaker all in some kind of splendid isolation we don't you recognize monasteries and convents that is not scriptural that is the creation of a false religion god never tells us to go live little house on the prairie i trust you know that here just like we do in the u.s but you know there can be a tendency to want to do that there can be a tendency for the christian to want to escape to want to get far away from the world but you're going to be salt with the world you're going to be salt of the world if only when you are in contact with that world that's just that's just the reality we got to touch the world to get into the world we're going to be salt in the earth you know what you've got to do you've got to get next to people listen this kind of christianity that is basically i want my calvinism i want my reformed faith teach me about election teach me about limited atonement and you just come to your church and you're within the salt shaker and then you just go home to your little isolated house and you go back and forth and you're never making contact with the rot and the decay of the world out there how in the world are you ever going to be salt salt's got to come in contact we've got to get out of our comfort zones you know what this the way the church is sought is these beatitudinal realities our purity our mercy how about mercy blessed are the merciful how are you going to show mercy to the world unless you come into contact with the world brethren we are the salt we are the ones you see we don't just bear some abstract truth about a sovereign god some abstract truth about a cross somewhere 2 000 years ago it's not that we're taking this truth and we're supposed to follow in christ's footsteps where we take the truth out there you know what that's that's what jesus did did jesus just throw down tracks from heaven [Music] did he just shout at us hey come up here you know what he did the word became flesh and he dwelt among us he is the true light of the world and even though scripture doesn't say so distinctly he's the true salt of the earth brethren we got to get next to people we've got to get out you know you know what this requires we got to get out of our comfort zones oh it's so easy especially here in the west so easy and i found that coming from the u.s you move over here to england anyway you know the houses are smaller but basically the same the vehicles are smaller but basically the same the food you eat a little bit different but basically the same my wife's been serving me american portions that's why i got to go to the gym tomorrow but brethren the truth is we can become so comfortable in our little protected places so that the reality is i recognize we meet over here in west autumn haughton the reality is we can live in a neighborhood and people next door to us don't even know we're christians people across the street don't know we're christians people that live next to our meeting place don't know we're christians the people that we work with they don't know we're christians how in the world are we going to be the salt in the earth unless we're making contact listen we got to get out there in the world we've got to get next to the depraved we got to get next to the demon controlled i was not rebuking my wife coming home yesterday when she hugged that demon-possessed girl you know what that's exactly what we've got to do that's how we're going to touch the world sonny can stand up there and preach all day long but i'll tell you when those people begin to see that we have a love for them and i'll tell you people can sniff out the real deal from the faults they know when you're just looking past them they know when you're out there and you're being part of the church group but you don't really care for them you won't make eye contact with them you won't give them the time of day they know that the world's smart they know salt and they know when it's not salt they know hypocrisy and you know they really want it they they're looking for it but you know when you hit people with a real dose of christianity they tend to sit up and they take notice there are filthy sinners there are lost sinners do you know what jesus did when he came down here he was known to be a friend of tax collectors and sinners and you know why he was known to be that because he got out there he didn't come here and build a monastery somewhere and build a school and have everybody come there and he was rarely ever seen he got out on the streets he got out in the highways he got out in the hedges he got out in the back alleys he got on the deep holes of life and he was salt and he got in there and he loved people and he hit him with the stinging truth and the stinging reality that their righteousness was not going to stand up on judgment day but you know what he also put out his hand and he touched him he was able to be touched by the tears of a woman of the city that spilled onto his feet he was able to reach out his hand because he was so close and touched lepers that's what he did and he's our example two essentials of the salt two essentials salt has to be salty but no matter how salty it is if it doesn't make contact with what it is supposed to influence it'll never leave an influence you got to have both and you can take all the salt you want and rub it into the decaying meat but if it's lost its saltiness that's no good you gotta have both and listen professing christian in this place today we can almost wish you know one of the problems one of the problems is that when you preach what christ preaches you can sometimes people can say well there's not there's not that much grace in in what that preacher's saying but what i want people to do all the time is please look look past me what you really need to be asking is this am i trying to tell you what is coming from scripture right here jesus tells us something here you're the salt of the earth but if the salt loses its flavor or maybe your bible says has lost its taste how shall it be seasoned it's then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men you want to be careful with these allegories these metaphors because when jesus starts talking about it's worth nothing he's not describing christians who are genuine who lose their saltiness but it's okay they're just kind of useless and yes they're gonna make it to heaven but everything will be okay do you know when scripture talks about something good for nothing but to be thrown out you really want to take note of that kind of language notice these words loses flavor i want you to hear two other verses where that very same greek word is found professing to be wise they became fools say hmm where is losing its taste in that verse let me give you another one where is the wise where is the scribe where is the disputer of this age has not god made foolish the wisdom of this world you see there it is again do you know that this word can be simply translated made foolish do you recognize what jesus is saying there's an aspect to which salt that is not salty is made foolish because it is foolish you won't even call it salt if it's not salty salt that's not salty isn't salt it may claim to be salt it may bear the name of salt but it brethren i'll tell you this is a forb it's a foreboding statement and jesus repeats it elsewhere listen to this mark 9 salt is good but if the salt loses its flavor how will you season it luke 14 salt is good but if the salt has lost its flavor how shall it be seasoned it's neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill did you get that it's not even fit for the dunghill now you could understand if salt has retained some of its saltiness and it is an antibacterial and you throw it on the dunghill you can imagine it might cut the stink the stench but it's not even good for that do you recognize what jesus is saying when he's saying somebody's not even good for the dung hill that's not a place you want to be but listen what is it to lose your saltiness it's basically where you're living the kind of christianity that is an influential this is a very foreboding statement what makes the christian salty concept context tells us at least at least it is blessed are the merciful at least blessed are the pure in heart blessed are the peacemakers blessed are those hungering and thirsting after righteousness but i come back to that blessed are the merciful brethren we've got to get out there in the world and show the mercies of christ otherwise we're not going to have any kind of influence beatitudes if a person loses these things then what it's good for nothing but to be thrown out and you know the greatest danger of all do you know the greatest danger of all i've seen it i've seen it repeatedly people say this i'm a christian christians can't lose their salvation so they just dismiss this it's like i'm saved how do you know you're saved well because i know my life changed i i believe i believe i come to church now all these things that is very dangerous way of thinking do you see what jesus is saying i mean the greatest danger of all is you can't hear this i hear this so often this line of reasoning can be fatal well i'm a christian i know i'm a christian and then they'll tell you how they know and yet then they come along and they say but i can't lose my salvation and so no matter if i'm salty or not salty it really doesn't matter and they don't even hear this they dismiss these words as not applicable scripture instead encourages us to realize that whatever might be true of me whatever name i might go by i can call myself a saint i can call myself a believer i can call myself a christian if i don't maintain my saltiness to the end he says i'm good for nothing but to be thrown out and remember this is insult being talk talked about here this is me this is you this is people people who are in the church because it's not just the masses out there it's people who had an appearance of saltiness and they lost it i want to just do a little bit of a theology of falling away listen to scripture the ones on the rock are those who when they hear they receive the word with joy i'll tell you this receiving the word about christ and what he's done for our sins with joy is a good thing but you know there are people that do that they hear it what's joyful wonderful well i want that who wouldn't be on board all my sins forgiven no hell at the end but then what happens they have no root they believe for a while and in time of temptation get these words fall away do people fall away all the time i've been pastoring for how many ever decades and have i seen it yeah whole over and over and over people who at one time were very confident people who one time appeared very salty jesus says this he who endures to the end will be saved are you grabbing hold of what endure means you see what jesus is saying is you have to endure not just in professing his name you have to endure not just saying i'm a believer you endure to the end with saltiness and if you lose the saltiness you're not in a good place this is the reality or how about this listen to this a picture of judgment day this pertains to all of us none of us can escape this judgment day is coming it's appointed to you to die and then the judgment here's what's going to happen on judgment day you all do well to to listen up god will render to each one according to his deeds now i'll tell you if one of your deeds is that you confessed your sin to christ and you asked him to save your guilty soul see that deed in itself jesus guarantees you he will wash away all that's guilty on your record so that any deed that you did which you don't want to have to face on judgment day you want the blood of christ to cover it because if you go there without the blood of christ it's all going to be brought out everything you've done everything you've thought when you thought no one was looking in the recesses of your mind but he's going to render to each one according to his deeds eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory honor immortality you see that the saltiness there's a patient continuance but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness there will be indignation and wrath or paul talks this way to timothy talking about faith and a good conscience which some have rejected concerning the faith and have suffered shipwreck of whom are hymenaeus and alexander this isn't theoretical do you know what paul is saying i know two guys that were in the church and they made shipwreck of their faith you say wow i thought you couldn't lose your salvation listen god saves well salvation is of the lord but the reality is that a lot of people walk through this life without the real deal they walk through in an imitation they walk through in a in a religion that they have created themselves yes they may have experienced certain aspects of the power of the spirit in the age to come but people fall away brethren and one of the things that scripture tells us is we've got to work out our salvation with fear and trembling even though it's god that works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure god is sovereign god is moving but he will always work through the means of our own responsibility he calls us to fight the good fight of faith and i'll tell you this you've got to fight to remain salty and there are things you can do to lose your saltiness there are things you can do you know what that good conscience just start to defile your conscience just start to view that pornography just start to let your thoughts go where they shouldn't go just start to toy with sin and see how fast it'll take you where you never meant to go you want to be careful you want to be real careful brethren i'll tell you this one of the promises of the new covenant is that god will put his fear in us so that we do not depart from him you know what happens to the true christian they hear warnings like this and they fear and they say wow if there's so much danger of losing our saltiness i'm going to fight for my saltiness i'm going to fight for it uh brethren i'm just i'm gonna end up here i don't think we've gone too long right we haven't been an hour yet but i'm gonna i'm gonna finish this up by going after our thinking you see these battles are fought so often in the mind we've got to think right and i want to give you some reasons we're not more salty see i want you to strive for saltiness brethren and i'm going to give you some reasons that we're not more salty first one we just plain don't define normal christianity as salty christianity you follow what i'm saying listen there are a lot of people and i find this especially in reformed circles well we have these sinful hearts they're desperately wicked what can we do oh wretched man that i am right brethren that is not the way jesus speaks the promise of the new covenant is that god is going to give us a new heart the promises of the new covenant are that sin will not have dominion over you the promises of the new covenant is jesus he gave himself up make a people of zealous of good works that's the reality of of the new testament we can have such a tendency to describe normal christianity in such saltless terms it's almost like we're defeat and failure is the norm brethren a large segment of professing christianity in this country right now refuses to even me brethren i want you to hear what i'm saying i look around the landscape in england you've got a lot of people in this country that aren't even willing to abide by what christ has indicated his church ought to be doing and you know what here's what here's what's happening many pastors are saying well there's been a sifting there's a sifting and i know a lot of gracious pastors are wanting to say well you know they're children of god and they just they don't want to meet they're scared to death to die scared of scared to death of death they can't hardly even meet they recoil from each other christians seriously christians you see but but we can get in the place where we're okay well we're you know what we start doing we start defining these two classes of christians christians that are willing to follow their lord wherever they're willing to go and these who are not so willing to follow the lord wherever he is wants us to go and so you begin to define christianity as basically this lame thing people who have no influence on the world people who will barely influence one another in the church but alone in the world and and so we start defining well that's that's pretty normal for 50 or 80 percent of the christianity in this country you see what happens you begin you know what if somebody won't even venture into the walls of their own church because they're scared to death you think they're out there trying to reach somebody some red-blooded sinner that really has need you think they're coming up alongside them seeking to be salt hardly brethren we've got to define christianity biblically not according to our whims our political situation the the you know the the winds of of colvid i mean brethren we've got to describe it here blessed are the merciful but when you've got somebody that says well i'm not going to show mercy i'm not gonna even show it to the brethren in the church i'm not going there i might die i might catch this bug i might get a cough i might get a respiratory problem yeah what do you think happens when you hug demon-possessed women and yet that's exactly what jesus christ did he got up there among them he got among their diseases and their sicknesses can you imagine that oh we could never go to where people have coveted let alone you think jesus had a mask on brother we've got it i'm not knocking the mask mary i know i'm looking right at you when i say it i'm not but brethren we've gotta be we've gotta deal with reality i'm okay go go out there with your mask on but get out there that's the thing we if we're gonna be salt in the world let's define it the way the bible defines it and then there's this we wrongly assume sinful deeds committed are greater than saltiness omitted now did you hear that you want to hear that you know what we have we have this idea well if i beat my wife i'm a bad guy yeah i would be a bad guy if i'm watching pornography i'm i'm a bad guy but you know what we tend to do well if i lie if i cheat if i steal from my employer why i'm a real bad guy you see we tend to put those up here on the on this level but when we omit saltiness when we when we don't get out there and really have an influence on the world well that's not so bad can i tell you something on judgment day jesus does not say to those on his right hand well done because you didn't beat your wife and you on the left did says i was hungry and you fed me and you didn't you want to hear that do you know in scripture god says to israel the sin of sodom your sister was this you know when you hear sodom you immediately think ah whether he's describing actual sodom or he's using that term in a derogatory sense to describe somebody else it doesn't really matter because in the end you know what he says the sin of sodom your sister not homosexuality they didn't take care of the poor and the needy this is the guilt she and her daughters had pride excess of food prosperous ease but did not aid the poor and needy listen i come back to this that saltiness of the beatitudes is blessed are the merciful [Music] i don't care the poorest among you if you haven't been to cambodia you haven't been to india you haven't been to nepal you haven't been to nicaragua or haiti you live in the lap of luxury in this country the poorest person here do you recognize what jesus is saying on judgment day the things he's commending is the people that got out of their comfort zone you see we wrongly assume well i don't do this i don't do this i don't do this no no on judgment day jesus is looking for what you did do omitting the care of the needy recognizing that the world around us they are out there and they are sitting in darkness if we're going to be salty we've got to care about that does anybody care that england is dying do you know eternity is long life is short or there's this we wrongly assume we can easily restore what's lost you know what jesus says you're the salt of the earth but if the salt loses his flavor how shall it be seasoned you know what we can we can start to coast and we can start to think wow you know take a little break a little relaxation a little vacation we kind of we kind of start to become unsalty but we've got this idea well we can recapture it whenever we want to do you recognize what jesus is saying how shall it be seasoned he doesn't say you know salt that begins to lose its flavor it's very good for being restored how shall it be seasoned now look i know with god all things are possible but be careful you want to be careful be very careful i recognize that there can be ups and downs in the christian life i recognize that the corinthians were carnal at a season the galatians were foolish at a season but i'll tell you they were only seasons and when the apostle talks to them it is with urgency that they get out of that place right now because he warns both the corinthians and the galatians you stay there and that's death beware we can almost think oh jesus these are strong words they don't they don't sound nice you know jesus came into the world not so much to be nice but he came to tell us the truth this is the truth brethren then there's this we wrongly assume that having truth guarantees saltiness brethren i'll tell you that this happens all the time people people they come to the reformed faith and they feel like well you know what we're salty because we've got the truth our truth is salty perhaps but that doesn't make automatically for a salty christian yes yes brethren do we need the truth absolutely do we need to rightly divide the word yes but you know what we can have a lot of abstract truth without the fire and without the heat that's just a reality without the heart we're doctrines of grace embracing people but you know what can happen we're not cross-embracing people and didn't jesus say carry your cross you know what he wants from us he wants sacrifice he wants us to imitate him he came here he he he had an eternity of glory that he laid aside he emptied himself he took upon himself the form of a man and he died on the cross he he came a man of sorrows and he bids us to follow him do you recognize this is only a short season we're only in this world for a few more rolling sons at most he's left us here for a purpose and it is because he has determined that he is going to use salty men and salty women to be those who propagate his kingdom and it's only for just a few years we don't have long we have to work while it's day but we can wrongly assume that having this truth you know what calvinism does not by itself make us salty in fact let me tell you something there is a strain of calvinism that apparently lacks the saltiness to make its influence on anybody and it's evident by the nature of so many reformed churches just look at them they gather together they come together they get they they do their thing on sundays and they go off to the world and they don't have an impact on anybody and i can tell you you can look down through the corridors of of history and you can look at a charles simeon and look at his type of calvinism an evangelical calvinism you can look at that of william carey's who said basically i'm breaking out of this hyper calvinism and i'll go down in that pit i'll go down in that well guys i'll take our salty christianity here and take it out to the ends of the earth if you guys will hold the ropes i'll go down in that well that's the kind of calvinism we need or spurgeon's spurgeon yeah it's been said of spurgeon what differentiated him from many others was his basic vision for the church surrounding ministries tended to have a siege mentality the battle cry would circle the wagons in other words stay in the salt shaker just stay in there don't get out circle the wagons he said although many would have denied it they believed the church existed for its own sake the top priority was safety purity comfort of the church theirs was a fundamentally defensive posture spurgeon's response was to set about to recover an understanding of what the church really was he recognized that the whole orientation of the gospel is outward toward the lost see if we're going to be salt to a future fine decaying dying world you've got to get out there you've got to rub it on the child you've got to rub it in the meat brethren the more interaction the more we get out there the more we come close to sinners the more we are going to be the salt we can't stay in the shaker you got to get on the food you got to get on the thing that you want to influence and then there's that great calvinist paul he knew about the sovereignty of god wasn't don't didn't he write romans 9 he says to moses i have mercy on whomever i will have mercy i'll have compassion on whomever i will have compassion but listen to him listen to him with great sorrow he says i could wish myself a curse and cut off from christ for the sake of my kinsmen according to the flesh he could say my desire for them is that god would save them and you know in another place he says i become all things to all men that by all means i may save some [Music] do you recognize there's a certain strain of calvinism that seems to suck the salt right out of the christian paul haven't you forgot god's sovereign what do you mean you become all things to all men that you mind by all means save some save some do we have any that are brave enough that we can talk like paul but if people begin to fill our churches through salvation because we've got out there we've been salty enough with both our words and our life and our compassion and our mercy and our purity of heart and our dependence on the lord we get out there in that mindset any of us say we can save some i mean let's talk like scripture of course we keep in the forefront of our minds that god saves whomever he wills we know that salvation is of the lord but god is just as sovereignly in control listen think about it i ride my bike at times along the canal i see guys fishing what would you think if i said to one of the fishermen hey why are you fishing don't you know god's sovereign god's sovereignly in control of whether you're going to get a fish on that hook or not you think do you think he hears me and says oh i shouldn't fish just packs up and goes home brethren only a fool believes because god is sovereign a fisherman shouldn't go fishing the reality is a fisherman's a fool to believe that he'll catch fish if he doesn't go fishing brethren do you realize god uses means and the means that god uses is christians who retain their saltiness the gospels the power of god under salvation but how's it propagated the reality is god's method salty christians that's his method and that's always been the case look at the great fissures of men look at the churches that have had in the evangelical influence on the world look at the times and the places where people have been gathered in you know what you'll always find salty christians every time every time we say god sovereign but you know god doesn't just bypass the saltiness of his people that never happens jesus says we're the salt what what are we told to do go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in how are we going to compel them not by unsalty christianity not by looking like them as much as possible not become seeker sensitive and try to appeal to all the lost people brethren we got to tell people the truth but we've got to love them and i brethren i know this this takes effortless take sacrifice this takes us dying to self and the thing is proximity is not enough you can't just bring salt close it's got to touch it it's not enough that you live in the neighborhoods or that the church meets in a certain neighborhood we've got to touch the people we've got to get there bringing salt close to the food does not flavor it centers close to our homes proximity to our churches it's not enough too many christians want to stay inside the salt shaker inward focused well we got problems in the church well of course we do we're always going to have problems in the church but problems in the church doesn't mean circle the wagons stop being salty that's not it we do we can't not become so inwardly focused that to the neglect of some vision outward vision i'm not afraid of that word i mean by that some sufficient imagination and strategy and design anticipation expectation wasn't it william carey that said expect great things from god attempt great things for god i mean that's the reality we step out expecting god to come and help us and cause us to walk on the water as we go we gotta try brethren i'll tell you this we try to take that saltiness out we will see that god is with us and we will not be ashamed if we're going to go out there strive plan scheme to get the salt into the world to produce that thirst out there to produce that preservative in the rot that's out there listen i'll tell you what else can happen as schools degenerate and you know they are teaching homosexuality and same-sex marriage and all manner of garbage and you the whole homosexual agenda we've got we've got politicians that are liberal that are moving as far away from the bible as they possibly can we've got a media that's absolutely obsessed with everything that's wicked the names on things are being totally reversed what's good is now bad and what's bad is good and we see it all around us and brethren i can tell you what can happen we can have a tendency to want to withdraw from it and even we here in scripture come out from among them and you know there is a biblical separation but you know what can happen that biblical separation can easily become an unbiblical isolation if we're not careful what did paul say what did he say he said i told you i wrote to you not to eat with fornicators and adulterers and thieves but he said i'm talking about those who call themselves brothers i'm not talking about every fornicator and every thief in this world otherwise you'd have to come out of the world that clearly is not what he wants he wants us having dinner with fornicators and adulterers just like jesus got into this world and he ate with the tax collectors and the sinners we don't want to overreact the way jesus intends for us to be salt of the earth is to actually get out there and traverse the earth to get in there and i just finished with the example of christ and i mentioned it already but you think with me here the scripture says that the word became flesh and he dwelt among us he didn't sit on a cloud up there and simply give us instruction you could do this you go there isolated see he was not the christ of isolation he came down and got his hands dirty and he got right up beside you think of him eternal deity there in the glory of god he gave that up he emptied himself in sacrifice and love he did this out of love for his father and love for humanity and he came and you watch him you watch him as he viewed humanity he actually felt he had it well up inside him he wept he could look at mary weeping there he looks at this just death and sickness and the wretchedness and the sin of men and unbelief in the midst of it and it all just it moved on his affections he laid aside all that glory and he came down here and what we want to see is his humility we want to see his obedience we want to see his love that's what characterized his incarnation his incarnation we think of the little baby in the manger but what you really want to think is god coming from glory to get close to men yes he came by way of the manger to show us he wasn't going to sit in the palaces and in isolated places he came he came right out of the loins of a woman who's married to a carpenter laid in a manger no place for him he came and he emptied himself why to bring salvation to men to get right in there with us he dwelt among us not above us not far off removed he didn't come on a south pacific island and just dwell out there in the in paradise and eat pineapples i mean he got right next to men in their sin in their need he came among the lowest the dirtiest the neediest oh he could turn aside to the rich as well he could go eat with the pharisees he could do those things he could sit and talk to nicodemus but you listen if jesus suddenly showed up here bodily where do you think he'd go i mean if he showed up here bodily and he came to do what he did when he was here the first time and we really wanted to follow him and be like him and to walk as he walked where do you think he'd go i mean imagine that jesus let loose on manchester united where would he go i mean if you were to all of a sudden find him tuesday afternoon at 4 pm or friday morning at 9 00 am where do you think he'd find him [Music] that's worth thinking about brethren i i said this before people are smart and they know they can smell religious tradition they can smell out the hypocrite they know they know when you care and brethren you know you know when you care you know when something wells up inside you when you want to help brethren they know when you're looking through them you're looking over their shoulder well you know it's two o'clock we gotta get home we gotta get home and listen i'm not saying that there aren't times i feel like that and i know there's other responsibilities i've seen it i've seen it there in san antonio i i i watched these people come up one time we were out there on the streets and we were we were feeding the poor and i saw these people i forget a methodist or a lutheran church they pulled up there they pulled up there and they're beautiful great big gigantic chevy suburban and they kicked a box of clothes off the back of that truck for the homeless poor out there and they drove off no interaction no touch no brethren people people are people gonna grab the clothes of course they are but does that win people i'll tell you it's when the love and the sacrifice and the humility of christ some radical recklessness to just lay it all on the altar brethren this is what the world needs and this has always been the kind of people that have turned the world upside down i'd ask you just just in closing we're done brethren but are you in this book are you in this book are you beholding the glory of christ are you studying his person so the spirit takes that glory and basically burns it into your own soul and your own person and are you on your knees confessing and praying lord make me like him confessing i know it brethren we feel it too much this this to be at ease to have softness i feel it do we confess it do we plead with him are you asking god to burn christ's image into you listen brethren god knows if you're real or not he knows it there's no playing games with him we can't you show us brethren you show me people that turn the world upside down i'll show you somebody that spent time on their knees and they spent time in the presence of the glory of god i mean we need to be pleading lord help me get past the fears help me get past the softness help me the sickening desire for safety and security and comfort saltiness brethren that's what we're talking about you are the salt of the earth are you real are you fake are you simply moral brethren you can't fool god and in the end you've got to face god and i tell you if you know you're fake if you know you've never even been there if you want to ask the lord to heal what's wrong take your sins before him brethren this is this is the time we have here it's to be salty it's not the coast it's not to get rich it's not primarily to get married those things you may make money in this world you may get married but i'll tell you it all needs to be fitting in to the motions of this reality you get married to be salty marry a person that's going to help you be salty you're in this to make money to put salt in the machine make the whole church run make money so that we can launch somebody off like carrie out there to the ends of the earth brethren our time is short this is a reality we don't want to mess around with jesus words he is god incarnate and he came hear him you are the salt of the earth father forgive us for failure in this lord we plead with you help us unleash a power in our time that the world has not seen unleash a saltiness in us lord we want to be faithful we want to endure to the end and i pray no matter what personality the brethren here have whatever our makeup whatever our spiritual gifts lord right down to the the meekest most quiet sister in the church give us a pungency of saltiness father please here please help i pray in christ's name amen you're dismissed

Channel: I'll Be Honest

Views: 4,310

Keywords: Tim Conway, sermon on the mount, salt, saltiness, earth, Christian, goodness

Id: HfvV5Pei4gg

Length: 73min 27sec (4407 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 29 2021