Sermon Text:
Matt 5:13 (Believers Are Salt and Light) "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled on by men.
Plot Outline: This film contains not only some incredible surf photography, but also some very powerful testimony from a group of friends whose lives were forever changed by God.
Noah’s Arc offers a powerful look into the life of Noah Snyder, charting his unique journey from childhood on the Outer Banks of North Carolina to becoming a world-renowned professional surfer. The real story, however, involves the true power behind Noah’s character, and the many lives that have been affected by it.
Transition: Christians are to be salt and light in the world today but we are living in the zoo (church). Our influence in the world is contained or limited to the wall of this building and not being used to impact the world around us.
Christians Should:
1. Preserve
Col 4:6 Your speech should always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.
A. Uselessness of Salt that has lost its savor
- Matthew\Chapter 5\5:13\Salt without savour
Salt without savour: -- These words must have seemed ridiculously presumptuous when they were first spoken.
I. THE HIGH TASK OF CHRIST’S DISCIPLES AS HERE SET FORTH.
This metaphor involves two things: a grave judgment as to the actual state of society, and a lofty claim as to what Christ’s followers can do for it. It is corrupt; you do not salt a living thing. It is the power and obligation of the good to arrest corruption by their own purity. The example of Christian men is not only repressive, it ought to tempt forth all that is purest in the people with whom they come into contact. Salt does its work by being brought into close contact with the thing which it is to work upon. It does its work silently, inconspicuously, gradually.
II. THE GRAVE POSSIBILITY OF THE SALT LOSING ITS SAVOUR.
It is evident that there is the obliteration of the distinction between the salt and the mass into which it is inserted. Is there any difference between your ideal of happiness and the irreligious one?
III. The solemn question,
Is THERE A POSSIBILITY OF RESALTING THE SALTLESS SALT, OF RESTORING THE LOST SAVOUR? These words not to be pushed to the extreme.
IV. THE CERTAIN END OF THE SALTLESS SALT.
YOU cannot put it upon the soil; there is no fertilizing virtue in it. You cannot even fling it into the rubbish heap; it will do mischief there. Pitch it out into the road; it will stop a cranny somewhere between the stones when once it is well trodden down by men’s heels. That is all it is fit for. God has no use for it; man has no use for it.
(A. Maclaren, D. D.) (from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright (c) 2002 AGES and Biblesoft, Inc.)
B. Christians called salt: -- The ideal of an active and efficient Christian character. It is like salt. How?
I. In its CONSTITUENT ELEMENTS.
As salt is made up of chlorine and sodium chemically united, so a Christian character is composed of faith and works in union.
(a) As chlorine gas is a deadly poison by itself, so faith without works kills.
James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works ? Can his faith save him?
(b) As the metal sodium is destitute alone of the saving quality of salt, so works without faith are destitute of merit to save the soul.
(c) As the chemical union of the two elements forms a third substance, with a new and useful quality, so faith and works, when united, give life and efficiency to Christian character.
James 2:18-21 But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works ." Show me your faith without works , and I will show you faith from my works . 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe — and they shudder.
20 Foolish man! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?
II. In its EFFECTS
Matthew 5:14-16 "You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
(a) As salt prevents corruption and decay in animal and vegetable matter, so Christian character is the antidote of vice in the individual and in society.
(b) As salt promotes digestion, and thus prevents deadly disease, so Christian character enables the soul to digest and profit by the various dispensations of Providence.
(c) As salt renders palatable otherwise distasteful food, so a Christian character sweetens life’s disappointments, and changes its crosses into crowns.
(P. S. . Davis.)(from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright (c) 2002 AGES and Biblesoft, Inc.)
2. Purify
Just as the young Englishman was inflected by the violence he witnessed we in a different was should influence or “Purify” the world of evil by letting them see Gods love in our lives.
Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
Titus 2:7 about everything. Set an example of good works yourself, with integrity and dignity in your teaching.
Titus 3:14 And our people must also learn to devote themselves to good works for cases of urgent need, so that they will not be unfruitful.
Heb 10:24 And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works,
1 Peter 2:12 Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that in a case where they speak against you as those who do evil, they may, by observing your good works, glorify God in a day of visitation.
1 Peter 3:16 However, do this with gentleness and respect, keeping your conscience clear, so that when you are accused, those who denounce your Christian life will be put to shame.
3. Personalized
1 Thessalonians 1:8 For the Lord’s message rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place that your faith in God has gone out, so we don’t need to say anything
Matt 5:13 (Believers Are Salt and Light) "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled on by men.
Prov 4:18 The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.
Isa 58:8 Then your light will appear like the dawn,
and your recovery will come quickly.
Your righteousness will go before you,
and the LORD’s glory will be your rear guard.
Rom 13:11 (Put On Christ )Besides this, knowing the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
Eph 5:6-12 (Light versus Darkness) Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for because of these things God’s wrath is coming on the disobedient. 7 Therefore, do not become their partners. 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light — 9 for the fruit of the light results in all goodness, righteousness, and truth — 10 discerning what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Don’t participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead, expose them.
Phil 2:15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world.
1 Thess 5:6 So then, we must not sleep, like the rest, but we must stay awake and be sober.
1 John 1:5 (Fellowship with God) Now this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him
4. Personify
Illustration: Influence
In 1969, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. His footprints are still there. They will be there a thousand years from now! It is very possible that your influence will last as long! -- Robert C. Shannon, 1000 Windows, (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1997).
Acts 17:1-6 (A Short Ministry in Thessalonica )
Then they traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.2 As usual, Paul went to them, and on three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures,3 explaining and showing that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead, and saying: "This is the Messiah, Jesus, whom I am proclaiming to you."4 Then some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, including a great number of God-fearing Greeks, as well as a number of the leading women.
5 The Assault on Jason’s House
But the Jews became jealous, and when they had brought together some scoundrels from the marketplace and formed a mob, they set the city in an uproar. Attacking Jason’s house, they searched for them to bring them out to the public assembly.6 When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too,
Romans 1:8 (The Apostle’s Desire to Visit Rome)
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because the news of your faith is being reported in all the world.
2 Corinthians 2:14 ( A Ministry of Life or Death)
But thanks be to God, who always puts us on display in Christ, and spreads through us in every place the scent of knowing Him;
1 Thessalonians 1:8 For the Lord’s message rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place that your faith in God has gone out, so we don’t need to say anything.
Closing Illustration: Life
Augustus boasted that he found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble. Perhaps we cannot feel that we will leave the world much different than we found it, but each of us has had some influence, affected some life, and in some way can leave the world a better place.
-- Robert C. Shannon, 1000 Windows, (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1997).
(All scripture from Holman Christian Standard Bible® Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 by Holman Bible Publishers.)
All Illustrations unless otherwise noted from “Bible Illustration for Windows Copyright (c) 1990-1998, by Parsons Technology Inc.
