After she had worked for many years, she decided she would retire. Her son Martin, the owner of the restaurant, was concerned about her retirement because he knew that her good cooking was going to be missed by his many loyal customers. He requested that she write down everything she did in the preparation of the food she was famous for, so the next cook could follow her instructions to the detail, and cook as good as she did. She retired and the next cook was hired, and she was doing fine until she came to the part of the recipe that stated that she needed to add a “tad of salt”. She went to Martin and said, “What is a “tad of salt?” He explained what a “tad of Salt” was, and everything came out great.
All good cooks know that sometimes a teaspoon or tablespoon of salt is to much. They know sometimes it takes only a “tad of salt”, because just a tad will drastically change the taste of something.
• Add a pinch of salt to a jug of water, and in a short time all of the water will be salty.
• Put a pinch of salt on the tip of your tongue, and in just a matter of minutes it will permeate your entire body.
Because small amounts of salt can make a difference, the Lord had this in mind when He said that Christians are the “salt of the earth”.
Salt has been used in many ways.
Illus: Some companies have used it in hiring people. For example, if a company wants to hire someone that has to do a lot of thinking, some of them will take a potential employee out for dinner. When the food is brought out, if the potential employee reaches for the salt before they taste the food, they know that this person is not a thinking person. That is, they are salting the food before they taste it to see if it needs some additional salt.
Since earliest times, salt has been associated with value and worthiness.
• Homer called salt “divine”
• Plato terms it a “substance dear to the gods”
• Shakespeare mentions “salt” 37 times in his immortal plays
We rightfully refer to salt as the “fifth element.” We are as dependent on it as we are on air, earth, water and fire.
God knew how important salt was to us, and when He created this earth on which we live, He gave us an abundant supply. Salt is abundant on, and deep within the earth.
• Great veins stretch throughout Canada and the United States, many hundreds of feet below land
• Louisiana has scores of great dome-shaped deposits, mined much as coal is mined
• Utah’s Great Salt Lake is a source of much salt
• The oceans of the world contain 50 million billion tons
• Forty million tons are required each year to fill man’s needs
Here and in other parts of the world, salt is also produced by what is called the solar method. HOW DOES THIS WORK? The salt water is pumped into ponds. The sun evaporates the water and leaves the salt to be harvested.
The significance of salt in the history of mankind has proven to be amazing.
Many folks do not know this, but it has been said that more wars have been fought over salt than over gold. For example:
• The early salt road via Solaria from Rosettia to Rome was constantly guarded by Roman soldiers who fought off marauders and hostile armies seeking salt.
• The Germans waged war for saline streams. In our own country, many of the Indian wars were fought over salt licks or salt springs; these were few and widely separated, and the Indians protected them at all costs.
• During the Civil War, one of the principal purposes of the Union campaign in Virginia was to capture a source of salt of the Confederacy at Saltville.
• The Northern army’s objective in Louisiana was to cut off another major source of salt supply from springs and deposits near New Orleans. The North’s success in this attempt materially helped to shorten the war.
• Salt in 1865 sold for up to a dollar a pound in the South.
• The importance of salt in ancient times is equally apparent.
After looking at some of the significance of all the salt God has placed on this earth, we can appreciate in a greater way that the Lord is saying to Christians, “Ye are the Salt of the Earth”.
Look at three important things in the Bible about salt and how it relates to Christians.
I. THE SALT
What makes salt so valuable? It is valuable because of what salt can be used for.
A. SALT PRESERVES
During the days of Christ, people did not have refrigeration as we have today. Salt was used to preserve meats and fish.
God has placed the church here on earth for a very specific purpose, TO PRESERVE the godly values that His Word teaches.
There are many evil people who, if they had their way, would like to have everything this Bible teaches wiped from the face of the earth. But if they did, they would not want to live in such a society.
God has used Christians down through the ages of time to PRESERVE CHRISTIAN VALUES. Christians truly are the SALT OF THE EARTH.
• Thank God for those Christians who will march and protest against abortion
• Thank God for Christians who will go to the voting polls and vote down the legalization of marijuana, gambling and etc.
• Thank God for Christians who will protest the movie theaters that show movies of violence and immoral sex
• Thank God for Christians who protest the promoting of homosexuality and immorality
• Thank God for Christians who protest same sex marriages
• Thank God for Christians who oppose the liberalism and modernism that is destroying many of the churches today
• Thank God for preachers who will still stand up and preach the Word of God without fear or favor, because they know God has placed them here to preserve the teachings of the Word of God
Salt is a PRESERVATIVE, and the Lord said to Christians, “Ye are the salt of the earth!” Salt not only PRESERVES, but also-
B. SALT PRODUCES
WHAT DOES IT PRODUCE? It produces a thirst!
• Many of us who were children in the 40’s and 50’s had to grow up with many difficulties
• We had no hot water in our homes and we had to take our bath in the creeks
• We had no televisions to watch
• Many did not have telephones
• We had no nice clothes, we wore hand-me-downs and when you were third or fourth down, there was not much left when it was handed down to you
But most of us who grew up during this time can remember riding around in the back seat of our parents old car, looking at all the nice automobiles, homes, and clothes, and we said to ourselves, “One of these days I am going to get me a nice car, a home and some nice clothes.” (Humor) And I am glad to tell you today that I am the first time owner of this suit I am wearing, this is no hand-me-down suit.
We who grew up in hard times, determined a long time ago that we wanted a better life. That is, we began to thirst for a better life.
And listen, I said all of that to say this, God wants Christians who are the SALT OF THE EARTH to produce a thirst in the world.
Illus: A man that operated a skating rink in Columbia, South Carolina, revealed his method of selling a lot of drinks. He said he would put a lot of salt in the popcorn, and one bag of salty popcorn would sell a half dozen drinks.
He knew that salt created thirst, and God wants every child of God to know that.
• The lost people should be able to see Christians working on their job with a joy that the world can not give to anyone, and they will say, “That’s what I want!”
Matthew 5:16 says, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
• Listen, many professing Christians do not understand why no one wants to come to church with them. It is because they hear all the gossip and complaining that they constantly do, and every time they invite them to church, they have these flashbacks and they say to themselves, “I do not want what they have, I am miserable enough already!”
They wonder why no one wants to accept the Savior that they profess to love. It is because of what people have seen and heard in the lives of some professing Christians.
God said “Ye are the salt of the earth”, and He wants you to go out there and create a thirst for serving Him, so that everyone will desire the things of God.
Salt PRESERVES , salt PRODUCES a thirst, and -
C. SALT PURIFIES
In James 4:8, we read, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.”
We have people who profess to be saved today who are walking around saying, “I do not know why God will not deliver these bad habits of sin from me. I pray all the time and it seems like it does not do any good.”
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? When God created you, He made you a free moral agent, that is, there are decisions and things you must do for yourself.
Listen, every parent here will help their child if they will help themselves. But there are some things we can not do for our children, and they have to be willing to do them for themselves. A parent that will continue to help a child that will turn around and make the same mistakes over again, is not helping them.
In the Book of James, we read that if as a Christian we want to live a purified life, we are to do two things:
• Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you
• Purify your hearts
If we will draw nigh to God, He certainly is there to help us, but the responsibility is in our laps.
• “Preacher, I can not do it!” You can do it, if you could not, God would not have commanded you to do it.
• “Preacher, how can I do it!” Keep drawing nigh to God, and you will soon discover you would rather please Him than the old flesh of sin.
This is why a person ought to attend a Bible-believing and Bible-preaching church. When they do this, they are drawing close to the Lord, and they will soon find out their desire to please Him becomes greater than their desire to please their sinful flesh.
The Lord said you are the SALT OF THE EARTH! WHY DID THE LORD SAY WE ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH?
Because of three reasons, salt PRESERVES, PRODUCES a thirst, and PURIFIES.
We have looked at THE SALT, now let’s look at-
II. THE SAVOUR
Look at Matthew 5:13 again, we read, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”
The SAVIOR had some interesting things to say about salt losing it savour. He tells us that salt can loose it savour and become good for nothing.
HOW DOES SALT LOSE IT’S SAVOUR? Salt loses its savour by becoming mixed with other elements (impurities).
Actually, we are told that salt never loses its flavor. For example, it can become rock hard, or it will become damp so that it won’t come out of the salt shaker unless you unscrew the top and pour it out. Even so, it tastes the same. It is still salt.
Look at James 1:27, we read, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
Only when our life is filled with Christ will we be effective.
Many Christians have conformed to the lost world so much, that you can not tell any difference between their life and the life of the lost.
• They read the same kind of reading materials
• They watch the same kind of movies
• They tell the same kind of jokes
• They wear the same kind of clothes
HOW DOES SALT LOSE IT SAVOUR?
One primary source of salt was the shore of the Dead Sea or the Salt Sea that is referred to many times in the Bible.
During Bible times not much was known about refining salt, as we do today. It was difficult to tell the difference between the salt and the sand on the shores of the sea, so this substance which they called salt was really a mixture, sometimes more sand than salt.
When it was more sand than salt, it had “lost its savour” and therefore was good for nothing but to be “cast out and trodden under the foot of man.”
It is easy to look like a Christian.
• We may go to church every Sunday
• We may talk about our church and how much it means to us
We may do all this and still be only sand. Salt, like Christianity is no good unless it is used. But once salt has been invaded by other things, it will lose it savour.
Conclusion:
The Lord says we are the “Salt of the earth”, we have looked at:
I. THE SALT
II. THE SAVOUR
True, our great God-given salt shaker will never become empty. But like the small table shaker, we must work to make it available and plentiful.
Every Christian here today is vital to the Lord’s work, God wants to use you in some way today! The Salt Institute lists over 14,000 uses of salt.
Illus: Long ago in a small town that sat at the base of a large mountain, the town fathers were meeting in council to discuss ways to cut expenses - in order to balance the budget. Someone in the crowd questioned a line item that read: "Keeper of the springs." No one seemed to know the reason for it - only that it had been a line item for many years. Finally, the one in charge of the water department shared that it was the salary of an older man who lived in the hills. His job was to clean out all the springs and all the creeks, which flowed into the mighty river that filled the reservoir from which they received the water for their town and for all in that region. They all laughed and said, "With all the modern chemicals and machinery we have available now, we can just eliminate that position." So they did. They were proud of themselves.
• During the first year, people began to notice that the water wasn't quite as sparkling as before, but sparkle wasn't all that important.
• During the second year, the people noticed that the water had changed color, and some even mentioned that there had been more sickness that year than in past years.
• During the third year, the pollution in the water was readily visible. Even with the modern purification process, the water in their reservoir simply was not clean.
That same year, an epidemic broke out in the village that cost many people their lives. Authorities and chemists were brought in to test the drinking water, and they discovered contamination.
When they traced the contamination back to its source, they discovered, at huge expense, that the water in the mountain had become polluted because no one had been routinely cleaning out the springs.
The world today is polluted with sin, and much of the blame for that can be placed at the feet of Christians who are here to be the SALT OF THE EARTH. ARE YOU SALTY?
