Don’t Lose Your Saltiness
Luke 14:28-35
28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?
29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him,
30 saying, ’This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’
31 "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.
33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
34 "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?
35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
JESUS HAS SPENT THE NIGHT IN PRAYER. Coming down from the mountain early in the morning, He chooses the 12 and takes them back up into the mountain where He delivers the Sermon on the Mount. From this vantage point, overlooking the Sea of Galilee, He and the disciples have a ringside observation seat.
The fishermen have spent the night fishing. Now they’re docking their boats and crating their fish. Since there is no refrigeration, the fish are packed in layers of salt. On board each ship is a salt barrel. As the disciples glance down at the ships, they see a familiar sight. A husky fisherman plunges his hand into a salt barrel, draws out a heaping handful of salt, and throws it into an empty crate. Then he carefully lays a layer of fish on the salt and continues to alternately lyer and fish until the crate is full.
Perhaps Jesus looks away for an instant to this sight and then turns to His disciples with these words: “You are the salt of the earth” (Matt.5:13).
Out of this verse and the corresponding one in Luke 14 come some powerful spirituals truths.
1. The Timeless Teachings of Christ
❏ The fact that Jesus spoke of salt is an illustration of His timelessness. In the average gallon of sea water, there is 1/4 pound of salt. One statistician figured that all of the world’s oceans would yield enough salt to build a wall 180 miles high and one mile thick which would be long enough to reach around the world at the Equator.
❏ The world changes; the teachings of Jesus are changeless. More scientific discoveries have been made in the last 50 years than in the previous 5,000. But the teachings of Jesus have never vhanged. They are as timeless as salt.
2. A Rotten World
Just as fish need salt to keep them from rotting, this world needs the salty influence of Christians to keep it from rotting.
3. The Christian’s Place of Influence
❏ Salt is salt because it is different. When asked what salt tastes like, one can only answer, “It tastes like salt!” It is unique. The influence of the Christian must remain a unique force in the world.
The story is told of a TV repairman who didn’t like ti think aboout his job when he came home. So he never bothered to properly install the antenna on he top of his house or fix it when one arm broke in a windstorm. One day a new family moved in next door and the owner went up on his roof to install an antenna. Knowing that his neighbor was a TV repairman, he put his up exactly the same way and turned his attena to face in the same direction as his neighbor’s. Then after studying his neighbor’s antenna for a while, he reached up and broke one arm off his new antenna!
❏ Salt is pure...one of the purest elements known to man.
❏ There is no substitute for salt. If it loses its ability to salt, nothing can take its place. No one can take the place of the witnessing Christian whose life always corresponds to his lips.
❏ Salt can be useless. When dirt got mixed with salt, the precious salt was treated like dirt; it was thrown upon the slippery paths around the city.
In Jesus’ time there was a high tax on salt. This led to varying degrees of adulterating salt with sand mixture. If there was too much sand, it was useless and discarded on the streets. The saddest sight on earth is a believer who has lost his influence for Christ. He is like precious salt being treated like common dirt.
DON’T LOSE YOUR SALTINESS!
Saltiness: flat, flavorless, insipid, tasteless.
In Palestine, a the time Luke wrote these words, salt had several uses:
1. Preservative. The Greeks used to say that salt could put a new soul into dead things. It kept things fresh. Without salt, things went bad.
❏ The Holy Spirit acts like salt to the believer.
❏ The believer acts like salt to his family, friends, and the church.
❏ The church acts like salt to the world.
2. Flavoring. Brings out the best. It is the hope, joy, confidence, enthusiasm within. The Englishman who invented the potato chip sold only a few packages a week until he thought of putting salt on them. After that his business boomed.
3. Fertilizer. Salt was used to make it easier for all good things to grow.
4. Religious Rituals. Sacrifices and offerings were salted and thus spoke of purity. Because it was so expensive, it added to the concept of sacrifice.
OBSERVATIONS RE: SALT
1. Salt is useless unless it is scattered. If left in a container for very long, it will draw dampness and harden.
2. A little salt goes a long way...not unlike leaven; all that is needed is a “pinch.”
3. Salt never calls attention to itself, except when it is in the wrong place, e.g. ice cream.
4. Salt is composed of two poisons, sodium and chloride, which are poisonous when taken separately. But joined together, they form something beneficial–like you and God! Mankind is poisoned by many sins, but the Holy Spirit is able to transform our character.
5. Salt grains are composed of many different sizes and shapes. But when placed together, who can tell?
DON’T LOSE YOUR SALTINESS!
Illus.: “Born Drunk”
Son of a prostitute who was drunk when he was born. Given the name "Born Drunk." His friend Jim was converted and Born Drunk watched him until one day he told a friend, “I want to be like Jim.”
Don’t lose your slatiness! You can be a Jim!
