The Salt Of The Earth

MATT.5:13 "THE SALT OF THE EARTH"

* You have had the experience, I’m sure, your dinner is set before you and you take that first

delicious bite, only to discover that the cook left out the salt.

* Or perhaps you’ve been a patient in the hospital and the Dr. ordered a salt-free diet.

* Or maybe you’ve been in jail and you’ve wondered if they even know what salt is!

A) Salt is such a little thing, such a common thing, that we take it for granted.

* But how big it becomes when it isn’t there!

B) Jesus looked at His disciples one day and said, "Ye are the salt of the earth."

* What did Jesus mean when He made that statement? * Three things:

(1) SALT HOLDS BACK DECAY! * There are two substances mentioned in the Bible that are

small, but are very important! * Salt and yeast or leaven.

* They picture opposite forces in the world. * Salt is an antiseptic; it holds back decay.

* Yeast is actually a mold and in the Bible it represents evil!

A) The O.T. Jews were instructed not to put yeast in their sacrifices because yeast symbolized sin!

* Salt pictured holiness; the power of righteousness to hold back decay!

B) Jesus calls His disciples the "salt of ..." * In other words, Christians are to the world what salt

is to food! * People in Bible times didn’t have refrigeration as we do today,

* So they seasoned their meat with salt to keep it from decaying!

* Jesus sees the world today as a rotting mass of sin and He has put Christians into this world

to help hold back decay.

C) I’d like to suggest today that we are suffering from a case of spiritual AIDS.

* AIDS is a breakdown of the immune system. * It’s where the immune system loses the ability

to fight back. * And so, bacterial viruses in the air that would normally not bother you,

* Or limitedly bother you; giving you a cold here and a sniffle there,

* Now becomes pneumonia, cancer or other disease because the immune system can’t fight back!

D) God has an immune system in society, it’s called the church, the people of God!

* We are the ones who God has placed in history to act as His divine repellent against the effects

of sin and unrighteousness in the world!

* That’s why when the church is raptured, all hell will break loose because there will be no restraint

in society; the people of God will not be present!

E) "Well Preacher, don’t you know the Bible says that men and seducers will wax worse & worse,

* and that this world is gonna explode with a loud noise?" * Right!

* "Then why should we spend our time polishing brass on a sinking ship?"

* The same reason you jog even though you know you’re gonna die!

F) The reality of death should produce better health care and better nutrition!

* You don’t say, "Because I’m gonna die, I wont take medicine or go to the Dr."

* Just because we know one day this world’s gonna die, doesn’t mean we become the passive

people of God and just sit on the sidelines and watch Satan do his thing! * "Ye are the salt ..."

G) Josh. 5 - "Who’s side are you on?" * That’s the agenda of God!

* Christians act as salt in society! * Society is not judged as it would be when their presence is

not being felt! * A good illustration of this is Sodom and Gomorrah.

* In Gen.18, Abraham ....... * 50 - 45 - 40 - 30 - 20 - 10. (Monty Hall - Let’s make a deal)

H) Sodom & Gomorrah wasn’t destroyed just because it was full of immorality & homosexuality!

* It was destroyed because Abraham couldn’t find ten!

* They did have a good man in town named Lot! * Lot was a righteous guy (2 Pt.2:6-8),

* But his righteous soul was vexed with the unrighteousness of Sodom & Gomorrah,

* So much as he didn’t even win his own family! * His two son-n-laws laughed when he told them

to get out of Dodge; * His wife & two daughters left, but on their way out,

* His wife remembered that she left her visa card, belk card, JC Penny card, and looked back and

turned into a pillar of salt. * His two daughters had sex with their father,

* And had Lot won his family - 2 daughters, 2 son-n-laws, his wife & himself, that’d been 6;

* If each one of them won one, that’d been 12, then Abraham would’ve found ten,