Ye Are The Salt Of The Earth And The Light Of The World

5-18-08 Salt of the Earth, Light of the world

Matt 5:1-13 (particularly verse 13)

Salt preserves

- salt keeps from spoiling

- salt also stings ***

- does our witness ever produce a sting?

- Similar to light, which invades darkness.

light never asks for permission to invade darkness

- salt does not ask for permission to invade the meat

- Put salt into an open cut

- First reaction, is an immediate ouch!

People need to be woke up

- people need to be spured

- people need to have their eyes opened

- The Lord told Paul. "I am sending you unto the Gentiles to open their eyes". (Pause and think on this sobering statement).

Ye are the salt of the earth!

- the world is in chaos

- the world is in a tail spin towards hell

- Gaping open, like an open wound

- the gap is exposed for more germs (sin) to penetrate

We should be so drastically different from the world

- different in mannerisms

- different is speech

- different in thoughts

- different in language

When we are introduced (through our witness) ,

- it should produce a sting

- it should put the brakes on, on indifference

- people should be uneasy around us,

- if we live uprightly, grounded in love.

what’s it like to eat food without salt?

- blah! tasteless! unappealing!

Christians are salt:

- illustrate: the same as a country ham is cured

- salt must be applied before things spoil/rot

- not just applied, but rubbed in.

- rub in some, and a few days or hours later, rub in some more

- not just rubbed in, but allowed to soak it up (from a salt pan)

- then hung up in a good warm breeze to cure for 3 months to a year

- then you can put it in the smoke house above some smoking sawdust

- and smoke it to your specific flavor

- however, if you forget the salt (firt step) your efforts are wasted.

Store a huge 25 pound ham in the smoke house

- and forget to salt it

- it will spoil in a very short time

- Lazarus stunk in only four days

- Mark 9:50 If the salt has lost its saltiness, how are we going to salt it?

- Luke 14:35 salt is good, but if the salt has lost its savor (saltiness)

- “how is it going to be seasoned/preserved?”

- “It’s not good for the land”,

- nor will it help to cast it into an outside *toilet (*see Luke 14:35) It doesn’t say toilet, but it does say dunghill.

- but men will cast it out (dispose of it, for it is rendered useless)

Teenagers often end up incarcerated

- because no preservative has been input into their lives.

- They went unchecked

- often undisciplined

- they end up grossly spoiled

- No godly influence has been added, in far too many cases.

what rots first in a young persons life?

- I got this input from a 16 year old grandson (Justin)

1.Hope: hoping for a chance

2.attitude: loss of respect:for others, just don’t care

3.teens ability to love others

4.their self respect, let their self go,

5.loose faith in everything, and in everybody

6.loose trust

- I took these notes after interviewing a good number of teens:

- some of your favorite complaints from teens that I hear as your chaplain:

- “I don’t trust anybody”,

- “I don’t believe anybody loves me”

- “the only one I love is my mother” (in most of your cases)

The Word of God teaches:

- “ye are the salt of the earth”.

- it does not say: You should get ready to be the salt of the earth

- so if they don’t get any salt, its because ours is mixed with impurities

- simply said: rendered useless/ruined

We are the salt.

- silently working (often unheard/unheeded,)

- someone falls under our influence

In todays critical times:

- there is a dire need, that someone is able to make a difference

Now illustrate: Compared to hams being cured

- millions of persons spoil (decay) while hanging out at the local market place

- While Christians debate, vote and meet at the local church building

- the world grows on a man, sin festers like a fungus

- the salt supply is urgently needed

- the fungus must be scrubbed off by the Christian sharing the cleansing blood of Christ

- many of your expensive Virginia Hams ara covered with fungus as they cure, and it must be scrubbed off before being served.

- the salt must be rubbed in

- we must rub sholders with the world (not be like them),but rub sholders.