Sermon Cloud

 

We as Christians are in the world “but not of the world.”

We are redeemed from sin, new creations in Christ, justified, adopted children of God, citizens of a different kingdom, but, have you ever thought of this: “Why am I still here?” Almost everything that defines you as a Christian you can do better in heaven (worship, love, wont’ sin!).

Christians are in the world for one primary purpose: to be witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The church is God’s witness to a decaying and dark world. Jesus will picture this relationship with the world is illustrated with two metaphors: salt and light. These metaphors speak of her dual roles as preserver and proclaimer. We are going to take the first of these this morning and look at the Church’s role of preservation in a decaying world.

 

READ: Matthew 5:10-16.

 

I started in verse 10 so you could catch the stark contrast to the previous section (10-12). He just finished telling the disciples that they would be persecuted by the world, by the falsely religious; now He is telling them they are to be salt and light to the same!

The connection: the same world that persecutes you is the same world in which you are called to be a witness & to be used by God to preserve it and dispel its darkness through holy lives & the proclamation of Jesus Christ.

 

I. The Church’s Witness as Preserver.

“You are the salt of the earth”

 

(A) The Nature of the Church: Preserver

Simple statement of fact. The “you” is the same “you” as in 10-12; those who manifest the reality of their citizenship in the Kingdom of heaven; those whose lives exhibit the character of the beatitudes. He is speaking to the disciples, but beyond them to all who are true citizens of the kingdom.

“You” is emphatic: “you yourselves are …” or, “You alone …” not anyone else. “you are” - it is what the church is by its very nature. (He does not say, “Try to become,” “Your will be,” “You should be,” or even “You be;” but “You, and you alone, are”). The church is the salt, like or not, recognize it or not, God has designed it that way.

Christians are “in the world, but not of the world.” We are a people called out of darkness into His marvelous light; a kingdom of priest; a holy nation. This refutes isolationism, monasticism.

We, as Christians are not to run and hide in Christian enclaves and communes; we are not to isolate ourselves from the world but to engage the world with the truth and lives transformed by the gospel. Scripture assumes that we will be interacting with the world (1 Cor. 5:11).

 

(B) The Priority of Holiness.

Trans: The Lord is using a figure of speech known as a metaphor (using one thing to represent another; “simile” would use “like,” or “as”).

“You are …”

1: Understanding the Metaphor.

 

Jesus is speaking to a 1st century, primarily Jewish audience:

(1) Used in Scripture in a variety of ways:

Practically:

Job 6:6 “Can something tasteless be eaten without salt, or is there any taste int eh whit of an egg?”- condiment for food to improve its taste.

Ezek. 16:4 - rubbed on newborn babies as a sort of antiseptic.

(Deut. 29:23; Ps. 107:34) - also had, at times, the picture of destruction, desolation, sterility; though this is a much more rare usage.

Religiously:

Lev. 2:13 - salt accompanied sacrifices as a means of symbolizing permanence & purity (2 Chr. 13:5 [Abijah, Rehoboam’s successor, to Jeroboam] Do you not know that the LORD God of Israel gave the rule over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt?”).

Ex. 30:35 “With it you shall make incense, a perfume, the work of a perfumer, salted, pure, holy” - a preservative - purity & holiness

Symbolically:

Numb. 18:19 - “covenant of salt” pictured binding faithfulness, longevity, and permanence.

2 Kings 2:19-22 - Elisha, under God’s direction, employed salt to purify putrid waters.

(2) Each of these aspects has been used to illustrate the nature of the church: (a) Adds savor to life (b) Stings the wound of sin.

However,The most common use of salt (and the purpose of the metaphor) is salt as a preserver; (no refrigeration) used to slow the decay of meat.

 

“Salt of the earth” - Jesus applies this nature, application of salt, to the church’s influence of function on the earth.

So, this is the meaning of the metaphor: As salt put on meat slows its decay, so the church, as God’s people, are salt on the earth to slow its decay.

God has a global view here: not simply “of Israel” “of Palestine” “of Egypt,” but “of the earth.”

 

2: Implications of the Metaphor.

(a) The earth is in a state of decaying.

 

Sin is an undeniable reality of our human condition; we are by nature not good but evil - this is just a given (7:11 “if you being evil …”).

The world is spiritually dead and darkened by sin and on a constant downward spiral. The ridiculousness of the worldly philosophy, or of liberal Christianity that we are basically good and we only need the knowledge and the right influences to better the world, are absurd. We have more knowledge than ever and the world is as corrupt as ever.

We are only in chapter 4 of Genesis, 1 chapter after the Fall, when sin entered into the world, and we have: jealousy, envy, hatred, hypocrisy, murder in Cain; a few verses later we have outright arrogance and blasphemy in the Lamech: “Give heed to my speech, for I have killed a man for wounding me; and a boy for striking me; if Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy seven fold.”

By chapter 6:5 “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually … I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land … God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth … the end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth” it is so bad that God literally has to destroy the entire earth and all her inhabitants, save 8, with the flood.

Do we get that? We are so used to the cute little Noah’s Ark paintings and children’s stories that we forget the true horror of the situation; and that the flood was as much about God’s judgement of man’s rebellion as it was the salvation of Noah and his family.

It was so bad that we are only at chapter 6 and we have every manner of sin and rebellion to such a degree that God has to literally execute millions, if not billions, and immediately populate hell with those created in His image.

Even after the flood it doesn’t get any better; by chapter 11 we have all man mounting in their rebellion against God. Because the issue is the corruption of the human heart.

 

Rom. 5:12 “through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, so death death spread to all men, because all sinned.”

 

Ps. 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me”

 

From the very point of conception we are sinners: Sinners are what we are by nature: this is why we commit acts of sin.

This is who we are: left to ourselves we would destroy each other and be destroyed. But God, in His grace, as always been active among men to redeem for Himself a people to know Him and counter affects of sin.

Gen. 4:26 *Seth “Men began to call upon the Name of the LORD.”

5:24 “Enoch walked with God”

6:8 “Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD”

12:1-3 God called out Abraham.

 

(b) The Presence of God’s people slows the process of decay.

 

As salt was sprinkled on meat to preserve it, so the church is on the earth to act as a preservative and restraint of the wickedness of men.

Now, some have seen this as referring to the fact that God will not destroy the earth as long as His people are on the earth. In support of this Gen. 18:23 is cited, in which the presence of a mere 10 righteous men would have spared the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

It is true that the presence of the church in the world holds back God’s hand of judgment, and once God’s work of redemption is finished among men, when all the elect are in, He will again destroy the world - this time utterly; and all the wicked in it - eternally.

 

2 Pet. 3:5-10 “the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water … by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept of the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men … the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up … the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!”

 

Rev. 20:11-15 “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them … and every one of them was judged according to their deeds … then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.”

 

So, there is truth to that position; however, that is not the Lord’s primary meaning here: He is not talking about whether the salt is present or not present & its affect on the earth. This is also shown by the following contrast: but when the salt itself looses its saltiness.

His point is not with the judgement of the world but with the effectiveness of His people; with the effectiveness that comes from the influence of a transformed people on the world.

 

3: Applying the Metaphor.

 

(c) KEY: Transformed, Godly Character.

The church is “salt” as she manifest the character of the kingdom; particularly the beatitudes attitude. It is a life of righteousness, of commitment to Christ.

(1) Mark 9:50 “Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

The goodness of the “salt” and saltiness is something to be evident in the disciples and is to have the outcome of producing peace.

The implication of “salt” appears to be heart purity; holiness; godly character produced by the Word.

(2) Col. 4:6 “Let your speech be with grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person”

“Salt” here is gracious speech. Speech marked with the wisdom and flavor of humility, of speaking the truth in love, in correcting with gentleness. It is speech that reflects a transformed heart.

Let me note a couple of examples of the power of a godly life:

One author noted a striking illustration from Greek mythology in which

 

“A goddess who came to earth unseen but whose presence ws always known by the blessings she left behind in her pathway. Trees burned by forest fires sprouted new leaves, and violets sprang up in her footprints, As she passed a stagnant pool its water became fresh, and parched fields turned green as she walked through them. Hills and valleys blossomed with new life and beauty wherever she went. Another Greek story tells of a princess sent as present to a king. She was as beautiful as Aphrodite and her breath was as sweet as perfume. But she carried with her the contagion of death and decay. From infancy she had fed on nothing but poison and became so permeated with it that she poisoned the very atmosphere around her. Her breath would kill a swarm of insects; she would pick a flower and it would wither. A bird flying too close would fall dead at her feet.” (MacArthur)

 

(1) Joshua (Judges 2:6f).

(2) Jehoiada (2 Chr. 24:2, 15-19).

A composite picture of the Lord’s use of “salt” would be that of godly character, faith marked by self-denying repentance, and graciousness. It is this kind of life, this kind of character and obedience to the truth, a character that reflects the inward reality set forth in the beatitudes, that makes the church and each individual a purifying, or preserving agent in the midst of a fallen world.

As you and I, as members of the church, are more and more conformed to the image of Christ, our lives more and more controlled an submitted to the word of God, our affections more and more toward things eternal an not of this world, our live manifesting the fruit of the Spirit, as we manifest our true nature and so act as salt, we are God’s agents by which the decay of the world is retarded.

Do you have this kind of affect on others? Do people feel any compunction to watch their language, feel convicted over gossip, not discuss immorality, compelled to speak the truth.

 

(2) Preservation through Godly Distinctiveness.

“But if the salt has become tasteless, with what will it be made salty again?”

 

1: Understanding the Metaphor.

“Salt becomes tasteless,” sodium chloride is one of the most stable chemical compounds and thus in its purest form is practically impervious to decay. However, when mixed with other impurities it becomes stale and looses its saltiness. Therefore, it retains its appearance but looses its inherent properties.

This kind of salt can be found in abundance along the shores of the Dead Sea, where the salt from the Sea mixes with a substance known as gypsum, which then makes it stale and useless for its normal functions.

“With what will it be made salty?” The Lord does not answer the question, because it is obvious: Nothing. It is impossible - “It is good for nothing, but to be thrown outside and trampled underfoot by men”

No longer able to perform the function for which it is intended, it is discarded as worthless, good only for the most menial of tasks.

Several parallels have been made regarding being “Thrown outside and trampled underfoot my men” - the two most likely pictures to come to mind were:

(1) Salt sprinkled on the roof of houses to help harden the soil and prevent leaks. These roofs were also played on by children and even adults often spent time on them (cf. Acts 10:9).

(2) Salt sprinkled on the floor of the temple area:

 

“When salt was collected from the Dead Sea area, some of it was good for salting and cooking, but other salt has lost its saltiness. This salt was not thrown away, however. It was stored in the Jerusalem Temple, and when the winter rains made the marble courtyards slippery, it was spread on them to reduce the slipperiness. Hence salt that has lost its saltiness is trodden under foot of men.” (Gower).

 

The point is simply this: salt without saltiness is useless for its intended purposes and so is discarded.

 

Trans: Now let’s look at this a bit more closely and understand what He is saying:

 

2: Implications of the Metaphor.

 

“But if the salt has become tasteless”

The term the Lord uses is mwrai,nw. The base meaning is “foolish, nonsense.”

Remember, the Lord is speaking about those identified with the Kingdom. So, He is saying those who are in the Kingdom, who manifest the kingdom character as found in the beatitudes (and the Sermon), that is the character of the truly repentant and born again, are salt; those who should be salt because of their identification with the kingdom, but do not have the Kingdom character: manifest the beatitude attitude of repentance, are saltless. Or, “foolish,” living a life of “nonsense.”

Now it is not possible that He could be referring to a genuine believer, because He would in fact be saying that they are beyond repentance, but that describes and unbeliever.

Matthew 24 plays a role here also. The church will cease to be salt and apostatize, this will be a reason for God’s judgement upon the earth (cf. 2 Thess. “did not love the truth”).

To get a feel for this lets look at the 3 other uses of the term in Scripture:

 

Rom. 1:22 “Professing to be wise, they became fools”

 

1 Cor. 1:20 “Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe: Where is the debater of this age? has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”

 

In both cases it is used of those who profess to be wise in their spiritual knowledge but are in fact fools before God, fools who are self-deceived.

If the wisdom of the world is defined as moronic, useless, nonsense, foolishness; then the more the church looks like the world the more she herself will begin to bear those some marks (Ps. 115 - we become like what we worship).

However, the clearest and most direct parallel is found in Lk. 14:34 [turn to ]

 

Luke 14:34 “Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

 

Context is the call and cost of discipleship. Note the “therefore,” He is applying what was just said) following Christ is a forsaking of all other allegiances and submitting to His authority/lordship.

The tastelessness of the salt, then, would be the one who would profess allegiance to Christ, yet not be willing to give up all to follow Him; to abandon all other allegiances. He is saying that this faith, this superficial commitment is not better than salt that has lost it useful properties: it is no good (hint of James 2:14f). It is a faith that will fail because it has no deep root (Matt. 13).

What would constitute tasteless salt? Impurity, hypocrisy; basically sin and empty religion, which He will deal with later. Religion without repentance. A religion with out holiness, without godly character, without a clear picture of God, the gospel, Jesus Christ, and the nature of salvation.

 

“But to be trampled underfoot by men”

Good for nothing, there is not other option but to discard it.

This phrase is used several other times in Scripture:

7:6 (13:58) - speaks of how the ungodly repudiate and treat as unholy what is holy, as unclean what is clean, as worthless what is precious in their rejection of the gospel.

Luke 8:6 uses this phrase to speak of the seed that fell by the roadside that travelers simply stepped on a ground into the dirt without even taking notice. Has the idea of being viewed as worthlessness, insignificance, unproductive.

Heb. 10:29 “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace.”

In this context, it is those who have tasted of the gospel, but rejected it for the false system of works, and are therefore now being primed for judgement.

What is He referring to by this statement in Matthew 5:13? He is referring to those who are attached to the kingdom in some way, but fail to every manifest the character of the kingdom, are useless God and will be rejected.

2 Tim. 3:5 “form of godliness, but denying its power” - this was the very problem He was addressing with this audience: “Unless your righteousness surpasses …” “The one who hears but does not obey … a fool”

An application here to the church is this: a false gospel that does not call one to count the cost of following Christ, sets one up for failure and robs the individual and the church of their saltiness. In primes her for apostasy.

How do we not be salt: fail to preach the gospel; fail to proclaim that true faith involves repentance; present a God who does not confront our sin; who makes us feel comfortable no matter what lack of commitment we see; produce a church without saltiness. The more like the world we are the less effective we will be as Christians. One author noted:

 

“Like any service provider, the church needs to figure out what business it’s in, says Barna. ‘Ours is not the business of organized religion, corporate worship, or Bible teaching. If we dedicate ourselves to such a business we will be left by the wayside as the culture moves forward. THose are fragments of a larger purpose to which we have been called by God’s Word. We are in the business of life transformation.”

 

3: Application of the Metaphor.

 

The compromised church, compromised Christian, and false Christian are useless to the purposes of God.

To be salt the church must confront sin and pursue holiness. (2 Cor. 2; Matt. 18; Acts 5; Lev. 10).

When Israel was influenced by hypocrisy, religious syncretism, she failed to be the influence of godliness and God judged her because she defiled the land (*Jer. 2:7; 3:1-5; 4:27; 12:11; 27:11; cf. 2 Cor. 6 “darkness … light”).

In this case, Israel was “trampled under foot by men” because she had lost her saltiness by abandoned her faithfulness and commitment to the Lord and His word.

God will judge the church who has lost it’s influence.

The Lord does not answer that question here, to the question, “How will it be made salty again?” But His message to the churches in Revelation provide an appropriate response: Repent and pursue truth and the love of Christ. (Rev. 2:14-16, 20-22; 3:1-415-18).

Churches that were marked by spiritual apostasy, lack of love, and lukewarmness are objects of God’s judgement.

 

The Encouragement: Pursue these things. If there has been compromise for a true Christian, call is repent; return to the Lord and He will abundantly pardon. He will forgive and restore you to fellowship and usefulness.

The Warning: If you fail to manifest Kingdom character and are so affected with false teaching and impurities and hypocrisy that you have no useful purpose in the kingdom of heaven, beware; you could be under judgement.

So the Lord’s point is to be warned, but even more to be encouraged to pursue the calling with which we have been called, pursue holiness, faithfulness, love, and sanctification. Understand that our relationship to the World is known by our distinctiveness as followers of Christ.

 

May God use you and me and this church to be salt and light.