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Our gospel reading today is from Matthew chapter 5 verses 13 through 16 and this is God's word. You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? Is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand. It gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. My original intention was to talk about salt and light, but as I progressed in the writing of the sermon, I realized that I may not have time for light. So we will get as far as we can. I'll talk about salt today. If we don't have time for light, we'll talk about that next week. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this word. Pray that you would open our hearts and make us desirous to be salt and light in the world. In Jesus' name, Amen. You've probably heard people say things like, usually after a break from work, they'll say, well, it's back to the salt mines. It's an indication that their work, whatever it is, is to them drudgery. Well, I had an uncle, Ellis, when he said back to the salt mines, he meant it literally, because he worked in the salt mines under the city of Detroit for a few years. The salt mines are 340 meters under the city. But the biggest salt mine it's set is in Canada, and that's under Lake Huron in Ontario. It's the largest underground salt mine in the world, and it's 550 meters below the ground. Now, salt is used for a lot of things, many things, including application to icy roads in the winter, which is the primary use of the salt from the Detroit and Ontario mines, although that's sort of falling into disfavor with environmentalists, because salt is not good for the water and some of the plants. I've seen people who love nature put blocks of salt on their property called salt licks so that animals like deer will come around because they need salt. And they provide it that way. I think it's actually illegal to put out a salt lick and then hunt the animals that come around. But if you like seeing them, then you can do that, although in our house we see them regularly because our neighbor feeds them. But salt is used for other things, too. It's a preservative. Before refrigeration in places where there was no cold weather or ice, like Israel in the first century at the time that Jesus was speaking, salt was applied to meat and fish to preserve it and slow the decay long enough for it to be consumed. Because if you were hunting or you had a cow or a sheep or a goat and you slaughtered it, the meat would go bad pretty quickly unless it was salted. So salt was rubbed into the meat to preserve it for longer. I don't know if any of you have ever had salted cod, but we had some recently. It's not that good. So when Jesus said, you were the salt of the earth, this is one of the senses that he meant. The only way to preserve things such as meat was by rubbing them with salt. The salt would prevent the decay in a very real sense. That is what the church is supposed to do collectively and what we are supposed to do individually. And how do we preserve things? Well, the reality is wherever Christianity has gained ascendancy throughout the world, life is better. Even in many places where mostly it's been left behind. The givens in the culture, which are still Christian, hold. In other words, a country like Canada, who was once considered a Christian country, has all kinds of things that are just givens. The things by which we operate. And people might want to give credit to the Enlightenment, or they might want to give credit to the Greeks and the Romans. But that's not where any of it came from. Tom Holland in his book Dominion, How the Christian Revolution Changed the World, shows over and over again that many Christian ideas would be considered foolish to the Greeks and the Romans. And the Enlightenment tried to repudiate many of them, but they didn't even know it, that they were operating on Christian ideas. The most beneficial institutions in our society find roots in the influence of Jesus Christ. Early Christians founded the first hospitals. Early Christians founded the first orphanages. And they established the first feeding programs, which combated the prevailing view at the time. Now, when you think about this, this is not how we think at all, even if we're not Christian. The prevailing view at the time, would it be better to just let the sick and the poor and the orphans die, because their life wasn't very good anyway. So just let them die. And that would be very close to Charles Dickens' Scrooge before his Enlightenment. Tom Holland in his book says this, I'm going to read a quote from... He says, Assumption that I had grown up with about how a society should properly be organized and the principles it should uphold, were not of classical antiquity. He loved that. He loved the Greeks and the Romans at one time. Still less of human nature, but very distinctly that of civilization's Christian past. So profound has been the impact of Christianity on the development of Western civilization that it has come to be hidden from view. It is the incomplete revolutions that are remembered, the fate of those which triumph is to be taken for granted. He says the ambition of his book Dominion is to trace the course of what one Christian writing in the third century A.D. termed the flood tide of Christ. How the belief that the Son of God of the Jews had been tortured to death on a cross came to be so enduringly and widely held that today most of the West are dulled to just how scandalous it originally was. Christianity is so subversive and disruptive it completely came to saturate the mindset of Latin Christendom. By Latin he means Western. And why in a West that is often doubtful of religious claims so many of its instincts for good and ill are thoroughly Christian? It is, to coin a phrase, the greatest story ever told. This is from a secular writer who at one time went to church with his parents and then became a historian and by his own admission probably an atheist and then he began to look at the history of Christianity and he came to these conclusions. Just think what it meant to those disciples to be called the preservers of the world. Those 12 men and the few that followed them, you are the salt of the earth. Because you believe in me and follow me and live and will live by faith in me, you will through me save the world from decay, from sin and from destruction. It is quite a load to bear if you are a first century fisherman or a first century tax collector as Matthew, the writer of this Gospel was. But that is what they were called to do. And that is why the entire world, the Western world anyway, whether they believe or not operate on Christian principles, Tom Holland elsewhere says that virtually all of the principles in the West can be found originally in the writings of Paul. So salt is a preservative and if we are salt of the world we preserve the rest of the world from ultimate destruction at least for a time. But there is something else that salt does. Salt flavors things. Brings out the good flavor of things as well as imparting some of its own flavor to the thing that it is salting. Colossians 4 we read, walking wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the time, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. The idea is that by applying salt to food it makes it tastier. But of course if you put too much salt on it it can ruin it as well. But think of the kind of person that Jesus is describing in the Beatitudes just before he tells them to be salt of the earth and light of the world. He says that a Christian is poor in spirit realizing their shortcomings, realizing that they are not in and of themselves capable of coming to Christ. But they are sinful. So they mourn for their sin. They are meek. Which doesn't mean weak, it means gentle in their speech and actions. See a person who is weak isn't meek. A weak person is just weak. A strong person who is gentle is meek. So a person who is poor in spirit, mourns for their sin, is meek, gentle in their speech and actions. They hunger and thirst for righteousness. That is to say they hunger and thirst for Jesus because he is the righteous one. And because they have received mercy from Jesus in the Gospel, they are merciful to others as well. That is one of the things that is so different between Christianity originally and the rest of the world. In the Greek and Roman times strength, physical power was the thing. It would have been ridiculous to say that somebody who is weak, somebody who is infirm had as much rights as a strong person. But because you have received mercy, you can see everybody in the light of God's mercy and extend it to them. A Christian is pure in heart. In other words, they have no ulterior motives other than to help the people that they are trying to help. You see, if I am helping somebody because I believe that God will shine his face on me, that he will approve of me, that he will credit me, that he will reward me because I am being kind, that I am not doing it for that person. I am doing it for myself. Because ultimately the being kind is a means to another end which is to be rewarded. But if you already know that you are a believer, that Christ has paid for your sin, as we read in 1 John 2, that he is the propitiation for our sins, that he has taken the wrath of God on himself, that he has paid for all of our sin, and we know that he approves of us already, that we stand righteous before him because we have the righteousness of Christ. If we know all of that, then we can minister to, be kind to, reach out to other people without the motive of wanting credit. Because you are pure in heart, you are a peacemaker. We bring people together who are in conflict with each other, but mostly a peacemaker brings people who are at enmity with God, that's how we are all born, by telling them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. See a person who is a peacemaker knows that the ultimate peace that needs to be made is to reconcile God through Christ to us, and us through Christ to God. So these are the people then, that Jesus turns to and says, you are the salt of the earth. This is the kind of person, a Christian, a believer in the Gospel, who can season any situation therein. Now to do this, salt has to be different substance than the thing it is adding flavor to. So Christians have to be in the world, in every area wherever they go, preserving it and seizing it. In other words, the idea of pulling out of all of the world's institutions is not Christian. We should be in the government, we should be in education, we should be in politics, we should be in every area of life so that we can be seasoning. That doesn't mean our ideas are always going to win, but we should season them. And the idea of withholding and just being together all the time is not seasoning. It will involve speaking to others about Christ. And even if you are the person describing the Beatitudes, you may, you probably will suffer some kind of persecution if you do this. But Jesus said, if the salt loses its saltiness, how shall it be made salty? It is from then on good for nothing, but to be thrown out and to be trampled underfoot by men. Now this is a perplexing statement because salt doesn't decay. Salt doesn't lose its saltiness. It doesn't lose what it is. So how is it not salty? It's not salty when it stays in the container. Salt is only valuable, it is only good when it is applied to something else. So the salt doesn't stop the icy road from being icy unless it is put on the road. The salt doesn't give the deer or whatever animal that needs the salt unless it's put out so that they can get it. Salt doesn't preserve the meat or the fish unless it's applied. Salt doesn't preserve the meat unless it's applied. Salt doesn't preserve the culture unless it's applied. So the way a person or a church loses its saltiness is by never applying it to others. You see if you're the kind of person that keeps the gospel to yourself, you've lost your saltiness. If we're the kind of church that keeps the gospel to ourselves, we don't have any saltiness. We can have all the right doctrine, we can have the beautiful music which we do. We can have all of that, but if we don't take the gospel to people who do not hear it or have not heard it, if we don't involve ourselves in the things in our culture, then as a church and as individuals we've lost our saltiness. You see the first mistake is to become a subculture where we only talk to each other. But Paul writes to the Corinthians, he says, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the sexually immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. He was talking about a sexually immoral person who was in the church. He says don't be conformed to the world but be transformed. This is Romans 12, by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Now what's interesting is the culture in Corinth was not that much different than ours. Metropolitan, by comparison wealthy, immoral, anything goes and yet Paul does not tell the church to disassociate from all sinners. Christians are to be a preserving influence and a decaying situation. But to do that you have to engage with the world around you. Like salt from the salt shaker we are to be scattered over the world not together in a clump salting each other. In the early church God accomplished this through persecution. In the book of Acts it says there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. They were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church and entering house to house he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Now those, listen to this, these people were running for their lives. Those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them Christ. So it's not a coincidence that just before Jesus says you're salt of the earth and you're light of the world. He says blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. And then he says you are salt of the earth. Do you have to be persecuted to be salt? I hope not. I hope not. But I think each and every one of us should commit today that we're going to tell one person about the gospel this week. It's not beyond you. If you're a believer, you have the Holy Spirit. He will give you the words to say. That's the way you're salty. Now there's another mistake that we make, which is the opposite of the previous one before we would stay together and separate from the world. But then we are having no preserving effect. Now the mistake would be to become so much like the world that we had no flavor to it. In other words, if you're the same, which is a mistake, frankly, I think that that many churches over the last 30 years have made. They try to be so much like the culture to attract the culture. They're no different than the culture they have nothing to offer. Do not be unequally yoked. Paul writes in Second Corinthians. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? What fellowship has lightness with dark? What accord has Christ with Belial? For what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. God says, I will make my dwelling among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing and I will welcome you and I will be a father to you. You shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord, Almighty. That's what we're doing here. We're coming apart. We're being together as believers so that we can go out and be salt in the world. But this seems to be a popular choice among many professing Christians to take on the attitudes of the unbelieving world and engage in much of their language and behaviors all while justifying it as a way to influence them for Christ. The problem here is that when we do that, we have nothing to offer. We don't season. There's no different flavor. We've lost our saltiness. So if we do, so when we do, if we do get around to witnessing to somebody, it has very little impact. They can look at us and say, you're no different. Martin Lloyd-Jones makes the point that without flavor, life is insipid. There used to be a commercial, maybe you've seen it in the last couple of years, that the man says, I can't taste my beer. Many unbelievers go from amusement to amusement because they can't taste my life. Lacking significance or impact is what insipid means. The Christian conversely has flavor or as Lloyd-Jones put it, savor. Because as Christians, we know that significance and impact of everything and everyone is eternal. We shouldn't have to jump from amusement to amusement in order to feel alive. And that's what's different about us, or at least should be. If we are marked out as men and women and children who have fully tasted and seen that the Lord is good through the gospel, then we are those people described in the Beatitudes and we have flavor and we can season. The last thing about salt that I'm going to talk about is that salt causes thirst. Jesus said on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me. Whoever believes in me as the Scriptures has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified. So if you're a believer, as I'm guessing virtually everybody here would say that they are, if you're a believer whose life is described in the Beatitudes, it's because you are indwelt by the Spirit of the living God. And so when you are scattered throughout the community, you should cause a thirst for Christ. Salt doesn't thirst for salt. It causes a thirst for water or soda or beer or tea or wine, something to quench the thirst. If we are salty, we cause a thirst for Christ. There's another metaphor that Paul uses in 2 Corinthians 2. He says we're in a Roman, a fragrance for Christ. Verse 14, But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. You have to ask yourself, are you spreading the aroma of Christ? Are you spreading the fragrance of Christ? Because he says, for we are in a realm of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To one, a fragrance from death to death and to the other, a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? You see, if we take it upon ourselves to do what God has called us to do, to be salt and light, that doesn't guarantee that people are going to respond. It doesn't. You might experience some rejection, which you would, in some cases, call persecution. That's okay. It's worth it. You might be saying, okay, what if I'm not this person? Jesus says salt is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet if it loses its saltiness. And the only way you lose your saltiness is to stay in the container. This is not a choice whether to be salty or not. It is a description of who we are if we are believers. And if it does not describe us, then we have to ask ourselves, are we really believers? Because some of us have clumped together and I'm afraid have become useless. Remaining in the container, adding no flavor, preserving no decay. Some of us, and I'm not pointing to anybody in particular, have become so like the world we've lost our flavor. In that case, what is the answer? Well, you have to consider, maybe I'm not a Christian. On the last great day of the feast, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. So if this describes you, if this describes you that you are a believer, rejoice and be salty. If it doesn't describe you, then repent. Repent of your insipidness, repent of trying to quench your own thirst. Come to Christ and you will come alive. If you believe yourself to be a Christian and you're not doing these things, the answer is still repent. Turn from your sin of self-congratulation, of cowardice, really, and turn to Christ, who fills you with His Spirit and makes you able to be salty and light everywhere you go. Next week we'll talk about Jesus saying, I am the light of the world. And Paul writing, the light of the glory of gospel. And again, shine is lights in the world. You see, he gave two illustrations. He said, lights of a city. Here, I'm going to read it again. You are a light of the world, a city on a hill cannot be hidden. So that's the first metaphor. And to be a city, you have to be with other people. You have to be with other people who shine forth. We'll talk about that more next week. Nor do people, individuals, light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand gives light to all in the house. So there are both of those. Both as a community and as individuals, we are to let our light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Let's pray together. Father, thank You for Your Word. We ask that You would apply it to our hearts. And make us brave and dependance upon Your Holy Spirit so that we can be salt and light in the world. Amen.