You Are the Salt of The Earth (Matthew 5:13-16)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist

D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message.

I turn, if you would, to the gospel of Matthew, chapter 5. Matthew, chapter 5, and the title of this morning's message is,

But if the salt loses its flavor. But if the salt loses its flavor.

Here in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says to his disciples, He says,

You are the salt of the earth. And if you are a follower of Christ today, same thing applies.

You are the salt of the earth. So what does that mean, salt of the earth?

It's a common idiom that you'll hear. Even today, people talk like this. They might say about someone or a group of people, you know, hey, they're real salt of the earth kind of people.

And what that refers to mainly is they have a godly character. They're a genuine, honest person who lives a moral life.

That's what it means to be salt of the earth when you hear that. So the people who are salt of the earth, wherever they are, you know, wherever they live, it makes that community better.

Wherever they are in the workplace, it makes it better. So you are the salt of the earth,

Jesus says. But if the salt loses its flavor, that's where we're going to be focusing on.

If the salt loses its flavor, it becomes what? It becomes good for nothing.

So you might apply that in this way, that if a Christian is not living a moral lifestyle, what good is that?

If a Christian is not living an honest, sincere, moral life, we are of no use to God.

And not only that, if the church, if the church is of a nation, but if the church stops having that godly influence on society, because the churches have all become just so worldly, once the church stops having that godly influence upon society, that's when vice and crime just take over.

And I would argue that's where we are now in this country. The salt has lost its flavor.

The churches have lost their influence. Matthew chapter 5, starting in verse 13,

Jesus says, You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?

It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

You are the light of the world. The city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand.

And it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your

Father in heaven. So we're continuing our series on the

Sermon on the Mount. We're going to get into the context because the preceding verses actually matter to what

Jesus is saying. We'll touch on that later. But Jesus talking to His disciples

He tells them, You are salt and you are what? You are salt and light.

So a Christian should be salt and light. And just as nobody would light a candle and then hide it away so that nobody can see the light.

Also, if salt has no flavor, it's useless. How many of you like salt?

Some people really like sugar. That's their thing. Others like salt. I'm more of a salt person myself.

So you like salt. But you know, salt that doesn't have any flavor. I mean, what do you do with that?

Well, you throw it on. You throw it on your sidewalk. That's what you do with it. And you walk on it.

So if the salt loses its flavor, it's good for nothing, Jesus says, except to be thrown underfoot.

And that's what they would do in the ancient world. They would throw that salt. And, of course, they had salt in and around the

Dead Sea. And there was some salt that just really was not useful for putting on food or preserving food.

So they would take that salt and they'd throw it on the footpaths. And that would prevent the vegetation from growing up.

So that's what they used it for. Here in New England, we use salt, again, for footpaths or for sidewalks, for walkways.

During the winter, you know, the trucks, they spread it on the road so you drive on the salt.

But salt that has flavor, what do we do with it? We put it on food. Salt makes things better, doesn't it?

We use it in recipes. It makes things better. But if it has no flavor, it's more or less useless.

Also, back then, salt was used as a preservative. We typically don't think of it that way today.

But that was a common use in the ancient world. They would use salt to dry out meat and to preserve meat.

You think of a raw steak, how long is that going to be good for? I don't know, a week or so?

But if you have salted meat, you think of like beef jerky, you know, it's salted, it's dried out.

That'll last forever and ever. So salt is a preservative. So the idea there is that the disciples of Christ, through their, if they would follow the teachings of Jesus, through their good works and their moral lifestyle, their charity, they would help to preserve society.

Because when you have a group of people, they're salt of the earth, that is a restraint against evil.

What happens if you have a society where there's no Christians? Nobody's living a moral life. Everyone's just doing that which is right in their own eyes, as it says in the book of Judges.

How do things go or how do they go in a place like that? Yeah, you feel unsafe.

It's unsettling. You never know what's going to happen. So we, as followers of Christ, through our

Christian testimony, we are to act as salt and light in the world.

But when Christians lose their saltiness, when we become just like everybody else, or when the church, instead of emphasizing holiness to God and start embracing worldliness and worldly ideologies, once that happens, we just become of no use to God.

So Jesus, in a sense, is telling his disciples to be what?

Salty. So you probably don't look at it that way, or you haven't. You should be a salty person.

I think the world has a different definition for what that looks like. I've heard people say that.

Okay, what are they trying to get across? So I looked it up. There's this thing called urban dictionary on the internet.

Have you heard of this? Sometimes I'll check that. But here's how the world will define being salty.

Basically, it's somebody who either has a foul mouth or they're just a bitter and sour person.

So not salty in that sense, obviously. But as Christians, we should be salty in the sense that we should be distinct, right?

We should have a certain flavor about ourselves. We should be different from the unbelieving world around us.

So you as a believer should be different than this guy over here who is an unbeliever.

Speaking of how the world defines being salty, one thing, while we're on that subject, one thing that should set

Christians apart, we should not use foul language. And this is one of the most basic things of all.

When someone meets you, the first thing is they see you and how you kind of present yourself, and they hear the things that you say.

So as Christians, we should not use foul or perverse language.

Christians should not tell dirty jokes. The dirtiest joke you should ever tell is that one about the white horse that fell in the mud, right?

That's a dad joke, too. But I knew this one guy, and he was a member of a church.

I won't mention which one, but the guy just had a mouth on him.

He would not only use four -letter words, but he would use the name of God in vain. And for a professing

Christian, using the Lord's name in vain, I know people say, well, you know, don't judge. It's not a big deal.

You know, God only cares about the heart. Well, Jesus said in Matthew 12, 34, if we're out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

So what comes out of our mouth is actually a reflection of what's in our heart. So there should be something noticeably different about followers of Christ.

Why? Because you are the salt of the earth. There should be something different about you.

The way you talk, even the way we dress. And this is kind of a touchy subject. The people don't like hearing preaching on this.

But in this especially, of course, in our modern time, this especially applies to women who can send a message through the clothes that they wear.

I mean, guys, I suppose, can do that as well. But I think the preaching that people are accustomed to is, yeah,

God doesn't care about these things. God only cares about the heart. But the things we do, the things we say, the way we present ourselves does say something about our heart.

Point is, we should be different. You should be different. If a person can meet you as a believer of Christ, meet me as a believer of Christ, and they see no discernible difference between us and everybody else, we're good for nothing.

Why would you even attend church or join a church when the people of the church live just like everybody else and tell the same dirty jokes and curse and use

God's name in vain, etc.? This is just basic Christian morality.

Again, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

So, Christians should be different. What other ways should we be distinct? Well, Christians, when you think of a

Christian, what's something that a Christian does? Name one or two things that is just basic that Christians do.

Pray. Read your Bible. There's like a trifecta.

There's like three basic things that Christians do. They pray. They read their

Bible. They go to church. Just as in the New Testament, the disciples would gather on the first day of the week for worship and to pray and to be taught the word of God and to have fellowship,

Christians would partake of the Lord's Supper. This is unique to Christians.

When we partake of the Lord's Supper, what do we do? We self -reflect. We examine ourselves to make sure we are in that right relationship with God and with one another.

Another thing Christians should be busy doing, we should be busy doing good works, acts of kindness towards others.

You know, we're saved by grace through faith, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, but why are we saved?

We are saved, Paul says, unto good works. Ephesians 2, verse 10, for we are the

Lord's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

So who's Jesus speaking to? He's speaking to his, mainly to his disciples.

So the disciples, if you know about them, sometimes they said the wrong thing. You know, sometimes they did curse.

Well, John and his brother wanted to call down a curse from God from heaven.

Like curse the Samaritans and burn up and kill the Samaritans. So the point is the disciples, they didn't always say and do the right thing, right?

And sometimes we don't say and do the right thing. But we want to learn from the Lord and we want to do better.

We want to be salty. Do you want to be salty? I hope you do.

So Christians, being the salt of the earth, the other analogy is we are to let our light shine.

And we should show our faith, not only by speaking of our faith, we should also be showing our faith with our actions.

We should help people. We should visit the sick, encourage those who have a heavy heart. If you heard of a believer who's gone through something difficult, hey, pick up the phone, give him a call.

That's what Christians should do. We should be willing to forgive. This is the most basic of all.

A Christian should be willing to forgive. Yeah, but you don't know what that person did to me.

Well, God knows what they did. And the Lord tells us to forgive.

A Christian should be faithful to their spouse and keep their vows. A follower of Christ should not only not kill.

This is one of the commandments. We should not only not kill. We shouldn't get angry at people without a cause.

What's one way people get angry without a cause? You know, someone in front of you is driving just a little too slow that day and you get mad.

And of course, what would an unbeliever do? They would pass him and they'd give them a one -finger wave, wouldn't they?

Christians don't do that kind of a thing. Now, have Christians done that kind of a thing? Yeah, we shouldn't do that, right?

So you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, we become good for nothing.

Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Loris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, loriscornickchurch .com.

And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.