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You Are The Salt Of The Earth

By Frank Richey

You Are The Salt Of The Earth

Matthew 5:13 (King James Version) 13Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the

salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Salt is a preservative

• Ancient Egypt mummification

• Sailors for centuries

Salt is a preservative

• Mark 9:50 (King James Version)50Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.

Salt is a preservative• Once, a lack of salt destroyed the earth• Genesis 6:5-8 (King James Version)  7And the LORD said, I will destroy

man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

Salt is a preservative• Once, a lack of salt destroyed God’s people• 2 Chronicles 36:15-17 (King James Version) 15And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by

his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place:

  16But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.  17Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.

Salt is a preservative

• Sin spoils man and destroys him• Man needs the preserving power of

God and must turn to Him

Salt can destroy

• It has to be used correctly much like a prescription medicine

• Carthage has never been rebuilt

Salt can destroy

• Deuteronomy 29:22-23 (King James Version)22So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it; 23And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:

Salt can destroy

• Judges 9:45 (King James Version)45And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that was therein, and beat down the city, and sowed it with salt.

Do we preserve? Or destroy?

• Since salt does both,

what kind of salt am I?• One way to answer that

is to consider what kind

of example I am.• Notice what Jesus says

next in Matthew 5 -

Do we preserve? Or destroy?

• Matthew 5:14-16 (King James Version)14Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

• This is preservation…

Do we preserve? Or destroy?

• …and we are warned against the destruction!• Romans 14:13 (King James Version)

13Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.

Uses of salt in the Old Testament

• Under the Law of Moses, sacrifices were to be salted

• Leviticus 2:13 (King James Version)13And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.

Uses of salt in the Old Testament

• God even speaks of a “covenant of salt”• Numbers 18:19 (King James Version)

19All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the LORD, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD unto thee and to thy seed with thee.

Uses of salt in the Old Testament

• Jesus says be the salt of the earth, and His people used salt in their sacrifices – N. T. connection!

• Romans 12 (King James Version)1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Uses of salt in the Old Testament

• Newborns were rubbed with salt• Ezekiel 16:4 (King James Version)

4And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

Salt may be deceiving

• Similar in appearance to sugar…

• Many try to appear as Jesus’ salt of the earth, but are hypocrites.

• Matthew 7:21-23 (King James Version)21Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Salt may be deceiving

• But Richey warns of a “new hypocrisy” in his area of Alabama where people pretend to be worse than they really are!

• A hypocrite is someone who pretends to be other than he is

• Exodus 23:2 (New American Standard Bible)2"You shall not follow the masses in

doing evil, nor shall you testify in a

dispute so as to turn aside after a

multitude in order to pervert justice;

Am I worth my salt?

• Not salt in our body – but our salary!• Roman soldiers’ paid in salarium (salary)• No matter where we work or what we do, we must

be worthy and not slothful• Consider Colossians 3:22-25

Am I worth my salt?

• Colossians 3:22-25 (New American Standard Bible)22Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, 24knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. 25For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.

Refined salt is as white as snow

• Ever noticed how white salt is?• Often the Bible uses white to show purity• Psalm 51:7 (King James Version)

7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter

than snow.

Refined salt is as white as snow

• Ever noticed how white salt is?• Easy to see when other colors stain our soul• Isaiah 1:18 (King James Version)

18Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they

be red like crimson, they shall

be as wool.

Refined salt is as white as snow

• Ever noticed how white salt is?• When something is stained, we wash it• Revelation 1:5 (King James Version)

5And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

                                

                                    

Refined salt is as white as snow

• Ever noticed how white salt is?• Spiritual “washing” is done a specific way• Acts 22:16 (New American Standard Bible)

16'Now why do you delay? Get up and

be baptized, and wash away your sins,

calling on His name.'

Invitation

• Are you the salt of the earth?• Are you a preserving influence?• Have you been destroying or deceiving?• Only children of God can keep the world from

becoming as evil as it was in the days of Noah…

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