My brother speaks very highly of all of you, and I'm glad to be here this morning. Mark told me to spend some time giving a bit of a personal testimony. I am afraid that that would simply take too long. I will tell you this, my journey has been a long one. The first time I came upon the gospel, was when my brother Chuck was converted at the age of 18, and I was 8. So there's 10 years between us. That's the first time I heard the gospel. I made a profession of faith as a child, but I was never truly converted. I was not saved as a child. I made another profession of faith when I was 21, because I wanted Jesus to help me out of a crisis experience in my life. I walked looking like a Christian for about a year, but that was also a false profession. So I've had two false starts in my life. God saved me at 32 years of age in 1994. Maybe someday I'll get to tell you about it, if not over lunch. We do have some connections with you. I've known Mike Gattuso for at least two decades. The kitchen in our church back in Englewood, New Jersey was skillfully completely redone by Mike 12 years ago. Was it a dozen years ago? Maybe long time ago. So, uh, we have a history with Mike and also one of my pastors in Englewood, New Jersey used to pastor a church two miles from here in paradise. Jim Dom is his name. And for many years he was pastoring a church in paradise. So there's the connections. My niece, Anne Marie, came to visit with you folks this morning. And her new husband, Tim, they've been married for what, three weeks now? Three weeks, so if you have a chance to meet Anne and Tim, my niece and her brand new husband, please do. Well, I'd ask you to turn with me, if you would, to Mark's Gospel, I'm sorry, Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 5. Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 5. Oh, I'm supposed to turn this on, aren't I? I'm never too good with these things. Where's my sound guy? Good? Okay, sorry. Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 5. While you're turning there, Let me begin by telling you about the time I was salted by a man in the Wonder Bread Outlet store back in Saddlebrook, New Jersey. Now, I didn't say assaulted. I was salted. I was a fairly new Christian, probably a year or less in the faith. And there I was, doing a little shopping in the Wonder Bread outlet store, picking up a few things to bring home, when this older gentleman sidled up beside me with his shopping cart. He was probably in his late 60s, and he gave me a rather cheerful greeting. Well, I probably replied with my typical New Jersey, hey, how you doing? To which he cheerfully replied to me, and his response was immediate and purposeful. Oh, me? He said, I'm terminal. Now before I could even put a puzzled look on my face, before I even had a chance to ask him, he proceeded to tell me about his cancer and the prognosis of the doctors and the oncologist. He said, they've told me I have six months to a year to live. And then he began immediately to tell me where all of his hope was fixed. This guy launched into a gospel testimony of how God had saved him and his wife several years earlier, brought them into saving union with Himself through the merits and righteousness of Jesus Christ. Now, after telling him that I had too recently become a Christian, that I was a believer, we spent what was probably 20 to 30 minutes standing next to the whole wheat bread, just marveling at the grace of God, talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, I honestly don't remember most of our conversation that day, but there are two things about this man that I will never forget. First was his irrepressible joy. This man, even while staring death in the face, had an irrepressible joy that came out in his voice and in his words. And this joy defied human logic. This man was given a death sentence. But the second thing that I remember about this man that I will never forget is that after we shook hands and agreed to one day meet again, as I was making my way to the checkout counter, I could hear him over my shoulder greeting a woman who was shopping in the aisle, and after hearing the woman say to him, oh I'm fine, how are you? Hearing him say to her, oh me? I'm terminal. And he began his gospel testimony all over again. You see, I was salted that morning. I was salted by a man who was intent on salting anyone that got in his path. With that said, please look with me at Matthew 5, beginning at verse 13. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Now, time is only going to permit us to get through verse 13 this morning. These, of course, are the words of Jesus in what is commonly referred to as His Sermon on the Mount, which actually begins back in verse 1. If you look back in verse 1, you see it says, And then, of course, what follows are Christ's Beatitudes. the declaration, the promise of blessedness to all who would possess these particular Christian characteristics. He says, those who are poor in spirit, verse 3. All those who mourn, verse 4. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, verse 6. All the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart. His words here in these verses, you might say, are very general. Because the Lord is speaking to a mixed crowd. He is, in essence, teaching the crowd that these are the things that will be found and these are the things that should be found in varying degrees in every man, woman, boy and girl who've come under the saving influence of God's kingly spiritual rule. If God has indeed changed you, Jesus says, through gospel salvation, these virtues, these qualities will be seen in you and because of this, you are and you will be greatly blessed. But in verse 11, he goes from the general to the more specific. He directs his words from those who may be his disciples, who could be his disciples, who will yet be his disciples, to those who are presently his disciples. So Jesus goes from the blessed are those, the blessed are the, to blessed are you. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you. Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great. And you see in our verses here, beginning with verse 13, our Lord is continuing with the theme of you when he says you are the salt of the earth. Now it's important to understand that this is an indicative. I'm sure many of you know that in the Bible we find indicatives and we find imperatives, right? An imperative, here's an easy way to remember it. This is the way I've always remembered the difference between indicatives and imperatives. An imperative is like an imperial command, right? Do this in remembrance of me. Indicatives indicate what is. And this is an indicative the word are you are the salt of the earth and the way it is in the original language that tells us Jesus is stating a fact. He is telling his disciples what they are. He's not saying what they should be or what they could be or or what they will be. He's telling his disciples what they are. If you're a Christian, Jesus says this is what you are. Because God has changed you and He's made you something different from what you once were. He is saying you are the salt of the earth. Now, what exactly does this phrase mean? We've heard it thrown around by people at times, right? I've heard people use it to describe really, really nice people. you know, really down-to-earth people, you know, oh, you know that guy? Oh, I love that guy. That guy, he's a salt of the earth, right? But Jesus' use of this phrase has a much deeper meaning than that. He's not just saying Christians are really nice down-to-earth people, although we should be, right? I think in order for us to fully understand what Jesus is saying here, you are the salt of the earth, I think it's very helpful if we could get a hold of, if we could grasp the value of salt at the time these words were spoken. Because salt is something that we who live in the 21st century, we definitely take salt for granted. I mean, to us, salt is no big deal. Who here has thought about salt in the past week? Right? I mean, what is salt? It's not expensive. How much is a year's supply of salt for a family of four? Five bucks, maybe? Six bucks? I don't know. It's always readily available. We can have as much of it as we want. We can have it in whatever form we want. You want iodized, uniodized, pink Himalayan, fine, coarse, sea salt. What kind of salt do you want? It's all over the place. We've actually been exposed to too much of it in some of our modern day processed foods. For this reason, many people have actually had to adapt a low-sodium diet. But you see, this is not how it was in the ancient world. This is simply not how it was. In the ancient world, salt was extremely valuable. It was actually a rare commodity. In many cases, it was a luxury only affordable to those of nobility or those of wealth. Now there are only two basic ways of harvesting salt 2,000 years ago when Jesus spoke these words. It either had to be taken out of salt rock or salt mine so it had to be mined and of course there were limited places on this earth where this could be done or it had to be taken from the sea or from salt lakes or salt marshes through an evaporation process. Now this was really tedious work in which many hours of labor produced only small amounts of salt. So you see because of this, For thousands of years, salt was a major source of trade and commerce. Believe it or not, salt has been tariffed, it's been taxed, it's been restricted, and it's even been fought over. Wars have been waged and fought, and people have died over salt. Did you know that many countries throughout history have actually used salt as a form of currency? In fact, our modern day word salary, that comes from the first century Roman soldiers who were paid what they called a solarium, or solarium argentum, which is Latin for salt pay. You've heard the phrase, a man is worth his salt. This is probably where it came from. Roman soldiers' compensation for service included an allowance of, or at least an allowance for, salt. During the Middle Ages, salt was referred to as white gold, and it can only be found on the king's and queen's tables. I actually read that in some remote parts of Ethiopia, salt has been used, or was used, as a form of money right up into the 20th century. Now, can you imagine this? The 20th century? Can you imagine Going down to your local Ford dealer with a wheelbarrow full of Mortons, right? Excuse me, sir, what can I get for this? Wheelbarrow full. I like that F-250 over there with the chrome wheels and the sunroof. What do you think? Equal trade? Not gonna happen, right? But back when Jesus spoke these words, salt had this kind of value. In fact, salt had and salt still has a very indispensable value. I say this because salt is actually necessary for us to live. Our bodies, the human body is made up of about 60% fluid. Every fluid in the human body contains an amount of salt or sodium as they like to call it. Every time we lose body fluids, we lose salt. And without salt, without sodium, which the body does not produce on its own, the body would actually cease to function. Without salt in the body, we would not be able to transport nutrients or oxygen. We wouldn't be able to transmit nerve impulses, and we wouldn't be able to move muscles, including that all-important muscle we call the heart. Now, I don't know if 2,000 years ago, if people understood this about salt, but I know this. I know Jesus understood it. People may not have understood that salt was needed in the body to sustain life, but our Lord knew it, because who knows the body better than the creator of the body, right? As our designer and creator, Jesus would have been aware that our most basic physiological functions depend on a proper balance of sodium in our bodies. Salt is necessary to preserve life. But 2,000 years ago, back when Jesus spoke these words, salt was necessary in three other vital ways. Now, it's amazing. Today, in our modern age, they boast over 14,000 uses for salt. But back when Jesus spoke these words, there are only three uses for salt, three vital uses. And I believe that our Lord uses this analogy, you are the salt of the earth, for these three reasons. Number one, because salt is a preservative. Number two, because salt is a disinfectant. And number three, because salt is a seasoning. Now I'd like us to briefly look at these three things. Number one, just as salt is necessary to preserve the body, At the time the Lord Jesus spoke these words, it was also necessary to preserve food. Prior to 19th century forms of refrigeration, there was only one way to keep fresh meat from becoming putrid, right? It had to be salted. Salt was necessary to preserve meat. It was necessary as a preservative. When you've got a fresh chunk of meat and you want to preserve it, it has to be rubbed down and coated with salt. Because what happens is that salt draws all the moisture out of the cells. that cause certain microbes and bacteria to make meat putrid. When the moisture is drawn out of cells, that kills these microbes and bacteria that cause meat to rot. Archaeological evidence of salting meat goes back to the third millennium BC. I think back to the ancient Egypt days. I recently, not too recently, but I saw the incredible effects of salted meat when I took my family to visit the Jamestown Plantation. Have you ever been to the Jamestown Plantation in Virginia? Right? Colonial plantation. It must have been 98 degrees that day. It was just one of those hot, oppressively humid days. And we're touring the plantation, and I saw what looked like big chunks of meat hanging up in a barn. and I did probably what you're not supposed to do, thinking that they're latex props, I reached up and I touched one. And sure enough, it was cold salted pork being perfectly preserved on one of the hottest days I've ever experienced. Salted meat can remain edible even outside in summer heat for a very long time. And you see, this was a most vital way of using salt in first century Palestine. Now, the question is, what is Jesus saying about his people here? What is Jesus saying about his disciples? Do they have a preserving effect on this world? Does their presence preserve the world from perhaps moral decay, maybe even destruction? Turn with me, if you would, to Genesis 18. Genesis chapter 18. In Genesis 18, God is about to destroy two cities because of their exceeding wickedness. I'm sure you're familiar with the account. Abraham intercedes by asking God in verse 23, but wait a minute, will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? He says, what if there are 50 of your people in that city? And you probably know the progression. What if there are 45? What if there are 40? What if there are 30? What if there are 20? He gets down to 10. Lord, what if there are 10 of your people in that city? And God answers in verse 32. He says, I will not destroy it on a count of 10. So God basically says, I will preserve the city from destruction if there are but 10 righteous found in it. And of course, we come to find out that there were less than 10. And God removes Lot and his family before completely obliterating Sodom and Gomorrah. Now this leads us, I think, to ask the question, what are God's plans for this earth once His people are removed from it? Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 4. 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 16. 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 16, where Paul here refers to the last day. When the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, and the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive will remain and be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Okay, this tells us what's going to happen to Christians when Christ returns. But what about the rest of the world's population? Turn up a page or two to 2 Thessalonians 1.6. 2 Thessalonians 1.6. For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and give relief to you who are afflicted, and to us as well, when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God, and to those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction. away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day and to be marveled at among all who have believed. So it appears that once God's people are removed from this earth, taken out of it, so too will be every semblance of God's mercy. You know, you can find further evidence of this in Revelation 6. You're probably familiar with the passage. The kings of the earth, the great men, the commanders, the rich, the strong, the free men, the slaves. What did they do? They hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And what did they say? Fall on us. Fall on us, mountains. Hide us. Hide us from the wrath of the Lamb and from the presence of Him, because the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand? It would seem that as long as God has his people here. He is preserving this earth and the people that are on it. But upon his departure, upon the departure of God's people, it appears as though even God's common grace is going to be lifted. And this world, as we know it, is going to be destroyed and it's going to be remade into something brand new. Are you a Christian? If you are a Christian here, you are the salt of the earth. You're the reason God is reserving His wrath for the Day of Judgment. 2 Peter 3.7 says, by his word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. The world is being preserved because of your prayers, because of your influence, because of your witness, because of your very presence on this earth, because you are the salt of the earth. Now, is this not a humbling thought? Anybody feel like reaching back and patting themselves on the back because of this thought? You know, congratulating yourself? I find this a very humbling thought. But secondly, there's another ancient use for salt that we, of course, who live in the 21st century, definitely take for granted. And that is, secondly, salt's use as a disinfectant. Salt's use as an antiseptic. You see, salt not only preserves, but it can also act as a cleanser, a purifier of sorts, a healing agent for wounds. Two thousand years ago, the Greeks were using salt in many of their medical applications. I can remember as a boy going to the beach with my family, and I was a typical boy with scratched up, banged up knees and legs, and I can remember my mother saying, go stand in the ocean for an hour. The salt water will heal all those cuts on your legs. Well, 2,000 years ago when Jesus spoke these words, the Greeks were already using salt in a lot of their medical applications. They were using it topically for skin lesions. to cleanse wounds. They were using it internally by ingesting salty water for digestive troubles to clean out the system. They were even inhaling salt water steam for the use of respiratory diseases to kind of clean out the lungs. You see, salt can have a disinfecting cleansing effect on us. Have you ever noticed how people sometimes clean up their language when you're around? Have you ever noticed how people sometimes in your presence kind of straighten up and clean up their act? Have you ever walked into a room, perhaps at work, only to hear your coworkers suddenly quiet down or cease from conversation altogether because you walked into the room? I think sometimes they do this out of a sense of respect. Because they know you. They know you don't want to hear the dirty joke. They know you don't want to hear the gossip that's going on in that little circle, so they quiet down. Sometimes it's because people want to feel like they can reach your level of morality anytime they want. And sometimes it's even out of a sense of shame. But either way, there are times when the Christian has this cleansing, sanctifying effect on the people around them. I think Paul brings this whole matter to light when he talks about Christians remaining with their unconverted spouses. Turn with me, if you would, to 1 Corinthians 7. 1 Corinthians 7. 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 13. Paul says this, he says, and a woman who has an unbelieving husband and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. Well, why not, Paul? He's not a believer. He's not a Christian. Paul says in verse 14, Because the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife, vice versa, sanctified through her believing husband. For otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. See, Paul is emphasizing the cleansing, sanctifying effect that the Christian can yet have, not only upon the unconverted spouse, but even upon the children. And you see, if you are the salt of the earth, As the Lord says, and you too are going to be having this sanctifying cleansing effect on the world around you. And then thirdly and finally, there's a third vital use for salt, and of course, this one still remains with us to this day, and that is salt as a seasoning. Salt as a seasoning. We understand this one, right? We get this one. But again, we really do live in a time where we're so inundated with salt. It's probably hard not to find modern day processed foods that are chock full of salt. It might be difficult to find food that doesn't have salt in it, and yet I guarantee, I guarantee if we no longer had any salt, every one of us would truly miss it. Did you ever have a plain bagel with unsalted butter? It's not that good. Even Job asked the question, can something tasteless be eaten without salt? Maybe you've heard the old French folktale about a king who asked his three daughters how much they loved him. And the oldest daughter steps up and says, Father, I love you more than all the gold in the world. And this pleased the king very much. And the middle daughter stepped up and said, Father, I love you more than all the silver in the world. And this pleased the king. And then the youngest daughter looked at him and said, Father, I love you more than salt. And this didn't please the king. In fact, this could have almost cost banishment from the kingdom. for his daughter, except for the fact that the cook was in the room at the time the daughter spoke these words. And the cook was a very wise man. And so the next day, the cook prepared one of those sumptuous meals for the king again, except this time he left out all the salt. And the king took one bite of his meal and it was so insipid he couldn't take another bite. But it was at that precise moment he realized what his daughter meant. He realized the value of salt. Now the question is, why would Jesus liken his followers to seasoning? One commentator, a man by the name of Tasker, said this, He said, the most obvious general characteristic of salt is that it is essentially different from the medium into which it is put. Its power lies precisely in this difference. He says, so it is, says Jesus with his disciples. Their power in the world lies in their difference from it. The Christian is as different from other men as the salt on a plate is different from the food into which it is placed. Now did you hear that? The Christian's power in the world lies in their difference from the world. And it's a good difference, isn't it? What does salt do? It gives flavor. It brings to life that which would otherwise be dead and tasteless. You see, the child of God is meant to add something to this world. It's meant to add something different to this world because the child of God is different. Right, because the child of God is different. He is different. She is different. If any if any man is in Christ, he is what he's a brand new creature, a brand new creation. Jesus says, I have made you to be the salt, the seasoning of this earth. You, he says, you are to be adding something to this world that it desperately needs. What does this world need? What does this world need more than anything else? This world needs to know God. The world needs to know our Creator, our God. So how are we conveying God to the world? There are really only two ways we can do it, aren't there? There are really just two ways that we can convey God to the rest of the world, right? By word and by deed, right? By what we speak and by what we do, our speech and our conduct. And you see, I am convinced, I believe that the two metaphors Jesus uses in Matthew 5 when he says, you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world. I believe these two metaphors are meant to highlight every Christian's earthly ministry. Every single one of us. The salt being our speech, what we say and how we say it. And the light being our conduct, what we do and how we do it. Right? Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. What do words do? Words give flavor. Proverbs 16.24, pleasant words are a honeycomb. Deeds and actions shed light, right? Ephesians 5.8, walk as children of light. Turn with me please to Colossians 4. Colossians chapter 4. Colossians chapter four, verses five and six, where the apostle Paul exhorts his readers to conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. And then he says, let your speech always be with grace as though seasoned with salt so that you will know how you should respond to each person. Now, the term salty speech in the world usually has a pretty nasty connotation. In the world, salty speech basically means you got the mouth of a sailor. But biblically speaking, salty speech is gracious, kind, truthful, life imparting speech. That's why I said at the onset that I was salted by that man in the bread store. You see, for all this guy knew, he was gonna have this little tiny window of opportunity to say something to me. He was just gonna have a moment in time. He may have had just a few seconds to speak to me, and this man used his words wisely. This man spoke to me. He conveyed to me through his gracious words, through his words and the way he spoke them, that he knew a joy and a peace that defied human logic. This man took his words, and he showed me that he knew a joy and a peace that was outside of himself. He was a dying man, and yet he had joy. And this joy wasn't coming from within, it was coming from without. It was coming from somewhere outside of him and outside of this world. You see, with his words, this man quickly pointed me to Jesus. This man was acting in complete accord with what he is, or was. the salt of the earth. Now, by way of application, I suppose that we can ask the question, are we living according to who Jesus says we are? Are we living according to what Jesus says we are? He says, you are the salt of the earth. That's what he calls you. Are you wearing this title? Am I wearing this title? Are we owning this title? As far as I know, the Queen of England still knights people. Now, I don't know, Queen of England, I don't know how old she is now, 150, 155, but I think it's a silly tradition. I mean, and for the most part, I think she's, for the last two decades maybe, she's only been knighting performers, singers, actors, I think it's kind of silly, but be that as it may, anytime a man is knighted by the Queen of England, he bears the name Sir proudly for the rest of his life, right? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John. Now, how about you? The King of Glory calls you the Salt of the Earth. That's His name for you, among others. That's your official title. Do you own it? Do you wear it? Do you live up to it? See, it needs to be noted that this title that you are given comes with a warning. It comes with a warning because Jesus posed the question in these verses. He said, if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? And you see, the short answer is it can't. It cannot. No more than a lamp under a basket can illumine a room. So let me ask you the question. How salty have you been lately? How salty will you be in the coming week when we go back to the world tomorrow and we leave the glory of the Lord's day? We go back into the world and we rub shoulders with the world. How salty will you be tomorrow? Remember the legend of Johnny Appleseed? Johnny Appleseed walked, I don't know, what was it, halfway across the country, but everywhere he went, he had that bag of apple seed with him. And everywhere he went, dispersing apple seed, right? So that apple trees would grow up wherever he walked, right? Shouldn't we be like spiritual Johnny Appleseeds? Shouldn't that be us? Shouldn't we be spreading salt everywhere we go? Now, we know people like this, don't we? Don't we know people that, you know, what I would call a salty believer? We know people who just, you meet them, and they just seem to bleed Christ. They just seem to exude the love of Christ with their actions and their words, right? Did you ever say to yourself, how come I'm not more like that brother? How come I'm not more like that sister? Why can't I be like that? I remember many years ago, again, as a new Christian, I remember stopping in a Starbucks for some coffee with a very seasoned saint, a very salty Christian. And I'll never forget this. As a new believer, we're standing there and we ordered our coffee and we got the coffee and Instead of him just plopping down his money and saying to the girl at the cash register, thank you for fulfilling your station in my life through this 30-second business transaction. Instead of doing that, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a tract that he had put in there before we got out of the car. And he said, here, this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I hope you have time to read it later. And I remember as a new Christian thinking, I'm no theologian, but I can do that. Even I can do that. I can give someone a gospel tract in a 30 second business transaction. I remember thinking, I can make the most of a 30 second opportunity by doing that. Now, I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, but let me ask the question. How many of you, as a rule, carry in your wallets, in your pocketbooks, in your glove compartment, gospel literature to hand out, gospel tracts? I'm not saying that this is the end all of evangelism, because it certainly isn't, but isn't it something? It's something. I mean, when you think about all these little tiny encounters that we have with people all day long, it's something, right? Think about this. What if every Christian, every single believer just spoke graciously? Never impatiently, never harshly, but every Christian spoke graciously and then gave out a simple gospel tract to every little brief human encounter that they had throughout the course of a week. Now what does it take to do this when you think about it? It takes courage, right? Some of us are timid. Some of us have this fear of the face of man, right? For many of us, it's going to take stepping out of our comfort zone, right? But for all of us, it's going to take contact. It does take contact, right? What does the salt need to do in order to preserve meat from rotting? What does it need to do to clean and disinfect and promote healing in a wound? What does it have to do to season food? Has to come in contact with it, right? The salt has to come in contact with the things that it is meant to affect. Salt has to come in contact with the meat. It has to come in contact with the open wound. Brethren, there are a lot of open wounds out there. It has to come in contact. It has to be sprinkled onto the food. Just sprinkled. You don't have to unscrew the salt shaker and dump the whole thing on the food. Just sprinkled. That's all. I think sometimes as believers we fall into a rut. Sometimes we end up just kind of retreating into our own little Christian bubbles. You know what I mean? We get comfortable and we feel safe within the confines of our Christian church, with our Christian friends and with our Christian family. And we forget that they mocked Jesus and called him what? The friend of who? The friend of sinners. When Jesus prayed for his disciples in John 17, he said, they're not of the world, even as I am not of the world. But he also said, I don't ask you to take them out of the world. He said to his father, sanctify them. Sanctify them while they're in the world. Set them apart from the world in the truth. See, we may not be of the world, but brethren, we're to remain in this world until God chooses to take us out of it. Christians are meant to have an effect upon this world. Every Christian, humanly speaking, is a Christian because they came in contact with another Christian. Right? I mean, unless you're one of those rare birds that opened up a Gideon's Bible in that lonely hotel room that night and God saved you that night, chances are you are a Christian sitting here because you had contact with another Christian. Right? Now, we know that God is acting sovereignly through His Word and through His Spirit, but how is the Word usually delivered? The message is delivered by and through actual Christians who are acting as salt. in the world, spreading salt. Are you a salt spreader? Every winter in Jersey, we have these big trucks trucking down the road with those big piles of salt on the back, right? And what are they doing? They're just dispersing You know, you get stuck behind one, you're going too slow, but you try to pass it, you get pelted with salt, right? Just a little bit, just to melt the ice on the road. They just go, they travel along their slow path and they're just dispersing, little bit at a time, little salt. Well, that should be us. We should be like human salt trucks, dispersing as we go through life, just dispersing. as God gives opportunity and as God permits. Are you a salty Christian? Are there any unconverted people in your life that would testify to the fact that you are like a fine seasoning to them? Many years ago, I don't know, some of you might remember a show called This Is Your Life. Anybody remember This Is Your Life? Well, alright. Nice to know there's a couple people at least as old as I am here. In this show, This Is Your Life, the host would bring a person on stage and he would proceed to take them through their life in front of an audience. And this always included special guest appearances from friends, family, colleagues, and people would come up on the stage and they would testify, they would give testimonies as to this person's role in their lives, right? Let me ask you. What if I were to call some of the people from your life up here right now? This was gonna be a big surprise for you, and here they come. They're gonna come right down the aisle, and they're all gonna come up and stand up here, and each one of them is gonna give a testimony of you and your role in their lives. What would they say? Let's say some of your family members, maybe some of your distant relatives. maybe some of your coworkers, maybe your boss standing up here. If you're the boss, maybe some of the people who are under you, some of your neighbors, the people that live on your street, the guy who works at the gas station where you fill up, your mechanic, the guy who works on your car, the people from the bank, the checkout women from the supermarket, they're all gonna come up here and they're gonna testify of you. What will they say? Will they stand here and say, oh, this person has been, they have been salt in my life. They have been like fine seasoning to me. They have had on me a cleansing, sanctifying influence. Would they call you a salt spreader? How about your posts on social media? Your Instagram, your tweets, your Facebook accounts. Do they show the reality of God's grace in a sinner's life? Are they an accurate reflection of the King that you serve, King Jesus? You see, if you're like me, you have to admit, I am not the salt that I want to be in this world. I'm not. I should be more often kinder with my words than I am. I should be more often just mindful, more mindful of my words than I am. And you know, for me personally, I don't know about you, but for me personally, I think the name Jesus needs to be rolling off my tongue a lot more frequently than it does. Now, we can all talk God, but for me personally, I think Jesus needs to be coming off my lips a lot more than it does. Is Jesus a part of your vocabulary? I want Jesus to be coming off my lips a lot more frequently, of course at the right time and the right place. But it needs to be coming out of my lips more. Think about this, what do you think a man like, remember Blind Bartimaeus? Blind Bartimaeus, or the demon possessed man who lived among the tombs, the man who was gashing himself with stones. What do you think it would have been like to talk to these guys post-conversion? Hey, you're Bartimaeus, yes, we've heard of you. You used to be a blind beggar. Oh yes, that's me, that's me. I was blind and I was a beggar and then one day something just happened. I don't know what happened. I was no longer blind and I was no longer a beggar. No, I don't think you'd hear that from him. I think this man would be saying the name Jesus every opportunity he got. I think Jesus would be pouring out of this man's lips. Well, what has Jesus done for you? What has He done for me? Are we excited enough to tell the world what God has done for us in Christ? I don't need to tell you. The world is very quickly losing its flavor. Rapidly. You know, Paul told Timothy in the last days, Men are going to be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Brethren, this is the world that we are supposed to be seasoning right now. This is it. This is the world in which our Lord calls us the salt. It's amazing how those who oppose Jesus these days are so vocal about it. Isn't it? Shouldn't we at least be countering with His praises? With the praise of Jesus on our lips? I want to be a salt spreader. How about you? Or may we all seek to be what we in fact and indeed are, what the Lord calls us. And may we not lose our flavor. And may we encourage one another to be what the Lord calls us, the salt of the earth. But maybe there's somebody here in this room this morning, and you haven't been relating at all to anything I've been saying. And maybe that's because you have been refusing salt and light. You have been refusing the salt and light of the gospel. You have been pushing it off. You've kept it at arm's length. Now, you've probably been salted. You've tasted of the heavenly gift. You've tasted of the good word of God, right? Are you still refusing to look to Christ by faith? Is there someone here, you're still refusing to look to Christ by faith? Why? What are you waiting for? You know what His disposition towards you is? It's this. Jesus has His arms wide open. He says, come to Me. He says, come. He says, you come to Me, I'll never cast you out. Jesus freely offers you. He freely offers you life. He freely offers you the forgiveness of your sins. He freely offers you reconciliation with God. And I need to warn you, that offer has an expiration date. It does. When is your expiration date? I don't know. Neither do you. But I'll tell you this, the devil's calendar always says tomorrow. Tomorrow. Worry about these things tomorrow. That's the devil's calendar. God's calendar says today. God's calendar says today. If you hear my voice today, don't harden your hearts. Look to Jesus. Look to His righteousness. Look to His atoning death on the cross to bring you to the Father, to save you. May God be pleased to salt you and to save you. And may He use His Word to both save and sanctify. Let's pray. Lord God, we are so grateful that we're not groping around in darkness wondering, who is this God? Who is this Creator and Designer of us? And we thank You, Lord Jesus, that You've made it very plain to us what we are, what our official title is in this world. It relieves us to know that we do have a purpose. We have a ministry as your people in this world. Lord, we find ourselves oftentimes so backwards or give us grace to be what you've called us to be. Help us, Lord. To be the salt that you've called us. Help us, Lord, as we go back into the world tomorrow and in the coming weeks. that we look upon the world with pity, and we look to bring them into saving union with You. Father, help us. We thank You for being with us. We thank You, Lord, for the grace that You give to Your people. You promised that when two or three gather, You will always be there in the midst. And Lord, You have not disappointed us. We thank You for Your Holy Spirit. We pray that You would receive our thanks and bless the remainder of our day. In Jesus' name, Amen.