Sermon V. - Mark IX

    Foreveryoneshallbesaltedwithfire,andeverysacrificeshallbesaltedwithsalt.—Mark IX.

    49.

    In the context you have a caution which our Lord gives against scandals and offences given to others, either by defection from the truth, or by a sinful conversation. And—

    1.      He intimates the cause of these scandals, which is some beloved lust; and that is better mortified than satisfied. There is something precious, profitable, and pleasant in our opinion, estimation, and affection, that calls us from God, and the duties we owe to him, and apprehended by us as so necessary for us, that we can no more spare it than a right eye, a right hand, or a right foot.

    2.      Our Lord compares the loss of satisfaction in such lusts with the danger of perishing for ever; and shows that (all things considered) it were better to be deprived of this profit, pleasure, or honour, than to lose eternal life, and run the hazard of eternal death. Either that pleasure or lust must be denied, or we perish for ever. The right hand must be cut off, or else we shall be cast into hell-fire.

    3.      Our Lord shows the danger of perishing for ever, amplified by a notable description, ‘Their worm never dies, and their fire shall never be quenched.’ The scripture lisps to us in our own dialect, and speaks in such notions we can best understand, and therefore represents the state of the damned by what is terrible to sense. By the worm is meant the anguish of conscience, by fire the wrath of God. Memoriapraeteritorum,sensuspresentium,metus futurorum. The torment of the wicked arises partly from, their own consciences. There is a vexing remembrance of what is past, their folly in the neglect of grace; and there is a bitter sense of that doleful state into which they have now plunged themselves, and a fear of what is yet to come. Now, beside this remorse for their folly, there is also a ‘fire that shall never be quenched,’ or the sharp torments that are prepared for the wicked.

    4.      Here is a collation or comparison of opposites—the pains of hell, with the trouble of mortification. First or last we must endure troubles and difficulties. Now it is much more eligible to take pains in the mortifying of sin, than to bear eternal pains in the punishment of it. This is that which is expressed in the text, ‘For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.’ In the words—

    1.      Observe, a double salting, either withfire or withsalt; the one referring to one sort of people, and the other to the other. They agree in the common nature: for salt is of a fiery nature, and apt to consume; but they differ in the matter to be consumed, Salt consumes the superfluous moisture, which is apt to cause putrefaction; but the fire consumes the substance itself; so that to be salted with fire is to be given up to everlasting destruction. Fire consumeth all things; and God is called ‘a consuming fire ‘to the wicked, Heb. xii. 29.

    2.      Here is also an allusion to sacrifices; for every man that lives in the world must be a sacrifice to God. The wicked are a sacrifice to God’s justice; but the godly are a sacrifice dedicated and offered to him, that they may be capable of his mercy. The first are a sacrifice against their wills, but the godly are a free-will offering, a sacrifice not taken but offered. Now, the law of all sacrifices was, that they were to be salted with salt: Lev. ii. 13, ‘And 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.’ Three times it is repeated there, to show that every sacrifice must be salted. That the wicked, the objects of God’s vindictive justice, are accounted sacrifices, is evident by scripture. When the destruction of Moab is spoken of: Isa. xxxiv. 6, ‘The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, and with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.’ So Jer. xlvi. 10, God threatens there that the sword shall devour, and be made drunk with their blood, ‘For the Lord God of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country, by the river Euphrates.’ What is in these places called a slaughter is also called a sacrifice. So when God intended a great carnage of his enemies, he calls upon the fowls of heaven, Ezek. xxxix. 17, ‘Assemble yourselves, and come to my sacrifice;’ with an allusion to the beasts offered in sacrifice. This may be gathered from the signification of the sacrifices, the burnt-offerings especially, which signified the guilt of the sinner; the death of Christ, which is the propitiation for sin; and the obedience of the sacrificer, as devoted to God. Now the first signification took place, and had its effect upon them, if they neglected the other two meanings of the sacrifices; and therefore they were to be looked on as salted with fire; whereas the other, who were accepted, were salted with salt.

    3.      The third observation for the opening of this is the two references of these saltings, or the distinct and proper application of them.

    [1.] To the wicked: ‘For every one shall be salted with fire;’ that is, every one of them spoken of before, who indulged their corrupt affections, who did not entirely and heartily keep the covenant of God, and renounce their beloved lusts.

    [2.] Here is the application to the godly: ‘Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt;’ that is, every one that is not a sacrifice by constraint, but voluntarily surrenders and gives up himself to God, to be ordered and disposed of according to his will, he is salted, not with fire, but with salt, which every one that is devoted to God is bound to have within himself. So while some are destinated to the wrath of God, and salted with fire to be consumed and destroyed, others are salted with salt, preserved and kept savoury in the profession and practice of godliness. The doctrine is this:—

    Doct. The grace of mortification is very necessary for all those who are devoted to God. I shall prove three things:—

    I.      That the true notion of a Christian is, that he is a sacrifice, or a thank-offering to God.

    II.      That the grace of mortification is the true salt, whereby this offering and sacrifice should be seasoned.

    III.      I shall show you the necessity of this salt, that we may keep right with God in the duties of the covenant.

    I.      The true notion of a Christian is, that he is a sacrifice to God. This is evident by Rom.

    xii.      1, ‘I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service;’ that is, the reasonable part, which was figured by the sacrifices and oblations of the law: and so Isa. lxvi. 20, ‘They shall bring your brethren for an offering unto the Lord.’ Under the law, beasts were offered to God, but in the gospel men are offered to him; not as beasts were to be destroyed, slain, and burnt in the fire, but to be preserved for God’s use and service. In offering anything to God, two things were of consideration; there was a separation from a common, and a dedication to a holy use, and they both take place in the present matter.

    1.      There is a separation of ourselves from a common use. The beast was separated from the flock or herd for this special purpose, to be given to God. Thus we are separated and set apart from the rest of the world, that we may be a people to God. We are ‘no more our own,’ 1 Cor. vi. 19; and we are ‘no more to live to ourselves, but to him that died for us,’ 2 Cor. v.

    15.      We are not to live to the world, to the flesh, or to such things as the natural heart craves; we have no right in ourselves to dispose of ourselves, of our time, of our interest, of our strength, but must wholly give up ourselves to God, to be disposed, ordered, governed by him at his own will and pleasure.

    2. There is a dedication of ourselves to God, to serve, please, honour, and glorify him.

    [l.] The manner of dedicating ourselves to God is to be considered. It is usually done with grief, shame, and indignation at ourselves, that God hath been so long kept out of his right, with a full purpose to restore it to him with advantage: 1 Pet. iv. 3, ‘The time past may suffice to have wrought the will of the flesh, and of man;’ it is high time to give up ourselves to the will of God; we have been long enough, too long, dishonouring God, destroying our souls, pleasing the flesh, living according to the flesh and the course of the world; therefore they desire to make restitution: Rom. vi. 19, ‘For as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.’ Their forepast neglects of God and duty to him fill their hearts with shame, therefore they resolve to double their diligence, and to be as eminent in holiness as before they were in vanity and sin.

    [2.] It is with a deep sense of the Lord’s love in Christ; for we give up ourselves to God, not as a sin-offering, but as a thank-offering: Rom. xii. 1, ‘I beseech you by the mercies of the Lord;’ and 2 Cor. v. 14, ‘For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them, and rose again.’ They are ravished with an admiration of God’s goodness in Christ, and so give up themselves to him.

    [3.] They do entirely give up themselves to God, not to be his in a few things, but in all, to serve him with all their faculties: ‘You are not your own, but are bought with a price; therefore glorify God both with your bodies and souls, which are God’s,’ 1 Cor. vi. 20; and to serve him in all conditions: Rom. xiv. 8, ‘Whether we live, we live unto God, or whether we die, we die unto God; for living or dying we are the Lord’s.’ They are willing to be used for his glory, not only as active instruments; but as passive objects, they give up themselves to obey his governing will, and to submit to his disposing will, to be what he would have them to be, as well as to do what he would have them to do: Phil. i. 20, ‘According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.’ Thus with all their faculties, in every condition of life, are they to be devoted to God in all actions. It is said, Zech. xiv. 20, 21, that ‘holiness to the Lord shall be written,’ not only ‘upon the bowels of the altar and the pots of the Lord’s house,’ but also ‘upon all the pots of Jerusalem;’ not only upon the vessels of the temple, but upon common utensils; that is, translate it into a gospel phrase, that not only in our sacred, but even in our common and civil actions, &c., we should live as a people that are offered up to God.

    [4.] The end why we give up ourselves to God is to serve, please, and glorify him: Acts xxvii. 23, ‘His I am, and him I serve;’ to please him by the obedience of his will: Rom. xii. 1,2, ‘Ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And 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;’ Col. i. 10, ‘That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work.’ And also to glorify him is their end and use. Phil. i. 21, 1 Cor. x. 31. This is the dedication by which a Christian becomes a spiritual and a holy sacrifice unto God. Now we must be sincere and real in this, partly—

    (1.) Because the truth of our dedication will be known by our use: many give up themselves to God, but in the use of themselves there is no such matter; they carry it as though their tongues were their own, and had no Lord over them, Ps. xii. 4. They speak what they please; they use their hearts as their own, to think and covet what they please; their hands as their own, to do what they please; their bodies as their own, to prostitute them to all excess and filthiness; and their wealth and strength and time as their own, either to spare it, or lavish it according as their lusts guide and incline them. No, no; a sincere Christian makes conscience of his dedication to God, the reality and sincerity of it is seen in the use of themselves, and if he be tempted to do anything contrary to this vow and dedication, his heart riseth against the temptation: 1 Cor. vi. 15, ‘Shall I take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid.’ In point of fidelity to God, as we are in covenant with him, we must be careful that we employ and use what is God’s for the glory of God; we must make conscience of alienating that that is sacred, that that is the Lord’s: your thoughts, your affections, your time, your strength, do all belong to him.

    (2.) Because God will one day call us to an account: Luke xix. 23, ‘He will demand his own with usury.’ We shall be called to a reckoning, what we have done for God, what part and portion he hath had in our time, our strength, our parts, our interest; therefore every prudent and wise Christian should himself keep a faithful and constant reckoning how he lays out himself for God, for he must have a share in all things that we have or do.

    (3.) We must be very sincere in this, because we are under the eye and inspection of God, who considers whose business we do, his or our own: Luke i. 75, ‘That we should serve him in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.’ We are ever before him, and though he doth not presently call us to an account, yet many times now he punisheth us for our neglect and mindlessness of his interest: Ezek. xvi. 8, ‘Ye entered into a covenant with me, and became mine.’ That was the reason of his judgments against them. When those that are his do not carry themselves as his, when that that is sacred is profaned by a common use, then a judgment is coming upon a nation, if dedicated to God, and it warps from him, or upon a person, if his ways be not upright with him.

    II.      The next thing I am to do is to prove that the grace of mortification is the true salt wherewith this offering and sacrifice should be seasoned. There is some dispute what is meant by the salt which Christ recommends to his disciples, and what was figured by the salt in the sacrifice, whether wisdom or zeal. In general, it is the grace of the Holy Spirit, by which sin is subdued and prevented; and the meaning suits exactly with the emblem and representation: for—

    1.      Salt preserves flesh from putrefaction by consuming that superfluous and excrementitious moisture, which otherwise would soon corrupt; and so the salt of the covenant doth prevent and subdue those lusts which would cause us to deal unfaithfully with God. Alas! meat is not so apt to be tainted as we are to be corrupted and weakened in our resolutions to God, without the mortifying grace of the Spirit. ‘That which is lame is soon turned out of the way, unless it be healed,’ Heb. xii. 13. And nothing is so unstable and mutable as an unmortified soul; therefore we can never behave ourselves as a sacrifice and an offering to God, unless we ‘mortify our members which are upon earth, inordinate affections, covetousness, and the like,’ Col. iii. 5. In short, the flesh is that which is apt to be corrupted, and therefore the grace that doth preserve us must be something that doth wean us from the interests of the flesh, and what is that but the mortifying grace of the Holy Spirit? The apostle saith, Eph. vi. 24, ‘Grace be with all them that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity,’ or ‘in incorruption.’ There are many crooked lusts which are apt to corrupt us and withdraw our love to other things, but when these are mortified and subdued, that we may have a greater amplitude of affection towards God and Christ, then we are said to love him in sincerity and in incorruption.