All right, turn with me to Matthew
chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. We are going through the book
of Matthew, and chapter five is the beginning of a message
that our Lord preached. And this is a wonderful thing.
If you want to really just consider what true preaching is, here
it is. The Lord preached a message here. The heading at the top of my
page says, Christ beginneth his sermon on the mount. So that's
what this is. This is a message that he preached.
Chapter five, verse two says, he opened his mouth and taught
them saying, and then he began preaching. And His message goes
through chapters 5, 6, and 7. These three chapters are this
message He preached. And if you look at chapter 7,
verse 28, it says, And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended
these sayings, the people were astonished at His doctrine. And whenever the Lord sends His
Spirit, and opens up the ears of His people to hear His Word.
That's what they are. They are astonished at His doctrine. I pray the Lord will make me
astonished at His doctrine today. So these three chapters are His
Sermon on the Mount, and we've already started it, but before
we continue it, let me show you exactly who He's preaching it
to. Back in chapter 5, verse 1 says, And seeing the multitudes, he
went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples
came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying,"
So this is a message from God to his people. He saw this multitude,
he went up into a mountain, his disciples, however many there
were, they all followed him up and he sat down and set them
down and then he opened his mouth and he taught them saying from
God to his people. All right, we pick up today with
verse 13. He said, you are the salt of
the earth, but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall
it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing,
but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men. Now let me read that one more
time and may the Lord truly let us get a hold of what he's saying
here, all right? He said, you are the salt of
the earth. But if the salt have lost his
savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good
for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot of
men. He said, you are the salt of
the earth. You're the salt of the earth.
Now we have taken that line and we have made it an expression.
All right, that's an expression that we use to describe somebody
that we really like That's what we have done with
that. If we think someone is just a fine person, I mean a
fine person, humble, kind, generous, loving, I mean a real specimen. If we think a person like that
is just an absolute joy to be around, this is what we say.
We say that person is the salt of the earth. And what we mean by that is it
doesn't get any better than that person. As far as people go,
when you talk about people, that right there, that's as good as
it gets. That person is as good as it gets. That is not what
our Lord is saying right here. I hate to bust our bubble, but
that is not what our Lord is saying right here. Turn with
me if you would to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10, verse 17. And when he was gone forth into
the way, there came one running and kneeling to him and asked
him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal
life? And Jesus said unto him, Why
callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that
is God." And all of God's people say, Amen. This man came running,
a good, fine, salt of the earth man, good religious man. He came
and he knew he kind of had it all down. A lot of times people
will ask questions when they already think they know the answer.
And he said, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit
eternal life? He said, why are you calling me good? There is
none good, but one, and that's God. None good, but one. Isaiah 64 verse six says, We are all as an unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses,
that means everything that we think would make us to be the
salt of the earth, all of our righteousnesses are filthy rags. Filthy, filthy rags. Psalm 39
verse five says, man at his best state, I mean, pick out a fine
man, just a fine man. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. That means empty, worthless,
very religious, very moral, very this, very that, very worthless. That's tough to hear, isn't it?
It's just tough for the flesh to hear, but that's what God
said. Turn with me to Romans chapter 5. Romans 5 verse 5, it says, And hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given to us. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost that's given to us. And here
it is, verse six. For when we, not they, we were
yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. That's who Christ died for. Everybody
wants to believe Christ died for me. Christ died for me. Christ came and died for me.
Well, that's who Christ died for. That's not who Christ condemned. That's who he died for. That's
who He loved. That's who He chose to save.
The ungodly. The ungodly. If we belong to
Him, if He did come and die on the cross and shed His blood,
for us, honestly for us, to pay our sin. If He did die for us,
then this word from God right here is saying to us that we
in our flesh are ungodly. Not as fine as a human being
gets. Ungodly. You know, the Apostle
Paul, he did not go around telling everybody that he was a righteous
man. He didn't do that. This is what he said. We're not
gonna turn, but it's two chapters over. He said, I'm a wretched
man, not a righteous man. He said, I'm a wretched man.
Isn't that what he said? He didn't go around telling everybody
he was a saint, Saint Paul. He didn't go around telling everybody
he was a saint. He said, I'm the chief sinner. If you would
like to see the chief sinner, he said, you look at me. Greatest
sinner I've ever known. Greatest sinner I've ever known. But here's the glorious news
of the gospel. This is the gospel that our Lord
preached in Matthew chapter five, what we just read. He said there,
in spite of you, that's where the gospel starts. Not because
of you, but in spite of you. In spite of everything that you
are in your flesh, you know, God's people, that precious man,
publican in the temple, he just smote upon his breast crying,
God be merciful to me. I'm a sinner. And the gospel
says, in spite of everything you are in your flesh, yes, you
are. You're a sinner. But in spite
of everything that you are, you have been made to be the salt
of the earth. Now, what does that mean? That's
the goal of this Bible study. We're gonna try to find out what
does that mean? What is he saying in that? Let's
read a few verses together to see what our Lord has written
concerning salt, all right? Turn with me, if you would, to
Leviticus chapter two. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus chapter
two. Leviticus 2, verse 13. It says, and every oblation,
and that word means offering or sacrifice. 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. He said, do not offer an offering
to God without salt. He said, it's the salt of the
covenant of thy God. That's what salt is, it represents
God's covenant. Turn with me to Numbers chapter
18. Numbers 18 verse 19. All 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 forever. It is a covenant of salt forever
before the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee. He said, it's a covenant of salt. He said, that salt is a token
of my covenant to you. Turn with me to 2 Kings 2. A few books over, you'll go past
Samuel. 2 Kings 2. Verse 19, it says, and the men of the city said
unto Elisha, behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is
pleasant. It's a good place to be as my
Lord seeth, but the water is not and the ground barren. And Elisha said, bring me a new
cruise and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And
he went forth unto the spring of the waters and cast the salt
in there and said, thus saith the Lord, I have healed these
waters. There shall not be from thence
any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto
this day, according to the saying of Elisha, which he spake." They
said, Elisha, the water here is sick. He said, put salt in
it and it'll be healed. They said, everything here is
dead. He said, put salt in it and life
will spring forth. Now, can we read between the
lines on this? Don't turn, but in Ezekiel 43,
the priests there were commanded to purge every sacrifice with
salt. Cleanse it and purge it with
salt. Don't turn, but Mark chapter
nine says every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is
good. What is this salt? It's Christ. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It
is the savor, savory, sweet smelling savor of God. David said, Oh,
taste and see that the Lord is good. So good. He is a savor of life unto life. It's him. It's him. There's a story that many have
told and I've told it so many times of a young man who was
called on to fill in for the pastor while he was away one
time. And the young man, you know, Sunday morning came and
he got up there and he preached. And as soon as he came down,
he went to one of the elders in the church and he asked him,
what did you think of my message? And the elder said, it was a
very poor message. And he said, what? Why would
you say it was poor? He said, do you think I didn't
study enough? And he said, no, clearly you
put time, you were organized. And he said, well, do you think
my delivery wasn't well? He said, no, you spoke very well.
And he said, well, why would you say it was a poor message?
He said, because Christ wasn't in it. And the young man said,
well, Christ wasn't in the text. And the elder said, young man,
Christ is in every text. He said in every portion of scripture,
there is a road that leads to Jesus Christ and him crucified. And our business is to find that
road and get on it. And that's what we have here.
That's what we have here. It is Christ, it is Christ, it
is Christ. Now, this is what our Lord is
saying to us in Matthew 5. He's saying, if we don't have
the savor of Christ, we could have a lot of things, a lot of
things. But if we don't have the savor
of His covenant, if that's not in our message,
If we don't have the savor of His healing, the savor of His
life, the savor of His purging and His cleansing of our sin,
if we don't have the savor of the goodness and the grace and
the mercy of Christ in us, then there's nothing worthy in our
flesh, there's nothing in us worthy to preserve. He said it's good for nothing
but to be cast out and trodden underfoot. Outside of Christ,
we're good for nothing. Outside of Christ, I know that's
bold. I know that's pretty straightforward,
but it's just true. Outside of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the only thing that we're good for is to be cast out and trodden
underfoot. We need Christ. That's the point. We need Christ. And if we have
Christ, if Christ is in us, then God said, you have the hope of
glory. If we have Christ, we have God's
covenant. And that's the message of the
gospel, but you have the covenant. If we have Christ, we have God's
promise. God cannot lie. Don't you love
knowing that God cannot lie. And if he said, I promise that's
what's going to happen. That's what we'll have. We have
the promise of his healing, the promise of his purging. If we
have Christ, we have life. He that hath the son hath life. Now, how can I know if I have
Christ? How can I know if I have Christ?
He will be a saver of life to you. Every time you hear His
name, every time you hear His work, life will spring up inside
you. And until you hear His name,
and until you hear His work, everything will be dead to you.
He will be life, He'll be life. Go with me over to 1 Corinthians
chapter six. First Corinthians 6 verse 9,
it says, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit
the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of
God. And such were some of you. but you are washed, but you are
sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God. He said, in and of your flesh,
you're worthy of nothing, but to be cast out and trodden underfoot. But God put salt in you. But God put salt in you. The gospel to a sinful child
of God is, God has preserved you with the salt of Christ. Outside of that, you would rot
and decay. That's what would happen. You wouldn't last. You would
be consumed by death. But God has preserved you in
Christ. He's preserved your life. He
has preserved the do of your you. Think about what salt does
to something. And he's done all that in the
covenant of the sacrifice of Christ. Paul said, the apostle
Paul, he said, I am what I am by the grace of God. The preserving
goodness of God, which is Christ Jesus, my Lord. Now, turn with
me to 1 John 4. I'm gonna be very brief. I'll finish up here. Go with
me to 1 John 4. This is just amazing. Paul told Timothy, he said, Christ
is our hope. And Paul told the Colossians,
Christ in you is the hope of glory. And John said right here
in 1 John 4 verse 15, whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the
son of God, and what that means is, he is God manifest in the
flesh, not God's helper, but God himself come down. Whosoever
shall confess that Jesus is the son of God, God dwelleth in him,
and he in God, and we have known and believed the love that God
hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Verse 17 says, herein
is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day
of judgment, because as he is, so are we, in this world. If we possess
the Lord Jesus Christ, if God has given us to Christ and given
Christ to us, then as Christ is, so are we. The Father has conformed us to
His image. And as Christ, and you just think
about this, may the Lord bless this right now. I honestly pray
the Lord will send His Spirit and bless this to us. Can you
imagine how savory Christ is to the Father? I mean, that's
the good part. Can you just imagine just how
enjoyable and just how savory and just how good and just how
pleasant? Just give me more of that. I'll
take more. Can you just enter into just
how pleasant Christ is to the Father? Because Christ is in
us. He has made us to be that savory
to the Father. We all cry, I'm such a sinner
against you, oh wretched man that I am. But because Christ
is in us, as savory and good and enjoyable as Christ is to
the Father, that's how savory and good and enjoyable God's
people are to the Father. That is beautiful. It's all because
of Christ's covenant. It's all because of the sacrifice
of His blood that totally put away our sin. And they're gone. As He is good, in Him, with Him,
by Him, He's made us to be good. Good and pleasant. And because
of that, it can truly be said to God's people, you are the
salt of the earth. You really are. As He is, so
are you. The amazing thing is, in this
world, I don't see it, but God does. And the way God sees it
is the only way that matters. In Him, you're the salt. What
that means is you're the only thing in this world worth preserving.
You know the Lord said He's going to burn everything up, didn't
He? He said He's going to come, He's going to burn everything
up. He's going to burn the earth up, He's going to burn everything
in it up, but He's not going to burn up you. He's just not
going to do it. And the reason is because in
Christ you're the salt. In Christ you're going to be
preserved. That is so savory to me. That
is so delicious to me. When I was writing these notes,
I wrote it down. I wrote, that makes me want some salt. Well,
let's all eat something salty for lunch. And as we do, we say
this do in remembrance of me, as you do, remember our Lord.
Oh, He's so good. So good. All right, you're dismissed.