All right, now open your Bibles
to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter five. We will continue. Our study through the Lord's
Sermon on the Mount. Matthew chapter five, we've been
going verse by verse through. Sermon on the Mount, and this
is how we. Want to and endeavor to preach
here verse by verse. what God's Word says. Some of you may recall the message
that we looked at before from this passage. Let's read it. Matthew 5, verse 13. Our Lord is speaking here, and
He says, You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have
lost his saber, Wherewith shall it be salted? It is since forth
good for nothing. But to be cast out and to be
trodden underfoot of me. Now, our Lord says you are the
salt of the earth. Who's he talking about? Everybody. No, he's not talking about everybody's
talking about Believers, those who know and love and trust the
Lord Jesus Christ, those who have been saved by his grace. Now, the Lord was talking to
a mixed multitude of people. He was talking to his disciples
and not only his disciples, but a mixed multitude of people,
believers and unbelievers. But as I said before, he could
sovereignly apply this to whomsoever you will. We can't. We can't look out on a mixed
congregation like we have here and say God loves you and Christ
died for you. And you are the salt of the earth
and you are going to heaven. We can't say that. Because we
don't have this all knowledge. We don't know every man or every
woman's heart. We can't say that. We can't say
that God loves you because God may not. Scripture says that
there are some people upon whom the wrath of God abides. Scripture
says that there are some people whom God hates. God hateth all
workers of iniquity. God is angry with the wicked
every day. In many scriptures that speak of the wrath and the
hatred of God Almighty and the condemnation of God upon some
people. So, I cannot look upon a mixed congregation and say,
God loves you, nor can I say Christ died for you. Right? Because Christ died for his sheep. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. Not all men, but I lay down redemption
or salvation's price, which was blood for my sheep. But our Lord could say this.
He could say you. and look into the face of and
apply this to everyone who he was talking to, even though there
was a mixed crowd. So you follow me? All right. But this is talking about believers
being the salt of the earth. All right. Now, if you're taking
notes at four main points in this message that naturally come
from this First of all, what does it mean
by salt? What is the Lord talking about when he says you're salt? What does he mean by salt? Secondly,
how is a believer the salt of the earth? How is a believer
the salt of the earth? Thirdly, how does a believer
lose his savor? He said, if a salt has lost its
savor, and fourthly, what are the consequences of losing this
savor? He said, if you lose this savor,
then therefore this. All right. Number one, what is
meant by salt? Well, you have to turn with me
to the first time the word is used. Leviticus chapter two,
this is what we call the law of first mention. Salt is first
mentioned or in the context of what we're reading. It's first
talked about in Leviticus chapter two. We compare scriptures with
scripture. We just don't tear off on a tangent
here. Whatever the New Testament says,
we seek to to find it written from the Old Testament scripture.
Leviticus chapter two our Lord first quoted this in Mark chapter
nine. Mark chapter nine verse forty
nine Leviticus two and I look at verse thirteen with me. This
is important. I'm not just digging up some
obscure passage here. This is important. This is where
it starts verse thirteen. Every oblation. Of thy meat offering. Now this is the Lord. talking
to Moses about coming to him with these sacrifices. How men and women were to approach
God, how they were to worship God. OK, this is God talking
to Moses, instituting the way that men and women were to worship
God. All right, every oblation of
thy meat offering. Or every preparation everything
you do to your meat offering of the lamb, the bullock, whatever
it may be, shalt thou season with salt. See that? You shall season it 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." Does anybody have a clue what
that's talking about? I hope so. I hope some of you
see what that's saying. What does He mean by salt? What
did the Lord Jesus Christ mean by, You are the salt of the earth?
What did God mean when He first said this? The salt of the covenant. Salt, salt, salt. Well, the scriptures are spiritual. Christ said, my words are spirit
and they're life, right? He wasn't talking about salt
out of a salt shaker. He was talking about something
with a spiritual meaning to it. And this is what the Lord first
said, the salt of the covenant. That is a spiritual meaning to
salt, salt, salt. three times in this one verse,
the word salt is mentioned. Does anybody recall seeing a
word three times in a verse of scripture we just studied not
too long ago? First Corinthians fifteen, verse
ten. Can anybody quote that? By the
grace of God, I am what I am. And the grace of God which was
bestowed on me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly
than them all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with
me." Grace, grace, grace. Salt, salt, salt. What is the covenant whereby
God saves us? The covenant of grace. So what
is Christ talking about when he says, salt, salt? He's talking about sovereign
grace, sovereign grace. By grace are you saved. And like Zerubbabel, this is
familiar to some of you, when he laid that topstone upon that
wall, he cried grace unto it, grace unto it. Everything that
we speak of pertains to the grace of God Almighty. The grace of
God the scripture says Ephesians two eight by grace are you saved
through faith we are saved by the grace of God Almighty the
grace of God we have to begin here. Right we have to begin
with God's grace because everything begins with God's right. Everything. When we're talking about somebody
being salt, when he says, you are the salt of the earth or
savory, something savory to the earth, you have to begin with
the grace of God, which makes us savory. Right. Apart from the sovereign saving
grace of God through the blood of Christ, there is none righteous. No, not one. There are none that
doeth good, no, not one. We are all together, the scripture
says, become unprofitable. And that word in the original
is stinking. There is nothing savory about
anybody in here, including the preacher. He's the worst of the
lot. That's what Paul, the apostle,
the apostle said that, didn't he? He said, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners. Christ said, I didn't come to
call the righteous, the religious, the moral, the upright, but sinners
to repentance. And Paul went on to say, and
I'm the chief. Not I was, I am. And John said it in 1 John chapter
1, if any man say he hath not sinned or hath no sin, He's a
liar. And there's nothing savory, there's
nothing lovely, there's nothing good or righteous or needful
to God about us. Nothing at all. So what is it
that makes anybody, any human being savory? Grace. Grace. Grace. It's the grace of God. And salt. There's something about salt
that all of you are familiar with here in Virginia. Any of
you have one of these Virginia hams hanging in your barn or
somewhere? What do they cure these hams
with? Salt. Salt. Salt keeps meat from
spoiling, right? It preserves it, doesn't it?
Salt. How are we preserved? How are we kept from condemnation. How are we kept from being destroyed? How are we kept from becoming
stinking and spoiled, rotten? By the grace of God Almighty. Salt. So we have to begin with
God's grace, right? We're not salt. We're not savory
in and of ourselves. But it's by the grace of God,
I am what I am. And he says by grace through
faith are you say OK. Now this world is religious world
especially makes a lot to do with faith. They make a lot to
do with man's will, man's decision, man deciding for God, man accepting
Jesus as his personal Savior, man making him Lord, man walking
the aisle and doing this and that and the other, working for
Jesus and all that. That's a bunch of tommyrot, whatever tommyrot
is. I've heard that all my life,
tommyrot. Somebody tell me what tommyrot is. It's bad, whatever
it is. It's foolishness. It's blasphemy. is not of yourself. He goes on
to say that in Ephesians two eight by grace are you say. Through
faith. That it doesn't stop there and
that's not of yourself. That's by grace. It's the gift
of God even so this whole thing from start to finish is totally
dependent one hundred percent upon what. The grace of God Almighty,
the gift of God, the wages of sin is death, right? But what the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. He, Christ, is the author
and the finisher of our faith and everything in between by
grace or you say, but this salt is also faith. salt, he says,
salt here, every sacrifice. Look there in Leviticus 2, he
says, every oblation, every meat offering shall be salted with
salt, all of them salted with salt. And this is faith, OK? By grace you say without, through
faith, because without faith it is impossible to please God. without faith. All right, what
is faith then? What is faith? And I just mentioned
to you a while ago what the world says faith is. The world says
faith is you exercising your free will, decide and make your
decision to let God be God, you know, accept Jesus as your personal
Savior. None of these things, by the
way, are anywhere to be found in the Bible. It doesn't say
anywhere in the scriptures, let God do anything. We can't let
God do anything. God does as he pleases. The scripture
says he do it according to his will and armies of heaven and
among the habitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or
say unto him, you can't do that. Now, God will work, the scripture
says, and who will prevent it? Who will let it? But men today. erroneously or falsely say you
must let God do you can't let God do. They say, well, you must
exercise your free will. You must accept Jesus as your
personal savior. That's not to be found in the
Bible anywhere, and that is not faith. Besides, Christ is not
up for our acceptance. We're the ones that stand in
judgment, right? We're the ones that stand in
need of the acceptance of God Almighty. God has already made him Lord.
We don't make him Lord either. God has already made Christ Lord
a long time ago. We don't make him Lord. He is
Lord, whether we know it or not. And salvation is God revealing
that to us now, before it's too late, because he's going to reveal
it to everybody then, right? In the end, every knee will bow
and every tongue shall confess that he's Lord to the glory of
the Father. Salvation is God letting us know that now and
letting us making us bow to him now and not wait until then,
because every knee will bow then, but some in damnation. Well,
what is faith then? Is it letting God, is it deciding
for Jesus, is it accepting him as our personal savior, is it
walking the aisle, is it shaking the preacher's hand, is it getting
baptized, is it joining the church, is it quitting your drinking,
your smoking, your cussing and chewing and running around with
women and this and that and the other? Is that faith? Well, Christ said this, nobody
can approach God but by him. Right. He said no man cometh
under the father but by me. By me. What do you mean by that?
What he meant was nobody can get to heaven except I take them
there. I've used the illustration before
when I worked on the railroad and I used to, people used to
come down to visit me there, and I would take them a little
tour through the railroad. And if anybody was found on the
property, though, just walking around, they would quickly be
removed by the secret police there. What are you doing here?
I'm just, look, I wanted to look around. You can't, you can't
come in here. And they would quickly remove them off the property.
But if they were with somebody that had the authority to take
them around the place, then they could freely come in that place. They had free access. No man
cometh unto the Father, Christ said, but by me. We don't rush up to God and say,
Here I am. I've decided to let you accept
me. I've decided to let you take
me in. No, no. He's got to come to us,
doesn't he? He's got to come to us and do
what's necessary for our entrance into heaven, that is, shed his
blood, impute his righteousness, and then he's got to take us
all the way because we're failing, fallible, fickle, finite creatures
and we'll fall every day except we're held up by his grace. We're
sheep. Scripture says believers are
like sheep, and all we like sheep have gone astray. And the only
way any sheep is going to reach the fold is by the Good Shepherd
coming and putting them on his shoulders and taking them all
the way home. They don't take the first step.
Their first step is in the other direction by nature. Besides,
they can't even step at all. Scripture says we're dead in
trespasses and sin. A dead man can't step anywhere,
can he? Isn't that what it says in Ephesians
2, 1? You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sin? Go down to the graveyard and
try to tell one of these fellows to get up. Seems simple enough,
doesn't it? Doesn't it seem easy enough?
Go down to the graveyard and go up to one of those graves,
say one that's got 1855 written on it, John Doe, and say, John,
if you'll take the first step, I'll do the rest. You take the first step, and
I'll meet you halfway. John can't take the first step,
can he? He's dead. Lazarus, if you'll take the first
step out here, I'll meet you halfway. Lazarus is dead. He'd been dead four days, and
he was stinking. It took the powerful call and the voice of
the Son of God, didn't it, to raise him from the dead. So this
thing of faith is not what we do. It's not what we are. It's not what we don't do. It's
not us quitting this and quitting that. That comes after the fact.
This thing of faith is simply receiving a gift. The grace of
God. Receiving a gift. God says, no
man can come, or Christ said, no man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Now come unto me all you that
labor and are heavy laden. All sinners come unto me." How
can a dead man come? Well, with the call comes the
power, doesn't it? Lazarus come. Are you kidding?
He did. How? It was who was doing the
talking. Right? It was who was doing the
calling. the powerful voice of the son
of God Lazarus get up and come on. He could take that step then
because Christ gave him the power to do so man with a withered
hand. He said to him stretch forth
your hand at a withered hand. Well, he couldn't do that. He
did have to do it. It was who's doing the talking
who was doing the calling who was doing the commanding So faith
is a gift and it's by the power of God. It's a command. It's
the work of God and faith on our part. This thing of believing
this thing of trusting, depending is just simply acknowledging
what God's already done. God says, I'm holy and sovereign,
you're nothing, you're no good, you're a sinner, you deserve
to go to hell. What does faith say? True, Lord, that's right.
Damn me if you will, that's what I deserve. Right? That's faith. Agreeing with God.
Amos 3, 3. Can two walk together except
to be agreed? You cannot walk with God unless you agree with
him, what he says about himself and what he says about you. And
then God says, and you can't get to me but by a blood sacrifice. You can't get to me except through
the blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sins, and it's not your blood. It's
not the blood of bulls and goats, but it's the blood of my son.
And you'll not get here except by righteousness. You've got
to be perfectly holy and righteous to be with me. And that's not
ours, because we can't be holy and righteous, can we? Who's
he talking about? He's talking about Christ, the
righteousness of God. And so God says, there's my son,
your only hope. of entering into heaven. He shed
his blood. He established a righteousness,
a holiness that you need to get into my presence with. I'll bow
to him, kiss the feet of the son, believe him, trust him,
and you'll be safe. But I can't. God says for you
to do so, you will. Thy people should be made willing
in the day of thy power. So this thing of salt is Sovereign
grace through faith, it's grace and it's faith. And all of that
is from God Almighty. You've got to begin there. And
he says, with all that offerings, look at it again. Verse 13, with
all that offerings, thou shalt offer salt. With all that offerings,
offer salt. Any time you meet to worship
God. Any gathering of people like
this. To worship God, so-called, you better be talking about who
God, God's accepted way of worship, God's sacrifice, right? The only
way you can approach God back in those Old Testament days was
through the blood of a lamb, right? And the only way you and
I can worship God or come to God or be pleasing to God is
through the blood of Jesus Christ, is to make much of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said let him not be lacking
let it not be lacking in that needle but with all of the offerings
shall offer so look at verse eleven there in Leviticus two
said no meat offering which you should bring under the Lord shall
be made with eleven. You that have ears to hear do
you hear that eleven you remember the Lord talking about eleven
anywhere beware the eleven of the scribes and the Pharisees.
What's that talking about? He said, no sacrifice shall be
offered with leaven. What were the scribes and Pharisees?
Self-righteous is what they were. Self-righteous. In other words,
they were the most religious, moral, upright, upstanding, the
best man, the best man of the day. Why, they stood on the street
corners and prayed. They tithed. They did many wonderful
works and so forth in the name of God. But Christ said they
were hypocrites, self-righteous hypocrite. John called them snakes,
vipers. They were self-righteous. In
other words, they thought that God was well pleased with them
because of who they were and what they did. And that's self-righteousness. And God won't have it. By grace,
he is saved. By the righteousness are you
saved, and it's not yours. It's the righteousness of Christ.
So beware of it, he says. Don't come to worship God with
anything you've ever done or said or anything you are. That's
self-righteousness. You deny yourself. Take up the cross. Follow Christ. And he says, burn no leaven.
Look at this first eleven or any honey. Honey. And I tell you what, you
go in every church today and you'll hear a syrupy, sweet,
religious, sweet, pious, you know, preacher, get up with a
silly look on his face, a smile on his face and tell you God
loves you. And so do I. And we love you
here and want you so much to be a member of our loving family. Because this is a church where
everybody is somebody. Can you imagine Isaiah saying
that? Can you imagine Jonah going down
to Nineveh and saying that? Can you imagine Noah saying that
to the people on the outside of the bow of that boat? God
loves you. He has a wonderful plan for your
life. As they were drowning. Honey. Don't offer any honey. You talk real plain. Paul said,
therefore, seeing we have such hope or one hope. Through grace,
they say it's a good hope through grace, we've got one hope. Therefore,
we use great what plainness of speech, call a spade a spade.
Where the rubber meets the road, we call a man a sinner like the
Bible calls him. We call him a worthless worm
like the scripture calls him. We call God holy and high and
lifted up and sovereign like the scriptures calls him. We
call Christ the only sacrifice, the only mediator, the only high
priest between God and men, like the Scripture says about him.
And no man will come unto the Father except by him. No honey,
no sugary, syrupy, sweet little sermonettes, but the bloody sacrifice. There's nothing sweet and pleasant
A lovely looking, about a bloody sacrifice, is it? Men and women
today, if they'd have got in on that sacrifice of old, when
Aaron, the high priest, was making the sacrifice before the Lord,
the Scripture says he took blood and splattered it everywhere.
If you'd have gone in that place, it would have turned your stomach.
And if you'd have seen Christ hanging on that cross, you wouldn't have a picture of
it on your wall, would you? like poor, foolish, and ignorant
people have, supposedly. It was a bloody sacrifice, but
that's what it took. That's what it took. So he says,
offer salt, blood, blood. Once you ever get a taste
for meat, it's hard to just eat vegetables all the time. Once
you get a taste of the blood of Christ and you're preaching,
It would be hard to go back to any of this other nonsense and
silly little side issues and so forth. And once you've ever
salted your food, it's hard to do without it, isn't
it? I didn't used to care anything
about salt when I was a kid. I never paid any attention to
it. I didn't salt my food. But once I got a taste of that
stuff, it's addictive, isn't it? And if you've ever heard
Christ and Him crucified, If you've ever heard the sovereign
grace of God preached, you'll settle for nothing less. And
you won't take any salt substitutes either, will you? No salt substitutes. No grace substitutes. That is,
no mixture. No grace plus works. No Christ
plus your faith. No, no, no. One hundred percent
Christ. One hundred percent grace. Him
and him alone, Christ is all. That's my first point. I'll hurry. Our second point. So salt, what does he mean by
salt? What he means is grace through faith. the salt of the earth. Well,
we're the recipients or the receivers of God's grace, right? And this
isn't some big thing. I mean, this is no, it's a glorious
and high calling, but we don't make much of what we are. We're just a vessel. In other
words, a salt shaker. The glory is in the salt. Not
in the vessel. We are vessels of mercy. What
do we glorify? The vessel? No, the mercy. We're
vessels of God's grace. God has bestowed his grace upon
us. We glorify man, the receiver? No, we glorify the gift. Right? We're vessels of mercy. The scripture
says earthen vessels at death. That is clay pots. clay pots and dirty vessels at
that. Dirty vessels. There's none of
us in here who are perfectly clean, holy, spotless, pure,
sinless people. Not at all. Or earthen vessels,
but vessels of God's grace nonetheless. Saved sinners. Saved sinners. Worthless creatures, but seasoned
with salt. Like an old slug. If you put
salt on a slug or a snail, it'll disintegrate him. He's no longer what he was. He's
not the same. He'll die, won't he? He'll die.
He'll die. Well, when the grace of God comes
upon us, we're crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, we live.
Yet it's not I, but a new creature in Christ. Worthless worms unless
we're made fit for the Master's use. I'll give you an illustration
of this. We went fishing not too long ago, and Hannah went
with us, Brother John and Hannah and I, and she's real tender
right now, you know, and she kind of felt sorry for those
worms. We started drowning a few worms.
We drowned a few, didn't we? More than the fish we caught.
We drowned a few worms, but after a while, she got to liking catching
some fish. She saw that fish are so much
more profitable than worms. See, you can eat fish. Fish is,
you can do something with fish, but a worm? Finally, she said
to me, she made this profound statement. She said, you know,
Daddy, she said, worms really aren't worth much, are they? I said, honey, that's right.
And you know what the Scriptures calls us? Worms. Isaiah 41, he said to Jacob,
fear not thou. What Jacob? Worm Jacob. Worm
Jacob. And that means everybody that's
a believer like Jacob or in the house of Israel. Jacob is Israel.
You're a worm. That's no big deal. A worm's
nothing. He's not worth much. If he's made fit or meet for
the master's use, if God uses a worm, then something profitable
about him, isn't it? It's not in the worm. Somebody brought this out to
me. I think it was John. He said, you know what a worm is? What's
a worm made up of? Somebody tell me. You know what
a worm's made up of? Dirt! What are we? Sin. Sin, full of dirt on the
inside out. That's all you'll get out of
us, really, is dirt. Worthless creatures, but when
made fit for the Master's use, seasoned by grace, then maybe
God can do something with us. Yeah, He can do something with
us. No maybe to it. And having received his grace, we are now
instruments to spread forth his praises. That's what Peter said.
Spread forth his praises. And I've got to quit. I've got
about five more pages of notes. But I've got to quit. I do want
you to turn with me over to Mark, chapter nine. Mark, chapter nine. I'll try to condense two more
points in about five minutes here. Mark, chapter nine. How
are we salt then? How are we to be salt? How is
it to be salt of the earth? Mark chapter nine, look at verse
forty-nine with me. Mark chapter nine, verse forty-nine. He says in verse forty-nine,
everyone shall be salted with fire. Does that ring a bell to
anybody? Peter said, the trial of your
faith. The trial of your faith. Your
faith will be tried with fire. The trial of your faith, everyone
will be salted with fire that is tried or tested by trial. The trial of their faith, see
whether or not they really are or have faith. It doesn't give
faith, it reveals whether you have it or not. Salted with fire,
the fiery trials, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Now
verse fifty, salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness. or saltness, wherewith shall
you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and
have peace one with another." Have salt in yourselves. What
does that mean? Well, do you remember reading
that over in 1 Peter? Salt in yourselves. Christ must
be in you. Christ in you is your hope of
glory. Peter said, give diligence to
make your calling and election Sure. Didn't Paul say, Know ye
not your own selves, how that Christ be in you? Give diligence,
or in other words, settle this issue. Go home. Christ said,
Go home in your closet and get before God Almighty. Don't come
down front, dedicate and re-consecrate and make your decision and all
that. Go home in your closet before God Almighty and say,
God Almighty, decide this issue for me. Am I a believer or am
I not? Reveal yourself to me. Reveal
myself to me. Know ye not your own selves?
You need to. Give diligence to make your calling
and election sure. Christ must be in you by faith.
If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of it. He's
none of it. Now, the purpose of God Almighty
for men. The only reason God Almighty
created the planet Earth and men and women upon it is that
Peter said this, that he might have a peculiar people at his
purchase. The word peculiar means purchased
by the blood of Christ. A purchased people that we should
show forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness
into his marvelous light. Out of darkness, show forth his
praises. How can we be sought on this
earth? By showing forth his praises. Showing forth his praises. Peter also said this, sanctify
the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer
to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is
in you. Paul said we are a sweet smelling
savor of Christ in them that are saved. A sweet smelling savor
of Christ. The only way we can be salt on
this earth is how we are a savor of the Lord Jesus Christ, or
how we make known, or glorify, or speak of, or bring glory to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, we're a sweet-smelling
saver of Christ in them that are saved. I've got to bring
this out. In them that are saved. Do you hear that? A sweet-smelling
saver of Christ in them that are saved. That's where you first
become a blessing. That's why you first become the
salt of the earth. We need to edify, add to, love,
serve the body. Or we're just merely taking up
space. OK? He that gathers not with us scattereth
abroad. And also we need to salt the
earth with the gospel. God maketh manifest the savor
of his knowledge by us in every place. Paul said. How do we lose our
savor? How do we lose this favor as
a believer lose this favor now. Please this is important and
this is so convicting. I think I made it perfectly perfectly
clear how we're saying right now that there's nothing in us
and we're kept by his power and so forth. But there are many
people who look and appear for all practical purposes to be
believers to be in the body but they end up later on being not
of us they went out of from us they were not of us. If they
had been of us John said they would no doubt have continued
with them. But they went out from us that
it might be made manifest they were not of us all of them some
people though they are members and so forth, are not sought. Not sought. And they begin to
lose their savor eventually. They begin to show that. First
of all, in the body, or in the church, when someone begins to
be cold and lethargic and listless and lifeless toward the gospel
and the fellowship of the saints, Now, all of us go through this
at times, but we don't stay that way. When somebody goes through
this and stays that way, it's cause for alarm. He or she has
become unsavory. We become indifferent if we become
indifferent to the gospel. In other words, gospel message
after gospel message comes to us and we're unmoved, uncaring,
unfeeling, even lifeless. Become unsavory. And this begins
to manifest itself. This begins to manifest itself
by this person taking on some poor character traits. That person
becomes unsavory, becomes stuck up, becomes cold, lifeless, dead
and dull toward the hearing of the gospel. They add nothing
to the body, rather they detract from it. And that person is not
sought anymore. They don't season anyone. You
know, we season people by a word in season, right? Or a smile, or a greeting, or
a help, or a something. And this is where we start, in
the body, isn't it? For sweet-smelling savor of Christ
in them that are saved, Paul said first. and then they're
safe. We need to ask ourselves, do
I add to the church or do I take away from it? Is my presence adding to it or
detracting from it? Well, and somebody that's like
that in the house of God, somebody that continues like that No doubt,
they're probably that way outside of the church toward the unsaved
and so forth. OK, he says now if the salt has
lost its savor, what good is it but to be cast out and trodden
underfoot of men? Here's the consequences and I'll
quit. The consequences of losing this savor, he says, you are
good for nothing. Good for nothing. And no one
rather detrimental, adverse, divisive. And the track from. The kingdom of God, and he says,
are good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden underfoot
of me and the warnings come, and it's so convicting the warnings
come. Christ said. Mark them, which cause divisions. Mark him. Paul said in another
place, he said, if any man is called a brother, is a fornicator,
and this and that and the other, he said, have no fellowship with
him. No, don't even eat with him. And I thank God that this is
not prevalent or is not going on right now, but it can happen. Don't you think for a minute.
that the best man in here cannot fall and leave. And not if he's
truly sought, or if he's been saved by the grace of God, he'll
not fall. Once in this grace of God, yes,
always under the grace of God. That's what I quoted in 1 Corinthians
15.10. The grace of God bestowed is
not in vain. But a mere head knowledge of
doctrine and so forth is not the grace of God. That's doctrines
of grace. The grace of God is bestowed
upon and in a person. Christ in you. Christ in you
by faith and Christ likeness emanating from you. Okay? Christ likeness. And no good
for anything without this Christ likeness, but to be cast out
and trodden underfoot. Trodden underfoot of men. Nobody's
going to hear Nobody cares about your doctrine really. Nobody cares about your doctrine
if what you do denies it. Right? Nobody cares if you believe
in a sovereign God if you murmur and complain. Nobody cares if
you talk about the grace of God if you deny that grace of God. Nobody cares. And I've said this so many times,
I've quit paying attention to theologians and doctrinal correctness. I mean, I listened for it eventually.
But the scripture says not many wise men of the flesh. Scripture
says not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, the spirit
of Christ, Christ's likeness, saith the Lord. Just because
a man or a woman can articulate the gospel doesn't mean he's
saved. I've seen elders and deacons The best man, man at his best
stage, is altogether banished. You show me a man who shows forth
the praises of God, who has Christ in him, not only in knowledge
and in faith, but in a changed life. The grace of God which
was bestowed upon me, Paul said, was not in vain, but I was. I
labored more abundantly than them all. I changed life as well
as speech. You know, speech is easy to come
by, especially around grace believers. It's real easy to talk sovereign
grace around grace believers. Talk comes cheap. A Christlike
spirit, fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, long suffering. gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance, and so forth. That's the fruit of the
Spirit, and that's a saved man or woman. You're not saved apart
from knowledge, but you're not saved by it. You're not saved
by it. And otherwise, that man or woman
who does not exhibit the character of Christ and the true grace
of God in us, He's no good for anything but to be trodden underfoot
of men, and that's what Lot was like, wasn't it? Lot seemed as
one that mocked. He seemed as one that mocked.
Consider these things carefully. These are important things to consider. We need to
pray. We need to earnestly ask God
Almighty, like I said, settle this issue. Is Christ in me or
not? Do I know him or do I not? Decide
this doubtful case for me right now before it's everlastingly
too late. And don't let him go until he
blesses you with that knowledge. John said, we know, we know. Pray to God that you do not lose
your savor of Christ in body, in the body, in the church and
outside. Pray for others that they may
be salted with this gospel, kept by the power of God. And beware
that you lose not your salt. And here's a good point. Christ
says, the salt has lost its saltness. Take care that you don't become
so friendly toward other people that they never hear Christ from
you. Because that's our only purpose, right? That's our only
purpose. If salt has lost its savor of
Christ, what good is it to anybody? Everybody's a good old boy, a
good old girl. There's plenty there, a dime
a dozen out there, good citizens. Right? Our savor is that of Christ. And don't avoid others, though,
because of cowardice. Because of cowardice. Pray for
courage, conviction, strength. Pray for open doors, usefulness
in God's kingdom. But above all, pray that Christ
may be formed in you, because Christ in you is your hope of
glory. And Christ said this, You are the salt of the earth,
but if the salt has lost its savor, wherewithal shall it be
salted? Barnard preached a sermon one
time titled, When God Kills Christians. You get a copy of that. You can
get a hold of it sometime. Get a copy of it. God kills Christians. And he does. God says, I kill,
I make alive. I wound, I heal. And we lost our saltness. Good for nothing. Pray that the Lord will make
you an old salty. An old salt. Not a sailor, but
an old salt. Zealous for God's glory. Sovereign grace of God. Sold
out to Christ. One of His disciples. I need
it. I need it. I haven't arrived
myself. I've come far short of that. What I need, I know you need.
All right, stand with me. Let's bow for prayer. Dear Lord, we bow before your sovereign word.
It's powerful. It's quick and it's powerful.
It's sharper than a two-edged sword. It's able to pierce, divide,
and sunder. It's able to discern the very
thoughts and intents of our hearts. It's able to change us, too,
Lord. This is the incorruptible Word of God. It's able to do
mighty things if the Lord God is pleased to do it. We pray
that you would take this Word that we've heard tonight, the
Word that came from your very lips, and work a mighty work
within our own hearts. Lord, save us by your grace. keep us by your grace, make us
instruments in your service, that we might show forth the
praises of our great God who has saved us by his grace. In
Christ's name we pray these things and ask these things. Amen. You're
dismissed.