The Salt We Must Have

Please open God’s Word this morning to Mark in the ninth chapter, the Gospel of Mark, chapter 9.

The Week of Prayer is busy as it is. The day starts and just rolls from one thing to the next, and then, if you’re sharing in a hotel room as well, you end up getting back to the room and talking until the wee hours of the morning, until someone finally relents and gives up, or someone with sense says, “Enough is enough. We need to go to sleep.” And so that cycle continues day after day.

And, of course, there’s a practice that some men have had historically, if there are churches that are close by, because of this series of busyness, and there’s no time really to study, that then they would pulpit swap. And so, men on the Sunday after the Week of Prayer, they switch their pulpits. One preaches in one church an old message, he heats it up and he preaches it, and the other does the same in another church.

That’s not the case this morning. So yesterday was very busy trying to finish up. The Lord, I believe, gave some leading through the week, and I knew where I wanted to go, but didn’t get looking at it really until yesterday.

But I want to read in Mark 9 from verse 30, and take time to read through the end of the chapter. Again, we’re not in any series at the present time. This allows us to look at certain texts that otherwise we may not, and I was struck by God’s Word here.

Mark 9, verse 30. Let us hear the Word of the Lord.

“They departed thence and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it.

“For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.

“But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him.

“And they came to Capernaum: and being in the house he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?

“But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest.

“And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.

“And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them,

“Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me.

“And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us.

“But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me.

“For he that is not against us is on our part.

“For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.

“And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.

“And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:

“Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

“And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:

“Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

“And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire:

“Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

“For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.

“Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.”

Amen.

I trust the Lord will bless the reading of His Word. What you have heard, beloved, is the Word of the eternal God, which you would receive, believe, and obey. And the people of God said, Amen.

Let’s pray.

Lord, we ask for help now around the Word. We’ve given thought to this passage, and we trust that there is contained not merely information, but a message. To that end, we pray for the ministry of the Holy Spirit in this present moment.

Oh, blessed Spirit of God, we do not have to convince Thee to love us, and so, in loving us, help us to hear the Word, to receive the Word, to apply the Word.

Give guidance now. Close us in with Thyself. We would see Jesus, and we would be more conformed to His image. Extend Thy kingdom. Give unusual help, we pray in our Savior’s name. Amen.

Our Lord Jesus was desirous to prepare His disciples for what was to come. And in Mark’s account, in this very passage, there are several instances in which He is opening up their minds to what is in the future.

Look at verse 9 of the chapter where we were reading.

“As they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead.”

So He’s laying it out. What you’ve seen, being on the Mount of Transfiguration, keep it until the Son of Man is risen.

Then in verse 12, we are told there of Elijah, “Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things,” and how it is written of the Son of Man that He must suffer many things and be set at nought.

And where we read, verse 31, you see Him, He’s teaching His disciples. He’s instructing them. A summation of that instruction is given: “The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.”

And yet they don’t quite grasp it, as it says, “But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him.”

And so, while the Lord Jesus is dealing with His own suffering—it’s right on the heels of such a subject, I am going to suffer, I am serving and suffering—they then begin to discuss, or argue, and dispute about their own superiority.

And the contrast shouldn’t be missed. They come to Capernaum, and Christ inquires, “What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?” What were you talking about along the way?

And it seems like they recognize they probably shouldn’t have been talking that way. Whatever’s in their hearts, they will not speak, because they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest.

It’s one of those discussions where something’s said, and one thing leads to another, and then it opens up. And really, after the fact, you say to yourself, what on earth were we thinking? I’m sure you’ve had that experience, where something has arisen, you have a discussion, and on reflection, you’re thinking to yourself, why did I say that? And you start to think to yourself, should I go back to the person and say, you know, I hope you didn’t misunderstand what I was saying? Or you try to iron it out, or you wonder, maybe I’m going to make it worse by raising the subject again. Whatever the case, it’s something similar here.

And it’s the sense of contrast, though, that the Holy Spirit brings out, in which Christ is speaking of His service to His people and His sacrifice on the cross, and they’re speaking about their own superiority.

Who’s going to be the greatest?

Well, He then instructs them more fully. And as they sit down, He speaks to them of one’s desiring to be first: “the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.” If you’re wanting to really lead, be last and be a servant.

And He takes a child then, and He illustrates through this image the humility of a child. And He’s leading somewhere. He’s leading to the sense of this need for us.

Rather than fighting among ourselves about who should be best, there ought to be a spirit of service, condescension, of humility. And if grace really lives in the heart, it’s not about aspiring to greatness, but aspiring to service and serving the needs as we find them around us.

The point is brought home in verse 50.

“Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.”

There again, amidst the disputation that’s been happening, He’s driving at this point. Having this saltiness, and this saltiness, if it exists, will bring peace. It will bring this harmony between those who are of like mind and heart.

I can never read this verse without thinking about an occasion in which there was a number of us gathered, this family, and there was discussion around a particular book, a book that was, I think, if I recall—I didn’t go back and check this—but I think the book was called The Hallelujah Diet. And a series of chapters in it, and one of them was about salt, and making out that salt is poison.

And one particular person, you know, as we’re discussing this book and its information, and salt’s really bad and it’s poisonous to the system, then came up this voice. One of the family members just said, “Salt is good.” And everyone knew. He says, “So said Jesus. Salt is good.”

So you can read these books about things being bad. Of course, it is a tool. It serves a purpose, as it did especially in ancient times. And I think people get into their mind things that they ought not. But anyway, that’s not really the purpose this morning.

I want you to see how He drives this home. He illustrates this. And the question, of course, may arise, what on earth is He using salt in this way? Why? In verse 49, “For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.”

He’s drawing their minds back to the fact that sacrifices had the seasoning of salt with them. They were to be offered in that way.

Leviticus 2:13: “Neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering.”

And so, a couple of times this is mentioned, the fact that salt is added to sacrifices. And you ask, well, what’s that all about? In fact, salt is referred to as a—the covenant is referred to as a covenant of salt, Numbers 18:19 and 2 Chronicles 13:5.

So why is the covenant referred to as a covenant of salt? Why is salt added to the sacrifices? And what has it got to do with this passage?

And I put it to you, beloved, there’s a sense in which the covenant is referred to as a covenant of salt because it undergirds this perpetuity and this continuity of the covenant.

That salt was seen as this preserving element, something that had a use, a tool that was broadly used, not just to add flavor, though it did that, add a savor to things, but also had this preserving element. And the covenant is perpetually then illustrated through the symbol of salt.

And so, if the covenant is a covenant of grace, that it graciously comes to man and God keeps His word, His gracious word to His people is illustrated through salt.

And what Jesus then drives home is, if you’re living by this, if you’re living in the enjoyment of this covenant, if you truly are a child of God, then you will be marked by this saltiness. You have characteristics of it.

“Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves,” He says, “and have peace one with another.”

So I want us to look at this verse, with the Lord’s help, under what I’ve titled The Salt We Must Have. The salt we must have.

When I say must, you’re going to discover I mean must. Because if you’re without this, you perish. If you’re without this, you’re lost. And it doesn’t matter what you’ve professed in the past, and what spiritual experiences you can draw from in your memory, or what positions you’ve held, or how you’ve been respected by others. It matters not a jot if you are without this salt. We must have it.

Note, in the first place, the quality of it. The quality of it.

“Salt is good,” says Jesus. Salt is good.

Now I know, just going back to that thought, when all the factory-produced foods have sodium added, far more than what we need, and everything we eat has all this salt, and I know that’s bad, I get it. I’m not contradicting your doctor who says you need to lower your sodium intake. Of course, you can go too far with that too.

And there’s some, of course, who have had this experience, and I’ve had it within my own family, in which there’s such a diligence, and they prepare all their own food, there’s no added sodium, and they’re not adding sodium to the diet at all. And what happens then? The summer hits, they perspire more, they’re losing sodium through their sweat, and all of a sudden they’re plunged into a coma because of low sodium. That can happen again with those who are very diligent and aren’t eating all the kind of factory-produced bad foods or whatever. They’re not eating all that. They’re making everything from scratch, and there’s no sodium in it. And so what happens then is the body is depleted of it, and it’s a real problem. You can die from low sodium.

So salt is good. It has a purpose. It is a tool. It’s something that’s to be used in the right way.

And Christ begins His declaration, and He puts the adjective first. Good is the salt, is the sense of it in the order of the original. Good is the salt. It is useful. It is fitted for purpose.

It is good, in the first place, because it preserves. It preserves.

In a time without refrigeration, without freezing, and without some of the things that we have available to us today, salt was necessary to preserve. It prevented the corrupting influence that naturally would otherwise happen, the spoiling of things.

And Christ is drawing on their knowledge of this and presenting it before them, that one of the most familiar uses of salt is that it prevents decay.

And this illustrates for us grace within the soul. Salt is good. Salt illustrates grace within the soul. We’ll see that more in just a moment. But it illustrates for us what must be existing in the heart. The grace of God is necessary in order to fight the corrupting influence of the nature.

Our natures are so corrupt that even when you find someone who is trying externally to uphold God’s Word, some religious person, they will so do it in such a way as to inflate their own pride and be filled with a sense of their own accomplishments.

You have, of course, Saul of Tarsus as a perfect example of this. He’s not living an irreligious life. He’s not living a wicked life. He’s trying to uphold God’s law, what God requires of him, and he is living in this very disciplined fashion, and yet undergirding it all is pride and dependence upon self.

And what is needed for man is to abandon all of that and place his entire hope in the grace of God.

There’s one old Scottish divine who gave his life to the preaching of the gospel. At the end of his life, an inquiry was made about where he was standing, how he was feeling. You know, he’s facing eternity, and what’s going on in your mind? And he said—and I’m paraphrasing, but this is the sense of what he said—he said, “I see all my sins. And I see all my righteousness. And I run from both into the arms of Jesus.”

That’s grace. That is the mind of someone who’s determined to only have grace as the answer to a corrupt heart. I have no sense of hope or allegiance to, obviously, my sins, but not my righteousness either.

This is what Paul discovered. Again, he was turning away from his righteousness, turning away from all of his works, “to be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,” which is of the law, “but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”

It is that which preserves the soul, the grace that comes, not just to justify, but then its positive leaven to preserve the soul in God’s ways.

We need this.

I was thinking about, you know, looking at what the choir was singing and thinking, how perfect. I was pondering Psalm 51, the very language that they were singing, “Create in me a clean heart.” There is David not looking for an answer anywhere but in God. Create in me a clean heart, Lord.

Salt is good because it preserves. That salt is illustrated in the very grace of the gospel, in the very grace of the covenant, whereby God saves sinners and keeps them. And it has this preserving influence. It enables us then to run from anything that would offend the Lord.

Paul speaks of “the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,” Ephesians 4:22. And so, salt is good because the grace, as it were, in the soul restrains what would ruin us. It preserves our conscience to be tender and enables us then to flee what is corrupting.

And, of course, what’s true of the individual is true of the church. This church must imbibe the grace of God constantly, depend upon the grace of God, and know that its preservation is gracious, not its own effort.

If we start thinking that the testimony of the congregation is based upon the efforts of men, that it is by our own might, by our own strength, by our own diligence, by our own power, by our own orthodoxy, by our own heritage—if we think that the future is secure because of those things—we are already corrupted.

The future for this congregation is entirely gracious. It must be the grace of God that preserves. All this kind of decay is never far away. And this is what Christ warned of Sardis: “thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.” And so the name remains, but the savor, the preserving influence, is gone. It’s no longer there.

Salt is good because it preserves, and salt is good because it seasons. It seasons.

It gives savor. It not just adds flavor, but actually brings out flavor. Good salt, that’s what good salt’s meant to do. It’s meant to not just add flavor, but actually bring out flavors, so that you can begin to taste certain things in what you’re eating that the salt helps bring out.

And so we season things, and so we should season things. And it is an art. Sometimes things get over-seasoned, and it’s not right, and salt can make all the difference to something.

And this is what grace does. It’s what grace does in the soul. It is a savor.

And how is it a savor? It’s a savor in this way. Grace in the heart will always drive us away from performative religion. It’s not satisfied with that. The savor of it is all grace. It recognizes that everything is done so that God may be glorified. That the entire gospel, from beginning to end, is all about the praise of the triune God. It’s about lifting up His name.

It’s not so that Paul can say and argue for what he accomplished in and of himself. But he is the chiefest of all sinners. And what he does, he does by the grace of God, he says.

So grace seasons. It causes there to be the flavor of life. It brings out the beauty of Christianity, the grace.

You know, Christianity, if purely orthodox, its appeal is limited. A purely orthodox Christianity will find itself in a debate against other religions as to its beauty. A purely orthodox Christian, in the sense of just purely by the letter of the law, can go up against Islam, and you dispute the beauty of it based on the pure letter of the law.

And some Muslims are going to say, but with our history, and with the things that we are to believe, and what it requires of us, do you not see the beauty of it? You don’t see the beauty of our prayers five times a day? You don’t see the beauty of this, that, and the other? They can present an argument.

And you can present the argument of Christianity by the pure letter of orthodox doctrine. And you’re coming up against an ideology which is more attractive.

But the real savor of the gospel is that it’s nothing to do with us. And the grace and the savor of the Christian life is such that what is attractive about them is that they seek no glory to themselves. It’s not about them.

And the dependence that they have when they stand before God has nothing to do with what they’ve accomplished in life. It’s nothing to do with their name, nothing to do with their intellect, nothing to do with their position, nothing.

And this is the beauty of it, that you can see these extraordinary characters who were laden with gift and ability and notoriety and yet, and yet, find their own pride crumbling in the face of their humility as they say, Jesus, Jesus only. It’s all Him.

The kind of squabbling and fighting of these disciples, who’s going to be greatest? That’s the squabbling of the carnal heart. Who owns the most money? Who holds the highest position? Who comes from the most recognizable, honorable family lineage? Who has this? Who has that? And really, everyone argues that way.

What’s beautiful about Christianity is the savor of it lays us all low and causes the very king touched by grace to serve as subjects.

Yes, it takes us from just merely being right about doctrine to understanding that the One who has brought about our salvation is altogether lovely. That’s where the beauty is. It’s not in me. It’s not in you. The real beauty is in Him. And our eyes and our gaze are upon Him. And our love is toward Him. And He is the fairest of ten thousand to our souls.

Yes, salt seasons.

It changes the life. It enables then servants, as Paul exhorts them in Colossians 3:23, “whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” It’s not about the recognition of men, or even doing things unto men. You do it unto the Lord.

Note also, not only the quality of it, but the question about it. The question about it.

“Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it?”

Christ turns on this subject then to warn us. And if you’re to take it really literally, and how it’s placed here, if the salt have lost its saltness, it’s if the salt should have become saltless. The salt becomes saltless.

And you can see the contradiction in it. How does the salt become saltless? It’s still salt. But that’s the idea. The salt exists to be salty. And now it’s lost its very purpose. The question is, well, what is left? How can it be seasoned? If the very thing that seasons everything else has lost its saltiness, what hope is there for it?

So think about this, the question our Lord is asking.

We see, in the first place, the pretense of saltless salt. The pretense of saltless salt.

There’s a pretense. It’s still going by the name of salt. “If the salt,” “if the salt.” It still may be referred to as salt, but it doesn’t have the qualities that it’s meant to have.

This is the life without grace. This is the profession without the possession. Many are called Christian, and yet they do not possess the inward reality. They have a name, but they don’t have the substance. There’s a pretense. It’s the profession without the preserving grace, the grace that carries them forward.

And so this is what may be true, and this is the warning Jesus is giving. He’s giving it to His disciples, nonetheless. He’s giving it to them.

I’m listening to your discussion, and having the exhortation and illustration and driving this point home, because you’re in danger. By walking with Me, being considered to be salt, so to speak, and yet not having the saltness.

The question of our Lord Jesus does not come by means of inquiry, as in He’s looking for an answer. It comes to drive through the conscience, to cause their own minds to think upon what they’ve been saying, and what they’ve been thinking, and their whole motivation. And the way John has looked to this other man who’s serving, and John esteems himself better. He’s not with us, therefore he’s lesser, and he shouldn’t even be going around taking Your name.

And the Lord is issuing a warning. If you go on like that, you’re exhibiting this aspect that you say you’re salt, but you have no saltness. There’s no grace. You’re without grace.

There’s warning against pretense.

Oh, “the devils also believe, and tremble,” James 2:19. Devils believe and tremble. You say, I believe. The devil would say, so do I. That does not take you out of the wrong company.

And so you may speak of your conversion, and you may speak of your church membership, and you may speak of your sound doctrine, and you may speak of your Christian duty, all the while you have no saltness. It’s not there.

You know, you attend church, you have some kind of spiritual life. But it was true of the ones that Jesus came unto. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. He came unto the religious. He came unto the churchgoers. He came unto the circumcised. He came unto those who had all the perfection.

They had the name of salt, and no saltness.

Yes, these disciples, how shameful it is. Jesus, with all the glory of His being, and they have seen it, they have seen it, the glory of it. The glory of the One who can say to them, hey, go again, let down your nets for a draught. And the distinguished, experienced fishermen to turn to Him and say, Lord, we’ve toiled all the night, and we’ve taken nothing. There’s nothing there. There’s nothing there right now. Nevertheless, at Thy word, we’ll go.

Sometimes you have to do that. You can’t prove the point through your words. You have to just play it out.

That happened once with a discussion that was had. This will illustrate the point. My wife, of course, is not contentious at all, unlike her husband.

And there was a certain matter she was being challenged about, a particular recipe not working. This is in Calgary. So you’re living at about 4,000 feet. And this recipe that never fails was failing. It wasn’t working. And a person who used the same recipe, when my wife is sharing with them the fact it doesn’t work, it’s the altitude, it’s like, oh, that couldn’t possibly be. You’re doing something wrong.

And in my mind, I would say, I would have probably argued longer. My wife, in her wisdom, said, go and try. Gave them the ingredients, off they went. Tried to do what works at sea level. Tries to do it at 4,000 feet, and it did exactly the same thing. It just, it came up too quickly and it caved in, I think. That was what happened. And it did not look as it normally would look. And so, oh indeed, oh indeed. It mustn’t work, you know. They proved the point.

Well, it is not enough for us to imagine to ourselves that we have all that the Lord has told about us and say that we have this thing. The Lord is looking for the reality, not the pretense. He’s looking for us to have the essence of it itself.

“If the salt have lost his saltness.”

So there’s a pretense.

There’s also a powerlessness to the saltless salt. It has no power. It can’t do what it’s meant to do. In this case, it can’t season. It can’t do that. “Wherewith will ye season it?” So it can’t do the very thing that it’s meant to do. It’s unable. It’s unable to fulfill its purpose.

We have to be very careful with this, because there can be within us a certain sense of leaning upon our past. There’s one thing that’s beautiful about a new believer, is they have no past with which to boast or brag about what they’ve accomplished. When you’re just converted, that new believer spirit of realizing where you were in your sins, and yet grace has saved, and you’ve come to know Christ, and so on, it’s a wonderful thing.

But as time passes, we get a little elevated about our own accomplishments. We’re able to say—it’s almost like we’re able to say—do you not know who I am?

I heard a believer once, when being challenged about their unsavory behavior, instead of really answering the response directly as to what they were doing, they said, “I have suffered so much for the Lord over the years. I have sacrificed this, that, and the other.”

And I thought to myself, that doesn’t really get to the point, does it? I mean, Judas could bring a list of things he sacrificed for the Lord. He gave up a lot, didn’t he? It didn’t make any difference.

If you’ve lost your salt, if you’ve lost the saltness of your salt, if your profession is without its power, the Lord’s question is getting at that which is of eternal significance.

This is why He’s talking about if your hand offend thee, cut it off. If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. It’s not worth it. It’s not worth it to say, I have salt, and yet be without the saltness. Everything hangs in the balance.

Apostasy from the truth can happen at any stage of profession. It is not restricted to a day or two, or a year or two, after conversion or professed conversion. It can happen at any point. And it can happen at any position. It can happen to someone who’s never had any influence in the church, never been a member, never been baptized. And it can happen to those who have been baptized, been a member, held position, been pastors, had notoriety, and yet still they fall away.

When men knowingly cast off Christ, they are in grave danger, whether it is in doctrine or in life.

You think of the context here. Our Lord is not raising a dispute about certain theological truths. Do you believe that I am the Christ? That’s not the question that’s being addressed right here. It’s not a matter of theology in terms of doctrine you believe. It’s about practice. It’s about how you’re living and conducting your life.

And there are apostates in terms of doctrine. And they turn from certain doctrines that prove themselves to be outside the pale of Christian orthodoxy. But there are those who never abandon their stated beliefs of orthodoxy, but they abandon Christ in life.

They abandon Christ in life, and they still have the name of salt, but it has no saltness. It’s lost its power.

They’re like those our Lord addressed again in Revelation. They think they have everything they need, but they don’t know they’re wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. And they’ve left their first love. Powerless.

This is a warning. This is a warning against spiritual decline. It’s a warning to those who are starting to entertain ideas and thoughts about themselves. It’s a warning to how they conduct themselves in the presence of others, because that’s the disciples again. They’re disputing, they’re arguing who’s going to be greatest. They’re bringing their case.

And Christ says, you’re in danger. You’re in danger of losing everything that you profess to have.

So if you’re here this morning and there is spiritual decline in your life, beware.

Finally, the quest for it. We’ve considered the quality of it, salt is good, the salt we must have; the question about it; and the quest for it.

“Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.”

So the warning then gives way to a command. He moves from framing a question that is intended to prick the conscience. What does it matter if you say you are salt or you have salt, and yet you’ve lost the saltness? What does it matter? You say you’re a follower of Me, and yet you have nothing of the power of the life. What does it matter?

You get that the whole spirit’s wrong. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. That’s Jesus. We’re to walk as He walked. And we’re abandoning that entire paradigm. And in so doing, we’re proving that the root of the matter’s not there.

So He gives the command, the quest: “Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.”

Have salt in yourselves.

Have it. Have the reality. Maintain it. Possess it.

So you have, in the first place, the presence of salt within. Have salt in yourselves. The soul must possess what the lips profess. What we say we are must actually be. It ought to be within the heart.

This is the whole thing. Grace is about a work of the life, a work of the heart, a change from within. The promise of the new covenant: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” The law is in. It’s in there. The truth of the matter is found within. The presence of salt within. The principle of life.

Being a new creature in Christ brings about the new tastes, new aspirations. You begin to love what once you despised, and to despise what once you loved. This change is always ongoing.

And so, in the midst of it all, of course, is the preciousness of the Lord Jesus.

Have salt in yourselves. Make sure that you don’t move away from first things: the valuing of Christ, the elevating of Christ, the glorifying of Christ, the dependence upon Christ, the spirit behind the language of Paul, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

That’s the salt. That the glory is not me or my works. My legacy is Christ. Yes.

We then love the Lord above everything. “Unto you therefore which believe he is precious.”

We value Him above all things, and it changes then our attitude toward other things, so that we understand what Joseph said in Genesis 39:9: “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”

How can I do this? I can’t do this. Why? Because the salt will not let me. The saltness of the salt will not let me sin against God.

The presence of salt within.

And so it brings us to consider the purging work of salt within, the purging work of salt. It doesn’t just have to be there; it has to be seen in its effects. It’s purging.

And so again, it is the salt, it is the grace of salt, that will say, I’d rather have Christ and all the benefits of Christ than my eye or my hand or my foot. I’d rather have that.

You think about that. You think about that. I’d rather have Jesus than my faculties. I’d surrender my faculties in order to have Him, truly have Him, have His blessing upon my life.

And what a motivation against sin. The temptation is there, young person, all of us here, the temptation to sin. The pulling back on our speech. They’re not saying the thing that we’re tempted to say. They’re trying to even kick out the thought that tries to embed into the mind, the suspicions, trying to read into motivations of others. People spend time mulling this over, thinking about this, considering things they cannot prove, and they’re corrupting their own hearts in the entire process.

No. You see, the purging work of salt, it delivers us from this. It delivers us from aspirations to greatness, as was the case. It gives us the humility of a child. It causes us to look at others who take the name of Jesus Christ and allow blessing to flow through their hands. We don’t see it as a monopoly. The blessing must come through me.

So praise God that God is using someone over there. Praise God that their ministry is blessed. Their churches are full. They’re seeing souls saved. Praise God for that.

You siblings, you children need to get this, because there are differences among siblings. A lot of the fights and the tension in families is because there’s comparison that’s made. And you think because they—look at how the eldest, they’re able to do this—and you imagine then that they’re the favorite of mom and dad because they achieved this, and you’re living in that shadow, a shadow you’ve created yourself. And all it is is aspiration for greatness.

The salt has lost its saltness.

And the way that we squabble in our places of employment, and the way that people go on, all of this, what salt does is it purges all of that. It prevents it from setting in.

“Love envieth not,” says Paul.

When you come to an election of deacons in a church and you’re able to say, they got it, not me, praise God, praise God. An election of elders, they’re made an elder and not me, praise God. You thank God for these things.

“They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts,” Galatians 5:24. If you belong to Christ, if you have, if there’s saltness in your salt, you have crucified the flesh. You’re putting it to death.

And this is the thing. Jesus talking about His death, and they’re talking about their own greatness. If they actually understood, they would say, we will walk with You, we will die with You. It’s not about us. It’s about You. We will also die.

“In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves,” Philippians 2:3. And that’s what they’d lost. They’d lost that sense. And so, if the salt was really in them, it would purge that. Purge that out. Prevent it from setting in.

And finally, and very quickly, the peace produced by salt within. What’s the peace produced?

“And have peace one with another.”

It’s going to have an outflow. It’s not just going to be that it will be there within the heart, it’s going to stem the tide of sin, it’s going to make you more humble and lowly, and it’s going to then be seen in your relationships. Have peace one with another.

The outward evidence of the inward saltness of your salt, right? The grace is really there. Grace is really there. Is it there?

Or do we come under the admonition that Paul gives in Galatians 5:15: “But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.”

It’s just biting and devouring that happens among God’s people.

Now, I think about that. I think about families and churches. Bad tongues have destroyed more families, perhaps, than any other faculty or any other exertion of power. Bad tongue, bad speech. It’s the same in the church. Bad tongues have destroyed more churches, or certainly it would be equal to, but I would imagine even more. Bad tongues have destroyed more churches than bad doctrine.

Have peace. Have peace one with another.

Let the saltness be seen. Jesus, looking at them, He said, I don’t see it. I don’t see it.

Oh, this, we need to get this. We’re so externally bent. Paul says in Romans 15:2, “Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.” Imagine that’s how you lived.

Let every one of us, children, let every one of us please his or her sibling for his or her good to edification.

It’s not about, I want the biggest piece of the cake, of the dessert. It’s like, go ahead, you choose first. Think of it. If your faith can’t rise, if your faith cannot rise, in practice, to allow a sibling or another family member to take the bigger piece of dessert, if it can’t rise that high, what are you going to do in real temptation and trial? If you can’t meet that, you have to get in there first and get the best.

What does it say about your heart? The salt has lost its saltness.

Any wonder then there are fights and divisions in churches, arguments in families, strife in the home. It all goes back, doesn’t it? He’s teaching them about the cross. I am going to be killed. We’re to wear that cross. We’re to say, I am dead in Him.

I have died with Him and in Him. It’s hard to get upset when you’re dead, when you’ve crucified the lusts and affections. And it’s hard to seek after greatness when you’re dead. And it’s hard to cause strife in family, church, or any other context when you’re dead.

And the saltness of our salt brings us to die.

May God help us.

Let’s bow together in prayer.

Listen, beloved, if Christianity doesn’t, if it doesn’t reach the heart and it doesn’t influence the home, what are we doing here? What does it matter? None of this matters.

I preach, God gives His Word for the purpose that truly there may be hearts that are humble, a posture of humility in every one of us, and that the beauty of that, seeing the beauty of Jesus Christ and what He works by His Spirit in us, is seen even by our nearest and dearest.

And when all is said and done, they can say, I can taste the saltness of their salt. I see it and I taste it in their very life.

I want your families to flourish. I want your life to be truly a blessing to others. Take heed then to God’s Word.

Lord, help us all to take heed to this.

“The good that we do, we do not. The evil that we would not, that we do.” We find the law in our members, that when we would do good, evil is present with us. Who’s going to deliver us?

Oh, we praise the One at Thy right hand and the blessed Spirit whom He sends in His name, who comes to equip us so that we do not merely profess to be salt or to possess the grace of God, but we actually exhibit it to all around.

May it be true. Whatever else is true of us, Lord, let this be true. And baptize our homes with Thy joy and peace. Lift up the light of Thy countenance upon every household. Yea, Lord, upon this congregation.

Hear and answer prayer.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit be the portion of every child of God now and evermore.

Amen.