Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Salt is a paradox because it is both vital to your health, and one of your health's most deadly enemies.

Dr. Conrad of Bethel is a great example of the importance of knowing this paradox.

He had too much salt in his system, and needed to reduce his intake of salt.

This a theme heard everywhere in our day, and books and pamphlets warn of the poisonness impact of salt, and all it can do to destroy you if you take in too much.

Dr. Conrad heeded the warning, and did such a good job of denying himself salt that he wound up in the hospital.

When I visited him, he told me he was there to get resalted.

He had taken so much of the salt out of his system that they had to put a saline solution back into him to restore his health.

Too much of a good thing can kill you, but it is also true that too little of a good thing can kill you.

Salt is not a friend or an enemy, it is both, and, therefore, has to be both loved and hated in order to be kept in balance, so as to be a blessing rather than a curse.

There is no wisdom in being either pro-salt, or anti-salt.

Real wisdom is in being pro, and anti salt.

I am not for it or against it, but for it and against it.

The Bible uses salt almost always in a positive way.

Until modern times salt has been positive in the minds of most people, and this positive thinking has to be our foundation when we consider the subject of salt.

Salt has been sacred to many peoples, and not just the Jews.

Even Plato, the Greek philosopher said, "Salt, as the law testifies, is a substance specially dear to the gods."

It is still a custom in some countries to put salt in a coffin, for salt is the symbol of incorruption, and of immortality.

It is considered to be distasteful to Satan.

But Jesus, at least three times, is recorded as saying that salt is good.

In Mark 9:50 he said, "Salt is good, but if it loses it's saltiness, how can you make it salty again?

Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other."

In Luke 14:34 he said, "Salt is good, but if it loses it's saltiness how can it be made salty again."

As Christians we need to focus on the good effects of salt, and strive to be that in relationship to the world.

In a previous message we looked at salt as a Preventer and as a Promoter.

Now we want to look at a third aspect of salt.

SALT IS A PURIFIER.

It is one of the oldest and most widely used antiseptics.

In other words, it has healing power.

It does not just prevent corruption, it can also heal and restore after corruption has already set in.

Salt was sort of the penicillin of the ancient world.

New born babies were rubbed with salt, and wrapped in cloth as protection against infection.

Jesus may have been rubbed with salt as he lay in the manger.

Salt was almost certainly a part of the spices used on his body for burial.

Early Christians use to put a pinch of salt on the tongue of a baby as a symbol of purity, and that this child was dedicated to God.

It is out of the positive value of salt that some superstitions developed.

It is, for example, considered bad luck to spill salt.

I doubt if very many take this seriously today, but it is an old superstition.

You are suppose to throw some of the salt over your shoulder if you do spill it, for Satan stands ready to take advantage of you for spilling the salt, and incurring God's displeasure.

This superstition is embodied in DaVinci's famous Last Supper.

He has painted Judus with a tipped over salt shaker in front of him.

It is no superstition however, that salt is a healer and purifier.

It is no accident of nature that the oceans are full of salt.

The whole earth depends upon the salty seas for healing and purifying.

All of the pollution of the world's rivers runs to the ocean where the poisons are neutralized by the salt water.

This provides a source of ever fresh water to be evaporated, and taken around the world with its life giving power in purity.

One cubic mile of sea water holds 125 million tons of salt.

The dead sea is 6 times greater than that.

This salt not only prevents, but it cures after the poison is a reality.

So the Christian is not only to prevent the world from going rotten, they are to work constantly to heal, cleanse, and reverse the process of sin which decays life, and restore life to health.

This is a very positive power.

Salt, in order to heal, must often sting and bring discomfort and pain.

Professor Theodore Christlieb of Germany once said, "Salt, applied to a wound, causes a burning pain; so the Christian, with the testimony of his word and act, is often laid upon the wounds of the world, in order that it may feel its misery and become painfully aware of its departure from a state of moral health.

The truth that cannot wound has no power to heal.

The bee that has no sting can give no honey."

I don't know if you have ever cured a canker sore with a styptic pencil, but I have.

The pain is almost unbearable, but you do it on purpose, because the pain is killing the sore, and you chose to take the pain for the value of the healing.

The Christian can be a very positive power in the world even when they are being a pain, if the pain is designed to heal.

Not everything Christians do that irritates and stings are healing.

They are just rubbing people the wrong way, and this behavior is not in any way having a purifying influence.

They are not at that point salt of the earth in the way Jesus intends them to be.

Pain without the purpose of purifying and healing is a part of the negative side of life.

The key idea of Jesus is that we are to influence the world in a positive way.

Whether people become Christians or not, even the non-Christian world should be influenced by Christians.

Cotton Mather, the early American preacher, wrote a book of essays.

Benjamin Franklin read the book and it changed his life.

He began a powerful influence for good.

This Christian book was salt that was keeping the wounded earth from being as sick as it otherwise would be.

To be salt means to have an influence on the world.

This is what makes the facts of our modern day somewhat scary.

The church is growing, and the majority of Americans are professing Christians, and yet we see our nation becoming more and more secular, and sin of all kinds is popular and openly accepted as the American way of life.

There is a contradiction between the number of people claiming to be salt, and the lack of their influence on the lifestyle of the world around them.

We need to keep a balance between the prophets of doom, and the positive thinking preachers.

There is much truth in both, for the facts will support either one if you look at just one side.

There is a good case for this being the best of times for the church.

The church is expanding world wide; the Bible is reaching more people than ever in history; Christian radio and TV are powerful around the world; and Christian literature and music is a thriving business.

However, the non-Christian world has also been thriving, and its lifestyle is the way of life for millions, with all of its immorality.

The dark side is just as real as the bright side, and so there is a good case for both pessimism and optimism.

The Christian has an obligation to first of all be an optimist.

He can rightly be a pessimist too, but only part time, and in relation to specific negative realities.

A Christian even has a right to feel America could go down the tube, and experience the judgment of God, and lose it's place as the greatest power on earth for the spread of the Gospel.

That could happen, and no one can deny it.

Even so, the Christian must be an over-all optimist, and recognize that Christ will conquer Satan, and good will triumph over evil.

Influence is what it is all about, and we know influence does not depend upon quantity as much as quality.

A little salt makes a big difference in how an egg, or a tomato tastes.

It is not the majority of the matter in your mouth, but only a fraction, yet it makes a major difference.

It is a false basis for pessimism when Christians say, we are so small, and the minority, and so we can have no power or influence in how things will be.

This kind of pessimism is not legitimate for the Christian, for it is a denial of the power of quality over quantity.

The Bible makes it clear, little is more than enough when it is surrendered to God.

David with his five smooth stones is quality against the quantity of Goliath and his mighty weapons.

The little lad in the Gospels with his five loaves is more than a match for the great task of feeding the 5 thousand.

His quality overcame the great quantity of the crowds need, because he surrendered it to Christ.

Five stones and five loaves are not much, but five becomes a significant number when you think of the 5 fingers you have on each hand, and what you can do with those 5's if your hands are yielded to God.

Salt is capable of having an influence that far greater than you would think because of its insignificant size.

One Christian in a plant; one Christian in a class; one Christian in a block; one Christian on a board; one Christian on a team; or one Christian in any group can have an influence on that group that reveals the power of quality over quantity.

This means the numbers are not the key to Christian optimism.

The minority can be superior to the majority if what they do, and seek to accomplish, is for the good of the majority.

This means Christians should be everywhere in our culture.

They should be in politics, and law, and all branches of the government.

They should be in the schools, industry, and business of all kinds.