You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.“You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its flavor, with what will it be salted? It is then good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men.Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.
9 sermons cite this verse
… Matthew 5, starting in verse 13, he says, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people put a lamp under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine to others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. We'll stop there. Notice that Jesus says, first we are to be salt, then we are to be light. First you're salt, then you're light. Why is it given in this order? Well, first the salt, I have a preserving effect. I create in others a thirst for God and then having acted as salt, I can function as light. And effectively, I earn the right to be heard. …
… Matthew 5, starting in verse 13, he says, you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people put a lamp under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine to others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. We'll stop there. Salt and light. Why did Jesus use these two word pictures? Answer, because the world is a dark and corrupt place. And it needs salt and it needs light. You know, despite all of our advances in every field, from science and medicine and education and technology, we just go from bad to worse. Modern man has just found more ways to corrupt and destroy himself. …
… five through seven, the most concentrated portion of Jesus' ethical teachings. So today we're going to focus, we're going to start Matthew chapter five, verses 13 through 16. And this is where Jesus gives two metaphors for what we are to be and do as individual Christians, but he uses the plural you. So he's really talking about us together. And it's really emphatic. He says, you yourselves are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world. So we're going to unpack those, and then we're going to go into six of the hard sayings or teachings of Jesus as found in the Sermon on the Mount. So let's start with you are the salt of the earth. Now, you've no doubt heard people describe this way. You know, somebody's the salt of, they're just salt of the earth. Usually that means they're just really good, solid people, right? But this phrase comes directly from the Sermon on the Mount. And so we have to ask, what did Jesus have in mind by salt of the earth? …
… And next week, we're going to talk about Matthew chapter five, verses 13 through 17. This is where Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. I don't want you to miss it. It's gonna be a powerful weekend of worship. And these messages will speak directly to your heart and to your friends' hearts. So I wanna encourage you to do that. I wanna invite you to go to core.org slash next and you can download there the Beatitudes as your wallpaper. So I have it now on my phone. And every day when I pick up my phone, I can say those again. I can pray those. Lord, help me to be poor in spirit. When I'm poor in spirit or mourning, be with me, help me. Help me to be meek and hunger and thirst after righteousness and all the rest. They're right there. They could be on your phone. I'd like to encourage you to do that. You'll also find more information about something I mentioned in the sermon, and that is the chance to sponsor a classroom of children in Honduras, in Malawi, in South Africa, in Uganda. …
… Matthew chapter 5, these are our theme verses. You are the salt of the earth. but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. I wanna preach a message in installment number one called Taste and See. See, I think that as believers, as followers of Jesus, our life should taste a little different, and I think we should shine a little bit brighter. That we've been not called to live for ourself, but we've been called to live for something bigger than ourself. We now live for God. We now live to help people find grace. This is the exciting thing about following God. Someone said to me one time, Pastor Chad, I think Christianity is boring. Like, shut up. Christianity is not boring. Living for yourself is boring. But when you live for God, you get swept up into the adventure of a lifetime because you're living not to bring glory to your name. …
… the light of the world. He doesn't say, hey, one day you're going to be salt of the earth. He looks at his disciples and says, you are the salt of the earth. Right now, you are the light of the world. you do not have to wait for this this is this is the reality that this is your who you are not what you might be you know it's fascinating I've talked about this before but in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles to the scene is this that Jesus has already lived he's died he's risen from the dead he spent 40 days with his apostles teaching them living with them and at the first chapter of Acts he walks up to the city of Bethany and in Bethany you can see all of Jerusalem. Like you can see the upper room where Jesus gave us the Eucharist. You can see Golgotha where he crucified. You can see where he rose from the dead. You see it all. And the apostles at this point, they ask Jesus one question. Because they know who he is. They know he's the Messiah. They know he's the king. So they say, Jesus, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now? They said, when are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? And Jesus says two things. …
… assembly, it's God's assembly. It's God's people or God's community. So that's the first thing to recognize is we are God's community or God's people. Now in Matthew chapter 16, we find Jesus only uses the word ekklesia twice in the Gospels. So the first one is in Matthew chapter 16, and there Simon Peter, Jesus actually turns to all of his disciples. He says, who do you say that I am? Like, it's time to say, who do you think I am? Am I a good teacher? Am I the Messiah? Am I, what do you, I mean, you've been following me. Who do you say that I am? And they're all quiet because they're afraid it's a trick question. You know, they're gonna get the answer wrong. Simon Peter, though, always bold, he speaks up. And Simon says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus says, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, Simon, but my father in heaven revealed it to you. …
… You can go love other people. Matthew says it like this, you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. I love Wingstop. Thank you. to know me is to know I love wing stock I get about that honey barbecue that Korean barbecue that lemon pepper I might skip the 1215 just go get wing stop I love me some wing stop but what is it about the what is Jesus talking about he's talking about the flavor and there is a unique flavor that God has given you there is a unique flavor that he's wired you with and he's given you this so that you can walk in the calling that he has for your life, the purpose that he has for your life, to do the things, to love your family, to love your coworkers, to love your neighborhood and your community in the way that God has wired you to do it. …
… THE EARTH. MATTHEW CHAPTER FIVE AND VERSE 13. WOULD YOU FIND IT, PLEASE? WE'RE CONTINUING OUR SERIES IN THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT, THE TITLE OF THE SERIES, BUILDING ON THE ROCK. TODAY WE COME TO A VERY WONDERFUL VERSE OF SCRIPTURE. MATTHEW CHAPTER FIVE AND VERSE THE LORD JESUS SAID, YE 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 OUT AND TO BE TRODDEN UNDER THE FOOT OF MEN." WHAT A VERSE! WHAT A VERSE! A LITTLE BOY ASKED HIS MOTHER, SO I'M TOLD, MOTHER, WOULD YOU GIVE ME A DOLLAR IF I'LL BE A GOOD BOY? SHE SAID, SON, WHY DON'T YOU BE GOOD FOR NOTHING LIKE YOUR FATHER? THERE ARE A LOT OF CHRISTIANS WHO ARE THAT WAY. THEY ARE GOOD FOR NOTHING. JESUS SAID, THEY'RE LIKE SALT THAT'S LOST ITS SAVOR. THEY'RE CAST OUT. THEY ARE GOOD FOR NOTHING BUT TO BE TRODDEN UNDER UNDER THE FOOT OF MEN. WE'RE THINKING TODAY ABOUT SALT. PROBABLY ALREADY TODAY YOU'VE PUT SOME SALT ON YOUR EGGS. MAYBE YOU HAD SOME OATMEAL WITH SOME SALT IN IT. BUT SALT IS VERY NECESSARY FOR LIFE. BUT, UH, SALT, YOU KNOW, IS A COMPOUND MADE OF SODIUM, WHICH IS A METAL, REALLY. IT'S ABOUT THE CONSISTENCY OF HARD CHEESE. WHEN I TOOK CHEMISTRY, WE'D TAKE A LITTLE SODIUM AND DROP IT IN WATER. AND WE'D GET A VERY EXPLOSIVE GAS OUT OF THAT, UH, …