We greet everybody this morning wherever you are from. We had snow close by recently and they say it was like a wonderland. There are different seasons, not only in nature, but in our lives as well. When you expect sunshine, it snows. Farmers must work ahead and take steps to ensure that their herds and flocks are safe. This also applies to the life of a Christian; he should look after that which has been entrusted to him with all his heart.
When I came to the mission in the early 1980s, I was given a car to look after. I was told, “Dietmar, this is your car, look after it and see to it.” I made sure that car was clean, inside and outside. Often I washed it twice a day because I wanted to be faithful where God had put me. God taught us that a dirty car and engine reflected the heart condition. Be careful. When people see your car, it may reflect what is in your heart. If the car you drive belongs to the mission, do you drive responsibly? If something gets damaged, do you do anything about it - besides apologising? Ask the question, “God, why do these mistakes happen? Why do things break when in my hands?” God taught us how to look after things and how to be faithful in His kingdom. You may not work in the kitchen, but you eat there and afterwards dump the dirty dishes there saying, “I don’t work there, it’s not my job.” There are many things in our lives that could resemble the state of our hearts.
Last weekend we in Pelindaba with Baba Dube and Baba Ngubane. Baba Dube explained how the revival started, how the Lord worked in their lives and changed things. If we allow the Lord, He will do the same in our lives. Things will happen - where God may want you to change and if you are prepared, you change it. But if you always point fingers at others and they are always the ones at fault, then there is something terribly wrong with you.
We have recently heard much about Exodus. Much has been written using Exodus as the theme. God’s word is used to symbolise things. Friends, Exodus portrays the liberation of God’s people from slavery, and in today’s terms, the liberation of God’s people from the life of sin, from a degraded, immoral life, to a life which the Lord by His grace has prepared on the cross, a land flowing with milk and honey. This is the true meaning of Exodus. Much has been said, but I remember a phrase I heard as a child, “If you take your finger and put it into the apple of God’s eye…” Especially when you think you know what you are talking about, but your life is the opposite. Much has been written and said, but this Exodus in not the Biblical Exodus out of Egypt, it is an exodus from a worse place than Egypt. Compare what Rev Stegen, through God’s grace, has brought about for His kingdom to the people who talk so much – what has God achieved through their lives? What do you think of the depraved things that have been written? Where does a person get the guts to write about them? This has nothing to do with Christianity. Judas was one of the 12 disciples, but he was a rotten apple, and the others did not see this. In every place, people who leave are the ones with the biggest mouths. May God help you and I that when we speak about Exodus we speak about the real Exodus; of God taking us out of a life of sin into a victorious, overflowing life. Do not be confused by what people say and write – any fool can do that. Do not be confused; God’s word will stand. I have had quite a few visitors recently and they all understand exactly what is happening. If the world understands, why do the Christians not understand? My desire is that God, through His grace, will work in such a way that His name will be glorified. Show us, not through your words, but through your life what God is doing. How many people have been converted through you? Show us and we will also show you a man and what God is doing now. God has brought about much through one man. Beware of jealousy.
Today’s text is the well-known text of being the salt of the earth.
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
34 “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 35 It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Luke 14:33 – 35.
Salt tastes the same wherever you find it in the world. It is salt. The Gospel is the same wherever you find it in this world. The truth of our Lord Jesus Christ is the same - whether you read it here or even on the moon. There is no such a thing as a different Gospel. I have heard people say, “That is meant for Africa… you can preach the Gospel that way in Africa, they understand it like that there.” Salt is salt. All salt has the same ingredient - Sodium Chloride.
The Bible says and the Lord commands, you are the salt of the earth, not just in your town but wherever you are, you are the salt of the earth. This is a high calling. Salt is an excellent thing, the Bible says.
Before Jesus speaks about salt, He says a few other things which are relevant.
12 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. Verse 12
When last have you invited someone into your home who cannot pay you back, who will not even honour you? God says that if you do such a thing for a friend, that friend will pay you back and then you will have received your reward. Rather, invite the poor, the Lord says and the disabled, the lame. The Lord also speaks about this in a spiritual sense - the blind. Invite them. “If you are invited,” Jesus said, “sit at the bottom of the table, not at the top because you think you are important.” This is relevant to the parable of the salt.
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. And He speaks about carrying your own cross, we are made to carry our own cross. Verse 26,27.
These are qualities of salt. Go through the whole chapter and read the specific points the Lord mentions.
Persevere, carry your cross, these things go together.
28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Verse 28
If you wish to build a farm building, you sit down and calculate the cost. This speaks to me. There are certain things the Lord touches on before He speaks about the salt of the earth, and these are qualities that are needed for us to be pure salt.
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Verse 33 We hold onto things that are important to us – money, possessions.
It is not easy to be the salt of the earth. It costs something. Salt is salt because of its purity. If it is not pure anymore, it needs to be thrown out and trodden underfoot. Take what we have read, where do you fit in? It is no wonder that salt is useless in your life, because there are certain impurities in it.
The main ingredients of salt are obedience, a love for the Lord and for your fellow man. We have heard which type of love - love towards the poor and the lame. What is your love like towards them? Not to those of your own nation, people and family.
Salt impacts the environment because it is salt. You should immediately affect everything around you. Salt signifies the following: permanence, it permeates everything it is used for. Salt is loyalty. It is durability. It is fidelity. It is useful. It has value. (People used salt as wages in the past.) Salt purifies.
Salt puts the whole Gospel together. It means the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you are salt, just by living in your community, amongst your family, at school, at work, you will immediately affect those around you.
If salt is in a container, it is useless, but the moment it encounters something else, it does its work. If we want to be salt, we will affect everything around us. The work I do will be seen because it is salted.
In Matthew we read: 13 “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. Matthew 5:13. In Luke, the Lord is specific about being the salt of the earth. He says that if salt is no longer good it is not even useful as manure. During the time of Jesus, salt in its raw form, was harvested from the Dead Sea so the Jews knew exactly what Jesus was speaking about.
Salt is not only sodium chloride and used in the kitchen. Sodium chloride is only a part of the makeup of salt. Fertilisers are salt. When you work with fertilisers as we do, it has an electric current. The more fertiliser that is put in, the stronger the current - simply said. Salt contains potassium. If you want beautiful flowers, such as blossoms for apples, you will use a fertiliser specifically for flowers. Nitrogen encourages beautiful growth. Phosphates help the roots grow to become strong and healthy.
When God uses salt as an illustration, it is to encourage, to cause growth, and to strengthen - especially the roots that are not seen. You need to be rooted in your faith. You are the salt of the earth. It needs to go where it belongs. The right amount must be applied. If too much is used, you cannot eat the food, or the plants will die. One of the biggest mistakes I made was when I applied fertiliser to avocados. I thought it would be good for the small trees, but then they would die. I meant well, but it was not the right thing to do. That is how you learn. Be careful how it is applied.
In olden days, there was often a pit toilet in the back of people’s yards. There was always a little box of salt there. When people had relieved themselves, they would pour a handful of salt into the pit to disinfect the impurity. Salt promotes growth, but it also disinfects, purifies and cleanses. Many people have a problem with this aspect - when the Lord adds salt to their lives to purify and cleanse, it is the most difficult thing to accept it. It is difficult to accept that something I have done is wrong. The Lord needs to disinfect things in our lives. He needs to purify things. It is no wonder the Bible says that the prayer of a righteous man avails much. Through God’s grace that thing is disinfected in your life. Salt purifies that which is bad and evil. Salt is necessary - even if it burns. If you apply salt to a wound, it burns and it disinfects, which is why the Lord speaks to us every Sunday. He promotes growth and He removes what is bad and evil. When you are with people, because you are the salt your presence should close their mouths that no evil word will exit their mouths. They should not even have the courage to swear in your presence. You are salt. You do not have to go to school to learn that it; is a simple reality. If you are a lady or a girl and men follow you and you have immoral relationships, you are not the salt of the earth that Christ expects you to be.
Evil, sinful and immoral relationships are from the pit of hell. Christ needs to save a person from them. A good father will watch over his children. He will be wide awake. He will be salt in the house. The children will know that if their father is there, they cannot be cheeky to their mother because the father will not allow it. When the children hear their mother speak to their father, they will hear the salt of heaven, and experience the salt of heaven because of the way she speaks, replies, does things and supports her husband. They will understand this pure salt. You cannot hide your faith. Salt is useless in a jar. It is only worth something when you take it out and put it in its right environment where it has the right effect.
Many young people have an obsession to get married. They think every Tom, Dick and Harry is the one God wants them to marry. “Look at the way he is looking at me…” Friends, the salt of heaven needs to purify this in your life, because if God brings about the right thing, you will know. In His time, He will bring the right person across your life. There are times when we think we are salt, but we are not pure salt. If young people are together and have that salt, they will experience a purity which only Christ can bring into their lives - which will enable them to stand before the whole world and say, “Look at us.” Young people, never underestimate this.
If someone does something wrong, do not talk to others about it – that is a sin. The Bible teaches us that if somebody does something wrong, go to that person, build him up and be helpful. You cannot just go to anybody and point out the sins of others and their mistakes. If that person who you want to help does not listen or accept your help, call someone else from the church and together try and help the person. You do it because you are involved, not somebody else. You go. This is what we have been taught from the beginning. If that does not help, call the church so that the issue is dealt with. You are spreading gangrene if you talk about somebody when you should not. Salt purifies that which is rotten and does away with evil.
God will use things in our lives, and people who we think are totally unsuitable. “They should not be doing this…they should not even be here…what do they know about this subject?”
This has often happened in my life. I work on the farm and have often learnt lessons through Rev Stegen Somebody, who knows nothing about farming, comes along and says, “Rev Stegen sent me to tell you this and this.” In your heart you can respond with, “Who is he?” But who sent that person with the message? That is the most important thing. If you are young and you think you know much, you actually know rubbish – so little. If you think you know better than the older people, you should not be where you are. God has given us elderly people, the salt of the earth, to teach us, help and guide us. You should listen attentively when they speak to you. Whether your parents are educated or not, humble yourself. They are the salt of the earth. Listen when they teach you. Yes, there are parents who are not good parents, but if your parents guide you in the right way, you must humble yourself. There are many elderly people in KZN who are wise, and you wonder where they got their wisdom from. If you listen to them, you will be blessed. If you meditate on this world salt, you understand that there is a deeper meaning. If you have an older person with you, understand that this is salt that has been sent to you.
34 “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? Verse 34
Friends, we must be so careful that the salt within us stays pure. If it does not, you will harden the heart of the person you think you are helping. How can salt lose its saltiness? It has all the right ingredients. The Lord warns specifically that if salt loses its saltiness, it cannot be restored.
In Hebrews we read, 4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. Hebrews 6:4-6 This is what the Lord Jesus warned about. If you have not allowed the Lord to help you with your hard head or you wives with your strong will, be careful.
How can salt lose its saltiness? The Bible says it can happen.
If you use fertiliser in the field but you do not prepare that field, check the composition of the soil, and prepare to rid the soil of its impurities, that fertiliser binds to something in the soil which makes it unavailable to the plant. That is why things sometimes do not work. It is only by examining and re-examining the soil, getting laboratory checks done, that you find things in the soil that the fertiliser clings to and therefore it becomes unavailable to the plant. The Bible says we should examine ourselves. If you hear the word of God and your heart is hardened, you cannot bear fruit.
How does salt lose its saltiness? By having impurities in the salt. Too many other things in the salt make it impure. For example, if you add salt to your egg or meat and it is adulterated with sand, you will bite on sand and spit out your food. You cannot eat it because your teeth grind on it. Salt with such impurities is thrown away. If something has a smell, you throw it away as well.
The right amount of salt must be added. You cannot continually add salt. Your life, your joy, your love or the way you do things, speaks the loudest. The Lord adds something to our lives. It is just the right amount of salt that permeates the heart.
The evil heart has a lot of jealousy. Jealousy is an evil, evil thing. When God uses somebody else, you become jealous. “Why doesn’t God use me?” This immediately results in impurity. God cannot use that salt. Salt does not need to talk. It is dead quiet. Your conduct at home, the manner in which you care for visitors, the way you treat people of other nations, that is salt. That speaks the loudest. Jealousy is an impurity that destroys the best salt. Jealousy makes what is good, bad. A person can have only good intentions, but you immediately twist it and react wrongly. Something happens in your heart and suddenly the people of the mission are wrong. You only see so-called mistakes. You have evil thoughts about others and the mission which was such a blessing to you until now? You turn 180 degrees. What is the cause? Not people, but your own heart. You were once convicted of your sin but today you show off. You make it clear that you are a particular type of person and woe to people if they try to help your children - all hell is let loose. Is this a sign that salt is losing its saltiness? You turn against the very people who were your best friends. Why? There must be some impurity that entered the salt. What if we wake up and it is too late? You have spiritual COVID today. You have no taste or smell. If you do not repent, it will kill you. It is said that if you have Covid, even if you eat salt, you cannot taste it. If a person is spiritually dead, even if salt is added he cannot taste it. It would be better for that person, like salt, to be thrown out.
They asked the Lord, “Lord, if it is like this, who can be saved?” But the Lord said that with Him everything is possible. He must heal you of that spiritual COVID of sitting in a service but having no taste for it. You are busy with many things and forget the impurities in your own heart.
49 For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.” Mark 9:49 – 50
This is how it is recorded in Mark. It is interesting how the disciples recorded it in different ways. This is the Lord in His wisdom.
Have salt within yourselves. It must permeate you. It must drench you. That is what we have been called for. Remember how you came to the mission. You had a burning desire to cleanse yourself and be sanctified. Now? Only your mouth speaks, not your heart. The Lord wants you to live in peace with all. On the one hand you are offended, but on the other hand you keep quiet about evil. A man with salt in his heart hides nothing. The one who seeks after peace would stop writing and speaking. You say so-and-so must take the first step, the next one is always wrong, but the error lies with you. The Lord Jesus uses straight, sharp words with no compromise.
If you go the previous verses, what does the Lord say before this?
42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. 43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. Mark 9:42 – 43
If your hand causes you to sin and be immoral, steal or hit, it is better to cut it off immediately. Do you see how drastic the Lord is? If you want to be real salt, read these things - they are tough. Job made a covenant with his eyes “I have made a covenant with my eyes how then could I gaze at a virgin? Job 31:1 He was drastic. He kept his covenant. Look at his children. His daughters were of the most beautiful girls. What does this mean spiritually? This results from a man who may have plucked out his eye and said, “I will not do that.” Even his children experienced the fruit of this firmness of purpose.
The Lord puts two things together – you shall be salted with fire. Salt and fire both purify. Fire purifies gold and silver. It burns it and gets rid of all that is not good. Salt and fire make us holy. If people do not like your message of purification and burning, thank the Lord - because there must be something good in it.
God puts us into the fire through different situations we experience, through different people we meet. See things in this light. View it in this way. Do not look at the person, he will pass away, allow the Lord to use the person to purify your life. See the hand of the Lord. He is busy with your life. He uses circumstances to purify and make holy.
2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. Malachi 3:2 – 3
Fire burns and hurts. Salt does the same. But to be salted with fire is when the fire of the Holy Spirit burns in our lives. We pray that that fire may be kindled in our lives. If we are salted through and through and when we have been purified, His fire will burn in our hearts. This is what the Lord is looking for – people who have the fire burning within and where His Holy Spirit is alive. Wherever you place such a person, a fire will start, there will be salt there and things will happen.
People say today that the world has become so evil, Christians have gone in the wrong direction. But I do not see it that way. The devil wants to destroy. The devil wants the children of God to be at loggerheads with one another, but God wants to purify. God wants to make holy. If you are in this evil rotten world, if you are at school in a difficult place, your salt will permeate those around you. Just by your presence something will change. If you are in contact with the world, they will not change you, but you will change them with God’s help because you are salt. Salt is a wonderful and essential thing, but woe if it has lost its saltiness, then man will tread you underfoot and despise you - you will become the scum of the world. Why? You allowed impurities to enter.
May God’s fire be kindled in our hearts. May we be salted through and through with His fire, by His grace.
Conclusion Albu van Eeden
How does fire purify a metal? It makes the dirt and filth float to the top of the metal. I remember as a young boy making my own sinkers. I took a piece of lead which looked clean, but when I melted it so I could pour it into a shape, I saw the film of dirt on the top. If this service has made the filth in your life come to the surface and become obvious, God is showing you the light, the way to Calvary. The light shows us how to deal with the filth that embarrasses you so much that you think you will die 10 000 deaths if you must bring it to the light and admit it. Bring it to God and allow Him to wash and cleanse you. Admit to Him how evil you have been. God will set you free. Yes, it will burn but if you refuse to allow the salt of this service to do its work in your life and bury the filth again, you will end up as salt that has lost its flavour.
You may be respected, but you are just another person with another opinion. God’s word is not just another opinion. It is absolute. It is the truth of God. 19 But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” 2 Timothy 2:19 Ignoring it is the reason so many churches are lukewarm and useless in today’s world. The church hides the rottenness and tries to justify it and argue against it. You can get the approval of some people if you criticise and refuse to accept it, but everything in your life will be relative. Nothing will be absolute. It depends on where you come from.
God’s word is absolute. You cannot twist it, cool it down or make it lukewarm. It is absolute and if you deviate from it, you are wrong and on your way to hell. Allow the light of God to show you the way to Calvary - where you can be cleansed and forgiven of your sins.