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A while back, my wife and I ran out of salt. It was a horrible predicament. She had fixed my absolute favorite dinner that she learned to make from my mother. We had homemade fried chicken strips lightly battered and spiced just right. She had made homemade mashed potatoes with a thick, white milk gravy to go over everything and we sat down to feast and I reached for the salt shaker, and there was absolutely nothing! All of that food and meal and nothing tasted right. I took the bottom off of the salt shaker, I looked through the cabinets. I finally got a few grains to fall out from where they had crusted on the top. Then it hit me: maybe there is salt in the fellowship hall! We ran over and there was no salt. Despite all of the hard work and freshness and seasoning of the meal, with the salt missing, it was not very enjoyable. The next time that we went to the store, we bought several packages of salt and even some for the fellowship hall. We weren't going to take the chance of such a tragedy happening again.

I was reading this week one of the many worthless trivia books that I so often peruse and the author was talking about how that salt changed the eating habits of mankind more than any other innovation in cooking. He discussed how that once man had tasted his food with salt, then he would never be satisfied without it. For that reason, and because it was also used in those days to as a medication to cleanse wounds and to preserve meat and fish for long periods of time, salt was an extremely valuable commodity during Biblical times. Because it was so useful, it was often used as money and Roman soldiers were partly paid in salt money called a "salarium" which is where we get our word "salary." This is also where the phrase "not worth his salt" came from because a man who was not a good soldier was not deemed worthy to have such a payment. Since salt was so valuable, then to spill it meant bad news, and in the famous Leonardo Da Vinci painting entitled The Last Supper, if you look carefully you will see that something that characterizes each disciple of Christ is painted into the scene. Judas Iscariot, in the painting, has just spilled the bag of salt upon the table or "lost his salt" and this represents his mental decision to betray Jesus.

I decided to study the uses of salt mentioned within the scripture. You may be surprised to learn that salt is mentioned in scripture about fifty times. It was used to preserve food and to cleanse wounds as we have already mentioned. In scripture, it is also used to speed up the decomposition or break down of manure. When a baby was born, it was rubbed with salt which was supposed to bring good health. God used this analogy in Ezekiel 16:4 to show to refer to spiritually sick people as those who had not rubbed their infants with salt. When at war, we find in Judges 9:45 that salt was often thrown out over enemies' fields to render them useless and unable to grow crops. If the enemy couldn't eat, then he couldn't fight very well!

The most important use of salt in scripture, though, was the "salt covenant" introduced by God in Leviticus 2:13. Jewish history teaches us that the "covenant of salt" became one of the main methods of making a covenant or life-long agreement with God or with another man. Most of you are familiar with a "blood covenant" in which a sacrificial animal had to be killed to seal the agreement. If a blood covenant was made between two human beings, then the animal was divided and the men walked together between the two halves, signaling that they were worthy of death if they broke their agreement. Of course, when the blood sacrifice was given to God, it was placed upon an altar and burned with fire representing that everything was submitted to God. Jesus Christ became the sacrificial lamb that fulfilled the blood covenants of the Old Testament when He died on Calvary. When you follow suit and "die out to your flesh" by placing it upon an altar of repentance, bury it in water baptism, and have it resurrected to a new life through the infilling of the Holy Ghost just as He did, you have entered into a blood covenant with Jesus Christ! If you break that blood covenant and walk away from it, then the end result will be eternal death! But if you keep your end of the bargain and never walk away from the blood covenant that you have made, then you can be guaranteed and confident to know that Jesus Christ will NOT walk away from you. He will keep His agreement to never leave you nor forsake you. He will not break the covenant sealed with blood.

In those days they also had "oath covenants" which is when you verbally agreed to a life-long agreement with someone. Such a "word" covenant was sealed with an "oath," swearing to keep the promise and never go "back on your word." In the New Testament, Jesus Christ changed this covenant so that the only oath covenant that a Christian should take is one that is found in God's Word. To a Christian, it is a sin to swear an oath to do something other than a direct commandment of God's Word. The reason for this was, according to Jesus, that your words really cannot change anything, and this was all to teach us that the only Word that you can be completely sure of is the Word of God! Men may break their "word covenants" and such but God CANNOT break His Word. The Bible is more than just a good book, but it is the Word covenant that a Holy God has made to man. That Holy God cannot lie and has sworn Himself to the keeping of His Word. If it's in this book, then God is no respecter of persons. You can take it to the bank and step out in faith on it. God will not lie and no matter what men and religions and philosophies may say, His Word will never change nor can it return unto Him void. In other words, if God says that a tree is purple, then the moment that He begins to say it, the tree turns to purple, because God cannot lie. That's why I love this Book: if there is a promise in there, you can count on it if you will meet the conditions outlined with it! Somebody needs to get a revelation of the power of the Word of God today. It was His Word that spoke the universe into existence, and it His Word that says you can have life more abundantly today. The promises are already there, God is just waiting on someone to step out and claim them!

Back to the covenants of scripture. You should be well familiar with the first covenant established by God, the marriage covenant. That is when one man and one woman choose to be faithful to each other for a life-time, at least that what God intended for it to be. But let's move on to the last covenant that was used in Biblical days, the covenant of salt. If you were making a salt covenant with another human, then you each would approach each other with a small bag of salt. You both would agree verbally upon whatever life-long agreement that you were making a covenant about. (Maybe you agreed that for a certain amount of the crop, you could plant and harvest on the other's land. Or maybe you agreed to not fight with each other, or possibly you agreed to give your daughter to wed his son, or to come and fight to protect each other's families if the need arose etc...) After you had agreed to the terms of whatever you were making a pact about, then one of you would reach into their bag of salt and the other man would do the same. You then would each place your pinch of salt into the other's bag and you would both close the bag and shake it. The covenant of salt was that you both promised to keep your end of the bargain until you could reach into the other's bag and separate your grains of salt from his and bring each grain back to your bag and vice versa. Such a task was, of course, impossible and so the salt covenant was a sign of a permanent and stable covenant that would be for your life-time with that person.

Every sacrifice offered unto God under law had to be a "covenant of salt." In fact, the scriptures say:

When you presented flesh to God, it had to be in a "salt covenant." If you offered up incense, it had to have salt included. Every offering given to God by man was to involve the covenant of salt. What this symbolized was that whatever man gave to God was to be completely and totally surrendered and pure. As the fire consumed the salt on the sacrifice, it became physically impossible for the man to ever get "back his salt" and so he had just entered into a "salt covenant" with the God of glory for a lifetime. Whether you realize it or not, when you make a promise to God, He remembers it!

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With all of this information in mind, I want you to realize just how profound it was that Jesus Christ looks at His followers in Matthew chapter 5 and proclaims "ye are the salt of the earth." Jesus Christ was telling His followers that "you are to be living representations of a covenant of salt between God and man." It's not too hard to see and apply the other covenants of old to the spiritual lives of the modern day believer. We enter into a blood covenant with God when we identify with His death, burial, and resurrection by repenting of our sins, being baptized in His name, and being filled with the Holy Ghost as we have already talked about. We enter into an "oath covenant" with God when we step out in faith upon His Word and fulfill the conditions of His promises. We enter a spiritual marriage covenant when we are born into the Apostolic Church of God and in so doing become the bride of Christ, engaged to Him, and destined to be with Him forever when He returns. But what about the salt covenant? We cannot ignore that commandment. We must be the salt of the earth as well.

What that means is that whatever sacrifice that we give to God, it must be total and irrevocable. That's what a salt covenant was all about: the fact that it was impossible to renege. How many Christians today have the blood covenant completed, are willing to step out on the promises of the Word of God, and have no problems being a part of the church body, and yet are not willing to lay their fleshly desires upon the altar of God as a complete sacrifice to Him!? Paul wrote:

A true follower of Christ is someone who is the "salt of the earth" and who is willing to present their "bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God." But too many Christians today are "unsalted" in that they are willing to place a part of their everyday lives upon the altar of God, but there are just some areas that they would rather not allow God to change or work on. Or they may commit in a really good altar to give anything to God that He desires, but yet on Monday, they take part of their life back. They are holding on to part of their fleshly desires and yet trying to live for God at the same time. But I'm here to preach to you today, that no man can serve two masters. Jesus said that you will either love one or hate the other or vice versa. If you think that church and the things of God like the commandments of His Word are a little too demanding or boring and tiring, then you are loving another master more than Him! If you've lost your joy of serving God and growing closer to Him by allowing Him to change more of your life, then you are not putting everything upon the altar, and it's impossible to live for God that way successfully. It's as impossible as trying to separate your grains of salt from another's bag. And whether you realized it or not, to God, every sacrifice given to Him is a "covenant of salt" on His behalf. But the problems come when we break the covenant by refusing to give every area of our life to Him and leave it in His hands. We break the law of the salt covenant and therefore God deems our sacrifice unacceptable.

I'm preaching to somebody today. Don't be an unsalted Christian that gives unsalted sacrifices. When you give it to God, leave it there and allow it to be totally consumed never to return. If you promise to change something at an altar of repentance, then don't allow yourself to return to that behavior when you leave. Even if you mess up, don't give in and go right back to it. Make it a salt covenant, one that is a life-long commitment. If you decide to sacrifice against your family or friends and take a stand for truth, then don't withdraw it a few weeks later. If you have a worry and you bring it to God in prayer, don't pick it back up from the altar and keep on worrying about it. If you drop a heavy load that has been weighing you down upon the altar, then leave it there and allow God to consume it and do with it what He will. Stop burdening yourself with it after you give it to Him. To give and then hold back part of the sacrifice is to give a sacrifice without salt. But let it be totally committed to Him! Be a salted Christian!

Present your bodies a living sacrifice! We live in a world and a time when people are afraid to make life-long commitments. Word covenants don't mean a thing to most people anymore. Neither does the marriage covenant. And too many go through their life oblivious to the great blood covenant of the cross and how to properly apply that blood to their lives. But God is calling for some people to realize that He is a God who still keeps His promises in a comprising world. The Holy God who is unaffected by time or circumstances is still a covenant God. And He is looking for someone who will say "I will be the salt of the earth." "I will give everything to Him for His pleasure." "I will be the ones who will go and reach this world so that they can be preserved and not ruined when this earth burns up." "I will be the agent that will bring the healing power of Jesus Christ to this lost and dying world." "I will be the salt." "I will be the person who will produce healthy, born-again babies for God." "I will affect this world's "manure" or filth by causing it to break down until a harvest field is produced." "I will be the salt of the earth." "I will be the element that goes out into Satan's produce field of broken homes and hurt and sin and pain and cause those things to stop growing in my neighbor's lives by showing them the light and power of Jesus Christ." "I will allow God to make my life something that causes the spiritual thirst of this world to increase until they cannot help but drink freely from the living water of the Spirit of God!" "I will allow God to work through me to make life taste abundantly to others and I will not 'spill the salt'."

God is looking for someone to realize your importance and your preciousness to this world! You may say, "how can I do and be all of that, preacher?" By entering into a salt covenant with Jesus Christ! By giving everything to Him! By realizing that every sacrifice must be a covenant of salt, then you can become the salt of the earth. When you bring God a sacrifice of praise, then give Him everything completely and make up your mind to faithfully worship Him for the rest of your life. When you bring God a sacrifice of time, then don't just do it a little bit one week, but give God the rest of your life! When you allow God work in your life and you begin to present your body as a living sacrifice to Him, do it with salt: completely devoted to Him! By entering into a salt covenant with God, you will be able to be the "salt of the earth."

And to be all of those things to the earth, you must be willing to give of yourself. Be willing to share your testimony and your time. Be willing to give some effort to helping further the kingdom of God. What good is all the salt in the world if it is still in the shaker?! You've got to be willing to reach out to others, and heal their wounds with the hope of Jesus Christ, and cause them to be thirsty for the Holy Ghost. If we are a follower of Christ then we have the responsibility to be the salt to this lost and dying world! We are to be the ones who change people's lives, preserve them from judgment, and stop up the crop of sin from growing further. We must be the salt of the earth!

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In Matthew chapter 5, the moment that Jesus proclaimed that they were to be the "salt of the earth," He also immediately warned them about the danger of "losing their savour." It is possible for salt to lose it's saltiness and, when it does, it becomes good for nothing. In fact, Jesus referred to the only use for unsavoured salt was to throw it down on the floor of the temple to provide traction for everybody else going to worship God in slippery weather. In other words, when salt loses it's complete flavor, it is good for nothing but to be walked upon and cast out.

You can walk around a salt lake and see the great deposits of salt there, and find that salt that just sits there through storm after storm and never has any added to it, quickly loses it's savour. The salt on the outside of those white hills all around the Dead Sea have absolutely no taste. It is only when you get to the inside of the formation or go to a newly formed formation that you can lick the rock and taste the salty flavoring in abundance.

Can I tell you that salt that is just sitting around will lose it's savour in the spirit also!? We know that as Christians we will endure some storms, and that we must not lose our savour, so how we can we do that? By getting a fresh infusion from the master! By entering into another salt covenant with Jesus Christ! Because when we offer a sacrifice to Him as a salt covenant, He puts some back in us, and by continually be refreshed, we will never lose our savor. We only lose our savour when we hold on to the level that we have and refuse to give any more to God or to others! Maybe you feel as if you are losing your savor today. Maybe you feel tired and worn out from living for God. Don't stay that way, but give something to Jesus Christ so that He can give something back to you! Why don't you give Him some worship and praise today despite what you feel like or despite what your situation looks like. Take some of your worn out salt and give it to Him in exchange for some fresh! Get a fresh touch of the Spirit of God. Come down to this altar and get the things that are hindering your victory out upon the altar and allow the fire of the Holy Ghost to consume them. And see if God will not give you gladness for mourning and beauty for ashes. You cannot give something to God that He will not give back to you better. Don't allow yourself to be discouraged and broken hearted and down and out. Whatever you do don't lose your savour! Because when you lose your savour, then you will be good for nothing. And Jesus asked the rhetorical question, "when salt has lost it's savour, wherewith shall it be salted?" In other words, once you completely lose your flavor and spice, then that is it. But I serve a God that says you don't have to walk out of here the same way that you came in! You don't have to continue to doubt whether or not God can meet your situation but you can leave here in the full power of the salt of the earth. You can leave here having been replenished by the Master's intervention. You can leave here in a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ having been buried in His name in baptism and full of His Spirit. You can leave here without a depressed or worn out spirit, having been rejuvenated by your salt-covenant partner!

And if you are to really impact your world as Jesus desires, and if you are to really be the one who stands in faith in a bad situation then you must not allow the storms of life to cause you to lose your savour. You must stay in constant source with Jesus Christ. You need to be replenished today!

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There is another way for salt to lose it's savour though, and that is through allowing itself to absorb the flavors and aromas of things around it. I want you to look at our other text today with me. Perhaps you didn't see the correlation between this verse and Matthew chapter 5 when we first read them, but that is because you are reading them in a second language, English. Both books were originally written in Greek. Look at Romans 1:22 where Paul says that men, "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,." The word in the Greek for "they became fools" is the same word used in Matthew 5 for "savour." In the Greek this verse in Romans literally reads "Professing themselves to be wise, they lost their savour." There is a distinct correlation between the two verses that you might have never noticed unless you had done a word study on "savour."

My point is this: in Romans chapter 1, Paul talks about why the majority of the world does not live sold out to Jesus Christ. He step by step goes through the actions and sins that has caused our society to be in the sinful state that it now lays. In verse 21 of this chapter Paul says that the degeneration of society started with refusing to worship God, and then becoming unthankful. Their minds were then affected and they allowed their thoughts to begin to doubt the truth that they had believed. Then in verse 22, we find that they decided that "they were wise" and had "arrived" and thus lost their savour. The final steps of degeneration quickly came after that: they began to worship idols and other things as God, and then began to live lustfully and in sexual immorality. Eventually they changed everything that was true about God into a lie and began to serve the "creature" more than the Creator. The end result of the chapter is homosexuality, and that is exactly where our society stands today. (adlib)

But I am not preaching to all of society today, I am talking to individuals that are hearing the warning of Jesus: "don't lose your savour." Understanding the same word for savour is used in verse 22, then the preceeding verses also represent the stages that a Christian goes through to "lose their savour." Before we close, I want you to look at these verses in that light:

Losing your savour starts with a lack of praise and "glorifying God." The devil knows this and that is why he works so hard to hinder your praise and worship. That is why he works so hard at giving you every opportunity to miss a service. If you really know how good God is, then you have a responsibility to praise Him! And the Psalmist said "let everything that hath breath, praise ye the Lord!" God was the one that gave you your last breath, therefore if you are breathing you have a duty to praise and glorify Him! To know that, and refuse to worship Him as He so richly deserves is the first step to beginning to lose your savour. Because, since you are not giving God as much, you will not receive as much in return!

The second step to unsavouriness was a lack of thankfulness. When you stop reminding yourself of what God has already done for you in the past. "Well, preacher, God hasn't done something special for me this week, therefore I don't have a lot to praise Him for." What about last week or last year? What about all of the things that He has done for you in the past? If we are not careful, then we get a "what have you done for me lately" attitude with God. But God responds to an attitude of gratitude. And a lack of thankfulness to God for what He has done signals serious problems.

When Achan in the Old Testament went against the commandment of God and hid some gold from Jericho in his tent. The way God showed him to Joshua is by having Joshua cause every person to walk before him. When they would get in front of Joshua, he would command them "give glory to the God of Israel." When Achan got to Joshua, he had trouble freely praising God because of the stuff that he had back in his tent, and that's how Joshua knew that this was the one that must be put out of the camp and stoned. Whether you admit it or not, harboring things in secret against the commandments of God hinders your praise. So does unforgiveness towards your brothers or sisters. And that is very serious because an inability to praise and thank God freely are the first signs of you beginning to lose your "savour."

The next step in Romans chapter 1 to losing your savour was to "become vain in your imaginations." It literally means to become "vain in your debates or arguments." The next step of a person that is losing their savor is that they begin to question everything and become belligerent toward the truth of God's Word. There is a difference between asking a question because you are anxious to know the truth and asking a question just to be argumentative. If you cannot accept what the Word of God has to say about a question, and are simply arguing just to stir up strife, then you have reached a critical stage before losing your savour. The next step, came from continually debating truth rather than accepting it and was that their "foolish hearts became darkened." If you refuse the light of truth long enough, you cannot help but be full of darkness and untruth.

And the last step before the savour was completely gone was that they "professed themselves to be wise." That is they got the attitude that they knew everything that they needed to know already, and really didn't need to change anything else and really didn't need to grow anymore and really could figure out life by themselves. But in leaning to their own will and understanding, they "lost their savor."

We can't afford to be unsalted Christians, nor can we afford to be unsavory Christians. With the power of Jesus Christ that is manifest in our lives and in this church, we have the ability to turn this world upside down for God! We have everything we need to see people's lives transformed and changed forever, but it is not through our own knowledge or our wisdom, but by the Spirit of God that can work through us. If we allow ourselves to become tainted with such a "selfish" spirit, then our lives will take on that character and we will lose our God-given "savor" and our preciousness to the kingdom of God. Let us learn well the lesson in the words of John the Baptist about Jesus Christ: "I must decrease and He must increase." God said that victory does not come by power nor by might, but "by my Spirit saith the Lord."

Somebody needs to renew a salt covenant with Jesus Christ today. You need to place all of yourself upon the altar of God today in commitment to Him. Somebody needs to have the spark and the savor placed back within them today by giving something to God so that He can return life to you. You are to be the salt of the earth. Don't you dare allow this world to cause you to be unsalted or unsavory.