The Saltless Christian

There is a street corner in the town of Newburyport, Massachusetts that is significant. Its significance lies in the fact that George Whitefield often stood at that intersection to preach in the open air before the white church which now stands there was built for him in 1765. That spot also is noteworthy because Whitefield's remains lie buried beneath the pulpit of that church there in the Old South First Presbyterian Church.

One day before the church was built, Whitefield was addressing his usual crowd on that street corner in 1740, and the following story captures the essence of his sermon that day. An immense crowd is hurrying, at five or six o'clock in the morning, to the corner of High and Federal Street, and some of them, men and women too, young and old, have come, riding, or afoot, even from Raleigh, for what strange thing, of all other strange things, to hear a sermon. But the preacher is George Whitefield.

He gives out his text. Ye are the salt of the earth. Then his voice rolls over the assembly as he begins.

And whom does the apostle mean when he says ye are? Why you, ye saints of Newbury, but I much fear ye have lost your savor. I love that story, friends, about George Whitefield, and we have an illustration here of the salt as spoken by our Lord Jesus in Luke's gospel. In chapter 14, you can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We'll be in verses 34 and 35. In verse 34 we read, Salt is good, but if the salt hath lost its savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? Let me pause here, friends, to say, this is what Whitefield was referring to. Salt without savor represents the Christian without spiritual vitality, and this deterioration into spiritual life can lead to a dead formalism like that of the deeply religious Pharisees, and it can lead to a backslidden condition away from the heart of God.

I say away from the heart of God because if you are a backslider, then you are folly yourself and do not know what is on God's heart because you have lost touch with Him. In Proverbs it reads, the backslider is filled with his own ways, and so it is, friends, with the believer who has lost his savor. Let me put it this way.

Have you ever known someone who made you more thirsty for Christ and the things of eternal worth? Every time I was around Adrian Rogers he made me more thirsty for Jesus. That was because Jesus was prominent in Adrian Rogers. When you make Christ preeminent in your daily living, friend, then Christ will be prominent in your life.

You will make others thirsty for Christ because you are like salt that has not lost its saltiness. Unfortunately, we have in our churches today some saltless Christians, and that's the title of my message today, friends, the saltless Christian. A saltless Christian will take up space, but be good for nothing, nothing of any eternal worth, and if a saltless Christian continues in a spiritual state of further deterioration, then he risks what we read in verse 35 of our chapter here dealing with salt.

Listen to what Jesus says about the saltless Christian. It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill, but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

What Jesus is saying here is a warning to backsliders who remain in their condition of spiritual declension because there comes the danger of falling into apostasy. I reckon it is here where a good number of our churches rest, right on the verge of apostasy. They have for years slowly deteriorated bit by bit by this compromise with the world and by that conformity to sin, and slowly but surely they gradually lost their savor.

The lost were no longer being impacted for eternity in their midst, and the young people of the church couldn't wait to get old enough to move away from those saltless Christians. I've known people in the church who will stop you in the hallway and talk your ear off with the most unimportant nonsense because they have lost their savor years ago, and now they're just boars. Heaven help the ones who end up in a Sunday school class under such a saltless Christian.

Sitting in there is like eating cardboard. No flavor and no nourishment. I'm afraid to say there are some pastors like that as well who have lost their savor years ago, and folks attend on Sunday out of duty and habit more than interest and spiritual nourishment.

I long for the day, friends, where God in his mercy will send us a powerful revival that makes us all salty again, and we'd be so full of savor that we will have an effect on folks by just spending time with them that they will leave our presence more thirsty for Jesus, just like the psalmist declared, as the heart paneth after the water brooks, so paneth my soul after thee, O God. O great God, come visit your vine by your presence, and touch us, O Lord, with some of your power, by your spirit, and make us salty Christians who make this world thirsty for thee. Amen.