#133 Lu. 14:34-35 THE DANGER OF CHRISTIAN UNFAITHFULNESS Introduction: The unsaved face a grave danger. They face the danger of going to hell and spending eternity in torment. The Christian also faces danger. He faces the danger of becoming unfaithful to the Lord. I. A review of recent texts In recent texts Jesus set forth the idea that, if a Christian is going to be loyal and faithful, that Christian is going to have to make sacrifices. Back in verse 25 and 26 He said that unless one loves Him more than he loves father, mother, sister, brother or anybody else in this world including himself, that person cannot be the Lord's disciple. Now Jesus did not say he could not be saved. Rather, Jesus said that he could not be His disciple. A disciple of Jesus is one who follows Jesus. One can be saved by repenting of his sin and trusting in Jesus Christ as his Savior. But if he is going follow the teachings of Jesus in his life, it is going to cost him something. He is going to have to love Jesus more than he loves anybody else in this world and he is going to have to sacrifice for Jesus. Jesus then used an example to illustrate His point. He pointed out that if a man was going to build a tower it would cost him something to build and he needs to know beforehand what it is going to cost. Otherwise he may begin to build and not finish building. In our text last Sunday, Jesus used a second illustration. If a king is threatened with war with an enemy whose army is twice the size of his own, it is going to cost that king something. If he chooses to go to war it is going to cost him something to win the victory. He must be willing to pay the price, whatever it takes to win the war. If, on the other hand, he chooses to seek to negotiate instead of going to war, he must be willing to pay the price. He must be willing to make whatever concessions are necessary in order to win the peace and avoid the war. So it is going to cost him either way. Jesus said that so it is with the person who would follow Jesus and be His disciple. It is going to cost him something to follow Jesus. Salvation is free. It does not cost the lost sinner anything to be saved. But if one is saved, it is going to cost him something to be a real genuine loyal follower of Jesus Christ. He must make sacrifices in order to serve the Lord. In our text today we again see that if the Christian is going to be faithful and loyal to Jesus, it is going to cost him something. Likewise, we see also that there is the danger that one may begin to live the Christian life and then fall by the wayside and become unfaithful to the Lord. Every Christian faces the possibility that he could one day stop going to church. Every Christian faces the very real possibility that some day he will stop serving the Lord. Now I am not talking about one becoming so sick and feeble that he is unable to serve. Nor am I talking about becoming so old and feeble that he cannot serve. Neither am I talking about dieing so that the opportunity of serving Jesus in this world is over. I am talking about the Christian who is still physically very able to serve the Lord, but he has allowed Satan to interfere in his life and he has become inactive in his service to the Lord. II. A great compliment paid to Christians In this text Jesus compares the Christian to salt and in doing so he pays the Christian a very high compliment. V. 34, "Salt is good..." In Matthew's account, He said, "Ye are the salt of the earth." That is a great compliment. The Christian is like salt. Jesus is talking about plain old table salt. The Christian is like salt and salt is good. When salt is used properly in food, it makes food taste good. It makes it palatable. It gives it a pleasant and acceptable taste. When used in the proper amounts, salt is also good for one's health. In recent years we have learned that when used excessively it can be injurious to one's healthy. But a certain amount of salt is necessary in order to maintain one's health. If all of the body salts are flushed out of the system it causes a chemical imbalance. It can cause muscle cramps. It can be a life threatening situation. Salt is also good as a preservative for food. I am sure that all of you older people will remember "salt pork." Salt is used to preserve the meat so that it will not spoil. I remember when I was a teenager back in Florida that my grand dad used to pack fish in salt so as to preserve them. We did not have deepfreezers back then. Even today, salt is the main preservative in cured hams. Jesus thus paid an extremely high complement to Christians. It is good to be a saved. It is good to be spared from hell. It is good to have a place reserved in heaven for you. It is the Christians of this world who make this world palatable to God. It is the Christians who make the world "tolerable." "Tolerable" is a good East Texas word, isn't? It is because of the Christians in the world that God tolerates the world. Otherwise, God would have destroyed the world long ago. He will destroy it some day, but He would destroy it right now if it were not for the Christians. III. A warning to Christians But in addition to this great compliment which Jesus paid to Christians, He also sounds out a warning to them. (V. 34), "...but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?" Now right at this point Jesus speaks of something pertaining to salt that we are not all that much familiar with here in America. He speaks of salt losing its savor or its flavor. Most of the salt that is used here in the United Sates comes from Grand Saline right here in East Texas. It is almost pure sodium chloride and I have never heard of any of it losing its flavor. It keeps its salty taste just as long as you have it. But this was not so with the salt that was used in that part of the world. Most of it came from the salt dones along the southern shores of the Dead Sea. Like the American salt, it had a large amount of sodium chloride, which gives it its flavor. But it also had a considerable amount of other mineral deposits. When this kind of salt was exposed to water, the sodium chloride would dissolve and wash away. All that would be left was a deposit of other minerals. It would still look like salt, but it was not salty. It would not taste like salt. It would not flavor food like salt. It would not preserve food like salt. Since it still looked like salt, it was still called "salt," but it was good for nothing. V. 35, "It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill..." Most waste products, could, at least, be used on the dunghill when they could not be used for anything else. They would be left to rot on the dunghill and would make fertilizer for plant life. But salt, even the salt which has lost its savor, is not good for fertilizer. It will not help the growth of plants. Rather, it will hinder the growth of plants. In Matthew's account, Jesus said that the only thing that it can be used for is to pour out on the streets where it would be trampled under the feet of men. The point that Jesus is making is that a Christian can become of no value to God in His service and of no value to the world as a witness and a preservative of the world. In other words, a Christian can become a "No good Christian." There is a very real and very grave danger that any Christian can become a "No good Christian!" What a tragedy! What a tragedy that one who is saved by the grace of God can become so unfaithful to God, so unworldly in his conduct, so swayed by the power of Satan that he can become no good in this world. He is no good to God. He does not serve God. He does not honor God. He does not witness for God. He does not promote the growth or spiritual well-being of the churches of God nor the cause of God. Rather, he become a hindrance to the cause of God. He becomes a reproach to the name of God. Likewise, he is no good to the world. The world needs someone who is a witness for God, but he does not help the world. He does not help call them to repentance. He does not help win them to salvation, because of his ungodly ways. Rather he becomes a stumbling block to them to hinder them from being saved. He is no good to his family. He may be a breadwinner for them, but that is about all. He is no good for them in spiritual way. He is not going to help the Christians in the family grow in grace and become strong Christians. Rather he is going to hinder their spiritual progress and help to cause them to be weak Christians. He is not going to help to keep the unsaved in his family out of the fires of hell. He is not going to help influence them to go to heaven. Rather he may actually be the cause of some of them missing heaven altogether and spending eternity in hell. What a tragedy that a Christian, one who is going to spend eternity in heaven, would help to cause some of his family to spend eternity in the fires of hell. He is no good to himself. He is not laying up treasures in heaven. He is making trouble for himself here in this life. He is surely bringing the chastisement of God upon himself by the way he lives. He is not doing himself any good. There is another grave danger. He is in danger of being cast out. (V. 35), "...but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." There is the danger of being cast out. The salt is in danger of being cast out by men, but the no good Christian is in danger of being cast out by the Lord. There was a time when the wayward Christian was in danger of being cast out by the church of his membership. It seems that there is little danger of that in most churches today. But there is still the danger of being cast out by the Lord. Now, let me hasten to say that there is no danger of him losing his salvation. I Peter I:5 says that the Christian is kept by the power of God unto salvation. It was the power of God that saved him and it is the power of God that keeps him saved. In John 5:24 Jesus said that the believer "...shall not come into condemnation..." So there is no danger that the believer will lose his salvation. The danger is that the Lord will cast him out of this life. When the Lord had no further use for Ananias and Saphira because of their sin, He killed them. When the Lord has no use for a Christian in this world He moves him on to the next world. Conclusion: Now let me emphasize some of the things we have already noted in this text. First of all, it is an advantage to a man to be saved. Salt is good. It is good to be a Christian. It is certainly far better than dieing unsaved and spending eternity in the torments of hell. So if there is anybody here this morning who is unsaved, what you need to do this morning is to get right with God. You need to repent of your sins and call on the Lord Jesus Christ and ask Him to save your soul. Secondly, let me point out to you that it is to the advantage of a Christian to live for the Lord. He will be blessed of God in this life for his faithfulness and he will be richly rewarded in the life to come. Third, let me point out to you that it is to the great disadvantage to a Christian for him (or her) to become unfaithful to the Lord. One just makes trouble for himself when he becomes unfaithful to the Lord. With this in mind, I am going to call upon every person in this auditorium who is not certain that he is saved to come right now and trust the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. I am calling upon every member of Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist church to be faithful to God. If there are Christians here who wish to unite with this church, I assure you that we want you to come. But I am calling on you for more than just church membership. I am calling upon you for dedication to the Lord.