THE WORLD IS NOW LOSING ITS SALT

In Matthew 5, we find Jesus Christ instructing His Disciples upon the Mount, giving them the Laws of the NC, with the promise of Heaven’s kingdom inheritance, first declaring, “blessed” are those who allow the work of the new creation/spirit…. “Blessed are they…..for theirs is the kingdom of heaven(s)…..Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad: for great is your REWARD in heaven(s)” vs 10 with 12. Now having spoken to them of the great blessings for those who bear the fruit of faithful Discipleship, He makes a comparison in verse 13.

“Ye are the salt of the earth”……

We are reminded here of Elisha’s use of salt in 2 Kings 2:19-22. The men of Jericho came out to Elisha and said that the city is fair but the water is not, and the ground is bare. “And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters…..” When Christ’s Spirit blows across the spirit of a man’s soul, the result is life in the now regenerated spirit (John 3:8). The life of regeneration is the salt of sanctification in the preparation of the soul for glory, and therein is the salt of the Earth.
The OC Scriptural example of this City’s waters is representative of the world’s people as barren and corrupted, full of death….. and the regenerated soul, as is shown in the type, salt, is cast upon the earth to heal and stay the corrupting forces of death.

We see in OC type; in God’s valuing of that City, Sodom by its righteous population, that is to say, based upon the regenerated/salt that lived there… “And the Lord said, if I find in Sodom fifty righteous…. Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.” (Genesis 18:26-32) God puts value on the earth based upon its “salt” content.
The world is hopelessly in the state of the defiling force of death as a result of man’s disobedience to his Creator; none of its politicians or their legislation will stay its corruption. All the efforts of carnal mankind to stop the ever increasing corrupting forces are in vain. The world’s leaders are ignorant of the salt of regeneration sprinkled upon the death in this World, that in it alone exists the power to stay/arrest its complete corruption.

“…..but if the salt (regenerated) have lost his savor (strength), wherewith shall it (the World) be salted (preserved)….”

Here we discover in the midst of the NC Law-giving, that a regenerated disciple of the Lord may lose his effectiveness in the stilling of the corruption in the world. He may be no longer an influence, an effective preservative nor a witness of the life-giving force inherent in Christ to the corrupted world.

We can’t help but to think of Lot and his wife’s condition, whom the Lord reminded us of in His warnings of the those in the Last Days. “Remember Lot’s wife.  Whomsoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.” (Luke 17:32,33) Interpreted to mean: Don’t be like Lot’s wife who had passed over the river of life, having been redeemed from Ur, and having been a part of Abraham’s blessing, valued her life in the world more than the future promised and greater life out of the world. And as a result, lost her life in the holocaust of the world and the favor with God, being turned into a nameless pillar of salt, a reminder of the seriousness of the ongoing calling and judgment of God to those who turn their back on His soul-preserving work. The Overcomer must die in the battle. He must die daily, to the Will of Christ and for the benefit of others, to all his petty daily self-indulgences to maintain the power of the spirit in his life and to qualify to rule with a Selfless Christ.

Salt is representative of a life-giving product of the regenerated spirit…. from the born again spirit springs the waters of life (John 7:37-39) The born again spirit administers salt to its own soul, then that soul through conforming obedience/ renewed and yielded and spirit led, administers that salt to the world by faithful witness (doing the commandments of Christ).
A soul in communion with his regenerated spirit is a savory instrument of righteousness for God (Romans 6:13), first to its own complete salvation (Hebrews 10:39) and then additionally to the World (Matthew 5:14).
The “whomsoever shall seek to save his soul” is a reference to that soul inhibiting the work of the regenerated spirit in communion with the Holy Spirit to overcome the disqualifying death within itself…the final result, “….shall lose it;” the great Blessing of kingdom inheritance and being the loss of promised glory in that soul (Romans 5:2, 8:17-18, 9:23; 1Corinthians 2:7, 15:40-43, 2Corinthians 4:17; Ephesians 1:18; Colossians 1:27, 2:4; 1 Thessalonians 2:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:14; 2Timothy 2:10; Hebrews 2:10; 1Peter 5:1,4; 2Peter 1:3)
For if we deny Him… He will deny us…. at the Judgment Seat.  (2Timothy 2:12; Titus 1:16)

What is in Christ’s words of warning is the penalty for those who refuse the work of the spirit, being a soul full of evil curiosity to contemplate unholy things, desires without the control of the spirit, and satisfaction and boasting of things of this world, all pictured in Lot’s Wife. (1John 2:15; Revelation 18:4)

“…..wherewith shall it be salted?…it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”…….“It” in context is a Christian who does not do Christ’s commandments.

Being cast out….. are fearful prophetic words addressed to the lukewarm or apostate Christian. Here Christ must have had in view the greatest of application, that of the End Times. See 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4:  “Let no man deceive you by any means….the day (the Tribulation period) of Christ is (not) set in….for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first…..” (Compare with these Last Days’ words of Christ in Matthew 24:11 “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound {result of no savor in the salt}, the love of many shall wax cold.” The many here REPRESENT CHRISTIANS deceived and fallen away in the Last Days. They are Matthews 5’s unsavory SALT cast out.)
“And now ye know what with-holdeth ….”  (That is to say, that which with-holdeth the End Times’ final corrupting force of the World…. the SALT of regeneration and Heavenly Waters of the Holy Spirit that inhibit the fullness of corruption and also withstanding of the manifestation of “that man of sin, (to) be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”  See Daniel 11:31,36; Ezekiel 28:2

CAST OUT (MEANS LEFT OUT)…and trodden under foot of men

Then woefully, this casting out represents the unsavory salt left behind in the catching up of what withholdeth…. the savory salt, that of the “man-child” of Revelation 12. The identity of this child is settled by the law of first mention..… “He is to rule all the nations with a Rod of Iron.” which is first  mentioned in Revelation 2:26,27 as the reward given only to Jesus Christ in Psalm 2:7-9 and the Overcomer…. As it cannot apply to Jesus in chapter 12, it can only apply to His Overcomers.
(What constitutes Overcoming saltiness is found in the 7 letters of Revelation chapters 1-3. There, as in Matthew 5-7, the faithful student of Christ may find his weak and dangerous points…. where he can then shore up his defenses…. in resolute faithfulness and prayer.)

These cast out are those regenerated who have not battled to maintain their saltiness and have lost their savor. Being then the “Overcome”, are found useless salt and darkened light. (Matthew 5:13-16)
These are those who have been deceived by counterfeit teachers or those who are indolent (lazy) and neglecting the ongoing work of the spirit/Spirit. (Hebrews 6:1-6) They obeyed not the Commandments Christ gave for His followers. (Hebrews 10:28,29) These are those who were found faithless, fruitless and asleep…. Luke 21:36…. and as the SAVORY SALT are caught up…they who are unsavory and cast out shall see and experience, the total corruption of the world.

And when he, the Anti-Christ is manifest, the salt will have had lost its savor and was therefore cast out and will be trodden under his feet….. (That was the grave concern the Thessalonians had thought their condition, that Paul assured them against.)

Revelation 13:7….. “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints (the cast out/the regenerate remaining on the earth), and to overcome them and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.” This is the result of this great Woe for the inhabitants of the earth seen just before in Revelation 12:12-17….. “…for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.…”; “And the dragon was wroth with the woman (as Christ is the 2nd Adam, she is the 2nd Eve, representative of all regenerated/salt…and now with the heavenly part being exceedingly blessed, they rejoice, having been caught up to the heavens just above the earth where satan was just cast down out of) (vs 9), and went to make war with the remnant of her seed (regenerated), which keep the commandments of God (Jewish Believers in Yahweh), and have the gospel of Jesus Christ.” That part having been found without savor/ that part who had been found without living testimony of Jesus Christ at His First-fruit’s reaping caught up to join Him in the first heaven. (Revelation 3:10)

THE PRICE OF BEING MADE SALT AGAIN

The “Man-child”, the First-fruits offering, the savory Salt of the earth, now caught out…the un-savory/un-ripe fruit is left in the field to ripen…. until the Harvest. These now must withstand the intense heat of the summer unto ripening. “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, BLESSED (as those of the First-fruits were) are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth:….”  (Revelation 14:12-19) This answers to the rest of the Woman’s seed, having not ascended with the First fruits, will yet ascend and also be avenged.

“….LIFE FROM THE DEAD….”
BUT the bitter waters of this world will finally be cleansed….. “In that Day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.”

With “The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. WHO HATH EARS TO HEAR, LET THEM HEAR.” (Zechariah 13:1 with Matthew 13:39-43)

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