Salt Plus Light Equals Glory Of God

Take your Bibles now, and if you will, turn to Matthew chapter 5. So, in light of what I said earlier, not being in 2 Thessalonians, I thought let's get back to basics. I want to look at a very basic passage. It's a passage from which we get one of the most common phrases as Christians, and yet I don't know if we really understand it or how it works out.

And so I want you to, I want us to look again at what it means to glorify God and how to do that. Before we look into God's word, let's pray. Father, you are the one who sent Jesus to die for sinners. You, you the judge of all men, you the one who have told us that you cannot stand the presence of sin, yet you are the one who sent the Lord Jesus Christ to reconcile us to you, to make us your friends and to make you our Father. we cannot even begin to understand such grace that the judge of all men would seek to remove the penalty that we owe by sending his very own son to be crushed for our sins because of that now we come to this passage to understand what Jesus demands of us demands of us because Lord we want to do it out of grateful hearts help us now to understand for your glory in Jesus name amen let me tell you about one of the most profound days in my entire ministry I've almost I've been here for just a few weeks shy of 35 years.

But I can tell you one of the most profound days ever in those 35 years of ministry. I was asked to do a funeral. And it was going to be a simple graveside service. I remember the day It was kind of cloudy It was kind of drizzling a bit The grave was on the north side of the cemetery Service was for 11 o I got there, believe it or not, a little bit early, probably about 15 minutes early to the gravesite.

And there was Ed, Ed Stavchuk, our funeral director from right here in LaRue Ed was there the vault man was there you always got a guy who brings the vault and he sticks around until everything is done and then he goes so there was me, there was Ed there was a vault guy 11 o'clock came 11.05 nobody showed up not one person showed up at that funeral service. Not one. I remember thinking, how can you live an entire life and not have a mark at all that no one would show up for your service, for your funeral?

This man, his name was Johnny. did he even leave a mark right oh i tell you no one was there he was buried herb he was buried nobody showed up that's one of the most profound moments in my entire ministry i went home and boy I thought deeply I thought deeply you know what Jesus expects and demands that we have an effect in this world that we that we make a mark you find that in Matthew chapter 5 he expects that we're going to make a difference in this world but it's not going to be a difference of are people going to be talking about us? Are they going to come because we've made a mark for ourselves? You follow as I read Matthew 5, you already know where I'm headed, verses 13 through 16 You are the salt of the earth but if salt has lost its taste how shall its saltiness be restored It no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people feet You are the light of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven now let's get a feel for the context here jesus has just finished the beatitudes you can look at them right immediately preceding this right blessed are the poor in spirit we ought to mourn we ought to be meek we ought to be those who hunger and thirst for righteousness we ought to be those who are known for their mercy we ought to be those who are pure in heart. We ought to be peacemakers in this world.

And when people revile us and lie about us, we ought to be rejoicing if they do it for the sake of Jesus. Now what's interesting is that it's impossible to follow these kingdom norms in a private way. You cannot be mournful or hungering for righteousness or merciful or pure in heart or a peacemaker in isolation. These kingdom norms practiced diligently in a sinful world constitute a major aspect of Christian witness.

That witness gives rise to persecution, which is what he's just said in verses 11 and 12. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. This witness gives rise to persecution.

The opposition of the world has an effect on Christians. But Jesus doesn't stop there. He says the conduct of Jesus' disciples ought to have an effect on the world. Jesus clearly demands that we leave a mark, that we have an effect, that our lives as followers of Jesus leave a stamp on the world. so here's what jesus demands he says you must have a preserving influence in the world verse 13 you are the salt of the earth but if salt has lost its taste how shall its saltiness be restored It no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people feet How do you leave a stamp in the world?

By being a preservative influence. Jesus calls you salt, and salt was a preservative. Now remember, Jesus and his contemporaries didn't have refrigeration in that day. He didn't go out and butcher the lamb or the cow, wrap it up in butcher paper and throw it in the freezer. They didn't have refrigeration. They didn't have ice, if you can imagine that.

Not even ice boxes. So what did they do? They would rub salt into the meat. And that would retard, that would keep the meat from going rotten. It would slow the decay that inevitably comes, you know, when you leave meat out, right? And so he says, you followers of Christ have a preserving influence in a culture that is decaying morally.

You slow the advance of moral rottenness. Now I want you to notice something here. It says you are the salt of the earth. And that can be translated, you alone are the salt of the earth. In the Greek language, when you position certain words in a certain way, it's their ancient way of italics. And this is placed in a particular place in which you could say, you, you are the salt.

You alone are the salt. Jesus says that no one but the disciples of Jesus have the ability to retard the moral decay of our culture. Nothing else and no one else can do it. Only the disciples of Jesus can do that. Jesus' disciples, knowing his teachings and commandments and obeying his teachings and commandments are the real teachers. They are the true wise men of the age.

Some years ago, it was about 2 o'clock in the morning and the phone rang. When the phone rings at 2 o'clock in the morning in my house, it's usually not good news. And it wasn't. It was Mr. Knapper. Mr.

Knapper used to be, as many of you know, the principal of the junior high school. Mr. Knapper was on the phone. He said, Tim, one of our junior high students just shot himself and killed himself. And I want you to be at school tomorrow. We're going to give you a room and you can talk to him. students all day.

Anybody who wants to talk to you, you can talk to them all day. Now, they also had several professional counselors there. Who do you think would be best equipped to both understand that event and give answers to those students? You know what I would say? Any one of you who know Jesus and obey his commandments, you would be better than the professionals that they called in that day.

You are the only ones who'd have the real answers. Not just me, any of you here would have been better than any of those professional counselors. We're the ones, we are the ones who have the power of retarding moral decay. No one else in this world does. No laws, no particular governments, no political party, but Christians are the only ones who have that ability.

How are we such preservatives against the cultural moral decay around us? He gives us in this context, how are we that way? It's when we live the way that he describes in the Beatitudes here. What about this polarized, horrible, civil discourse that's happening in our country today? Many have said this country is almost as divided as it was right before the Civil War, and I believe in.

What do we do? What do we do at a place when the president refuses to shake the hand of the Speaker of the House, and then the Speaker of the House turns around and rips up his speech? What do we do in a place where if you disagree with me, I will hate you? We cannot disagree in anything. If you don't believe exactly how I believe, I'm going to hate you.

How are we salt in that kind of a situation? How do we retard that sort of decay that's happening? Do we side with one of the factions and start throwing bombs at the other side? I would suggest something different. It happens by us loving and respecting people who are on the opposite side, treating them with respect and loving them We the ones who can do that We the ones who are capable of it We the ones who have the supernatural grace to do it We ought to be the ones who lead the way Do we stop the moral decay in our schools by insisting that the Bible be read every day and that we have prayers That interesting Didn exist in the Apostle Paul day Didn exist at all Is that the way we going to do it No we should become people who have an insatiable hunger and thirst for righteousness that rubs off on our children.

We ought to be the ones who teach and model for our children what it means to live that way. We ought to be the ones who love the children in the schools. We ought to be the ones who show mercy to the teachers. I'd hate to be a teacher today. You know why? Because when you're the teacher and my kid does something wrong, guess whose fault it is?

It's not my kid's fault. It must be your fault. You're the teacher. It's got to be your fault. We had to show mercy to those poor people. You know, we could offer ourselves as peacemakers for conflicts.

I don't know if any of you remember this. It wasn't a big deal. But several years ago, my kids were still in school. I think all of them were still in school. The teachers and the administration at Elgin schools could not come to an agreement. They could not.

They were both in intractable positions. And the teachers were a hair breath away from walking out on strike. You know what our church did? We invited the administration and the teachers to come here. To this church. Right?

You remember that? Any of you remember that? And we said, we want to invite you to a service. And we had them all in the back and we had them all get together, whoever showed up, for just like we do normally here, just desserts and stuff, right? We also had a service here in which I had the opportunity of preaching about who the real peacemaker was from Ephesians chapter 4.

That was fun. alright I don't know if you remember that I remember it very clearly that's how you make a difference you don't say I'm siding with the teachers or I siding with the administration you say hey let get together Let us be the peacemakers if we can You see How are we salt in a culture that hates our stand for Christ and for righteousness? Look what he says in verse 12. These are some of the most difficult words you'll find.

Rejoice and be glad when people revile you and lie about you for the sake of Christ. And so we ought to be the kind of people who don't crawl back in our caves and cry about how terribly we're treated. We ought to be rejoicing. We ought to be showing them rejoicing. Instead of retaliating, we should be rejoicing. Now Jesus gives us a warning here.

He says that it's possible to lose that function. Now back then, salt was not like what we have today, sodium chloride. right? Sodium chloride is salt and we have it purified in our shakers, right? In those days, salt was mixed with, that sodium chloride was mixed with other things and it would leach out in the dampness and leave the worthless material behind, you see?

Now many ask if this refers to losing one's salvation. No, that's not the issue here. The issue is we're going to lose our influence in the culture if we lose our saltiness. Jesus asserts that we can become useless, that we will not leave a mark, that we will not have an impact. He says there's a real danger of that. How can that happen?

How can we lose this position of influence in our world? How can that happen? Well, one is by refusing to interact with the world. Don't get out of the salt shaker. Stay in the salt shaker. Don't even interact with the world.

That's one way. Another way, but more importantly, I believe, is by losing our distinctive character. When we try to take the edge off of what Jesus commands, then we lose our distinctive character. Let's not be so radical. Good night. What Jesus says is unbelievably radical.

We lose our distinctiveness when we hate our enemies instead of loving them. Listen to me. When we love our enemies, we will be distinctive. We are not salt when we don love God with a singleness of purpose or our neighbors as ourselves We don look any different and we have no influence when we live for material gain instead of using our money to help other people.

We have little influence because we're upset and we're harried and we don't believe when Jesus says, Come to me, all you who are burdened and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, because my yoke is easy and my burden is light. He's talking about the yoke of discipleship. We lose our distinctive character. We're not finding rest in Jesus. we'll lose our distinctive character when we adopt the world's methods of influence if the system is unjust, break the law boy, that's rampant in our culture break the law just don't abide by it the world tells us if you want to influence the culture strive for political power since meekness won't get us anywhere and what do we find Christians doing today?

Can I tell you what we find Christians doing today? They're striving for political power. They're striving for political power. We hunger and thirst for economic power rather than hungering and thirsting for righteousness. And we lose our distinctive character. We're indistinguishable from the world and we do not have an influence.

These are radical things. These are radical things. by abandoning our distinctive character as those who know and obey Jesus we lose real influence and we become useless we don't have any influence at all we're thrown out into the street as Jesus says that's the garbage dump of the day and are trampled underfoot listen when the world does not attack us or ambition or ambush us but simply ignore us what good are we I remember Dean Johnston Dean Johnston was the mailman for the Tallman family my wife's family and he went to their church he was a member of their church good solid Christian guy Dean was a great guy we were out visiting Iowa as we always did And Dean comes up to me and says, hey, Tim, how are you doing? I said, good.

How's the world treating you? And I said, great. He goes, I'm really sorry to hear that. I said, wow, that was good, Dean. I'm really sorry to hear that. He's right.

Trampled underfoot. We don't even leave a mark. The problem today in our culture is not that our nation is wicked. the problem in our culture is God's people are not salty let's quit blaming our nation let's quit blaming everybody else and realize the problem is with us we are not salty and we need to to be salty well that's the first thing Jesus says the second thing he says is you must have an illuminating illuminating effect on the world verses 14 through 16 you are the light of the world, a city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Now the world is shrouded in thick, in the thick oppressive darkness of evil, the darkness of violence, tragedy, immorality, death, suicide.

There's nothing to alleviate the darkness. And so the people of this world feel the hopelessness and despair and fear when the endless cycles of tragedy seem to continue with no end in sight. That's the world we live in. That's the world we live in. But Jesus' disciples can pierce the darkness with distinctive lives characterized by obedience to the commands of their master.

Now again, you alone are the lights of the world. Are the light of the world. No one else who's the light of the world. No political agenda is the light of the world. No social program is the light of the world. Only God's people are the light of the world.

You are like a city on a hill. now listen to D.A. Carson D Carson is one of the greatest New Testament scholars alive today he unbelievably brilliant and just a tremendous guy He a Canadian Not that you can be brilliant and a Canadian at the same time but he happens to be Canadian and so he's writing from a Canadian point of view and he says this, Many do not know how black nature can be. In Canada, it is possible to go camping hundreds of miles away from any city or towns.

It is a cloudy night. The blackness is total. A hand held three inches from your face cannot be seen. Can you imagine being in that much darkness outside? Not in a cave, but outside. It's so dark you can hold your hand three inches from your face and you can't see it.

But if there's a city nearby, perhaps a hundred miles away, the darkness is relieved. The light from the city is reflected off the clouds and the night, once perfectly black, is no longer quite so desolate. Likewise, Christians who let their light shine before men cannot be hidden. And the good light they shed around attenuates the blackness which would otherwise be absolute.

We are like that city in a totally dark world. You can't help but see it. In the total blackness of the night, we'll be as obvious to the world as a city on a hill. he says you're like a lamp in the house nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house you don't light the lamp only to put it under a basket you don't do that right how foolish that is that happens when we lose our distinctive character when we don't live like we really believe what jesus says and obey him then we're like a light under a basket.

No one can see it. No one can see the light. Now, in Jesus' day, they had these little olive oil lamps, right? You know, if you look at all the genie movies where he rubbed the lamp, that kind of a lamp. It's got a little wick on one end and some olive oil in it. It didn't give off much light.

It wasn't much light, but in total blackness. You can light the whole house, right? You can still see it. It does its job. It was sufficient to see How are Jesus followers light in the darkness of our culture How are we lights Notice what he says In the same way as those lights let your light shine before others so that they may see what Your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

How are we lights in the darkness? Listen to what he says, by our good works. Now this isn't to say we don't say anything, but it is to say that that light shines in our obedience to Jesus. by the way we act in this darkness. This is what I found profoundly sad today, is that we Christians, at least in our country, are known for our pronouncements, our protests, and sadly, our political affiliation, more than we are known for our works.

We're known by those things more than we are by our works. You know what I think is sad? And listen to me right now. I'm telling you, I am not giving you right now my opinion of the president. This pulpit is not meant for that and it never will be used that way. But I still find it incredibly sad that the world looks at evangelical Christians and says, oh yeah, they're the Trump supporters.

Most of evangelical Christians today have identified themselves as Trump supporters. whether you agree with the president or not, whatever you think of the president, it's sad that Christians are known for their political affiliation. When it comes to your political affiliation, just keep your mouth shut, okay? Let your works speak for Jesus. Remember where your citizenship is and live good lives.

Be known for your works and not for your political affiliation or your protests. All right? Now listen. is there a place for protest yes you've heard me preach on this many many many many many times right but it's not just protest it's what we do listen in the third century a plague swept across the roman empire people were dying because they'd be dying in the streets and everyone just leave them alone because they didn't want to get it you know who went out in the streets and picked up those people and took them home and took care of them christians did do you know that in the days of the Roman Empire when Christianity was growing, people didn as a practice perform abortions back then You know what they did If they didn want that baby I serious now they would take the baby outside the city limits and put them in the dump leave them in the dump to die of exposure.

That was common. And you know who most of those babies were? Girls, because they weren't as valuable. Do you know who went scouring through the dumps looking for children? Christians did. and they were known for that. They were known for that.

Did you know that abortions were a major problem, especially in the cities in the mid-19th century? From about 1860 on, abortion got really, really, really popular. In the mid-1800s, if you can imagine this, just imagine this. You've got to put your imagination on right now. the New York Times called abortion in the mid-1800s the evil of the age. Can you imagine the New York Times saying that?

But in the mid-1800s, the New York Times said abortion was the evil of the age. Okay? It was bad back then. Not just now, but back then. Primary targets for the abortionists were single pregnant women and prostitutes. I want you to listen to Marvin Olasky as he relates how Christians in the mid-1800s responded to that darkness.

Listen to what he says. Prostitutes made up the second at-risk group. In 1891, a Chicago bookkeeper could trade her salary of $8 per week for massage parlor work that paid $10 to $12 a week, plus another $20 in tips for full-fledged prostitution. A Cincinnati woman could trade a $5 per week starting factory wage for $25 to $30 a week as a hooker. Anti-prostitution reformers knew the economic as well as the moral component of the problem and the short-run lures that led to several years of increasing misery generally followed by death. reformers preached and wrote about how sin was crouching at the door of many tenements it's evil don't do it is what he's saying but they also warned young women to watch out for brothel recruiters who might trick and then trap them.

Some 28 girls' protective leads in New York City enrolled 2,500 members who were given a blacklist of dangerous places and who learned the importance of spurning improper proposals when applying for positions through newspapers and employment agencies. That's what the church was doing, helping them understand what's going on out there. Pro-lifers could not do much about the low wages characteristic in entry-level jobs at the time.

Couldn't do much about how much they were getting paid. But they reduced the cost of living and increased safety by setting up networks of family-style lodging houses and inexpensive YWCA-type boarding houses where decent rooms were available for $1.50 per week. So they weren't just saying prostitution is wrong, but they recognized the lure of it paid good money.

So what did they do? They responded by giving women really cheap places to live so they wouldn't be tempted that way. He goes on, to women already deep into prostitution, opponents of abortion spoke of repentance and forgiveness. Evangelists such as Dwight Moody made sure they had the names and addresses of families willing to provide a spare room in their homes to young prostitutes who found themselves pregnant and chose to leave the trade.

Harden hookers who were pregnant and did not want one more abortion frequently went to refuges. In New York, the house of the Good Shepherd offered shelter and help for women who wished to reform their lives by deserting the haunts of vice. And the home of the Good Samaritan found jobs for women living in sin and desirous of leaving their old life. One woman who went to Chicago's airing women's refuge said, it was the first place I ever lived that any person cared enough about the salvation of my soul to make it a matter of interest to me.

You see, it's more than just pronouncements, you see. It was what they did to help, to help harden sinners. We disciples today should be known for our works of mercy and compassion that we do, rather than for all the things we say and who we line up with politically Now notice, these good works are necessary. They are not optional. They're not optional.

Now, they're not necessary for your salvation. You're saved by grace without regard to anything that you have done or will ever do. but they are necessary because Jesus says what? Let your light so shine. If we want to have an illuminating influence in this dark world, we need to do it by being lights by our deeds. I don't know if any of you remember this.

I realize I'm getting old and the years just pass real quickly and so like what seems to a young person 20 years seems to me like four. But I don't know, some of you aren't even, this movie, The Last Temptation of Christ came out, I don't know how many years ago, maybe it was the 80s, I don't know. It's been a long time. The Last Temptation of Christ was a pretty blasphemous movie.

And of course, what did Christians do? They showed up outside the theaters with protest signs, Right. One Christian said this. I'll never forget this. He said, get rid of the protest signs. Let's hand out flyers that say, come to our church and learn about the real Christ.

What a great idea. That's what we need to be doing. Now, what's the purpose of expending so much energy and thought and shining as a light? Notice what it says. That they may see what? Your good works.

And then what? You've all heard me say it. They see your good works and what? You tell me. Yeah, they talk about our God. They don't talk about us.

They talk about our God. That is so important for us to see. so what's the purpose so that people will look at what we are doing and they will not talk about us they will talk about god this is what this is what we all need to grasp when we use that phrase we live for the glory of god we going to do it all for the glory of God What does that mean It means you going to live in such a way that people will look at you and they will talk about God, not you. Now think about that.

I'm going to live in such a way at Honda. I'm going to live in such a way in my job at Whirlpool or wherever I work as a teacher or whatever. And I'm going to do it in such a way that people will take notice not of me, but of God. You see? That's the whole purpose of life. It's the only thing worth living for.

Now, can I tell you something? When I counsel people, and when I'm supervising the people that are counseling in my job as a supervisor, I always say to them this. Did you communicate to your folks that you're trying to help the goal of counseling? What is it? What is the goal of counseling? The goal of counseling is the same for anything else as a Christian.

That this person that I'm trying to help will glorify God. And what I say to folks who sit with me is the same thing every time. and if you haven't sat in my office and as we've tried to wrestle some things in your life out and you're going to come, I'm warning you ahead of time here's what's going to happen I'm going to tell you, here's what we're going to do we want to work in such a way that you change you want to change, that's why you're here by the way, that's why you're sitting here today you want to change and I'll say to those that I'm trying to help here's our goal our goal is that you're going to change so dramatically that people will look at you and say the only reason for that happening the only possible reason is god and that's the way you're going to live that's why we do this so that people will look at us but they will not talk about us they will talk about God that's how you glorify God but you see we have not treasured the glory of God as we should in fact what did we read today we have fallen short of the glory of God but instead of cursing us for that what did God do He sent His Son. For those who care nothing about His glory, who don't want to live for His glory, instead of cursing us, He sends His Son to die for us, because we fall short of that. and then we find that living for that glory is the only satisfying desire the only satisfying endeavor in all of life here is Jesus the man that we glorify God and you find the love of God he gives us his glory and pays for it with his son so that we want to live for His glory.

So, what kind of stamp will you leave on this world? What kind of stamp will you leave on this world? I want you right now to consider the day of your death. Every one of you here, consider the day of your death. what will people say as they line up and offer condolences to your family what will they say what will they say you know what i hope people say at my funeral i hope they say wow god was real in his life God was real I could see it and they will talk about God on the day of your death the mark you want to leave is not your mark but the glory of God is spoken about and that depends on whether or not you live a distinctive life in obedience to Jesus that's all that's it and the only thing worth living for is the glory of God Father thank you for your word thank you for our Savior who because we fall short of that standard paid the price that we owe.

Father, thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ who gave his life up so that those who do not live for the glory of God will be forgiven. And then we'll find the desire and the power to live for that glory. God help us to take that phrase, the glory of God, and bring it right down to where we are and where we live. That we live such good lives that people see our good works, but they talk about our God.

Help us, we pray. Oh God, help us to live for your glory. There is nothing more worthy of our efforts and to live for your glory. Help us by the power of the Spirit, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.