Matthew 5. The title of the message, Salt and
Light. Salt and Light. Last week, in
the first 12 verses of chapter 5, we have looked at a description
of those whom the Lord saves. He gives us their experience and their conduct there in those
first 12 verses. That's what we are when God saves
us. This is what he makes us. But in these verses, 13 through
16, he gives us what we are in this world or what we are to
this world. salt and light. A person may feel like they don't
have many gifts or talents, they feel like they're not very useful
in the kingdom of God, but you, you who believe the gospel, every
one of you are salt. You're the salt of the earth
and you're the light of the world. Now, when our Lord taught, He
used simple language. You know, I need to learn that
abbreviation, K-I-S-S. Keep it simple, stupid. That's what I need to have written
right on my desk. Just keep it simple, John, keep
it simple. Our Lord did. He took the simplest
terms and examples and gave them to us. He spoke in the language of the
people. He didn't try to impress anyone
with his knowledge. Sinners are not saved by wisdom
of words, but plain truth. With the word of truth, And truth,
I tell you what, one thing I've learned about truth and wisdom,
it's simple. If it is not simple, it's not
wisdom. You can just mark it down. There's no wisdom in it
if it's not simple. And our Lord spoke openly and
honestly with His disciples. When the people heard Him, they
said, Never a man spake like this man. When He spoke, He spoke
in wisdom. He didn't just say some wise
things. He spoke in wisdom. This is wisdom
speaking. Christ is wisdom speaking. He
spoke with authority. He didn't speak as the scribes.
They would take the Scriptures and they would read them and
try to give some kind of interpretation. He didn't do that. Look in chapter
7. Let me see if I find this verse. 7. It says here in verse 29, For
he taught them... This is at the end of his message
here in the Sermon on the Mount. And he taught them as one having
authority and not as the scribes. And I think that's how you can
really test and tell a preacher whom the Lord sends. He speaks
with authority and not as a scribe. Not someone who's just trying
to explain what it means. But God gives authority to what
He's saying. And then He spoke with compassion.
Paul said, Preach the truth in love. That's how I am to preach
the truth, is in love to the people I'm preaching to. And our Lord spoke with compassion,
grace poured from his lips. Now he says here in verse 13,
Ye are the salt of the earth and light of the world. He's
using two examples that the disciples knew exactly what he was talking
about. Easy to grasp. And we know what he's talking
about, it's easy to grasp. Salt and light have many values and
purposes. This is why our Lord compares
His people. Now, He's talking here to His
people. That's why He compares them to salt and light. Here
are just a few things I want to give you in comparison. Salt is used as a preservative. It's used as a preservative.
When I was a young boy, my great uncle, he would kill a hog once
a year in the fall of the year, and he'd butcher it, and he put
it in a smokehouse. And they would hang it up, but
they would salt all that meat down, and it would cure the meat,
and it would preserve that meat. That salt would do that. It had
that kind of properties in it. It would preserve and cure that
meat. Salt is absolutely necessary
for the function of our body. I looked it up. I googled it
yesterday. I googled it. And I am telling
you, do that when you go home. I googled, what is salt good
for the body? And I mean it's everything. It
regulates. It has so much functions in our
body to keep it working. Keep this in mind. Salt is in
our blood, it's in our sweat, it's in our tears. Our bodies
wouldn't last without it. It wouldn't last no time. It
wouldn't be regulated, it wouldn't even function without it. Salt has
a seasoning influence. It makes your food taste better,
doesn't it? I've always said I like a little food with my
salt. I do, I like a little food with my salt. I like to salt
the daylights out of it. But it has a seasoning influence.
And then it has a healing property to it. It keeps things from stagnating.
Why do you think the ocean is so salty? If it weren't, look
how stagnant it would become. And then salt creates a thirst.
Salt will create a thirst. And when I thought of that, I
thought of... Turn over to 1 Peter. 1 Peter 3. We went over this
on a Thursday night here not too long ago. 1 Peter 3. It creates
a thirst. Let me read these first four
verses. "...Likewise, you wives, be in subjection to your own
husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may without
the word..." That doesn't mean God's going to save them without
the gospel, but without them constantly in their face trying
to get them to listen. But they also may without the
word be won by the conversation, by the life of the wife, by her
conduct." That's what he's saying. He's going to say, you know,
there's something about this. She's got something that I don't
have. while they behold your chaste
conversation coupled with fear, whose adorning, let it not be
that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, wearing of gold, and
putting on the earring..." That's not the attraction he's talking
about. "...but let it be that hidden man of the heart, and that which
is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet
spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." But he
says here back in verse 2, "...while they behold your chaste conversation
coupled with fear..." And they know! Peter says they see that and
it creates a thirst, an interest in what she has. And then salt also irritates,
doesn't it? Put it on a sword. Our message is offensive. Our
message is offensive. Now listen, it's not offensive
to the sheep. It's offensive to the lost because it offends
a lost man's thoughts of himself. It offends his thoughts of God.
God's not like you thought He was when we were lost. The gospel
when it first comes, when it comes to a lost man, it comes
to him and it irritates him. He finds it irritating. I know I've talked to believers
When they heard the preaching of the gospel, one particular
person said to me, he said, when I heard that God chose a people,
it made me mad. He said, I just found it upsetting. Well, it will. It will upset
you. It will upset a lost person,
but not one whom God saved. When God saves you, it won't
upset you. And when God saves you, you'll realize, if He had
not chosen me, I'd never chosen Him. I'd never had anything to
do with God if He had not had something to do with me first. And then it doesn't take much
salt to flavor the food, does it? The disciples were a few,
but the Lord took those few and turned the world upside down.
He turned it upside down. And you know, over in Leviticus,
let me read something to you. I've got it marked over in Leviticus.
If you want to turn, go ahead. Leviticus 2. I've got it marked
and I'm going to read it here. In Leviticus 2, verse 13, it says, "...in every oblation,
every offering of thy meat offerings, shalt thou season with salt."
Don't you bring that without salt. "...Neither shalt thou
suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from
thy meat offering." You know what the salt of the covenant
is? Jesus Christ, He's the salt of the covenant. He's the one
who gives it flavor. He's the salt of the covenant. With all thine offerings thou
shalt offer salt. It was very important in the
Scriptures. The salt are those who believe the gospel. He said,
You are the salt of the earth. Remember that. They are those who preach the
gospel, as I stand here and preach. Christ and Him crucified. I want
you to get this and listen. This world would have rotted. It would have rotted long ago
if God did not have a people in it. If God did not send His
preachers throughout this world preaching the gospel, this world
would have rotted. long ago. The only thing that
keeps this world from just being absolutely putrefying right now
is that God has a people in this world, they are the salt of the
earth, and that's the reason this world is preserved. YOU
preserved this world. That's what He's saying. You're
the ones preserving it. You're the salt of the earth.
The very presence of the church in the world keeps it from total
ruin. It has a preserving effect to
it. The message of Christ crucified, which is the salt in you, keeps
society from total collapse. That's the reason there's not
a total collapse. It's the gospel. It's the gospel. You. God has sprinkled this salt from
one end of the earth to the other. It is not an educated society
that keeps society intact. It's the gospel. It's the children
of God in this world. That's what keeps society intact. You. That's what he's saying.
That's what he's saying to his disciples. That's what he's saying
to us. You are the salt of the earth. You are. Wherever the
gospel is preached, and you can check this throughout history,
over time, that community will be a better community. Human
rights will have a greater recognition where the gospel is preached
than where it's not preached. Now, not a form of the gospel. Not another gospel, as Paul speaks
of. They'll come preaching another
gospel. Not that gospel. But the gospel of the grace of
God. The gospel that reveals who we
are, what we are, who God is, and who Jesus Christ is, and
how God saves us. When God saves a sinner, He salts
that sinner with the gospel, He heals him with the gospel,
He preserves him with the gospel, and He sends him out. He does. You know, back in the book of
Acts, the church was scattered through persecution. And you
know what it says? As they were scattered and as
they went out, you know what it says they did? They preached
the gospel. God just sprinkled the salt.
He just scattered the salt. That's what He did. You, He says, are the salt of
the earth. And I've seen this, and I've
seen this. I've witnessed this in places I've worked. I've seen
a man that has believed the gospel walk into a room and the conversational
change. I've seen it change. I've seen him show respect. I've
seen the jokes and the language change. I've seen it change. Now you
just take the salt out, you take the church out, and the language
ain't going to change. Attitude's not going to change.
It's going to get worse. It's going to rot. It's just
going to be like dead flesh, rot and stink. Those who are sent to preach
the gospel are truly the salt of the earth. Those who witness
the gospel, you, wherever you are, you are truly the salt of
the earth. Listen, a man is his message. You are the message. You are
the message. That's what Paul said to that
wife. By your life, your conduct, the husband had an interest created. He said, I've got to go hear
this. I've got to go hear what you've been hearing. I've got
to see what's going on here. But here's a warning. If the
salt have lost his savor, his saltiness, wherewith shall it
be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing,
but to be cast out, and to be trodden under the foot of men.
If the preacher or the church has lost the message of grace,
if they've lost it. For whatever reason, it's good
for nothing. That preacher is good for nothing,
and that so-called church is good for nothing. It's useless. That's why he's saying it's useless.
It's good for nothing. Just throw it away. Over in Revelation
3, verse 1, the Lord says to John, it says, unto the
angel of the church of Sardis, write, These things saith he
that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars. I know
thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and are dead,
but you're dead. You had a name that you were
alive, and you were alive at one time, he said, but now you're
dead. You're worthless, useless. When a salt loses its savor,
it loses the message. When it loses the message of
grace, of sovereign grace, God's electing grace, when that message
is lost, the power is gone, the flavor is gone, the taste is
gone. He said, throw it away. He goes, God's not going to honor
it. Just throw that place away. Remove the candlestick. If the
salt loses its flavor, how shall it be salted again? You don't
salt salt. You salt food, but you don't
salt salt. If the salt loses taste, what do you do with it?
You toss it out. And back in this day, you know
what they did with it? When the salt would lose its taste, its
flavor, They used it to put on surfaces
where it wouldn't be slick anymore, so slippery. That's where he's
getting this metaphor from, be trodden underfoot of men. They
just put it down, and if a surface was slick, it would keep it from
being so slick. And you just walked on it. You
walked on it. If a preacher leaves the gospel,
if he waters it down, in order for people to accept
it or to draw a crowd. He's useless in the kingdom of
God. He's useless. There'll be no power of God in
the message to save, no benefit to the people. No benefit. And what he says to be done is
cast it out to be trodden underfoot of men. And here's what he's
saying. He's to be cast out, not tolerated. He's good for nothing. He doesn't
deserve the respect even of his peers. He's to be cast out. Run him off. Run him off. Now we come to the second thing
a believer is. He says the believer here, his
disciples, whether he's a preacher standing in a pulpit or sitting
in a pew, if you're his children, you are the light of the world. You're the light of the world.
You're the first thing God commanded in creation was light. Light. Ye are the light of the world,
a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid, as the sun shines
all over this world. Even so are we to shine, preach
the gospel throughout this world. It says in Philippians 2.15,
Paul writes to the Philippians, "...that you may be blameless
and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst
of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights
in the world." You're the light of the world. John the Baptist was said to
be a burning and a shining light. And note the word he says, you
are. You are. God has made you. He's made you
light in the Lord. You are children of light. You're
no more darkness. You are light. Paul says in Ephesians 5.8, For
ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.
Now walk. Walk as children of light. Don't walk as children of darkness. God has saved you from that.
He's delivered you from darkness. He said, Now you walk as children
of light. When you walk into wherever it
is you walk to, when you walk to a house or a place of work,
remember this, you are the salt of the earth and you're the light
of the world. You're the only light they're probably seeing. For most of them, you are. Remember
that. That's a lot of weight there,
isn't it? But that's what you are. The
Scripture says, As He is, so are we in this world. Christ
said, I am the light. And He said, and you're the light.
You're the light. You're children of light. Let
me give you a few things about light. Light is revealing. Light is revealing. When we preach
the gospel, we are shedding light on the ones we preach to. The
preacher in Revelation 1-2, they're called the candlestick. Light's revealing. And wherever
it is God's put you, you're the light. And Christ is revealed
in the message you witness, in your conduct. He's revealed. To have light is to be illuminated.
Light is far-reaching. It can penetrate the darkest
heart and drive away darkness. Light drives away darkness, doesn't
it? It drives away darkness. You get an opportunity. God opens
a door. God opens a door and you have
an opportunity to witness the gospel. You know what's happening? Darkness is being dispelled. Light is being given. Whatever
God does with it, He does with it. That's His business. God uses His people to give light. He uses His people to give light,
to tell the truth. to give the truth. God's people
are not a source of darkness. They are a source of light by
their words and by their conduct. They're a source of light. And
here's the purpose. The city, he says here, a city
that is set on a hill can't be hid. God didn't save anyone. He did not save any of us to
hide us. He said, I send you among wolves. And this is so plain. A city set on a hill can't be
hid. We are not to go off to some monastery so that get away
from the world. We are to go to the highways
and hedges, he said, and compel them to come in. Now I want you to get this. God put me and you. And I've worked out
there in the factory, and I own a machine shop, and I've worked
out there. And that was one place I worked one time, and I said,
why in the world am I here? I was so bum-fuzzled. I was so
bum-fuzzled as to what was going on. I couldn't figure it out. It didn't need to figure it out.
God makes no mistakes. But listen, God put me and you
where we are at this time to be salt and light to the people
we come in contact with. To the people we are surrounded
with, we are salt and light to them. We are the only true light
they have. So don't wonder why God put you
where you are. God put you where you are to
be salt and light. So be salt and light. I would learn this lesson. I
wish I didn't have to work with these people. Well, they might
wish they didn't have to work with you either. But God put
you there. as salt and light. You may call
someone as a missionary. Send them down to Mexico. Why
is Walter Groover down in Mexico? To be salt and light to those
Mexicans down there. You can in China or Africa or
wherever on this earth, in America, to be salt and light. My purpose
is to be salt and light. He said, that's what you are.
That's what you are. Neither do men light a candle
and put it under a bushel. That would be kind of silly,
wouldn't it? Wouldn't that be silly? You're going to light
a candle, then you put a bushel over it so nobody sees it. But it's put on a candlestick,
and it gives light unto all that are in the world. No one lights
a candle to hide it. And God doesn't either. God did not save me so I can
go run off and hide and be by myself till I die. No, he didn't
do that. He didn't do that. But here's what I think fits
this. We are not ashamed of the gospel.
We have the gospel. We have good news. I wish everybody in this whole
community could hear what I have to say. concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ. A lot of them did this morning
on the radio. Several thousand heard it this morning on the
radio. We are not ashamed of the gospel.
We're not going to hide it. We're going to let it shine.
That's what he's saying. Let it shine. That's what Paul said
in Romans 1. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. He said, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you that
are at Rome. And here, verse 16, I'll wind
this down. Let your light so shine. He didn't just say shine, but
so, so shine. Bright. Bright witness for Christ. Bright witness of the gospel.
Let your light so shine before men, where you live, where you
work, that they may see your good works, they may see the
work of God in you, the work of grace. And here's the reason. Glorify your Father which is
in heaven. This is the reason why. What is your light? Let your light so shine. What
is your light? Well, first of all, it's the
message, the gospel. We don't hide it, we tell it.
When God gives us opportunity, when He opens the door, we tell
it. And your light also is your life. It's your life. You can't
separate a man's message and his life. I am, listen, I am
what I believe. We are what we believe. The message of grace that is
in you will produce good works? It will. I'm not afraid of that
word, good works. Paul said, Be careful to maintain
good works. You know, you've been taught
well enough to know that we never recommend ourselves to God by
anything we do. Jesus Christ is our acceptance.
But He has wrought in us good works. And men cannot help but
recognize that God's done something in you. done something in you. What would you tell me last night
about Tommy? He said that some lady, or some younger person,
I guess grew up with Tommy, and said saw him coming into this
church, carrying a Bible, interested in it, and said, I can't believe
that. They were astounded. She knows who the lady was, I
don't remember, I don't know, but the lady was impressed. Something's
happened. Something has happened. God's
done something in you. He's done something in you. The
gospel shines forth. Listen to this. I got this from
somebody. I don't know who it was now. The gospel shines forth,
not only in lip, but in life. In life. The purpose of good
works is to glorify our Father which is in heaven. Not us. It's
not us. You know that. Not unto us, O
Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory and honor. Let your kindness, your love,
your joy, the fruit of the Spirit shine before men. They will recognize
there's something different about you. and they'll glorify your
Father which is in heaven. So when you get up in the morning
and you get dressed for work, instead of, and I'm saying it
because I've done it, instead of complaining about it, remember,
you're the salt of the earth and the light of the world. You're all the light you're probably
going to see. And you're the one that flavors
that place by your speech, by the message you witness, and
by your conduct. All right.