All right. The church's mission
in the world. When I was in seminary, I was
studying comparative religion and mission work. We always talked
about the mission and the message of Jesus Christ. Well, that's
what these verses are about. In these verses, the Lord uses
two metaphors, two symbols. for his true church, the true
mission and message of the kingdom of heaven, the spiritual kingdom
of heaven, and that is the salt of the earth and the light of
the world. Now you know how biblical phrases
sometimes get jerked out of context and used all kinds of ways. You
know, when somebody, for example, encounters a really benevolent
person, charitable person, someone who's very kind and has such
a personality that draws people, they say, well, he or she's the
salt of the earth, that kind of a person. Well, when Christ
spoke these words, that's not what he was talking about. the
words uh... this this whole thing is showing
the churches the the people of god what they are what we are
and what we have as the truth that's what he's talking about
the reason we're here on this earth the reason that god let's
listen to this the reason that god did not immediately after
the fall of Adam destroy this world in his justice and he would
have been just to do so. After Adam fell, the reason that
this world is existing, that's what he's talking about here.
You're the salt of the earth, you're the light of the world.
And that's the mission and the message. Now, what is our rightful
place and what is our true mission as the church in the world? That's
what it's about. Now, when we ask questions like
that, why are we here? What is our purpose? Things like
that. Well, we know, first of all,
that God does all things for his glory. If you read denominational
catechisms, what they do is they'll ask a question and answer it
religiously. You know, why is man here? What is the purpose of man? And
it's always to glorify God, and that's true. All things to his
glory. What is his glory? His glory
is not only who he is as he exists, that's part of it. But His glory
is the revelation of Himself as He is and as He acts. Who is God? What is He like? What has He done and what is
He doing? That's His glory. Therefore,
that's why we have to be so careful, especially me up here preaching
to you, when I'm going to tell you things about God. I'm going
to tell you something about his characteristics. I'm going to
describe him to you. He's a holy God. He's a sovereign
God. If I say things that are wrong,
then what am I doing? I'm not glorifying him. In fact,
what is idolatry? One old writer said, idolatry
is attributing things to God that don't belong to him. and
failing to attribute things to God that do belong to him. So if I could, you know, I'm
on the television program this morning, I was talking about
God's hatred, which people don't like to hear about. And the reason
they don't like to hear about it is because they worship a
God who is like them. You say, well, we're not supposed
to hate. That's exactly right. We're not supposed to hate because
we have no reason to hate. Why? You know, you say, well,
I hate that person for their sins. Well, you're a sinner,
too. Now, David said, I hate every
false way. Now, what he's talking about
there was false ways of salvation that lead sinners whom we love
to hell. You understand that? Our hatred
is sinful because it's based on selfishness. It's based upon
trying to assert our rights, that kind of, but God's hatred
is his justice against, his hatred is truly righteous hatred. But, you know, I told the story
about this religious organization up in a city that's close to
where Debbie and I grew up, and they had a marquee out there,
and it says, the God who hates, we do not worship him. Well,
then you don't worship the God of the Bible. Because the Bible
says, God hates all workers of iniquity. So how can there be
any love for me? I'm a worker of iniquity. Well,
there's got to be a way that only God can devise to where
my iniquities will not be imputed to me. And God can be just and
still love me. How can God love a sinner? There's
only one way, in Christ. in Christ. Outside of Christ,
no love. Now, if that offends you, then
you need to understand you're being offended by the God of
this book. Because that's part of His glory. His justice in condemnation is
part of His glory. Now, I want to see more of His
glory in salvation, don't you? I want to see sinners saved. by the grace of God. Well, his
glory is in Christ. So he does all things for his
own glory. But Romans 8, 28 tells us that he does all things for
the good of his people too. For the good of his people. And
so it is the glory, it's the power, it's the wisdom of God
to save his people from their sins through Jesus Christ the
Lord. And God has purposed to allow
this world to continue at His time, in His appointed time,
for the purposes of bringing all of His chosen people who
have been justified through the righteousness of Christ, who
have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, to bring them all
into His kingdom. Now, why didn't He just do it
at one fell swoop right after the fall of Adam? Well, you take
that up with Him. He just, this world's gonna go
on. Let me tell you something about the destruction of this
world. Man is not going to destroy this world. Man does not have
the capability of destroying this world. I don't care if it's
an ape bomb or pollution or whatever. God is going to be the destroyer
of this world. And this world will be destroyed.
2 Peter chapter 3 and among other verses. This world is cursed
because of man, the sinfulness of man, and it's going to be
destroyed, but not one second before God has appointed the
time for it to be done. Now he may, he'll use means maybe,
maybe enable, I don't know how he's going to do it. I know it's
going to burn up. Somebody asked me, do I believe in global warming?
Yeah, read 2 Peter 3. It's going to burn up with a
fervent heat. And what it says? So yeah, it's going to be pretty
hot. Now, somebody asked me, he said, do I believe in climate
change? Well, sure I do. Everything changes in this world.
There's only one being that doesn't change. That's God. O thou who changest not, abide
with me. Change all around. Do I believe
man is the cause of it? Yeah, Adam sinned and brought
the curse on this world. Read Genesis chapter three. Do
I believe man can cure it? No. To cure the ills of this
world would be to cure sin. We can't do that. So God is the
only one who can make it right. So the purpose of this, of the
church in this world, is for the glory of God and the good
of his people. Now look at verse 13. He says,
you're the salt of the earth. Now back then, salt was mainly
used as a preservative, not a flavoring. It was used as a flavoring. We
use it as a flavoring. But what the Lord has in mind
is salt as a preservative. This was the days before refrigeration,
you see. And salt was used to preserve
something. And what he's teaching is that
the true church of the living God is that God uses the true
church as a preservative in this evil world. In other words, if
it weren't for God's glory in the salvation of His people,
this world would be gone. It would be destroyed. People
today want to figure out, when will the Lord come back? At what
time? I can tell you the exact time
the Lord's coming back. He's coming back when the last
one of his sheep is brought into the fold. That's the time. When
the last one, the top stone is laid, as the Old Testament said,
when that one last sheep, I don't know, it might be a hundred last
sheep come in at the same time, I don't know. But when those
last sheep come in to the fold, that's when he's coming back
again. Up until that time, we're preserving. The true church serves
as a preservative in this evil world. The true church is made
up of God's elect. Who are the elect? They are those
who come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe. That's
why you're commanded to believe. Somebody says, well, I need to
figure out if I'm one of God's elect. No, you don't. You just
need to believe. That's what the Bible says. Believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. It's made
up of those who are justified based upon Christ's righteousness
imputed to them. That's who they are. And they
will, in each successive generation of time, they will be born again
by the Spirit and called out of the world by the light of
the gospel. That's the light of the world.
All right, and we'll get to that in just a moment. God has a people
out of every nation, out of every tribe, kindred, and tongue, he
says. and he's going to deliver them from what what he calls
the power of darkness and translate them into the kingdom of his
dear son which is a kingdom of light and that light is the God
and as I said there's no possibility that this world will ever be
destroyed until God destroys it and then when Christ comes
again there's no possibility of God failing to save his people
from their sins. There's no possibility of the
church failing in this world. Now, that's, you know, I was
thinking about, I've got these scriptures listed. Well, let's
turn to one. Turn to 2 Peter chapter 3. This is a passage that, in 2
Peter chapter 3, that people misuse because they jerk verse
9 out of its context. Verse 9 of 2 Peter 3 says, The
Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count
slackness, but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And they
look at that and they say, well, that means God's trying to save
everybody and doesn't want anybody to perish. Well, that's not what
that verse teaches. And the only reason people interpret
it that way is because they've been taught wrong to begin with.
Think about a person who is ignorant of certain facts. Let's say you
want to be a mathematician, for example. And so you decide you're
going to go to school to learn things you don't know. Okay? You're ignorant right now. All
right? So you're going to school to
be educated. But you go to a school and the
teacher up there starts off and says, now, 2 plus 2 equals 5. Not only are you ignorant, now
you're taught wrong. That's the religious world today.
They're ignorant. I know I was. It had not entered
into the mind of men, the hearts of men, the things that God has
prepared for them. That's ignorance. And then we
get under a preacher who teaches us wrongly, and we read the Bible,
and everything, we see it through darkness and ignorance. Well,
who's he talking about here? Well, he tells us over in 2 Peter
chapter 1 and verse 1. He says, Simon Peter, a servant
and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like
precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and
our Savior Jesus Christ. That's who he's talking to. Now, there were certain false
preachers who had come in claiming that God was not telling the
truth, that Christ was not telling the truth. He said he's coming
back again and here he is. Everything's going on just like
it was and he hadn't come back yet. He made a promise. Well, Peter answers in chapter
3. And that's what he means in verse
9. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count
slackness, but his long-suffering to us word. Who's that? Those people he identified in
verse 1 of chapter 1. Not willing that any of them
should perish, but that all of them should come to repentance.
God still has some people out there who have some of his people,
his chosen people, redeemed by the blood of Christ, who have
not yet come to faith in Christ. Now, how do I know that? Because
he's not come back yet. And you read this whole chapter. But jump across the page in verse
15 of 2 Peter 3. Look at verse 15. Now,
an account that the long-suffering of our Lord, that is, the fact
that He's not yet destroyed this world, is salvation. You see that? And even as our
beloved brother Paul, also according to the wisdom given in him, hath
written unto you." He said, Paul wrote about this and he did.
Peter goes on to talk about Paul's epistles and how the things that
are hard to take in Paul's epistles. You know what I believe Peter's
talking about? I believe he's talking about the salvation of
the Gentiles because that's the thing that Peter had trouble
with. God had to teach him some hard lessons. God still has some
people out there. Now go back to Matthew 5. Paul
told Timothy, in answering this question, he
said, Timothy, why do I go through all this trouble? Paul was going
through some trouble. When he wrote the first and second
letter to Timothy, he was in prison at Rome. He was in bonds. Paul had been beaten, he'd been
ridiculed, he'd been run out of town. Paul the Apostle now,
they didn't build statues of him back then. They shouldn't
today, but they do. They didn't name buildings after
him back then. Forty of his former Jewish friends
put a contract out on him, said, we're not going to sleep until
Paul's dead. Exaggerating. And so he says
in 2 Timothy, I've got it listed here, 2 Timothy 2, 8 through
10, it's in your lesson. He says, why do I suffer all
this? And you know what his answer
was? For the elect's sake. God has a people and he's going
to save them. And it's not that God is delaying,
waiting on you or me to do anything. It's just that he's not willing
that any of his people perish, but they should all come to repentance.
And he's gonna bring them thus. Now, go back to Matthew 5. Now
look what he says here. You're the salt of the earth,
but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be
salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing
but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men. Now,
if God cannot fail, now listen to this, if God cannot fail,
and he cannot, If the church cannot fail, and the church cannot,
and the reason is because of the power of God now, and the
goodness of God. If they cannot fail, then what
did the Lord mean when he said, if the salt have lost his savor,
wherewith it shall it be salted? Well, you've got to keep it in
its context. Now remember what the Lord is
doing here. Here's Israel under the Old Covenant. Now you understand
now, at the time of the preaching of this message, the Old Covenant
is still in effect. Christ was born under the law,
made under the law. The Old Covenant is still in
effect. The Old Covenant didn't end until when? The cross. From Mount Sinai to Mount Calvary. That's the Old Covenant. About
1,500 years. Now what was the old covenant
given for? To show them their sin and their
depravity, their need of grace, to point them to Christ for salvation. Did they learn that lesson? No. Why? Because they'd been taught
wrong. They were ignorant, they'd been taught wrong. He's preaching
to a crowd here who'd been taught wrong on the Old Covenant. Now
there were certain ones who knew the Gospel because he taught
it to them, his disciples, some of his disciples. But the majority
of the people who are hearing this sermon were those who had
heard a perversion of the Old Covenant taught by the Pharisees. And that's why he says in verse
20 of Matthew 5, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter the
kingdom of heaven. All right? So that's one of the
purposes of this sermon is to set things right. He's teaching
them the right way. Like in the Beatitudes, the grace,
the character, the reward of grace of the true citizens of
the kingdom. and the persecution that comes
from that. Well, he's showing the reason the law was given
to Israel. When the law was first given,
and let me put it this way. They were given the law, nothing
wrong with the law. What was the problem? Them. Us. We're the problem. Law's good, he said. Paul said
in Romans 7, remember, he said, I looked at the law and thought
I was okay because I thought I measured up. But then when
I found out I didn't, I died. Well, was the law evil? No, I
was evil. Law was fine. But they had perverted
the law. But in the law, there was what? Truth. Even though they perverted,
even though they rebelled against it, even though they didn't see
it. But as the law was given them, and what purpose was it
given to them for? Well, God had determined that
through that nation, Christ would come. And you know what he did?
He preserved that nation until Christ came. And then he scattered
them. Why? The salt lost its savor. That's why it applies to Israel
there. And later on in the lesson, I'm
going to show you this, too. That's what's happened to, quote,
Christianity, unquote. You know, there are churches
who started out with the truth. But you know what happened, don't
you? They began to compromise the truth and deny the truth
or ignore the truth or confuse the truth. The salt lost its
savor. And when it loses its savor,
that word savor is an interesting word. The word savor has to do
with strength and effectiveness. That's what it means. I've got
three, two, yeah, I think it's two references there. where that
word savor is translated literally to mean foolishness or useless. In other words, if there's no
gospel there, it's useless. It's foolish. That's all it is. If there ever was any gospel
there, you know, Well, that salt lost its savor. And that's what
he's saying to Israel here. That's what he's saying to the
nation here. That your purpose is finished now because you've
lost your savor. You've perverted the law. You've
turned it into a self-righteous religion of human works-based
salvation. You've sought righteousness by
works of the law and you didn't find it. Because to seek righteousness
and find it is to seek it and find it in Christ. So the salt
had lost its savor. And that's what's happened in
what some historians call Christendom. That's where if you're Christian
in name only, you're part of the salt that lost its savor.
And it's good for nothing. What good are you? It's good
for nothing but to be trampled underfoot, thrown out and trampled
underfoot, trodden underfoot. At the end of the third paragraph
in your lesson, there's a parable that Christ spoke in Matthew
21 that you need to read. And it speaks of this very thing,
how the kingdom of heaven was taken away from Israel and given
to the Gentiles. And what he's talking about is
the church, but now let's go on. I don't have time to go into
all those verses in this lesson, but let's look here in verse
14. He says, Matthew 5, 14, now he
goes to, you're the light of the world. Now, the mission of
the church is to be a preservative, okay? And that preservative comes
from the message. The purpose of that preservation
comes from the message, and the message is described here in
this second symbol. You're the light of the world.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men
light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick,
and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your
light so shine before men. that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father which is in heaven." There it is. There's
the message. The mission and the message.
The light of the world. Who is the light of the world?
Well, Christ is. It's spoken of in several passages
of John chapter 1, John chapter 8 and 9, John chapter 12. He's
the light of the world. Light and life come from Him.
Even the light that the natural man has comes from him. Now what
light is that? What's the light of conscience?
The light of conscience. Now that's not the gospel. The
light of conscience is not. But we all have the conscience.
You know, somebody says, well, that person doesn't have a conscience.
Well, they didn't start out that way. They may have been given
over to a reprobate mind, which is a mind void of conscience.
But God gives everybody a conscience. That's Romans chapter two. You
can read about there. But the light that he's speaking
of here is Christ himself as he is presented and revealed
in the gospel. The gospel of God's grace. That's
the light. He says, you're the light of
the world. and you're like a city on a hill.
You don't hide it. You don't veil it. You don't
put it under a bush. It's not just for you alone.
It's to be spread across this world. Go into all the world
and preach the gospel. We're not to pick and choose
who we preach to. We're to preach to everybody
and anybody who'll listen. You say, you know, somebody asked
one old preacher one time, said, well, you believe in election,
why don't you just preach to the elect? He said, that's not
our business. That's God's business. I'm not
God. If God tells me to go preach
to one person, then I'm to go preach to that person. Now, the
message that I preach will either be a saver of death unto death
for that person or life unto life. Who determines that? Me? No. God does. That's his business. And if I try to determine that,
then what am I doing? I'm trying to be God. Can't do
it. That's why preachers, you know,
when they say, you know, you look around and you say, well,
what can I do to get more people into this building? The moment
you say that, you've left the Bible. Now, I invite people to church.
I mean, I'm not saying we're not to invite people to church.
Come hear the gospel. But I'm not gonna put a $100
bill underneath a seat and say, anybody who wants to, if you're
sitting over top of it, you can have it. I'm not gonna try gimmicks. You're not gonna see me up on
top of the building, you know. You're not going to cut my tie
off. These are all things I've heard in the past. Preachers
trying to get people to come to church. No. Somebody asked
me, he said, well, what do you do for our children? I said,
well, I preach the gospel to them. That's what they need. But we're not into gimmicks,
see. We preach the gospel. Now, this gospel is a message
A light that reveals and exposes. It reveals the right way of salvation
by God's grace in Christ and exposes every other way as a
false way of evil deeds. Is Christ's righteousness imputed
or evil deeds? That's it. John chapter 3 is a verse, John
chapter 3 verses 19 through 20 is a verse we quote quite often.
where Christ said, this is the condemnation that light has come
into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their
deeds are evil. Everyone who hateth the light,
you know. Well, what is it? Here, a man
or a woman who has been taught wrong all their life concerning
how God saves sinners. And we tell them the right way,
and it exposes the way they've been taught all their life as
being evil deeds. Well, they're either gonna be
converted and come to repentance, 2 Peter 3, 9. Not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. They're
either gonna be converted by the Lord and come to repentance
and believe the gospel, or they're gonna hate it. One of the two. There's no middle ground. And that's why he says you're
the light of the world. Well, look down at verse 16. This is one
that's abused quite a bit. Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works and glorify your father
which is in heaven. How many of you have heard the
term or the saying, I'd rather see a sermon than hear one? You
ever heard that? That come from a poem. I'd rather
see a sermon than hear one. That's not what this is teaching.
Now let me say this. Every true believer is to live
a life of godliness. There's no doubt about it. What
we display before men and women should be godliness, should be
obedience, should be humility and love, all of that. But nobody
is going to be saved by looking at our lives, our morality, our
character, and our conduct. Salvation comes by hearing and
believing the gospel message. That's the light. The light is
not my life of morality. Now, my life of morality should
be viewed in light of this gospel. Because the light of the gospel
reveals and exposes that a person's life is either fruit unto death
or fruit unto God. You see, good works. What are
good works? Well, good works are the work
and operation of the Spirit of God through us. We're not the
power of good works. We're not the source. Good works
are the work of God. John chapter 3 and verse 21 teaches
us that. Those who come to the light.
They confess that the power and the source of all that they are
is God. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. So if I do anything called good
works, it's not me. I'm the instrument. But I'm not the source or the
power or the goodness of it, it's God. Secondly, good works
come from faith in Christ. Faith that worketh by love. Good
works are motivated by grace, gratitude, and love. And then
good works, in order to be accepted before God, have to be accepted
just like I am, washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. So what
does the light tell us? It tells us that these good works
are not meant to draw attention to ourselves. Look at me. No. The good works, when brought
into the light of the gospel, tell sinners, look to Christ. Look to His work. Look what it says again. They
may see your good works and do what? glorify your father, not
glorify you, not glorify me, but glorify your father which
is in heaven. In other words, the good works
of a believer point not to the believer, they point to Christ.
They point to His grace, His goodness, His wisdom, His power,
His righteousness. Somebody said, well, boy, I wish
I could be like old Saint so-and-so. My friend, you're shooting too
low. But you don't know Saint so-and-so,
what he did and what all he accomplished. You're shooting too low. Who
do you want to be like? I want to be like Christ. He's
my righteousness. And whatever good you see me
do, don't attribute it to me. Don't applaud me. Don't give
me the key to the city. Give all the glory to God. That's
what this light is for. That's what the gospel shows.
All right.