Matthew chapter 5 and verse 13. Ye are the salt of the earth,
but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be
salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing
but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye
are the light of the world. A city that is set on an 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. Amen. May God be pleased to bless
this reading of his word. The Lord Jesus Christ had just
very recently spent time speaking about the blessedness that falls
upon his church and people and this Sermon on the Mount, this
list of blessednesses, the Beatitudes as we call them, where the Lord
speaks about the privilege and the happiness and the good that
flows to his people and church has been in the forefront of
his introduction in this sermon. He's spoken about the blessedness
of the people of God who are able to witness and preach about
the righteousness of Christ. This is not the righteousness
of man's good works. We saw that previously. but it
is the righteousness of the gospel. It is the message of truth. It is the message of a righteousness
that is available to sinners, a righteousness that is to be
had from God, a righteousness that comes not for payment, not
for effort, not for all that we're able to muster in order
to obtain and secure and acquire it, but comes free, comes sovereignly,
comes purposefully at God's behest to sinners who discover their
need of a saviour and their need of a righteousness that they
have learned they can never achieve by themselves. And so that righteousness
as it is experienced, received and enjoyed and discussed and
spoken of and preached and declared in this world is the content
of our gospel. That's the doctrine, the doctrine
of righteousness, the doctrine of free sovereign grace that
we preach. And we have discovered that there
will be an opposition comes to us if we preach that gospel. because the whole of religion
is founded upon the fact that men have to give and men have
to do and men have to make and men have to contribute and if
they contribute enough and do enough and give enough then perhaps
they will get the praise of their fellow man and the assurance
of their fellows that all is well with them before God. But that isn't worth a heap of
beans. That isn't worth anything. For me to tell you that you're
right with God, because of the way that you work, because of
the things that you do, would be a terrible thing to say. Because
there is no knowledge in a man as to what God's requirements
are of me, far less than of you. and me knowing what you require
to do. But rather the message that we
have to bring to one another is a message of God's goodness
by his love and his grace and his mercy. And that is what the
Lord Jesus Christ has been talking about. Mere self-righteousness
does us no good whatsoever. The Bible elsewhere calls it
filthy rags. There's no interest in that as
far as the blood-bought people of God are concerned. We're not
going to talk about our own righteousness. We're not going to talk about
our work's righteousness nor our self-righteousness when we
have a topic as glorious as the righteousness of God freely bestowed
by the work and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. God isn't
interested in what men thinks make them good enough for him. And our usefulness to the Lord
Jesus Christ in this world is the testimony that we bear about
his cleansing blood. That's our purpose, to speak
the good news of the gospel of salvation that comes freely by
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The message that we declare is
the reason why we're here, the message of justification with
God by his grace and goodness, of righteousness imputed not
for work's sake but because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has
accomplished and the sacrifice that he has made. The fact that
we are fitted for glory by divine fear, by God himself willing
it to be so and securing all that is necessary to deliver
it into our experience. And even here in this role that
God has given us a certain degree of humility does not go wrong,
because in a very real sense, God doesn't need us at all. Angels are the created messengers
of God. If he wants to give a message
to men, why not send an angel? That's their job after all, to
do his will and bring his messages to men. They have done it many
times in scripture. Why not now? Why not with this
gospel? And if it's not an angel, why?
God made a donkey to speak. He could make the very stones
of the ground cry out, but he's chosen to use sinners to speak
to sinners. He's chosen to use his church
and his people. He has ordained the foolishness
of preaching, preaching by saved sinners as a means of gathering
in his elect, those that he loves. and it is the preaching of righteousness. That's all we need to preach. We don't need to be preaching
all the various ideas and thoughts and themes that seem to abound
in our world today. We've been reading a little bit
recently about all of the activities that are going on in the local
churches. and how this one is coming to
speak about this, and this one is coming to tell about their
experiences here, and there will be some special charismatic activities,
and then some song, and so much goes on in the name of religion,
in the name of Christ, when what we are called to do is preach
righteousness. Preach that righteousness which
comes freely from God by his sovereign grace. We are blessed
indeed, brothers and sisters who trust the Lord Jesus Christ,
we are blessed indeed to be both chosen and fitted in this high
calling. It is the only way of salvation. We come to God through the preaching
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is his ordained
means. So the Lord has encouraged his
people to see that their task is preaching righteousness and
he recognises that there will be an opposition comes against
them. And so immediately after speaking
about this preaching, this gospel of righteousness in his Sermon
on the Mount, the Lord Jesus Christ emphasises the weightiness
of this duty, of this privilege that we have. It's a weighty,
it's an important task that he has committed to our charge. and the apostles and preachers
and believers are called in these verses before us, salt and light. Salt of the earth, light of the
world. And the Lord is drawing our attention
to these elements, these substances, in order to speak about our mission
and our purpose in this age, in this time, in this place. He's telling us, this is why
you're here. I am going to send you out. I
am going to put you in this world. I am going to send you out before
men in order to declare the truth of God, in order to uphold the
gospel of Jesus Christ, in order to proclaim that which I am committing
unto you. So this evening I want to think
about why the Lord uses these two metaphors of salt and light. What is his purpose of using
these two words? Well, each is suited to a purpose
and is descriptive of that which encourages our faithfulness in
this task that he has given us. He has given us the task of preaching
the gospel, of preaching righteousness to this world, in all of its
sin and iniquity, and he calls us salt and light as we go about
that task in order that we might understand, have some insights,
some discernment, some illumination, if you like, as far as these
truths are concerned. Our witness and our preaching
are the good works of which the Lord speaks in verse 16. It's not our good works of charity,
but our good works as his people is the preaching of the gospel. Salt then, first of all, has
two main uses. It is a preservative and it makes
our food taste good. It's as simple as that. That's
salt. It is said that one of the greatest
advances that men and women ever had when it came to providing
food for themselves was the discovery that salt was a preservative,
because what it meant was they could store things. And if they
could store things, then they could travel. provide for themselves in times
of plenty and have in lean times, then they were much more able
to deal with the circumstances of their life. And over the centuries
and indeed the millennia, salt has been a very valuable commodity. And you know, it's interesting
because for that reason alone, if the Lord had said, you are
the salt of the earth, what he was telling his disciples, what
he's telling us is, you're very valuable. You're very valuable. You're very valuable to me because
salt is valuable and you are the salt of the earth. People
paid big money for salt. In the earliest days, there were
salt roads. Towns that were able to produce
salt were given special dispensations. When Joshua was dividing up the
land of Canaan, there were those that had access to salt and these
were valuable places to live. And so we can see that there
is an aptness in the Lord's description of his people as salt for the
very value that they have to him. Precious blood bought us. Don't ever think of yourself
as useless, meaningless. The Lord Jesus Christ gave his
precious blood and he calls you his brethren. These are blessings
indeed, and we are well aware of our own sin and our own inadequacies
and our own meanness, and yet the Lord has been pleased to
lift us up. Rejoice, brothers and sisters,
in the grace and mercy of such a Saviour. But there is another
dimension to this also. Not simply the value of the salt,
but the reason for the value was that it was a preservative. And in a very real sense, the
church preserves this world. We often think of ourselves as
being marginalized and pushed into a corner and the weight
of the opposition of this world coming heavy upon us. And we
kind of think it would be a good idea if we were just to get inside
our building and keep ourselves as huddled up as we could and
as close-knit as we could and let the world pass us by outside. But that's not the way that the
Lord looks at this. The Lord hasn't taken us out
of the world. He has left us in the world.
And he has done so with the purpose of preaching his gospel. And
indeed, in a very real sense, we are preserving this world.
And there's an irony there. Because Satan is trying to destroy
the church. And yet, when the church's work
is done and we are withdrawn from this world, then will come
the judgment. Then will be the end of the world. When the church is removed, there
is no reason for this wicked world to continue and the judgment
will come. The world continues only until
the last elect child of God is called by grace. Do you want
the Lord Jesus Christ to come quickly? then we preach this
gospel that he has given to us. And when the last brick has been
placed in that building, when the last tile has been placed
in the roof, when the people of God have been formed into
that temple of his holy worship, then comes the end. And that preserving metaphor,
it also extends to this extent. that the world is not as bad
as it could be were it not for the church's preserving influence. We are called to pray for kings. Now, I know that when it comes
to politics, we've all got to be careful about what we say,
but we are called to pray for those in authority. And we might
not like them and we might like to see the back of them. But when it comes to these matters
of who God puts into positions of authority, he raises up kings
and he brings them down. He sets up nations and he brings
them down. He gives us presidents and prime
ministers and kings and queens and he takes them away in his
good time. Our job is to pray for them. We are to love our enemies. We are to bless those who curse
us. We are to do good to those who
hate us, praying for those who despitefully use us, forgiving
those who offend. Won't get too personal here,
but perhaps someone will know who I'm talking about. We get
offended, don't we? By the things that are done to
us by people, sometimes even over the telephone. Do we pray
for that person? These things are ours to do. God has given us the privilege
of making this world a better place by praying about the things
that we see going on around about us. We are to forgive those who offend.
We are to intercede for these around about us. And the world
is a better place for the presence of the Lord's people. More, in
preaching the gospel, it itself becomes that saltiness. that does the souls of men and
women good. Our value in this world is to
be found in us bringing a message that is appropriate and needful
for hell-bound men and women. John Gill, in his commentary,
speaks about this as the savoury words that we bring when we preach
the gospel. And that's the sense of saltiness. We put salt on our fries because
they taste a lot better. But the saltiness of our words
make those words useful in the ears of men and women. The message that we have is a
salty message, a savoury message, a delightful message. Let's change
the picture and call it a sweet message. We probably think more
about sweetness than saltiness these days. It used to be reversed. But our message is sweet, to
the ears of needful men and women when we bring them the gospel.
Indeed, for all that we could say to them, it is only the gospel
that is any real usefulness to them. The message of righteousness
by Christ, the message of sacrifice, the message of blood satisfaction
is the message which is savoury for the souls of sinners. And the Lord goes on to say,
what happens when salt loses its savour? What happens when
a church stops preaching this message of righteousness by grace? What happens when blood satisfaction
no longer is the thrust, the theme, the burden of a preacher? when we don't any longer preach
free grace from our pulpits? Or a preacher is bereft of any
good for men's souls? Or a people become more concerned
with worldly matters than heavenly glory and eternal realities and
the sinner's salvation? What happens in that situation? What of such a church? What of
such a preacher? Why? The Lord says, it's good
for nothing. It's good for nothing. The Lord says, cast it out and
tread it down. Put it under foot. It's no more
than waste. Put it in the street and tread
on it. It's all it's good for. Now that's
not talking about the elect losing their salvation, that can never
happen. But it is an indictment upon
every church that does not preach the gospel, that does not preach
sovereign grace, that does not declare election, that does not
value the message of blood satisfaction and imputed righteousness by
the grace of God. If these messages are not central
to a church's position and a church's preaching, then it really is
no good to anyone. Do we ever think, well, Perhaps
these free will churches do some good. Perhaps they do some good. At least they're praying, or
at least they're reading the Bible, or at least they're giving
people an introduction to the things of God. They're better
than nothing. Really? I disagree. Salt without its savor is good
for nothing. Like a church without Christ
is good for nothing. It's a waste of space. It is to be treaded underfoot. Now that means, because we don't
literally tread people under our feet, But that means that
those who know the gospel, those who believe in sovereign grace,
we have nothing to do with these churches. We have nothing to
do with their ministry. We have nothing to do about sending
people to hear the gospel from their pulpits. We have nothing
to do with encouraging them, either by our attendance or our
presence or our support or our resources in any way. They're
good for nothing. Throw them out, cast them out,
think no more of them. Is that too hard, too harsh? Listen to what the Lord says
to the church at Laodicea in Revelation chapter three. I know
thy works. Thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot.
So then, because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will
spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou seest I am rich
and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest
not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind
and naked. The churches of our day, Christendom
if you like, the free will edifices, the synagogues of Satan, They
think they have need for nothing. They think they're all right.
They think that they are on the road and they are rich and increased
with goods. And they don't know that they're
wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. So much for the salt. What about
the light? It's a lovely picture that the
Lord gives us here of a city set on a hill. Such is the church
of Jesus Christ. Such is the church that preaches
the righteousness of Christ. It is a city set on a hill. It is founded and built upon
Mount Zion. It is the dwelling place of God
himself. We are the church that is a city
with foundations. We are surrounded by strong walls,
walls of salvation. We are a city from which banners
fly. Psalm 71 verse three says, be
thou my strong habitation whereunto I may continually resort Thou
hast given commandment to save me, for Thou art my rock and
my fortress. Where is free will in the psalmist's
declaration that God has given commandment to save me? A command has gone out from God. In all of His majesty, in all
of His omnipotence, in all of His glory, He has sent out a
command to save this poor sinner. And that's what we declare. That's
what we preach. We preach the sovereignty of
God and salvation. We preach the elective purpose
of God in choosing a people for himself. And we send that message
out with vigour and with boldness. And we declare it to be the true
gospel of Jesus Christ, alone, which can save sinners. The Lord doesn't want us to be
bunkered down, cowering in our sheds, trying to be safe, but
really being asleep. He calls us light. And in darkness,
light draws the eye. It's always nice to go out in
the stillness and the darkness and you see a light in the distance. For all that there is around
about you, it's the light that draws your eye. And that's what
he calls us. A people who stand out in the
world. Who, because they are light,
attract attention. Now men love darkness rather
than light. So we might expect that that
attraction wouldn't necessarily be a good thing all the time. Why is it that they love darkness
rather than light? Because their deeds are evil.
There is no love lost between the church and the world. But still we are called to let
our light shine. And the reason is simple. Because
this preaching of the gospel, this preaching of righteousness,
is the means by which God calls his people to himself. And that's
why we're here. That's why we're here. Make no mistake about it. We
are lights in a dark world. We, individually and personally,
were drawn by gospel light when we were in darkness and sin. And now we are called to draw
others, to take up that mantle, if you like, which has been given
up by those who have gone before, and continue to carry that torch,
continue to carry that message, that men may be enlightened in
their souls and in their minds and brought to a knowledge of
the truth. The sinner is quickened by the
Holy Spirit and he is shown that he has a hunger and a thirst
and a need after this righteousness. And as we declare the righteousness
of God, so the sinner finds peace for their soul. We're not out
there in the marketplace trying to sell the gospel. We're not
out there offering it to people who are not concerned at all
with anything. But we are looking for those
who are searching for Christ. And we know that if the Lord
causes our paths to cross, as he will do with every single
one of his elect at some place, at some stage, at some time,
then we have a message that is good for their souls. There is another observation
just about this idea of light and a city on the hill. The lost
sinner, feeling his need, makes his way to the light. He is drawn to the light. Now,
I'm not suggesting that we don't carry the gospel to the world.
We do that. Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel. The Lord has given us that commission. But it is the gospel that we
are to preach. It is the gospel of grace, the
gospel of a righteousness given, not for works, not for the inherent
goodness of a man or a woman, but by the grace of God. And
that's the significance of a candle set on a candlestick or a city
set on a hill. The city doesn't move. It's set
on the hill. And for miles and miles around,
those who desire the security and safety and the blessedness
of its walls of salvation, they make their way to that city.
So with the candle on the candlestick, It's not carried around. It is
sat in the middle of the house and it gives light to all those
who are in that house. We have one message of one Christ,
the one way of salvation. So this brings me to another
point and we're going to round this up, but I want to think
about this because it's important and I guess on a midweek evening
everybody's getting a little bit tired and a little bit dozy,
but I want you just to sort of gird up the loins of your mind
and give me just another couple of minutes of attention because
this is actually very beautiful. Where does this salt and where
does this light come from? Where do these things have their
source? Well, light is easy, okay? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
said in John 8, verse 12, I am the light of the world. He that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life. And so when the Lord says to
his people, hear the light of the world, we're simply taking
that light which is Christ and shining him out to those around
about us. We're just saying what the Lord
has already taught us. As he has illuminated us, we
endeavour. The hymn writer talks about lower
lights. We attempt to be lights like
him. We are light because He is light. We get our light from Him. Once
we walked in darkness, but now we walk in light because we walk
in Christ. And basically that's all there
is to it. Christ is light. He is the light of this world.
There is no other light. Men have their philosophies,
their theories, their religion. They have all of their efforts.
They have all of their desires and their lusts that they seek
to satisfy in this brief span of a few years that they have
in the midst of eternity. And they think, if I can run,
if I can experience, if I can enjoy these things, then I've
had a good life. And the Lord Jesus Christ says,
I'm the light. If you want to understand, if
you want to know, if you want to have truth, if you want to
see what this is all about, it's found in the light. What of salt? Is Christ our salt? What does that mean? Well, take
your Bibles, please, and turn to Leviticus chapter 2. Leviticus
chapter 2. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. And look at verse 13 with me. Leviticus chapter 2, verse 13. It says there, and every oblation
of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt. Neither shalt
thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from
thy meat offering. With all thine offerings thou
shalt offer salt. Did you know that? There had
to be salt in all these offerings. There had to be a savouriness.
There had to be salt. The salt, it's called the salt
of the covenant. With every offering that the
Jews made, the children of Israel made to God, it had to be salted
with salt. Okay, look at Numbers chapter
18. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Chapter 18 and verse 19. All the heave offerings of the
holy things which the children of Israel offer unto the Lord
have I given thee. Now, this is the Lord through
Moses speaking to Aaron, speaking to the priesthood. And the priests,
the sons of Levi, they weren't given any inheritance in Israel
when it came to the land or it came to moving into the promised
land. Their task was to serve God,
to serve the tabernacle, to serve the means of worship that had
been instituted in Israel. So all the heave offerings of
the holy things which the children of Israel offer unto the Lord
have I given thee. and thy sons and thy daughters
with thee by a statute forever. It is a covenant of salt forever
before the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee." Okay,
that's telling us that this promise, this provision that was given
to the priesthood was to be a perpetual covenant. It had to continue. It was a covenant of salt. It
was a covenant that would continue perpetually. It would always
be maintained and the priesthood would be preserved and provided
for because this was a covenant of salt. The covenant of the
priesthood. Okay. Look at 2 Chronicles and
chapter 13. Look at verse 5. 2 Chronicles chapter 13 and verse
5. Ought ye not to know that the
Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever,
even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt? And here's where we see these
threads coming together. The covenant of salt established
a continuity. Salt preserves. And this was
the promise of an everlasting covenant that would be continuous,
that would be preserved. There would be salt in all of
the offerings because the saltiness of those offerings would speak
of the perpetuity of that offering. And the offering of the altar
passed away with Israel. But the Lord Jesus Christ in
his offering his blood, and the Lord Jesus Christ in his continuous
priesthood, has established a continuous acceptance with God, not any
longer in the offerings of animals or the offerings of the blood
of animals, but in the offering of his blood. And so he, in the
continuity and perpetuity of the work which he has done for
his people, bespeaks the salt of the covenant. And so the Lord
Jesus Christ is our salt too. He says he is the light and he
is the salt. He is that one who has ensured
for all time the perpetuity and continuity of the everlasting
covenant of God's grace towards us. He is the salt of the covenant. The grace of God, the mercy of
God, the love of God comes to us for all time and eternity
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is he who preserves and
upholds and maintains every blessing that flows to us as the church. Every grace and every mercy is
ours because we are in the Lord Jesus Christ and we are heirs
together with him. The Apostle Peter writes in 1
Peter chapter 1 verse 4, we are heirs in Christ to an inheritance
incorruptible. It's preserved. They used to
get this salt and rub it into the food so that the food would
be preserved. That's where the value of the
salt was. But Christ has given us something
much more valuable than these pictures. He has given us an
incorruptible inheritance in glory with his Father that is
undefiled. and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you. Christ is our light. Christ is
our perpetual High Priest. We are heirs of the everlasting
covenant of peace and grace in him, the covenant of salt. Let us, in turn, be light in
this dark world, be salt in the earth, speaking savoury truths
to those who, like us, are heirs of the covenant and who need
to hear this word of truth by which they will be brought into
the experience of grace. Colossians 4, 6 says, Let your
speech therefore be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that
ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. May it be so. Amen.