Matthew Chapter 5:11-16 tells us, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."
Let us pray. Father, we just ask that You would send Your Holy Spirit to illumine our understanding and to reveal the truths of Your Word to our hearts through the exposition of Your scripture, and of Your Word, that we would rejoice in Your Word and that we would take seriously the commandments that are written therein for us to do. So help us, Lord, to observe the things that our Lord Jesus has said to us here in the text of scripture, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
Over the last 10 or so weeks, we've been considering the Beatitudes, which are found in verses 3 through to verse number 12 of Matthew chapter 5. And we have been learning that the Beatitudes describe the characteristics of those that belong to the kingdom of heaven, that Jesus has His disciples, and these are what His disciples are to look like. This is how you can mark them out. These are the characteristics that form them, the attitudes that shape them, their convictions that you find in this passage here, verse 3 down to verse 12, all describe the people of the children of the heavenly kingdom. This is what they look like. And Jesus has been describing these people from verses 3 to verse number 10 as "blessed are those," and He's been using the third person to describe them. "Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." And He goes on to describe those that belong to the kingdom of heaven.
But in this sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, there comes a little shift, particularly in verse number 11 and onward. Jesus goes from describing who these people are to sort of making some application to them and says to them, "Blessed are you when men revile you, when they say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake." And He says, "Rejoice." In other words, "You rejoice, you be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven." And He moves from "theirs" and "those" to "you" and "yours." He basically says to these people and basically turns to them, His disciples, as He was describing the characteristics of those that belong to the kingdom, which were His disciples. But He says, "This is the way that you should now function as those people." He moves from a doctrine, if we could say, to application. And He's simply saying, "This is who you are by virtue of regeneration, by virtue of your relationship to Me as your master, belonging to My kingdom. But this is now how you should therefore function."
This is how I want these people that I've called to Myself to live, to be, how they are to relate to the world. And He does that by giving us two metaphors. In verse number 13 following, Jesus introduces two metaphors to describe how these believers are to function in the world. How the people that are described in verses 3 to 10 are to function in the world. And He uses the two metaphors, one of salt and another of light. And He goes on in verse 13 to say, "You are the salt of the earth." And in verse 14, "You are the light of the world." And He explains to them to help them understand that although this is the way you ought to be in your character, this is the way you ought to therefore function in the earth and in the world.
And these two metaphors that are taken by our Lord Jesus, salt and light, have a very specific thing that Jesus is trying to portray and to help His disciples understand. The first thing regarding salt that Jesus brings out, or that we should understand about what Jesus is trying to say here, is that salt functioned as a preservative. This was one of the main functions of the use of salt in the times of our Lord. And even in the present time, it still serves that purpose. But in a world where there was no refrigeration, salt was the very thing that was used to combat decay and deterioration so that a piece of meat, for example, might live on longer than just a couple of days. And so what would happen is they would cover it with salt, a little bit like a South African biltong, and they would basically let it be preserved for some time, and so that a latter time they could therefore consume this meat without getting sick, without the decay taking its full course upon this piece of food.
And that was one of the main purposes, but also, as still is today, it was used for seasoning. As Jesus also mentions here in this passage, salt is used to season food, and seasoning food, it enhances the flavor of that which is insipid or tasteless, and it basically brings out flavors that usually you don't really recognize are there. We love our salt, Lebanese people, and we maybe put a little bit too much than most, but the point is it brings out certain flavors. You put a little bit more salt in, and all of a sudden, it's like, "Wow." They were there, but they weren't there with that kind of pungency, with that potency, and then the salt dissolves in that pot of stew, and it comes to life.
And Jesus is saying here to His disciples that you are the salt of the earth; you are to function in a way of preservation, and you are to function in a way of seasoning. But He also talks about light. He goes on to say, "You are the light of the world," and the light basically has one main function, and that is to illuminate, so illumination is the main function of light. Verse 15 of this text says, "Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house." So the function of light is simply to give light. That's pretty profound but simple. It's just to give light.
Now, verse 16 also shows us a little bit more. It says, "Let your light so shine before men," and then it says that they may see. So light functions not only to illuminate, but it has a purpose, and that is the purpose so that people may see. And so Jesus takes these two metaphors and says to His disciples, "You're salt, and you are light. You are to function as a preservative and a seasoning, and as a medium of illumination."
Now, before I move on, you're probably thinking, "I thought Jesus said that He is the light of the world. And why is Jesus now saying you are the light of the world? There are two lights; which is the true light?" You know, all these kinds of things might be running through your head. Let me just explain for a little moment. In John 8, Jesus says, "I am the light of the world," but here He says, "You are the light of the world." And what He's trying to, how we are to look at these things together, is to understand that the light that we have as believers in Jesus Christ is a light that is derivative. It's a light that is reflective, very much like the moon and the sun, if we could put it that way. That the sun, the moon derives its light, and it gives light to those in night by reason of the work of the sun upon the moon or the reflective work there. We are in one sense what the book of Genesis calls the lesser lights that rule the night. We are like those little lights that reflect that great light to those that live in darkness.
And there's an important connection here because Jesus wants us to understand that in a very real way, Him being the light of the world has a sort of relationship to us being also the light of the world in terms of shedding and letting that light so shine before men. Now, what's important to realize about these metaphors is that they have some inherent presuppositions. And what I mean by that is that these metaphors contain within them some assumptions and some important assumptions that we have to understand if we want to know what Jesus is referring to here. Salt acts as a preservative. And the fact that it acts as a preservative means that whatever it's acting upon is decaying. Whatever the salt is being rubbed into is deteriorating. And so there's an assumption there that we must understand that if the world, if we are the salt of the earth, that presupposes that the world is deteriorating and decaying, and the Christian people function as a preservative for it.
But on top of that, if it's also not only a preservative but a seasoning, something that enhances the flavor, we also need to understand that there's a certain level of tastelessness that exists among men apart from Christian witness. You see, the world is a very disagreeable place, an unpalatable place. But the presence of those that fear God and love God and work righteousness in the world and represent Christ in the world make the world a far better place than it would be without believers.
But also, the presupposition that is here regarding light is illumination. And if there's a need for illumination, that presupposes that there is darkness. That the world is a place of not only moral darkness, but there's a sense in which the people of this world cannot see clearly and therefore need light. And why it's important to understand is if we want to understand how we are to function in the world, we have to understand what salt and light have to do with the world. And here, those presuppositions, those assumptions, help us understand that we are living in a decaying, deteriorating world that is in darkness, that is lost. And what Jesus is essentially saying to His disciples is that you're the world's light, and you are the world's salt. And Jesus says, "You are the light of the world; you are the salt of the earth." And this very much is a powerful statement that teaches us some things that we must know.
If Jesus is saying that we are the salt of the earth, that means He's essentially saying that we are distinctively different from the earth or to those that belong to the earth. If we are the salt of the earth and we are the light of the world, there is a sense then that we are different. Salt is different in its properties from that which it's rubbed into. It's external, and it's there. Light is different from darkness. Salt is different from decay. Salt doesn't decay. And so we see here that salt and light are therefore distinctively different from that which they're acting upon. What Jesus is telling His disciples is that you and you only are the salt of the earth, and you and you only are the light of the world. And you must therefore realize that you are the demonstration of the kingdom of heaven upon earth. You see, you are the ones that I have called out of the world. You are the ones that I have, according to these Beatitudes that I've just relayed to you, have demonstrated that you are different from those that belong to the world. And therefore, you are to let your light so shine; you are to operate as salt, and that being distinctively different from those that are around you.
You see, the disciples of Jesus Christ are different from the world on many levels. Of course, we are all made in the image of God. Of course, we are physically the same, and we have brains and all these kinds of things. But what Jesus is referring to here is that you are morally different. You are righteous and holy. I've called you out of the world. You hunger and thirst for righteousness. Your priorities are different. You seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. They don't. Your motivations are different. You don't do things to be seen of men. You do them because I've called you out of the world, and you love Me, and I have made you My own. He says you live differently. Your manner of life is even different. Yes, you eat like they eat, and you drink, and you do things that they do, but you are different from them. Your manner of life is different. The way you conduct yourselves in your workplace, in the affairs in which you have been brought into, in your entire life and relationship to the earth and to the world, you're different. You're light in that dark place. You're salt in that decaying place. You're different.
Not only are you different, He also says you're influential. Light influences darkness. Salt influences the decaying meat. There is this real thing that happens when you turn the light on. Darkness flees. Light shines. There's something that actually happens when you rub salt into decaying meat. It's preserved. What Jesus is saying, there is an influence that you ought to be having in the earth, an influence that you ought to be having in the world by reason of the fact that you are different from the world. The world would be all darkness were it not for the light of God's people and the light of the glorious gospel that shines in them and through them and is proclaimed by them. There is a preserving influence that Christians have in a community, in a society, in a home. Read 1 Corinthians 7 and see what says about that when the unbelieving spouse is sanctified by the other. Christian presence in the world changes things in the world, makes the world a much livable place.
I remember once sharing the gospel with a person, and they said, you know, religion and Christianity and all these things have just caused so many troubles, and we'd be better off without it. You know, speaking about we're in Australia, and all this trouble with religion and Christianity and all these kinds of things. I said, are you suggesting that you would rather live in a world that is atheistic? By all means, go live in communist China. You see, the blessings and the benefits and the freedoms that we have in this land have been established by biblical principles that have gone back from Christian convictions many years ago. You don't want God? Have a world without God. Go to a country where there is no God. It's not the country that you would be choosing. And just as we are starting to deteriorate and decay more and more as the Christian influence and light has become more and more dim and been rejected, we find ourselves going back to a more of a dangerous place. Things are being justified as being okay, like, you know, the murder of innocent children and taking of old people's lives. They're not useful anymore to us, and so just inject them and die, you know. Values that are established in Christian truth removed causes us to go back to a place of darkness.
Do we forget that when the gospel came to cannibalistic nations, that those people, when they heard the gospel and were saved and were transformed by the power of that message and the light and the salt was applied in those societies, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, you name the islands around about, that things change with regards to how they treated one another? Things change. Righteousness invaded the nation. And so, well, now we've got that all sorted. Let's do away with God, not realizing that those very convictions were the very things that brought people out of such corruption. And so there's an influence that the Christian church has on the world. We're distinctively different. There's an influence, but also there's a responsibility.
You know, He says, "You are the salt of the earth," and He goes on to say, "You are the lights of the world." What Jesus is saying to His disciples is here, do not be deceived. You actually have a real relationship to the world around you. And that relationship to the world around you puts upon you a responsibility. Jesus said if God wanted to take us out of the world, He would have taken us out of the world, saved us, and gone. But He's kept us here. He's kept His people here. He has not yet returned because He wants the church of Jesus Christ and the disciples of the Lord and those of the kingdom of God to have a real influence in the sphere in which they reside, both as salt and both as lights. And so there's a real relationship that Jesus wanted them to understand. He even goes on in verse 16 to say, "Let your light so shine before men." You have a responsibility to those around you, to men and women and children in the world around you, in the earth, you are to shine as lights to them.
Now, the lessons that we learn from this are vital. We are told that we are an influence in the world, but we are not to influence the world by conformity to the world. Jesus makes it very clear, "Your light, their darkness; your salt, their decaying." And He doesn't go on and say, "Then therefore, be like decaying meat, and therefore be darkness, so that you can work together, and you can try and impact change." What Jesus is saying is, "Do not change who you are." In fact, you are different. And it is by reason of your difference that you will therefore have your influence. And to lose the distinctiveness of being people of the kingdom of heaven, of living according to the Beatitudes that we've just been looking at over the 10 weeks or so, is to undermine the power and pugnancy of the influence that we might have in the world. It's not by conformity to it, as Romans says, "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." The world is not the pattern by which we should pattern our lives after, but we are to pattern our lives after the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we are more and more conformed to His image, the world sees a brighter light shining.
Was Martin Lloyd-Jones who said this, he said, "When the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it. It is then that the world is made to listen to her message, though it may hate it at first." You know, who in our workplaces would seek the help of those that are battling with the same sins that they are battling with and also not having the same victory that they're having? They're struggling, and they're in despair. Would they go to another person despairing that is just in the same situation as they are? Or would they go to one who has struggled and has victory to seek help? Usually, what would happen is they'll go to the one who is different. Now, at first, they'll look at that person and not like them because the light exposes the fact that they are not like them. And wow, you know, like that person loves their husband, and that person loves their wife, and they love their children, and they show mercy and kindness and love, and they have all the things here that are evident in the Beatitudes, and they seek God, and they're poor in spirit. At first, they repel such things, but when troubles come in their way, and they see the demonstration of the kingdom of heaven on earth, and as God starts to work into their lives and in their hearts, and they start to be awakened, they will run to those who are the light and who are the salt, so that their lives may be preserved, that they may be brought out of such darkness and know where they can find help and guidance in their confusion.
And so being different is essential to our impact. And Jesus says then, not to conform to the world, but the lesson also we learn is that we are not to hide from it. You know, Christianity is incompatible with monasticism. The Amish communes, those that live in caves and live in cloisters, or even on a more practical level that may relate to us, those that only live in the four walls of their church or in their homes. What Jesus is talking about here is saying, "You are the light of the world, and you are the salt of the earth," which means there is a sense in which you must be rubbing shoulders. You must be shining light in places where there is no light, and in places where there is decay and where there is deterioration. The church is not to hide itself from the world; it is not to be like the world, but it is also to be in a place where it may be observed by the world and may, in one sense, rub shoulders with those that are in the world. That Christian phobia and isolationism is unhelpful and contrary to Christian witness. There is a sense in which Jesus has said these very words Himself, that you are in the world but you are not of the world. And therefore, being in the world, there is a sense in which we ought to have this not fellowship in darkness, like do the things that the people in darkness do, but there's a sense in which we must be around them. We must be engaging with them. There's a sense in which, therefore, you must befriend those that are decaying, in a way in which you may influence them without them compromising and causing you to become like them.
The salt is of no use in the canister, in the jar. Light is no good if it's turned on in other lights. Sometimes I think that some Christians are like lights in a beacon lighting shop. Lights everywhere, lights in lights. You really want to see the effect of this light you're going to purchase, but you can't see it. You feel like telling the guy in the store, "Turn off all the lights in here so I can see how this one works." They're on display. They're parading themselves among themselves. But they are not shining the light in darkness. They're not connected to their community. They are isolated from their colleagues. Maybe phobia. They're so afraid that the unbeliever might sneeze, and they'll catch the disease. Or they don't believe that the power of the gospel not only has the power to save you but has the power to keep you. Or they might believe that it's up to me to keep myself, and therefore, they don't understand their relationship to the world around them. They become as Pharisees. They don't want to sit in the seat of, or sit around the people where there is any corruption. They don't want to be like Jesus and be in certain places where they may be observed as ones that are going to be accused of being around winebibbers and publicans and sinners.
Now, I'm not advocating a lifestyle that goes to seek to do the things that the ungodly do and to go to the places where the ungodly go where they go to perform and do those wicked acts. But what I'm simply saying is that we have a relationship to the world around us. As we work in the world, as we live in the world, as we fulfill our duties in the world, as we have people in our lives, we are engaging and in touch with unbelievers, and we are to function in that context as a salt and as a light. And this is the lessons that we learn. Our conformity is not to the world but to Christ, and therefore we are effective in our influence, and we also should not hide ourselves from the world so that we cannot, therefore, influence the world.
And the question then comes to us simply in closing, is am I functioning as salt and light? How am I meant to measure whether or not I am functioning as salt and whether I'm functioning as light? How do I know if my life is preserving the world and those around me from further decay, and how do I know if it's pointing people to Christ, and how do I know if it's pointing them to the Savior? Now, some people look at a passage like this, and I'm not saying that there's application here to be made for that, and say, well, it's about the amount of tracts you give out in the week and the amount of times that you preach Christ. That's how you can measure whether you're being a salt and being a light. In other words, we would do injustice to the context if we just concluded that. Verses 3 to verse number 10, the Beatitudes, have been describing those that are the children of the kingdom, and now he's talking about how they should function in the world. How do I know that I'm being a salt and light? How do I know that I'm being a salt and light? Let us read this passage again. "Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn over sin and over corruption in their own lives and mourn for the loss of the decay and corruption in the world. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
How do I know if I'm functioning effectively as salt and light in the world? You ought to take the Beatitudes and measure your life by them. You know, it's amazing how many Christians may be willing to proclaim the name of Jesus but not live like Jesus. They put their time and effort and in their energy in proclamation, which they should, and not even reduce at any cost, but not at the expense of being like Jesus. In fact, in one sense, the light of the Christian church has gone dim, not because she simply stopped speaking about Jesus, but stopped acting like Jesus. She doesn't show mercy to those who's hurt, and she's marked by division and bickering and backbiting. Why would the world be attracted to such things that they see in their own lives? Why would they come to learn about peace from those that are making war with themselves? Surely if they witness peace, they will say, "This is the place where we can find peace. This is where we can learn concerning peace," and we can point them to the Prince of Peace. Surely if they see those that live a life of meekness, and they see how much their life is riddled by pride and arrogancy, that they would look and say, "There's a person that humbly subjects themselves to God and doesn't react when troubles come in their way. I want to be like that. I want to learn. What's that secret mark?" Well, they might hear you proclaim the message, and they'd be like, "I know what that person saying is true because I know how they live. I've seen these things in them, and it's true. Whatever they've got, I want, so whatever they say, I want to hear."
And so how do I know if I'm functioning as a salt and light in the world? You measure yourself by the Beatitudes. "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." See your good works, a demonstration of the kingdom of heaven on earth among men and women. This is who we are. Sojourners and pilgrims, yes, we are in this world, not of this world, transformed by the power of our heavenly Father, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and He's left us here as we pilgrimage on to heaven to live as Christ on earth. So they may say, "There's the kingdom of heaven. I can see it in them. This is the truth of God. This is heaven on earth. This is the display of the grace of God. We haven't seen such things before."
It says in verse number 13, "You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?" And it says, "It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men." A salt that loses its potency, what value does it have? None. In fact, Jesus uses some very stern words here and says it's good for nothing. In one sense, what He's saying here, if we don't live lives of righteousness marked by the Beatitudes, we have to be honest with ourselves and realize that our Christian witness is really ineffective and can be regarded as good for nothing.
How do we lose the potency of our impact in the world? Well, we let sin creep in our lives. We start hungering for other things, for the things of this world, for the approval of men, and no longer seeking after righteousness and hungering and thirsting after it. Purity of heart becomes something that we'll get around to one day. We've got busy things in our lives. We'll get around to that. Meekness? Yep. When we get the glory, God will make us meek. Until then, I've just got this besetting sin that I can never shake. We convince ourselves that we can live on this low plane of Christian living without submitting ourselves to the power of the Spirit and to the power of His word, realizing that what He says in this passage may be true of us. And we let sin creep in. And then we let unbelief creep in. And we just simply say, "This is it. You know what's going to happen? I'm always going to be that person that just gets angry, and nothing will ever change. This is who I am." We settle for that which God hasn't called us to. And our soul loses its potency. We rub shoulders against the people in the world, and they're like, "Ah, yeah, he swears like I swear. Same, same." Have you ever had a Christian witness? Have you ever experienced this in Christian witness where you have friends, they know you're a Christian? Or they don't even have to know that you've said to them that they're a Christian; they just know there's something different about you because you don't use the language that they use. And then you kind of start talking to them, or you're in an environment with them, and they start swearing, and then someone's like, "Oh, sorry, mate, you know." What's happening there? A bit of salt. Feeling the pinch. A bit of preservation of that person's speech for that very moment in time because of the presence of a Christian witness.
You know, people want to plan to do that which is wrong and evil. "We can't speak about it in front of so-and-so because they don't live like we live." Ah, a bit of salt, a bit of light shining. And we lose that potency as the salt of the earth when we give ourselves to sin and when we give ourselves to unbelief, thinking that we cannot walk in the power of the Holy Spirit and live a life marked by the Beatitudes. And we forfeit our usefulness in the world. Or we can forfeit our usefulness by just staying in the jar, as it were, and not rubbing shoulders. But we can also forfeit it by sin and losing our potency, as it is mentioned here, "good for nothing."
But another thing we need to realize also is that, in this sense, the world needs the Christian church. There's no question about it; the world needs God. But let me ask you this: How is God demonstrating His power in the world? How is God shining His light in the world? How is God preserving the earth from further decay? He has brought His children into this work with Him, that we might be the salt and light of the Lord and of the earth, functioning in such a way that we bring the Christian witness and testimony to the world. And so, the world needs this witness. This is our responsibility. We are in the earth. We are lights of the world, and it is our duty to act and function as such in the world, so that the world can see. So that they no longer have to walk in darkness, but they can see lights that are shining and say, "There are glimmers of hope all around me." Although they cannot see Christ, they may see Christians, and they might see Christ in the Christian. And they might have some help and some hope in their darkness because of the Christian witness in the world.
Someone said this saying—I don't know who to attribute it to; many people have said it, but you've heard it before, I'm sure—"You may be the only Bible that some person ever reads." You may be the only Bible that some person ever reads, by what they see in your life and your manner and your conduct. That's a responsibility that God has given to His disciples, to function in the world. There was an illustration that I just want to close with. D.L. Moody was a preacher in America, a mighty evangelist. God used him greatly to reach people for Christ. At one of his meetings in America, he related a story of a shipwreck on a dark and tempestuous night, where there wasn't even a star that was visible. A ship was approaching the harbor of Cleveland, and a pilot was on board. The captain only noticed one light, that is, the light of the lighthouse, as he was drawing near to the channel to obviously anchor the ship. The captain asked the pilot if he was sure that this was Cleveland harbor because all the other lights were turned out. The lights that run along the side of the channel to stop the ships from getting too close to the edge, where the rocks are, and crashing. So they have the lighthouse, and they have all these little lights, if you could say, that run along the side of the channel, so that the ship may know how to guide itself right to the lighthouse, to the destination. And the pilot asked the captain, "Are you sure this is the place? We don't see any of these other lights that should be burning at the harbor's mouth." And the pilot replied that he was quite sure. And the captain inquired, "Well, where are the lower lights?" "Gone out, sir," replied the pilot. "Can you make the harbor then?" asked the captain. To which the pilot answered, "We must, sir, or perish." Bravely the old man steered the vessel upon her course towards safety. But alas, in the darkness of the harbor mouth, he missed the channel, and the ship struck upon many rocks, and in the stormy waters, many lives were lost.
And then Moody made his appeal to his audience after sharing this. He said, "Brothers, the Master will take care of the great lighthouse. Let us keep the lower lights burning." And among Moody's hearers that evening was a man by the name of Mr. Philip Bliss, who is a well-known hymn writer. And this striking story captured his attention, and at once it suggested to him the words of what he penned down is now known as a very popular hymn. And this is what the words of this hymn say: "Brightly beams our Father's mercy from His lighthouse evermore, but to us He gives the keeping of the lights along the shore. Let the lower lights be burning; send a gleam across the wave. Some poor fainting, struggling seaman you may rescue, you may save." Here we have this great lighthouse, the Lord Jesus, who never fails to shine. The light of the world calls to you who are in darkness to come to Him. But how shall those ships make their way through the channel without perishing? The lower lights. Us, letting our light shine, pointing them, illuminating their path to the one who can rescue, the one who saves.
This is the responsibility that we are to behave as salts and lights in the world until our Lord Jesus comes. Let us pray.