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And Father, as we now come to your Word, we remember that your Word is inerrant, that it is inspired, breathed out by your Spirit, that it is sufficient, and that it's profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. We remember, O Lord, that our lives will fade, but Your Word will never fade. It will last forever. And so we ask, Lord, that as we come to Your Word, that You would bless the preaching of Your Word. Give us understanding so that we may apply what Your Word says, so that we may walk in obedience to Your Word. All for the glory of Christ. Please use this time to accomplish your work in us through the preaching of your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, if you have your Bibles with you, please turn to Matthew chapter five. We'll be looking at Matthew 5, verse 13 today. It's the first Sunday of the month, which means that we are in our study in the Sermon on the Mount. Every other Sunday of the month we're in 1 Samuel, but we like to keep one foot in each of the Testaments. We believe that all of God's Word is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. Old Testament and New Testament alike. So today we're going to be looking at Matthew 5, verse 13. It is 2024 now, and a few days ago, I woke up and realized that that means that it's been 10 years since I ran my last half marathon. And if you're wondering why I haven't run a half marathon in 10 years, I'm sure you're not wondering that, but just in case you are, There are actually a couple of reasons that I haven't run a half marathon in 10 years. The first is that I hate waking up at 5 o'clock in the morning, just period, for any reason at all. I don't like waking up at 5 o'clock at all. So how much more do I hate waking up at 5 o'clock to go run a race downtown with 10,000 people? That's just not my thing. But a second and probably more significant reason that I haven't run a half marathon in 10 years is because in my last race, at about the 10-mile mark, maybe 11-mile mark, both of my calves cramped up and would not release. I couldn't get them to un-cramp. And going those last three, three and a half miles with cramping calves, I think that was probably the most painful thing, most punishing thing I've ever done in my whole life. And you know, if you punish somebody for doing something, chances are they're not going to do it again. Well, it worked. But in reading and what would possibly cause such bad cramping, and it was just excruciating, I've learned that it was actually not an issue of dehydration, most likely, Because I did drink plenty of water that day, it was more likely an issue of electrolytes, especially sodium. Now, of course, we get our daily sodium from salt. It's more common that we get too much sodium. But the fact is that with an early morning run, I think I just had not apparently eaten enough salt. So my sodium intake was low that day. How important is salt? I mean, the fact is, that if there were no salt, without salt, we would all actually be dead. Your body needs sodium from salt to maintain a proper balance between minerals and water. And it needs sodium for your nerves to send signals without disruption. Salt actually has a lot to do with being able to release a cramp. So, if you were to Google how important is salt, you'd probably get the same answer that I did from Harvard's public school of health. It says this, it says, quote, the human body requires a small amount of sodium to conduct nerve impulses, contract and relax muscles, there you go, and maintain the proper balance of water and minerals. It's estimated that we need about 500 milligrams of sodium daily for these vital functions. End quote. So let's start with a very important and biblical principle. Without salt, death and decay inevitably abounds. Without salt, death and decay inevitably abounds. Now it might sound strange for me to say that this is a biblical principle, but it's true and we'll see that today as we continue in our study in the Sermon on the Mount. Of course, up to this point, we've seen that Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes, which were a series of blessings that are bestowed upon those who have certain characteristics. The poor in spirit are blessed because theirs is the kingdom of heaven, for example. But we saw that between verses 3 and 12, a total of eight blessings, or eight Beatitudes, were laid out. And it's not that some Christians have this one, and other Christians have that one, while this Christian over here is lacking these, and those Christians over there have those. No, that's not the case at all. All eight Beatitudes describe every single Christian, or they should. They were, as I noted many times throughout our study of the Beatitudes, they are essentially the family values of God's family. But having discussed these beatitudes, these characteristics, and having seen that they apply to each and every Christian, and thus having seen that we are, as Christians, seeing what we are, what we're supposed to be, what we're supposed to experience, all the things that were in the beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mountain now begins in a different direction, starting with verse 13. Up to this point, we've seen what we are, but it's at this point that we now start seeing how we are supposed to put what we are in Christ into practice in our daily lives. In other words, Jesus now begins talking about our purpose as Christians in a hostile world in which our persecution is inevitable. That's what he taught in the final beatitude in verses 10 to 12. But Jesus doesn't come just straight out and directly tell us what our purpose is. Instead, he likens us to something. Specifically, he likens us to salt. Salt of the earth. And the reason that he uses an illustration, instead of just coming straight out and telling us, is because he wants us to think deeply about exactly what he says and why he says it. Of course, he could just come out and say it. Just like with the parables, he could have just said what the lesson was. Why did he tell parables? Well, so the people with ears to hear could hear, for one thing, but for another thing, to make people think, to make people ponder on what he said. And without thinking deeply on this illustration, calling his people salt of the earth, it will be difficult to understand exactly how we are to relate to the world around us as Christians. This has everything in the world. to do with that. How we relate to our fellow man. And when I say fellow man, I'm not talking about our brothers and sisters in Christ. I mean how we relate to the fallen world around us. The same people who Jesus just said at the end of the Beatitudes would be the ones to persecute us. How are we supposed to relate to them? Now, if you know what the flesh would incline us to do, if you know what our instincts would incline us to do, if you think that somebody's going to persecute you, you just stay away from that person, right? You just avoid that person. You run away. Well, that's not what Jesus says to do. Let's look at what he says. This is what Jesus says about that in verse 13. He says, You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. Now, what can you say about salt right off the bat? Number one, you can say it's necessary, but you can also say that it's very common. Notice that he doesn't say, you're the gold of the earth. You're not the silver of the earth. You're not the titanium or the platinum of the earth. No, you're salt, which is way more common than any of those elements. So why does he liken us to salt? Again, let's start by remembering that this is a statement that reveals what our relationship is supposed to be toward the fallen world around us, what it's supposed to be like. History and reason will reveal that Christians have historically fallen into two very serious, very significant errors in terms of their relationship to the world. The first error that Christians have fallen into, and it's a very serious one, is what you might call just isolationism or isolation. In the second and third centuries there were some Christians who came to be known as the desert fathers or fathers of the desert because they had moved away from places where people could be found. They had moved away from Big cities, they'd moved away from small cities and they had settled out into the desert, sometimes to escape persecution, sometimes just so they could live a peaceful life in solitude. But these were the earliest people that you might refer to as monastics. They started a movement called monasticism, the same root word as monastery. If you know what a monastery is, that's where monks go. And again, they kind of separate themselves from the rest of the world. Sometimes they don't even talk in monasteries. But the problem with this, The problem with isolation is that it's not God's design for Christians to practice their Christianity in isolation. And I think that if you think rationally about it, you'll see that it's just impossible to be a Christian if you are isolated. There are no Lone Ranger Christians. In fact, if we have even the most basic understanding of what Jesus was saying here in verse 13, we understand that He's saying that those who would try to live their lives in isolation apart from the world are only worthy of what? he says, of being thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. They're worthless, in other words, in terms of fulfilling the purpose that God has for their lives. God's purpose for their life is not to go and isolate themselves. But that brings up an important point in this discussion because it reminds us that God has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light, and that He has drawn us to Christ, He has filled our hearts with faith, all for a very specific reason. What is that reason? Well, the primary reason that we have been saved is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. God's glory is the primary reason that God has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. And the second place reason would be a long, long ways from that. But the fact is that God has made you a Christian. He has adopted you into His family in order that you may glorify Him the world. God desires that his people would have a positive influence on society. God desires and has designed us to have a positive impact on the world. And to put it plainly, a person living in isolation from the world doesn't influence anyone or anything. Society is no worse or no better with somebody just living in isolation. If anything, maybe they're worse. Now, let's think about that for a moment. Because we're supposed to love our neighbors, right? Didn't Jesus teach that we're supposed to love our neighbors? Of course He did. When He was asked what the greatest commandment is, He said, You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like it, that you shall love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. So, if that's the case, and it is, what kind of Christian would say, I would just rather not have any neighbors? That would be a Christian who is holding a deeply, deeply sinful attitude toward people who are his neighbors, and not only toward his neighbors, but that's a sinful attitude to have toward God as well. See, Jesus just told us in the previous three verses, The Christians will be persecuted for his sake. And someone might have thought that they could be the exception to that beatitude by just getting away from the people who would be inclined to persecute him. But Jesus is essentially saying, hey, just a minute, not so fast. I have plans for you, plans for you to be a blessing and to be an influence on the world that hates you. See, if we love our neighbors rightly, there's no room for us to adopt the attitude that, hey, you know, this world's just going to hell in a handbasket, and who am I to invite them to take the narrow path? Who am I to try to talk them out of doing what they want to do? That isn't loving, is it? Of course it's not. Now let's take the analogy that Jesus lays out here and apply it to this error of isolationism or separatism. Let's say that you've got this huge fresh slab of meat to last you and your families through the winter months in the ancient world where there were no refrigerators, there were no dry freezers, there was nothing that would keep something cold throughout the meat, throughout the months of the winter, and so your meat needed to be preserved somehow. somehow you had to keep that meat through the winter. So you've got all this fresh meat that you just got from your kill and you've gone out and you've gotten enough salt to prevent it from decaying, but you keep your salt over here and you keep your meat over there. What good is that salt doing over there? It's not doing any good. at all because the meat is still exposed to the elements. And as long as that meat is being exposed to the elements, it's going to rot and decay edible. But the point here will be so far gone that it will be no longer edible. But the point here is that for this salt that you got, to fulfill its purpose for it to be any good, it actually has to be on the meat. If the meat is surrounded by salt, it can be preserved throughout all the winter months. Without salt, it won't make it more than a couple days at most. So what does this mean? It means that the world needs Christians the same way that meat needs salt. It means that we have a use in the world. It means that we have, that our lives have a preserving effect on the world, an effect that simply cannot be lived out if we are separated completely or isolated completely from the world. Now the way of the flesh is to, of course, live a life of comfort and safety. They used to say, I don't know, maybe they still do, look out for number one. It's a slogan that people would proudly recite, number one being you, the self, the person himself. It essentially meant that everyone has the right to seek their own comfort and safety before anything else in life. but that's not an attitude that a Christian can have. That's not something that a Christian can say because you don't take ownership of your life. You recognize that your life is not your own, as Christians always have. You recognize that your life has been ransomed, that it's been redeemed, that it's been bought and paid for by the blood of Christ. And thus your highest priority in life is never, as a Christian, your highest priority in life is never ever to look out for yourself above all. It's not to serve yourself. It's not to protect yourself. It's to serve the one who redeemed you from both the penalty and the power of sin. That comes first. The biggest problem with the error of Christian separatism or isolationism is that if a person is isolated from society, whether that's being 20 miles out in the middle of nowhere, or whether it's being just locked up in your home and never going out to see anybody, not only is that person not being discipled, but that person also isn't doing anything to make disciples. See, a Christian who isolates himself isn't being held accountable by anyone, which is exactly what the flesh would very conveniently and naturally desire, but which obviously isn't something that's biblical. And so it's not something that Christians can accept. We don't live without accountability. We don't belong to ourselves. We belong to Christ. We belong to one another. We don't belong to ourselves. And without accountability, it is so easy and so natural that a person would just backslide very badly. Or they'd come to affirm some form of heresy of some sort. Or maybe they'd do both. Backslide, heresy, all of it. Why not? If nobody's holding you accountable, what is going to stop you from those things? The answer is nothing. Now, the Great Commission This has everything to do with the Great Commission. The Great Commission was given to every single person who would claim to be a Christian. Jesus instructed us in Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20, to go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I, He, commanded you. Now how can a person do all these things? How can they even begin to do these things if they completely isolate themselves from society in one way or another? You not only can't disciple anyone in isolation, but there's nobody to evangelize. So it's clear that if Jesus' disciples and followers had practiced isolationism, Christianity would have actually just died out at the beginning of the second century. If Christians had practiced isolationism. Isolationism means no evangelism, it means no discipleship, and it means no missions. It means Christianity dies out with you. And that's not something that a Christian can accept. Toward the end of the 1800s, the 19th century, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, the world was convinced that a humanistic paradise or utopia was within reach. I mean, if you think about it, in the last half of the 19th century, science had made all of these advancements. It was advancing by leaps and bounds. More people than ever were being educated, and humanity had just recently overall made incredible progress in the Industrial Revolution. And so many people thought that it was only a matter of time before all disease, all poverty, all war, all social problems would just be things of the past. And then came the 20th century, which proved that humanity will only do what humanity has always done. All the technology, all the progress that was made, it only resulted in more and more sin. Making the 20th century actually the worst in human history. There was all this advancement that helped create the worst century in human history as far as war and crime and sin were concerned. Hundreds and hundreds of millions of lives were lost to wars, to abortions, and to starvation. Despite all these incredible advancements that really made it kind of a new world. The 20th century ended up being bloodier than all of the centuries prior to it combined. Why? Because of all this progress. Not only was humanity not close to this human utopia or paradise that people envisioned, they were further away from it, if anything. So what this reveals very clearly is that humanity can not fix itself. Humanity cannot fix itself. Humanity is not the answer to humanity's problems. And scripture bears witness to the reality of man's inevitable failure and moral decline. Abel gets murdered right after, the next chapter after the exile from Eden. By the time we get to Genesis chapter 6, God grieves over the fact that he made man because every intent of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil. Humanity in Genesis 6. When Noah's family is back on land, God makes a covenant with humanity, instructing them, as for you, be fruitful and multiply, populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it. But rather than going out and multiplying and spreading around the world, instead they erect a tower with the idea that by building this tower, they're going to become equal to God. And we see the same thing happening over and over throughout Scripture. And part of God's remedy to this inclination of humanity to increase in sin is to scatter his people out among the nations. Consider Abraham's intercessory petition on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah. He pleaded with God, far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. far be it from you, shall not the judge of the earth deal justly?" And how did God respond? Yahweh says to Abraham, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account. On the account of these 50 people, if I can just find 50 righteous people there, I won't burn the whole place down. And of course, we know that Abraham doesn't get a lot of hope from that. He starts to kind of push his luck. Surely he knew that there were not going to be 50 righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah. In fact, he knew there wouldn't even be close to 50 righteous people. And so he pleads with God, lowering that number incrementally each time. What about 45 righteous? What about 40? What about 30? Okay, how about? Ten. And God's promise was, I will not destroy it on account of the ten. That's what we read in Genesis 18, verses 25-32. But there's a real sense in which the presence of God's people bless society because God has shown a willingness to restrain His wrath against a culture for the sake of the people who belong to Him, who are living among that culture. God's purpose. for all of his children, is that they would be in the world, but not of the world. In other words, we have to be out in and among the world, but we can't be like them, as a positive and preserving influence. That means being a Christian, not just on Sunday morning, it means being a Christian Sunday to Sunday. It means being a Christian at home. It means being a Christian when you go to work. It means being a Christian when you go to the grocery store. It means being a Christian when you go out to eat. It means being a Christian when you are at school. Everywhere you go. It means that you're supposed to be a Christian when you're in rush hour traffic going two miles an hour and it's 65. Everywhere you go, you are to be a Christian, all in order that Christ may be seen, and that His effects may be demonstrated in all areas and in all aspects of society. Because if you think that spiritual death and decay abound with us in the world, and it does, imagine how much worse the world would be without the presence of somebody who is like Christ, without the presence of Christians. Spiritual death, decay, and putrefaction would be exponentially worse if that were the case. So the first error that Christians fall into in terms of considering how they're supposed to relate to the world is to imagine that they should completely isolate themselves from it, completely separate themselves from the world altogether. Such people, Jesus says, are no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. but there is a second error that we should also talk about that is probably much more common in our day and age and it's at least as serious as the first error in terms of relating to the world around us and that is to imagine to foolishly imagine that the way for us to positively influence our culture, the way for us to positively influence the world around us, is to just blend in and be just like the world. Of course, There are countless ways that the scriptures instruct us against this ideas. Sometimes the scriptures warn us of such things through stories, such as the story of Lot and his family and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, Genesis 19. Sometimes the commands are just explicit. They're laid out in very plain language. For example, in Deuteronomy 18.9, the Israelites were instructed by God, when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. That's a good thing to know. You're not supposed to be like the people in the world around you. You're not supposed to be like them. In the New Testament, we're told the same thing, just in different ways. We're told friendship with the world is hostility toward God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. That's James 4.4. John says in 1 John 2.15, do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. It's pretty explicit. We're not to be a worldly people. We're not to look or think or act or anything like the world around us. Now, in seeing how this error applies to what Jesus is teaching here. Consider that salt not only had a preserving effect on meat in the ancient world, but that it also has the effect of making meat more savory, like the meat. Salt do, in this capacity, if it tastes exactly like the meat. Let's say you've got some meat flavored salt. How good does that sound? What do you do with it? I don't know about you, but I throw it out. And that's what he's saying. What do you do if it tastes like the meat? What if that salt has no flavor to add to the meat? What do you call tasteless salt? Call it dirt. You call it dirt. And that's about the value that it has. And that's why Jesus says that those who fall into this error, like those who fall into the error of isolationism, are no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. That describes the function of dirt fairly accurately, don't you think? But let me just say this, if you think that you have to become like the world in order to be a positive influence on the world. Your view of humanity is way too high, and your view of God is way too low. Because you don't influence the world positively by being like the world. Thinking the way they think, speaking the way that they speak, celebrating the same things that they celebrate, and so on and so forth. No, Christians are to be different from the world. And that's what makes the positive influence. We have a different nature than the unbelieving people around us, in the same way that salt has a completely different nature from the meat that it's supposed to season. And if there's one thing that we know absolutely about the world, it's that the world, the unregenerate system of humanity that rebels incessantly against God's rule and order, if there's one thing we know about them, it's that they have intentionally and deliberately rejected and suppressed the truth about God in their unrighteousness. And that much, we have to understand, is central to human nature. And with that said, only those who reject Scripture's testimony of humanity's condition will fall for the absolutely ridiculous, insidious lie that to change the world, you have to become like the world. No, friends. Christians make a difference in the world by being different. and our differences with the world should be so pronounced, should be so apparent, so completely obvious that we can't blend in, that it's impossible for us to look and act and think and speak and celebrate what the world celebrates. We can't blend in, instead we stand out like a sore thumb as the saying goes. Look at the world. Look at how discontent people are. They look for fulfillment in just the latest fad. They look for fulfillment and happiness in this and in that. And once the fulfillment wears off, they just go on to the next thing, and to the next thing, and to the next thing. And while the things of this world may give people a temporary sense of satisfaction, that's the thing. It's temporary. It's fleeting. It doesn't last. It's here one minute, and it's gone the next. Next thing you know, something that somebody has aspired to have all their lives, all of a sudden they're disappointed in having it. It just doesn't seem to matter. In an article from 2018 titled, The Reason Many Ultra-Rich People Aren't Satisfied With Their Wealth, the author notes how unfulfilling people find their money to be eventually. In fact, the more they have of it, the more bored they are with it. At a certain point, he writes, another million dollars doesn't make anything newly affordable. And so they end up just getting bored with it. The fact of the matter is that we see the same thing throughout Scripture and in stories throughout Scripture as well. The pleasures of this world never ever were intended to satisfy or to give a sense of ultimate joy or contentment. And for that reason, somebody might have a sense of great satisfaction for a moment, but then poof. It's like a magic trick. It's gone. It's not there anymore. It no longer satisfies the way it once did. If anything, people make the pleasures of the world their chief pursuit, and they end up being enslaved to those things. And they end up with a sense of despair because what they thought they would love to possess just doesn't give them the thrill that they thought. And if anything, that thing possesses them now. James Montgomery Boyce, noted that the pleasures and treasures of this world are kind of like a big greasy dinner that goes through you in no time, leaving you hungry again only shortly after you eat. He writes this, he says, quote, consequently those who pursue them are doomed to a constant and relentless search for that which will never satisfy the true hunger and desire of their soul. Christians are to be present as those who know something different and whose satisfaction in Christ can be seen and known by their unbelieving contemporaries." See, unlike the world around us, We don't grieve as though there's no hope. When trials and afflictions come, the world should see that we have joy and peace, even in the midst of incredibly trying circumstances. They should see that when difficult time comes, Nothing can steal our confident joy, and nothing can diminish our peace that passes understanding and knowing that God is sovereign, and that He loves us, and that He is all-powerful, and that He therefore orders all things, including those difficult trials. in our lives to bless us and to grow us in Christ-likeness. See, if a person truly understands what it means when we say that God is sovereignty, and not only understands that, but believes that, what in the world could possibly steal his peace in the worst circumstances? Nothing. Nothing can. What can steal his sense of joy? What can get him down? Nothing can. All too often, unfortunately, this difference that should exist between the way that we respond to trials and afflictions and things like that, and the way that the world responds to trials and afflictions, unfortunately, it's often not all that different. How many people throughout history have perceived Christians to be just a joyless or boring bunch of people? I mean, Mark Twain commonly wrote of Christianity in this way. One person I found on Good Plastic Smiles. He said, quote, Too often churchianity is about boring lectures, looking good, plastic smiles, insincere greetings, stale cookies, and red punch. End quote. I don't know what the red punch thing is all about, but whatever. But the thing is, you know, when I read comments like that, and you can find comments like that all over certain message boards on the internet. And some of those things might seem like they're degrading you, they're insulting you, they're insulting Christ. Okay. I try not to get angry about these kinds of remarks. I don't take them personally. But I do feel sad that people who say those kinds of things haven't seen true Christian peace and joy in the Christians to whom they've been exposed. These kinds of remarks that you can find people making, they force us to ask ourselves, Does the difference that Christ has made in my life show to somebody like this? Can people see the difference that Christ has made in my life by the way that I live, by the way that I treat others, or maybe in the way that I respond to trials and afflictions? Do I look any different at all from just your average unsaved Joe? It's a question that we should be asking ourselves, because the world is meant to see, in people like you and me, the difference that Christ makes in a person's life. The world should see that unlike the things of this world, Jesus has filled us with an overwhelming sense of joy, peace, and contentment, and that he fulfills the deepest longings of the human soul. Unlike all the pleasures and treasures that this world has to offer, Jesus Christ alone is eternally and relentlessly satisfying. And it's the responsibility of Christians, of people like you and me, people who have experienced the love of God, who know the grace of God, people who have a firm conviction that God is sovereign over all things. It's our responsibility to demonstrate the power and the glory and the beauty of Christ in this world. But the more we are like the world around us, the less we are going to do those things. A man who was one of my favorite preachers for over 20 years put it this way, great quote, he said this, he said, quote, preachers who distort God's word are all too common today. Sometimes this springs from a sincere desire to soften hard hearts, but hearts aren't changed by compromise, end quote. I love that quote. That is a perfect quote. Now hopefully you caught that I said that he was one of my favorite preachers. I'm not going to name his name. His name doesn't matter. The principle matters. Some of you are going to know who he is and some of you might not. It doesn't matter. But the reason that I say was that he was one of my favorite preachers is because he recently boasted of how he had encouraged a grandmother to compromise with her unbelieving grandson for the sake of building bridges to him, to keep the doors open in case she might be able to share the gospel with him again. But by giving this advice to this woman, this preacher violated the very principle that he had laid out so eloquently in that quote, hearts aren't changed by compromise. Thousands of people responded to this preacher with criticism, and I'd say rightly so. And so this past Sunday night, he preached another sermon in which he decided to defend his advice, if you want to call it a sermon. So he preached about how we as Christians are supposed to love and show compassion. And it's true. that we are supposed to love our neighbor, right? We are supposed to love our neighbor. We are supposed to show compassion for the lost, absolutely. But what he had asked this grandmother to do was neither loving nor was it compassionate. It was downright sinful because it involved celebrating an act of wickedness or at least appearing to celebrate or endorse an act of wickedness that her grandson was going to commit. Now this sermon that the preacher gave to defend his counsel to this woman involved outrightly twisting every single passages of Scripture that he attempted to use in his own defense. Now I've listened to more sermons from this man than I could possibly count and I have never heard him twist the Word of God until this past Sunday. If only he had just stood by that one quote that I started this illustration with. Hearts aren't changed by our compromise. They aren't. What are they changed by? They're changed by God's grace. And that's what the world needs more than anything. They are lost without that. They are lost without His grace. And how can they receive God's grace? By believing in Jesus. Trusting in Christ alone for their salvation. And how does a person come to believe in Jesus? Not by compromise, but by somebody preaching the gospel to them without compromise. Faith comes by hearing. So they've got to hear the gospel. And if we compromise, we're only kidding ourselves. But it must start, friends, it must start with us being different from the world. If you look and you think and you act and react just like they do, your life doesn't demonstrate the power of the gospel. It's when we're different from the world and unwilling to compromise with the culture that the world sees the difference that the gospel can make in a person's life. Martin Lloyd-Jones notes in his commentary, he says, quote, the Christian is not only to be different, he is to glory in this indifference, end quote. And that's not saying that we're supposed to be prideful, but he's saying that we're not supposed to be ashamed or embarrassed about the difference between us and the world, which is what the flesh and the world and the devil would have us feel, would have us feel ashamed or embarrassed that we're so different. We've seen that salt preserves. We've seen that salt savors. You know what else salt does? Salt makes somebody thirsty. Salt makes people thirsty. This world is filled with people who are thirsty. Those who don't believe in Christ tend to convince themselves that they've got it all figured out. They know what it's like to be happy. They know what it's like to be content. They're essentially content and happy and whatever with life. But when that lost person gets close to a Christian, there should be such a difference, such a higher sense of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. that that person now sees something in the Christian that he realizes he doesn't have. And so he begins to think to himself, whatever it is that this Christian has, that's what I want. I see the happiness, the contentment, the joy, the strength, the peace in that person that I must have. See, as Christians, you and I are supposed to have that kind of effect on the world around us. We should be making people recognize their spiritual thirst. Not because we can do anything to satisfy their thirst, but because Jesus Christ can. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water, springing up to eternal life. That's from John chapter four, verses 13 and 14. See, one of the reasons that God has you wherever you are, wherever you work, wherever you live, whatever your neighborhood is, whoever your next door neighbor is, whoever your coworkers may be, one of the reasons God has you there is so that you can point people who are thirsty to the source of living water that springs up to eternal life, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said at the Feast of Tabernacles, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. That's from John chapter 7 verses 37 and 38. It's true that the primary function of the church as an institution, as a corporate institution, a group of people that God has ordained and instituted in this world, that our primary purpose is to preach the gospel. But Jesus wasn't talking about the church as an institution here. He's talking about individual Christians. He's saying that God has designed you and intends to use you and to reveal Himself in you and through you everywhere you go if you are a Christian. in every aspect of life, in each and every context we find ourselves in, we are to live as Christ would have us live. And in this way, Christians serve the purpose of being a blessing to the world, beacons of hope in an otherwise hopeless world. by God's grace, let us live our lives in such a way that the world may see that Christ, our Lord and Savior, is a wonderful, loving, gracious Savior who loves to save even the vilest of sinners. See, what the world needs today, friends, is more Christians. but it starts with us as Christians living in the world but not of the world, living the way the Christians ought to live with Christ Jesus as our confident hope and strength. So may the Lord use each of us to preserve the world from utter and complete spiritual death, rot, and decay, and to demonstrate before the world the true lasting satisfaction and contentment and peace and joy are all found in Christ alone. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you once again for your word and for the way that it instructs us. Lord, our desire is not to be mere hearers of your word. Our desire is to be doers of your word. We want to be the salt that you have designed us to be. We want to have the kind of impact on the world that you have designed us to make. And we recognize, O Lord, that we can only do these things by Your grace, by You working within us to conform us to the likeness of Christ, so that when the world looks at us, they can see certain things about us that one would have only seen in Christ. We thank You for Your promise that You are causing all things to work together to make us like Him, to conform us to His image, good times and bad times alike, and everything in between. We ask, O Lord, that You would continue to conform us to His likeness, not only for His glory above all, but also so that the world around us may hunger and thirst for the only One who can satisfy them, the Lord Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.
Salt of the Earth
Series The Sermon on the Mount
a lesson on the manner in which Christians are to relate to the world around them.
Sermon ID | 2524174549703 |
Duration | 49:44 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday Service |
Bible Text | Matthew 5:13 |
Language | English |
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