Matthew 5, verses 13 and 14. The title of our thought tonight is, How Does a Christian Influence This World? Or, we might put it in another way, The Christian's Purpose in This World. Have you ever wondered why, when God saves a person, he doesn't immediately take them on to glory. Well, that's the end design of our salvation. Why doesn't God take us out of this present world as soon as he saves us, put us in that world which is to come? And the answer, I believe, is that God is not through with this present world. and he places his people at strategic locations throughout this present world to serve a purpose. I think our text tonight explains what that purpose is, at least partly so. Matthew 5, verses 13 and 14. He are the salt of the earth, but if the salt hath lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on the 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." Now, how does the Christian influence this present world? I would introduce the message with this thought. The present world of mankind is divided, as I understand it, into two classes of people, believers and unbelievers. I don't know of any third class. You're either saved or you're not saved. You're not partly lost and partly saved. You're not partly worldly and partly Christian. You're either a Christian or you're not. That does not mean that we believe the Bible teaches sinless perfection or any true Christian will be ready to confess that they have not attained that. But there is a world of believers and there is a world of unbelievers. and this world of believers are identified to us by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount as he describes us in the Beatitudes. Let us read that, Matthew 5, verses 3 through 12. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." Now in these Beatitudes we have the identifying mark of a Christian. The Beatitudes are not given to us as a road map to show us how to get to heaven. They are descriptive of people who are on their way to heaven. They identify the character of those who have already entered the kingdom. They do not describe and give us help as to how to enter the kingdom. A person enters the kingdom by a blessed act of God. That is an act of grace wherein God bestows His favor, unmerited favor, upon a person. Now, if you will watch your text tonight in the Beatitudes, these Beatitudes describe a people who first, in verse 3, realize their spiritual helplessness. In verse 4, they show sorrow over sin. In verse 5, they are meek. meaning that they are balanced in that they avoid extremes. That's what a meek person is. It's a person that's not exposed or does not react in an extreme fashion. Then also, these people are people who are hungry for God's righteousness. Next, these are people who are merciful. These are people who are pure in heart. Next they are peacemakers, and next they are people who are ridiculed and slandered because of their character. Because of their relationship with Christ, they became what they were because of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ working in their life, and the unbelieving world slanders them and persecutes them and has all manner of evil to say. against the Christian or the believer. And it is these people that Jesus compares to salt and to light. Now, there's only one other class of people that I know of in the Bible, and the other group consists of the unbelievers of this present world. Now, who are the unbelievers? They are proud, they are self-confident, and they lack an understanding of how righteous God requires men to be. Hence, they are confident in themselves that if there is a God, that they can provide whatever degree of righteousness which will gain them acceptance in His sight. So you have, on the one hand, people who have become Christian, who realize their spiritual helplessness, they mourn over sin, they are They want God's righteousness, they are at peace, they're merciful, and then on the other hand you have the world of unbelievers who are proud, self-confident, self-assured, and do not understand their own unrighteousness before a holy God. Now, how then is a Christian a believer to influence an unbeliever? And I maintain here that in our text this evening, our Lord is saying it is not what we have, but it is what we are that influences the world around us. That is, Christ does not say to us, You have salt and light to dispense, but rather He says to us, You are the salt. You are the light because of what I have made you. And if a person has been made a new creature in Christ Jesus, then they are salt and they are light by the very fact that they exist in a world of darkness and in a world of corruption. The believer's very presence in this present world acts as salt and light. It acts as salt to prevent corruption, for that's the primary function of salt. And the believer's existence in this world acts as light in that it exposes error so that truth can be discerned from error. If God took all the believers out of this world, there would be no ability left, no light left for men to discern truth from error. If God took all of the believers out of this world and left the unbelievers behind, there would be nothing but decay and corruption. There would be no way in which a civilization could exist without the principles of Jesus Christ being manifested in the lives of his people. And to illustrate this, go back and look, if you would, for your own consideration into the period just prior to the flood. When there were fewer and fewer and fewer believers, the world became more and more corrupted until that evil was continually upon the imagination of men. So without the believer to act as salt to hold back the decay, and to act as light to expose error then the world would be truly a hell here on earth. So the very fact that you're here tonight, you're serving God's purpose if you're one of his children, if you have been blessed, I hope that the message this evening will serve as some function in this realm. Because we have a struggle as God's people in many times trying to, if we have sat under certain teachings and read certain books, to quote, or your life." And if you've ever been exposed to a minister who has always pressed that, make sure that you find the will of God for your life. Well, what is the will of God? And that's something that is never really explained. Does the minister or the author of the book mean to find the reason why God has you here in this life? If that's true, then we have something to say. But if the will of God is some mystical, nebulous thing that you can't get your hand on, it's most difficult to have somebody exhorting you to find the will of God when it's sort of like a will-o'-the-wisp thing. You never know where it's at, whether you've got it or whether it's gone here and you've got it now. most difficult experience for a person that is sincere and wanting to know the mind of God. Others are emphasized to discover their spiritual gifts. And I find that the masses of people that come and sit in the pews, they are discouraged when they don't know what their gifts are. You ask them, What gifts do you have? Well, I don't know what my gifts are. And then they begin to think, well, I just don't think that I'm good for much. I don't know why God's leaving me here. I'm just not serving much of a purpose. My function tonight in the message is to try to assure you that if you are a blessed person and you know the Lord Jesus Christ, God has placed you in a strategic location. where you are coming into close proximity with the unbelieving world and you are holding back the decay and corruption which would otherwise come about if it were not for your presence here. And that you, by your very existence, are serving as light to expose darkness. And if you were not there in that proximity, then it would be a worse geographical place for men to live in. So you know what we need here in this country? We need not more political activity on the part of Christians, although I believe there's a place for that, but we need more Christians. That's what we need, you see. We need the salt shaker to start scattering them out. into larger areas and more of us if we're ever going to have a place in which that this world is going to be a decent place in which to live. Now then, that involves your view of eschatology, whether you believe it's going to be better or worse and so forth. I'm one of those that does not really know in regard before the Lord returns what's going to take place in the realm of the earth. I do know that the world of unbelievers is going to wax worse and worse and worse, but I also believe at the same time that God is going to grant more and more grace to his people to live in a world that is growing worse and worse and worse. So we must not think that because the world of unbelievers is getting worse that we have less of an ability to live in this world because God has promised us that he will sustain us even in the most adverse set of circumstances. Now, are you blessed tonight? Do you fit the category of the Beatitudes? Do you believe that God has blessed you by his sovereign grace? What does it mean to be blessed? All right, let's go over to 2 Peter, chapter 1. Verse 2, Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. To be blessed by the grace of God is to be made a partaker of the divine nature of God, and that divine nature is manifested in the Beatitudes. the evidences of a blessed person. Now, what does it mean to be partakers of the divine nature of God? First, what does it mean? It does not mean that the essence of God's eternal Spirit is some way imparted to us. That does not mean that. When God created the heavens and the earth, He remained distinct in His basic nature, and that nature was not fused into the creation. That's what pantheism teaches. So that God's essence of himself as an eternal spirit cannot be communicated. This is what the theologians describe, if you pick up a book on theology, as attributes of God which are communicable, and some attributes cannot be communicated. God cannot take part of himself and put it in the creation. What then does it mean? It means that the holy character of God can be imparted and influenced into the realm of angels and of moral beings. And thus, through the promises that God has given us in the Lord Jesus Christ as applied by His divine power, then we are enabled to live a life of godliness whereby we are given the power to escape the corruption that is in the world through the manifestation of lust. So we have been made partakers of the divine nature if we have been blessed by God Almighty. Now then, moving on, if you will now turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Here is a description of what the world of unbelievers are like, and then what takes place when a person becomes blessed by God. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor infeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkard, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God." Now, here is a description of the character of the world of unbelievers. Now, in verse 11, such were some of you. But you're washed, you're sanctified, but you're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. So there is a change which manifests itself in the character of a person's nature when they are blessed by the Spirit of grace. And this is an identifying mark. It's so identifiable that you let a person who was once in stage number one pass from that state into stage number two, and you see what their friends begin to do to them. I tell you, when you become a Christian, and you begin to just manifest the Christian experience, you'll find that some of your old cronies will begin to fall by the wayside. They'll know it, and you don't have to just go around preaching about it either. There will be a change which will manifest itself which they will not be at ease in your presence. Just by the way that you act, and by the way that you conduct yourself and the way that you react to the affairs of life. Indeed, we are called a peculiar people. Turn now to Titus chapter 2. Christians are so unusual in the eyes of the unbeliever that we are referred to as a peculiar people. Looking in verse 11, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust we should live soberly, righteously, godly, in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." So now when God blesses a person with His grace, there is a change in the character and the conduct of that individual. To where that they live and desire to seek out after a virtuous life, in this present world looking for the consummation of their hope at the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, when the Lord appears, then what the Christian is longing to have take place in their being now shall take place. And what is it that the Christian groans and earnestly desires for more than anything else? and that is to be able to please the Master, to be able to leave this old body of sin, and to be able to live in a world without sin. That's what the Christian desires now, and he knows from the teaching of the Word of God this will not take place until the second coming of Christ. For it's at the coming of Christ that the glorification, the final act of redemption is applied. and immortality is applied to the believer. Hence, sinlessness takes place then. Sin is eradicated at the return of the Lord. So the believer is then referred to as a peculiar people, and it is this difference in their character which distinguishes them from the world of the unbeliever. Now, there is a second meaning of the word blessed as it is used here in the Scriptures. A Christian is blessed not only because they have been made partaker of the divine nature of God and His holy character. Secondly, a Christian is blessed because they have obtained peace with God so that they are more content to have Jesus Christ than all of the riches of the world combined. Let me run that by you again. What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? That's the mark of an unbeliever. But a Christian is one who can be a pauper and have contentment because he has Christ and he has all things. So that as he manifests his contentment, even in the midst of poverty and physical suffering, Unbelievers must stand back and be amazed at the way the Christian responds. Isn't it interesting in our age, with the health and wealth gospel, this is the way the modern church is trying to say that we are to influence the unbelievers to show them that God is in our midst. That the more possessions that we get, then the more evidence that God is with us. And so they say if you can have a great big nice home and you can have two cars or three cars and a boat, then you can say to the unbelieving world, look, God's in my life. My friend, that wasn't what the dying thief saw in Jesus Christ. What did the thief see in Jesus Christ? He saw him as one who was willing to die to please the will of his Father, to be exposed to suffering and humiliation, and yet could say, into thy hands I commend my spirit. It was said of Job, or Job said of himself, that though he slay me, yet I will trust him. What is it then that is designed by God for a blessed person? A blessed person then in Christ is one who in the midst of adversity and poverty is able to manifest contentment with God's providence in their life. And that stands out, that stands out as a powerful witness to the unbelieving world. I've had numerous experiences, personally, with Christians dying in the hospital, in which in the midst of extreme pain, and discomfort that nurses and doctors have marveled at the way that they were unable to face death. Read Foxe's Book of Martyrs if you want an example of how Christians were unable to face death. Having their flesh burned off of their bones at the stake and singing hymns of praise unto I don't know about you, Jim, but if I were a non-Christian, I'd be more impressed with that than I would the fellow running around saying, hey, look at me, I drive Cadillac, God's for me. When I see somebody that's willing to be nailed to a stake, and rather than renounce his Christ, allow them to light the faggots and consume his body and see him singing praises unto God, if I were an unbeliever, I'd have more problems trying to explain that than I would the fellow who's saying, Here, I've got it all. God's with me. In fact, was this not, if I do not read too much into the Bible, was this not what was goading the conscience of Saul of Tarsus in his killing of the Christians, and he watching how they died and how they suffered, and then especially when he held the clothes of the ones who stoned Stephen to death. And while they were stoning Stephen, Stephen's reply was, I see Jesus standing at the Father's right hand. and also then saying with the words of his master, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do." My friend, I believe that was an instrument used in God's hands that when Saul was stricken down on the road to Damascus and he cried out, Who art thou, Lord? It's hard to kick against the pricks, was the reply. I'm the Lord. What's pricking your conscience? I believe it was the way that Saul of Tarsus observed the way Christians suffered and the way they died. He could not escape that. The more he killed them, the more they were willing to stand in numbers for the Lord Jesus Christ. A Christian is a peculiar person who is enabled by the grace of God not only to live a dedicated life unto the Lord, but to suffer great adversity in the midst of an unbelieving world. Now thirdly, the believer must mix with the world of corruption and darkness in order to act as salt and light. And this requires some fine-tuning of our thinking and of our practice. Jesus said that we are in the world, but we are not of the world. And there have been different applications of this principle of separation from the world, where the Scriptures exhort us, Come ye out and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and I will be unto you as of God and the Father. So some individuals try to make that application. They believe that the way, then, that we are to be a separate people is to geographically disassociate ourselves with the unbelieving world. And the classic fulfillment of this and illustration of this is in the life of the Amish and the Mennonite congregations, who completely abandoned, as much as possible, any contact with the world of unbelievers. And thus they formed ranches all of their own and raised their children in most unique circumstances as to what we would think of today. In Roman Catholic theology, this separation from the world of unbelievers is said to be applied in the monastery, where the nuns and priests separate from unbelievers and they get behind the walls of the monastery and there they get along with God and become holy people. Well, I don't believe that either one of those is what our Lord meant by Christian separation. But that spirit can also be present in Protestant churches and in our church and in your life and in mine. When we cease to have contact with the world of unbelievers around us. And we say that in order to grow in grace, then let us disassociate ourselves more and more with those who do not believe like we believe. And what we ultimately end up in is a little convent of individuals making little, if any, contact at all with the unbelieving world around about us. I don't believe that's what the Bible is talking about when it mentions separation. But I do believe this. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was holy and without sin, came into this world of sin and did not think that it was defiling unto Himself. Jesus, the sinless Son of God, did not feel contaminated because he went to eat and drink with sinners. He mixed and mingled with the world of sinful people, and he was criticized by the religious leaders of his day for so doing. They called him a wine-bibber and a gluttonous man. He reminded them that they that are whole do not need a doctor or a physician, but they that are sick And the application he was making was that of our principle in our text tonight. What good is salt if it doesn't come in contact with that which it is designed to preserve? If salt doesn't come in contact with the meat, the meat is going to rot. And thus our Lord states in the text this evening that if salt loses its purpose It's of no value at all but to be cast out and to be trodden under the feet of men." That was a passage which I didn't understand that expression for years until I read some works which helped me some, and throw some light on that, in that salt was used first by the Romans in their road building. Before they would put their roads down, they would put the salt down to kill the weeds. And then they would put the remainder of the substance down, just like we would use tar today, or plastic paper. And thus they would use salt as a means of their road building, and thus people would walk on it. And hence our Lord is using this illustration, that if salt is not going to be used for its proper function, it has no value to just be cast out and for men to walk on it. The second illustration that he uses is that what value is it to have a candle if you put it under a bushel? If you don't put it on an elevated place, people are not going to see the light. No matter how bright the light is, if it's not elevated where others may see it, it's not going to serve the function that it exists for. And thus, where do you put a lamp? You put it on a high spot. A city that is what? Set on a hill is not hid. Thus the believer must come in contact with the unbeliever if they are to effectively reflect the light of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many, many applications can be made in this realm. Thus in verse 16 of Matthew 5, our Lord says, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. You know, the Bible has much to say about good works. We as Calvinists, why, we're so afraid that every time we hear the term good works that we've got in our mind and in our group that we just sort of write that out. The Bible has much to say about good works. Just make sure of which side of Calvary you get them on. It is by grace that we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, not of works, lest any man should boast. But we are his workmanship, created unto good works which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. And we should not be ashamed by doing good deeds. For it's a manifestation not only of our devotion to our Savior, it's also a manifestation of love toward our neighbor. And as we do good works, our intent is that they serve as light to manifest to the unbelieving world that we once were an unbeliever, and God has blessed us. He has graced us, if you please. And then the glory goes to who? the Heavenly Father and not unto us. But if we never do good deeds, if we never come in contact with the world of unbelievers around us, then even though we may possess light, if we are not coming in contact with an unbelieving world, we are not serving the function that God has placed us here for. The believer is the light of the world because Christ is living in him. Now one day the total universe, I'm not teaching universalism now that all are going to be saved, but one day the total world is going to be completely transformed by Jesus Christ, and we're going to have a world without sin to live in. Do you believe that? In conclusion then, a true believer should be an example of an observable beginning of that purpose. A Christian ought to be looked at and say, Hey, that's the beginning of what God is going to bring to pass one day. For when God completes His work, it will be a perfect work wherein the new creation is completely restored. And you and I, if we have been blessed by grace, are tokens of the beginning of that good work which God hath begun in us and will perform unto the day of redemption in Christ Jesus. So I may not have great gifts intellectually. I may not have many spiritual gifts, but I'll tell you this, this gives me tremendous consolation tonight in that God is going to put me here to serve as salt and light until he's through with me. And then he's going to take me to glory. So my life is not a failure. I am not some type of a second-class Christian. God strategically places his people and scatters them out through all the Gentile nations. And he'll keep us here until he's fulfilled his purpose for us, a salt and light, and then he'll give us a promotion and take us home to glory. Does that help us to understand why God leaves us here? So as you grow older and I grow older, And maybe that day comes in which we're placed in the rest home. I hope that you will remember the words, and I hope God will bring them to my mind if I'm in that situation, that we not enter that place of existence feeling like I'm a totally useless person. If you're a blessed person, God will put you in an environment where you will serve as a source of blessedness unto others. and it may even be in a convalescent home at the end of your life. Let's stand together tonight.