God bless you for being here tonight. We're gonna continue with Matthew chapter 5. We need to finish this up Get off the conclusion here and move on to the rest of the Sermon on the Mount We got a long way to go in the Sermon on the Mount We got a long way gonna book of Matthew. Oh Hope y'all gonna be around for a while. I'm gonna retire at 70 We got we got to get through by then All right. Well, 70 is kind of a, you know, target date. We'll see what the Lord has in mind. All right, Matthew chapter 5, beginning in verse 14, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp. and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in a house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Alright, may God add His blessings to the reading of His Word tonight. Well in my mind what Jesus is saying here is profound. It is simplistic obviously to say you are the light of the world, it doesn't sound too deep. But once you begin to delve into what Jesus Christ is saying here and you really begin to look at the depth of the meanings of the words it is very insightful. And I love what Jesus is saying here. What an incredible responsibility that we of God's people, we've been saddled with We have been saddled, I use that term tongue-in-cheek, with this responsibility of being the light of the world. That charge has been laid upon us by the very Son of God, Jesus Christ Himself. I realize you didn't pick that responsibility, but it has been given to you nonetheless. by God Almighty. And so you and I have this responsibility. Now we saw earlier this morning that being light, as Jesus defines it here, really is talking about manifesting these incredibly important foundational Beatitudes. If you're wondering what that light is, that's what the light is in this particular context that Jesus Christ is talking about. And I I know you're going to probably get weary of me hearing it and me saying it all the time, but if I could, throughout the remainder of the Sermon on the Mount, I would direct you back to these Beatitudes all the time, because every Beatitude is going to be expressed in the Sermon on the Mount. If I were to just ask you, go through the Sermon, and most of you know some of the things in the Sermon on the Mount. And I could say to you tonight, go through some of the things that you already know about the Sermon on the Mount, some of the things that are out there. And I would dare say that if you thought about them, you could somehow, some way, reflect them back and connect them to one or more of these Beatitudes. You know? But I'm not going to try to do that every time we find something in the Sermon on the Mount. Well, one of the reasons these Beatitudes, as I mentioned to you this morning, are so foundational is because they are the essence of the law. A lot of people don't make that connection, but I want you to make that connection. And I want you to understand that what Jesus is doing here is he's talking about the law of Moses. So many people get this idea, and I get tickled at it because I hear a lot of preachers talk about, Jesus was so radical, you know? Like, Jesus was way out there somewhere, you know? And I hear a lot of Christians say, we need to be radical, we need to start a revolution. No, please don't do that. You know? That's not the character and nature of Jesus Christ. His kingdom is not a revolution. His kingdom is a manifestation of the very character and nature of God. Don't go off out here some way. You know, I hear, especially among our teachers of the... Good, Lance. What do you call them? Youth group leaders? That's the word I'm struggling to find. You know, the youth group leaders are saying to their kids all the time, you need to be radical, you need to be radical. That is connected with rebellion. Don't go there with Jesus Christ. This is not what Jesus Christ is trying to accomplish here. What Jesus Christ is trying to accomplish here is to get you to understand that you are a living manifestation of the character and nature of Jesus Christ. And you need to be thinking about yourselves in those terms. God wants us to know Him because when we get to know God, we get to love God, and we get to honor Him, and we get to worship Him. Now, does everybody do that? Obviously not. Obviously not. If you've got your Bible, you can turn to Romans chapter 1. I want to show you something else along these lines here in Romans chapter 1. Paul and Jesus are talking along the same lines here. But in Romans chapter 1, I want you to notice something here about knowing God. We're talking about knowing God. That's what our responsibility and obligation is to demonstrate to the world that we know God, and we do that by demonstrating the attitudes, okay? So, but in Romans chapter 1, And Brother Jerry was talking to Brother Gonzales about this, so this might be the very passage y'all were talking about. I don't know, but it's in Romans chapter 1. Now we're going to start reading down here in verse 20. It says, For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen, revealed, brought to light, whatever you want to say there, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they, what, knew God. Isn't that interesting? They were looking at the creation of the world and they're looking at the invisible attributes of God, the eternal power of God, the divine nature of God. And it says, for even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. Hear me out. Atheism is not and ignorance of the knowledge of God, it is a denial of what they know. And people don't understand that. Atheism is a denial of what is there. And the result according to what Paul is saying here is they are not honoring Him and they are not giving thanks to Him. So creation then is evidence of the reality of God and the just response. to this demonstration of the reality and existence of God and who He is, is that they honor and they worship Him. That is the just response of every single heart that God wants on the face of the earth, to honor Him and to be grateful toward Him. When a potter makes a vase, And maybe some of you have seen that in action. Have you ever been down to Blue Bird? What is it? It's not Blue Bird Museum. What is it? Huh? Terra Studios. Thank you. You ever been down there? You ever stand in there and watch them make the Blue Bird of happiness? You need to go down there sometimes. It's very interesting. But here's the deal. You're sitting there and you're looking through the glass and you're watching this guy work with the fire and he takes this molten blob of mass of heated glass and he forms it and shapes it into a beautiful object. Well, you know what you do? You not only look at the object and say, wow, isn't that amazing? But you're also reflecting upon the person who made it. And you're going, wow, this guy is really talented. And the same thing with the potter who makes a vase. You enjoy the beauty of the vase, but at the same time you turn to the potter and say, that's amazing! How did you do this? Where did this come from? And so the beauty of the vase reflects back upon and you give glory to the one who made it. That's supposed to be the way creation works. We look at creation and it's to reflect back and we praise God, the one who made it, and we stand in wonder and awe of God and all of His creative ability. That's what it's supposed to do. We're supposed to, what the Bible says, honor Him and look at His power and His might and His glory and be astounded by His holiness. And then what did He say? Not only that, But we're supposed to what? Give thanks. Give thanks. God expects us to have a grateful attitude toward him, toward what he has done, and toward what he has created. This is a universal spiritual principle. If your wife fixes you a really great meal, and you enjoy that meal, you know, And she tops it off with a chocolate pie. And you're sitting there and you're savoring every bite. And you're saying, mmm, this is good. And then what do you do? Hopefully you thank her. And wash the dishes. And wash the dishes. You know? But yeah. But what she has done reflects itself in a grateful heart for what she has done for you. And all Paul is saying is that this is the way we ought to respond to God. We ought to respond to Him with this tremendously grateful heart. But here's what happens, folks. Here's what happens. When people lose sight of the fact that God is the Creator, God is our Sustainer, and that we're totally dependent upon Him, we lack a heart of thankfulness. And that lack of gratitude and gratefulness begins to reflect itself in an entitlement attitude. That is where it's gonna go. Every single time, every single time. The further people get away from God, the less thankful they become. And that ultimately leads to pride, and that pride leads to an attitude of entitlement, that I deserve these things, and you can take that to the bank because that's exactly where our country is. That's exactly where our country is. But now back to the main point though. The main point, creation and light both share the same principle of reflecting and making known who God is. Now you took Abraham, I shared with you that God took Abraham and that God made a great nation out of Abraham called Israel. The purpose of Israel was to make God known. They failed at doing that. Jesus Christ came. The purpose of coming of Jesus Christ was to reveal to us the very character and nature of God and show us and display who He was. When Jesus Christ left, He established the church and said, it is now your job to be light, to make God known in this world in which you are living." Now then, notice what the scripture says. He said, a city set on a hill cannot be Everybody that Jesus was talking to knew exactly what he was talking about here. Every one of these disciples knew what it was to see the lights of a city gleaming out there in the darkness. They identified completely with what Jesus Christ was saying. When we live out these Beatitudes, folks, when you put these eight things into effect in your life, this is what you look like to the world. You're out there. You're glimmering and you're gleaming and they see that the darkness of the world Causes you to bring forth these Beatitudes and they see there's something about you that they don't understand and it kind of attracts their attention Toward you and they know that you are different whether you like it Whether you like it or not, beloved, you are different. You can't help it because you have been redeemed. You have been bought with the price of Jesus Christ. You are regenerated. People may not understand you. They may not understand what you're saying. They may not understand why you do what you do, but they know you're different. They can't put your finger on it, but they know you're different. Here's what the Bible says in John 1, 5. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. Jesus was shining in the darkness, but they didn't understand him. They couldn't comprehend him Do not think that you are going to be any different folks. You need to know you need to know that people will not Understand you you need to understand that and accept the fact that you're not going to be understood by the world You're not going to be folks This is what the Bible says You're some of your family members got not gonna understand you you're gonna do stuff and Your family members are gonna go. Oh, whoa, man. Where'd you come up with that? Your own family members some of your own brothers and sisters Like I understand you sometimes your closest relationship I can understand you but this is this is what Jesus says so verse 15 and Let's go to verse 15. Okay. So Jesus says in verse 15, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and he gives light to all who are in the house, nor does anyone light a lamp. Now, here's what I want you to see. Jesus Christ is downsizing. Jesus Christ is downsizing. What did He start with? He said, you're the light of the world, right? And then He said, you're like a city on a hill. And then He said, you're like a lamp. Okay? So we're stepping down. World, city, lamp in a house. And then he spends most of his time in verse 15 talking about the fact that you are a lamp. He doesn't spend most of his time talking about you being the light of the world, although you are. He doesn't spend a lot of time talking about the fact that you're like a seed on a hill, but he spends a lot of time in verse 15, describing you and comparing you to being a lamp that's in a household. Jesus Christ, in his wisdom, spends most of his time comparing you to a lamp because we all have a smaller sphere of influence. And that's what he's talking about here. Very few of us are going to be a world stage. I don't mean to insult you in any way. Most of us are just ordinary people. Most of us are just common folks. We do common things. That's who we are. And Jesus Christ understands that. That even though our stage may not be very big, we still have the profound responsibility of manifesting the life of God. That is the profound thing, beloved. We have this awesome, incredible, mighty responsibility of manifesting God no matter what our sphere of influence is. Whether you see one person tomorrow, whether you see two people tomorrow, whether you see 20 people tomorrow, it doesn't matter. Whether you don't see anybody tomorrow, You still have this awesome and incredible responsibility of being light. We don't determine the stage. God determines how big the stage is. He just says, you need to be faithful to do what I'm calling you to do. So then what does Jesus say? And if he puts it under a basket and not on the lamp stand, Now, Jesus knows we have this temptation to hide who we are because he's talking, you know, he talked previously about the possibility of persecution. And when you're facing the fact that you might be persecuted, sometimes you want to draw back and you don't want to shine as brightly. And Jesus recognizes that here. And he comes to terms with it by talking about putting our light under a basket rather than being on the lampstand. Like I said earlier, we can't change who we are. Even if you put your light under a basket, You're still a lamp. The basket doesn't change who you are. You can't do that. You're still a light. It's your nature to manifest the beatitudes, to manifest the truths of God, to manifest who God is. We need to stop living unconsciously. I don't think most of you are a lot different than I am. I think most of us are basically alike. And you know, when I get up tomorrow morning, if I get up on a normal morning, whether it's tomorrow morning, any morning, I unconsciously in my mind wake up and say, I have this broad spectrum of my life today. Not very specific, but, you know, you get up tomorrow, you know, you got work or you got whatever, you know, and you don't consciously embrace anything. It's just kind of there. You know, it's a routine of life. Life is routine. We got to stop that. I got to stop that. We got to realize that what Jesus Christ is talking about here is having a conscious agenda. What Jesus is talking about here at being the light is a purposeful statement. Can you imagine how your life, how my life would change if we adopted the specific purpose of waking up tomorrow morning and purposing our existence as Jesus Christ is describing it here. You get up tomorrow morning and you get up every day next week and you constantly embrace the truth that you are a lamp, that you are manifesting the very character and nature of God. It is your primary job to manifest the truths of God through the way that you live. Purposely embracing that tomorrow and every day saying this is who I am. This is what I am going to do. I Think it changed our lives. I think it revolutionized our lives the way we approach that particular day and This is what he said and it gives light to all who are in the house Notice He said it will give light to all who are in the house. He did not say that they would all receive the light. He did not say they would all receive your manifestation. of the character of God. He said, your job is to shine, your job is to manifest the truths of God, not make people accept them or accept you. That's not your job, to make yourself acceptable. Your job is to give light to all who are in the house. All of those who are outside of your sphere of influence are not your concern. Now, I'm not saying we don't pray for them, but they're not your immediate concern. You have a big responsibility to all those who are looking at you, who are watching you, who are noticing you. Those who are in your house. Okay? We cover our lips when we don't live the Beatitudes. Verse 16. Verse 16. So then he goes on in verse 16 and he says this. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." So, Jesus says, I'm going to bring it all down here. I don't want you to miss what I'm saying. I don't want you to miss what I have in mind. You know, the attitudes that we demonstrate ultimately result in actions or what Jesus calls good works. Y'all know Ephesians chapter 2. Okay? And I think Jesus and Paul are in tune here. So Paul said in Ephesians chapter 2, For by grace are you saved through faith, and not that of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we should walk in them. So what did Paul say? He said, yeah, good works are important, but they're the result of the work of Jesus Christ within our hearts. It's the result of our changed lives. James said, even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. There is a place for good works, but the place for good works is not before salvation, the place of good works is after salvation. Jesus isn't talking about how to be saved here. He's not talking to lost people here. He's talking to his church and he's explaining to them their new experience in redemption. The Beatitudes are to be naturally produced in us by the power of the Spirit of God working in us. Jesus knows That there's more to being saved than merely being saved from hell. Jesus knows that there's more about the Christian life than just being in the presence of God. He's saying here, there is this idea, this goal of being and showing the world who God is through your good works. Now, I think what I'm going to say next will be accepted by you. There are a lot of good men, a lot of good preachers, and a lot of good pastors, and a lot of good Bible teachers that take salvation and totally separate it from good works. Like you can be saved and not produce good works. You can be saved and go to heaven, but not have a life that manifests the fact that you've been regenerated. I do not believe that's what Jesus is saying here at all. What Jesus is saying here is that if you are saved, then you will produce good works. Your good works is the evidence. It is the proof that you belong to God. I believe it is that closely connected that if you are genuinely saved, you will live a different life and you will produce and show other people what God is like. You will do that. I don't think you can separate them. We're not there yet, but you can turn to Matthew chapter 7 and you can see what Jesus Christ says in Matthew chapter 7 here and look at verse 17. So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Jesus said you will know a true believer by his life, by his fruits, by his good works. How many of you have ever met somebody for the first time? You never knew them before and you meet this person for the first time. And as you're in conversation with them, you notice there's something about them. You notice there's something about their thinking, there's something about their speech, there's something about their attitudes, there's something about their conduct, overall conduct, there's something about their conduct, their overall countenance, and you begin to put it all together. And even though nobody has said anything, you know this person is a Christian. You ever been in that situation? You knew that. Maybe you didn't mention the word Christian. You didn't say, I'm a Christian. They didn't say they were Christian, but you knew by the way that they were conducting themselves, the conversation they carried on, you knew this person is probably Christian. You could tell that by their fruit. Now, are you a preacher? Are you saying that we cannot go against our nature? No, and Jesus makes that very clear here. He warns us that we're not supposed to hide our lamp under a basket. He talks about losing our saltiness. So there are times when we can backslide. And we probably all have times in our lives when we've done that. When we haven't done what we're supposed to do and we chose the things of the world over the things of God. And we've had seasons in our life like that. But let me tell you, God's not gonna let you get away with that for long, because you are his child. And the Bible tells us in Hebrews that he loves you, and as his child, you will be disciplined, okay? Because he loves you and you're his. So you're not gonna get away with those times very long without the disciplining hand of God. Now, so Jesus says that, he goes on, he ends the verse, he says, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. and glorify your Father. He says, these people that you're standing before, they're gonna glorify, the people you're witnessing to are gonna glorify your Father who is in heaven. And you're sitting there and you're thinking to yourself, how are my good works gonna make someone glorify God who is in heaven? How are my good works gonna make a lost person glorify God who is in heaven? How can my good works call someone who doesn't even care about what I'm doing, glorify God in heaven? How is this really gonna work? It's a good question. First of all, Jesus Christ did not guarantee that this would be the outcome of your good works. Look back. Look at that verse very carefully. I want to show you something here very carefully. Because you've got to carry the verb all the way through. There's a finite verb, and the finite verb applies to both subjects. So we're looking here in verse 16, and he says at the middle of verse 16, that they may see your good works. That's the verb, may see. The subject, of course, is your good works. And then he carries that same finite verb on to the next phrase, which is that they may glorify your Father who is in heaven. May see, may glorify. Now, I don't know how many of you are grammatarians and all that kind of stuff. I'm not even sure that's a word. But in English, there's this thing called a subjunctive mood. Now, a mood is the way we describe reality, either as something that is or the possibility of something. That's what a mood is. It says this is or it says this may be. That's reality. It is or it could happen. So this is what Jesus is talking about here, the perception of reality, the potential. And so Jesus is saying may. Your light may do these things. It may cause those who see you to glorify your Father in heaven or it may not. It is a potential, is what he's saying there. You get up tomorrow morning, you go in, you're gonna go to work tomorrow morning, you go somewhere tomorrow morning, you jump in your car, you take your key, you hit the ignition on your key, and it don't do anything. So you jump your car, have somebody jump it, and then you go and you tell your wife, I may or may not make it to work today. Don't know. I might make it, I might not make it. The potential to make it is there, and the potential not to make it to work is there. And this is what Jesus is saying about a good works. It may or may not result in these things, where people are thanking you and praising your Heavenly Father. We don't have any control over that. Remember now, remember, remember. You're the vase. God is the potter, okay? And when someone thanks us and praises us for our good works, what we're doing as a vase is we're reflecting back to the potter. That's our job. We're not to take that praise and glory for ourselves. We're what God has made. We don't have anything to do with who we are. God has made us who we are, and all we can do is be like creation and reflect back to God and say, He's the one who made us. He's the one. and give him the glory. So let's get up tomorrow morning, okay, let's rise and shine tomorrow morning, and let's make a conscious decision that we are going to be light, the light that manifests the life of Almighty God throughout the day and throughout the week. Well, all right, I appreciate you being here tonight. Anything else before we're dismissed?