I love to tell the story for those who know it best. Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest. And when it seems of glory, I sing to tell the story of Jesus Amen. You may be seated and we'll dismiss the little ones to go to their class with Mrs. Schor. All right. And the rest of us can open up our Bibles to Matthew chapter 5 continuing in what is to be a series on the Sermon on the Mount. We're just going to work our way through it on Sunday mornings. Matthew chapter 5 and verses 13 through 16 is our passage. Last week you might remember Jesus began his message, remember the setting of where Christ is. He's up on a mountain. He's outdoors. Again, perhaps in a natural empathy or something that would allow the sound of his voice to carry so that the multitudes could hear it. His primary audience is his disciples, those that are followers of Jesus Christ. They're the ones that we're learning about on Sunday night. They have left, many of them, John the Baptist and his ministry and have started following after the Lord Jesus and he is teaching them. And so it's primarily for them. The multitudes are listening in. in getting to hear him speak. He began by speaking about the attitudes that are blessed. Remember the B attitudes that we talked about last week, the best attitudes that we could have in our life that God blesses, attitudes such as being poor in spirit or mourning or sorrow for sin, meek and hungering, thirsting after righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemaker, persecuted for righteousness' sake, reviled for Jesus' sake. And all those are, you could say they're internal. They're things that you and I can't see, necessarily. But now he's gonna switch from the internal to the external. He's gonna move from that which impacts us to that which impacts others. Instead of dealing with attitudes this week, as we look at it, he's dealing with actions and things that are visible A friend of mine, Joshua George, he's a chemistry teacher down in Greenville, South Carolina at Bob Jones Academy. And in the summertime, he and his wife and his kids, he's got six kids, I think, they go to Alaska and work at a Christian camp. And Josh has always been a handy man. And so he works around the campground, helping with building projects, and just serving any way they can. But one of the ways he does that as well is for one of the weeks of camp, he does chemistry object lessons. And so he says in his high school classes, the kids are kind of reserved. He'll do a really cool experiment, and they might come up afterwards and say something like, that was neat. Can we do it again? But he said at camp, there's no restrictions like that. And when he does these, object lessons the kids go nuts you know seeing something explode or seeing change colors you know they get real excited about it object lessons are good they allow us to see something and he said you know it's not just to wow the kids it's to give a spiritual point You know, it's like, I remember the object lesson growing up of seeing, you know, a large rock and a jar and a bunch of small rocks and asking, you know, can these all fit in the same jar? And if you take the little rocks, you pour them in and then put the big rock on top, it doesn't fit. But if you put the big rock in first and then pour the little rocks around it, it all fits into the one jar. It's a picture of putting God first. You can't cram God in on top of everything else. God has to have the priority. If we put him in first place in our life, everything else fails. Those object lessons are memorable. They're things that whenever we come across that, we'll remember that. I might mention this at some other point in my lesson today, but I met a man that had on a t-shirt yesterday that said, Hellbound. And I said, what's that? And he said, oh, it's a tattoo place. But when we got to the end of our time of speaking to him, it wasn't very long, he said he never thinks about God, never thinks about eternity. I pointed at his shirt and I said, you know what, every time you put that shirt on, it ought to remind you that that's a reality. Because I had told him, I said, look, I say this with love, but without Jesus Christ, you will die and you will spend eternity in hell. but Christ died for you, right? But every time he puts that shirt on, I hope God will bring to his mind, hellbound, hellbound. It ought to be in his mind every time he puts it on. I tell other people as I'm speaking to them about Jesus's deity, every time you take God's name in vain, especially the name of Christ, you got to remember that Jesus Christ is God and that there is a God. Those object lessons are good. And so Jesus takes two very common things. He takes salt and he takes light. And he illustrates how a Christian's life ought to be, or a believer's life, ought to be salt and ought to be light. And so this morning, we're to be salty salt and bright light. And just considering this morning, are you the salt God wants you to be? Are you the light God wants you to be? And let's pray that God will help us to have a tender heart and that he'll speak to us as we come to his word this morning. Father, we're thankful for the opportunity to look into the word of God and to consider salt and light. Father, I praise you. for the Lord Jesus Christ. I would have loved to have sat at the feet of the Lord Jesus, and yet we get to do that. Father, I praise you that we do, and yet to hear him physically, and to hear the earthly voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to see his mannerisms, to perceive his love, and his grace, and his wisdom, and his power as he spoke. And Father, we pray that we'd hear that again today as we come to the Word of God. Lord, hide this preacher behind Jesus Christ, I pray, Father, that he would speak. I pray that the Holy Spirit would speak. And Father, I pray that in your grace, you'd help us to realize this is a day, a very good day to be salt and lime. It's so valuable today. It's such a rare commodity. It's such a rare thing for there to be true salt and true light. And so I pray help as I speak. Give me wisdom, but give us ears to hear. Help us to respond. Help us not to come to church with the idea that we've come to get together because you say to get together and leave the way we were when we came. But Father, I pray that we would, by the grace of God, by the power of the Spirit of God, be changed so that we're more like Christ when we leave. And Father, certainly if anybody's unsaved, they're not salt, they're not light because they don't have that reality within them. They can't be salt and light because they're not believers. them pray today would be the day of their salvation, that they would become the salt and light that this world needs. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. So as we come to this idea of being salt and light, the first thing that we can consider as we look at this passage is to live up to your obligation Live up to your obligation. As Jesus is speaking again to the disciples, he's not speaking to the multitudes, but he's saying primarily to his disciples, he says, you are salt, you are light. As it says in verse 13, ye are the salt of the earth. That's it. And you might think, well, salt, big deal. Who cares? whether we have salt or not. I mean, when's the last time that you got up thinking about salt? You know, or you went to bed at night thinking about salt. We don't think about it, but the reality is we have to have salt. Salt is vital as to our physical life. I found an online article about salt. It wasn't a Christian article. It wasn't written for illustration purposes, but it makes a very good illustration. It said this. Salt is a biological necessity of human life, but we live our daily lives practically unaware of this basic biological fact. Most of our food already has salt added to it. Check the labels on almost any prepared food in the house. But if you're in the habit, of baking your own bread or cooking your own porridge, it's immediately and disastrously obvious if you forget the salt. In ancient times, salt, or the lack of it, could drastically affect the health of entire populations. Trade in salt was very important, and salt was valuable enough to be used as currency in some areas. The Latin phrase, salarium argentum, and I probably murdered that, meant salt money. referred to part of the payment made to every Roman soldier, and the word has been carried down the ages into the English word salary." Interesting. Salt is vital. Without salt today, I mean, we'd just be dying because of lack of salt. Salt is vital to us for physical life. Could we not say this morning that salt, spiritual salt, is a biological necessity of spiritual life? And then the Word of God says, you're the salt of the earth. Our community, our neighborhood, our families, without this basic, you could say this basic need being met. They're without salt and they're without that which is necessary for their life. So how important is that? You know, sadly, there's not much salt in Britain. I've asked people recently, I've begun asking them, how many people do you know that go to church every Sunday? I'm talking to people in their 60s. I'm talking to people in their 70s. And what I'm finding is them saying, you know what? I don't know of anybody. Then if they do know of anybody, the sad reality is, as we're going to speak about it, the salt that they are around is not salt at all. Going to church doesn't make somebody salty. But it just exposes the fact that there's just not any salt out there anywhere. So how important is this salt? Then how important is light? It says, ye are the light of the world. Imagine a world without light. Yeah, we could turn off the lights at nighttime, but even then, some light filters in through our windows, right? There's light out there. There's lights in the street. There's moonlight. There's starlight at night. I mean, even the blackest night is still going to have a lot of illumination. But I've been down in a cave in Wisconsin in the United States. I remember going to a cave as a child. And probably not my favorite thing that they did when you're down in the cave is they turn off the lights. And if you're in a cave and the lights go out, I mean, there is no light. I'm sure Alec could testify to this down in the mines. The lights go out. What would a world be like without light? And think about it. What is our world like the less spiritual light there is? Even unbelievers are getting grieved by it. Even unbelievers are looking at it and going, why is the world like this? It's turned upside down. It's like wrong is right and right is wrong. And even unbelievers that are not church-going people, they look at it and say, something is terribly wrong. Because we have a world that's in darkness. John 8, 12. Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Christ is light. Somebody can go through life, all their life, and they're thinking, What's the point? It's just like, it doesn't make sense. I don't understand why this is taking place. But then they get saved and it's like the light goes on and they can see and they understand it. Not that they don't understand everything about what's taking place in their life. They understand what life's all about. They understand it's about a relationship with God. It's about knowing the creator. It's about bringing glory to God. It's the whole purpose of our creation and existence is that relationship with God. and all of a sudden, life makes sense. But our world is very dark. I was reading on a humanism webpage, and just the fact that that exists is a very sad statement to our society, that atheism is becoming probably the most growing religion in the world, because it is a religion, it is a belief. And this is what Mim Al-Khalili, President of the British Humanist Association said at the top of their webpage. He said, reason, decency, tolerance, empathy, and hope are human traits that we should aspire to, not because we seek reward of eternal life or because we fear the punishment of a supernatural being, but because they define our humanity. I have a strong sense of awe and wonder in the world, which my cells are so fleetingly a part of, that goes far deeper for me than anything religious faith can offer. How empty. I mean, it's just absolutely, completely empty, plus the fact that hell is real, heaven's real, and that man will never get there without Jesus Christ. Neither will all his followers. So he can philosophize about it all he wants. It's empty, it's black, it's darkness, but God's given us, by his grace, the light. We're the light of the world. We're the salt of the earth. How we need to be burdened about that responsibility. Second thing that we can consider as we go through the passage is don't lose your saltiness. Don't lose your saltiness. You know, modern evangelical Christianity, it's not salty anymore. Is our Christianity as salty as John Knox? Not at all. John Knox lived by the Bible. These men, this book meant more to them than the threat of any foreign enemy or any national enemy. They were solved. We know what the Church of Scotland, which began with John Knox, we know the position has come to recently in homosexual ministers. Praise God, within that organization, there's still some men with character to stand up and say this isn't right. One of those men is at St. Peter's Church in Dundee. His name, I believe it's a pastor there. I'm sorry, I don't have his name in my notes. But he wrote this, entitled The Morning After The Night Before. Okay, this is the next morning after they voted. He said, I woke up this morning with a heavy heart and a mind incredulous at the futility of human thinking when it turns away from the word of God. Several people have written and asked what the decision of the General Assembly to allow the ordination of people in same-sex relationships means for the Church of Scotland and the church in Scotland. The BBC and others of the secular news media have reported it as a historic day in the church when it changed forever. I think they were right. The official line is that, as the moderator declared, quote, this is a massive vote for the peace and unity of the church, that this is a third way in which the two sides represented in the report of the Theological Commission have both conceded ground and come to a position which allows the Church of Scotland to retain its historic Christian position and yet come into the 21st century. He sarcastically says, how has this miracle been wrought? The assembly basically rejected the two years work of the theological commission and chose a motion made up over lunch and presented at the last minute by the former moderator, Albert Bogle, and another evangelical, Alan Hamilton. The liberals who reject the Bible as the word of God are delighted, declaring that this is the Holy Spirit speaking through the church. Stonewall, a homosexual group, are delighted. The self-styled equality network are delighted. The Metro elites are delighted. But many of us who love the Church of Scotland are devastated. Why? Because yesterday, and it pains me as I write this, the Church of Scotland wrote its own suicide note. Sad. Salt that is no longer salty. Salt that no longer has the courage to stand for biblical principle. And so the word of God goes on in verse 13 to share with us, as Jesus said, salt can lose its saltiness. Verse 13, but if the salt have lost his savor. When men turn from the word of God, the word of God is salt, the word of God is light. When the men of God turn from that which is salty and turn away, we lose our salt. When men of God look at biblical principles about separation and holy living and separated lives and victory over sin and dealing with sin, we lose our salt. Salt can lose its savor. Jeremiah 6.16 says, Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein. And ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein. Are you losing your soul? God says, walk in the old ways. God says, stay with the books, stay with the Bible, stay separated, stay holy, deal with sin. but the modern world doesn't want that. So the salt can lose its savor. And then he asks a good question, Jesus does, how can salt be made salty again? He says, wherewith shall it be salted? When the salt loses its saltiness, how's it gonna get it back? It's kind of a rhetorical question with the answer of it can't. It's not possible. When the salt is given up, it's hopeless. It cannot be regained. You think about Lot, right? What does Lot do? Lot gives up his salt. He goes and he pitches his tent towards Sodom. Then he moves down into Sodom, and the Bible says that it grieved his righteous soul living in Sodom, that it bothered him to be there. But it came time where the angels came to his house and it was time for him to take a stand. But you know, it's too late. Because he's not salty. He goes to his kids and he says, you know, God's going to destroy this city. And the Bible says, because he was, it doesn't say this, but this is the reality, because he was not salty in his life, he could not be salty at his children's death. He could not take a stand that they would respect because he had no salt. It was not there because he got rid of his salt long ago. It says specifically, just as 1914, Lot went out, spake unto his sons-in-laws, which married his daughters, and said, up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-laws. He'd lost his saber. They thought he was mocking. They go, you're not salt. You're not salt. I mean, this is so contrary to who you are. Salt that is not salty is worthless. Spurgeon had it right in her quote in the bulletin as we read that this morning. As it says, it is thenceforth good for nothing. Is Jesus being mean? I'm sure some people felt that. He's saying, you know, you're gonna be salt. And if you're not salt, how are you gonna become salty? And then he says, and if you've lost your saver, it's good for nothing. It's worthless. What's the point of a life like that? You know, what the Church of Scotland, to go back to that, what the Church of Scotland has done, and this is just an illustration that applies to all of Christianity, they've become basically liberal. They've taken this book and said, it doesn't say what it means anymore, so we have to interpret it according to our own agenda and our own ideas. They've denied the truth of Romans chapter one, they've denied the truth that found an exodus in the 20s, right, about homosexuality. They've rejected it. And tell me, what good is that? What good is it? What does it do? How does it help a homosexual have victory over their sin and find Jesus Christ? How does it help anybody in the world understand that this book means what it says and says what it means? It's good for nothing. And the world looks at it and they laugh because they realize they've got their way and the church has nothing to say. You know, it used to be that the church told the world what to believe and what to think. What happens nowadays is that the world tells the church what to believe and what to think. Isn't that sad? If we're gonna be salty, what do we do? We pick up this book and say, it says what it means. It means what it says. And it says that all unbelieving liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. It's not something we glory in, but it's something that we warn unbelievers about. It's something that we warn liars about. And a liberal comes along and says, it doesn't really mean that. And how does that help anybody? Revelation 21.8 says, but the fearful and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. What kind of a liar or unbeliever is gonna be warned to flee from hell if they don't They've been told by somebody, it doesn't really mean that. Nobody. And so what's gonna happen? They'll die, they'll spend eternity in hell. Because there was no salt that stood up and said, this is what the word of God says and it's true. You know, recently, actually in the last three days, I've met two Catholics, one from Northern Ireland and one from close by here in a village near here. Both Catholics, as I spoke about the Bible, they said, but who wrote the Bible? Where did it come from? It came through man. And what they're saying is, you can't trust it. You can't depend upon it. And I'm looking at them going, then what do you have to stand on? Nothing. And how does that help you? It doesn't. It doesn't save your soul from hell. It doesn't put you to faith in Jesus Christ. It is worthless. It is good for nothing. And you know what? The world laughs at it, as I said, and they trample upon it. They step on it, just like the Word of God says. It's cast out as worthless rock to be crushed by the feet of men. It says, wherewith shall it be salted? It's sent forth good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be trodden under the foot of men. Isn't that what the world did when Church of Scotland says, yes, we can have homosexual ministers and the world laughs and they step on it, right? Does it cause them to respect the Church of Scotland? It doesn't. They just laugh because obviously the church doesn't believe the Bible anymore and they're excited. It's sad, isn't it? How sad to not have salt. Imagine again, in a society that has to have salt to live, and the salt that's there is not salt at all. It's just good enough for gravel. Just walk on it. What's the point? You know, as you go through your day, you're the salt of the earth. What kind of salt are you? So what? Do you want to be stepped on by the world? I mean, is that what you want to be? A stepping stone for the world to laugh and to mock Christ? Or do you want to be somebody that can make a difference and save a life? If we want to be that kind of believer, we've got to stand up and be spiritual Saul today. So he's spoken about Saul. But now he's gonna switch, we're gonna switch back to light in verse 14, as he says, build where it is most visible. Put your city where it's most visible, that the light can be seen. Verse 14 says, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hit. I remember driving in Colorado. My grandparents grew up in Durango, Colorado, or my dad grew up in Durango, Colorado. My grandparents moved there from Denver, Colorado. But as you're coming down into Denver or you're coming down into Durango, these are cities that are large cities, lots of lights, but in the mountains it's very dark and you can see for miles because of your elevation. And those cities are just visible for miles and miles as you're getting closer and closer to them, you can see them because light just travels in darkness to great distances. A city that's set on a hill, how would you hide it? Back in the day when the bombings were taking place here in Britain, they had blackouts, right? They tried their best to cover up the light, and yet I imagine that even still, some light shone through because light does that. City that's set in the hill, you can't hide it, no matter how much you try, it's gonna be visible because of that light. So what is the Lord teaching us? He's teaching us to build in prominent places. Put your light in a place that it can't be hid. Elijah, remember Elijah, a very dark day as Ahab is killing prophets and Elijah has begun to feel like he's the only one left. But he finally, by God's grace, comes out of his hiding and he confronts Ahab and says we're gonna have a duel on top of Mount Carmel. Now he challenged the prophets of Baal to building an altar, and making an altar, and crying out to God to send fire. You guys cry out to Baal, I cry out to the God of Israel. And the God that answers by fire, let him be God. Elijah could have been shy about it. He could have said, hey, let's go to a valley somewhere. Let's go to a cave. Let's go somewhere secret. I want to challenge you to a secret duel, and let's make it as invisible as possible. But he doesn't. He says, let's go up on a mountain. Why? Because it's the most prominent place in the area. Let's go up where anybody can see it that wants to see it. And let's cry out there. It says in the story, 1 Kings 18, 37, 38, hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench. The light fell, the fire fell, and everybody saw it because Elijah did it in a prominent place that all the people of the earth may know that you're God. You know, what kind of a Christian are we? Any religion that teaches to be a secret Christian and kind of just blend in and kind of just get along, it's not what God desires at all. What God desires is us to build where it's prominent. I praise God, he's given us a prominent location within this community, even for a location for our church. Praise God, we're visible. Thank God for it. But you know, as believers, are we just trying to blend? Are we trying to get where it's least visible? Or by God's grace, are we saying, you know what? I want to build my life where it matters. I want to build my life where it's prominent. I want to build my life where anybody can look and say, I see their light. So build where it's prominent. And then don't be foolish with the light. Don't be foolish with the light. Jesus is gonna express some very simple truths about light. He says, nobody encloses a light where it cannot be seen. Verse 15 says, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel. When is the last time you installed a light under your bed or under a rug? Nobody does that. What a waste of light, right? What a waste to put a light where it's not visible. I mean, nobody does that. Why would you do that? Even naturally speaking, that would be a very foolish thing to do. As you build your life, how foolish is it to put that light where it can't be seen? Why should we look around today and say, you know, it's a very tough thing to be a Christian, so I guess we'll just hide our light. Wouldn't that be sad thing that somebody could do is to hide their light. We're the light of Christ. So everybody puts that light in the best possible location. Neither do men light a candle, put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. You know, if you want your brother, your sister, your mother, your siblings, or somebody to come to Christ, what do you need to do? You need to be the light. And you might say, well, they don't like the light. Well, but without the light, they can't be saved. What's the point of not offending them on earth when they're gonna be offended by the fires of hell for all eternity? I mean, what's the point of just existing without showing that light? We ought to put that candlestick in our home where it can be seen by anybody that comes. I was speaking with an older man yesterday. Probably he was married 54 years. His wife died seven years ago. So I figured he's got to be in his low 80s. But he said, in my day, we went to Sunday school. Kids went to Sunday school. And he said, it doesn't happen anymore, does it? Sad, isn't it? Where's the light? It's not there anymore. John 3 20 and 21 says, But everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Somebody that hates the light is just somebody that's full of sin. Somebody that has things that they're not willing to deal with before a holy God and get right with God so that they could enter into that light. So the only people that will offend is somebody that is anti-Christ. But there's people out there that by God's grace, they'll get saved. They're in darkness. They don't even know. They don't understand the gospel. They don't understand the love of God. They don't understand how to be saved. But we can shine our light to them. Let your light so shine before men. So don't be foolish with the light, and then shine the light. Shine the light because it is commanded. Again, verse 16 says, let your light so shine before men. You know, if you can let your light shine, then you can also what? Let your light not shine? It's kind of a natural assumption that if you can let your light shine, you can also hide your light. So we can either turn the light on or we can turn the light off. It's our choice. Even my youngest, Mac, he's starting to learn how to turn lights on and off as I hold him up to the light switch, you know, and show him how to push on it. He understands what it does, a one-year-old does. Certainly, we understand how to turn lights on and off as we come into a dark room and we just switch the light on. The Christians, we could do the same thing. As we come into an environment, we can either decide by God's grace, I'm gonna be light, or we can hide the light. But we're commanded by God, let your light shine. When's the last time you verbally gave somebody the gospel? When's the last time you handed somebody a track? When's the last time you lived like Christ in front of somebody when the opportunity was spared not to live like Christ before them? so that the light shone. Let your light so shine. It's commanded. It's possible. It's possible to do. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works. It's possible. It's more than possible. In our day and age, it's a very, again, a very dark society. It's a very easy thing, in a sense, to say that any light will be clearly visible. Very evident. And so that they may see your good works, that they might understand, you know, this isn't a normal response that I've gotten from this person. They should be angry, but they're speaking kindly. Or why do they care? Why are they telling me about Christ? Why is their life different than my life? That your good works may be seen of men, that they may see your good works. Why? Because light is revealing. And glorify your Father, which is in heaven. You know, today, atheism and liberalism are closing their eyes and they're saying there is no God and the spiritual darkness has come. But has God disappeared? No. God's still in heaven. So what has taken place is God's glory is no longer seen. In our schools, it's being taught evolution as fact. And so there's no glory to God for his creation. Nobody walking around looking at a flower and saying, wow, that is awesome. See what the creator has done. Very few people getting saved, experiencing the gospel impacting their lives and saying, wow, praise God for what Jesus Christ did on Calvary. God's glory isn't being seen. You know, it's kind of like a woman I met this past week, and she said, I'm not a bad person, but I don't believe in God. And then she went on to say, I'm not a sinner. I said, well, I'm believed to sin. And she said, well, then I guess I am a sinner. And I said, how would you feel if you were an artist and you had an art, a painting at the National Gallery? And people came in and they looked at that beautiful painting and they said, wow, I'm so glad, you know, explosion happened at a paint factory and it made such a beautiful landscape. That is gorgeous, that is amazing, but wow, I am more, even more amazed at how it happened with an explosion. And you're the artist, you're standing there, you're looking at it, and you say, excuse me, can I just share something with you? You know, that's my painting. I painted that. And they look at you and they mock you. And they laugh at you. And they say, rubbish, I know how that happened. Explosion happened in a paint factory, it's scientifically proven that you did not make that. And I asked her, how would you feel? How does the creator feel when the world looks at it and goes, it just happened? And he goes, I designed it. And they say, hell doesn't exist. And he says, my son died to save you from hell. How does he feel? Doesn't he deserve this warning that we take the light and go, you know what? Let me show you God's glory, creator. Let me show you God's glory, savior. We're the light, we're the salt. You know, today, if you went through life for the next several months without salt and without light, how would you feel physically? How does our world feel today without spiritual salt and spiritual light? They may not understand why they feel the way they do, that it's so empty, life's so pointless, but if they could taste the salt and see the light, they'll understand, and they'll thank you for it. So we need to be it. May God help us to be salt and light. Let's pray. Father, take your Word and apply it to our hearts today. Father, there's sin that creeps into our life and makes us unsalty. There's unbelief that creeps into the life of the church and makes us unsalty. Father, help us to be salt. Father, there's fear that creeps into our life and makes us hide our light so that we don't shine it the way that we should. There's lack of concern, there's lack of burden that creeps into our life, and so we don't shine the light like we should. Probably certainly sin covers the light, hides the light, makes us feel uncomfortable telling other people about it because we're not living up to what we should be. So I pray this morning, may the Spirit of God speak to us. And I pray today as we go through our day, if we put salt in our food, if we turn on the light switch, I pray the Spirit of God would remind us as Jesus taught, we're the salt of the earth, we're the light of the world. Help us to be the best salt, the best light we can be. Again, Father, if somebody's not salt because they're not saved, if they're not light because they're not saved, I pray they'd be burdened today about their family that's lost, about their neighbors that are lost, about the people that they're letting go to hell because they're unwilling to become salt, to become light. And Father, I pray they'd humble their heart and get saved even today. Thank you for the grace and help you give. Thank you for our service this morning. Hymn 536, O Zion Haste, 536.