Trinity Baptist Church

 

A magazine once carried a series of pictures that depicted one of the saddest stories imaginable. The first picture was of a vast wheat field in Kansas; it was a farm in Western Kansas. From horizon to horizon, all you could see was the wheat waving in the wind. The second picture was of a mother in distress inside her farmhouse in the middle of that wheat field. She had a small boy who had somehow wandered away from the house into that wheat field. 

 

The little fellow was so small that he couldn't be seen; she couldn't find him. She had called for her husband, and the two of them had searched all day long for that little boy, and they finally decided that they should call the neighbors, who began to search frantically all over the wheat field with no success. 

 

They knew the boy was too little to see above the wheat and find his own way out, so the picture showed her in great distress. 

 

The third photo depicted all the people who had heard of the little boy being lost. They gathered in the morning, joining their hands, hand-to-hand, and in a great, long line of humanity, linked only by their hands, swept from one end of that wheat field to the next. 

 

The last picture was a heartbreaker; it was a picture of the father standing over the body of his little son. They had finally found him, but he was dead. It was too late. A cold, cold night had claimed its victim. 

Underneath the final picture of a weeping father were these words, "Oh, God, if we had only joined hands sooner."

 

What a heart-searching story that is. Listen, people, Jesus said, as He looked out over the fields, "The field is white unto harvest, but the laborers are few." I really believe there is a world of lost men, lost women, lost boys and girls, way out in the field of the world. They can't find home, they can't find the Father's house, they can't see above the wheat of the world. They are perishing in the night of sin, and when the cold morning dawns, it will be too late.

 

I believe the Lord Jesus Christ, here in Matthew 5:13-16, is saying to us, "Join hands. Be salt and light; sweep through the field of the world to find all of those who are desperately in need of your influence and your message." 

 

I don't think one or two can do it, I don't even think a handful can do it. I think the whole church has to join hands and be collective salt. Salt is useless as far as one grain is concerned, and light is a combination of fluorescence. We've got to take hands and sweep through the world, and that's the message that Jesus is giving us right here. We are salt and light to reach the lost with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and this is the vital message contained in our Lord's words. He has followed up the Beatitudes. 

 

In the Beatitudes, He says, "Here is the character I expect you to have, and if you have this kind of character, then you are a child of My Kingdom. 

 

If you have this character, and are a child of my Kingdom, here is your job: sweep through the world as salt and light and make a difference." Jesus is calling on us, as we saw in our last study, to influence the world for His glory, to find the lost before it's too late. 

 

The key is what has gone on in the verses before. Having magnificently come to know the principles and the qualities that render us effective for God, that bring us into His Kingdom, that make us distinct from the world, He now tells us, "Move out into the world with that marvelous distinctiveness, find those that are lost, and bring them to Christ."

 

The supreme matter in the Kingdom is character; character is the issue. The character described in the Beatitudes makes it possible for us to affect the world. 

 

You know, I really worry a lot in my own heart about Trinity Baptist church in this regard. I think we can get to the place where we are so in love with each other, if you will, where we are so thrilled about everything that goes on here. We can be so happy about it all, and sit in little groups and disciple each other, pray with each other, counsel each other, talk to each other, but the fact is, we're always in danger that we won't link hands and sweep through the world. We are in danger of never crawling out of our ivory tower of the bliss of our Christian fellowship. 

 

The Lord is saying that's something that we have to do. The emphatic is here - we are the only salt and we are the only light the world will ever know. 

 

 

I think God wants us to confront the world. Just because the world persecutes us, reviles us, and says all manner of evil against us falsely, just because it seems impossible that, in a country where the Constitution says no law could ever be passed that takes away any of the freedom of religion at all from anybody, we're facing the fact religious expression is in danger of being severely limited. We should be like verse 13, salt and light in the world.

 

To better understand this concept, I told you last time that there are four great truths that you need to grip. First, the presupposition, then the plan, then the problem, then the purpose. 

 

The presupposition in this text is the decay and darkness of the world. The very text presupposes decay and darkness. Where you need salt, you have decay, and where you need light, there is darkness. Our Lord is saying, "Here is the presupposition: we are living in a decadent, dark world." 

 

The second thing we talked about last time was the plan. Notice in verse 13 that we are the salt, in verse 14, we are the light. In verse 16, "Let your light so shine." What is God's plan to deal with this darkened, decaying world? His plan is us! It's us. There is no one else. It isn't going to be given to anyone else. It doesn't belong to famous evangelists. They'll never touch the people you touch. It doesn't belong to great preachers, or people on the radio or television, or people who write books. It belongs to all of us. This is God's divine plan.

 

The pronouns in verses 13-14 are emphatic: "You only are the salt. You only are the light. If you don't do it, there is nobody to do it." 

 

Look closely at the symbols. Last time, we studied salt. Salt speaks of influence. Salt is the silent testimony, it is our moving through the world and affecting it with our very life. We said that salt has five basic functions: purity, flavor, sting (in a wound), thirst (it creates thirst), and preservation. 

 

We are to be pure, glistening white against the darkness of the world. We are to flavor life with the wonder of God's presence among us. We are to sting and convict the sinful wound of the world. We are to create a thirst for Christ by the very way we live. We are to be a preservative in the world to retard the spread of its corruption. If it weren't for Christians in the world, it would be far more corrupt that it is now; we preserve it. 

 

By the way, notice that it says in verse 13, "You are the salt of the earth." This covers the whole earth; we are the only salt the whole earth will ever know.

 

Everything needs a little salt. In fact, food without salt, has something missing. You're supposed to eat some things with salt. That's biblical! If you are on a salt-restricted diet, you need to tell your doctor or your wife or both that it is unscriptural. Take eggs for example. Eggs are awful without salt. 

 

Job 6:6, it says, "Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the white of an egg?" Job says, "You can't eat an egg without salt."   

We are that salt. And our influence is desperately needed in the world. But it doesn't stop with influence. 

 

We now come to the second thing, light. 

 

Verse 14. "You are the light of the world." 

 

Salt and light balance each other in this sense: In a sense, salt is hidden; you don't see it at all. It just melts away into whatever it flavors or preserves. It works secretly to preserve from the inside, but light shines on the outside, and light is open and working visibly. 

 

In other words, salt is the influence of Christian character; it is quiet but powerful.

 

Light is the communication of the content of the Gospel. So there are two sides; on one hand, we live it, on the other hand, we preach it. On one hand, from the inside, we affect society's thinking and living by the power of our lives. On the other hand, we turn on the light so that everyone can see the message we want to give. 

 

It isn't just in our words, but in our very overt, open godly conduct. We are not to be just a subtle influence like salt, but we are to be a very open and blatant influence like light. You see, salt can't change corruption into incorruption. Salt can only retard the corruption. That's only a negative function. Salt only holds back the corruption; we have to turn on the light of the Gospel to transform that corruption into incorruption. 

 

Of course, our light is primarily indicated in verse 16, "Let your light so shine before men that they will see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." That implies, first of all, that they see our good works. Secondly, they glorify our Father in Heaven; that means they've heard something about our Father in Heaven. It implies both a life and a message lived and spoken.

 

So here we are as salt, retarding the things of corruption in the world. But at the same time, as light, we speak the truth of the light and live the truth of the light, so there is an overt and positive testimony as well.

 

In Acts 1:1, Luke writes, "The former letter have I made unto you, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and to teach." 

 

Forever and always, those two things go together - the living and the speaking. Our light is a matter of living the righteous life and uttering the righteous content, the truth. 

 

If you study the Bible, you'll find that light is related to the true knowledge of God. Just a couple of Scriptures for an example, Psalm 36:9 says, "For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light." So the first thing we need to realize is that God is light (I John 1). In Him is the fountain of life, and in His light will we see light; God is light. So if we are to be light, then we must manifest God. 

 

Psalm 119:105 says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." God is light; the Word is light. 

In the New Testament, our Lord Jesus Christ says, "I am the light of the world. He that follows Me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life." So we see that God is light. The Bible, the Word of God, is light. Christ is light, and that is the light that we are to shine on the world. We are to tell them about God, God's Word, and God's Christ. That's letting the light shine. It has to be spoken and then supported by a life that is consistent, right?

 

So the fact is, if you want to know what light is in the Bible, it's the comprehensive term referring to all of God's revelation; the revelation of Himself, His Word, and His Son. That's light. So we are to proclaim the message of light in a dark world, as well as to be salt in a decaying one.

 

In Luke 1:77, it says the purpose for which Christ came was, "To give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high has visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death."

 

 That's why He came, to give light to them in darkness. So what our Lord is saying here is that, collectively, we manifest the light. He's the sun, we're just moons. He is the real light, the essence of light; we're reflectors. That's all. 

 

John 1:9 says that Christ is the light that lights every man that comes into the world. He's the only true light, but we are reflectors of that light. He is the sun, and we're the moons. 

 

 

In my opinion, this is the primary duty of the church, to be light in the world. We are to spread the message of salvation, not just to sit around talking to each other. That is wonderful, and having fellowship is wonderful, and it's sweet and all that. But sooner or later, we have to be light in the world and salt in the earth. We've got to get out from being wrapped up in ourselves. 

 

Listen to 2 Corinthians 4:6:

 

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

 

God passes the light all the way down through us. It's so important.

 

The Jews in Romans 2 claimed to be light. The Apostle Paul denies that. Their light had gone out. They weren't lights anymore. The Jews used to say that Jerusalem was a light to the Gentiles. 

 

In fact, a famous rabbi once called the city of Jerusalem 'the lamp of Israel.' But it wasn't true anymore when Jesus spoke these words that day on the hillside; Jerusalem wasn't any light. God's light wasn't there anymore, it was no lamp. The world was in darkness, so Jesus says, "It isn't Jerusalem that is the light anymore, it isn't Israel anymore. It isn't the Jewish people anymore that are light, but you only are the light." 

 

The church would be the light. The ones who followed Jesus Christ would be the light. 

 

So it has been all along: we're the light. Philippians 2:14 puts it this way. "Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without rebuke." 

 

You have to live the life. The life has to be there; a blameless life. A life that is harmless, blameless, and without rebuke. If they're going to criticize us, let them have to make up something because there is nothing they can use. If we have to be hated, let us be like Christ - hated without a cause. Why? 

 

Because we are to be blameless, harmless children of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom we shine as lights in the world. We are the lights, holding forth the Word of Life. 

 

Jesus illustrates this thought right here in Matthew 5; He says we've got to be visible. We can't just be secret influences, we have to be visible. The light has to shine openly. Verse 14. "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden."  

 

If you had traveled in the Holy Land during Jesus' time, or perhaps even today, you would be impressed with the fact that the villages are built on the tops of the hills. All the villages are up on hills, and can be cooled by the breezes that blow in the day. They could be more easily defended, and when night came, it was a very common custom for them to light a lamp in the house. It just made the little village sparkle, and anyone who was walking through the night could easily find his way to the village because he could see the lights sparkling on the hill. 

 

So the point is a city couldn't be hidden. Everyone knew that light was for the purpose of manifesting. 

 

It's amazing to think about the fact that a Christian would say, "I know God's light has shined in my heart, but I don't see that I have any need to shine anywhere else." You're light, my friend, and light isn't supposed to be hidden. You're a city on a hill. 

 

The point is conspicuousness. We're not just subtle salt; we're very conspicuous light. Every traveler knew where the refuge was; every traveler knew where the little village was, because the lights sparkled like diamonds in the sky. 

 

We're not Masons in a secret society. We're not pagans, with mysteries only for the initiated. We don't have a cult known only to the few; we're a city set on a hill. The whole world ought to see us. By the way, that's why I like that our church is on one of the busiest streets in Ardmore. 

 

I just love people to drive up and down Washington and say, "Look at all those people. What are they doing?" (even if it is something at the theatre!)

 

We're a city set on a hill. We've got to be salt before we can be light; we have to have the character and the influence before we have a message that is believable. So that's the divine plan. 

 

The presupposition: a dark and decaying world. The plan: the dominion of the disciples as the dominate the world by their influence as salt, and by their message and content as light. Thirdly, the presupposition and plan also include a problem. 

There is a problem. If the presupposition is the darkness and decay of the world; if the plan is the church being salt and light, then the problem is the

danger of failure. We are salt and light, but we need to be warned because if sin enters our lives, and if we don't walk in the Spirit, then we will stop being effective as salt and we will be useless as light. 

 

Look again at verse 13. "You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, what good is it?" 

 

Non-salty salt has absolutely no use. "It is thereafter good for nothing, but to be cast out and trampled under men's feet. Neither do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house." 

 

The point is this: salt is only good when it has saltiness. Light is only good when it is visible. There is no place for a secret disciple; there is no place for a secret Christian.

 

Let's look at the concept of salt. Our Lord said that the danger is that salt can lose its saltiness. It means 'flat and tasteless. There have been many explanations of this. Some say that the salt we have today doesn't lose its saltiness, and that, for the most part, is true. But in that day, it wasn't nearly as refined.  

 

The Dead Sea was and still is a tremendous repository for salt.   You can go to the Dead Sea and lay flat on your back and just bob - it's incredible. The salt from the marshes, lagoons, and the rocks around the Dead Sea is in abundance. 

But it easily acquired, in that time, and still, because of its impurity, a stale or alkaline taste, because it was mixed with gypsum, which was also there. 

 

So that kind of salt would lose its capability to salt and would become very alkaline and stale, and the only thing it was good for was to throw out on the road where people walked. They didn't want to throw it in the field, because it would kill everything growing there. So they threw it on the road, where all that would happen is that it would be trampled.

 

By the way, natural salt is impure in many cases, and mixed with other chemicals, can become unsalty. 

 

William Thompson, in his classic book The Land and the Book, which deals with the nation of Israel, tells about a merchant who rented several homes in which he stored salt. The merchant, however, forgot to cover the dirt floor before he put the salt down, and simply unloaded the salt on the dirt. When he returned later, he discovered that his salt had lost its flavor from being next to the earth. The whole supply he threw into the street, where men walked on it.

 

So we know that the kind of salt that they had at that time had the capacity to lose its saltiness, and that is to what our Lord is alluding. Something that they would no doubt understand, that salt could lose its saltiness. 

 

 

 

 

We don't need to argue, and it's amazing how many commentators argue, that Jesus was wrong here because salt can't lose its saltiness. But if anyone knows about salt, He does. Just like He knows about everything else. 

 

So we just find another explanation, as I've just given to you, which is very simple. What He's saying is not that you lose your salvation; He's not saying that, if you're not careful, you'll lose your saltiness. No, what He's saying is that you'll lose your influence. 

 

If sin enters a Christian's life, he will lose his influence. If sin is in your life, you have no influence; you can't retard the corruption of the world because you're in it. You can't be purity against an impure background because you're impure too. You can't be stinging in the wounds of other people's sin because you have your own. You're not going to create in someone a thirst for God, because there is nothing there to make them thirsty for what you have. You are just like them in behavior.

 

When a Christian loses his saltiness, it's a sad situation. You can lose it; just be sinful at work and you'll lose your reputation. If you're sinful at school, listen to the things that people say that aren't right, go along with the dirty talk, be involved with the things they do that you know aren't right. You'll lose your saltiness, and make no contribution to retard their corruption. You'll make no pure statement against an impure background. You'll create no thirst in anyone for God. 

 

The point is, God needs your influence and you are to be salt. But to be salt, you have to stay away from that which corrupts you. They say that perfectly pure salt never loses its flavor. I like that. 

 

You want to know something? None of us is perfectly pure salt; we won't be until we get to glory. As long as we're in this life, we will have impurities and the potential for losing our saltiness is always there. God help us to so live the kind of life that will influence the world!

 

Let's talk about light for a minute. He says a light is something set on a hill, put on a lampstand. It gives light to everyone in the house. You certainly don't light a lamp and stick it under a peck, which is literally a shaped basket. 

 

The little lamps they used were terracotta. I don't know if you've seen one, but they have a spout on one end and a little handle on the other end, with a little floating wick in the middle. The would fill them up with oil and it would burn, three to four inches wide, two inches high, six inches long. They would leave it to light all night. 

 

There is a reference to this in Proverbs 31:18 in regard to the virtuous woman who’s lamp does not go out at night. 

 

She is the kind of lady who makes sure there is always a lamp in the house, so that anyone who needs to find his way around can. She has enough oil to make sure that is done, and she is conscientious enough to get up in the middle of the night to relight the lamp so that there will always be a light in the house. 

Jesus is saying, "How foolish it would be to get your lamp trimmed, the wick clipped, fill it up with oil, and stick a basket on top of it so no one could see it." It would be silly. 

 

You know what is amazing? Some of us have within us the treasure in earthen vessels, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, only no one knows. Someone has said that most Christians are like an Arctic river - frozen at the mouth. I don't know if that's totally true, but there are a lot of us who haven't shared Jesus Christ with anyone in a year, five years, ten or fifteen years. We have a light alright, but we've just got a basket over it. Listen, if you're going to light, you have to get your light where people can see it. 

 

It's kind of interesting to look at verse 15 and see that it says, "Neither do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but put it on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house." 

 

Some feel that is a reference to Israel, that it specifically refers to them. The statement 'all that enter in' would refer to the Gentiles. I don't know that we can push that too far, but the point is that whoever it is, whether it's Israel, the Gentiles, or whoever it is, we want to make sure that the light is lit and visible. That's what Jesus is saying.

 

To the people He was saying it to, He was really calling for something new. He was saying, "You're a part of a religious system that is fouled up. If you live according to Kingdom character in the Beatitudes, then you really have to be different. You have to be light so that they can all see it, and that isn't easy, because they're not going to like what they see." 

It's always the fear of persecution that makes us hesitant; we're always a little afraid. So after the Beatitude 'blessed are the persecuted,' He has to reinforce that we not put our lights under bushels. He wants us to put it where everyone can see it, so that the whole world will know the truth of God.

 

Verse 16 personalizes it. "Let your light so shine before me that they will see your good works." He's saying, "Let it shine." That's all; it's a simple message. Let your good deeds, good in terms of beauty, be seen. 

 

It is not that they are just good in and of themselves, but they have a beauty and attractiveness about them that reflects God’s character and beauty.   

 

I want to add a little footnote. The beginning of verse 16 says, "Let your light shine." You don't have to trump it up; you don't have to light it, crank it up, worry about getting it started, all you have to do is let it go. You can't stop the light, and you can't light the light, you can just stick a bushel on it. The light is there. If Christ lives in you, He is the light and you can't change that. 

 

But you can put a bushel basket on top of it so nobody will ever know. It may be the basket of fear, or wanting to be acceptable, not wanting to offend or make waves, or whatever. But whatever it is, it needs to come off. You don't have to light it and you can't put it out, you just have to let it shine by the way you live and the things you say.

 

 

Let it shine before men, in the presence of those who hate you and would kill you, reject you, and deny you. Let it shine and let them see the beauty of your works. You know, when you hide your testimony, you're not doing anything but preventing someone from seeing the beauty of God Himself. When you don't testify, you're just withholding from someone that which they desperately need to see if they're ever going to come to God.

 

What do we see, then? 

 

The presupposition our Lord gives is the decay and darkness of the world. 

 

The plan that He gives is the church being salt and light.

 

The problem that He talks about is the danger of failure. We can hide that light and lose that saltiness. 

 

Now the purpose. What is the purpose of God dealing with the decay and parkness of the world through the church as salt and light?

 

The purpose is the dignity of God. It's at the end of verse 16, and I don't need to say much about it because it is so evident.    

 

There is one single reason why you should be salt that is salty and light that is manifest, and it is this: that you might glorify your Father who is in Heaven. 

 

If you don't do it, then you are more concerned with your reputation than His glory. That's always the issue. 

"I don't know if I should stick my neck out. I might lose my job or reputation." Then you have just ascended the scale and what you have and attain and get is more important than the glory of God. You see?

 

"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us but unto Thy name give glory," said the psalmist. Can you lose yourself? Can you be salt that is salty? Can you be light that is lit and visible? 

 

You can if you only care about the glory of God, but if you let your own personality and popularity, and prestige, and reputation get in the way, then the glory of God is dragged down, your flag goes up, and you say, "I reign. I'll do what appeals to me." 

 

"Glorify your Father who is in Heaven." Notice that He uses the word 'Father,' I think because He wants to emphasize the beautiful tenderness and intimacy of God. Yet He says, "In Heaven," and there, He speaks of the majesty. On the one hand, God is a tender, loving Father. On the other hand, He is a majestic, sovereign God in Heaven.  So He says we are to glorify God.

 

That is good news. That is the reason we live; there is no other reason but to glorify God. That's all. 

 

Dr. Robert Murray McCheyne was one of the saints of the last century. His face, they used to say, was sometimes lit up with a hallowed expression, so that people who came to see him fell on their knees to accept Jesus Christ when they saw his face. 

 

 

Others were so attracted to the indescribable beauty of holiness manifested on his countenance that Jesus became, to them, irresistible. Isn't that fantastic? Influence.

 

It is said of Fenelon, the great Christian of ages past, that his, "Communion with God was such that his face shown. 

 

Lord Peterborough, a skeptic, was once compelled to spend a night with him in an inn. In the morning, he hurried away saying, 'If I spend another night with that man, I'll be a Christian in spite of myself.' 

 

Fenelon's manner, his voice, and his face reflected so perfectly the glory of Christ that he was irresistibly attractive to even the worldliest and vilest of humanity." 

 

What about you? Are you the kind of salt that retards corruption and the kind of light that attracts in the beauty of holiness, as the shining of your goodness and beauty, the power of God released in you, touches the people around you? Do you never mitigate it, cover it, do you let it shine so that God can be glorified? 

 

Let's pray.