Matthew 5:13-16

Jesus declares the eight founding principles or beatitudes of God’s kingdom. As light and salt, the people of God have a powerful influence upon the dark world. More on the Beatitudes

Introduction

13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.

14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

15 "Nor do men light a lamp, and put it under the peck-measure, but on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house.

16 "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.

A. Salt: Being of Godly Character - Loving (13)

I am not interested today in stating all the uses of salt. Let me state briefly my point. If the world is getting darker, it is not because of the President, or the congress or the economy or even the public education system. It is simply the Church of God is getting more worldly.  The church has lost her saltiness. 

I love a good theological fight but withdraw. But let me put my gloves on the table and let you fight this argument out. When does the salt loose its flavor so that it is no longer salt? If you have a molecule of sodium-chloride, you have salt. Take either o these away and it is obvious. But if you have a clump of salt molecules and it looses its saltiness. Is it adding other elements and/or loosing some essential elements?

Now we can say that there are many essential elements of a good worship service time but the most important is a godly lifestyle untainted by the world. If the unbelievers are not flocking here to know more about God it is because of two problems. Either we are not living or we are not telling.  The point is when you have a nonbeliever come by and after church you start talking to him, that is good. But when you whip out your catalogues and start talking just like the people at work, he turns silently sad. He was hoping there was something in a Christian which he could maybe find hope in. But when your mind is on the world. You are focused on getting a better job or running like the world runs. He just gives up on Christianity.  Why? Because you have lost your salt brother or sister!  Some people might come here just to eat Chinese food or be with like faces, but there is another reason. They are looking for hope that there is something out in this world that will bring hope.  The more we think, live and act like the world, the more we have lost our salt and good for nothing but being tread upon.

But instead, if we get serious with the Lord about calling us to be the salt of the world, and we allow God to begin to remake our whole lives, we see a transformation that is simply radical - but in a good way. Most people think of godly people as dull and having no fun. As far as I know, people who are dull and not having fun are sad and depressed people. But when I look in to the world, all I see is people who are sad and depressed. They are miserably bored. They are lonely. They have no meaning in life.  The world only looks forward to exciting and frantic moments of life when the lottery number is selected or the drug is taking affect or the sin is affecting his or her body, but after the seconds of excitement wears off, they live in constant guilt, pain, misery and boredom until the next peak of excitement comes.

Do you think Jesus was dull and sad? Of course not. He was the most godly person there was, full of love. Don’t you love being loved? Wouldn’t you love to be one of those loving people? Each of the beatitudes begins with the word “Happy” or “blessed” because the only way to overcome the sadness of the world is to live in harmony with the Creator. The world by definition lives in opposition to the Creator. It gets tired and depressed because it is always in a fight with God. However, when you understand your new calling to be happy all the time, you are floored.  You can’t believe God wants to pour this much love and grace upon you.  And admittedly, it is a lot of love and grace we need to get there.  And when we can affirm our desire to be like Christ, to be of godly character and not like the world, God is then released to pour extra grace into our lives to make us more like Him.

Let me remind you that we can all lose our salt. Christian life must be lived in the present not in the past or future. We live now in the presence of God. God is with us now working in our lives.

Os Guiness says, “The problem with Christians in America is not that Christians aren't where they should be; the problem is that they're not what they should be right where they are.”  -Os Guiness in Radix, Vol 20

Application What is God asking of you today? Have you lost your saltiness? Have you sided with the world? Could you now confess your waywardness, and ask Him for forgiveness? Have you lost your goal of being like Jesus? Commit yourself now to memorize the beatitudes and more than that you are asking Him to make them your living principles of life.

B. Light: Doing His Good Works - Serving (14-16)

Again, I don’t want to get into the physics of light. I would love to. Light fascinates me. But Jesus starts off essentially as He did before. He places all the responsibility and success of the kingdom of God on us! It is simply amazing. If before we talked about quality, now we are focusing on marketing, before about living, now communicating. The only thing Jesus wants us to know about light is its natural need to be displayed. We all are very familiar with these things called lights. It is one thing to have a light switched off. That is our choice. But who would turn a light on except to have the light shine forth. Who would purposely turn a light on and then shut the light in? No one. The only exception I know of is when I was in Singapore.  They put lights in the closets on so the bugs would be able to see what they were doing.  No. But because of high humidity - before air-conditioning, the light would give off a little bit of heat to keep down the humidity so clothes would not spoil so easily.

As a Christian, your light has been turned on by God. You have been born from above. If we look carefully at verse 16, we will see that it is the good works that are the actual light waves. If in the first point above, our heart and attitudes began to change the way we relate to people, care for people and help people.  Our motivation of life has changed from forcing on what we like and want to what God wants. We then will naturally have a life of good works testifying to the Lord’s love. 

Let us just note the change of heart if a person now understands the great mercy with which God treats a him. Now he will treat his money as God’s not his own. He will be willing to give it to the poor because he really cares about the people in need rather than to look good or get rid of his guilt. Or maybe he will begin to see the need for caring for his parents from a whole different light.  When he did not focus on being like Christ, he was set on winning every fight.  His fights were silent but mean. But when he started molding himself to be a peacemaker, he began to see how to be reconciled with his parents and genuinely care for their needs.

This church is indeed a church of good works. So many of you are busy helping other people. Some of you make meals for others. Some drive people around. Some spending long time in discussing other people’s problems. This is the way we should be. The warmth stemming from these ‘light’ works is enough to communicate that God’s love is here.

The supreme test of goodness in not in the greater but in the smaller incidents of our character and practice; not what we are when standing in the searchlight of public scrutiny, but when we reach the firelight flicker of our homes; not what we are when some clarion-call rings through the air, summoning us to fight for life and liberty, but our attitude when we are called to sentry-duty in the grey morning, when the watch-fire is burning low.  It is impossible to be our best at the supreme moment if character is corroded and eaten into by daily inconsistency, unfaithfulness, and besetting sin. –F. B. Meyer in Our Daily Walk 

 

In summary, let me close with a few observations.

• It is totally inadequate to have good works without the right light. Many Christians are instantly challenged by helping someone in a practical way.  This is good and yet we need to be careful have we first been caught in pursuing Christ Himself. Otherwise the good works are done out of wrong motive and will fade away in time. This is the person who does not have salt. The light will be only the wavelength of the world.

• We also need to be concerned about only having salt and not displaying our light. In fact, though there are many Christians pretending to be salty, they have to face the facts that genuinely pursuing Christ will always produce the light of good works. James said that if they say they have faith but no good works is deluded.  Jesus said the same thing in a different way when He said that those who abide in Him and in His Word, will bear fruit.

We must not focus on either social works or having a spiritual life. For Jesus spiritual means rightly relating to people you don’t like.   We must stop faking a spiritual life when we see little good works coming from our lives. In the end we will see God’s work in us when people see our good works and don’t applaud us but God’s remarkable work in their lives through us.

Tozer has said,

We must continue to pray that she [the church] should cease her disgraceful fornication with the world and return to her first love and her true Lord. Her living has degenerated, her tastes have declined, her standards have sunk to the bottom. Nothing short of a radical reformation can save her. Only those with anointed eyes are able to see her plight and only those with Spirit-filled hearts can intercede for her effectively. ‘Touching Heaven in Prayer’ pp. 63-72, "Leaning Into the Wind", A.W. Tozer, 1985.

I thought that it didn’t really matter whether I shared Christ with others. I thought it didn’t make much of a difference on whether on knew the truth of God’s principles or actually lived them out.  The difference is between light and darkness, life and death, hope and despair.  You might have heard of these principles but considered them immaterial because you are doing okay. You don’t need to get that serious with God.  But if you are genuinely a Christian, remember the blood of those about you will be on your own hands. You have become as impure salt and a hidden light.