WEBVTT 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:10.160 Matthew 5, verse 13. 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:11.919 It says this. 00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:21.359 You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 00:00:21.679 --> 00:00:28.320 It's no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. 00:00:28.559 --> 00:00:30.399 You are the light of the world. 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:34.719 A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:41.600 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 00:00:41.679 --> 00:00:53.840 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. 00:00:54.240 --> 00:01:02.880 It is a common refrain, an appeal for Christians to look more like the world. 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:05.840 It's something that I hear quite often. 00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:08.239 It's not said in that way. 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:14.000 I don't think anyone has ever articulated, hey, I wish Christians just looked more like the world. 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:31.200 What is said instead is that Christians should do a better job of articulating the world's values, or we should do a better job of just trying to fit in, or we should do a better job of, you might even say it negatively, not being offensive. 00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:37.680 You know, can't you just for the sake of getting along represent the world's values in some way? 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:48.319 Can't you live like the world, affirm what the world affirms, love what the world loves, vote like the world votes, talk like the world talks, watch what the world watches, drink what the world drinks, etc., etc. 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:56.480 Because if you do those things, so the argument goes, the gospel would be more appealing to the world. 00:01:56.959 --> 00:02:07.840 There's a genre of person out there in the imagination that says, you know, I would be a Christian if it wasn't for all of the Christians kind of attitude. 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:10.960 If they were s weren't so different. 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:18.000 But the truth is the Christian is not someone who represents the world. 00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:21.039 The Christian is someone who represents God. 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:23.520 Let me tell you how how I hear it the most. 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:31.280 You know, somebody will ask me, say, I'm thinking of bringing your friend to church, but they are living in this kind of sin. 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:39.680 And so it'd be important for me to know that if I brought them to church, you wouldn't be preaching against that sin on that day. 00:02:40.159 --> 00:02:41.680 Now you laugh. 00:02:43.759 --> 00:02:47.039 But tell the truth in your own heart and shame the devil right now. 00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:49.439 Have you not thought that? 00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:54.879 Like if I want, you know, my neighbor is a Muslim, I'm gonna invite him to church. 00:02:55.039 --> 00:03:01.759 And if I roll in and Jesse preaches about how Jesus is the Son of God and Islam is a lie, then that whole thing just got blown up. 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:04.159 And if you just invited a Muslim, I just ruined it right there. 00:03:04.240 --> 00:03:05.520 I didn't even think that through. 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:09.840 I mean, do you see how that thought process works? 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:13.599 That's the lie. 00:03:13.919 --> 00:03:29.759 And it gets smithed up a little bit by some people that if they only heard what, you know, if they heard enough that represented their worldview, then they would see that this, you know, that this book is reasonable or that preacher is reasonable or that church is reasonable, and then they would believe the rest. 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:41.759 As if the thing that really was keeping them from Jesus is the Bible's, you know, teaching on materialism or parenting or on gender or whatever, whatever the pet issue is. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:45.840 There's this idea that people would be Christians were it not for that issue. 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:52.560 But the truth is, Christians aren't called to represent the world. 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:55.439 We are called to represent God. 00:03:56.080 --> 00:04:01.039 And it is not even a statement of neutrality here that we represent God and don't interfere in the world. 00:04:01.199 --> 00:04:10.159 But Jesus here puts the church on the offense when he says the church is supposed to represent God by influencing the world. 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:15.199 There's a positive action, there's an output from the church onto the world. 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:22.879 The church is supposed to actually positively impact the world, and the church does not impact the world by looking like the world. 00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:30.639 The church impacts the world by convicting the world, by speaking truth to the world. 00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:37.360 The truth is that the earth is rotten and dark, and Christians are vibrant and alive. 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:46.319 The truth is that the world festers in sin and festers in sickness, and Christians are sanctified and then glorified. 00:04:47.279 --> 00:04:52.560 And so it's hard for you to embrace that difference when it sounds almost prideful. 00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:55.600 But I encourage you to lean into that difference. 00:04:55.759 --> 00:05:08.240 Lean into the fact that you are spiritually alive and vibrant and have a heart with joy, even though you are called to minister in a world that is dark and decaying and filled with sickness. 00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:09.279 Embrace it. 00:05:09.519 --> 00:05:14.319 Lean into it, because by leaning into it, you impact the world for good. 00:05:15.839 --> 00:05:19.839 Influence is really the key concept in these verses we just read. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:22.399 The church is called to influence the world. 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:25.680 And when I say the church here, I'm talking about individual Christians. 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:37.199 Together, on this Sunday morning, we're brought together as a church, but you scatter into the world, and you are salt in the world, you are light in the world, each of you. 00:05:37.439 --> 00:05:41.439 You're called to influence, to impact the world. 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:44.639 There's three ways that Jesus tells you to do that. 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:48.079 Three ways that Christians are supposed to reshape the world. 00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:56.000 And these, you know, the connection here of the salt and light here, the connection is really growing out of the Beatitudes. 00:05:56.079 --> 00:05:57.920 This is not an arbitrary insertion here. 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:00.480 Everything in the Beatitudes is thrown together in perfect order. 00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:06.800 Jesus just walked through the internal change that happens in every believer's life. 00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:14.959 You recognize your spiritual poverty, you are spiritually bankrupt, you mourn over that, you surrender your life to God. 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:25.920 After you surrender your life to God, you turn your eyes towards heaven, you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you desire to lead a pure life, you're being sanctified in that process. 00:06:26.079 --> 00:06:29.680 You open your mouth to others to appeal to them to follow Christ. 00:06:29.759 --> 00:06:30.879 You become a peacemaker. 00:06:30.959 --> 00:06:36.000 As you're opening your mouth to others, appealing for them to follow Christ, the world responds negatively. 00:06:36.160 --> 00:06:38.240 That's the persecution at the end of the Beatitudes. 00:06:38.319 --> 00:06:42.240 The world responds with opposition, the world responds by persecution. 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:44.639 It's all listed down in verse 11. 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:45.920 People will revile you. 00:06:46.160 --> 00:06:47.680 Verse 10, they'll persecute you. 00:06:47.839 --> 00:06:52.160 Verse 11, they'll utter evil things against you, they'll lie about you in verse 12. 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:55.439 That's the result of these beatitudes working in your life. 00:06:56.879 --> 00:07:24.160 So you're pursuing purity, you're hungering and thirsting for righteousness, you've surrendered to the Lord, you are kind of on your back, so to speak, receiving mercy from God, and you're turning to the side, opening your mouth to others, appealing for them to be made at peace with God, and in that process of appealing to others, for them to be reconciled to God, they turn against you and speak evil things against you and revile you. 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:29.839 And so the temptation there would be for you to just be quiet. 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:33.120 Just to live and let live. 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:35.040 Thank God that I've surrendered. 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:39.439 Thank God that I have been purified by the working of the Holy Spirit. 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:41.600 Thank God that I'm right with God. 00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:50.639 But I try talking to others and they resist, they persecute, they lie, or they just don't like it. 00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:52.959 So why don't I just mind my own business? 00:07:53.199 --> 00:08:01.360 And the answer to that is because if you just mind your own business, you will cease being salt, you will cease being light, you will cease influencing the world. 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:08.720 And so Jesus' command is for you to actively influence the world. 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:14.720 To don't take the Beatitudes as just, you know, a period, and then you can move along with your life. 00:08:14.879 --> 00:08:17.680 Don't tone down your ethics to avoid persecution. 00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:24.480 Don't, you know, believe the lie that you have to look more like the world or they won't respect you. 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:34.240 This idea that if Christians act in a certain way, the world will turn against them is just, I think, confusing cause and effect. 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:39.519 You're supposed to live differently, you're supposed to stand out, you're supposed to influence the world. 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:43.919 Because not everybody will respond with persecution, is the bottom line. 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:48.720 Some people will, but some people will respond with faith. 00:08:49.279 --> 00:08:54.240 Some people will see how different you are and will actually respond with conversion. 00:08:54.879 --> 00:08:58.639 Not with hostility, but with introspection and conversion. 00:08:58.879 --> 00:09:00.080 So here's the three ways. 00:09:00.240 --> 00:09:01.600 First, refine. 00:09:01.919 --> 00:09:03.279 The church is supposed to refine the world. 00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:08.559 And I'm getting this from the concept of salt, that you are salt of the earth, the salt of the earth, actually. 00:09:08.639 --> 00:09:10.080 Don't forget the article, it's important there. 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:12.080 You're the salt of the earth. 00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:17.200 Salt, of course, does all kinds of things in our world, all kinds of things in the Roman world. 00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:19.759 Today salt is so common, it's overlooked. 00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:24.159 You know, you get you get the little utensil packet at a fast food restaurant, you know? 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:29.039 And it comes with a spork or whatever, and a knife, and a little bag of salt and pepper. 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:31.759 I mean, it's you buy a frosty at Wendy's and it comes with salt. 00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:34.480 Put salt in the frosty? 00:09:34.639 --> 00:09:35.360 Come on now. 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:37.759 It's salt is ubiquitous, it's everywhere. 00:09:37.840 --> 00:09:45.600 So we can lose sight of how precious it was to the audience to whom Jesus was speaking. 00:09:45.840 --> 00:09:51.600 Plato referred to salt as the substance of earth that is most dear to the gods. 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:53.679 Homer called it divine. 00:09:54.080 --> 00:10:04.720 Tribes would go to war, other nations, the pagan nations, would go to war against Rome, the Visigoths and whatnot, and they would often sue for peace in exchange for salt. 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:14.639 And for them, Josephus writes that in their negotiations, a bag of salt was worth more than a man. 00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:20.720 So you could weigh out salt, the weight of that salt was worth more than a soldier. 00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:23.600 That was their form of negotiation. 00:10:25.279 --> 00:10:33.759 One missionary about a hundred years ago, a missionary in East Africa, wrote that people were begging her for salt more than for gold. 00:10:35.039 --> 00:10:39.519 In Ethiopia, by the way, salt served as currency for hundreds of years. 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:50.000 Even the English word that we used now, salary, it comes from the Roman world, uh, the Roman word, uh salarium, which just comes in English as salary, but the salarium was paid to soldiers. 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:52.879 It was their wage paid to them in salt. 00:10:53.759 --> 00:10:55.279 Many soldiers were paid that way. 00:10:55.440 --> 00:11:00.960 So Jesus is speaking to a group of people that value salt as money. 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:10.399 We come across here, the salt of the earth, it's even an idiom in English, like just means like the common people, like the real, you know, gritty, they drive a red pickup kind of thing. 00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:13.360 That's the salt of the earth. 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:14.799 That's how we use it. 00:11:14.879 --> 00:11:19.519 But that's not how it would have sounded to that when Jesus is using it at all. 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:26.480 It doesn't mean like the authentic people, it means precious treasure, worth more than life. 00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:29.360 That's the value of it. 00:11:29.679 --> 00:11:30.879 Why is salt so precious? 00:11:31.039 --> 00:11:31.759 Because of what it does. 00:11:31.919 --> 00:11:35.919 First of all, salt uh purifies, it is a purification effect. 00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:42.240 It sanctifies, it has the effect of cleansing, like bacteen on kids. 00:11:42.399 --> 00:11:51.279 Vivid memories as a kid is scraping my elbow and foolishly going to my parents, and they would hit me with bacteen, and man, they were like, it stops the bleeding. 00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:54.399 I'm like, yeah, it hurts worse than the bleeding. 00:11:56.320 --> 00:12:00.320 They could use it to treat gunshot wounds, except it hurts worse than a gunshot wound. 00:12:00.639 --> 00:12:01.360 That was bacteria. 00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:05.519 So you learn pretty quickly to disguise your no, I'm not totally okay. 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:06.879 Keep that away from me. 00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:11.759 That's the effect of salt, it purifies, it kills the bacteria. 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:16.480 Ezekiel 16 says that newborn babies were washed in the salt. 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:21.200 That was a very, not just for the Jews, that was a very common thing in the ancient Near East. 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:30.720 It was the way of fighting off bacteria, fighting off infection, which they didn't even understand, but they understood that giving a child a salt bath cleansed them. 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:37.679 That purification is what's in mind in the Old Testament when it says the sacrifices are supposed to be offered with salt. 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:40.000 Leviticus chapter 2, verse 13. 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:44.000 You shall season all of your grain offerings with salt. 00:12:44.159 --> 00:12:49.039 You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering. 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:52.799 With all your offerings you include salt, Leviticus says. 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:55.759 It's verse 13 in Leviticus 2. 00:12:55.919 --> 00:12:58.159 All of the offerings require salt. 00:12:58.639 --> 00:12:59.759 Why is that? 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:07.440 It's not because the priest was going to eat the offerings that God likes his food more seasoning, the more seasoned than you might think. 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:11.759 No, the salt represents moral purity, it represents the sanctifying effect. 00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:18.320 The salt is included in the offering, not for the taste of the offering, but because God doesn't desire your offering, he desires your life. 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:24.399 So you're salting the offering to represent the purity of your own life that is mixed in with it. 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:28.559 God doesn't desire your rams, he desires your heart. 00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:31.759 He doesn't desire burnt offerings, he desires obedience. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:33.759 Salt represents that. 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:39.679 Your offering, the best offering you have to give God, is a sanctified life, a life that is being sanctified. 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:41.600 That's a life of salt. 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:44.240 That's a life of salt. 00:13:44.399 --> 00:13:48.399 And this is not just Leviticus 2, it's in other passages in the Old Testament as well. 00:13:48.639 --> 00:13:53.519 The offerings needed to be presented with salt because it represents your sanctified life. 00:13:53.600 --> 00:13:56.159 And so, in that sense, salt points to the greatest command. 00:13:56.320 --> 00:14:01.360 The greatest command is to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:05.919 That's what salt represents, that you are purified, that you are sanctified. 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:07.440 It goes back to the Beatitudes. 00:14:07.679 --> 00:14:09.759 Blessed are the pure in heart. 00:14:10.320 --> 00:14:11.519 That's salt. 00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:14.240 So that's salt in your own life. 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:22.159 And the idea here is that your own purity jumps the banks, it jumps the banks of your own river and flows into the world. 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:29.919 Your purity begins to influence and impact the world by having a sanctifying effect on those around you. 00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:36.159 Jesus had already established that the disciples would lead pure life back in the Beatitude. 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:41.039 Now he's saying that you let your pure life flow into the world. 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:46.159 You're the salt, not of the church, but you're the salt of the earth. 00:14:46.799 --> 00:14:49.120 Of the whole world, this global language. 00:14:49.919 --> 00:14:51.840 This is the Great Commission wrapped up in here. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:53.120 It's going global. 00:14:53.279 --> 00:14:55.840 You will purify the earth through your life. 00:14:56.559 --> 00:14:59.519 Second effect of salt is to preserve. 00:15:00.159 --> 00:15:01.600 It has a preserving effect. 00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:04.000 And we use it this way today. 00:15:04.320 --> 00:15:11.440 Growing up in Steamboat, we would often me and my brother would often buy uh fresh beef turkey, as fresh as it could be. 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:20.320 Or uh the guy would, you know, be butchering it in his yard and curing it in his yard and drying it on his fence and selling it to you. 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:22.080 Man, love that stuff. 00:15:22.639 --> 00:15:28.000 And you would make a salt solution to do that because it pure it makes it last longer, it purifies it. 00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:29.919 Curing salt. 00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:33.200 Use salt water to rinse out wounds. 00:15:34.399 --> 00:15:39.679 You mix salt into in with water, dilute it, and it helps your wounds heal. 00:15:41.200 --> 00:15:43.360 That's what Jesus has in mind here as well. 00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:44.879 There's a preserving effect. 00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:49.919 It fights off bacteria to cleanse it, but then it promotes growth and regeneration. 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:54.960 It preserves, it protects, it makes things flavorful. 00:15:56.159 --> 00:15:58.000 That's the idea of the Christian life. 00:15:58.159 --> 00:16:01.200 It preserves the earth, it keeps decay at bay. 00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:05.440 Now there's an artificial distinction between purify and preserve, of course, by killing bacteria. 00:16:05.519 --> 00:16:06.879 That's what makes things last. 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:11.200 The idea is that Christians in the world will have a purifying effect. 00:16:11.279 --> 00:16:14.080 This is Abraham begging for Sodom. 00:16:14.559 --> 00:16:18.240 If there's ten righteous people there, God says, I'll let the city slide. 00:16:18.399 --> 00:16:20.639 There's a preserving effect of it. 00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:25.759 And you saw how just foolish that was when you follow, you know, Lot back home, right? 00:16:25.919 --> 00:16:29.200 Lot is offering up his daughters to be sexually assaulted. 00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:31.519 Lot had no sanctifying effect. 00:16:31.679 --> 00:16:42.399 The whole point of the narrative in Judges, I mean, in uh Genesis 19, which is basically repeated in Judges, is that Lot had so compromised himself that there was no sanctifying effect. 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:44.159 He had lost his saltiness. 00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:48.399 So Jesus' statement here to the church is that you cannot lose your saltiness. 00:16:48.559 --> 00:16:51.919 You are supposed to have a sanctifying effect by living a different life. 00:16:52.159 --> 00:16:59.919 Inside of your gate, inside of your house is not a house of debauchery, a house of sin, but inside of your house is a house of righteousness. 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:06.160 Those houses are sprinkled around the world, and that creates a sanctifying and preserving effect. 00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:15.119 It wards off judgment from God on a society when Christians are influencing the society through their own sanctified lives. 00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:19.359 You are the salt of the earth, Jesus says. 00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:21.200 The article, it is important. 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:26.160 There's no other sanctifying effect in this world apart from the church. 00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:34.720 You know, there might be pervenient grace or some form of common grace that God gives the world that makes life livable, but that doesn't sanctify. 00:17:34.880 --> 00:17:42.240 Common grace doesn't sanctify, it makes the world go around, but it doesn't purify people's minds and affections. 00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:45.359 Only sanctification only comes through faith in Christ. 00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:57.920 So the idea of Christians being the salt of the world, it isn't an evangelistic thrust, that you go in the world, your life is different by how you live, and that has an effect on those around you by bringing them to faith in Christ as well. 00:17:58.079 --> 00:17:59.119 They see how different you are. 00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:04.400 Obviously, it's paired with your words, you proclaim the gospel, and it sanctifies people. 00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:08.240 Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 7. 00:18:08.319 --> 00:18:11.279 You know, if you're married to a non-believer, remember what he says? 00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:13.039 Don't divorce a non-believer. 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:17.119 If you're a woman and you have you're married to an unbelieving husband, it can be a very difficult situation. 00:18:17.279 --> 00:18:24.880 Paul says, stay in the marriage, because how do you know, but you might sanctify your children or your husbands. 00:18:25.039 --> 00:18:26.559 You don't know what the Lord's will is. 00:18:26.799 --> 00:18:28.880 You have a sanctifying effect on them. 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:30.160 That's salt. 00:18:31.039 --> 00:18:33.519 It stings, but it purifies. 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:36.720 There's no other hope for the world than the gospel. 00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:37.680 Amen? 00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:39.759 What other hope is there? 00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:48.720 That's why it irks me when people use this verse to say, hey, a Christian should go vote because we're the salt of the earth. 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:53.200 Voting is not a salt of the earth move. 00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:55.279 Anybody can vote. 00:18:55.680 --> 00:18:58.720 You can be brain dead and vote. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:07.200 You can be, I think you have to be alive to vote. 00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:10.480 Wait, I think you have to be alive to vote. 00:19:10.559 --> 00:19:11.839 I'll grant you that. 00:19:13.119 --> 00:19:15.279 But anybody can vote. 00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:20.079 That's not a salty kind of move. 00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:26.640 If you're thinking you're going to sanctify the world by how you vote, your bar is a little too low. 00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:28.079 Raise it up a notch. 00:19:28.319 --> 00:19:29.759 Kick it up a notch. 00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:35.200 The kingdom of God goes forward through conversions, not through elections. 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:36.319 Amen? 00:19:37.440 --> 00:19:39.039 So lean into that. 00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:52.400 Your sanctifying effect is how you live your life, how you proclaim godliness in your life, how you open your mouth and you speak the gospel to people and invite them to faith in Christ. 00:19:53.279 --> 00:20:01.279 Jesus had something way more distinctly profound and Christian than even democracy. 00:20:02.160 --> 00:20:08.160 He has in mind a global transformation that comes from a sanctified heart. 00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:13.039 But there are those who lose their saltiness. 00:20:13.119 --> 00:20:15.839 This is what he describes in verse 12. 00:20:16.079 --> 00:20:18.880 If salt loses its saltiness, well, what good is it for? 00:20:19.519 --> 00:20:21.519 What are you gonna do with salt that's lost its saltiness? 00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:22.559 It's good for nothing. 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:23.920 It's good for nothing. 00:20:25.119 --> 00:20:26.880 Salt can't lose its saltiness? 00:20:27.119 --> 00:20:29.839 It's kind of a strange thing to say. 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:36.000 It'd be like a light losing its light, a fire losing its heat, snow losing its cold. 00:20:36.400 --> 00:20:38.960 A Christian can't lose his saltiness. 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:44.799 You can't, the point here is that you can't transform the world unless you've been transformed. 00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:47.680 You can't be the salt unless you're salty. 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:51.200 It's kind of a tautology here, but that's what Jesus is after. 00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:56.079 For you to impact the world for Christ, you must first be impacted by Christ. 00:20:56.400 --> 00:21:01.119 And if you are not impacted by Christ, you can't have a sanctifying effect on the world around you. 00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:08.960 If you're living a worldly life while proclaiming with your lips sanctification, that hypocrisy undoes the power of your life. 00:21:09.039 --> 00:21:14.799 Remember, your your life, your your house here is a sanctified island in a dark and depraved world. 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:19.359 If your house is not the sanctified islands, then it is not going to have a sanctifying effect. 00:21:20.880 --> 00:21:23.599 You can't transform the world while living like the world. 00:21:23.680 --> 00:21:25.599 Because there's nothing to transform it to. 00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:30.799 Salt that is worldly, Jesus says, is good for being thrown out. 00:21:31.039 --> 00:21:32.799 Which is another way of saying it's good for nothing. 00:21:32.960 --> 00:21:33.599 I mean, that's what it means. 00:21:33.759 --> 00:21:34.400 What's that good for? 00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:36.240 It's good for throwing it away. 00:21:36.960 --> 00:21:40.240 Well, that means it's good for nothing. 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:46.880 One commentator writes that ruined salt was worth less than manure. 00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:50.079 Manure could at least fertilize a field. 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:52.880 Ruined salt can't even do that. 00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:56.000 Salt does have a corrosive effect, you know this. 00:21:56.160 --> 00:21:59.200 Romans were known for salting the fields of their enemies after a battle. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:02.319 One, they'd salt their fields, they couldn't grow anything. 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:05.759 The Jews figured out, by the way, that you could salt path. 00:22:05.920 --> 00:22:06.799 You could salt a path. 00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:09.839 You know, if you've got a path that you're walking, put salt on it and it keeps the weeds from growing. 00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:12.640 When I read that this again, I'm like, I'm gonna try that in my yard. 00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:14.799 No, people are shaking their heads. 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:16.319 Okay, I won't. 00:22:17.200 --> 00:22:18.079 Whatever. 00:22:20.079 --> 00:22:22.400 That's a good analogy for Christians leading worldly lives. 00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:25.839 If you're leading a worldly life, your salt is good for nothing. 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:28.240 It just helps the world continue on their path. 00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:32.799 If the world can point to compromise Christians who are hypocrites, it justifies their own sin. 00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:35.359 It just facilitates their own ungodliness. 00:22:36.559 --> 00:22:38.960 That's what salt without saltiness is like. 00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:41.359 It just keeps the world on its current course. 00:22:41.519 --> 00:22:49.119 A Christian cannot lose his soul, but he can lose his savor and can lose his influence. 00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:51.279 So a Christian life has to be sanctified. 00:22:51.440 --> 00:22:53.440 Secondly, it reveals. 00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:54.559 It reveals. 00:22:54.640 --> 00:22:55.920 And right now I'm calculating. 00:22:56.079 --> 00:23:00.079 Should I have combined light and salt into one sermon or separated them for two weeks? 00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:03.200 But I think our pattern from last week is that I have another hour. 00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:04.000 So I should. 00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:06.240 I'm good. 00:23:07.680 --> 00:23:12.960 It reveals the Christian life acts like light. 00:23:13.279 --> 00:23:14.079 It reveals. 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:16.960 It says in verse 14, you are the light of the world. 00:23:17.279 --> 00:23:21.039 Light of the world is light is found a foundational theme in the Bible. 00:23:21.200 --> 00:23:26.240 Light in the Bible establishes that God is not like his creation. 00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:31.440 There's a creature-creator distinction that is so foundational for understanding Scripture. 00:23:31.519 --> 00:23:35.200 This is the very beginning of the Bible, the third verse of the Bible. 00:23:35.359 --> 00:23:40.240 In the beginning, the earth was formless and void, but God created the heavens and the earth. 00:23:40.480 --> 00:23:43.599 He did that by separating light from darkness. 00:23:43.920 --> 00:23:44.799 God is light. 00:23:45.039 --> 00:23:46.880 In him there is no darkness at all. 00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:52.720 For you to understand anything about the world or about the Bible, you have to get that light and darkness do not mix. 00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:54.240 Light is of the Lord. 00:23:54.400 --> 00:23:55.759 Darkness is from sin. 00:23:55.920 --> 00:23:57.759 Darkness is the absence of God. 00:23:57.920 --> 00:23:59.519 Light is the presence of God. 00:24:00.160 --> 00:24:04.000 Our whole world revolves, literally revolves around that basic truth. 00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:05.839 We have day and night. 00:24:06.079 --> 00:24:10.240 Night belongs to the deeds of the deeds of sin happen at night, Paul says in Romans. 00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:17.920 I mean, it's just foundational to understanding how God has designed the universe is that light reveals God, darkness obscures sin. 00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:18.960 Darkness hides. 00:24:19.279 --> 00:24:21.440 People, sinners hide in darkness. 00:24:21.920 --> 00:24:24.960 So God separates light from darkness to create. 00:24:25.519 --> 00:24:27.440 It's the creature creation distinction. 00:24:27.599 --> 00:24:29.440 If you want to be like God, you walk in the light. 00:24:29.599 --> 00:24:31.839 If you want to be like sin, you walk in the darkness. 00:24:32.079 --> 00:24:32.960 God is light. 00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:34.400 In him there is no darkness at all. 00:24:34.559 --> 00:24:40.640 1 John 1.5 says the point is that Christianity reveals the why light works. 00:24:40.880 --> 00:24:42.640 It brings light into the world. 00:24:42.880 --> 00:24:44.880 God is the light of the world, of course. 00:24:45.200 --> 00:24:46.720 He separates light from darkness. 00:24:46.880 --> 00:24:47.839 Sin comes in the world. 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:49.839 People love the darkness rather than the light. 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:50.799 They follow sin. 00:24:50.960 --> 00:24:52.000 They hide in the darkness. 00:24:52.079 --> 00:24:52.880 They hate the light. 00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:55.359 And yet the light keeps knocking on the door. 00:24:55.440 --> 00:25:01.200 And the light pounds on the door, and the light bursts into human hearts and sanctifies hearts. 00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:04.000 That's what light does. 00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:08.079 That's why the Bible commands us to walk in the light as He is in the light. 00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:16.720 In the Old Testament, light symbolized revelation, instruction, law, hope, joy, righteousness, salvation, the radiance of the divine presence in Psalm 89. 00:25:16.799 --> 00:25:18.640 There's so much that light represents. 00:25:19.440 --> 00:25:20.720 Let's take two. 00:25:21.519 --> 00:25:23.519 Light represents illumination. 00:25:23.680 --> 00:25:25.119 Light illuminates. 00:25:25.359 --> 00:25:26.799 It reveals, in other words. 00:25:26.960 --> 00:25:30.160 It shows you what you're supposed to do. 00:25:30.799 --> 00:25:33.119 It's instruction, Psalm 119 says. 00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:40.799 Later in Psalm 119, the unfolding of your words gives light. 00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:41.599 Think about that phrase. 00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:45.359 When you open up the Bible, it gives light. 00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:48.799 It shows you how to live, where to walk, what to do. 00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:50.079 Light reveals. 00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:52.880 That's, by the way, what's happening in the Beatitudes, remember? 00:25:53.039 --> 00:25:55.039 You are convicted by your spiritual bankruptcy. 00:25:55.279 --> 00:25:56.640 You don't have light in you. 00:25:56.960 --> 00:25:58.400 You surrender to the Lord. 00:25:58.559 --> 00:26:04.400 You hunger and thirst for righteousness outside of you, and you pursue that. 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:07.519 That light source is not in you, it's in the Lord. 00:26:07.680 --> 00:26:08.640 That's what light does. 00:26:08.799 --> 00:26:13.119 It exposes your sin and directs you how to live your life. 00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:17.200 There's a positive and negative effect on light. 00:26:17.359 --> 00:26:20.240 The illumination, it tells you what to do. 00:26:20.480 --> 00:26:22.720 The negative effect, it drives out darkness. 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:24.480 Tells you what to do, tells you what not to do. 00:26:24.640 --> 00:26:27.039 Shows you what righteousness is, shows you what sin is. 00:26:27.200 --> 00:26:29.200 The light shines in the darkness, John says. 00:26:29.359 --> 00:26:31.759 The darkness does not understand it. 00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:38.160 Darkness hates the light, but for all those who do receive the light, he gives them the right to be called children of God. 00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:45.920 So light purifies by revealing to you where your sin is and telling you what to do about it. 00:26:46.079 --> 00:26:47.359 It opens your eyes. 00:26:47.599 --> 00:26:51.920 The spiritually blind don't see the light because they're blind. 00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:53.920 They don't see the light. 00:26:54.079 --> 00:27:03.359 But when you come to faith in Christ, the scales fall off your eyes, your eyes are opened, and you can behold right and wrong, truth and falsehood, and the word of God. 00:27:04.079 --> 00:27:07.680 When the light shines in the human heart, darkness flees. 00:27:08.319 --> 00:27:10.240 That's the power of light. 00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:11.279 It illuminates. 00:27:11.519 --> 00:27:13.039 Secondly, it invites. 00:27:13.359 --> 00:27:14.640 Light invites. 00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:18.000 The one who walks in the light does not dwell in darkness. 00:27:18.079 --> 00:27:22.160 And so if you're trapped in darkness, you are looking for a light. 00:27:22.480 --> 00:27:23.599 You're looking for a light. 00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:29.440 The light that might be obnoxious to the neighbors is a welcome beacon for somebody who's lost in the woods. 00:27:29.680 --> 00:27:30.960 You understand that distinction. 00:27:31.039 --> 00:27:36.720 Some people are might be bothered by the brightness of a light of a cabin in the woods unless you're lost. 00:27:37.599 --> 00:27:42.000 Then light invites you in, it shows you where to go. 00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:53.839 There's been more than one occasion hiking in Colorado with my brother, where I wouldn't say we're lost because our attitude as kids was just go downhill and you'll eventually hit water and follow it back to town. 00:27:54.559 --> 00:28:02.000 But there's been more than one occasion where my brother and I were skeptical that we might have been pressing that principle a little bit too far. 00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:06.960 And then you see a light of a car on the road and it tells you which way to go. 00:28:08.079 --> 00:28:09.359 That's what light does. 00:28:09.519 --> 00:28:12.559 If you are lost, it invites you home. 00:28:12.960 --> 00:28:17.279 And this, I think, is a predominant theme of light in the scriptures. 00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:24.160 Isaiah 9, verse 1 says that the Savior will be a bright light that shines. 00:28:24.240 --> 00:28:31.519 And if you remember, we've looked at this passage a few times, shines starting in Naptaly and Zebulun, it's the far off, the northern tribes in Israel. 00:28:31.680 --> 00:28:34.880 It shines through Galilee to the nations. 00:28:35.599 --> 00:28:36.400 So catch that. 00:28:36.480 --> 00:28:39.039 It's a light that's coming from beyond the Jordan. 00:28:39.440 --> 00:28:41.680 And it's a light that goes beyond the Jordan. 00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:43.519 It's a light to the world. 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:45.359