Salt and Light, Part 1

Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount and the Christian's Character

0:05 verses 13 through 16 this morning at least in some introductory manner and then the Lord willing the next time we are with you on a Sunday morning we'll consider a second message on this basic passage now for the benefit of visitors who are with us that you might understand how we're approaching this sermon of all sermons this sermon that perhaps has been more abused than any other portion of the word of God for how many times have we heard people say well the only religion I believe in is the religion set forth in the Sermon on the Mount you can tell they've never read it

0:49 or they wouldn't talk that way for once you embrace the clear teaching of the Sermon on the Mount you are forced to embrace the whole revelation of God's truth through Jesus Christ as embodied in the word of God and we saw as we studied these episodes these eight blessings enunciated by our Lord Jesus Christ that our Lord has given to us in these beatitudes a full-orbed description of the character of a true Christian these characteristics mentioned here poverty of spirit true meekness true mercifulness

1:33 purity of heart none of them exist in any man by nature but in the Lord and the only reason our Lord can pronounce blessed the man who possesses them is because the man who possesses them has been blessed with the visitation of God's grace to his needy sinful heart and so we have considered the character of the Christian in itself what is the character of the Christian like and then as we moved on to verses 11 and 12 we saw the reaction of the world to the Christian to such a character for the last beatitude stated that the Christian is one who is going to be a persecuted person

2:18 and then our Lord enlarges upon that statement and in verses 11 and 12 says blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake rejoice and be exceeding glad and great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you the Lord Jesus said if you're the kindest kind of person described in verses 3 to 10 then this is the way the world is going to react towards you and if the world is not reacting to us that way it's simply because we're not the person described in verses 3 to 10 for the world has never changed in its attitude to Jesus Christ

The Christian's Function: Salt and Light

3:01 the world has never changed in its basic attitude to purity and holiness and light and so the Lord Jesus demonstrates or sets before us this fact that the blessed man will be the persecuted man now as we come to verses 13 to 16 we come to consider the Christian in his basic function in the world and in the society in which he lives now I trust you see the progression of thought here we saw the character of the Christian as it is in itself poor in spirit mourning merciful hungering and thirsting after righteousness pure of heart

3:45 peacemaker these characteristics then we saw in verses 11 and 12 the reaction of the world to that character simply because that's the kind of person he is now we come to this third division in the Sermon on the Mount the function of this particular character against whom the world reacts what is his basic function in the society in which he lives what is his basic God given responsibility and purpose within that society the Lord Jesus gives it to us in these words recorded in verses 13 to 16 ye are the soul to the earth

4:29 notice he did not say you are to become the soul to the earth he is not telling his disciples this is something you ought to do he says this is something that you are by the very fact that you are my disciples and that I have worked in you these basic eight characteristics you are by virtue of that character you are the soul to the earth he's not telling them what they are to do he's not giving a command he's making a statement ye are the soul to the earth but if the soul had lost its savor or its capacity to be salty wherewith shall it be salted it is then good for nothing

5:14 it is then good for nothing it is then good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men ye are the light of the world again he did not say you ought to be he said you are the light of the world the city that is set on a hill cannot be here neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick and it giveth light unto all that are in the house now he's telling us what we ought to do the first time we've encountered that let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify you glorify your father who is in heaven now shall we ask God by his spirit to be our teacher as we seek to understand the truth of these verses shall we look to God in prayer

Prayer for Illumination and Overview of the Christian's Identity and the World's State

5:58 our father once again we take thy word into our hands and we would acknowledge afresh that it is thy word we dare not trifle with that word for thou hast said to this man will I look even to him that trembleth at my word and our father we would come with a holy reverence and with a holy expectation as we seek to handle divine truth holy spirit be our teacher and may this word come with such authority and clarity and power to our hearts

6:41 and we shall leave this place today knowing that we have confronted not the opinions of men but the voice of God speaking through his word we trust thee for this in the name of our Lord Jesus Amen now as we come to deal with verses 13 to 16 and consider the Christian in his basic function in society and that sounds very bookish and schoolish and I don't mean it to but I don't know how else to say it what is to be your basic function in the world in which you live the Lord is going to tell us here and as we do

7:26 before we get into the details we want to see several very basic things that the Lord Jesus reveals first of all about a Christian what he is and then several very basic things about the world in which he lives you'll never understand the basic function of the Christian in the world until you clearly understand the basic character of the Christian and the basic character or state of the world in which he dwells now when Jesus said to his disciples ye are the sons of God ye are the salt of the earth ye are the light of the world what was he telling us about his own

The Christian is Fundamentally Different from the World

8:09 what was he telling us about a true Christian well at least three things and I want us to lay hold of them this morning number one the Lord Jesus was saying by the very fact that he used this figure ye are salt ye are the light was reminding his own and reminding us that a Christian is a person who is a Christian a person who is basically different from the mass of humanity among whom he dwells Jesus said with real emphasis and in the original you get this emphasis he was saying ye and ye only are the salt of the earth ye and ye only

8:53 are the light of the world are both different from that which they flavor if it's the salt or that which they flavor and if it's the light the light is different from that which it illuminates so the very fact that Jesus singled out his disciples and said you are to the world what salt is to that which needs preservation or flavoring you are to the world what a light is to that which needs to be illuminated he was making a hard fast distinction between the two

9:37 between that which was salt and that which needed the salt that which was light and that which needed light and we need to be reminded of this again and again and again for most of the woes that have come upon us in our modern brand of Christianity is that we fear like we fear the plague that we shall become too unlike the world in which we live whereas our Lord Jesus makes the statement in this passage and the rest of the scriptures confirm this that the more we are different from that world in which we live the more we are able to function as salt

10:22 and as a light you remember the Lord Jesus said in the 17th chapter of John in that high priestly prayer before he went back to the presence of his father he said father they, my disciples are not of this world even as I am not of this world now in what sense was Jesus not of this world well he had a body like all other men he ate like all other men he dressed like all other men he didn't have a turned collar and a clerical garb why I could never bring myself to wear such our Lord Jesus dressed in the common toga of the man of the street

11:06 he assumed no special role in his physical appearance the scripture says when we see him there is no outstanding beauty that we should desire him as far as his physical appearance so when it says he was not of the world what does it mean it can't mean his basic physical appearance the basic functions as a man he was brought up in the carpenter's shop and worked with his hands but oh he was not of this world his whole life was geared not to time but to eternity his whole life was one passionate desire to do the will of the Father he said I do always the things

11:50 that please my Father when the disciples came to him on one occasion said look I want you to stay here with us in this village people want to hear you preach he said no no I must go to other villages for there too was I sent there was that sense of divine purpose that as he moved amongst men and moved through the earth he was not of this world he was not of this world all his purposes were geared to the will of the Father all his desires were sealed and settled in the light of eternity he was not of this world now Jesus said my disciples in the same way they are not of this world oh they live amongst it they dress like others

12:33 if there's no moral question involved they eat like others in the general way that they must make a living and raise a dollar and put bread on the table but oh he said they're not of this world the gold the purposes that dominate the life utterly different from the world just as the salt is different from that which it flavors and the light is different from that which it illuminates so on all the basic issues of life a true Christian is utterly and radically and basically different from those outside of Christ the difference between water in its liquid form in its liquid form and water in its vapor form

13:17 steam water in a solid form ice is not a basic difference it's still H2O there's no basic difference between the water in this glass and what this water would be if it were in your refrigerator and had been turned into ice there's a difference but no basic difference it's still the same molecular construction it's H2O in different outward forms so and we're plagued with the thought that a Christian is one who just has a little bit of difference in certain dogmas and convictions from people who aren't Christians we do a few things they don't do and there are a few things they do that we don't

14:02 and that we hold a few convictions that they don't but basically we're at this bottom we're all pretty much the same oh no beloved no it's not that way at all there's a basic difference between that which you'll sprinkle on your meat today and the meat upon which it sprinkles there's a basic difference if you don't believe me shred up your meat and try to flavor your carriage with it it has no capacity to flavor a basic difference and it's when the church has captured this thought that her glory and her power lies in her difference from the world in which she lives when the church

14:47 captures that then we're blessed it's said of the early church in Acts chapter 5 of the rest dared no man join themselves to their number they saw something so different so otherworldly they saw something about those people that gave evidence that they were so captivated with their risen Christ that they dared not join themselves to their number those people are different from us but that the next verse says the Lord added daily such as should be then when the Holy Spirit worked through this different body of people and transformed men and women with mighty power then they were identified with God's people

15:31 but a basic change had occurred may God deliver us from the church as merely being an institution which performs surface changes in man merely brings them into our midst to give them a few dogmas a few taboos and a few regulations beloved that's not Christianity and if we exist for any purpose that's scriptural it must be that under God we'll be an instrument through which by the power of the Spirit He can effect basic changes in the hearts and lives of men shift the whole sphere of their basic interest from earth to heaven from time to eternity from self to Christ

The Christian is Always in Contact with the World

16:16 from the flesh to the Spirit from their will to His will that's Christianity that's Christianity anything less is a shaman of faith in a mockery and a mere imitation so when the Lord Jesus said ye are the salt of the earth he was uttering very weighty words was he not he was saying that my people first of all are basically different from the mass of the world who know not Christ and now he was saying the second thing and this is the other side of the coin though his people are basically different from the world notice what he said ye are the salt of the earth he did not say ye are salt period as though we were salt in a shape

17:01 on a shaker on a cloister shelf somewhere no he said ye are salt you're different from the world but you're the salt of the earth you see what he's saying he didn't say ye are light period he said ye are the light of the world so the second thing our Lord is telling us about a Christian is this not only is he different from the world but a Christian is one who is always in contact with the world so salt preserves and flavors only that which it actually touches and contacts when you go home today and you take your first bite of that meat

17:45 it's unsavory and flat your wife just missed the mark this morning and so you've got your salt shaker there you can draw the salt shaker over and put it within one thirty second of an inch of that meat but it's still going to be unsavory meat until the salt gets out of the shaker and touches that which needs to be flavored now to reverse the picture and it's hard for us to think of this because we've got refrigerators but long before they did the primary function of salt in biblical lands was as a either a purifier their sacrifices were purified ceremonially with salt or as a preservative now I might have a piece of meat and see it begin to rot

18:30 and decay while two inches away might be a pound of salt fully aged to check the process of decay but it cannot until it's actually applied to that meat the salt must touch it and so whoever started the system of monasticism drawing people apart from the world into cloistered walls I know that Jesus never started it because he said of his disciples you're the salt of the earth and you will be constantly in touch with men and women of the world and so the Christian in terms of our Lord's words those separate from the world is always living in contact with those of the world and he so wonderfully puts the two together

19:15 in that prayer that I quoted from a moment ago in John chapter 17 perhaps it'd be wise for us to turn for a moment to that portion in John chapter 17 our Lord says in verse 14 I have given them thy word John 17 14 and the world have hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world now notice the next verse I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world but thou shouldst keep them from the evil verse 18 as thou hast sent me into the world

19:59 even so I also have sent them into the world so you have these two sides of the coin they are not of the world they're totally different from those amongst whom they live their goals their ambitions their thoughts their basic drive and long utterly different they're not of the world just as though they were from another planet as far as their goals for living but at the same time Jesus said even as you father sent me into the midst of the world I send them I pray not that you'll take them out of it but that thou shall keep them from the stain and paint of evil now the best

20:44 illustration I know of this that seems to be on the surface a paradox and a contradiction is the life of our Lord Jesus Christ and I'm thrilled when I think of how wonderfully harmonious these two aspects are in the life of Christ will you look with me at a verse in the book of Hebrews for a moment Hebrews chapter 7 keep your finger in that passage if you will please you found Hebrews 7 then we'll turn to the gospel according to Matthew chapter 11 Hebrews 7 Matthew 11

21:27 that rhymes but it sounds too much like a rhyme that we don't want to quote every morning 7 and 11 alright Hebrews chapter 7 and then Matthew chapter 11 alright Hebrews 7 and verse 26 notice what is said of our Lord Jesus for such a high priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens now keep that in your mind such a high priest became us holy

22:12 undefiled separate from sinners now I read in Matthew chapter 11 and verse 19 for the son of man came eating and drinking and they say behold a gluttonous man and a wine beaver a friend of publicans and sinners alright Bible's full of contradiction let's throw it out is it the accusation they threw into the teeth of our Lord Jesus was this can you be what you claim to be you're all the time consorting with the riffraff of Jerusalem publicans those crooked

22:57 tax collectors those traitor Jews who sold out to Rome you're always consorting with that crowd and every time you turn around you're sitting there sitting somewhere talking somewhere with the riffraff the harlots and the and the cast off this is what they threw in his teeth you're a friend of publicans and sinners notice they didn't accuse him of being a preacher to publicans and sinners but they noticed that he was at ease among sinful men and yet Hebrew says he was separate from sinners now what does it mean it means exactly what we find embodied in this wonderful picture ye are the salt of the earth salt is utterly different from that which it is to flavor that which it is to preserve

23:42 utterly different from its constituent elements are totally different separate from sinners our goals are not the goals of unregenerate men our thoughts of God are not their thoughts our thoughts of eternity and heaven and righteousness and holiness and purity utterly different from the world just as much as salt is different from the meat that it flavors or preserves so in that sense like our Lord we are separate from sinners but we are to be salt in the earth and our Lord was the friend of publicans and sinners the salt never defiles itself by coming in contact

24:26 with that which it can preserve and place it can only do it good and if you are a true child of God no harm can come to you by being the friend of publicans and sinners if that friendship is as it was with our Lord for the purpose of being a man that you might minister to this is not talking about if I'm going to choose a close friend with whom I can confide and to whom I can unburden myself as a Christian I can't choose an unregenerate man for my closest friend in that sense because he doesn't know the language of heaven his life is totally different from mine

25:10 so my closest friend in the sense of friendship for compassion and companionship say they must be believers and if they aren't believers then I'd question the reality of my conversion for by this we know we pass from death and to life if we love the brethren but now we're not talking about that sense of friendship but in the sense of moving amongst men and women with the purpose of being able under God to influence them for truth and righteousness we're to be the salt of the earth and I fear as Christians we have mistaken the bible doctrine of separation for a monkish concept of isolation

25:54 and because of it our witness isn't as effective as it ought to be let me ask you something today have you got a half a dozen unsaved friends people who don't know the Lord Jesus Christ and you need to be salt to them have you established any real friendship with that next door neighbor when you knew that she'd come home from the hospital with a baby did you take a casserole over just as an expression of friendship have you ever done anything like that when you heard that some relative that you haven't seen for years when there's a particular problem did you sit down write a letter seeking to cement that friendship

26:39 I fear as Christians by limiting our context with our own kind many times we fail to follow the pattern of our Lord in becoming friends to publicans and saints for once I've answered this question and you better start here don't start with the second point start with the first if I can answer this question have I by the grace of God been made a person who's totally different from the world about me do I live on a totally different basis is my thinking on a totally different plane concerning God and Christ and eternity and heaven and hell

27:23 and the cross then if I can answer that question in the affirmative am I totally different then I must answer the second question am I getting near enough to sinners to be salt and to be light now don't start with the second question because there may be some here this morning saying oh that's right pastor bear down on that this idea of just being around with Christians I like to be with oh wait a minute answer the first question not the second answer the first question now can you answer that in the affirmative by the grace of God my life has been transformed from what the world means to me so don't stop me now stop with that one move to the second one

The Christian Exists for the Good of Others

28:08 I think some of us will have to confess that we failed here God's made us salt and he's made us light but we're salty and a salt shaker on the shelf and we're light under a bushel instead of being salt of the earth and light to the world see so the second thing our Lord is revealing about a Christian in this simple analogy is that the Christian is always in contact with the world and then the third thing he tells us about a Christian a Christian is this a Christian is one who by his individual character is doing the world a world of good now if you thought of this

28:52 there are some things that in themselves are beautiful whether they perform any function whatsoever and you go out in the day when the sky is that deep blue and you see some of these big puppy cumulus clouds up there well if they never gave a drop of rain they'd just be beautiful to look at you see the cloud has a function that is a function but if it had no function it'd be beautiful just to look at a cloud it's beautiful it'd make an artist sit down for hours and try to capture there are other things which have a definite function in life but if they perform no function they'd be beautiful in themselves many things but now whoever sat down and admired a little pile of salt you see a salt

29:37 doesn't even have any intrinsic beauty salt is good for only one thing to flavor to purify or to preserve it's not like a cloud a cloud didn't drop any water upon us it'd still be beautiful stuck up there in the sky many other things in life are the same way but not so with salt not so with salt what good is salt if you don't use it to flavor to preserve to purify no good that's exactly what the Lord said if it loses its capacity to do the only thing it's fit to do then it's fit for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled on and made part of your walk between the parsonage and the church

30:21 you know it's fit for nothing so the Christian exists in this sense for the good of others as salt exists for the preservation and the purification and the savoring of food so the Christian exists in the society in which he lives for the purpose of blessing that society if this were not true the moment the Lord saved us and taught us a few things about himself he'd take us home to glory but he's left us to your father I pray not that thou will take them out of the world but leave them here as salt and as light now the world

31:06 may not acknowledge that the Christian exists for good he thinks he's a bothersome pest that's alright as long as the Lord says I'm salt and light I don't care what the world says that's all that matters isn't it what he says we are and what we are to be and so I submit to you this morning as a Christian as a Christian the Lord Jesus says these three things you're to be different from the world but you're never to remove yourself from contact with the world and you exist in order to do the world some good now let's look at several things this passage tells us about the world shall we Jesus said

The World is Decaying and Spiritually Dark

31:50 ye are the light of the world ye are the salt of the earth now what does this tell us about the world and about the earth and he's using the term it's general term the world of men and women who do not know me it always tickles me when people want to say well I like this sermon on the mount I like this simple loving teaching of Christ you know what Christ is saying about the world in this passage when he said to his disciples you're the salt of the earth you know what he was saying about the earth he was saying that it's a decaying corrupting world for the primary function of salt in our Lord's day was as a present

32:35 derivative General Electric hadn't appeared in Palestine yet and Frigidaires and Calvinators weren't there to be bought from the corner market so when Jesus likened his disciples to salt and he likened the earth to that which needed salt he was saying the earth is a mass of humanity which is corrupt and decaying and putrefying and needs the check of salt upon it now that's our Lord's analysis of the word it's a fallen sinful depraved world now he wasn't saying that matter of itself is evil

33:19 or that God as he made man made an evil being but man has corrupted himself so that his nature is sinful and his attitude rebellious so that we read in 1 John 5 19 we are of God and the whole world lies in the wicked world we read again in Galatians 1 4 Christ gave himself that he might redeem us from this present evil world Ephesians chapter 2 says we walked according to the course of this world the spirit that worketh in the sons of disobedience

34:02 with all the intellectual with all the scientific advance of our century and the world what greater witness to the truth of our Lord's word than what we see before our eyes every day in the newspaper and over the airways that this world is a petrified decaying corrupt world some of you who are old enough to remember we have some of you here when the turn of this century came and some of us just have to take what we read but some of you perhaps remember when people were looking forward to the 20th century they had discovered they thought the marvelous truth of

34:47 evolution not only physical evolution that man apparently as they say evolved up from the lower species to now he was this exalted being but this concept of evolution had swept over into the thought of man's progressively becoming more and more like God becoming spiritually evolved into a higher degree of spirituality and marvelous predictions were made for the 20th century this was going to be the century in which there would be an abolition of all wars all sickness all poverty all ignorance and all the rest and a man who's honest enough and has intestinal fortitude enough to simply take the facts

35:32 of the history of the 64 years of this century must acknowledge the truth of what Christ said this earth this world is a corrupting decaying world that needs the salt of true Christianity only a fool would say that all our learning and all our advance is making us better people only a fool who won't face facts the facts of two bloody brutal world wars the facts of revolutions going on every day with bloodshed so that now we don't even think about it two seconds when the news comes that another government has overthrown another

36:16 and 50 people have been killed this doesn't even touch it anymore there was a time when a crisis like that in Brazil would have made headlines for days and weeks and been the talk but it's just common stuff now uprisings governments rising up and insurrections and rebellion that constituted authority rape and murder we've just grown accustomed to but let's remember any woman who will not accept the bible definition of what man is like has got to run headlong not only into the opinion of Jesus Christ but the facts of they are and only a fool would stand against the words of the incarnate

37:00 God and shut his eyes to the new testimony of history as we know so when Jesus said to his disciples you're the salt of the earth he was saying to his own look you're going into the midst of a world that has an inherent tendency to corruption and decay and you're going among that world in the midst of that world as a preserving purifying sadling and then when he said to his disciples ye are the light of the world you know what he was saying about the world it's not only as a fallen sinful depraved decayed

37:45 world but he said it's a spiritually dark and ignorant world ye are the light of the world now if the world was already enlightened if man apart from the presence of Christians who have the truth of God if they already had light it'd be utterly foolish for the Lord to say you're the light of the world the world would already have its own light but he said and I remind you the way in which he said it and it's brought out so strongly in the original ye even ye and only ye are the light of the world the Lord if that's true then the world into which I go must be a world of darkness and the Lord Jesus says yes that's exactly true it is it's a world of spiritual

38:29 and moral darkness or it may be a world of great intellectual light such as the world today it may be a world of great scientific light that's true but when it comes to spiritual issues and moral issues this world has never been in greater darkness and if Jesus said to his disciples in his day year the light of the world the only rays of illumination that will come to darkness and humanity must come from you then surely he's saying it to the church today may I quote a few verses that affirm this so clearly Romans 121 says their foolish heart

39:14 was dark Ephesians 418 says their understanding being dark Ephesians 511 says have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness Colossians 113 says we've been delivered out of the kingdom of darkness get the picture now all men by nature the understanding darkness the heart darkness they perform works of darkness they're bound in the kingdom of darkness Ephesians 612 says against spiritual rulers of this darkness that kingdom is controlled by spiritual beings fall in spiritual darkness

39:58 what a terrible picture but that's the picture the word of God gives darkened minds darkened hearts works of darkness bound in the kingdom of darkness controlled by the prince of darkness and when Jesus said you're the light of the world he was telling his disciples that's the kind of world into which you go and the worst thing is that men love this darkness for Jesus said this is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men what love darkness rather than light now get the hopelessness of the picture and I've simply drawn the picture not with the palette and the brush of human opinion

The Gospel Delivers from Darkness and Christ is the Light

40:42 but we paved the picture with the brush of the inspired word of God get the picture now all of humanity apart from Christ a darkened heart a darkened mind works of darkness in the kingdom of darkness controlled by the powers of darkness and loving their darkness now Jesus says to his disciples you're the light in the midst of all that darkness you're the light in the midst of all that so when the gospel comes to man it comes to them while they're in their darkness John 1 4 says the light shineth in the midst of darkness Luke 179 declares that the coming of Christ

41:26 his first coming that light will rise to those who sit in darkness and the gospel not only comes to men in their darkness but it comes with a purpose to deliver them from that darkness God said to Paul in Acts 2018 I have appointed thee to be a minister unto me to open their eyes to turn them from darkness to light from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sin and so the gospel comes to us in our darkness it comes with a purpose of delivering us from that darkness and when that gospel is embraced in repentance and faith what happens 1 Peter 2 9 says God hath called you

42:11 out of darkness into his marvelous light and Ephesians 5 8 says ye were sometimes darkness but now are ye light in the Lord oh do you see the marvelous power of the grace of God there we were men and women darkened minds we saw no beauty in Christ we saw no real concern for being disturbed about eternity we lived like mere brute beasts gratifying our physical appetites living with no thought for eternity darkened minds darkened hearts in the kingdom of darkness

42:55 loving our darkness but to us in our darkness the message came and the Holy Spirit began to open our eyes and as we responded to that message God himself called us out of darkness into his marvelous light and now we see in the person of Jesus Christ that which satisfies all the longings of our hearts we see that in him life has meaning in him life has purpose in him there's hope and confidence of eternity and the future and now the Lord Jesus says you who are now the light of the world you're to be amongst those that are yet in darkness

43:39 that you might be my instrument to illuminate there and the whole issue hinges on our commitment to Jesus Christ who called himself the light of the world to be taught of Christ and to be saved by Christ is to be brought out of darkness to refuse to be taught by him and to refuse to be saved by him is to remain in our darkness may I read several words of our Lord Jesus that make this so unmistakably clear in John chapter 8 in verse 12 Jesus said these words I am the light of the world

44:23 he that followeth me notice now the word he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life then I contrast it with John 12 46 I am come a light into the world that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness now will you put the two together Jesus said I am come a light that whosoever believes shall not abide in darkness I am the light of the world he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness is there a contradiction between following and believing no there is no true following

45:08 of Christ without belief in him there is no true belief in him if it does not issue in a following of him so the only way for us to be brought out of this darkness is to believe the testimony God's made about his son that he is the light of the world the only savior of sinners and believing that testimony committing myself to him to follow him no matter what it costs realizing that if I turn from him I turn from light and to turn from light is to cleanse myself in darkness beloved that's the issue you face young people listen to me today adults friends members of this

45:52 church the issue that you face in this whole area of darkness and light is the person of Jesus Christ to submit to him and follow him he said right to reject him and follow your own way dark there's the issue just that simple he that follow with me shall not walk in darkness he that refuses to follow me shall know nothing but darkness not only in time but he who spoke these words will one day say and I'm quoting from the scripture depart from me he cursed into outer darkness prepared for the devil and his angels

46:35 what a very pretty picture the Lord paints of the world when he says to his disciples here the light of that world he's telling us that the world in which we live and in which we must witness is a darkened world a world that doesn't know who God is like what he's like after that in the wisdom of this world the world by its wisdom knew not God first Corinthians chapter one but Jesus Christ the light of the world says he that hath seen me hath seen the Father a world which by its own wisdom has no light on the real meaning of life what is life what is its meaning but Christ said here's the meaning of life I am come that you might have life and have it more abundantly

The World Desperately Needs Christian Influence

47:19 a world which is in utter darkness when it comes to this matter of what about eternity what about that which lies beyond the grave the Jesus Christ said I and the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die so the Lord is telling us this world in which we're to live as Christians is not only a putrefying world but it's a darkened world and then last of all he tells us it's a world which desperately needs the influence of genuine Christians now the world doesn't know it but we as God's people ought to know

48:03 that the world desperately needs the influence of true Christians that piece of meat which is out in the open air without any refrigeration begins to express its tendency to putrefaction it desperately needs salt whether it knows it or not it needs salt when a man is stumbling about in darkness and crumbling about to find his way whether he knows it or not he needs life and the Lord Jesus is saying to his disciples look the world into which you go needs the salty influence of your

48:48 life it needs the illuminating radiating influence of your life and your testimony and the only basic answer to the basic problems of our society is more individual Christians who will be salt to check the process of decaying who will be linked to illuminate the darkness that's why I have no patience with so-called ministers of the gospel who say that we need to legislate Christian principles and we need this and we need that beloved it won't work Jesus said to individual disciples ye are salt and if only as our

49:33 society is penetrated by individual Christians only different from that society but in contact with it that the process is going to be checked you see how it works in your shop the fellows gather Sunday and Monday morning to tell the latest dirty jokes they picked up over the weekend and if you're a Christian and they know you are you walk into that group and suddenly they stop their story don't they a true Christian is salt see it he's salt he's salt any of you fellows and girls that have got the real thing you're in your high school the fellows are standing between classes in the corner spouting off the latest thing they've heard or mouthing

50:17 off about some teacher being smart and wise if you're a Christian whose testimony is clear they know you're different you're salt you're light you walk into their midst and things change the conversation changes you're checking that process of decay and then your life is light simply by moving amongst men as a man or woman with true purpose to serve God who's living in the light of eternity who embraces everything that comes into your life as being from the gracious hand of a loving father instead of the grumbling and the dissatisfaction and the complaining that plague that is shot through our society

51:02 the discontent the grasping after more they see a man or woman content with his life and out of that life there comes radiance of what life can mean Jesus said you're the light of the moon you're the salt of the earth and oh dear ones how desperately the world in which you and I live needs the influence of our lives and this is tremendously convicting and comforting like most truths this is terribly convicting for this passage that we're studying tells me that if I'm not utterly different from the world no matter what good I think I'm doing it I'm not doing it a bit of good Jesus said only those who are different from the world

51:46 are fault only those different from it are alike you're not doing society any basic good no matter how earnest you may be if you're not wholly different by the regenerating power of Jesus that's the convicting element but here's the comforting part if by the grace of God I've been made a new creature in Christ and he's utterly changed me then in spite of my weaknesses in spite of my failures in spite of my insignificance I say who am I one amongst 300 men at the shop where I work or one amongst 500 in the neighborhood in which I live or just one amongst

52:31 a thousand in the school where I go what can I be what can I do the Lord says everywhere you go you're salt you're checking the process of decay everywhere you go you're light bringing illumination to darkness that's comforting to me when I think of some of these men who deny the basic truths of the word of God who preach to thousands and have their big edifices in their lives church I say Lord what in the world am I doing here standing Sunday after Sunday face a hundred people and pour my heart Lord what good is going to come of this oh the Lord says listen if that little group of people is utterly different from the world

53:16 they're salt there's no hope for this community it's little groups of men and women utterly different from going back into society radiating Christ they're the salt that's why I'm just as content as if I were preaching to a thousand this is tremendously comforting to me we're his salt we're his light now the Lord willing next week we'll take up some of the details some of the analogy here about salt it lost its savor light under a bushel read the passage pray over ask God to teach you and then when we come together next week while we'll consider it together the Lord willing not next week but the following week

Closing Prayer and Announcements

54:00 after that now may we bow together in closing prayer our father we thank thee for this fresh reminder this morning of what a real Christian is that he is salt that he is a light we thank thee for reminding us again of what this world is in which we live a corrupt darkened world but Lord Jesus thou light of the world we thank thee for thyself we thank thee that many of

54:45 us here this morning have been called out of darkness into thy marvelous light we pray that those among us who have not passed out of darkness into thy light that thou wilt speak to their hearts thou wilt lovingly and tenderly draw them to thyself thou father wherein we have been isolated wherein through a false sense of separation from the we've cut ourselves off from all contact with unregenerate men father forgive us help us as a church to be the friends of publicans and sinners like our lord to be

55:30 separate from sinners yet to be the friend of sinners that we might reveal to them by life and by life the saving power of jesus christ oh god help us not to sit around in our little shapeless indifferent to men and women about us who need our influence but use us for thy glory and for the good of those that we touch from day to day and week to week we pray with expectation and with thankful heart to our lord jesus christ

56:11 and we would remind you that we meet here again this evening for our time of studying the word of god fellowship and testimony and meeting about the table of the lord and we welcome every one of you back into our church