We've all heard it said, Jesus told his disciples, You are the salt of the earth, you are The light of the world. But what does it actually mean? Hey friends, welcome to the line of fire. This is Michael Brown. I am delighted to be with you as we continue our study in the Sermon on the Mount as we continue to look at the words of Jesus.
It's my prayer. That God would speak to you, that God would stir you, that God would minister to you, that God would encourage you, that God would challenge you, and me as well. to go deeper. To be conformed to the image of God's Son. Friend, everything that God is doing in your life, in my life, ultimately has that goal.
to make us more like Jesus. And here we sit at the feet of Rabbi Yeshua, we sit at the feet of the master teacher, As he instructs us, and shows us the way that we are to go.
So he's speaking. to his disciples, they've come to him. It seems by the end of the Sermon on the Mount, crowds have come. But initially his disciples come to hear him. and begins to teach.
After he's laid out the beatitudes, the truly blessed life, this is the path to true blessing and true happiness, he then says, You, who? the disciples. That speaks to you and to me today. You Or the salt. of the earth.
But if the salt loses its saltiness, Jesus says, It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out. and trampled underfoot. by people. There were lots of different usages of salt in the ancient world. And salt is used in the Bible in different ways.
Salt was part of sacrificial offerings and part of the lasting covenant. Salt could be used, you strew it on a field after you desolated the place so that crops wouldn't grow back. Salt was used in many different ways. But but the two things that seem to be most prominent here When Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth, is that salt was a preservative and salt was used for flavoring.
So Was it preservative? And salt was used for flavoring. Remember, in the ancient world, you didn't have. Uh you didn't have Ice that you could just have, okay, you've got your refrigerator and you just throw stuff in there and keep it cold or keep stuff on ice. You just didn't have.
How do you get ice in the ancient world if the temperature is 100 degrees, right? You didn't have electricity with refrigerators plugged in and things like that. One way that you preserved meat and stuff was with salt. You salted it and that helped preserve it.
So Jesus is telling his disciples That you are a force that preserves the world, that preserves the culture, that preserves the human race. But The salt must be salty. In other words, just being... A follower of Jesus saying a prayer without really walking with Him and truly following Him in depth and in heart and in life and in conduct. It's just some white powder.
The white powder is meaningless if the salt loses its saltiness. It serves no purpose. Here, when you're putting salt and pepper on a table for your dinner guests, you don't put the salt there because it looks pretty. You put it there because people use it for a purpose. If it loses its saltiness, it has no purpose.
You know, oh, it's just pretty to put this white powder on. No, it has no purpose.
So we lose our distinctiveness. We lose our purpose when we cease being disciples. When we are just like the world, we can't be salty. Let me say it again. When we are just like the world, we can't be salted.
We have lost our saltiness. We are no longer a moral preservative. in the culture because we ourselves are rotting. Because we ourselves are just like the world. You know, it's just like if you get on a raft and the raft is being carried by the tide, you're just going along with the show, just taking the path of least resistance.
That's not what salt does as a preservative. If we are to be the moral preservative of the society, we must maintain our saltiness. That does not mean arrogance. That does not mean self-righteousness. That does not mean some haughty, holier than thou.
It means that we are different. It means that we live differently. that we hold to different values even when it's unpopular. All the more do we hold to certain values even when they're unpopular. If not, who will?
If we don't say that abortion is wrong, who will? If we don't say that same-sex marriage is not really marriage, who will? If we don't stand up for the poor and the oppressed, who will?
So it is our distinctive role to be different. Again, not in a way where we just separate ourselves and think we're better than everybody, but in this world, the salt's got to be in this world to be a preservative of this world. In this world, we live differently. My friend, are you salty? If I spend all my time watching movies, T V, videos, whatever.
Surfing the net and just taking in what's out there, I'm going to lose my saltiness. If I'm not meeting with God in a quality way and renewing my mind to His word and fellowshipping with Him, I'm going to lose my saltiness. And then of what good are we? We are thrown out and trampled underfoot by people. And that's what's largely happened to so much of the church in America in the last generation, because we lost our distinctiveness, we lost our saltiness in so many ways we became just like the world in our life and our conduct.
and our families that We just become a mockery. It's an interesting thing, but when believers live out their values and are known for their values, They may be hated on the one hand, but they're often respected at the same time. Why? Because people know that these believers are serious, that they're not hypocrites, that they have integrity. And salt is also something that brings flavor.
There is a life-giving impact that we are to have. The gospel is not just a message of repent, repent, repent in some hopeless way. It's no turn and live. Turn from your sins and live. Turn from your sins and receive forgiveness and mercy and new life.
So let us be salt. And the only way, again, that we can be solved. is by being salty, which can only come out of relationship with God and out of holding convictions and living out those convictions. It will mean swimming against the tide. It will mean going against the grain.
But salt must be different if it is to have its effect. Then Jesus said this, to his disciples. are the light of the world.
Now, in John 8, 12, elsewhere, he says, I am the light of the world. but he shines his light through us. We are His earthly ambassadors. We are his earthy representatives. We are his hands and his feet and his mouth, so to say, in this world.
You are are the light of the world. You take us out, it's darkness. You take the light out, it's darkness. Consequently, you put the light in and and things light up. It's it's just like In an ancient world, dark world, everybody lights a candle at the same time, and suddenly there's light.
Suddenly, you can see things.
Now you just flip a switch. And and its its effect is dramatic. How many times have you, maybe you room with people or family member, you go in and flip the light on, they haven't gotten out of bed. No, what do you do? It's bright.
It's bright. That's to be our function in a dark world. We're to light it up. We're to bring a consciousness of God. We're to bring a sense of moral clarity.
We're to bring a sense of love and compassion. We're to bring conviction. Not that we're condemning people, but the Holy Spirit is working through us and just being who we are. makes a difference. You or the light of the world, a city, located on a hill cannot be hidden.
That means like it or not, we're going to get attention. Like it or not, we're going to get scrutiny. Like it or not, we're going to be watched. Pastors, leaders, individual believers. Let us shine then if we're a city on a hill.
Let us shine. Let us show the world. What Jesus' followers look like. Yes, in our weakness and our imperfection, but with love, with mercy, with compassion. Let us build communities.
that people want to come to because they know they're going to receive love. Oh, it's going to be tough love. It's going to be truthful love. But they know they can come as they are, and people are going to love them, care for them, and reach out to them, and minister to them, and help them. You are the light of the world.
A city located on a hill cannot be hidden. People do not light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before people. Don't take your light and hide it. Don't take your light and snuff it out.
Don't stick it under a basket. Don't keep it in the convenience of your home or your closet where Oh, you pray up a storm, but don't let anybody know who you are as a believer in public. No, he said let. Your Light shine. It doesn't mean that we're obnoxious and uncaring and just yell the gospel at people, but it means.
that consciously When we leave the doors of our room, when we get online and interact, when we talk to people on the phone, we are shining light. We are shining light. We are going into dark places and bringing hope. and bringing truth. and bringing goodness and bringing faith and bringing compassion and bringing and bringing Practical service.
Because we are shining light. And Ephesians 5 says, light makes everything visible.
So one function of the light is ex it exposes darkness. It shows the ugliness of sin for what it really is. It shows the depravity of human beings outside of the Lord for what. for what it really is. Yeah.
It comes with conviction. It makes people uncomfortable. Look, when the light shines on you and you don't want people seeing what you're doing, it makes you very uncomfortable. You have two choices: you can repent and come clean, or you can run. and hide in the darkness.
But either way, we shine the light and that light reveals what's wrong, not to hurt people, but to help people. Just like a doctor does an x-ray or an MRI or a CAT scan or something like that, not to embarrass you, but to say, okay, this bone is broken, okay, you do have a kidney stone, this condition is there. The light reveals. The light reveals. And when God's really moving and the light's really shining.
People come under conviction in services. That's when they come running to the altar to get right with God. That's when they sit and just start to sob and weep. because they're undone and that's where they find mercy and forgiveness and grace at the cross and transformation and new life. But there's another aspect to light.
In the same way, let your light shine before people so that they can see your good deeds. And give Honor to your Father in heaven. In many ways, the church in America takes a bad rap, gets hit for many things, but Point of fact. If there is a natural disaster. if there's some tragedy You see Christians out there.
My wife Nancy and our daughter Megan, they were very active with terrible hurricanes that hit.
well, a little over a year ago in North Carolina. And they went several times to volunteer with Samaritan's Purse and Samaritan's Purse was there for months. You go around the world, there's a tsunami, there's a terrible earthquake, there's some tragedy, you find Christian organizations are leading the way, helping. And on the ground, many local churches are doing that very thing in their community. This is the place you go if you're addicted and you need help.
This is the place you go if you're out of work and you just need some temporary help. And because these Christians are known by their deeds, People get saved. People come to know the Father. People say, hey, you didn't even preach to me, but you fed my kids and you helped educate them and you did this. I want to know more about your God.
There's something very different about you people. I want to find out more. Let your Light shine. I want to encourage you. to step back And take this as a divine invitation.
I want to encourage you to step back and say, Lord, how can I be salty? How can I function assault? What impact can I have? And Lord, how can my light shine? All right, want to share a quick announcement from our co-sponsor, Trivita.
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Not because of our zeal. But because we're just like the world, we say one thing and we live like the world.
So let let's Let's take it on the chin where we have to. Let's get on our faces before God. Were we falling short? where we haven't lived out our convictions. where we've given way to the myth that we can win the world by becoming like the world instead of we win the world by becoming like Jesus.
Cultural sensitivity, yes, but we win the world not by becoming like the world, but becoming like Jesus. and spending quality time with him. Gazing on his beauty, feasting on his word. In fellowship with others, worshiping with brothers and sisters, we receive encouragement. Let's see what we can do.
Let's see the next chapter. the church here in America or wherever you're listening around the world. As we function as salt and light, let's see if through our lives people will come to give glory to God. That's his heart. All right.
Next broadcast. What did Jesus mean when he said, I didn't come to abolish the law of the prophets? I didn't come to abolish, but to Fulfilled, does that mean that every follower of Jesus, Jew and Gentile, is obligated to observe all the Torah? We'll take it up in the next broadcast right here on the line of fire. If you're not getting my frontline newsletter.
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