You Are Saved for God, Part 3
Tom Shrader explores the glory of God as the foundation for Christian purpose, drawing on Psalm 19, Romans 1, and Isaiah 6 to show that beholding God rightly orients human identity and mission. Turning to Matthew 5:13-16, he unpacks the metaphors of salt and light to explain that believers—individually and collectively—are called to exert preserving, illuminating influence on a corrupt and darkened world. The teaching closes with a practical challenge to be salt and light not only in daily life but within the gathered church, where hospitality and genuine welcome are themselves acts of witness.
“We were made to know and treasure the glory of God above all things, and when we trade that treasure for images, everything is disordered.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: You are Saved for God
Recorded: 2006 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 54 min
Themes: glory of god, purpose, salt and light, identity, witness, hospitality, influence, mission, feeling purposeless, new believer, searching for identity, young adult, wanting to make a difference, church member, struggling with self-worth, trying to share faith
Scripture: Psalm 19:1, Romans 1:18-32, Isaiah 6, Isaiah 40:26, Matthew 5:1-16, Matthew 5:21-44, Matthew 7:28, John 8:12, John 9:5, John 17:15-18, 1 John 2:15, 1 Thessalonians 4:13
Theological Themes: sanctification, imago dei, human purpose, doxology, christian witness, soteriology, saved for god, biblical theology
Full Transcript
Overview and Series Context
We are continuing in Matthew chapter 5. Let me give you an overview of where we are headed. Next week is Christmas Eve, and the following week is New Year's Eve. On Christmas Eve I will be in both locations — we will go at 8, 9:30, and 11, both here and in the conference center, with live music and a live message in both places. On New Year's Eve I am going to combine the annual review and preview into one, as we did last year, because I want to get back to this study — God's Plan for Growing in Grace — when we return on January 8th.
When we pick up on January 8th, we will continue here in Matthew chapter 5, verse 16, for a few weeks. When we finish that, we are going back to the study in the life of Christ. We will take John and begin in chapter 14, which is where we left off, studying it verse by verse and taking excursions into the other Gospels to supplement it. We will still harmonize the accounts, but our anchor will be John chapter 14 through the rest of that Gospel.
Saved by God, from God, for God
Today we continue in the series, God's Plan for Growing in Grace. We have said that we are saved by God, from God, and for God. The emphasis of this series is that being saved for God means there is a purpose to my salvation — I am saved by God from God so that I might serve Him.
We used Isaiah as a model for this. Isaiah sees God for who He is — His glory, His majesty, His power, His might. When he does, he immediately sees himself for who he is. He said, "Woe to me, for I am undone" — woe to me, for I am ruined, for I am lost. There are people all around us trying to figure out who they really are, and the easiest and cheapest way to do that is not to take a trip to Maui or to the Amazon or to New Zealand. You can find yourself by understanding who God is. When I understand who God is, I begin to understand who I really am.
The Will Smith Illustration
I was watching Oprah this week — and why do I watch Oprah? For you. Why do I do everything? For you. You are pretty safe with that answer to just about any question. I was watching, and Will Smith was on talking about his new movie. He said something I wanted to make sure I got right, so I stayed up and watched it again that night, catching it in the first seven or eight minutes.
Will Smith was talking to Oprah about meeting Nelson Mandela, which was a significant moment for him. He described this overwhelming sense that floods over you when you meet Mandela — of how small you are and how big you can be. There was no explanation and no follow-up; Oprah simply understood it. What I think he was saying is this: here is this iconic figure, and when you are in his presence, you see how small you are because you compare yourself to him and see what he has accomplished.
If Mandela does not land for you, substitute whoever your figure is — Reagan, Bono, Tom Brady, Bill Gates. I will tell you, if you want to feel small, pick up the latest Chuck Swindoll book, go to the front, and look at how many books and pamphlets he has written. You just look at it and think, I am nothing compared to this. That is what Will Smith was getting at — these people are bigger than life, and standing next to them you feel small, yet they also inspire you to do something that might make your life significant. I think that is what he was saying, and there is some truth to it.
But look at what we are doing here. I am not comparing myself to any of those figures, or to each other. I am comparing myself to God as I really see Him — to His glory, His majesty, His power. Now I get the right comparison. Woe to me, for I am undone. Then God moves, saves Isaiah, and forgives him of his sin. In verse 8, Isaiah hears the voice of the Lord: "Who shall I send, and who will go for us?" And Isaiah answers, "Here I am, send me." All of a sudden we have this idea of being significant, of doing something, grounded in the understanding that God saved us for a reason and a purpose.
What Does It Mean to Be Saved for a Purpose?
What do you think of when you hear that God saved you for a purpose — that God has works for you to do? I immediately think of specifics. What should I do? Where should I do it? How should I do it? When should I do it? Will I do it alone or as part of a group? God saved me for a purpose — but what is it? What does it mean? What does it look like for me specifically, knowing it will look different for me than for you, and different for you than for the person sitting next to you?
God's Glory on Display
He saved me for a purpose? I want to begin to get behind that and understand what that is. When I think of specifics, I think of these huge things that I need to be doing. Does that translate to you at all? Because that is how I think. And that is exactly where we are going in a week or two or three. But I want to stay big in scope here. I want to stay in this idea of us glorifying God, and even more than that, to begin with, of just God's glory. I want to think big here.
Psalm 19, verse 1, the psalmist writes, "The heavens declare the glory of God." Keep that place in Matthew marked and turn to the right to the book of Romans. It is an idea that is familiar to you if you understand and know the book of Romans, because Paul makes the same point — that the heavens declare the glory of God, the existence of God, the necessity of a Creator.
Romans chapter 1, verse 18: "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in righteousness." The idea of suppressing the truth there is to literally resist it. I think of a jack-in-the-box when I picture holding something down. When Sarah was a little girl, she had a jack-in-the-box, and the thing would explode, and it would take her half a day to get it back in there. It was the perfect toy. One day she was leaning on it, and she had her hand on the lid so it would not explode — just holding it down all day long. That is the picture. That is what the word "suppress" means. They are holding it down. They are suppressing the truth.
How do we know that? Verse 19: "Because that which is known of God is evident within them" — and really evident outside them as well. They know it. There is a conscience. They sense there is something bigger than them. Verse 20: "For since the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes, His eternal power and His divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God. They did not give thanks to Him. They became futile in their speculation. Their foolish hearts are darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools.
Then this exchange takes place in verse 23: they exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for the image of the form of the corruptible man. They trade the Creator for the creation. Just soak with this idea for a while — the glory of God.
Spurgeon on the Heavens
Let me read to you from the pen of Charles Spurgeon as he reflects on Psalm 19: "The heavens declare the glory of God. People walking erect are evidently made to scan the skies, and those who begin to read creation by studying the stars start the book at the right place. At every moment, God's existence, power, wisdom and goodness are being sounded by the heavenly heralds that shine on us. It is not merely glory that the heavens declare, but they declare the glory of God. They deliver such unanswerable arguments for a conscious, intelligent, planning, controlling and presiding Creator that no unbiased person can remain unconvinced. The testimony given by the heavens is no mere hint. It is a plain, unmistakable declaration of the most constant and abiding kind. Yet for all this, to what avail is the loudest declaration to the deaf or the clearest showing to the spiritually blind? God's Holy Spirit must illuminate us, or all the suns in the Milky Way never will."
The heavens declare the glory of God. We look at them and they are vast. They scream of a Creator. And here is an important distinction: not a manufacturer. There is a subtlety in our language worth noting. Someone might say they want to buy something made in America, and another will say it is assembled in America — meaning the parts came from all over the world but were put together here. One is manufacturing; the other is assembling. The point is, God did not assemble and God did not manufacture. There was nothing, and He said, go — be light, be something. He created. All man can ever do is manufacture. All man can ever do is assemble. But God created, and creation becomes evidence of His eternal power and His divine nature. And if I begin to turn away from that, I am missing — and I love Spurgeon's words — not just a hint, but an unmistakable declaration of the most constant and abiding kind.
Aristotle, Isaiah, and the Scale of Creation
The Greek thinker Aristotle wrote this: "Should a man live underground and converse with works of art and mechanics, and afterwards be brought into the open day to see the several glories of the heavens and the earth, he would immediately pronounce them the work of such a being as we define God to be." In other words, Aristotle is saying what Paul said — you have creation all around you, and it screams of a Creator. Spurgeon is saying this is constant. This never ends.
Isaiah wrote, in Isaiah 40, verse 26: "Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these stars. He who brings out their host by number, calling them by name, by the greatness of His might, because He is strong in power, not one is missing." No star is missing. I just came across an article this week, dateline Sydney, Australia: ever want to wish upon a star? You have 70,000 million million million to choose from. That is the total number of stars known in the universe, according to a study by Australian astronomers. That is about ten times as many stars as grains of sand on all the world's beaches and deserts. The figure is 70 followed by 22 zeros.
The Scale of Creation
A team of stargazers based at the Australian National University calculated that the number of stars in the visible universe is 70 sextillion. Speaking to the General Assembly of the International Astronomers Union meeting in Sydney, Dr. Simon Driver said that the number was drawn based on a survey of one strip of the sky rather than trying to count every individual star. I laughed when I read that. I thought, you're a graduate assistant, here's your job, go count the stars — one, two, 69,000 million million million and one. That's a long haul.
What they did was take the two most powerful telescopes in the world and conduct a survey. They cut a strip of the sky and found 10,000 galaxies within it, determining by their brightness how many stars each one contained. They took that number, multiplied it by the number of strips needed to cover the entire sky, and then multiplied that again out to the edge of the visible universe.
Dr. Driver said that there were likely many millions more stars in the universe, but that the 70 sextillion figure represented those visible within the range of modern telescopes. The actual number of stars, he said, could be infinite. The universe is so big that light from other parts of it hasn't even reached us yet. When asked whether the huge scale of the universe meant there was intelligent life out there somewhere, he told the paper, "70,000 million million million is a big number — it's inevitable."
I don't know that, by the way. I don't have a firm view on it. The minute you say there isn't life out there — and I'm not even sure what that means, because they're going to find water somewhere and then ask whether that means life — my sense is there isn't. Which is really incredible, because then you're saying God created all of that for this, for us. Some would say that's a waste. It's not a waste. It shows you how big He is. The universe gets bigger and bigger, and as it gets bigger, our view of God gets bigger — the glory of God and who He is.
The Architecture of Awe
I have some friends who have been to Europe, and they all come back saying the same thing: when you walk into these cathedrals, they're so inefficient. They're massive, huge structures, but they only seat 500 or 600 people, and most of them can't even see because of pillars. I say to them, do you know why they're built like that? The whole architecture was designed so that when you walked into it, the building dwarfed you. You got a sense of the majesty, the power, the size, the glory of God. You looked at it and immediately felt insignificant.
All I'm saying is, however insignificant you feel inside one of those cathedrals, when you step outside, you shrink even more. He just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and that is the key to you getting smaller and smaller. Just as John the Baptist said, He must increase, and you and I must decrease in our own minds. I have discovered that thinking, rethinking, and reading about this pushes my mind in that direction.
The Exchange and the Disorder
Paul said they knew all of this, but they exchanged the incorruptible for the corruptible. God gave them over to their own hearts, and in the balance of chapter one you see the decline of man — they simply did whatever they wanted to do. Verse 32 says that although they know the ordinances of God, and are aware of the conscience within them, they are in absolute rebellion. They give hearty approval to those who practice these things. They cheer others to join them.
Writing about this, John Piper puts it this way: "This is the point. We were made to know and treasure the glory of God above all things, and when we trade that treasure for images, everything is disordered." Listen closely to what follows. "The sun of God's glory was made to shine at the center of the solar system of our soul. When it does, all the planets of our life are held in proper orbit. When the sun is displaced, everything flies apart. The healing of the soul begins by restoring the glory of God to its flaming, all-attracting place at the center. We are all starved for the glory of God, not the glory of self."
Then Piper adds this great sentence: "No one goes to the Grand Canyon to increase self-esteem."
Standing at the Edge of the Canyon
I've been to the Grand Canyon once. My family complained the whole way up. We stopped at one point, and Haley said, look around — there's not one store, there's nothing, we're in the middle of nowhere. We finally made the turn to go in, we pulled up to where the gift shop is, we walked out, stood there, and said — my golly, what a gully. We turned around, went back into the gift shop, and we were not at the Grand Canyon five minutes.
On the way out we stopped at the IMAX theater. They said, let's go see this. And they were in awe of the movie. There's something missing in that whole equation — I'm not sure what it is. But when I did look out at the canyon, I kept saying something that sounds so stupid, and maybe you said the same thing when you were there: it looks just like the pictures. It does — it's incredible, it looks just like the pictures. But I have to admit, standing there I did not feel better about myself. I felt more insignificant.
That is the glory of God. He is the Creator; we are the creature. And the reason those of us who are followers of His are here on this earth is to glorify Him.
Introduction and Context
Him and enjoy Him forever. We will turn to Matthew chapter five, which is what we are looking at. The whole anchor for this series is Matthew chapter five, verse 16. Let us make sure we get the context here.
Chapter five, verse one: Jesus saw the crowds, went up on the mountain, and after He sat down — He sat down not because He was tired, but because that was the position of teaching. His disciples came to Him, He opened His mouth, and He began to teach. I want you to look at the reaction at the very end of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew chapter seven, verse 28: "When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one having authority, not as their scribes." He was not one of their scribes. He was not quoting those who would quote others. He was speaking with authority.
When we look at the Sermon on the Mount, their mouths drop open. They hear this teaching because Jesus is delivering to them an entirely new approach to living.
The Pattern of "You Have Heard… But I Say"
By way of context, look at chapter five, verse 17. Jesus said, "I did not come to abolish the law and the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill." Now look at verses 22, 28, 32, 34, 39, and 44. They all carry the same idea. Jesus lays down a premise and then raises it higher.
For example, verse 21: "You have heard that the ancients were told" — verse 22: "But I say to you." Verse 27: "You have heard it was said" — verse 28: "But I say to you." Verse 31: "It was said" — verse 32: "But I say to you." Verse 33: "You have heard that the ancients were told" — verse 34: "But I say to you." Verse 38: "You have heard it was said" — verse 39: "But I say to you." Verse 43: "You have heard it was said" — verse 44: "But I say to you."
It is a whole new way of thinking. Jesus is taking this law and driving it even deeper. He is saying it is not just external compliance — it is a whole new way of thinking, a whole new heart.
What the Sermon on the Mount Teaches Us
When John MacArthur addresses the Sermon on the Mount, he identifies several important things we learn from it. One of them is the necessity of a new birth. God is calling us to a standard that is too high for any human power to meet. We need to be born again. We need a Creator. We need Jesus as our only hope to meet God's standard, because man cannot do that on his own.
He fulfilled that law, died on the cross, and when we believe in Him and accept Him as Lord and Savior and repent, our law is fulfilled — but it is fulfilled in Him, for us. MacArthur also notes that the Sermon on the Mount gives us God's pattern for happiness and true success: standards for living, goals, and motivations. It shows us how to find meaning, success, and happiness in this world.
It shows us that the obedient life proclaimed in the Sermon is the only life that is pleasing to God. But MacArthur adds this: the Sermon is perhaps the greatest scriptural resource for witnessing and for reaching others for Christ. That is what drew me into the discussion we are in now.
Salt and Light: The Function of Believers in the World
Let us read these verses and pull this together. Matthew chapter five, verse 13: "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men." Verse 14: "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house." And then verse 16: "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."
What Jesus is talking about in this section — these four verses, and really all through the Sermon on the Mount — is what it looks like for you and me, as citizens of the kingdom, to be Christians in this world. One author writes this: "In these four verses, the Lord summarizes the function of believers in the world. Reduced to one word, the function is influence. Whoever lives according to the Beatitudes is going to function in the world as salt and light. Christian character, consciously or unconsciously, affects other people for better or for worse."
In the World, But Not of It
In John chapter 17 — which we will reach in our study months from now — Jesus prays this to the Father: "I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world." The mandate for you and me is to be in the world, not to live in isolation, not to create some sort of Christian cocoon where we associate only with other believers.
Do we need one another? Absolutely — that is why this corporate gathering is important. That is why the things we encourage you to be about — equipping and encouraging one another, comforting one another — those things truly matter. But we are also called to be salt and light in the midst of a dead and dark world, to exert that influence on the world around us. It is impossible for salt and light to have any effect without contact.
John writes in 1 John chapter two, verse 15: "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever." We are to be in this world — you have heard that before — but not of this world.
G. Campbell Morgan writes this about this section of Scripture: "The world needs salt because it is corrupt, and light because it is dark. Jesus, looking over the multitudes of His day, saw the corruption, the disintegration..."
You Are Salt and Light
Jesus saw the corruption of life at every point — its breakup — and because of His love for the multitudes, He knew the thing they needed most was salt in order that the corruption should be arrested. He saw them also wrapped in gloom, sitting in darkness, groping amid mist and fog. He knew they needed, above everything else, light. So Jesus says, "You are salt and you are light."
Look at verse 13: "You are the salt of the earth." Verse 14: "You are the light of the world." Both of those verses begin with the same first two words: *you are*. There are maybe three observations worth making about those two words.
Three Observations on "You Are"
First, the way it reads, the emphasis in the structure is on *you*. So it should read this way: *You* are the light of the world. *You* are the salt of the earth.
Second, the *you* is plural. He is speaking of the body of Christ, of the church. That changes things just a little bit. What is true for us individually is typically true for us corporately as well, but recognizing the plural really shifts some of the application points. There are things we are about doing collectively, and even as we do them individually, it is still part of the whole. It could read this way: East Valley Bible Church is the light of the world, is the salt of the earth. We are here for a purpose. I spend hours every week thinking about what is unique about East Valley Bible Church, because there has to be some reason we are here other than to just keep doing what we are doing.
Third, the word *are* is not a command. He is not asking you to do something. He is simply saying this is what you are — your being. You may be lousy salt and a crummy light, but you are salt and you are light. It is not a question of whether you are going to be. You are that.
Earth and World
One more thing strikes me as unusual. Verse 13 says "salt of the earth," and verse 14 says "light of the world." Why did He use *earth* in verse 13 and *world* in verse 14? I do not know, and the more I have studied it, I have not found anybody who has gotten too concerned about it. It seems to me the word translated *earth* speaks of people or individuals, while the word translated *world* speaks more of a world system — of beliefs, behavior, and thought process. So perhaps it is all-encompassing in both thoughts. You are the salt and you are the light — not to the globe, but to the worldview, to the behavior, to the beliefs of all the people that are in that world. That certainly fits.
The Value of Salt
You are the salt of the earth. When William Barclay writes about salt, he notes this: salt has always been valuable in human society, often much more than it is today. During a period of ancient Greek history, it was called *theon*, which means "divine." The Romans held that, except for the sun, nothing was more valuable than salt. Often Roman soldiers were paid in salt, and from that came the expression "not worth his salt." Salt was very valuable — not as we see it today, but very valuable in that economy, and still a commodity we would recognize.
What Salt Does
There are many characteristics of salt, all of which have viable applications here. We are just trying to get a sense of what He means.
One of the things salt does is create thirst. When we were kids, we took salt tablets. It seems a bit strange now, but what they did was make you thirsty, because sometimes we would get so busy playing that we would forget to hydrate ourselves and become dehydrated. Those tablets created a thirst and kept us hydrated. So there is a sense in which He is saying, "You are the salt of the earth — you create a thirst." The people around you see that they are spiritually needy and dehydrated, and you create that awareness in them.
Salt also provides flavor and zest. Susan made navy bean soup the other day. She let those beans soak until they were just exploding, then put a little ham in them, and we had cornbread with syrup on it. But the soup just did not have much zing to it. It needed flavor — it needed salt or pepper or something.
On the second Friday of December every year at 1:15, I meet the same man at Durant's for lunch. This year was our 26th year. We hardly talk to each other through the year — it is the only time we talk. He is the man who hired me in 1980, and we have been keeping this tradition every second Friday of December for 26 years. We always talk about the same things. We bet on every bowl game — all 32 of them. One man picks a line, the other picks a team, and we bet two dollars a game. No one has ever paid. Every year, we order the same thing. The server comes and says, "What would you like?" and essentially in unison we say, "The fat man." Every time I say "the fat man," the phrase *you are what you eat* screams through my mind. How would you like it? Medium well. Would you like the potatoes? Yes. You want a salad? Half and half dressing.
When she brings it every year, she says the same thing: "I have added atomic horseradish." Now, when you hear *horseradish*, you just think horseradish — flavor, zest. But when you hear *atomic*, that should catch your attention. Every year, we are evidently very slow learners. This year, she brought it out, and I said, "Now remember, that is spicy." And he said —
Salt of the Earth
Someone has written this: we Christians have no business being boring. Our function is to add flavor and excitement to the world. We're alive. We know the Creator of the universe. There should be a zest about us.
I was at another church teaching on a Sunday morning some years ago. Every church has a sheet — it tells you the opening, the first song, the welcome, who's doing what, the arrangements, that kind of thing. I went up, put my Bible down in the front row, did my thing, and came back to find my Bible had been moved to the second pew. The people sitting in the first pew said, "Well, these are our seats. This is where we sit." That saved the pastor ten thousand dollars on a study to understand why his church isn't growing.
I am sitting there thinking, these are sad people. I have the sheet, they're singing, and it is bad. Get the worst church service you've ever experienced in your mind, and then add a little something extra — that's what it was. I'm sitting right there with the sheet thinking, how long can this go on? I look down and the third song is "Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy, Down in My Heart."
I thought this would be interesting, and this is exactly what happened. The leader said, "All right, turn to number 117. We have joy, joy, joy, joy, down in our heart. Where? Down in our heart. Where? Down in our heart." I'm not making up a word of this. I thought, I wonder how far down I'd have to go to find the joy.
Living and Dying with Flavor
I said to the staff the other day that, basically, here is why we are here — at least as a staff — to help people get ready to live and die. Just to help you live and die. So even in our dying, we are influencing and flavoring the world.
Paul is writing to the church at Thessalonica that is confused about the resurrection, and he said this: "We don't want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are dying, so that you will not grieve as do those who have no hope." We bring flavor to the world.
Salt as an Irritant
Salt is also an irritant. That phrase you hear all the time — we're here to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comforted — that is some of what goes on. When you're talking to somebody and they say, "I don't want to hear that," it raises a genuinely difficult question: how do you love the sinner and hate the sin, when the sin is wrapped up in the sinner? My experience is that when you really talk about the sin, the sinner tends to take it personally.
I had a guy I used to work with who said, "Schrage, you're driving me nuts. You're like a chihuahua — always around me. Leave me alone." I said, "Hey, man, I didn't ask you. You asked me the question." How do you talk about those things? How do you talk about that life and deal with cultural issues? What we see more and more in the church are men and women raised with essentially no background at all, who find themselves immersed in something they sense isn't right, and then we come along and say, "Here's the truth."
Salt as a Preservative
The biggest thing about salt is probably that it is a preservative. It slows down moral defilement. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes this:
> Most competent historians are agreed in saying that what undoubtedly saved England from a revolution such as was experienced in France at the end of the 18th century was nothing but evangelical revival. This was not because anything was done directly, but because masses of individuals had become Christians and were living this better life and had this higher outlook. The whole political situation was affected, and great acts of parliament which were passed in that century were mostly due to the fact that there was a large number of individual Christians found in the land.
Christians and Public Policy
This gets at something I want to spend just a moment on. I hear a lot of discussion about whether Christians belong in politics, and I want to be sensitive. I understand that no bill, no act, no passage of legislation is going to save somebody's soul. But I do think we certainly should be involved in public policy.
Listening to Wayne Grudem recently, he said that one of the significant ways God restrains evil in the world is through government. You want to be very careful — I see the moral majority and the religious right, and I hear all of those things, and some of those voices I am not a fan of. But consider: since 1973, fifty million babies have been killed, and that was a policy change, a court decision. Public policy could certainly address that. You cannot tell the fifty million babies who were killed that policy is not important.
Or consider the state-by-state changes that alter the core, fundamental view of what marriage is, and then say, "Well, we're not going to get involved. We're above the fray. We don't fight with ballots and bullets, but with prayers and Bibles." I understand that. But I think you belong affecting public policy. Anyway — salt of the earth.
Salt and Light in Contact with the World
The salt of the earth — but if the salt becomes tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It can't be. It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. A lot of the salt they got from the Dead Sea was contaminated with gypsum and other minerals. When they got it home, they would realize it wasn't any good — it had lost its saltiness. What they would do is throw it out, and they were careful not to throw it into flower beds or anything like that. They would throw it on paths, since there was no concrete. It would be trampled underfoot, killing anything growing there. That is what Jesus is saying: you are not salt that has gone bad. Don't lose it.
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill can't be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house." In John chapter eight, verse twelve, Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." Here, He says, "You are the light of the world." The connecting verse is John chapter nine, verse five, where Jesus says, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." He is not in the world anymore in the same way — He is in the world now through you. God dwells in you. God lives inside of you. You are God's light to this world.
Three Functions of Light
Light has at least three functions. The first is that it reveals reality. When light comes into a room, it allows us to see things as they really are. Most everyone has had this experience: you are lying in bed at night and you hear a noise, a creak. You are not really sure what it is. You look over and you are certain there is somebody in the corner. You can see the silhouette. You lie there and debate what you are going to do. But ultimately you turn on the light, and there is your coat hanging over a chair. Light allows you to see things as they really are. You are the light of the world — you bring reality to it. This world has a whole caricature of what it thinks life is all about, but you bring the truth.
Light also serves as a measurement, a standard, a guide. We speak of light years and the speed of light. When the astronauts first went to the moon in 1969, they placed a small device on the surface and fired a beam from earth that hit it and sent a signal back. By timing it against the speed of light, they could determine exactly the distance from the moon to the earth at that point in time. You see the same principle when workers fire laser beams to measure and align things precisely. You are a measurement. You are a standard. God's Word is a lamp to our feet, and we become to the world a standard and a measurement. That is why it is so destructive when we ourselves fail to measure up to that standard.
The third thing light does is give life. All you have to do to see that is to turn the sun off for three or four days. Jesus said, "I have come that you might have life, and that you would have it abundantly." The world has no idea what life really is.
Salt and Light Together
If we take these two things together, Jesus is saying: go into the world, become His light, reveal reality, explain His standard, set the measurement, and hold the keys to life — which is a relationship with Him. Be the salt that creates thirst, that adds flavor, that carries an irritant quality, and that acts as a preserving agent in the midst of all of this. Someone has written this contrast worth considering: whereas salt is hidden, light is obvious. Salt works secretly, while light works openly. Salt works from within, light from without. Salt is more the indirect influence of the gospel, where light is more its direct communication. Salt works primarily through our living, while light works primarily through what we teach and preach. Salt is largely negative — it can retard corruption, but it cannot change corruption into incorruption. Light is more positive: it not only reveals what is wrong and false, but it helps produce what is righteous and true.
Here is the essential point. For salt or light to work, there has to be contact. For salt to work as a preservative, it must make contact with the meat. For light to work, it must be present in the darkness. God calls His kingdom's citizens to live lives that are very much in contact with a lost and dying world. Someone has written this sentence, and then followed it with a remarkable next sentence: there can be no such thing as secret discipleship — for either the secrecy destroys the discipleship, or the discipleship destroys the secrecy. There cannot be any such thing as a secret disciple, because if I am keeping it secret, the discipleship never takes place. And if I am truly discipling, it cannot remain secret — it requires the presence of others.
A Personal Confession
We — plural, you and me and us together — are salt and light in this world. Clearly individually, but also collectively. I will confess something. I am always cautious about what I am about to share, because these things tend to get forced on people, but here it is. I did a Christmas message about eight years ago along this same line. I do not know why people come only on Christmas and Easter. Some were offended by it. Some found it encouraging because it created discussion. Every time our calendar flips to Christmas or —
Being Salt and Light Right Where You Are
At Easter, I think of that message, and I think it was wrong — the way it was presented. I understand the idea, I understand the intent, and I understand all the things behind it. But I think it demonstrates a genuinely crummy attitude. And if I have that attitude, you easily could too.
We start to see those days as days almost of competition — days when we're saying, here's a bunch of people sitting in my seat, here's a bunch of kids we don't normally see, and they're not used to childcare, so they're a little more problematic. Why should I move out of the 9:30 service? And it's not just Christmas Eve. The same principle that is true Christmas Eve is true through the whole year.
Every Sunday is somebody's first Sunday here. Why should you not come at 9:30 when it's convenient for you? Because God may bring somebody here who needs to be here next Sunday — someone He may even use that message to save — and they can't get in the door because you have your same seat that you've been in forever. When they come on campus, they need to see smiling faces like yours, like mine, like ours. And it's not just next Sunday. It's every Sunday.
The Home Game
When I think about being salt of the earth and light of the world, I think I've got to go out, go out, go out. I've got to penetrate my neighborhood. I've got to figure it out. All of those things are true. But look at what He is going to do next week — He is going to bring people in here. You don't have to go anywhere.
All you have to do is be salt and light right here at church. It really can't get any easier than that. All you have to do is put on a badge that says "Greeter" and smile — and I don't mean fake it. I mean genuinely say, "I'm glad you're here."
On a Sunday like today I go around and meet I don't know how many people. But I know that most of the time when I meet somebody, I say to them, "I'm glad you're here." They probably just heard me say that to the person before them and the person before that, and they're thinking, well, that's just his little schtick. No — I'm really glad you're here. God has us here for a reason and a purpose, and that purpose is to be salt and light. It begins right here. This is a home game. We are wearing home jerseys right now, and then we go out into the world.
The Verse That Launched It All
This thought process — and the reason I'm spending the time on it — is because it is really important for us. Look at verse 16, and we'll stop: *"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."* That is what we are trying to get to.
Remember what I said? That is really the verse that launched all of this. People ought to see your good works. Well, what are those good works? That is what we are going to talk about in a couple of weeks when we get together. And then — that they glorify your Father in heaven. How are they going to do that? You tell them.
This Christian life of yours is to be set on a pedestal before the whole world, like a light. He is saying: set it there before everyone. I used to read Paul when he would say "Follow me," and I thought, oh my goodness, that is a big one. But isn't that exactly what this says? We are supposed to say to the world, "Follow us as we follow Christ." Your life is supposed to be distinctive and different — every aspect of it: work, home, school, play, family. Salt and light.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for saving us, and for saving us for a reason — for bringing us here for a purpose. I pray for next Sunday, Christmas Eve. I pray that You would bring many, many people who otherwise would never come to a place like East Valley Bible Church, or who maybe have been here but not in a while — many people who need to hear the gospel and need to see the gospel. They need to see kids who are cared for, people who are visiting who need help and instruction and who are guided. They need to hear a message of hope and love. They need to hear the good news.
God, I pray that You would soften our hearts if necessary, and firm up our determination to be salt and light in this world. No secret disciples. If we are secret, there is no discipleship. If we are discipling, we cannot do that in secret. God, we love You, we worship You, and we praise You. In Jesus' name, amen.