Episode 302: You Are Salt and Light | +Quigg Lawrence

Introduction

Good, and open your Bibles. We are in Matthew five. Matthew chapter five. What page is that in the pew Bible? Eight zero eight. What is it? Eight zero nine. Because I'm gonna need you guys. I'm gonna need your help.

Now, let me just tell you, Matthew four. So hold on. Sorry. Matthew five, six, and seven is one sermon. One sermon given by Jesus. It's the longest recorded sermon of Jesus. Now, I don't know how long it actually took him to deliver. Because if he was a preacher, you know how we tend to make a fifteen-minute sermon last like an hour. So, we're not sure that, but you literally could read his longest sermon in fifteen to twenty minutes. You could.

And if you ever wanna know, like, what is at the heart of Jesus' teaching? Sermon on the Mount. Matthew five, six, seven. One sermon, a whole lot of subjects. Now, when you go to the deli, some of you guys just like plain sandwiches. My wife, I mean, when she gets a hamburger, it's a hamburger and a bun, period. When I go, I want the whole kit and caboodle. I want anything that's got sauce and you know, the lettuce, the tomato, the mayo, the cheese, the onions, the mushrooms, the jalapenos.

So what we're going to get here is a sandwich with lots in it. I was thinking that when we were in seminary, our professors would have us submit our sermons and they would be graded. So you would submit them in writing, and then you also had to give them. And then you would get a grade. I'm pretty certain that if Jesus had had submitted this sermon in my seminary, he would have gotten a C minus because they'd be like, oh, this is just really too controversial. You don't, I mean, really, this is some hard things, Jesus. Maybe you shouldn't say that. Maybe you need to meet people where they're at. So, whatever the case, I don't really care what my seminary professors think. I care what Jesus said. So, we're going to dig in.

The Context of the Sermon

Okay. So, let's look at this sermon. Let's look at five, six, and seven really quick, and I'm going to need you to look on your app or if you actually have a Bible, nice job. They're little headings and I want you to see how many things Jesus talks about in this very short, really very short sermon. Again, where is he? He's come out of being tested and tried at the hands of Satan in the wilderness. He has gotten his first followers to come, follow me, and they left their boats immediately. And now, Jesus relocates from Nazareth where he was a prophet without honor, moves thirty miles to Capernaum, the northern part of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Okay? The land of Israel, the northern part, he's preaching by a lake. Think, not really Smith Mountain Lake, that's too long and skinny. But think of like a big, big, big pond.

So, what are the things packed in a sermon? Let's just kind of bird's eye high level. What's the first thing in chapter five? Beatitudes. Beatitudes. And yeah. So, there are a whole lot of blessed are. You're blessed. Even strange things that are hard to understand. Like he says, blessed are those who mourn. Well, I don't know about you, but the times I've mourned in my life, I didn't feel very blessed but the Lord is speaking kingdom values here and he says, trust me, if you're mourning, there's going to be a time where you will be comforted because you're my kids.

And so yeah, the beatitudes are there. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Okay, after beatitudes, what's next? Salt and light. And that's where we're going to focus today.

So, let's get past that right quick. Okay. So, what else in the sermon? Christ came to fulfill the law. He says this, don't think that I've come to abolish the law. I the first five books of Moses. Right? Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Don't think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. Okay? So, he talks about the importance of the law. The law is good. It's just not a savior. It points you to a savior.

Next topic. What does Jesus go into? Because he's dealing with Christians. On the mountain, I mean, his disciples were there. He's talking to his disciples. I suppose there were some onlookers, some well wishers, people saying, oh, what's this big crowd? They're there as well, but he's speaking to his disciples. And what does he talk to them about? Anger. Hold on. We don't talk about that in church. Yes, we do.

Right? This is the thing I love. As a young believer, when I would open my Bible, I'm like, I can't believe they're talking about real life things. And oh, by the way, I struggle with anger. Like some of you could say, yes. And I'm so glad the New Testament. I'm so glad Jesus is willing to speak to it and admit it so we don't have to hide it.

Remember last week, or I think it was last week or the week before, I said in Japan, it is a culture of honor, and so they're very reserved, and you don't, I mean, this is what they told me. You don't air your personal stuff and so if you're sad, you're depressed, you're anxious, you just suck it up and toughen it and eventually, they said, and that culture, a lot of people jump in front of trains, right? Because they just can't come out publicly and say that they're dealing with anxiety. I'm so grateful. We have a savior who knows we have anxiety, who cares about us. He says, cast your cares and your anxieties upon me because I care for you.

It's so great to open his word and hear about anxiety and basically says, hey, look, consider the birds of the air. God takes care of them. Whoo. Yeah. Consider the flowers of the field. Look how they're dressed. Do you not think God's going to take care of you? Don't be anxious. Cast those anxieties upon me. I, I care for you.

Alright. So, what's after anger? Look above verse 27. What is your headline? Lust. Oh, I didn't want to hear all that, pastor. Well, the reality is, you might go, well, I've never committed adultery. I, you win. Except Jesus says, I tell you the truth. If you look at a woman or ladies, if you look upon a man with this inordinate desire in your heart, by the Lord's standards, which are the only ones that matter, you've committed adultery.

And so, how awesome that he loves his bride. He loves you, but he's not afraid to mention things like anxiety or anger or lust. Because he knows real people struggle with real things. These are the things we struggle with. What's the next one? Divorce. The quickest way to have your population and your congregation drop is to preach what the Lord said about marriage and divorce because we fail. We fail.

Jesus said, yeah, Moses said, you could just write a certificate of divorce but that was because your hardness of heart. That's not how it was from the beginning and so we're not condemning. We're not throwing stones but our, we are not moving the bull's eye. What we're saying, that covenant to the Lord is holy and even when the husband and the wife cannot seem to keep their covenant, there's a God greater than them who is able. And so, he is just saying, guys, this is not the kingdom way.

Or how about what's the next, what's the next subject he mentions? We gotta go. We gotta hurry. Oaths, right? That's why a lot of people don't like to swear to anything, right? How about retaliation? That's more important to oaths. To be honest with you, Oaths, I don't really care that much about. Retaliation, I do, right? Somebody hurts you, somebody hurts your kid, somebody takes what's yours, what's our normal reaction? I will make them pay, right?

Jesus, what do you, what did Jesus say about retaliation? He says, you've heard it said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, don't resist the one who's evil. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other as well.

Can I just say that this deeply challenges me? Like, if somebody hits me on the right cheek, if I was limber enough to still do it, I would just flip around and hit them with my other elbow. Right? Like a UFC cage fighter. Sadly, I'm not, but in my heart, that's what resides there. Like, I want to get even. I want to have vengeance. What you did is wrong and you're going to pay. And Jesus said, that's not the kingdom way.

So, he's addressing. Then, look above verse 43. What's he talking about there? Easy to love people that love you, right? Right? How you doing with loving your enemy? Now, don't name names, okay? This would be really embarrassing because this is taped, but who in your brain, only to you and the Lord, who's your enemy? Who's the person that you've put in the category of enemy? Could be family, could be friends, could be business, could be somebody that hurt you by ripping you off.

Jesus says, in my kingdom, we love our enemies. In fact, Jesus said, I'm going to do it on the cross. Love my enemies. The whole world was my enemy, but I loved them. I poured my life for them.

Application

Okay, next. What else in the sermon? Go. Giving to the needy. So, Jesus was quite aware and he himself would give to the needy, alms, but he said, look, it, of course, you're going to give, but the question is, what's the heart behind it? So, when you put your money into the basket, it's always going to be painful because you think it's your money. But if you put the Lord's money into his basket for the glory of his name, it's like, that brings joy. It actually does bring joy.

And so Jesus is saying, don't be like a hypocrite. Don't like, hey, look at me. Look how much I'm giving. That's why you'll notice here, nobody's names on the sanctuary, but the Lord's. Nobody's names on the chapel. Nobody's names anywhere except for the Lord's. Maybe just one or two more. Oh, for good measure, he throws in a special prayer. What's in the sermon on the Mount? Look above six verse five. The Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer. So, in the midst of the sermon where he's talking about anger and lust and giving and all these other things, he's teaching us a model for how to pray.

A lot of you go, Quig, I just can't pray. It's not my gift. Yes, you can. You don't have to be gifted to pray. Like, praying is listening and speaking. Listening and speaking. You clearly can speak. I've heard you. Right? And you clearly can listen. You've got two ears. You've got two ears.

What else besides the Lord's prayer? How about a couple more? Fasting. Verse six sixteen. It says, When you fast, don't look gloomy like the hypocrites. See, the Lord knows exactly what I do. Every time I fast, I hate it. All I do is like, look at me. I'm fasting. I don't like it. The church says we have to do it, and so I'm doing it, but I'm not doing it with a good heart. So I look miserable and tired, and I want you to know I'm suffering.

Jesus says, when you fast, don't look gloomy like the hypocrites. They disfigure their faces so that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they've received their reward. How about laying up treasures in heaven? See how Jesus is covering the gamut here? It's kingdom stuff.

What does he say about laying up treasures? He says, don't lay them up. Don't lay them up on earth because moth and rust destroy them. Lay them up in heaven. You want to lay up treasures. You want to lay up blessings for yourself. But you lay those up not by accumulating and accumulating. You lay them up by doing kingdom things for the king. You lay up treasures in heaven.

Conclusion

Okay. Last one. Oh no, I just got two more. What does it say after that? Verse 25. Don't be anxious. And by the very fact that the Bible says don't be anxious would indicate to you that people in the early church, you know, the saints, the apostles, the godly ones, the ones who saw the resurrection. They in fact were struggling with anxiety. Anxiety and worry. And Jesus says, therefore, I tell you, don't be anxious about your life. What you'll eat, what you'll drink, nor about your body, what to put on. Is life not more than food and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air. They neither reap nor sow into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Okay, let's go to verse seven and what does it say there in his sermon? Judge not. So, we're so famous, and I think if you talk to non-Christians, what they will tell you kind of across the board is, Jesus maybe the church, not so much because what they've experienced, a lot of them, is not God's grace and his mercy. Not even a call to his kindness that leads to repentance. But what they've experienced is just legalism, judgment. And anybody with a brain goes, I don't want that.

And anything else in the sermon? Ask, and will be given. God says, come to my throne boldly. Ask. Ask. Ask. Golden rule. Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. Build your house on the rock, etcetera, etcetera. So, you see all these subjects. At the end of Jesus giving this sermon, might have been, who knows, maybe it was twenty minutes, maybe it was two hours.

Look down at verse 28 of chapter seven. What is it? What's kind of the summary of the finish? It says, and when Jesus finished these sayings, all those things, remember the 20 things he talked about in the sermon on the Mount, the ones that you can't remember because we had them three minutes ago. He goes, when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes.

You see, it was the subject matter. It was the truth of what he was teaching but it was also that it was anointed by the Holy Spirit. There is something that goes beyond human ability to be a good orator. If you could imagine being up here where I am, and imagine all the different hurts, all the different personalities, all the people that didn't have sleep, all the people that are here that really don't want to be, but there's so many elaborate defense systems. Only God's word driven by his Spirit could possibly get inside of all those elaborate defense fields.

"You Are Salt and Light"

Now, let's go to the three verses where we're going to learn about being salt and light. Go back to Matthew five. Matthew five. Begin at verse 13. Jesus says the strangest thing to them. He goes, you're salt. And I'd be like, you're purple. You're ham meats. I mean, it's the weirdest thing to say. You're salt.

What does that mean? Well, to us, that sounds crazy, crazy. But in the day of Jesus, there was no electricity, there was no refrigerators, there's no Kroger, there's no freezer. So, when you read about them killing all these animals, right? Whether it's a Passover lamb or whatever, whatever, what they had to eat, fishing on the sea. What do you do with those fish and what do you do with that meat? You don't have a refrigerator to put it in.

So how do you keep it from spoiling? Salt. Salt. Right? You've seen a cured ham? Like, to me, that's, I'm not, I'd like to ask somebody who knows about bacteria and things like that. To me, it's creepy to think that you can take a piece of meat, put salt on it, and all of a sudden, all the bad guys go away. But apparently, that's true because they've been doing it for millennia. And so Jesus says to them, you are the salt of the earth.

If salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? What do we use salt for? What do we use it for? Flavor. Flavor. Okay. Have you ever cooked grits? I'm going to explain to you very quickly, and this is to be well worth your time today. All you people from north of the Mason Dixon line, you hate grits and I'll tell you why you hate grits. You hate grits because you go to some little greasy spoon and they serve you grits, but because somebody told the owner that you can't put salt in it because there are lots of people that have high sodium, low sodium diets. They just take grits and boiling water and they cook them and they taste like glue. Amen? Yes. Terrible.

You take those same grits and you sprinkle some salt in them. Not on the tail end. If you do it on the tail end, it doesn't work. It just tastes salt, salty, and gross, but while they're cooking, you put salt and grits and you know what? They taste amazing. Butter. Butter. Amen. Butter, shrimp. So, the Lord's basically saying like, you guys are salt. Notice it's present tense. Not you can be salt, not you will be salt, not hey, if your behavior is better, you're going to be salt to the earth. He goes, no, this is what you actually are. Could we rest in that?

So, so a lot of times, we think, gosh, Lord, I'm imperfect. I'm a sinner on this. But what the Lord says is like, you guys, you're salt to the earth. In other words, I've sent you. I've placed you where you are to be a preservative. There is wickedness and ungodliness. We ourselves struggle with it. But we do have the righteousness of Christ. We have the Spirit. And so, he's saying is, I need you not to say, world, go away. See, my tendency is to be like Rod Dreyer and do the Benedict option and just remove myself from society and stay with my Christian friends. But the Lord says, no, no, no, no. You are my ambassador. You're my follower. You're my disciple. And until I return, I am going to use you on this planet.

Do you know how many hospitals were built because people love Jesus? Most of them. Do you have any schools built? Do you know, like our justice system? So many things, like Christians have poured slavery. Who stood up? Wilberforce. On and on and on again. And I grant you, since we've gotten the X or Twitter and Instagram, maybe we haven't been so preserving to the world. But historically, that was the job of the church, of Jesus' followers.

You are salt. Let's go down to verse 14. He goes, you are the light of the world. You're the light of the world. Now, maybe you're like me and you're like, I don't feel like the light of the world. I mean, during the confession time, I had some real things to confess to the Lord, but then I had to remember, but he's washed me. Such were some of you, but you've been washed. And that's why I could get my eyes off myself and I could actually see the Lord in his holiness and glory.

See, when you can make the shift from taking your eyes off yourself and put it onto him, you win. And he says, so really, it's not that you have light within yourself. Right? It's because Jesus said, I am the light of the world, and you really, really, really, not wink, wink, you really, really, really are hid in Jesus. And so, if he is the light of the world, guess what you are as a child of God whose life is hidden in the Lord? You also are a light. A light in the darkness. Right?

You, you're one of those that God has chosen for this place and this time to shine a light, to speak things that are true, speak for justice, speak for those who don't, who can't speak for themselves. Have you ever been around somebody in the body of Christ where after you're with them, you just feel cleaner? I mean, I'll give you words. Maybe just feel happier around them. Maybe just feel more peace. There's something about that person. They're not that many of them, right? But I know some.

You get in their presence, and it's very clear they've been with the Lord. They are reflecting, and they're not religious. They're reflecting the beauty of our Savior, and what Jesus says, that's who you are. There's no special club, right? If you're a Christian, you're salt. You're going to be my agents to preserve my kingdom until it fully comes.

If you're a child of God, he says, it's not that you will be light. You are light. You're to hide it under a bushel? No. I'm going to let it shine. How many people that are that don't know Jesus, and there are a bunch of them, Jesus wants to use you. You. He could do this, but he's chosen to use you. You're his salt. You're his flavor. You're his preservative. You're the one that brings light into the darkness because Christ is doing it through you.

Friends, there's no other high, high calling. He says, let your light so shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who's in heaven.

Conclusion

Christians get all weirded out about works and faith and works and faith. Real faith always produces godly works. It just does. As Charlie Tull would say, it's not—that's not how we earn salvation. We do it because we can't help it. We can't help it. The world's perishing. Jesus has sent you. Be who you are, in Him. Name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

So you guys, we have a small crowd today, and that's awesome. Sometimes, it seems like the Holy Spirit moves the most because everybody that's here on Labor Day wants to be here. Everybody here on Labor Day wants to be here. Sorry, you don't have a lake house or beach house, whatever. But we want to just give you a chance.

Our church is the strongest when we get on our knees. Getting on your knees—I mean, you could do it in the pew, but there's something powerful about kneeling before the Lord, not to be seen by men but so the Lord will meet you there. It's powerful to bend your knee. If you've got arthritis, you can stand up and bend in your heart. These rails are for you to do business with the Lord, whatever it is.

Side rails are like, hey, I just need somebody to pray for me. Life is hard. It's hard. We'll pray for you, or you can go away and not be prayed for. But we'd love to pray for you.

Amen.