Impacting Your Environment, Part 2

If you were with us the last time we were together, we began our time talking or addressing the condition of society. That was our first point. Addressing the condition of society. Understanding it falls into two areas. Number one, our society is decaying. And not only is it decaying, but it's dark.

And the reason it's decaying is because 1 John 5:19 says that the whole world lieth in the lap of the wicked one, the evil one. Satan is in dominant control of this world system, and the world is under his influence. And if you read over in Philippians chapter 2, excuse me, verses 14 to 16, Paul says that this is a crooked and perverse generation. You go a little bit further back to 2 Timothy 3. Paul helps Timothy understand that things are not going to get better, they're going to get worse. In fact, they're going to go from bad to worse. And so we need to understand that as society continues on down its path, it's not going to get better.

But 2 Peter chapter 3 helps us understand that God, again, is going to destroy the world. Peter says it this way: Second Peter 3, verse number 7. "But the present heavens and earth, by his word, are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men." Then down to verse 10. "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat. And the earth and its works will be burned up." And Peter says: with that in mind, knowing that God is going to destroy everything on this earth and in this earth. Listen to what Peter says.

"Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness." Now, maybe your text says, "What manner of people ought you to be?" That would probably be a better translation. When Matthew used it in Matthew chapter 8, he was saying, "What kind of unearthly man is this? That even the winds and the sea obey him?" Peter uses it and says, "Look, what unearthly people we ought to be." The point is this: we are so foreign to this country. We are so foreign to this race, the unbelieving race. We are so foreign because we are of a new nature. We're a new kind of people. That the way we conduct ourselves ought to be so transforming and so different that the world takes note. Are we the unearthly kind of people? That's what Peter's trying to get across.

And the point is this: the world is just going to decay and get worse and worse and worse. It's all under the power of the wicked one. And our job, because it's decaying, is to be salt. And we looked at the life of Lot last time. And I firmly believe that God turned his wife into a pillar of salt when she looked back because Lot was not salt in Sodom. He was not what he should have been, and God left in stone for all time for him to remember what he should have been in a society that was decaying. And now we live in a society that's decaying. And the Lord God says, "You need to be salt."

But you also live in a society that's very, very dark. And the fundamental fact that Jesus is the light of the world suggests that the world is dark. It's in spiritual darkness that dominates the entire world system. And the problem with that is that the world just loves it that way. It says over in John 3, verse 19, "and this is the judgment that light is coming to the world, and men love the darkness rather than light. For their deeds were evil." So the condition of the world is such that it's decaying and it's dark and men love it that way.

So what is the solution? That's point number two. We want to articulate the solution from scripture in four areas. Number one, the fact. Number two, the function. Number three, the failure. And number four, the fulfillment. Number one is the facts. Matthew chapter 5 is our text, verses 15, 16, and 17.

The Lord says this: "You are the salt of the earth. But if salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing any more except to be thrown down, or thrown out, or trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under the peck measure, but on the lampstand. And it gives light to all who are in the house. 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." Here's the fact. You are salt and you are light. That's just the cold, hard facts.

Number two, the function. What's the function of salt and light? Two things. As salt, you've got to be able to shake it all over the place. And as light, you've got to be able to shine in a way that directs people to the Lord. Now. In Jesus' day, salt was a commodity of great value, a tremendous value. And you've heard the phrase, you know, you're not worth your salt. My mom used to always tell me that when I was doing work around the house growing up. She goes, "Look, man, if you going to do work around here, man, you've got to be worth your salt." And I kept asking her, "Well, what does that mean?" Well, it means the fact that Roman soldiers a lot of times were paid in salts.

Salt was a very valuable commodity in Jesus' day. There was no refrigeration. They couldn't, you, open the ice box, you know, and pull out a cold Pepsi and freeze their meat. They had to pack it in salts, see, in order to preserve the meat. And so salt became a very valuable commodity. If you were to share salt with your enemy, your enemy was to sit down with you and treat you as a friend. They realized how valuable salt was. Salt was a mark of friendship. And so when two people shared salt, they were sharing mutual friendship with one another. And so when Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth," the people around about him understood what that meant. They understood that whoever was a salt was a very valuable individual. Because salt was of great value to these people. And so, from the very outset, Christ helped us to understand how valuable we are as His children. We are salt. And to be salt was to be so valuable that everybody wanted to have it. And so we begin to understand that salt is a very valuable commodity.

But salt also creates thirst, doesn't it? It creates thirst. And the Christian is to live in such a way that the people around them see themselves spiritually dehydrated. Create a thirst in such a way that they come to drink of the living water, right? And so we understand that salt, as it is shaken out all over the place, causes pain in the lives of people. It creates a thirst in the lives of people as well as they begin to see that the void in their life, the emptiness that's there, can't be filled in anything of earthly value. Only through the Lord Jesus Christ.

But salt also curbs corruption in society. Salt is a preserving agent, and I believe that that's the main use behind what Christ is trying to help us understand here by us being the salt of the earth. Christians are a preserving influence in the world, they retard moral and spiritual spoilage. We represent God's presence on the earth. We are the salt that prevents the entire earth from degenerating faster than it already is.

But number two, as light, we ought to shine. We ought to shine bright for the sake of the kingdom of God. Salt is more hidden, but light is more obvious. It's meant to be seen. Salt kind of works behind the scenes. It kind of works secretly. But light, it works openly. Salt is sort of like an indirect communication, where light is an obvious direct communication. Light or salt is portrayed on how we live. But light is portrayed on what we say and what we speak and what we teach. In salt is largely negative, it retards corruption. But it can't turn corruption around. The light has to do that. So the two function together. The light retards the corruption. I mean, the salt retards the corruption, but the light shows the way to the new life, to the real life. It guides people to what is true.

Philippians chapter 2, verse number 15, Paul says, "We are to prove ourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom we are to appear as lights in the world." The Bible says that God is light. And because we have become partakers of His divine nature, 2 Peter 1:4, we now are light in the world. And so we are to shine for the sake of the kingdom of God.

But the problem comes to point number three: the failure to be salt and light. The Lord says this: He says, "Look. If the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing any more except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men." The failure is becoming tasteless as salt. As light, it's becoming lightless. But as salt, we've become tasteless by letting the world corrupt us instead of us preserving corruption in the world. We cannot be an influence of purity in the world if we compromise our own purity, can we? We cannot stimulate thirst for righteousness if we have lost our own thirst for righteousness. We cannot be used of God to retard the corruption of sin in the world if our own lives have become corrupted by sin. To lose our saltiness does not mean that we lose our salvation. It means that we lose our effectiveness. You see, the problem with Christianity today is that we are a tasteless kind of people. We need to be tasteful kind of people. The kind of people that have bite in them. The kind of people that, when people are able to look at, understand. There's something different about our lives.

It was John Stott who said, "Now strictly speaking, salt can never lose its saltiness. I have given to understand that sodium chloride is a very stable chemical compound, which is restraint to nearly every attack. Nevertheless, it can become contaminated by mixture with impurities, and that it becomes useless, even dangerous. Desalted salt is unfit even for manure." And Christ will talk about that in Luke chapter 14. But the question is, you've got to ask yourself: how tasteful are you? Are you tasteless? Have you lost your taste? Because the world has infiltrated your family. The world has infiltrated your way of thinking. The world has infiltrated the way you spend your money. Only you can answer that. Only you can deal with that.

But also, there's the failure of becoming lightless, the danger of losing our light. As salt can become useless, so light can become useless. It says, "You are the light of the world," verse 14. "A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under the peck measure, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house." A hidden light is still light, but it's useless. How tragic it is when those in our own family look at us and see us as hypocrites because you live a different kind of life than what we do on Sundays. That light is hidden. We've covered it up when we go home. And the Lord says, "Don't do that. Instead, let that light shine." That's the fulfillment.

That's point number four. Let it shine, he says. "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." The fulfillment comes in two ways: beauty and in glory. First of all, beauty, good works. The word is used kalas, which speaks of the idea of attractiveness, outer beauty. Agathos deals with the quality of one's life, but Kalas deals with the outer beauty of one's life. And the Lord says, "Look, when your light shines, people are able to see your good works." And the works that they see, now understand this, is the light that is being shown. And that light that is being shown is because you have the Father of lights who lives in you, the light of the world. And that's why the light's beautiful. It's not beautiful because of who you are. It's beautiful because of whose you are. He lives in you, he shines through you.

The Bible says that there's nothing good in man. The only thing good in us is what Jesus Christ Himself has done in us and will do through us, right? And so the good works they see are the works that God is demonstrating through our lives because we've yielded ourselves to Him. And then the people see those beautiful works, those beautiful deeds, and respond in a positive way. God is our light. And our choice is either to hide that light or to let it shine. When you light a candle, we light the candle so that the room is lighted. So we can see things in the room. We don't light the candle so we can look at the candle. We light the candle so we can see everything around us. And when the light of Jesus Christ shines through our lives, people see Jesus Christ. You see, the world is drawn to Christ. They get their perception of Christ not because of the church. And not because of the Bible. They get it from people like you and me. That's how they see Jesus Christ. And so, how we live our life is so crucial because people are observing and looking and watching.

But not only is there beauty, but there's glory. "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your beautiful works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." See, the whole purpose of shining, the whole purpose of being salt, is for the praise of God. That others will see him and glorify his beautiful name. He deserves all the praise, not us. He deserves all the glory. Not us. And so we got to be the kind of people that live that kind of life. So when people see us, God gets glory.

Over in Second Kings chapter 4, verses 8 and 9. There's a story about Elisha who went to Shinom, and a well-to-do woman was there, and she urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. And one day this lady said to her husband, these words: "I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God." Elisha preached no sermons. Elisha performed no miracles. All Elisha did was eat, and the woman knew that he was a holy man of God. Point being is that people can know that you're a man of God just by the way you eat. Just by the way you drink. That's how this woman knew that Elisha was a man of God.

When people look at your life, what do they see? If someone was to examine your life today, would they say that you're a man of God, a woman of God, a man or a woman of great integrity, of supreme purity? Would they know that by just looking at your life and observing you from the distance? It's so important for us to understand the impact our lives have. Everybody's looking. Everybody's watching. Oh, you might not think that anybody's looking, but they are. And if you have at any time told them or they have heard that you are a so-called Christian, then you're under a microscope. And they're looking at your life. How many times has the testimony of Jesus Christ been ruined because we have not lived a righteous and holy life?

It was Martin Lloyd-Jones who said this. "The glory of the gospel is that when the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it. It is then that the world is made to listen to her message, though it may hate it at first." Has anybody been attracted to your message? Has anybody been attracted to your life by how you live? You have to ask yourself those questions.

Do people, when they look at your life, wonder, how did they ever conquer that habit? I tried to get rid of that habit for years, but somehow they were able to conquer that habit. Maybe it was a habit of pornography. Maybe it was a habit of drinking. Maybe it was a habit of smoking. I don't know what your habits are, but they look at you and say, you know what? How did they conquer that habit? How did they overcome something that I so desperately would like to overcome? How did they do that? Anybody ever ask you that? They know of some vice in your life that you were able to gain victory in because Jesus Christ gave you the power to do so?

People ask why is their love so deep and so lasting and ours so shallow and so fickle? How does that couple stay together for 50 and 55 and 60 years and still love one another? Not just put up with one another, but really love one another. How do they actually do that? When my wife and I, we can't even look at each other. We've only been married for two or three years. Does your marriage ring true of a godly life? Two people who love one another, are committed to one another, no matter what. I believe, I really believe that, that the greatest deterrent to Christianity is divorce. I really believe that. Shocking thing to realize that getting married to meet my needs is very secondary.

Do you know the primary reason for marriage? The number one reason for marriage. Is not has nothing to do with you. Did you know that? The primary reason for marriage in that institution is to portray to the world Christ's love for the church. That's why there's marriage. Whether you get your needs met, whether you're happy, that's all secondary. So, you've got to ask yourself the question: how is the love of God being portrayed through my marriage? Because you see, the world is looking at that stuff. They're examining it. They want to know exactly what makes your marriage stay together in love doing so. That becomes a very powerful testimony, doesn't it? To a world who divorces at the drop of a hat.

How about this? How on earth could that person ever forgive what that individual did to them? Do you have the spirit of forgiveness? Do you forgive as God Himself, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you? The Christian is most like Christ when forgiveness is at stake, right? And so when you have the opportunity to forgive somebody, when they have wronged you severely, the world sits back and watches. How do you handle that? What do you do with that? How can they learn to forgive like that? That's creating the thirst, you see. That's shining the light. The light of the Lord Jesus Christ. Once again, we're brought back to the hardcore reality that everything that happens in our life and through our life is for God's sake and not our sake. And to be honest with you, most of us have a hard time with that, don't we? But that's what it's all about. It's called the Christian life. It's called the Christ-like life. It's his life, right? Him living in and through us.

Which brings us to main point number three: applying some directions. For the saints in two areas: one as salt and one as light. As salt, just one exhortation. Are you rubbing into society? You'll never be light except on the condition of being salt. You preserve corruption privately and you illumine others publicly. So as salts, we got to rub ourselves into society. As light, we got to reflect our Savior. As light, we've got to reflect our Savior.

Donald Barnhouse said this about us reflecting the Lord Jesus. He says, "When Christ was in the world, he was like the shining sun, which is here in the day and gone at night. When the sun sets, the moon comes up, and the moon is a picture of the believers or the church. The church shines, but it does not shine with its own light. It shines with reflected lights. When Jesus was in the world, he said, I am the light of the world. But as he contemplated leaving the world, he told his disciples, You are the light of the world. At times, the Church has been a full moon dazzling the world with an almost daytime light. These have been times of great enlightenment, such as those of Paul and Luther and Wesley. And at other times the church has been only a thumbnail moon, and very little light shines on the earth. But whether the church is a full moon or a new thumbnail moon, waxing or waning, it reflects the light of the sun." May God help you to shake salt all over the city. And may God help you to shine the light in the areas of darkness. That people might know the way, the truth, and the life because you were bold enough to show it to them.