Salt and Light, part two

Many years ago, while I was on active duty with the Navy, I attended combat training exercises at Camp Pendleton in California. Part of that training took place in the fields at night. The Marine Corps sergeant was telling us about what is called ‘light integrity’ – and why it’s important to maintain black-out conditions in a war zone. To emphasize his point, he turned off his flashlight and told all of us to do the same. It was now pitch dark. The only light we had came from the slice of a crescent moon. The sergeant turned our attention to a hilltop some two or three miles toward the east. He whispered a few words into his radio and then suddenly a small light exploded in the distant darkness. His partner in the hills had lit a match. And the point about light integrity settled over all of us. In the darkness, the smallest light can be seen for miles.

Our text today follows closely with last week’s from chapter five and verses 14-16. We start at verse 13 for context: “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 under foot by men. “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 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.

We saw last week that Jesus told us we are the salt of the earth. He has given us the magnificent privilege to be a preserving agent to the culture, to also enhance the lives of those in our sphere of influence, and as a means of preventing the spread of sin’s infection through our society.

And Jesus also calls us the light of the world as we reflect the light of Christ, who IS the Light of the world – much the same way as the moon has no light in itself but reflects the light of the sun.

The Lord talks in today’s text about letting our light shine in such a way that men and women will see our good works – not for the purpose of self-glorification, but for the sole purpose of bringing glory, honor, praise, and exaltation to our Father in heaven. So, let’s first focus our attention of what it might mean for us to perform good works – not that our good works save us or keep us saved, but because our Father CREATED us for good works, as He tells us in the apostle Paul’s letter to the Christians at Ephesus:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)

So, while our works do not save us, they DO help to both demonstrate our relationship with Christ, and to point others to the Father. Now let me be quick to say this is not at all to diminish the importance of good works. This is not to give us excuse to sit back and be content with going to simply going to church and tithing each week. No, not at all. This is a good time to remind ourselves of what the Lord Jesus warned will happen at the judgment to lazy so-called Christians when He separates the sheep from the goats:

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:34-46)

So, let’s put away from ourselves the idea that we can go through life, helping only ourselves and a few others, and not be prepared to help strangers in need of what resources we can easily – and sometimes not so easily – provide.

Doesn’t that dovetail with what the Lord Jesus told us about loving our neighbor as we love ourselves? Of course, it does. And, oh, by the way, speaking of loving our neighbor – we should take a moment to examine what God means when He tells us to walk in love, and in so doing, we will demonstrate love for our neighbor.

Every Christian knows instinctively what it means to walk in love because the Holy Spirit, who LIVES in each believer, tells us how to walk in love. And it matters not a whit if the person is an hour old in the Lord or 50 years walking with Christ. One of the roles of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus told us, is to guide us into truth. It is just as true to say the Holy Spirit guides us AWAY from error.

Now, certainly a brand-new Christian will not have the well-formed conscience of a mature Christian, but when it comes to areas of morality – well, as Scripture repeatedly tells us, no one who is born of God can sin without the Holy Spirit nudging him or her in the right direction. Every Christian – new in Christ or a long time in Christ – every Christian will know when something is morally wrong or right. A Christian might dismiss the Holy Spirit’s whisper because he or she doesn’t want to do what God is telling them at the moment, but every true Christian – whether born again five minutes ago or 50 years ago, will know the right thing to do in any circumstance related to morality. We can count on that.

Therefore, every Christian knows intuitively what it means to walk in love because the Holy Spirit always guides us into truth. And it is important to remind ourselves that walking in love does not compromise God's truth. Walking in love does NOT mean adopting an attitude of “I’m okay, you’re okay’ if the “You’re okay” means affirming either by word or by action, a lifestyle of sin. Neither does walking in love mean we should participate in events that celebrate their sin. That is NOT love. It is nothing less than the misuse of God's word and the mockery of His calling us salt and light in a world infected with sin and walking in darkness.

Give me one example in all of Scripture where the godly attended events celebrating sin. You cannot find it. Give me one example in which Jesus attended an event to celebrate someone’s sin. You cannot find it. And so, if Christians are to be light in a world perverted and infected by sin and living in darkness, then we must reflect the light of Christ.

So, now let’s return to the first part of this text in which Jesus tells us, “You are the light of the world.” As I prepared this message, I thought about a song many of you might know. It’s called, The Lighthouse. Here are the lyrics:

There's a lighthouse on the hillside that overlooks life's sea.
When I'm tossed it sends out a light that I might see.
And the light that shines in darkness now will safely lead me home,
If it wasn't for the lighthouse, my ship would sail no more.

And I thank God for The Lighthouse, I owe my life to Him/Jesus is The Lighthouse and from the rocks of sin/He has shown the light around me, so that I might clearly see/If it wasn't for The Lighthouse, Where would this ship be?

Everyone that lives around us, says tear that old lighthouse down./The big ships don't sail this way anymore, ain't no use in it standing round/But then my mind goes back to that stormy night, when just in time I saw the light
With the light from that old lighthouse, that stands there on the hill.

And I thank God for The Lighthouse, I owe my life to Him/Jesus is The Lighthouse and from the rocks of sin/He has shown the light around me, so that I might clearly see/If it wasn't for The Lighthouse, Where would this ship be?

Christian, let me make this confession to you: If it were not for that Lighthouse, I would have shipwrecked decades ago on those rocks of sin. And I can easily extrapolate –deduce – what kind of man I would be today – if even I would be alive today – I can extrapolate what I would be today were it not for Jesus’ light that guided me to safe shores. And I suspect for most of you, if you think back to your own past, you also can conclude with reasonable accuracy what kind of person you’d be today if you’d not seen and followed the light of Christ.

Don’t you think one reason the Lord tells us we are lights on a hilltop is so we can help others avoid shipwreck, or, to guide those already floundering in the churning waves the way to safe shores? Of course, that’s one reason. God doesn’t only love YOU and me. He loves all those with whom we come into contact and all those in our spheres of influence.

Do you remember this text from the fourth chapter of Matthew – “The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great Light, and those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a Light dawned”? (Matthew 4:16)

Listen! People all around us are walking in darkness. How else can anyone reasonable explain the evil rampaging through our culture? Watching the television news is like reading this text from St Paul’s pen to Timothy: “For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.” (See 2 Timothy 3:2-5)

Watching the television news is like reading the apostle’s ancient warning to those who choose today to live ungodly lives – whether they sit in the pews each week or they are never in the pews: They “became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools. . . .  For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due . . . .being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful.” (See Romans 1:22-31)

Listen, Christian! THAT is why Jesus made us to be lights in the world, that we may reflect Christ by OUR lifestyles and by our words to shine “in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom [we] appear as lights in the world.” (Philippians 2:15-16)

Christian, please hear this: Being salt and light are not only our responsibility before God, but it is also our PRIVILEGE to be a co-laborer with Christ. Just think of that for a moment: The almighty God, the Creator of the universe, gives flesh and blood – and sinners at that, sinners who’ve been redeemed by the blood of Jesus – God give us the unspeakable honor and opportunity of working with Him to bring souls to Himself AND to mitigate some of the effects of sin in this world.

God give us the privilege – and I will say it again – God gives us the RESPONSIBILTY to work with Him.

Christian, in this late hour, we need to be serious about walking with Jesus. We need to be serious about being salt and light. We need to be serious about practicing a life of holiness. We need to be serious about what we see and what we watch. And know this: There’s a huge difference between seeing and watching. As Martin Luther said, “We can’t stop the birds from flying over our heads, but we CAN stop them from building a nest in our hair.”

Likewise, we often cannot stop seeing something, but we do not have to sit and WATCH whatever it is that we should not be watching. As Jesus warned us in Matthew 6:22-23; “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

Please consider what I am saying, and the Holy Spirit will give us each wisdom in these things.

When I was with that group of men and women during those field exercises at Camp Pendleton, the SMALLEST light became visible from miles away. And so it always will be with our supernatural God who can use even the smallest of things we do for Him – things we might consider insignificant and useless – God is able to use whatever we do for Him to illuminate those around us – lighting their way through their darkness to a life of spiritual abundance now, and eternal life tomorrow.

May God ever help us to let our lights shine for Jesus.