In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches a lesson on Kingdom living. At the beginning of the sermon, He teaches the importance of being salt and light. Light represents the influence that followers of Jesus have on the world. We are seen, not for our glory, but for the glory of God to be seen in us.
And salt serves two functions for the servants of Jesus, both functions to the glory of Jesus through us. The first, like light, is an influencing function. We should live holy and righteous lives so that the evil world in which we live is palatable to God. Without the seasoning effect of our salt, there is often nothing good in a society void of God.
And because of this, our salt acts as a preservative in the evil societies in which we live. How many times have we seen where God was willing to spare the many because of the obedience of the few? God was ready to spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the goodness of only ten people. And in Genesis 15, God tells Abraham that He is not giving him his inheritance because the iniquity of the Amorites is not full. We can see over and over in Scripture where the righteous lives of the few preserved the many before the Lord.
Here is what Jesus says in the sermon on the mount:
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” (Matthew 5:13 ESV).
Sometimes, when we look at the evil where we live, it’s easy to grow despondent. In our own lifetime, we have seen a marked departure by our society from Kingdom living principles that many of us grew up with. I fear that this trend will only get worse as we begin our wholesale abandonment of God and as our society turns toward idols we create to replace God.
As this abandonment continues to march forward, it is all the more important that we remember the words of Jesus. We are still the salt of the earth. There has never been a more important time for us to remember the value of our preserving effect on the society in which we live.
How long this preservation will last is anyone’s guess. It is up to the sovereign God to determine when our society becomes so distasteful in the mouth of God that not even our salt will be enough to preserve it. This is when we need to remember that no matter what happens, we are citizens of a heavenly Kingdom. And the darker our world becomes, the more it loses its flavor, then the more pronounced our influence will be seen and felt on it.
When all around us sin; when society calls good evil and calls evil good; when we make the innocent victims and uphold the hands of the guilty; when society spews vile thoughts and persecutes holy thinking; our salt will be all the more important.
It’s easier to be salty when all around us think like salt. But as we find ourselves in an ever-shrinking group who live like salt, we will have to make an even more conscious decision each day to live up to the Master’s expectation for us to be the salt of the earth. Let’s set it in our hearts now to be the world’s salt that preserves our evil society through our influence upon it for as long as we can. And when the iniquities of our society become full, let us continue to be the salt and the light in a world in which our godly influence will be seen all the more in increasingly starker contrast.
As we think about our salt, let’s remember the words of Paul to the young preacher Titus:
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,” (Titus 2:11-13 ESV).”
Why do I have peace in my assurance of my salvation?
Because I know that my salvation is not something I earn.
It is a gift of grace given by God.
My salvation cannot be taken away from me.
It is a gift that is mine to accept or reject, but once I accept it, Jesus will keep it sure,
I will continue to walk with God, and accept His help as I need it.
But I sleep a peaceful sleep because no matter what happens in my life, my gift of salvation is sure.
My faith is in His promises, which is why I have blessed assurance.
“which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.” (2 Timothy 1:12 ESV).
We all need a friend who we can be vulnerable with. Someone who will not judge or condemn, but will speak the truth we need to hear, no matter how hard it may be to hear.
Someone we can bring things we wrestle with and be a sounding board for us. Someone who can give us a different perspective when we we start to see things with blinders on.
We need that person who will allow us to vent and still love us, show our frustration and still respect us.
We need that friend who has a long memory when it comes to the good things about us and a short memory when it comes to our areas of imperfections.
We need that friend who will support us yet not excuse our inexcusable behavior. We need that friend who helps us become more of who Jesus wants us to be and not one who helps us descend away from what Jesus expects from us.
This is an amazing and rare friend. But to have one, I must first be willing to be one.
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13:4
This thought just sent shivers up my spine:
God is patient... until He isn’t.
I’m reading the book of Judges in my daily Bible reading. However, there is a sad message that is a recurring theme.
Even when God sends a savior, man will easily forget God and return to his own way.
But there is also another message that is easily forgotten.
Though many forget God when He sends a savior and returns to his own way, there will always be a remnant who looks at the Lord’s salvation and remain humble at His strength and provision.
These people are peppered throughout the book of Judges and are often not the judges themselves.
Not much has changed today. The Father has sent the ultimate Savior to save us from our sins, yet we often do what the children of Israel did in the book of Judges.
Though we want salvation, we want to live our own way more. So we are willing to take salvation from the Lord, but we are not willing to turn to Him fully.
But as we learn from Judges, unless we return fully to the Lord after receiving His salvation,
Our way and our rejection of God will only lead to one place- back to the slavery and domination of sin.
What do we learn from the Israelites in the book of Judges? That we can’t have it both ways: We cannot accept salvation from God and continue to walk in the way that causes us to be lost.
“For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” (Hebrews 10:26-27 ESV).
If you want to be godly, surround yourself with godly people.
If you want to be a servant, surround yourself with servants.
If you want to be a better Bible student, surround yourself with people who study the Bible.
If you want to attend church more, surround yourself with people who go to church.
“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17 ESV).
He Knew.
From the beginning when Adam and Eve sinned, He knew.
He knew that His heel would be bruised. That He would be the seed of woman Who would suffer to save them and their descendants.
In Matthew 16, Jesus asked the disciples who they thought He was. Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of God.”
It is no coincidence that Jesus tells them the following after this confession:
“From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” (Matthew 16:21 ESV).
He knew, and He was preparing them to know.
His heel was about to be bruised and when it was, it was not because He was beaten by man or by Satan.
Again, He showed them that He knew.
This time, in the next chapter, Matthew records Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain. After His identity as God’s Son was again revealed, He told them the Son of Man would certainly suffer at the hands of evil men.
He Knew.
And the last time that Matthew tells us that Jesus knew, it was on the way to Jerusalem, just before His sacrifice:
“And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem.
And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.” (Matthew 20:17-19 ESV).
He knew.
When we remember His death every first day of the week, we remember that His enemies didn’t overcome Him through death, but that He, through death, overcame sin and Satan.
He knew.