The sermon from January 15, 2023, based on 1 Peter 2, verses 11 and 12, not of the world, but in the world, was not recorded because of an oversight. In its place, we are pleased to offer this sermon from the previous year, recorded at another church, covering a similar topic. Enjoy. This morning we consider deed ministry this evening. We'll consider word ministry as we consider what it means to love our neighbor. What it means to love our neighbor. God tells us we love our neighbor with the word of life, which we'll consider this evening. God tells us that we love our neighbor with the works of life and of light. And we'll consider that this morning. Matthew 5, verses 13 through 16, this is God's holy and inspired word. 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. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we rejoice at your word that you have given us guidance Your revelation, the very light of Christ, incarnate and inscripturated. Father, so that as sojourners in this world, we are not lost, we need not wonder, we need not wander away from your commandments, but we are to walk in faithfulness to you and in walk, Father, and run in the way of your commandments. So help us, Lord, help us to not only understand mentally, cognitively, what you're saying here, which is our life and length of days, but help us to walk in this wondrous light, in this wondrous truth in your life. We pray, help us now in Jesus' name. Amen. It is no exaggeration, people of God, to say that if we were to consider the words of the Sermon on the Mount, we would be here for hours, days, and years. The richness of this portion of scripture is vast and cannot be plumbed comprehensively. So I won't try this morning. And these short four verses, I sense the weight of them upon me. So there is much here that we can look at, but there is much we won't be able to look at. in these verses. What I want to do, what I want to lay out for us this morning is three simple things. First of all, what is salt? What is light? What's Jesus getting at here in these verses? And then secondly, I want to couch what Jesus says here in the greater context, not just in the Sermon on the Mount, but the context of God's Word. How is it that God is here calling you, the church, to do that which God had called Israel to do? And how is it that God calls us to this worldwide task of being salt of the earth and light of the world? And then finally and thirdly, we'll round out our time in the Word together with a few clarifications. All right, let us begin. You are, Jesus says, the salt of the earth. What does that mean? What's the symbol there of salt meant to represent? Much ink has been spilled, rightly so, by commentators seeking to find a parallel between the ancient use of salt and the nature of the church. Salt is needed for life. Salt is needed to season, for taste. It's a preserving agent that helps restrain food corruption. It has to be mixed into food in order to be effective. And of course, all of those things are true. But there's a greater point to what Jesus is saying here, which often we miss. The point, simply put, is that for salt to be effective in whatever task it's to be used, it must be salt. It must not have lost its saltiness or its saltness. It has to be, essentially, in its very nature, distinctly salt. Not halfway salt, not mostly salt, salt. And that's what the Church is. The Church is to be distinct. It must be distinct in order for it to be the Church. It must be distinct from the world. John Stott, in his comments on this text, says it well, says it best, perhaps. These metaphors are incomprehensible to us. We don't first understand the contrasts that work here. You have earth and you have salt. You have world and you have light. And the two are distinct. It's not that we are not in the world, beloved. It's that we are not of the world. Our origin is not in this world. You cannot understand the church merely with earthly categories. In order to call the world back to Christ, a church cannot be like the world, but it must be distinct from the world. And so often, this is where the contemporary church in America falls at this very point and trips up. Sunday mornings are not a musical production. It's not a concert. The church is not a nonprofit. It's not a political lobby organization. It's not an earthly thing, an earthbound entity. The church is a distinct kingdom. It has a different Lord altogether. It has a different life, a different law, a different destiny, a different motivation for living. The church possesses a heavenly charter, which is what the Sermon on the Mount is all about. It's life in the kingdom, the kingdom of life and of light, the kingdom of God. This is what it means to be a citizen of this heavenly kingdom. The church possesses the life of heaven itself. The church was created by God, not by man. The church is God's creation. And the church has been commissioned and equipped by the one true living God to do His work. And the church is the only body, the only entity on earth that can do this work. To proclaim the good news that Jesus is King over all. And He offers pardon, full and free, to all treasonous rebels who have plotted against Him, but who turn back to Him in repentance and worship. And in this way, the Church helps gather in the nations to Christ. This is the Church's unique, distinct work that the Church alone can do. But what happens if she loses what makes her distinct? Well, what happens is what Jesus says. If you are the salt of the earth, if you are the church, my church, Jesus says, but if you lose what is distinct about you, if you lose your essence, your essential nature, what's it good for? What's the church good for if what makes her distinct is what she loses, the worship of God, the proclamation of the good news, the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, the adoption as sons through Christ's death and resurrection, the work of the Spirit, the hope of the resurrection, the conquering power of Christ over sin and hell and Satan and death. What happens when the church loses what makes her distinct? What happens is that she may have gained the world, but she has lost her soul because she has lost her life in Christ. It's like having a fridge that doesn't work. It might have all the bells and whistles, but it doesn't keep food cold. It's just a hundred pound bulky piece of garbage. It's like a flashlight that's bright when it's on, but you never turn it on. It's always off. It's just another piece of plastic. That's what the church is. She is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. The church, when she has become like the world, becomes worthless. Because she has become lifeless, godless, Christless. And God says, to us, you are the salt of the earth. Do not lose what makes you distinct. Do not lose the gospel of Jesus Christ. And never, beloved, never minimize or downplay the sharpness of God's revelation. Or soften the edges of God's Word. Or dismiss how alien the church is to be in this world. You are an alien. You are a pilgrim. And we're seeing that more and more in our day. If you were to go to Jersey, you would stick out like a sore thumb. Because you are a Christian. Because you're not like the world. Because you belong to Christ. And more and more, that's what we're seeing in our day. You are the salt of the earth. But Jesus goes on. He says in verse 14, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. You are the light of the world. If salt is meant to symbolize the distinctiveness that the church has away from the world, light is a complement metaphor. It means that the church's good works must be universally visible to the world. We are different from the world in order to make a difference in the world. The church's light, the church's good works, cannot be hidden. You may not hide the goodness of God. The church's luminous light is to be found everywhere. Can't be hidden in the valley, can't be obscured, it must be raised up like a city on a hill, it must be elevated in order to be seen by all. Whether a city or whether a lamp, whether the light is big or small, light has the same characteristic feature. Its brightness needs to be spread and seen to the farthest reaches. Jesus says in verse 16 he continues in the same way let your light shine Before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven What is the light of the church pop quiz? Often we would be well to associate the light of the church with the gospel proclamation of the church and yet in this context that is not what takes the main focus your light is your life of good works it's the consequence of God's grace bringing you into the kingdom of God making you a citizen of the kingdom by his grace and now setting before you the good works that he has prepared beforehand so that you may walk in them Ephesians 210 Light here is not the verbal witness of gospel-centered proclamation, but the non-verbal witness of gospel-centered piety. Your life is to be so marked by good works that your neighbors are won to Christ by them. And we see this in other places in scripture. We see this in Titus 2, for instance, where it says that workers are to sow work so that in everything, Titus 2.10, they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. In 1 Peter 3, first two verses of that chapter, Peter instructs wives to be subject to your own husbands so that even if some do not obey, they may be one without a word. by the conduct of their wives when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Our lives, beloved, are to be marked by light, not just truth, not just proclamation. We'll look at that more in depth this evening, but by piety, by good works. In his more provocative moments, Luther, the great reformer, said, God does not need my good works, but my neighbor does. Not only is my neighbor helped by them, but my neighbor sees my witness of Christ in them. God calls you to have good works. Luther, of course, a man known for very true, but if not slightly provocative statements. And yet you understand the point, don't you? You are to love your neighbor. And how do you love your neighbor? By serving them with good works. God has prepared beforehand for you in Christ. And of course, this is what's said in the Heidelberg Catechism in question and answer 86. Why then are we to do good works? For a number of reasons. And at the very end, because by our godly living, our neighbors may be won over to Christ. You are salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. But secondly, Consider the indictment of ancient Israel here and consider how God calls the church to be the new Israel. God had called Israel of old to be a model people, to live as a restored garden of Eden in gratitude to God and in the goodness of God, to live in such a way that the world would see Israel and glorify God, their God. They were to live in such a way that they would see Israel and understand something of what God would do in the future in bringing new creation, the new heavens and the new earth in Deuteronomy 4. God tells us, so follow these statutes that I'm laying before you so that the nations would see your law and say, what nation has a God like this God? They would see the way you live, not just individually, but together as a people, and come to glorify your God in heaven. Yet, we know the history of Old Testament Israel, that although they were called to live doing good to others, Israel eventually renounced their blessing as God's distinct people. And instead of being a catalyst for the nations to glorify God, Paul writes in Romans 2, quoting Isaiah 52, as it is written, The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. There had not been salt. There had not been light. And yet, God the Son gives the same call. Jesus gives the church the same blessing and the same call today. That's why Jesus says in Matthew 5 verse 17 and following, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. I've come Jesus says to fulfill every righteousness of the law so that in me you would be saved and know true life so that in me you would know the blessing of the kingdom that Israel of old forsook the blessing of being children of light walking in the life of the kingdom the blessing of being set apart by God for God in this world to bring this world back to God not just with the good word of life, but with the good works of life. And the good works then that follow from verse 16 are those that are found in the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, right? If you have your Bibles open, look at what Jesus says. What are the good works? Well, upholding the law of God, having a reconciling disposition to others, having in your heart such radical purity that you let nothing come between you and the kingdom of God. protecting the indissoluble bond of marriage and lifelong fidelity, not taking the Lord's name in vain with frivolous oaths, forgoing retaliation, loving your enemies and not seeking revenge, giving to the needy, trusting the Lord with all your material needs and not being anxious for anything. The church you see is called, like Israel of old, to imitate God our Father, to imitate Jesus, Our Savior. Our Father is good. Our Father is good. And the overflowing fountain of all good. And as God does good in creation to all, so we see the same in the life of Jesus. In imitation of His Father, Jesus, our Savior, does what His Father does. His Father is good and does good. Jesus is good and does good. And it's an interesting description of Jesus. that Peter gives when speaking to Cornelius in Acts 10. He says that God had anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. For God was with him, Acts 10.38. Jesus healed the sick, He raised the dead, He freed demoniacs, He cleansed lepers, He proclaimed the Kingdom of God. His deeds, His works, His good manifested the arrival of the Kingdom in His very person and life. It was a Kingdom of life, a Kingdom of divine power, a Kingdom of the forgiveness of sins, a Kingdom of reconciliation back to a holy God. The Kingdom that demonstrated that all things would be restored That goodness, the goodness of God, would triumph. And the church, in obedience to her Lord, is to go, is to go, and do likewise. To do good to people all around us. Just as Christ revealed the Father to us, so as the body of Christ, we're not Christ, we don't take the place of Christ, but as the body of Christ, you continue to do in a creaturely way what our Savior did. To help the world see Christ and see your Father in heaven by your conduct, by your love, by your good works. When the church loves God and loves neighbor, God says that the world will see that the church is something more glorious and better than the Garden of Eden. The world will see that the church is the New Jerusalem, where in God's righteousness dwells, that the church is the temple of God, fruitful, abounding, full of life, full of vitality, the kind of place you'd want to live in. Beloved, the challenge is before us to simply love our neighbor, but to not simply do it on a personal level. Jesus says, you are. And the you are there is plural. You all are. You all are to be this and to do this. You can't do it by yourself. You are called to personal piety, but you are called to more than that. You can't do certain things on your own. The task is great, the task is worldwide. The love of God built His church, created His church, and made us new creation. And what happens when the love of God is found in His church? As the church loves her neighbors with good works, the church ends up building culture, building civilization. It's not speculation. It's not opinion. It is a historical fact. And I'm not here to give you a lesson in Western Civ or something like that. You probably know this better than I do. The world was changed when the Christian church sought to apply the cultural and societal implications of the second table of the law and what it meant to love our neighbor. And that's the challenge for us today, to think broadly corporately, societally. In antiquity, there was nothing like Christian love. The prosperity of the Roman Empire was enjoyed by a few. Life for much of the Roman Empire was what the philosopher Thomas Hobbes said. It was nasty, brutish, and short. Mothers and fathers abandoned their newborns on the side of the road. That was not uncommon. Travelers were susceptible to theft and assault while traveling in foreign lands. Orphans and widows were exploited by the wicked. Prisoners were left to rot in prison. Marriage was expected to be open to infidelity. But what happens when the Christian church appeared and went from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the world? What happens is that the light of Christ shone in a dark world and brought a true revolution of life in the Roman Empire. And what Tertullian said about what the pagans remarked is true. The pagans said, and Tertullian reports, see how these Christians love one another. And not only did Christians love one another, they loved the world because God had loved the world. And so Christians built hospitals to care for the sick and dying. They built orphanages to help care for abandoned children. They built schools to promote literacy in order to be able to read scripture. They built cemeteries where the dead were buried with dignity. They promoted capital punishment in order to cultivate respect for human life. They demanded monogamy in marriage and civility in society. They extended charity to meet the material needs of the destitute. Why? Because God had extended charity. Because God had sent His love incarnate, Jesus Christ, to meet our most pressing need. 1 John 4, and this is love, not that we have loved God, but that God loved us and sent Jesus Christ to be the propitiation for our sins. Did you know charity is a Christian concept? You don't get there through paganism, via atheism. William Wilberforce, a man moved by the principles of scripture, a Christian man, sought to abolish the slave trade, that which was true of all societies of mankind for millennia. Only cultures pervaded by Christianity sought to end slavery. Thomas Chalmers, a Reformed Scottish pastor, sought to do good works in Scotland in the early 1800s. In the Northeast, Reformed churches and Presbyterian churches were renowned for their care of the poor and the widow doing good works in our day. What has happened to us? What has happened to the church? Who is to be on the front lines of compassion? No one else knows compassion. People talk about compassion, people talk about love, but that's not love. The mercies of the wicked are cruel, beloved. The church knows compassion because the church alone knows Jesus Christ. So who is to be on the front lines of true love, of true compassion? But the church, through its members, caring for those struggling with addictions, running rescue missions, crisis pregnancy centers, adoption agencies, ministering the truth of Christ to those in prison, doing relief work after natural disasters, reconnecting runaways with their families, putting the lazy and the idle back to work. This is the call of the Christian church. And beloved, you have no choice in the matter. You have no choice in the matter, because you see, without Christian good works, we can't serve God, we can't be faithful to God. And culturally speaking, there is no society to speak of. There is no civilization or sanity to speak of. Without the faithful church being salt and light, the lights will go out in this world. And that's what we begin to see in our day, that's what we're seeing, starting to see in our day, the barbarism, the irrationality, the triumph of every pagan practice. Beloved, the love of God makes us fruitful, not fruitless. The love of God makes us salt and helps us to be salt distinct from the world and helps us and makes us light to shine on this world the goodness of Christ and to gather through the good word of life and through the good works of life the nations to Christ. That's our call as the church to the world. A few clarifications as we close out our time in God's word. Good works, the good works of the church occur in a context of persecution. All you need to do is look up at two verses before our text in verse 11 and 12. Jesus says there, Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. And then you are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. 1 Peter, paraphrasing his Lord, tells us in his first letter, this is the inspired Word of God, 1 Peter 2, verse 12. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. We cannot for a moment think that the world is going to roll out the red carpet for the church. that we are called to do good works, to seek the good of our neighbor, in a world that likes the Church, that accepts the Church, that accepts the truth claims of Christ. But rather, as we see in our text, in the context and in 1 Peter, the Church will often be vilified, spat upon, spoken against, slandered, treated like the faithful prophets of old, like the faithful apostles of old. And yet the church for this reason may not shrink back from her mission and from her calling to be salt of the earth and light of the world. The church must carry on and continue to advance and continue to seek the good of her neighbors in spite of what the world may say and no matter what the world may do to the church. That's the first clarification. The second is to not underestimate how God, how Christ uses your life of good works, your non-verbal witness of gospel-centered piety to win others to Christ. Our good works speak of Christ when done according to the Word of God, motivated by faith and on to the glory of God. Our good works speak of Christ and testify of our Father in heaven. And so often, you see, our good works are the anteroom, the preface to the rest of the book. Our good works create an opportunity for the gospel. It's been said, it's somewhat of a cliché, I don't know who said it first, People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Your neighbor, your neighbor needs you to visit when they're sick, to bring a meal in time of need and their need, to be a friend and neighbor when it's inconvenient for you, to stick out your neck for him or her when they've been wronged, And all of this, all of this creates an opening for the Gospel. We are called to care and to love, not only for the household of God first and foremost, but also to others. And then thirdly, not only are we to understand that our good works are to be done in the context of persecution, don't underestimate how Christ uses your life of good works, But thirdly, always give a cup of cold water in the name of Christ. Word and deed are like two wings of the plane that you can't have one without the other. You can't simply be about good works devoid of the gospel of truth. You must always understand that the motivation onto good works is not because we want to be saved, right? Good works are not a cause. of salvation, but they are a consequence of God's grace upon our lives. We do good works because we are grateful and thankful to God for having rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and of death and bringing us into his kingdom of light and life. So we are always, you see, to serve, to love our neighbor in accordance with God's word, within the bounds of God's revealed word. for the glory of God and motivate it by true faith that God's worship would be found in the world, that God's will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father and our God, we do thank you and praise you for the grace of Jesus Christ that has saved us for your great love that has brought us, Father, to life. We who were dead in our trespasses, we who apart from Jesus would be lost and in darkness. And Father, in utter misery now and for all eternity. And yet, Father, you were pleased to grant us your grace and to bring us into your kingdom. So Father, now help us to live. In your kingdom to be about the work of the kingdom to be about the calling That christ gives his church to be salt and light in this world For your glory and honor for the well-being of your church and for the advancement Of your kingdom in this world. We pray hear us and be merciful to us in christ's name. Amen