Randall Caselman
Bella Vista Church of Christ
November 11, 2001 pm
The Value of Salt and Light Influence
Reading - Matthew 5.13-16
In the Sermon on the Mount... Jesus said... He who hears these saying of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Church... When the gale force winds of judgment blow, and the storm waters of this life surge... Our life-house will stand... IF... IF we hear and put into practice the teachings of Jesus in this sermon.
You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Who is the salt and the light? Let's not take these verses out of context.
The salt of the earth...
The light of the world...
Are those disciples of Jesus... That's what Matthew 5.1 says... Now when He saw the crowds, He went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to Him, and He began to teach them, saying.
Those who salt and light this world are the:
Poor in spirit,
Those who mourn,
The meek,
Those hungry and thirsty for right,
The merciful,
The pure in heart,
Peacemakers,
And those persecuted for being right.
Indeed!!... These are the folks who influence our world, making it a better place to live. You see... Salt and light are influences for good.
Let's talk about influence for a moment
The word influence originally was used in reference to an ethereal fluid flowing between the stars, holding them in place. This thought is alluded to in Job 38.31.
Later... Men began to think this fluid flowed from the stars down to man, thus affecting their attitudes and actions. This belief is what we know today as astrology.
Influence is defined as the act, process, or power of producing an effect without any apparent force or direct authority.... The capacity of an individual or thing to produce effects on others by intangible or indirect means.
Some of us think that we have no influence... This is not true. Scripture tell us that we all have influence. Paul says... No man lives to himself or dies to himself. We must know tonight that each of us have influence. And regardless of how small, our influence has its effect and that effect is far reaching.
Listen to this... Sociologists tell us that an individual influences a minimum of ten thousand people during his or her lifetime, directly or indirectly. And that influence will continue to be actively felt by others for 150 years or more.
Now they are not talking about someone famous... but ordinary folk like us here tonight. Eve had only one person to influence... Yet her influence changed the world, and we here tonight, still feel the effects of her influence. What an awesome responsibility has been placed on my shoulders and yours... The proper stewardship of our own influence.
You see... We can change our influence... But we can't stop it.
- The question is not, will we influence others... WE WILL.
- The question is how will we influence others?
- The question is, will it be an influence for good or an influence for evil?
- Will we become the salt of the earth... and the light of the world... or will we lead others in the wrong direction?
Listen to these examples...
? Eve exerted her influence in an evil way, causing the one she loved the most to sin.
? The children of Israel influenced Aaron to build the Golden Calf resulting in pain and death.
? The ten spies influenced Israel to decide against entering Canaan.
? Jeroboam made Israel to sin... This statement is found more than twenty times in Scripture.
? Pilate allowed the Jews to influence him wrongly resulting in the death of Jesus.
? The Samaritan woman led her people to Jesus by the power of her personal influence.
? The Duke of Wellington once said, I consider Napoleon's presence on the battlefield equal to forty thousand men in the balance... What an awesome influence!
? Edgar Allan Poe said... I learned to love the taste of good wine sitting at my father table. He died an alcoholic!
Church, there is nothing more impressive than the sheer dynamic influence of a pure Christian life. Indeed... Indeed... We are the salt of the earth, the light of the world.
Let's spend the rest of our time noting how we can become salt and light.
First... We note that as salt of the earth... We are distinctive.
Salt is a positive force.
Salt cannot be ignored.
Salt influences everything it touches.
If salt is present... We recognize it immediately. If it is absent we are certain to miss it. Salt is never neutral.
So it is with disciples of Jesus... followers of Christ... Christian people. When salt comes to town, folks find it out. And when it leaves, it is sure to be missed.
When we lived on the farm... We used to eat at mom and dad's every Saturday and Sunday. The children and grandchildren still do. Nothing is as good as my mother's fried or mashed potatoes. But sometimes mother would get so busy fix'en that she would forget the salt. Do you know how long it would take for us to find this out?... Only one bite.
When I was a child... We used to have ice creme suppers.... Homemade ice cream. The adults would never let me turn that crank. My job was to keep that hole at the top of the wooden freezer clear, so the salt water would drain out and not spill over into the ice cream canister. I thought that was a real nothing job... But it was most important. Salt would have ruined the ice cream. You see salt makes its presence known quickly... Salt is distinctive!
Jesus says... As My disciples, you are like salt. We are in the world... though not of the world.
We are a chosen generation.
A royal priesthood.
A holy nation.
A peculiar people.
Church... We are to be distinctively different. No!... No!... Not just by church name, worship without the instrument and distinctive church government, but by being the salt of the earth, the light of the world. By being good stewards of our personal influence.
And when we are.... And when we are... People notice... People notice.
Secondly... Salt is a preventive and preservative. Salt is a purifying agent. It imparts it's own wholesomeness to whatever it touches. The use of salt as a preservative has almost come to a halt in our economy today, because of refrigeration. But there was a time when meat and certain vegetables were kept from spoiling by the use of salt and salt brine. Those in Jesus' audience knew well what he was talking about. They preserved fish and fruit by salting them down.
Church... What would our country be like if you removed all the influence for good?
- Remove a Christian mother and father out of the home and what kind of home do you have?
I believe we are seeing the results of just this today.
- Remove God's people out of the church and what do you have?... A feuding fussing fellowship.
- Remove godly folks out of a nation and what happens?
Perhaps we have just had a glimpse of the answer... RIGHT?
- Noah's family was saved because of his influence.
- All it would have taken to salt Sodom and Gomorrah was ten godly folks, and the cities would have been saved.
Church... Do we understand tonight that:
- A nation is not made great by its commerce...
- Nor is it protected by its military might...
But by the Christ-like character of its people.
Listen to Elishia as he watches Elijiah ascend into heaven on God's chariot of fire... Behold the chariot and horsemen of Israel. Elishia was saying..There goes the defender of this nation..There goes the one who has stood between Israel and ruin. Israel was not protected... Preserved by:
Her diplomacy, Her army or war chariots.
Her real army was ONE who wore a prophet's mantle ...one who tramped about the country side calling men, women, boys and girls back to God.
Here is a truth statement... Without the salt of godly influence, civilization as we know it would have crumbled long ago. It was the search for such rightness that led to the birth of this great nation of which we are a part of today. And if she ever falls, it will be because we have lost the influence of Christian principles and behavior.
The third characteristic of salt is that it loses itself as it salts.
Years ago... I can remember cold winter days at Hazel Valley... Hog killing day on the farm. The smokehouse was full of salt. The women would rub salt on the hams and loins. Brown paper would be placed on the smokehouse shelves and the meat laid on it. Then more salt would be poured over the meat. Salt was everywhere. But, in a few weeks you could go back to the smokehouse and most of that salt had disappeared. There would be greasy spots on the paper... The smell of salt was replaced by a hint of hickory smoke in the hanging hams.
The salt had actually given itself to the... salting... sweetening... preserving... and purifying process. The salt expended itself, lost itself in the very purpose for which it was purchased. It was Jesus who said... Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies... It remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
You are the salt of the earth... The light of the world. My good people... Are we willing to allow God... To use us... To expend us... To literally use us up... For the purpose for which He created us... And purchased us? Again... It was Jesus who said... Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
All to Jesus I surrender,
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.
All to Jesus I surrender,
Humbly at His feet I bow;
Worldly pleasures all forsaken,
Take me, Jesus, take me now.
All to Jesus I surrender,
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power,
Let Thy blessing fall on me.
All to Jesus I surrender.
God help us to mean what we sing.
-Help us to lose ourselves... To be expended in Your service.
-Help us to become the salt of the earth... The light of the world.
Fourthly tonight... Note that Jesus said... Salt can become useless. Salt that has lost its savor... Its saltiness is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trodden under foot. The people of Palestine threw their garbage into the street... This is what Jesus is referring to.
Now, chemically speaking, salt is sodium chloride and it cannot lose its taste... But it can be polluted to the point that it becomes useless. As children of God... We can POLLUTE our influence for good to the point that we are useless as an influence for God's righteousness.
-The Pharisees of Jesus' day had done just that. Jesus said... When you make a convert, you make him more a child of the devil than he was before conversion.
-The church at Ephesus had lost her first love. She had lost her zeal, her glow, her enthusiasm for Jesus and was condemned for that loss.
- The church at Laodicea had compromised her Christianity until she was so lukewarm that Jesus said... You make Me sick.
Audience... A church... A Christian... Without a good influence is a contradiction of terms... Like salt without taste... It is an oxymoron... It does not exist!!
Now... Lets talk about light for a few moments.
First... Light penetrates and illuminates. Hold up a candle in a dark room and the light penetrates the darkness regardless of how black that darkness. Our Christian influence can penetrate the blackest heart. The Christian influence is sometimes more powerful than the gospel message itself. Randall are you sure of that?.... I believe so.
For instance... We have Elders and Deacons serving in this church that... For years heard gospel sermons after gospel sermons... and never obeyed the Word. But, as they watched the light shine from the heart and life of their godly spouse, they began to see the Word of God... the gospel message come alive in the life of their loved one.
That godly influence penetrated their heart... Illuminated their heart to the truth of the message... And that penetration and illumination resulted in their obedience.
Peter alluded to this very thought in 1 Peter 1.1-5... Wives... In the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words (How?) By the behavior of their wives, (By their influence) when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful..
How many people do we know that have been won to Christ by the power of a godly influence?
One other thing about the light of influence... We must let it shine. Note that we are to let our light shine... Not shine our light. There is a difference isn't there?
The Pharisees of Jesus' time loved to shine their light.
- They loved to pray on the street corners to be seen.
- They loved the chief seats in the synagogue, to sit down front in church, to be seen.
- They gave to the poor, not because they were touched by the suffering, but just to be seen.
- They would fast and disfigure their faces so that people could see that they were fasting.
This is the difference between letting our light shine... and shining our light. You see, we are not the light. Jesus is the light... We are only reflectors of that light.
- He is the sun.
- We are the moon and stars.
- We are reflectors.
Now let me say this... The world can detect the difference. People can tell if we are shining our light or letting our light shine. They can tell the difference between reflected light, and hypocritical artificial light. There is just something about the quality of the light that is noticeable. We are not fooling those about us when we attempt to shine our light as did the Pharisees.
You see... In reality, shining our light is a negative influence. Reflecting the light of Jesus is a positive influence that turns people to HIM. Paul said... When you look at me, it is no longer Paul that you see, but Jesus living in me. And what an influence he was.
You are the salt of the earth, the light of the world.
God help us to become proper stewards of our influence.
Tonight... Is there a godly spouse influencing you to become a child of God?
Has their daily life illuminated you to the truth of God's Word?
Give in tonight... Become a disciple of Jesus tonight by: Faith, Repentance, and New Testament baptism, immersion in water for the forgiveness of your sins.
For most of us this lesson serves as a reminder that our influence is a powerful thing. And that we can use it correctly or incorrectly. Perhaps we need to confess an incorrect use of our influence.
Maybe we desire the prayers of this church that we might become an influence for good.
The invitation is yours as we stand and sing.
Will you come?
