Good morning. Good to see you.

We’re going to be in Matthew chapter 5. So I’m jumping back into Matthew.

Been out of it for a couple weeks. I keep going.

Matthew here.

So Matthew chapter 5, verse 13.

Matthew 5, 13. Jesus says, 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. Benjamin Franklin is famous for having said in a letter towards the end of his life to a friend, our new constitution is now established. Everything seems to promise it will be durable. But in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes. And as you get older, you realize, oh man, Uncle Sam wants his money every year and he’s not going to stop asking for it. And it’s tax season, so you’ve got to get everything ready and figure out what you owe and you hope you’re getting something back. But we have to pay those taxes. And every once in a while, you go to a funeral. Hopefully you don’t go to funerals all the time, but you go to a funeral here and there and you’re reminded people die. No one escapes the grave. So death and taxes, they’re just certain realities of this life.

They’re actuals. They’re unchangeables. They are what are. And there’s nothing we can do about it. There’s nothing we can do about them. Jesus is speaking to us, though, again, as we come back into Matthew, about the certainties, the actualities of His spiritual kingdom, of the kingdom of God. And Jesus is speaking to the nature of being one of His disciples, how certain a thing that is, how certainly it should look one way, what it means to actually be a disciple, change. And I think, I think how we do or don’t take Jesus seriously about what He says an actual disciple is, it’s going to forever affect and alter our spiritual reality, not even just in this life, but in eternity to come. And that will be unchangeable. So the certainty of discipleship. I want us to see what Jesus says the disciple certainly does look like. So verse 13 again, He says, 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. So Jesus’ words here are directly addressed to His disciples. Now remember at the beginning of this, it says that He had His disciples and the crowds there with Him. And while the Sermon on the Mount and everything Jesus says and everything the Bible says should be directed at everybody always, Jesus in this moment is giving a specific word to His disciples. Because Jesus here is describing the who and the what of an actual disciple. Who they were, what they were, and what they were to do as such. So the word here in 13-16 is not to the nameless, faceless, onlooker in the crowd. I want to see, I want to hear Jesus from a distance, but I don’t want to get involved. Not at all. This is the disciple who Jesus has called to follow. This is a word to every actual disciple all the way down through history to the end of the church age. And so it’s a word to the called out ones. Those who have not merited their discipleship. No one’s merited their discipleship in Jesus. But by grace have accepted His non-discriminate invitation to have become His disciple. To learn under Him. To be His pupil.

And Jesus speaks very matter-of-factly here. These aren’t suggestions He’s making. Jesus is not theorizing. He’s not describing, hey, here’s an ideal situation for a disciple, but it’s unlikely. It’s not going to happen. That’s not what Jesus is doing. Jesus is speaking hard facts.

Jesus is speaking plain truth about an actual disciple. Actual. And He says to His actual disciples, you are the salt of the earth. No two ways about it. Not for discussion. As far as, as far as Jesus is concerned, His actual disciples are salt of the earth. And now salt in Jesus’ time, it was a very common, but a very necessary thing. You needed salt to preserve food. Of course, they didn’t have refrigeration in the ancient world. You needed salt as an antiseptic. And you needed salt to flavor and season bland food. And salt certainly is very important for us still in our modern world. One Bible dictionary says, also known as white gold, is one of the most significant substances in history along with iron, gold, and wheat. In ancient societies, it was a valuable social and economic commodity. For example, in Maccabees, it records that taxes were imposed on salt. In Egypt, it was a symbol of luxury. They used it to mummify their dead and preserve olives and fish. At one point in the history of the early Roman Empire, salt from the sea was brought inland and sold for sale. They were slaves. So everybody knows what salt is. Everybody gets what the substance of salt is. No one’s curious about what Jesus means when he’s talking about salt. But then Jesus presents this impossible situation to his disciples.

He says, but if salt loses its taste, how can you make it salty again?

And it’s something of a riddle because simply there’s no such thing as saltless salt. Salt is salt. It can’t lose its saltiness. So in Jesus’ impossible hypothetical, if there was such a thing as saltless salt, he said you ought to throw it out. Let it be trampled under people’s feet. It has no purpose or value. Saltless salt would be impotent and ineffective.

It can’t be made salty again. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus said it is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. So draw the illustration back to the disciple.

Jesus is saying plainly, if salt cannot be denied except for the substance that it is, the actual disciple cannot deny what he actually is, whereby grace has been made to be. It is a certainty. It’s an undeniable spiritual reality. Jesus says of all the people on earth, you’re my called out different ones. You are my followers. And he says if that is true, it cannot be denied.

So friend, discipleship, is that your identity? Is it in question by you? Is it in question by your life lived? Is it in question by the people perhaps that know you best? So I want us to see a couple of these certainties. The first certainty for the disciple of Jesus then is their identity. It’s a certainty. Your identity in Jesus as a disciple, it is not questioned. And the reason why the disciple cannot deny his identity is because the disciple is, if you are a disciple of Jesus, you’re undeniably different. You don’t look like everybody else. Not you shouldn’t look like everyone else. You are not like everyone else. The presence of God has come to rest on you in a special way so as to make you different, so as to fit and equip you for heaven. Such a person has the Holy Spirit residing on them so much so that the scriptures say, in this New Testament age, we are the temple of the living God. So as God resided in just the tabernacle in the Old Testament, now in these last times in the New Testament age, the Spirit of God resides in us, the presence of God with us always. Not counted as vessels of wrath anymore are the disciples. Paul says in Romans, they’re storing up wrath for the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. That’s not me. I’m counted as a, you are counted if you’re an actual disciple, a vessel of mercy. And here’s the mercy paid to you and I. By the blood of Christ, we have been brought into the presence of God and in the presence of God, we know Him as friend. And we have that presence in the Spirit within us all the time. Friend, if that’s true of you, that’s some identity that you could often forget or misplace.

That’s in every waking moment truth that defines you or perhaps better redefines you. Because of the Gospel, we have not gone from good to great. We’ve gone from spiritually dead in the Lord Jesus Christ and able to help ourselves to spiritually live. We have gone from being the odor of hell to, as the Apostle Paul says, the very fragrance and aroma of Christ.

That’s an all-consuming truth that should own your life. As much as a poor orphan, nameless, faceless, no future, no hope, is brought into the world, brought into a royal family, given a name, given a home, given a future, taught how to live and be a part of that family. Friends, much more, we have been called by the High King of Heaven into His royal family. And the Spirit seals us. And the Spirit is preparing us. That’s not an identity that you’re going to forget about. It’s going to be a thing that absolutely consumes you because it would change everything.

Paul says in Romans 8, For you did not receive the spirit of slavery, to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. God is Father through Jesus to us now. And I would not for a second suggest, if you are an actual disciple, you’re never going to struggle, you’re never going to have times of hardship, you’re never going to wrestle with sin. That’s not what I’m saying. In fact, I think that’s part of fighting the good fight. And those are often proofs that how I’m pursuing Jesus, I’m living in the presence of God when it’s difficult. But the normal seasons of ups and downs for the follower of Jesus is not what is being talked about in this metaphor. Rather here, what Jesus is getting at is an extreme casualness. It’s a nonchalant attitude that so characterizes your discipleship that it would be difficult for someone with integrity to label your discipleship as meaningful, much less your identity.

It’s this hypotheticalness and this hypothetical salt that looks like salt, but it’s not salt. It’s not real. It doesn’t exist. So the person wears the label of Jesus. Maybe they know how to say the right thing at the right time. Maybe they know how to do the right thing at the right time. But at the end of it all, the substance of Christ is not within them.

Henry Scougal, he’s an old Scottish theologian, he says it like this, The love which a pious man bears to God and goodness is not so much by virtue of a command forcing him to do something, as by a new nature instructing and prompting him to do it. Nor does he pay his devotions as an unavoidable tribute to appease some divine justice or to quiet his clamorous conscience. But those religious exercises are the proper emanations of the divine life. The natural employments of the newborn soul. He prays, he gives thanks, he repents, not only because these things are commanded, but because he’s sensible of his wants and of the divine goodness and the folly and misery of the sinful life. In other words, he’s become a new person and he’s living out of that identity. It’s a want for him, not a must.

And I think sometimes the hypothetical disciple can be really good at fooling other people. Sometimes I think we can be good at fooling ourselves. But it only brings judgment upon our own souls because you can’t fool God. You can’t fool God. God sees the nature, He sees the nature of our hearts. Paul says in Galatians 6, Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows that, he will reap. So if one thing is sowed, the other thing will be sowed. Whoever sows to his flesh, you’re going to reap from the flesh. You’re going to reap corruption. But if you sow to the Spirit, you’re going to reap eternal life. And again, the aim of the passage here, I don’t think is to discourage you if you’re an actual disciple. And that’s not what I’m trying to do is discourage you. Like, are you really? Are you really? But it does make us do this. Take it serious. It’s not a light issue. We need a very real sobriety when we consider the state of our discipleship before the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because the cost is too high. Eternity is too long. Heaven’s too wonderful. Hell’s too awful. Knowing this Jesus is too precious. Being made like Him in the Spirit, it’s too wonderful to just hope it is so. Friend, not at all. Is Christ your identity? His presence resting on you, a very real, pressing reality every day. To be made like Him by the Spirit, to be influenced in every thought, every action, every deed. Are you driven to be like this Jesus? Because you see Him as the most wonderful attainment you could ever attain in this life.

The prophet Jeremiah says, the heart is deceitful above all things. Don’t look in your own heart to discover the truth. Look to Christ. Call out to Jesus. The word says, seek and you will find. Beg, plead with Christ. Jesus, don’t let my discipleship be false. Don’t let it be partial. Don’t let it be mixed. Let it be real before you. God is a good God. He will hear and He will save when we come to Him alone and desire Him to own us as His own. He desires to do it.

And, you know, A.W. Tozer makes the point that so often New Testament principles and truths are embodied in Old Testament stories. And as I was studying for this, I was mindful of Lot’s son-in-laws. In Genesis 19.14, it says, So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law who were to marry his daughters, Get out of this place for the Lord is about to destroy the city.

He seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

I think there’s a great danger in life being such a good time and you’re so obsessed with your comfort and the moment you just can’t hear words that would save your eternal soul.

And we must come to grips with that fact that we live in a day and age in which comfort and pleasure

and keeping the right boundaries appropriate and not offending people. We live in that age and I think what it does is it breeds a sort of laxity about the eternal things. We get busy in life and we don’t think about what matters most. But friend, if you could just for a moment remember whether you’re 20 or you’re 80, life is short. And the seriousness of the eternal soul, it can’t be changed once eternity comes. It is a forever thing, eternity.

Friend, what is the state of your soul before God? Not before yourself, not before other people, but before your God. And let me ask you, what thing do you find your identity in? Sometimes that’s a person who isn’t Jesus. Sometimes that’s a job. Sometimes it’s money. Sometimes it’s things. Sometimes it’s just aimlessness. Friend, repent. Let your disciples, let your relationship be true if the presence of Christ is truly resting upon you.

Look back at verse 14.

Jesus goes on to say, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. So there’s a certainty there again. Cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand. 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. So Jesus switches metaphors to a light. We had salt, but now we have light. But Jesus again is speaking these plain facts. He’s not saying, let’s talk about this. He’s saying, hey, you’re a disciple. You are light. And light’s obvious. We all know what light is, like salt. Light itself is light. Like salt is salt. Light is unmistakable in its presence. It’s visibly different from darkness, isn’t it? We say things like, oh, such and such is as different as night and day. Because there’s an extreme contrast between light and darkness. A light bulb lit and a light bulb off. A candle lit or a candle off. Everybody sees it. Jesus says, here’s what it’s like, you disciples, if you’re really a disciple. It’s like somebody who strategically built a city way up on this hill, and everybody can see it. There’s no chance you can’t see that city. There’s no way to conceal that city. There’s no way to keep that city inconspicuous. Everybody can see it all the time. So Jesus says, you can see the difference of the light, but the difference in light is also found in its power. What it’s capable of doing. Light is different from darkness, and this, it gives visibility as to what is actual to everyone who is around it. Jesus says, people don’t light a lamp and you put a basket under it. You light a lamp, you put it on a stand so everybody in the house can see what’s going on. Light preaches to you the truth of your surroundings. That’s what light does. That’s its unique usefulness.

In the same way, Jesus says, so you should shine before others. He says, in the same way, let your light shine. So the call is this, be my disciple. The command is this, you must shine your light. So the second certainty for the disciple is you will certainly shine. Your identity will be known. That’s the certainty. You can’t conceal it. So along with that great privilege then of being a disciple of Jesus, there is the great responsibility. And the great responsibility is showing off. Maybe to say it the best way. Hey, everybody, look at this new life that I have found in Jesus. The actual disciple doesn’t want to retreat. I don’t want to hide from the lost world. The actual disciple is intent on being seen, even maybe sometimes obnoxiously so. Why? Because the actual disciple is so enraptured with the new identity he’s been given, he wants to obey. Obey that master. Like, master, I love you and you’ve given me this life and you’ve called me to this thing. Who am I to say no to what you call me to do? So I want to live up to this heavenly task you’ve given me to say to the whole world, hey, come and see. Taste and see that the Lord is good so that the proverb is true and it says, the path of righteousness is like the light of dawn which shines brighter and brighter until the full day. Until the full day, until Christ returns. Friends, we have that great task. Jesus says, let us go and let your light shine. It is a command.

But the actual disciple doesn’t do it just because he wants to obey the command, but because it’s in his nature to do so. He just can’t help doing it. I’ve told you about the dog that I bought while my wife was out of town that I got in trouble for. And he knows that there are these cats across the street and it doesn’t matter how often I tell him to stop. He barks and he scratches at the door because he wants to go tear those cats apart. He just wants to. It doesn’t matter. He’s a dog. It’s just in his nature. He’s just going to want to go eat those cats. There’s nothing I can do about it. And so it is with the Christian. If we are filled with the presence of God, we won’t be able to help but to shine the light, to illuminate the grace of God that points the lost person home to heaven instead of hell. So could we say this? The covered over Christian, is ineffective. But we have to go back to Jesus’ hypothetical. The ineffective disciple is not a real one. Only real disciples illuminate. There’s no such thing as light that doesn’t shine or salt that doesn’t salt. So here’s what I want you to grab. It’s not enough for you to be faced with the reality that Christ is being formed in you. If it is actually so that Christ is being formed in you, the world, will be faced with the reality of Christ working through you. Those things both must be so. The visible difference by God’s design is it draws people in or pushes people out. Jesus isn’t saying, hey church, you’re going to shine and everybody’s going to come to Christ. Some people will see the light and they won’t want it. The scripture is plain about that. Some people just love the darkness. But all the same, the church is God’s design, His tool, His instrument to call in those who are His own, to call in the nations. We are to shine. Peter says it very well in chapter 2 verse 9. He says, You are a chosen race. You’re a royal priesthood. You’re a holy nation, a people for His own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous, there it is, light. Once you were not a people, but now you’re God’s people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you, you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds. Here it is. They see your good deeds and they glorify God on the day of agitation. So Jesus says, Go do good in the world. If you’re my disciples, here’s how you’re going to do it. You’re going to go do good deeds. You’re going to show them the goodness. So when we talked about this in the Beatitudes about showing mercy, the world can show mercy and the world shows mercy in a great way. But it starts with the motive. A lot of motives for why I would do good things. The motive has got to be Christ. Christ has loved and shown mercy to me. I want to show mercy. I want to do good deeds so I can proclaim Christ. And I think this is one of those examples where we want to Bible study and sermon this thing to death. We don’t need to stand up here. and talk about what is a good deed. What does this mean to go shine light? It’s a good deed. Just go do something good. There’s nothing to talk about. Just listen to the Spirit and go help somebody and tell them you love them and tell them the Gospel. I mean, that’s all it is. So I think sometimes we can overthink things. And Jesus said, Stop having a Bible study. Just go do the thing. I think we’ve got to do the thing. Amen.

Here’s Charles Spurgeon. Always quoted. He says, I will not believe that you have tasted the honey of the Gospel if you can eat it all yourself. True grace puts an end to all spiritual monopoly. My dad’s a pastor at a church down in Birmingham. And he has a unique job. He basically does local missions. And it’s really cool because they go into these rough cities in Birmingham and they’ll flip a teacher’s lounge. So it’ll be not that great and they’ll make it beautiful. New countertops, everything. They’ll show up often. I mean, they’ll get ready at 4 or 5 in the morning and they’ll go and they’ll make this big, wonderful breakfast for these teachers. Just say, hey, we love you. We’re from, you know, GFBC. And he’s been on the news several times. And it’s just an example of the church shining the light. Like, hey, here we are. We love Jesus. Like, let me just love you, take care of you, help you. And this is the Gospel. I mean, it’s a joy and it should be a privilege. We shouldn’t shrink back from it. We should want to do it. Like, I want to go do that in a way that’s not a privilege. I want to obey and it’s rooted in who I have become in Jesus.

So I think you’ve got to ask yourself the hard question. What are you doing with your life?

Who are you seeking to shine the light of Christ to? And again, back to the whole busyness thing, which I think we have to talk about because we love to say that we’re so busy. Everyone says, I’m so busy. I’m just so busy. And we are busy. But at the end of the day, who is master? Who are you? So we’ve got to get out of that bubble and I’ve got to start asking, Lord, who are the people in my life, in my own home, in my neighborhood, the place that I work, in my family? Lord, who are the people that maybe I don’t even know I’m going to see them today, but you’re going to show me somebody and I’m going to be able to do something and do it in the name of Jesus and let them know the Gospel. So it’s a great privilege to which we’re called. And I think individually we can do that. And I think as a church we can do that. And that’s something that, you know, I’ve been praying about and I’ve asked us to be praying about is, Lord, what does that look like in Matthew? Addison, Huntsville, in this day and age to be a blessing to our city. Not so we can set up a utopia, but so we can say, hey, this is not a utopia. This is a bad place. We’re waiting for Jesus to come back. You know, wait with us. That’s what we want to do in our cities and with our lives to shine that light of Christ.

So maybe you just need to stop being lazy. And you need to pray. And you need to ask God to stir up a passion to do the work. Maybe you just need to open your eyes and just see the people that are hurting. See the people that need to hear about this blessed Jesus. It’s a great calling for us as disciples.

The certainty of discipleship, it will result in God receiving glory. That’s what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

Christ has not come and made us His disciples so we can live a better life. He hasn’t really even come, I think, so much to get us in heaven and out of hell. I think Jesus has come to make us disciples. Like Himself. So we know how to live a life that’s going to bring glory to God. Because that’s what everything’s about. What is the chief end of man?

Glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That’s this great task that Jesus has called us into. Jesus came in the very presence of God, being God. Jesus came in the power of God to bring all glory to God and His perfect life, death and resurrection. Friends, so if we’re going to say I am actually a disciple of this Jesus, I don’t have what it takes. No. But this Jesus, He’s promised if I trust and believe in Him, His Spirit resting on me in the presence of God, the Spirit of God empowering me, I can follow this Jesus and in all things bring glory to God. That’s the call of the actual disciple. Friend, are you certain you are a disciple of this Jesus?

I think when I have the opportunity to talk to people about the Gospel, I love to quote the prophet Isaiah when he says, seek the Lord while He may be found. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Implying there will come a time when He cannot be found. And let that be terrifying because it is. It is terrifying. But in this moment, receive that Christ. Follow that Jesus. Have that precious life. And friends, to us, if we’re believers and you’re sure that we’re not, down in your core you know Christ, let’s live for Him. Let’s run that race. Let’s fight the good fight. Let’s sacrifice and give all away. That way we can say at the end of all things, God is glorified and I’m satisfied in that and that is enough for me as it was for Jesus. Friends, are we certain? Are we actual disciples? Christ calls us freely to follow Him. Let’s follow Him.

Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, none of us are here this morning

because we have bought our way into the church, because we were born into the church. We’re here this morning because Your sovereign grace called us in. Lord, You revealed Yourself as good and as right. And Lord, by Your grace, Lord, we are called in and we have faith and we know You. We know You, Lord. We just don’t want to take that lightly.

Lord, we don’t want to take lightly that we are Christians, that we’re called to know the eternal God. We’re called to live and enjoy the eternal God, to be satisfied in You.

Lord, in this moment, I just want us to

just breathe in Your presence and just remember You are here with us now because You are within us. You have not forgotten us. You haven’t forsaken us.

The seal of Your Holy Spirit is the promise that You’re here now.

And You’re never going to leave us, Lord. You said You’d never leave. You said You’d never forsake.

And Lord, the promise of the power of the Spirit is on us to do Your will.

So Lord, can we just slow down from a very busy life, a very busy culture, and just let it come to our minds and our hearts. That the good news of the Gospel is that You have done a great work in us and by Your power, You’ll see us through. Let our motivation be just love, Father, for Your Son, Jesus.

It’s to know Him and to make Him known that in all things You would receive glory for us. We just bless Your name. We just pray that this Word would seep down deep in our souls and that we would walk out of here changed or ready to be actual disciples. Because by Your grace You have made us so, Lord. We just thank You for Your grace.

And it’s in Jesus’ name. Amen.