Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): This is Telling the Truth, the teaching ministry of Stuart and Jill Briscoe. As Christians, we are called to be salt and light to the world. Today, guest speaker Charles Price shares a message about what it looks like to be salt and light in our dying and decaying world. We'll get started in just a moment.

We want to help you grow strong in your faith as you conquer temptation by sending you Triumph Over Temptation, a powerful four-message series by Stuart and Jill Briscoe. We'll send you a copy of Triumph Over Temptation as thanks for your gift today to help continue Stuart and Jill's legacy of helping others experience life in Christ. So call today to request your copy of Triumph Over Temptation: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Here's Charles Price.

Charles Price: Let me read to you from Matthew chapter 5. We are looking at the second part of Matthew chapter 5, when Jesus talks about the internalizing of righteousness. He says, "You have heard it said through the law, 'You shall not murder.'" But all the law can ever do is touch you externally. Jesus said if you are angry with your brother, you are guilty. That is the area He has come to produce righteousness.

He speaks of a righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees. The scribes and Pharisees were very good at the external laws, but they knew little, if anything, of the internal righteousness that Jesus Christ comes to produce. He says, "You've heard it said you must not commit adultery. I say if you look at a woman to lust after her, even though you do not know her, you're already guilty." It's the internal attitude of the heart.

He talks six times about that. "You've heard it said, but I say to you." We've looked at those six things, but now I want to go back to an earlier section which I did not read and talk about before, but which I think is appropriate to talk about today. It is Matthew 5:13-16, where Jesus uses two metaphors that He says you are: the metaphors of salt and light.

This follows the section we call the Beatitudes—the eight Beatitudes. Then we've looked at these six statements that internalize the righteousness of Christ in our own experience. I think as a summing up to all of that, let me read you these verses. Matthew 5:13: "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father who is in heaven."

Jesus uses these two metaphors to describe what a Christian is. He says, "You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world." He does not say you have the salt or you carry the salt, or you must do salty things or you must act like salt. He is not giving to His disciples a "to-do" list of things they ought to do. He is saying, "This is what you are if you are a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Interestingly, both of those metaphors tell us as much about the environment in which they function as well as about the person themselves. Light only has meaning in an environment of darkness. To be the light of the world is, by implication, to be in an environment of darkness. To be the salt of the earth, by implication, is only significant in an environment of decay.

In Jesus' day, salt was not something which sat in shiny salt shakers on the dinner table. When the fishermen, some of whom were disciples of Jesus, caught their fish and took them to the market, before they could take them away to the market, they had to salt them down and then pack them between layers of salt in order to keep them fresh, because salt arrests corruption and decay. Salt is an antiseptic.

A lady came to me and said that she grew up in a fishing village in Nigeria. She said that's exactly what they used to do when the fishermen came in. They'd have piles of salt to just salt the fish down to keep it fresh. When I lived in Africa as a young man, I was one of the very privileged few to have refrigeration, but most people didn't. Unless meat was going to be eaten the day it was slaughtered, it had to be salted.

Zimbabwe is a landlocked nation with no natural lakes, and so whenever fish arrived, it came as hard as wood because it was so thick with salt to preserve it. That is the context in which salt was familiar to the listeners of Jesus. As an antiseptic, as a means of arresting corruption and decay, He is saying in a context of decay and darkness, "This is your influence. You are salt that arrests that decay and light that banishes the darkness."

We all have influence. I saw a Peanuts cartoon on one occasion where Peppermint Patty is talking to Charlie Brown. She says, "Charlie Brown, it was the first day back at school and I got called to the principal's office, and it was your fault, Charlie Brown." Charlie Brown says, "Why was it my fault? Why is everything my fault? What's it got to do with me?" She said, "You're my friend, aren't you? You should have been a better influence on me."

Well, that's a very convenient cop-out for Peppermint Patty, but actually, there's some truth in that. I wonder if the world could say to the church, "You know, we're in a mess, and you Christians actually aren't helping us very much. You should be a better influence." Having said that, I actually believe that the world and the church does not realize what influence the Christian church actually does have in our world. But we are the salt of the earth, said Jesus.

It's not something you do; it's who you are. You are the light of the world. Let me talk about the salt of the earth first of all. Let's be utterly realistic: the world is in a state of decay. It has been ever since the fall. In the book of Genesis, when the fall took place, the immediate response was fear and shame. The firstborn son of Adam and Eve grew up to become a murderer of his own brother.

By Genesis chapter 6, you have this awful statement: "The Lord was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain." God then brought judgment to the world and saved just a handful of eight people in the ark. Right from the very early pages of Scripture, the portrayal of our world is that it is in a state of decay. If we do not believe that about our world, we'll have a very naive view of the world and society.

The Bible describes this process of decay as being in a state of "perishing." That's a biblical word. You know John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Now, the Scripture is very clear that perishing is not simply a future state, though it has future implications. Perishing is a present state.

In 1 Corinthians 1:18, Paul says the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. In 2 Corinthians 2:15, we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 2 Corinthians 4:3 says if our Gospel is veiled, it's veiled to those who are perishing. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 says the coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan, displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders, and every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing.

They perish because they refuse to love the truth and so to be saved. Perishing is a process. Rubber perishes. When I was a boy in the winter, we used to go to bed with a water bottle. Little rubber bags of water you'd cuddle to keep you warm at night. I went to bed one night with a water bottle, but I woke up in the night soaking wet, and I was very relieved to discover it was my water bottle. It had perished. It was in a process of perishing until one day it burst.

There is a process of perishing going on in our world and in the lives of the people who make up our world. It will one day burst. But you and I are implanted in an environment that is perishing. You see, we're not static. The world is not static. Now, the big question is, how do we as Christians respond to the decaying, perishing world of which we are a part?

I want to suggest there are two errors that Christian people can make about this. One error is to isolate ourselves from the perishing world—that is, to build walls of protection around us to keep ourselves away from the world and keep ourselves away from non-believers. This was partly what lay behind the monastic movement where people shut themselves away to just be with God, but to be detached from the world at large.

We don't take it that far, but there's a great temptation sometimes to try and build walls that protect us from the influence of the world. Now, we must be protected and build walls against worldliness. Worldliness is defined for us in 1 John as pride, lust, and greed. We must recognize that as something to be protected from. But that's an internal thing in our own lives. To protect ourselves from the people of the world, the answer is no. That is not our mission.

Guest (Male): Charles Price, speaking on the role of Christians in society. He'll be back in a moment. Temptation is nothing new. It's been around since the dawn of mankind, and it's not going anywhere as long as we're on this earth. You'll face temptation every day, but sometimes moment by moment. So we want to send you a special resource to help you stand strong in God's word when temptation does come along.

It's a four-message series from Stuart and Jill Briscoe called Triumph Over Temptation. They created it to help you not only conquer temptation but to grow stronger in your faith as you do. This series will give you powerful biblical tools to defeat sinful desires and encourage you with the truth that every temptation to do wrong is also an opportunity to do right.

We'll send you Triumph Over Temptation as our thanks for your gift today to keep sharing the life-changing truth of God's word with people across the globe through the resources and teaching of Telling the Truth. So call today to request your copy of this resource at 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now let's return to today's teaching.

Charles Price: Often we do try to escape from the world around us. We try to escape from the institutions of the world around us and isolate ourselves, and then, of course, we criticize the world. Well, of course we've allowed it to deteriorate by our very non-involvement with it. And we deliberately reduce our influence in the world. That is one error people can make—to isolate ourselves.

The other error people make is to integrate—that is, we become like everybody else and so we become indistinguishable. We cease to be like an antiseptic that helps halt the processes of decay. And so we adopt the business ethics of our environment which may happen to be corrupt, which may happen to include a little bit of untruth, a little bit of exaggeration, a little bit of distortion because that's the culture we're part of, and we're not different in that.

We adopt the sexual ethics of the world around us so we do not stand out as different in that area. Actually, these verses that Jesus speaks here speak against this very thing. If we're not different, we're not being Christian. You are the salt. But as we'll see in a moment, if the salt loses its saltiness, it's no good for anything. But that is not what a disciple of Jesus is. You are the salt. You are the light. If you hide the light under a bucket, He says you can do that, but you cease to function.

So if it's an error to isolate ourselves on the one hand and to integrate ourselves on the other hand, what is the right way forward? I suggest to you it is to infiltrate. That's what salt does. In our perishing world, God sprinkles salt. This is what Jesus prayed for His disciples. He says, "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world. I'm not praying for isolation. I'm not praying for a sort of Christian stream that somehow permeates through society but is detached from society and protected from society."

"I'm not praying you'll take them out of the world," said Jesus, "but that you protect them from the evil one." Why? Because they're exposed to the evil one. That's my prayer—that You'll protect them from the evil one. Then He said this in verse 18: "As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world." So my prayer is not that you take them out of it; my prayer is actually that we send them into it, that we infiltrate.

Now, I know that can be dangerous, and of course it can be dangerous. Those of us who are parents know fine well that's dangerous. But let me say this as a parent: don't protect your kids too much. Teach them instead how to live in the world that is corrupt, that does bombard them with things which are not true. That in that environment, as they themselves come to know Christ, their influence will be a constructive one and a positive one.

Now, how are we to be influential like this? I mean, how does the salt actually function? There are two ways that I think that we can interpret this verse. Some interpret this corporately—that is, okay, you as Christians organize and campaign for a better world. Expose those things that are wrong, criticize things that need criticizing. And there's no shortage of Christians who are willing to do that and lobby against those things which are wrong.

I'm not commenting if that's right, wrong, good, or bad, but I do have two scriptural reservations if that is our only understanding of this. Personal reservations don't count; scriptural reservations do. The two scriptural reservations are, firstly, we don't find this in the New Testament. You don't find the Apostle Paul or Peter or Jesus Himself commenting on the corrupt government of the Roman Empire or the corrupt Judean government of the Herods.

You don't find the early church sending up resolutions to the imperial court in Rome saying, "This is the Christian stance, and we have our rights, we want you to take these into account." You don't find them organizing petitions or political campaigns. Now, it is true that the Old Testament prophets addressed national issues, but that is precisely because Israel as a nation was the chosen people of God in the Old Covenant.

And so His work was through the nation, and therefore His agenda was nationally based. Therefore, the prophets got up and said, "Don't align yourself with Egypt and don't depend on Assyria, because you depend on God in the national context." But in the New Covenant, the Kingdom of God does not have geographical boundaries; it's not a nation. The Kingdom of God will not be observed, said Jesus in Luke 17, when people say, "Here it is" or "There it is."

It doesn't have boundaries, doesn't have—you don't need visas to get in or out. The Kingdom of God is within you. But you do not find in the New Testament that this is the area—and I'll give you a better reason in a moment—why in the New Testament this is not the area in which the church functioned as salt. My second reservation is that the church's primary contribution to our world—we must never lose this—the church's primary contribution to the world is the preaching of the Gospel to the world.

You see, there's only one alternative to perishing, and that is what the Bible calls eternal life. They're set in contrast again and again. John 3:16: "Shall not perish but have everlasting life." Once again, eternal life is not a future thing. John 5:24 says, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed from death to life."

The only alternative to the state of perishing is replacing that with eternal life, which is the life of God—God alone is eternal. His life, implanted within a human being, halts that process of perishing and replaces it with a process of living, a life that grows increasingly in righteousness and godliness and fruitfulness. And sometimes if that is our primary function, sometimes getting onto bandwagons that may have some legitimacy actually become barriers to the primary task.

Guest (Male): Guest speaker Charles Price will be right back with some closing thoughts, but first: we all struggle at times with sinful desires and selfish motives. When you do, you must remember that every temptation to do wrong is also an opportunity to do right. That's the empowering truth Stuart and Jill Briscoe wanted to help you grasp when they created their four-message series Triumph Over Temptation.

This series will equip you with powerful biblical truth to help you triumph over temptation and grow your faith in the process. Triumph Over Temptation is our thanks for your gift to keep sharing the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth with so many people around the world. Generous friends like you keep broadcasts like this one going, reaching others with God's healing love so they can experience life in Christ and find strength to carry on with courage.

So if you haven't given before, consider a gift today to help keep God's word going out around the world to you and many others. And remember to request your copy of Triumph Over Temptation when you call and give. Just call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Charles again to close out today's message.

Charles Price: I remember two or three Christmases ago now, I was at a mall. I go every Christmas to a mall because I have to shop. And there was a display concerning the impact of HIV/AIDS. And some young men were collecting money and giving away literature. And I gave one of these young men some money and I took his literature and I began to talk to him.

I said, "I too am very concerned about the huge impact of HIV/AIDS. In fact, I'm involved in helping send people to places, particularly in Africa, where this has had such a huge impact and in raising money." And this young man was very warm and very pleased that somebody should be concerned and interested. And he said to me, "What do you do?" I said, "I'm a pastor."

Immediately his face changed. He physically turned his body away from me, began to walk away with his back to me. When I spoke to him, he gestured for me to leave him alone. The moment I told him I was a pastor, the moment he understood I'm a Christian—he was probably a gay young man—his idea is, "All I know of Christians is rejection and condemnation."

You see, Jesus had a reputation; it was this: He was a friend of sinners. His reputation was not that He was an exposer of sin. It is true Jesus exposed the religious hypocrisy of those who should have known better, and He talked a lot about spiritual superficiality and external preoccupation rather than internal godliness. That's where He brought His exposé of sin.

But He didn't rant and rail against the evils of society, and He tells us why in John 12:47. In case we don't know why He didn't do this, this is why He didn't do it: "As for the person who hears My word but does not keep them, I do not judge him. As for the person who turns their back on Me and does not do the words that they hear from Me, I don't judge him." Then He tells us why: "For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it." And by implication, judging it may not be conducive to saving it, because your judging of it can build such barriers in advance.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Charles. Before we go, we want to remind you, when you give to continue Stuart and Jill's legacy of sharing God's word through Telling the Truth broadcasts like this one, we'll say thanks with the Briscoes' four-message series Triumph Over Temptation. These encouraging messages will help you defeat temptation and grow in your faith as you do.

So please request your copy when you call 1-800-889-5388. 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org. Thanks for being with us today on Telling the Truth. Come back next time and be encouraged through biblical teaching that helps you experience life. See you soon.