name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter five, Matthew chapter five. A couple of weeks ago, we started into the Sermon on the Mount. We started talking about the Beatitudes. And today we come into a new section in the Sermon on the Mount. I've entitled the sermon this morning out of verses 13 through 20, Salt, Light, and the Law, because I couldn't get any more creative than that. So that's about the

best I could come up with. This section is really sort of a hinge between the Beatitudes that tell us about the heart of the kingdom and the part that Jesus addresses the law, where he gives us the heart of the law and exactly what it means to be a Christian. And so we're going to talk about the heart of the kingdom and the part that Jesus addresses the law, where he gives us the heart of the law and exactly what it means to be a Christian. God intended with the law, not only the outward aspect of it, but also the inward motive aspect of it. And so this really kind of hinges those two pieces together. When we looked at the Beatitudes,

we saw that the heart of the kingdom, the heart of the kingdom that started off with being poor in spirit, which led to all of those other Beatitudes, those other attitudes of heart that we as kingdom citizens should have. And so as we come into this next section, we're going to see two things. We're going to see the effect of the heart of the kingdom, but then we're also going to see the kingdom and righteousness as he talks to us about the law. And so we pick up in verse 13 of chapter 5, and this is what it says. Jesus says,

He says, Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever can't do the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. And so as he begins to give the illustrations of the effect of the righteous life and the effect that it has, the effect of the heart of the kingdom has on the disciple of Jesus Christ, he uses two illustrations. And the first illustration he uses is salt.

He says, You are the salt. You are the salt of the earth. Now I think the best thing that we can do is look at what the use of salt is not only today, but even at that point in time. And within that, there's several different uses for salt. Number one, salt purifies. Salt has a purification aspect to it. As a matter of fact, perhaps you are like me and when you were growing up and you had a sore throat,

your mom said gargle with some salt water. Because it has a purifying effect as far as dealing with some of the germs and things that are inside your throat. And so salt has that purifying effect on things. But the second thing that salt does is salt has a preserving effect. It's a preservative. And as a matter of fact, in Roman culture at this point in time, they didn't have the refrigeration processes that we have today.

And so in order to keep things like meat from spoiling, what they would do is they would pack it in salt, which would cause it to hold its goodness for much longer. And so it had a preserving effect on things. But not only that, something I learned this summer is that salt is also really good for hydration, which sounds the opposite of what salt does. But not only that, something I learned this summer is that salt is also really good for hydration, which sounds the opposite of what salt does.

But not only that, something I learned this summer is that salt is also really good for hydration, which sounds the opposite of what salt does. of what it would really be good for, but it's true. One of the things I learned this summer as I was running, I think because I'm getting older, I sweat way worse than I used to, and so I lose a lot more nutrients than I used to when I do so, and I was dealing with a lot of calf cramps while I was running, and so I read articles about it, and they said you've gotta make sure that you have enough sodium in your diet, enough sodium. If you only drink water, what'll end up happening is you actually deplete your body of necessary minerals because the sodium helps deliver the moisture

to the cells, and so that salt is so important for hydration, but not only that, salt is also good for flavor. Now, I grew up in a house with a dad that had high blood pressure, so we didn't keep salt on the table, and so forever, I had no idea people salted things. I remember the first time I went to somebody's house for dinner, and somebody grabbed a salt shaker and started pouring salt on their food, and I was like, what on earth are you doing? Like, what is the point of that?

Like, well, it adds flavor. Now, of course, I've learned since then that my mom added salt. I've added salt to lots of things, but it adds flavor to things, but not only that, salt was also, at that time, an incredibly valuable commodity because it was a very precious thing, and it was very valuable. Sometimes Roman soldiers would even get paid with salt, which brought to rise the saying, a man who's worth his salt, and so it's really valuable.

Now, as I was thinking about these things, these aspects of the use of salt, I thought, and that's, that's what Jesus calls us. So what does that mean about who we, as believers in Jesus Christ, are in the world? Well, it means, first of all, that we, as believers in Jesus Christ, should have a purifying effect on the world that's around us. How do we have a purifying effect on the world that's around us?

Well, as you live out the truth of Jesus Christ, and as you declare the truth of Jesus Christ, the world around you is purified through it. I want you to think about your workplace. If you are solid in your witness at your workplace, one of two things happen. Either one, people change the way that they act around you, or two, they don't hang around you, because you've had a purifying effect on their lives.

I experienced both of those things when I worked in construction. Some people just didn't talk to me because they knew we don't want to talk to him, because when we start speaking the way we do, we feel bad about it, whether I said anything or not. And so we should have a purifying effect on the world that is around us. But not only that, we, as believers in Jesus Christ, should have a preserving effect on the world that's around us.

Have you ever noticed that even in the world right now that seems to be going completely crazy, there is still a certain sect of people that are holding on to truth. They may not even be saved. They may not be Bible-believing Christians, but they at least still care about the truth. Have you ever wondered why that is? It's because the Holy Spirit is at work

in the body of Christ. And as the Holy Spirit is at work in the body of Christ, it has a preserving effect on the world that is around us, because we hold what we call the testimony of truth. Not only the truth of what God's word has to say, but being truthful people. And as we do so, it has a preserving effect on the world that is around us. Also, we, as believers in Jesus Christ,

should have a hydrating effect. We are not the living water. We know that that's Jesus. But we can be used as the ones who help deliver the water to the cells or all of the different people in the world by simply carrying the truth of the word. by simply carrying the truth of the word. By simply carrying the truth of who Jesus is, that living water into their lives.

We, as believers in Jesus Christ, should be adding flavor to the world. Now, listen, I think one of the things that is so tragic is when Christians don't add flavor to the world. Listen, are some of y'all boring? Yep. Am I boring sometimes? Yep. But when it comes to my faith, I don't wanna be boring. I don't wanna think, oh, but what if they don't want salt

on any of that? Instead, I need to be willing to have a little bit of flavor in my life and not fear what people had to say, but add the flavor of truth to the life of people. If you don't believe me, just think about all the prophets that God used. I bet in his normal life, Elijah was a pretty boring guy. But in the hands of God, what was he? One of the most flavorful human beings to have ever lived.

He added flavor to everything that he did. Why? Because he was a disciple of the Lord. But not only that, brother and sister in Jesus Christ, you are incredibly valuable to God. As a matter of fact, your value cannot be measured in wealth, because it meant so much to him. You mean so much to him that he was willing to sacrifice his life so that you could be

a part of his kingdom. You, brother and sister, because you have been not only created in the image of God, but purchased with the precious blood of a savior, are worth more than all of the silver and gold in the world. And we need to hold onto that in the world we're living in right now. You are of great value. Now. He gives a warning. As we are the salt of the earth, notice what he says.

But if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. He gives this warning. He says, if the salt no longer has its desired effect, if it has lost its taste, literally its pungency or its effect, if that salt doesn't do what salt is supposed to do, then it's really not, you know, good for anything anymore, except to be thrown out onto the path.

It has no real use any longer, the way that God intended for it to. And so I started asking myself a question, what does it look like to lose your taste? How can salt lose its saltiness? Well, it could either be diluted or it can be made impure. At that point in time, if salt ended up getting mixed with soil, it became impure. If you will, the impurities of the earth would cause it to lose,

its flavor, and it was no longer any good. Perhaps you're seeing where I'm going with this, and that's that as believers in Jesus Christ, I do want you to take note of something. Jesus did not command them to be the salt of the earth. He told them that they are the salt of the earth. In other words, it's not something that you try to be. It's something that you are. The

question is, what kind of salt are you? You see, the kind of salt with flavor in it is flavorful and hydrating and preservative and purifying and valuable and all those kinds of things. It has a preserving effect on life, but salt that's lost its flavor is thrown out onto the path, meaning that it simply destroys life. You know why they would have thrown it on the path at that point in time? Because the path would have been made of dirt.

And they wanted the path to stay clear. So in order for the path to stay clear, they would throw that tasteless salt onto the path. Because even though it had lost its flavor and its effect as far as salt was concerned, it could still do one thing that salt can always do, and that's destroy plant life. So brother and sister in Jesus Christ, you need to realize something in the same way that I need to realize something. We are all the salt of the earth.

The question is, what kind of salt are you? Are you the kind of salt that is preserving? Life? Or are you the kind of salt that is destroying life? You see, as believers in Jesus Christ in the Western culture, I think we can often find ourselves mixed with the impurities of the world. If you will, the earth has become too much a part of us. And if the earth, if the

world becomes too much a part of us, then we've lost our flavor. And we find that we instead are bringing about death where we should have been preserving life. I've had the opportunity in my life to be around a great deal of people who have followed me. And I've had the opportunity to be around a great deal of people who have followed Jesus. A good number of them, I can gladly say

most of them, have a very strong walk with the Lord and are a great testimony to the faithfulness of God. We had to say goodbye to one the other day. And the testimony that those folks have is that they were truly the salt of the earth that God intended because their lives had a preserving effect. You know what it's like to be around a strong believer in Jesus Christ. They make you

want to be better. They make you want to know Jesus Christ more because as you sharpen, as you encourage each other, as you see the things that they've gone through, and yet they have maintained their witness, they have maintained their faithfulness to the things of the Lord, it pushes you to want to know Jesus even better. I didn't bring this up during first service, but I have thought about it during second service. Two of the people that I can think of more than anyone are my aunt and uncle, Joe and Jean, the ones that started Calvary Chapel of Arc City so long ago and now pastor a church over in Wellington. Most people don't know everything they've been

through in the past five years. But they've lost both of their kids in the last five years and are now raising their grandkids. And you know what? Anybody else would have totally understood if they would be mad at God at this point in time. Anyone else could understand any of the things that they'd gone through. But you know what Joe continues to do? Faithfully give out the truth of the word of God. Why? Because

he's the salt of the earth. And his life is continuing to be a preserving factor on the lives of others because the impurities of the world have not stopped him. For being the right kind of salt. But in the same way, I can sadly say, I know some believers in Jesus Christ who became the wrong kind of salt and their lives got mixed with the impurities of the earth. And as their lives became mixed with the impurities of the earth, the people around them

found that not only are they very upset at that person's walk with Jesus Christ, but quite frankly, they don't want anything themselves to do with God and are about as far away from any kind of relationship with God as they are with Jesus Christ. And so I think it's important that we have a relationship with Jesus Christ as possible. And I got to tell you, it hurts my heart. And so believer in Jesus Christ, I want to ask you this morning, what kind of salt are you? Are you the

kind of salt that's preserving life? Or are you the kind of salt that is destroying life? Don't worry, when I get done talking about the light, I'll put a little bit more hope on that than I did just then. But it's something for all of us to pay attention to. And so he goes on to give his second illustration. And he says, Now, I thought that this was kind of interesting. And I thought it was interesting for a few

reasons. First of all, because of what light does. And so light does a handful of things. And so I can't remember if I had them put this up there or not. I forget sometimes what I highlight and what I don't. For those of you that don't know, I print off my notes. I'm not good enough to actually send them something. And then I highlight the things they want to put on there. So I can't ever remember

what I did and didn't highlight. So if I ever go and nothing shows up, that's my fault, not theirs. Okay, so I was thinking about what light does. And light does a handful of things. Number one, light dispels the darkness. Nope, that one's on me. Okay, light dispels the darkness. I want you to think about this. When I walked in this room this morning, it was very early in the morning

still, and it was completely dark. And I walked in and I was like, whoa, it's completely dark. That's actually the words that came out of my mouth. And so I went over there behind the sound booth. You know what I did? I turned the lights on. You know what happened the moment I turned the lights on? The darkness was gone. Why? Because the light dispelled the darkness. That's why I

God created the heavens and the earth. The first thing that he had to create was light. Why? Because darkness had covered the face of the deep. And so he did that in order to dispel the darkness. And that's what happens any time a light is turned on, which is why God says light and dark can't dwell together. That's all that there is to it. But the second thing that light does is light

protects. Light protects us. Let me give you a little illustration because light reveals all of the dangers that are in front of us. So there I was. It was late at night one night and I had been studying or doing something less profitable like watching a football game or something. Anyway, I was the last one up. And I got ready to go to bed. I turned off all the lights because ever since I was in high school, it's always been my goal

to try to find my way around without light. Dumb thought, I know. But that's what I like to try to do. So I try to find my way through the house and I find my way back to the bathroom. I brush my teeth. I take care of all of my pre-bed things, you know, style. Took care of everything that I needed to do and turned off the light and realized I left my phone in the living room. I need my phone because that's my alarm clock, right? So I think let's not turn

any lights on. I don't want to wake anybody up and I want to find my way through in the dark. Well, the house that we lived in, that my mom and dad live in now, you walked out of the bathroom door and right in front of you is a wall. I knew that and I tried to take that into account. You make a quick right and then a quick left and you go down the hall and you go straight to the living

room. Well, I walk out and I make a quick right, but too quick of a left. And as I make too quick of a left, I run directly into the corner of the wall and I cut my head open. And I thought to myself, you know, if the lights were on, I would have been protected from that. Now, luckily I had a student that at that point in time who I think it was her job to always ask me,

Mr. Nichols, what did you do to your head? And so I got to tell that story a whole lot of times. And so, but that is a perfect picture of what light is supposed to do. Light protects us from those hazards. You see, if the light had been on, I would have gone, oh, there's a wall. I shouldn't run into that. But without light, you can't see that. The third thing that light does

is that light guides us. If you've ever been on any of those tours of like a cave or something, what do you always have to follow? The path of the lights because everything else is dark. So light is a guide for us. But the last thing that light is, is light is important to growth and it's important to life. As a matter of fact, when I took a turf grass class here quite a few years

now, you learned that shade is actually a stress on plants because they have to have light. As a matter of fact, if you were to put a plant in a room that sat in the darkness and there was one beam of light over here, do you know what that plant would do? That plant would grow sideways so that it could find the light because light is necessary for life. Now, as we think about this, Jesus said what? You, I am the light of the world. That means that all of those things are true of

Christ. I should be dispelling the darkness. How do I dispel the darkness? Well, first of all, by living out the light of Jesus Christ, but then also declaring the light of Jesus Christ to the world that is around me. As I give out the light of the world, which is Jesus, it dispels the darkness. But not only that, as a believer in Jesus Christ, I should have a protective aspect

to my life. And that's that my life should be protective of the people around me by displaying the light. And as I display the light, I should be protecting the people around me. And that's what we should be doing with God's word. Have you ever thought about that? That God's word is not your way to win an argument. God's word is a way for you to give protection to the people that are

around you because you can reveal to them the dangers of the world. Hopefully that will change the way you view handling the people of the world is that they are in grave danger. They are sitting as Jesus said, in darkness and in the shadow of death, and they need a great light. And so we dispel the darkness, we protect, and then hopefully we guide. And what do we do with the light of Jesus Christ? We guide

them to the truth of who he is. And may I say, as believers in Jesus Christ, we are important to life. We are important to life because you are the light of the world. Now, this is an interesting statement to think about, because if we were to jump over to the book of John, we would see that Jesus's great I am statements in the book of John is that he says, I am the light of the world. So if

he is the light of the world, why does he then call us the light of the world? Well, you see, this is one of those opportunities where the heavens declare the glory of God. We see the invisible attributes of God clearly through nature, because the great light that we all know of in our world physically is the sun. But we also have a lesser light that is the light of the moon. But how does the moon have its light? The moon, which shines a light, has its light because

it takes in the sun and then reflects the light of the sun onto the earth. You see, you and I are not the great light. We are the lesser light. And the only light we have to give out to the people around us is the light that we take in from the great light, which is Jesus Christ himself. And so when he says you are the light of the world, he doesn't mean you're the source of light. He means

the reflection of the light. Now, as he calls us this light of the world, this reflection of the light, he says, first of all, we can't hide the light. He says, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. He gives two illustrations of how light can't be hidden. And

the first one is a city on a hill. Now, luckily, we live in an area where there's a lot of country around us. And you know, we don't have a lot of country around us. We don't have a lot of people, but we know that if you're between Arc City and Winfield, and you're driving, it gets really dark, but it doesn't take long as you're coming over the horizon, you can see, hey, there's a city because you can see all of the lights. It can't be hidden. Why? Because you can't hide light.

He said, a city on a hill cannot be hidden. But then he gives a second illustration. He says, nobody lights a lamp and puts it under a basket. We all sang this as a child, right? Hide it under a bushel. Wait, we can do way better than that. Hide it under a bushel. No, right? We can't do that. We have to be able to let our light shine. I don't know why this was

always a light, but it was, right? Like, I'm going to let it shine. Why couldn't this? Anyway, no one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. No, what do they do? They put it out so it illuminates the whole house. He says, you can't hide the light. Now, why, when Jesus in this sermon is telling them that they are the light of the world, does he tell them not to hide the light?

That's the first thing he tells them, because he knew what they were facing. He knew the persecution that was coming, because he had already told them a little bit about it in the Beatitudes. He said, blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness' sake. And he knew that the tendency of us as humans when facing something really difficult is to, instead of shining as brightly as we possibly can, to try to hide the light so that we can avoid as much conflict as possible. I don't know about you, but my general nature, my general

default is to avoid conflict, right? That's going to be hard. Well, it's not, do it. Seems like the right thing to do. Feels like running's the right thing to do right now, right? Every now and then, I told first services too, every now and then, do you ever just think to yourself, or is it just me, can today just not be a battle, right? Can today just not be hard?

Can today just be easy? And every time God's like, no, but I'm still good. And we want to hide the light. And he says, don't do that. You can't do it. Hide the light of the world. You're a city on a hill, you can't be hidden. And if you're the one illuminating the house, you can't put yourself under a basket. Be the light. But then he talks to them about the fact that there's two different kinds of light. Notice what he says.

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Let your light so shine before men in such a way. Now, I'm reminded of the fact that in the same way that there's two different types of salt, one that preserves life and one that destroys life, I'm reminded that there's a couple of different types of light that there can be. Let me give you a little illustration.

When I was a little bit younger, I would go run in the dark. Why would I run in the dark? Because I was really busy and the only time I could go for a run was at night. I sense, mainly because of this story, don't run in the dark anymore because it scares me a lot more than it used to because I'm scared of dying now and being hit by cars or breaking an ankle or you name it, any number of things.

But when I would run at night, there were two types of light that I had. One type of light was a street light. The street lights were so glorious. They illuminated the whole area. It wasn't perfect, but you could at least see pitfalls in front of you. It didn't shine in your eyes and kind of protected you from a certain amount of things. And so street lights were a really good thing. But then there was a second type of light you come

in, you run into when you're running at night, and those are called headlights. Headlights are a little scarier because headlights only illuminate things for the person behind them. You're the person coming at them. They're actually blinding. They actually can be dangerous. So here's the story. So there I was. I was running along. It was probably 930 or 10 o'clock

at night, and the street lights are lighting me until you get onto Radio Lane just off of C Street. And on Radio Lane, just off of C Street, not only are there not very many street lights, but the road does something really interesting. It doesn't really have much of a shoulder. As a matter of fact, the asphalt sits up here and the grass sits right down here, and then there's a ditch.

And you can't tell where that drop off is because the edge isn't really marked very well with that sweet reflective paint that would say, hey, here's the edge of the road, right? And so as I'm running and doing the best I can to see where I'm going without either the street light or really a headlight, headlights come at me. Now when you're a runner, you learn something about other drivers. They don't see you. You actually don't exist. They're

either on their phone or I don't know how many times I've had to jump out of the way of cars. Even though I was wearing reflective clothing, I'm thinking, that guy probably doesn't see me because he's probably making some sweet post on the Instagram right now, and he didn't know that there's a runner there. And so I see these headlights coming at me, and pretty soon I can't see anything else because all I can see are these lights, and I'm completely blinded. And so he keeps coming at me and clearly can't see me either because he's not moving over. So I step to the side, only you know what's not there? The road. And so I

drop like this, and I hit my knee buckles, and I roll into the ditch and into somebody's front yard. And all I could think was, praise God it's dark, because they couldn't see me do that. Because in the daytime, I'm pretty sure, I've told Judy more, that she lives on Radio Atlanta, I said, I'm pretty sure I rolled into your front yard. I could have been wrong on that, but I'm pretty sure yours is the yard that I rolled into. And all I could think

was, well, I thought two things. Number one, how bright are those headlights? Did he just give me an x-ray? And then the second thing I thought was, I wonder if that driver saw me. At that point in time, I kind of hoped that he didn't. But you see, sometimes as believers in Jesus Christ, we can end up being headlights. What we want to be is we want to be a street light. We're illuminating things around and preventing danger and protecting

and guiding and all those kinds of things. But sometimes, if we're not careful, because in the same way that you are the salt of the earth, you don't try to be the salt of the earth, you also are the light of the world. It just depends on what kind of light you're going to be. If you're walking with Jesus and staying strong in him and following him closely, you're probably going to be a street light illuminating the way for somebody. But if you're not careful,

you'll end up becoming a headlight. How do we end up becoming headlights in people's lives? How do we end up blinding them? Well, I think there's two ways. The first way, I think, is when we become really legalistic. When we become really legalistic and start holding people to standards that we couldn't even keep ourselves, we end up becoming headlights in someone's eyes. When we begin to hold them, I don't want to use the word accountable because

we should hold people accountable. When we begin holding sins over people's heads and making Jesus something that they can never attain, we end up becoming a headlight and blinding their eyes and they go, oh, I don't even, I can't even see where I'm going now because that Christian just presented Jesus in a completely false way. But you know the other way we can end up becoming headlights? We can end up becoming headlights in people's lives and in their eyes when our lives don't reflect the truth of who Jesus is. In the same way that the impurities keep us from having, being the right kind of salt,

when our lives begin to reflect the things of the world, they begin to become blinders in people's eyes and they start saying things like that. You call yourself a Christian? That's a terrible thing to hear from the world when they say, but I thought Christians were supposed to fill in the blank here. And you just became a headlight in their eyes. And so Jesus says, let your light so shine before men in such a way that what? They see

your good works. And I'll point out to you the fact that if you live for Jesus, you can't avoid people seeing your good works, and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with people seeing that you've done good things. But when they see that you've done good things and you're doing so in the proper way, they will then glorify your Father in heaven. They will see what God is doing in your life, and it will point them to the Father. It will point

them to the truth of who God is. Well, you know me, I can't just sit back and think, okay, there's that, move on. I have to think to myself, how do I be the right person for this? I'm not the right person right salt and the right light because i don't want to lose my flavor i don't i don't want to be a headlight in somebody's eyes well i think the first way that we allow ourselves to be the correct kind of salt and light is to allow the lord to identify the areas of impurity in our life and to identify the areas of legalism in our lives you know what i find the longer that i walk with jesus that stuff shows up a lot faster than i thought it did that stuff shows up kind of out

of nowhere and then you're like whoa where'd that come from i haven't done that in a long time i haven't thought that in a long time i haven't said that in a long time and then you're like man what the heck so we need god's word we need the truth of who god is to be continually purifying our lives to continue to show us where the impurities are so we can separate those things out so that we can be the right kind of salt that he can reveal to us the legalism in our lives in the areas where we have lost track of mercy and grace and instead become hard and judgmental so that we can be the right kind of salt and that he can reveal to us the legalism in our lives

so that we can then once again show love to people so we have to allow god to show us the impurities in our lives so that we can deal with them early so that they don't become the thing that brings us down but not only that we must stay connected to the one true light we have to stay connected to the true light do you remember how the sermon on the mount began when jesus had everybody sit down the very first thing he said is blessed are the do you remember poor in spirit and what do we say that meant poor in spirit meant that you had a realistic understanding of who you are apart from christ and who you are in christ you see i find that the more i am able to continue

to connect with the fact that i am simply a sinner that is saved by grace that though i cannot he can that with me it's impossible but with god it's completely possible and i maintain that sort of heart it keeps me constantly on my knees and i'm able to continue to connect with the fact that i'm saved by grace that though i cannot he can i'm able to continue to connect with the fact that i'm before the father it keeps me constantly completely and humbly dependent upon him and the only way that i can be the kind of salt that i'm supposed to be the only way i can be the kind of light that i'm supposed to be is if my heart is completely totally and always humbly dependent upon him

and so i must always remain connected to him so that he can continue to reveal my need for a savior but continue to reveal to me how great of a savior he actually is and so friends stay connected to the source stay connected to the light well he goes on from there to address the law and notice what he says he says do not think that i came to abolish the law or the prophets i did not come to abolish but to fulfill the law now as we come into this section on the law i want to point a few things out to you and first of all is what kind of law is he talking about well of course he's talking about the mosaic law what they would have known at that point in time the mosaic

law is for the people who are in the church who are in the church who are in the church who are in the church who are in the church but the mosaic law for the children in the world will be first to take us another step we're in or the mosaic law is also just a law that we can we have already gotten to it right that was written in the book of leviticus and it's the first law of ura gerade law that was written as it says in edition in the book ofposition and the law in the first measure it's hidden in jesus but certainly in the book of allah it's published in the Book of is the law that � Salehi first Ingm old above allah is the apple of his eyes and that's by the mosaic law and i'm telling you it's all of them

and let me talk about a lot of things like we were talking about Ihnen yet now what we know the în men reminding us in the book of leviticus that in leviticus where that in doubt now that we say already that's not in we just going to

if used lawfully is a beautiful thing because the law if used lawfully does a few things in our lives it reveals to us the righteousness of God it reveals to me the unrighteousness that's in me and it reveals to me the truth the reality of a savior that came to save me and so when Jesus is declaring this to them he says I did not come to abolish the law now why does he decide he needs to make that kind of a statement because as Jesus is dealing with the religious community at this time the religious community was made up of three different groups of people we talked about two of them already we said that the Pharisees were what we would call the religious right wing they were the ultra conservative group that was very legalistic in their thinking the

Sadducees were at the other end we would call them the religious left the brags what they said they were but in the end they were drawn into the moral rules of the day they did not hold as much to the law and yet they still violated what the law had to say because of the way that they taught it and then you had the scribes who would have aligned themselves more with the Pharisees because they were the experts in the law all three of these groups misinterpreted what the law had to say because they turned the law into something it was never intended to be and they made it more difficult than it and living and working miracles, it's going to look like he's opposed to the law.

But Jesus never takes issue with the law. He takes issue with their interpretation of the law. He doesn't challenge the Mosaic law. He challenges their interpretation of it. And so as Jesus is teaching them, which he's just about to really get into next week, he's going to be teaching them about the law. He says, I need you to understand something. I did not come to abolish

the law. I didn't come to do away with it. Actually, what I came to do is I came to fulfill it. And so the question that hopefully has come into your mind is how did Jesus fulfill the law? Well, he did so in three ways. Number one, he fulfilled his predictive prophecies. Oh man, I thought that one was up there. He fulfilled his, or excuse me, legal demands.

That's my fault. That's my fault, Tammy. The first one was the legal demands. He fulfilled the legal demands of the law. What do you mean by that? He did everything perfect, even to the fact that when Jesus, who was born, his parents took him to be circumcised on the eighth day and presented him in the temple like the firstborn was supposed to be presented. Even when Jesus was an infant,

he was keeping the law perfectly because of who his parents were. That's why Mary and Joseph were an important pick for the parents. And so Jesus is the only one that ever kept the law perfectly in every way, not only outwardly, but also with his motives. And so he fulfilled the legal demands of the law. But the second thing that Jesus did to fulfill the laws, he fulfilled his predictive prophecies. Matthew will continue to point out that as

it is written, because all of the law and the prophets spoke of a coming Savior, they spoke of a coming Messiah, and Jesus fulfilled all of those prophecies in his first coming. But then the third way is that he did so with the payment of the penalty. Jesus fulfilled the law by making the sacrifice that was required in the law for those of us that had broken it. That had broken it with our sin, with our iniquities, and with our transgressions. And he

fulfilled all of those things. And so he says, I didn't come to abolish it. I actually came to fulfill the law. Because notice what he says, for truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished. In other words, what he's saying is there will not be a single eye that's not dotted,

and T that's not crossed, in every aspect of the law until all is accomplished. He goes on to say, for truly I say to you, excuse me, verse 19, whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. He says, whoever annuls one of these commandments. What does the word annul mean? The word annul

means to deprive of authority. In other words, anyone who says that there's any aspect of the law that doesn't have to be kept, that doesn't have to be kept, that doesn't have to be kept, and then teaches others to do the same is considered least in the kingdom of heaven. Now let's spend a few minutes explaining what I mean by this. Because you're probably thinking to yourself, Ryan, I'm a New Testament saint. I'm not under the law. You're correct. It's because

Jesus fulfilled the law. But that doesn't mean that any of those laws were deprived of their authority. Let me give you an example. The law demands a sacrifice. The law does not stop demanding a sacrifice because Jesus came. It's just that the sacrifice was fulfilled in Jesus. We still need a sacrifice to be saved. But we don't need a sacrifice of bulls and goats. We needed the sacrifice of Jesus. And so in his

life and his teaching, the way that Jesus exemplified it, that's the way we now obey the law. But here's something that's kind of interesting to pay attention to. I've heard people say recently that we need to stop displaying the Ten Commandments because the Ten Commandments are our old covenant. I've shared this with you before. Andy Stanley is one who has taken a really strong

stand and said, we don't need to worry about them displaying the Ten Commandments in courtrooms and things anymore. The Ten Commandments are old covenant. Really? Nine of the Ten Commandments are confirmed in the New Testament. The only one that's not confirmed in the New Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament because believe it or not, you are still held accountable for the Sabbath law.

Oh no, I don't take the Sabbath off. You don't have to take the Sabbath off because the Sabbath law was fulfilled in Jesus. You don't have to take the Sabbath off because the Sabbath law was fulfilled in Jesus. You now keep the Sabbath law by finding your rest in him. If you're not finding your rest in him, you're violating the Sabbath. You're violating that

law of rest because he says he ceased from all of his work on the seventh day, and when Jesus rose from the dead, what did he do? He sat down at the right hand of his father because he ceased from all of his work. And now we find our rest in him. You see, brothers and sisters, God does not forgive us because he's decided to lessen the law. God can forgive us because the law has been fulfilled. I think sometimes we can have this grandfatherly view of

God up in heaven going, let's just pretend nothing happened. We'll just overlook that and we'll forgive you. And most of the world presents a God just like that. A God who is just willing to overlook your sin. Oh, that's okay. God will forgive me. But the only reason God can forgive is because the righteous requirement of the law was met in the death of Jesus Christ.

Because while God is a God of mercy, God is also a God of wrath. While God is a God of forgiveness, he is also a God of justice. And in order for him to forgive, justice had to be served. In order for him to show mercy, wrath had to be poured out. And all of that was dealt with with Jesus on the cross. That's why we now can't say, oh, it's okay. God will forgive you. We need to tell them absolutely

that sin. And the only way you can be forgiven is by the way you forgive. And the only way you can be forgiven is by the way you be forgiven is if you put your faith in Jesus. Because he was enough to forgive. His sacrifice was enough to forgive. And so he says, whoever annuls, whoever deprives of power any one of these laws is called least in the kingdom of heaven. You see, I think the reason why most of the world

doesn't appreciate grace is because they don't understand the penalty. Most of the world does not appreciate grace because the gospel has lost its teeth because we've quit telling people about sin. We've quit believing sin is sinful. We've quit believing that there is wrath that's going to be poured out on sin. In the same way, it tells us in the book of 1 Peter, in the same way that they weren't paying attention at the time of the

flood, they willfully have forgotten that God poured out his wrath at the time of the flood. They will willfully forget in the end. And we have to hold on to that. That's why the gospel doesn't have teeth. Give out the truth of what sin is, but then give out the truth of who Jesus is. And then all of a sudden, grace becomes amazing again. He says, but whoever teaches one of these things

shall be called, whoever keeps and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. And then he wraps up here with verse 20, as he says, for I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven. Now, you've probably read that verse quite a few times. You've probably

heard that before. But if you were in 30 AD, listening to Jesus give this teaching, he would have just created utter hopelessness inside of your heart. Because what he just told you is, you now have to be better than perfect to make it into the kingdom. And it would have been the most disheartening. thing any of those people heard. Because in their minds, the scribes and the Pharisees did

everything, listen, perfect. Think about how Paul described himself before he came to Jesus. Yes, self-righteous, persecuting the Christians. But think about what he said. I was a Jew among Jews. I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Remember this next part? And keeping the law blameless. That's how everybody viewed the scribes and the Pharisees. So when Jesus told them,

your righteousness has to exceed theirs. They all just said, I can't do it. I love what Dennis said a couple of weeks ago when he was up here teaching. He said, God only lets perfect people into heaven. All of the world right now would be like, that's not true. No perfect people are in heaven. Yes, there are. You can't get in unless you're perfect. And I hope it just did to your heart what it would have done to their

hearts. You went, because that's a scary thought. Because you know what? I'm not perfect. It would take you about five seconds to open up my heart and go, don't ever let him talk again. But it would take about five seconds for me to open up your heart and go, don't ever let him in the church again, right? Because that's who we are. We're not perfect people. Because what the scribes and Pharisees did is they did everything perfect on the outside,

but you know what they lacked? They lacked the heart and the motives. All of that was still wrong. What did Jesus call them? He called them whitewashed tombs. They looked really good on the outside, but on the inside, they were full of death. He called them full of dead men's bones. Why? Because there was death on the inside. Because though everybody else in the world would

have said they're perfect, they weren't. Because they hadn't dealt with their hearts. That's what he's going to do next in chapter five, is he'll deal with their hearts. But brother and sister in Jesus Christ, I want you to know something. You can't get into heaven unless you're perfect. Those of you that are here this morning that have never accepted Jesus as your

Lord and Savior, I want you to know that you can't get into heaven unless you're perfect. I need you to know you can't get into heaven unless you're perfect. We're told in the book of Isaiah that he is the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity. Listen, whose name is holy. And for just a moment, I want you to think about the fact that I don't deserve to be there.

I can't be there. I'll never be good enough to be there. Left to my own, I will always fall short. And so what do hopeless people do when they know there's nothing else that they can do? They ask for help. Because what Jesus tells them is you have to be perfect to make it into heaven. As a matter of fact, if you were to look over at verse 48, do this real quick,

verse 48 of chapter five, notice what he says. If you don't believe what I'm saying, read what Jesus said. Therefore, you are to be, anybody take note of that word? Perfect. As your heavenly father is perfect. And we all go, but you know what? That moment where we go, I got nothing. Jesus goes, but I've got everything. Because you see, the only way we can be made perfect is if that righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled for us. And that's exactly

what Jesus did on a cross. As he said, you can't be perfect. So I'll take the punishment that rightly belongs to you. And then I'll give you the righteousness that is only mine so that you can be perfect. Your one job is to come to me. And so now when we come to Jesus, we are made perfect in his eyes. And as a matter of fact, if you're here this morning and you've accepted Jesus as your Lord

and savior, you will never be more perfect in God's eyes than you are right now. Not because of who you are, but because the blood of Jesus Christ has covered all of your sins. And if you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus, you've never accepted him. I have really bad news for you. You can't get into heaven yet. You cannot be right in God's eyes yet until you come to Jesus. But the minute that you come to

Jesus and confess that you're a sinner and believe that he's your savior, that perfection, that righteousness of Christ, your sin has gone away and you're granted the righteousness of Jesus. It's the only way. It's the only way. That's why that very first beatitude is so important. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Why? Because there's the kingdom of heaven. October's a little bit of a hard month. Always has been, but it's been a little

bit harder the past few years for me. As many of you know, we went up yesterday, excuse me, Friday to lay to rest a very wonderful man of God named Rick Jardine, the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Johnson County. That's why I wasn't here last Sunday. It's because he had passed away on September the 30th. He was the pastor I served under before I came down here. And, uh, um,

great man of God, I would definitely describe him as faithful. And I mean, faithful. You, you didn't have to question anything about who he was. And so it's a hard thing. And then I'm reminded of the fact, well, so I put a post about him on Facebook the other day. And, and the next day, that Sunday, October 3rd, when we were getting ready for church that, that morning,

I was scrolling through the Facebook machine and, and one of my posts from a long time ago popped up and it was the day that Chuck Smith, the guy that founded Calvary Chapels out in California, went home to be with Jesus. And I thought, you know, it's kind of interesting because on October 8th of 2017 is when I stood up here and had to tell you all that Pastor Mark had decided he wasn't going to fight his battle anymore. And it was, he was ready to go home to Jesus. And it was about two weeks later that he went home to be with Jesus. And you know what? Every single one of those guys

would tell you if they were here right now. I'm in heaven, not because of who I was. I'm in the presence of Jesus, not because I was a faithful Bible teacher, not because I faithfully serve the Lord. I'm in heaven, not because you knew me as your pastor. I'm in heaven because of the sacrifice that Jesus made for me. And that's it. That's the only reason I'm here right now. And now all I could think that day was they're all up there

together. I hope they're all hanging out together. You know, like, I hope Chuck Smith is still talking really, really slow. I hope Mark is still talking really, really fast. I hope Pastor Rick is still wiping coffee out of his sweet, long, flowing mustache, right? Like, I hope all those things are happening. But when it comes right down to it, I know that they're there because

they would have been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. Because that's what made them who they were. And that's what made them acceptable to God. And that's the only thing that'll work for us. So, put your hope in Jesus. Because he's faithful and he's able. Amen? That's all I'll stand.

I just keep reminding myself that life is really hard, but God is really good. Because I got to tell you, it's been a hard year, but God has been really good through all of it. I talked to a lot of people that I hadn't seen for a very long time this last week, in the past couple of weekends. And they said, how are things going down at Calvary of Arc City? And I said, you know, they've been really hard,

but they've been really good. Because God's been faithful through all of it. And I got to share with them the fact that God is still in the business of doing miracles. I remember, I'll share this one last thing, and I'll let you go. Several years ago, I was teaching through Acts, and it was a part where Paul was doing really sensational miracles. And I remember the

commentary that I was reading said, what can you point to as a miracle that God has done in your fellowship? And all I could think was, we're all here. Because the fact that this church weathered what we did four years ago, and we're still here together and growing and being blessed and being fed by God's word and seeing God's Holy Spirit at work, that baptism, man, that destroyed me in a really good way, right? Because God is still in the business of doing miracles. Father, we come

before you and just thank you for who you are. I thank you for being good in the midst of the hard. Lord, that you are joy in the midst of heavy. And so, Lord, I just thank you. Thank you for being such a faithful God. I thank you that though I will never be good enough, you are enough. And so, Lord, be with us as we go out from here. Lord, I ask that your word would continue to sink deeply into our hearts, that you would

marinate our hearts with the truth of your words, come out smelling just like you. And we just thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. We have only one life, and it soon will pass. And only what's done for Christ will last. Jesus, you can use me, Lord. Riches and houses. And cars and lands. We'll all pass away, but my life will stand.

You can use me soon, and only what's done for Christ will be saying it soon. For Christ will ease us, you can use me. Yes, we belong to Him. Lord bless you and keep you. Make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. God bless. Have a good week.