Daniel 1:8-21 Salt, Light, and the Faithfulness of God

Intro

What does it mean to be salt and light?

How do we have a Christian witness in the world that desperately needs Christ.

How do we reach them with the gospel?

I don’t think many Christians would say it in this many words, but most have been discipled and bought into the lie that the best way to reach the world for Christ is by being friends with the world with a little bit of Jesus sprinkled in.

But what does God’s Word say?

In Daniel 1:8-21, God shows us what it looks like to faithfully live in a pagan world where the darkness seems overwhelming and not lose our light.

And more than that, to let our light shine like a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.

Here’s the BIG IDEA I want you leaving with today.

God faithfully keeps believers from conforming to the world to make them salt and light for the world.

Last week we looked at a Theology of Faithfulness.

The essential building blocks to a biblical worldview that we, as the people of God, must build our lives upon to live faithfully in a pagan land when the darkness feels overwhelming.

Our lives must be built on the truths that 1. God is the Sovereign Judge of all men.

2. That He is a Gracious Savior for all those that trust in Christ and His sacrifice to save us from the wrath and judgment of God and forgive our sin.

3. He is One. The only God. The only One who is worthy of all of our love, worship, and obedience.

And 4. He is Our Deliverer. That when it feels like we might drown swallowed by the flood, God is with us, and keeps us by His grace.

But this week, we are going to see what it looks like to actually live faithfully in a pagan land, and how our salt and our light, is all just a work of God’s amazing faithfulness and grace.

And it all starts with this: We must not allow ourselves to be conformed to the World.

I. Do Not Be Conformed to the World

Daniel 1:8 But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.

Remember where we are in this story.

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had laid seige to Jerusalem and took young men from the royal family and nobility back to Babylon with the purpose of indoctrinating them with a Babylonian worldview.

With Babylonian values and ideals by teaching them for three years the literature and language of the Chaldeans (Daniel 1:4).

In other words, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were prisoners of war in a spiritual battle between Babylon, the Kingdom of Darkness, the World, and the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of light.

Nebuchadnezzar’s goal was to shape and use these men to further the purposes of the Babylonian Empire.

To convert them from soldiers of the Kingdom of God to generals of the Kingdom of Darkness.

And here was the danger.

Potentially, Nebuchadnezzar hoped to set one or more of these men over the people of God to serve as a double agent for his wicked kingdom.

The people of God would trust these men because they were one of them. They were even members of the royal family.

Handsome, smart, wise. Everything you could want in a leader.

And so whether Nebuchadnezzar knew it or not, his goal in indoctrinating these men, was a spiritual one.

Satan and the principalities and powers under his control were trying to seize the day and snuff out the Kingdom of Light with the Kingdom of Darkness once and for all.

Now this was all in vain because God’s purposes will not be thwarted, but in His providence a major battle for the Kingdom of God rested on the faithfulness of these four men.

Which kingdom would win the day? The Kingdom of Darkness manifested in the Kingdom of Babylon, or the Kingdom of Light and God’s Sovereign and blessed rule?

Essentially, Nebuchadnezzar wanted to turn Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah into Babylonians. He wanted to conform them to the pattern of this world.

To shape them and mold them into everything opposed to God, His holiness, and His Kingdom.

But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank.

Now this wasn’t just any food and any wine. This was the king’s food and the king’s wine.

That for the entire three years these men would be reeducated in the Kingdom of Darkness, they would only eat and drink the best.

Bribes

This wasn’t out of Nebuchadnezzar’s kindness and generosity.

This was a bribe.

Well we don’t want to lose out on the wonderful things Nebuchadnezzar is giving us. Maybe we will just go along with the program. I mean we don’t want to be slaves or worse...

Maybe we can do both. Maybe we don’t have to give up all of these good things and still hold onto our faith...

And it is here that we see one of the primary tactics of the world, to sell out, soften our faith, and go along to get alone.

In an effort to get you to conform to the world instead of Christ, to dim your light so that the evil works of the world can stay hidden.

Money

And these bribes come in all shapes and sizes. When the government gave us stimulus checks that was not them being kind.

They stole our tax dollars and the futures of our children to try and bribe us and placate us into letting them have a little more power, and a little more power, and a little more power.

Money is a big bribe used by the world. Our comfort and our way of life.

Jesus didn’t really mean that our commitment to following him needed to be one that is willing to sell everything. Willing to give up everything to seek Him and His Kingdom.

Come on. That’s ridiculous. You can serve God and Money. God wants you to be happy.

Well actually, God wants you to be holy, and the number one way to do that is following the first commandment: You shall have no other God’s before me including money, comfort, luxury, security, and ease.

Sin

Another bribe is sin. You can have the desires of your flesh. You can have almost any sin you want, and we will never judge you.

Our highest command is love which means full unquestioned approval.

As long as you don’t hurt anybody else, live according to what you believe is good.

What a tempting bribe. You mean I can have what I want most and not feel guilty about it? You mean I can be my own authority, my own determiner of truth? My own god and make my own commands?

Sign me up!

Approval

Another big one is the promise respect and a great reputation in the World as long as you go along with the program. You don’t want to be like those people do you?

You’re not one of them that really thinks homosexuality and transgenderism is wrong?

You’re not really the kind of person that thinks a woman should be forced to give birth to a baby are you?

I mean, you’re not racist, you’re for equality right?

You’re not like one of those Christians, really?

And out of a desire to be loved by the world, many who profess the name of Christ have turned aside because they bought the bribe not realizing it makes them a slave.

There’s more we could probably say, but you get the point. All of this is why God so adamantly says

1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

If we love the world or the things in the world, if we love the bribes we will be conformed to the pattern of the world.

To a way of thinking and living that is opposed to God and in rebellion to Him in every single way.

The call to follow Christ is a call to come and die. To die to ourselves and to die to this world.

But if we love the world. We have not died to the world. Instead we are living a double life on the one side following Christ and on the other side following the course of this world following the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind like the rest of mankind (Eph 2:2-3).

Can your faith in Christ be bought? How much will it take? That’s what the world is asking. What will it take for you to give up, soften the gospel, dim your light and leave the darkness alone?

That’s what the bribes of the World are all about.

But true Christians can’t be bought. By God’s grace, like Daniel, they are resolved to not defile themselves with the world’s food and the world’s wine. They know what God says.

Romans 12:1-2 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

James 4:4 Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

True Christians, ones that have the love of the Father in them and not the love of the world will not be conformed to the image of the world, but they will be conformed to the image of the Jesus Christ.

He is the light of the world, and His people, the church, are a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.

But what happens when the world realizes you can’t be bought? What else does it have to conform you to its image?

Threats

Think of it like this.

The bribes of the world is any incentive, any implicit promise, that if you just go along, if you just conform to the world, it will go well with you and you will live long in the land.

The world tries to play God and its bribes are promises of covenant blessings.

The bribes of the world say obey and you will be blessed. Disobey, and you will be cursed.

Its not said out loud, but implicit in a bribe is a threat. You don’t want our blessings? That’s fine. We will just take everything from you. And when you’re done we will have nothing left.

Think about it, how do you think Nebuchadnezzar would have reacted if he heard Daniel and the other men of God with him say that they would not defile themselves with the king’s food or the wine that he drank?

He would have been angry. In his rage he would have said, “How ungrateful are they. I honor them. I feed them like my own children. Like my only family when I could kill them or treat them as slaves!”

And here they are rejecting me and my food as if I were polluted or unclean.”

And more than likely he would have treated them harshly.

Is this not the same thing the world does with us today?

When their bribes don’t work, when we refuse to give up our commitment to follow Christ, the world turns to threats.

To persecution and ridicule because Jesus says the world hates Him because He testifies against the world that its works are evil (John 7:7).

And because we are the body of Christ, He is still testifying which is why he said

John 15:19-20 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

And before you buy into the lie that persecution is only being thrown in prison or killed for your faith in Christ, remember how our Lord defined it.

Matthew 5:11-12 Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

When the world ridicules you and shame you from following Christ or at least being loud about it that is a tactic to conform you to the world.

When they lie about you and call you a hate filled bigot. Hypocrite. Holier than thou. Racist. Sexist. Misogynistic. Stupid. Uneducated. Foolish. Anti-Science and on the wrong side of History.

When they threaten to fire you if you don’t toe the company line on diversity or inclusion.

That is all part of their game to get you to put a basket over your light and be ashamed of Christ.

Here’s the big idea. The world doesn’t care how it happens, they just want Christians to stop being so bright.

To stop exposing their evil works through the proclamation and real life witness of the gospel.

If they can’t buy you, they will crush you.

And the call of Christ is that we, His church, would resolve ourselves to not defile ourselves with the king’s food or the king’s wine, to refuse to be conformed to the pattern of this world but to follow Christ and hold fast to Him no matter what the world promises or threatens.

Now that’s all well and good. But we are living in a time where the pressure is rising everyday.

Where it is more and more costly to follow Christ. And we shouldn’t be surprised. Our Lord Himself told us to count the cost of following Him.

If anyone does not hate even his own life. If he does not renounce all that he has. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:26-27, 33).

But that doesn’t mean that there’s not times where its hard. Where it feels like the pressure of the world is going to overwhelm and crush us.

That as much as we want to follow Christ we just don’t know if we are strong enough or if somewhere deep inside of us we have some limit that would make us tap out and give in.

What hope do we have to keep going on the days it feels like the darkness is overwhelming?

That’s point number 2...

II. The World is No Match for God’s Faithfulness

Daniel 1:9-10 And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king.”

So, after resolving that he was going to do whatever it took to not defile himself with the bribes of Babylon and forget God, Daniel went to the chief of the eunuchs, the high official in Nebuchadnezzar’s court who was responsible for the Judean exiles, and asked him that they might be given other food to eat.

And the chief of the eunuchs said, “I work for Nebuchadnezzar. I fear him. He’s my lord and my king. And if he found out I let you eat different food, and then you all looked worse than everybody else, it would fall on me.”

That’s what he means when he said So you would endanger my head with the king.

And if you’re anything like me the first time I read this, you thinking to yourself, “Wait. How is this favor and compassion? How is this God’s grace? The chief of the eunuchs didn’t do anything. He basically told Daniel, ‘Can’t help you.”

But what did he not do. He didn’t go to Nebuchadnezzar. He didn’t rat Daniel out and invoke the king’s wrath.

He basically just said, “I would if I could.” Which gave Daniel the opportunity to go to the steward directly under the chief of the eunuchs and try again.

Verse 11...

Daniel 1:11-14 Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, “Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king’s food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.” So he listened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days.

The first thing I want you to notice is Daniel’s persistence. His commitment to not conform to the world, to keep himself unstained and undefiled, but stay faithful to God.

How many Christians give up at the first sign of opposition? At the first sign of resistance?

How much is your holiness worth to you?

Do we have the resolve? The grit that Jesus did when he set his face toward Jerusalem to die on a cross, and keep going when the going gets tough.

What Daniel shows us is that even if we face resistance, follow through on what God calls us to do.

And this time, Daniel, in faith, proposes a deal. Test us for 10 days.

Let us just eat vegetables and water for ten days, and then after ten days, make your decision.

So he listened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days.

Here again, we see God’s grace and favor. The Chief Eunuch more than likely was not an idiot. He would have known what this steward agreed to do, but since it no longer fell on him, he let it go.

Likewise, God turned the heart of the steward himself to risk his own neck for Daniel and his friends.

And then what happened? Verse 15...

Daniel 1:15-17 At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king’s food. So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables. As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

So at the end of ten days, through the faithfulness of God the vegetables and water were more than enough.

They weren’t just healthy. They were better in appearance. Fatter in flesh. God honored their commitment to stay faithful to him and blessed them.

Not only that, but God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom. In other words, God blessed their studies and made them the top of the class.

And now we come to what I want you to see. All of this was a result of God’s grace and faithfulness.

God gave Daniel favor and compassion with the chief of the eunuchs.

God made Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah fat and and better in appearance on vegetables and water so that throughout the entire three years they wouldn’t have to eat the king’s food and wine.

And God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom.

Daniel resolved he would not defile himself and be conformed to the world.

And God in His faithfulness kept Daniel and the other young men from being conformed to the world.

But here’s what makes this faithfulness even more glorious.

It wasn’t just faithfulness to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. All of this was actually God’s faithfulness to a prayer made hundreds of years earlier by King Solomon.

When Solomon dedicated the Temple of God, that was the high point in the history of Israel.

They had their land, they had their king, they had their temple, and the blessings of the land flowed like milk and honey.

And at the dedication of the Temple, Solomon prayed that when Israel sinned, and God took them into captivity, that God would have mercy on His people if they repented during their exile.

And specifically that when they repented and sought the Lord Here’s what Solomon prayed.

1 Kings 8:50 Forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions that they have committed against you, and grant them compassion in the sight of those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them for they are your people, and your heritage.

The word used for compassion is the same word Daniel uses in Daniel chapter 1.

Solomon prayed that God would let their captors have compassion on His people, and that’s exactly what God does for Daniel and his friends.

Application

Well what does all that mean for you?

Remember how we started. What hope to we have when the pressure starts mounting?

The faithfulness of God. Just like God was faithful to keep Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah unstained from the world in response to Solomon’s prayer, God will keep us unstained from the world out of His faithfulness to the greater Solomon’s prayers, Jesus Christ.

Romans 8:34 says Jesus saved us. He died and rose again in our place for our sins and today sits on David’s throne at the right hand of the Father, and is interceding, praying on our behalf.

Likewise Hebrews 7:25 says Consequently, he [Jesus] is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Jesus lives to make intercession for you. He is the true King of Dave. The True Builder of God’s True Temple the Church, and if God was faithful to Solomon’s prayers, how much more so will he be faithful to Christ’s.

Well what is Jesus praying? What is Jesus interceding on our behalf?

John 17:13-17 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

I want to highlight two things. Jesus prays that we would have the joy of Christ. That he would be our life and our love so that we would not love the world or the things in the world.

Second, that while in the world, we would be kept from the evil one, kept from following the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air, Satan, and that we would be sanctified in truth.

In other words, Jesus is praying that we would be kept undefiled from the world, and sanctified, consecrated to Him and Him alone.

That’s what Jesus is praying. And God in his faithfulness, will answer that prayer and keep us in Christ, unstained from the world.

We do not keep ourselves, it is the faithfulness of God who keeps us.

Vegetables

Now saying that, that doesn’t mean you don’t have a responsibility to guard yourself from the love of the world.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Phil 2:12-13).

Why did Daniel ask to eat vegetables and water?

Later on in Daniel 10:3 Daniel takes a fast and he fasts from delicacies specifically meat and wine.

So it wasn’t just that the food from the king’s table just wasn’t kosher or that the meat was offered to idols, because the vegetables would have been too. It was something more.

Vegetables and water are things that grow naturally. In other words, from the Creator.

So while being reeducated for three years to forget God and be indoctrinated into the Babylonian worldview, chose to have a daily reminder of God our Creator and this is how they stayed faithful and kept themselves from being conformed to the world by God’s grace.

Remember the theology of faithfulness. When they’d eat vegetables and drink water they would remember God their Creator. God their Judge, Savior, Holy One God and their Deliverer.

So in a way their food became sound doctrine. The Word of God.

Does not Jesus say Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).

Work out what God works in. What are you feeding on? What are you building your life on?

Is it the Word of God or is it the wisdom of the world?

The mark of a Christians is that ever aspect of their life is built on the Word of God.

That is the wise man who builds his house on rock and not shifting sand so that when the winds blow, the the pressure rises their house stands (Matthew 7:24-27).

If you want to be conformed to Christ and transformed by the renewal of your mind, God has given you the solid food of His Word. Are you eating it?

Are you meditating on it? Studying it. Preaching it. And most importantly applying it. Actually living it out?

For it is not an idle word for you; indeed it is your life. And by this word you will prolong your days in the land (Deut 32:47 NASB).

God keeps us by the power of the Holy Spirit from being conformed to the World by transforming us by the renewal of our minds as we feast on His Word, meal after meal after meal, day after day after day like Daniel feasted on vegetables and water.

So, 1. We are not to be conformed to the world.

2. The pressure of the world is no match for God’s faithfulness,

And number 3, God keeps us from the world so that we can be salt and light for the world.

III. God Keeps Us to be Salt and Light for the World

Daniel 1:18-21 At the end of the time, when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king spoke with them, and among all of them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king. And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom. And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus.

So after three years, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were presented to the king, and no one held a candle to them in every matter of wisdom and understanding the king asked them.

In fact, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in his kingdom.

That’s why it says they stood before the king. That means they entered into his service.

Well, wait a minute. Entered into his service? I thought this whole time the danger was that that was exactly what they would do. That they would serve the Kingdom of Babylon. What in the world is going on?

But remember the danger. It was serving the Kingdom of Babylon being conformed to the values, goals, and worldview of Babylon.

Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah stayed faithful to God, and now God, in His providence is putting them in prominent positions in the Empire to serve the Kingdom of God in the midst of the Kingdom of Darkness.

Or like Jesus said earlier in the world but not of it.

They are doing exactly what God said through the prophet Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 29:4-7 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Seek the shalom, the peace, prosperity, salvation of the Kingdom of Darkness I place you in.

Now oftentimes this verse is used by wokies and social justice Christians to say, see God just wants us to do a bunch of good works.

We should be for the city. And listen, I agree with that on its face. But the mantra for the city came to mean something else.

It basically means, just be really nice and do everything you can to get the world to love you.

But what is Jeremiah saying? The word welfare is the Hebrew word Shalom.

Peace. Prosperity. Blessing. Harmony. Even Salvation.

In other words, what God is commanding us to do, and showing us through Daniel and his friends, is to be salt and light.

To serve and live for the Kingdom of God everywhere we are in everything we do.

To seek the welfare of the city by bringing the Kingdom of light to the Kingdom of Darkness.

Well how do we do that? Its the Great Commission. Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Shalom only comes through Christ. The Kingdom of God is the only way for shalom to invade the earth.

Another way to say seek the welfare of the city is to say be salt and light.

Salt does two things. 1. It preserves. It restrains the world from absolute chaos and sin.

It also 2. Gives flavor. It makes life richer.

And that is what the church is called to be. Salt that preserves the world form sin and wrath by proclaiming the good news of then gospel and baptizing the nations, and then flavor. Bringing the abundant life Christ promised by discipling the nations to obey God’s Law like God created them to.

And light of course is the beacon of salvation. The great shining hope in a world covered in darkness.

But what did Jesus say?

Matthew 5:13-15 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.

We cannot be salt and light if we become one with the world.

Conforming to the world makes our salt lose its saltiness and puts a basket over our light.

And if that happens we lose our witness and are no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

Now this leads to a very important question that I think the American church is completely lost on today.

How do we be salt and light? How do we have a truly and distinctly Christian Witness?

And here’s the problem. Most Christians think having a good Christian witness means the world likes you.

They might not like all the Jesus stuff, but they like you.

That’s how you can get an ear. That’s how you can get them to listen to the gospel.

But what did Jesus say? Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. (Lk 6:26).

Just because the world really likes you does not mean you have an effective Christian witness.

In fact , it could be proof of just the opposite. When the world speaks evil of you, it could mean you are striking just the right cord for the gospel.

Now before I go one step further let me be clear. I’m not saying it’s always a good sign when the world hates you.

There are times where it could be its just because you are a jerk.

God says we are to suffer for righteousness sake. Not for an abrasive personality.

But here’s what it comes down to. Many Christians think the best way to have a Christian witness, the best way to be salt and light, is by being as much like the world as possible, without outright rejecting Christ.

But is that not just being conformed to the world with a little bit of Jesus Sprinkled in?

So how do you have a Christian witness?

Daniel shows us. Notice it says they had ever matter of wisdom and understanding, and that they were ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters.

This is not saying that Daniel and the others were also magicians and enchanters.

That would have broken God’s Law and directly contradicted their resolve to not defile themselves with the king’s food.

Instead they were notably distinct from the magicians and enchanters.

They knew the literature. They understood the Babylonian worldview, and they directly confronted it with the Truth.

True wisdom and true knowledge.

Its like Paul in the Areopagus in Acts 17. He doesn’t say, hey you have all these nice idols let me tell you about a better one.

He says, I see you’re really religious but you are all wrong.

There is One God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, and he is not a god of gold silver of stone.

Do continue in your ignorance because Acts 17:30-31 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

Well that’s not very winsome. That’s not very nice. Paul how are you going to win them to the gospel with words like that?

And that’s what it comes down to.

A true Christian witness is not found in winsomeness. It is found in a distinct, and whole hearted devotion to Christ no matter what anyone else says.

In other words, our witness will be more and more effective as we are more and more distinct from the world.

Well does that mean we need to all become Amish and just huddle up like good pietist?

No! In the world but not of it.

That means we are in the world but we are separated unto the Word of God.

To live all of our lives in every single way according to God’s Word and not the literature and language of the Chaldeans.

That’s how you be salt and light. That’s how we reach the world for Christ. That’s how we are a city on the Hill.

And this is where we circle back to the very beginning of this sermon.

Do not be conformed to the world because if salt has lost its taste, how will its saltiness be restored?

Conclusion

God faithfully keeps believers from conforming to the world to make them salt and light for the world.

In Daniel, we see that not conforming to the pattern of this world will take real concerted effort. Discipline. and Commitment.

The Word of God must be our daily bread and all of our life must be brought in submission to it.

The mantra of every member and every family of our church must be to the word.

And God in his grace and faithfulness will keep us because he will be faithful to the intercessory prayers of Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, who prays that we would be in the world but not of it.

And as God faithfully keeps us, and conforms us to the image of Christ we will be truly distinct from the world, wholeheartedly devoted to Christ, made salt and light by the power of the Holy Spirit so that through our preaching and through the testimony of our lives the world might be saved.

Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

Phil 2:12-16 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.