over the last few weeks I've
been doing a lot of study in Isaiah 50, 51, and 52, and then
in chapter 53. And I think we'll be dealing
with these scriptures over the next few weeks as God gives us the liberty to do so. Now this,
in this message, I want to direct your attention to the last two
verses of chapter 50. And this is my subject. Here
is the question that I'm asking. Walking in darkness or light? That is, are you walking in darkness? Or, are you walking in light? You see, these verses set forth
before us two kinds of people. First of all, in the 10th verse,
here are the children of light, but they are walking in darkness. Look at verse 10, Isaiah 50. who is among you that feareth
the Lord, feareth Jehovah, that obeyeth the voice of His servant,
your children of light." You see, it's only the children of
light who fear the Lord. It's only the children of light
that obey the voice of God's servant. But he says, they walk in darkness. They have no light. Well, here's
the counsel of God to these folks. God's children, children of light. God's the Father of lights. His
children were the children of light. Here's what God says to
His children of light that walk in darkness. Let him trust. Let him trust in the name of
the Lord and let him stay on his God. That's God's word to
the children of light who are walking in darkness. Then in
the next verse, He sets before us these who are children of
darkness. But, They walk in light. He says to this other group,
Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that is you who compass yourselves
about with sparks, walk in the light of your fire and in the
sparks that you have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand,
ye shall lie down in sorrow." The Lord tells us there are in
this world just two groups of people. And in the end we'll
know that when God brings this thing we call time to a standstill. when he ends it. Like the songwriter
said, when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall
be no more. It will be found in that day
that throughout all the man's history, go all the way back
6,000 years ago to the very first man, Adam. From that man right
up until today, really, they are just two groups of people.
And all the way to the end, just two groups of people. God's people
and those that are not God's people. Or, as we have it in
these two verses, there will be discovered then those who
are the children of light. and those who are the children
of darkness. That is the righteous and the
wicked. Now we know who the judge is
going to be in that day of judgment. In that day when we stand before
him and all secrets will be made known. And everybody will be
seen to be what they really are. In this world, there is a lot
of pretending, a lot of hypocrisy, a lot of folks wear a garment
of religion, but in that day, everybody will be exposed for
what they really are. Some will be the children of
light. Those who will be shown to be
the children of light, they will have been the children of light
forever. They are God's people. And those
who are the children of darkness, they will be discovered to be
the children of darkness forever. And from that day forward, if
I can say it's a day, from the day of judgment on, there will
still just be those two groups of people. The righteous, those
who are righteous through the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. Those who are washed in His blood. Those who stand in His beauties. Righteous before God. The righteous
and the wicked. That's all there will be. And
really, that's all there's ever been. Just two groups of people. In that day, the issue will be
righteousness. That's the standard for judgment. The standard for judgment is
not going to be, were you generous to those less fortunate than
yourself? The standard in that day is not
going to be, did you live a life of morality? The standard in
that day is not going to be, did you endeavor to live by the
Ten Commandments? The standard in that day is this,
are you perfect? Anybody who's found to be less
than absolutely perfect within and without, God's going to cast
you into hell. There will be those who are perfect,
those who are righteous, those who are beautiful, made beautiful
through the comeliness of Christ Jesus, and then there is going
to be everybody else. The wicked. The unbelieving. Just two groups of people. And
our Lord is going to be the judge. God's own Son. We read in the book of Revelation
at the end of chapter 6, the wicked in that day they will
cry to the rocks and to the mountains, would you fall on us and hide
us from the face of the Lamb? Of the Lamb, the Lamb who sits
on His throne of judgment. The Lamb whose eyes are filled
with wrath, and vengeance, and fire, and anger, hide us from
the face of the Lamb of God. Now the righteous in that day,
we will not be fearful to stand before God, because we look forward
to standing before God in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
We look forward to that day with boldness. With boldness. And the reason we can even be
bold now is because we are made righteous through His perfections. In the Lord Jesus, we don't have
any sin. There is no iniquity. There are
no transgressions. In fact, we read in the Bible,
in that day, in that day of judgment, in that awesome holy day of God's
wrath and God's vengeance and God's judgment. The sins and
the iniquities of God's people shall be sought for. All of the
books of heaven shall be gone through and there shall be found
no blemish, no spot, no sin, no wrinkle in the records of
God against any of His people. We stand in the beauties of Christ
Jesus. And we shall stand then, even
as we stand now, washed in the blood, robed in the garments
of His righteousness. Just two groups of people, the
righteous and the wicked. Our Lord likened these two groups
to being as the wheat and the chaff. The Lord said that in that day
of judgment, He will thoroughly purge the floor and gather His
wheat, His wheat, into the gardener. But, He will burn up the chaff
with unquenchable fire. Just two groups, wheat and chaff.
The Lord said on one occasion to His disciples, His teaching
in parables, He said, well, the kingdom of heaven is like to
a man who sowed good seed in a field. But an enemy, he came
during the night and he sowed some tares among the wheat. And when the wheat and the tares
began to grow up together, The servants of the landowner said,
you sowed good seed. We sowed the seed that you sowed.
You only sowed good seed. Well, where did these tares come
from? Because you know tares don't come from good seed. Good
fruit comes from good seed. That's where the wheat comes
from, the good seed. And he says, an enemy has done
this. And the servant said, ìWell,
weíll foul that we go out and weíll just rip up the tares. Weíll dig up all the tares.î
He said, ìNo, donít do that. Lest as you gather up the tares,
you also root up some of the wheat.î So just let them grow
together. See, you donít know who the wheat
and the tares are. We can't see the heart. There may be people here this
morning who appear to be like wheat and not be wheat at all. But the only discernment we've
got is based upon what these eyes see. So here you come. You come to the assembly of the
saints of God. You've got your Bible. Well,
I'm looking around here. You seem pretty interested to
me. And from my perspective, up here looking over the fields,
and I know I'm just sowing good seed, because the gospel is the
good seed, the Word of God is the good seed, the good news
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, that's the good seed. Salvation
altogether by grace. That's the good seed. That's
all we're sowing here. That's all that's ever been sown
from this pulpit is good seed. Isn't that a wonderful thing?
You look back through, some of you have been here from day one
and you look through the years and you say, all that's ever
been sown in this field is good seed. And yet, every once in a while,
there's got to be some tares. Who sowed those? The enemy. The enemy. A preacher, I can tell who's
saved and who's not saved. Well, bless your heart, you have
unusual discernment. You have an ability that no other
human being has got. You can see the heart. One thing
you don't know is the heart. In fact, the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. The Scripture says, who
can know it? You can't know my heart. And
you know what's even more? You can't even trust or know
your own heart. God who knows the heart, He sees
things as they are. And if we have any any sense
at all. We'd say, oh Lord, right now,
oh Lord, I've been sitting in this pew for years, and I think
I'm a believer, I love this gospel, but Lord, if I haven't loved
you before, it's what old John Newton said. And he was a hymn
writer and he was a preacher. But he said, Lord, if I haven't
loved you before, let me start loving you today. today. I'm not going to base my assurance
on the fact that I've been in church, I've been in a sovereign
grace church, or even I've been a preacher of sovereign grace
for all of these years. That's no basis for assurance. The only basis for assurance
is the sure Word of God that says, He that hath the Son hath
life. That's God's Word. You can't
trust anybody's Word but God's Word, but you can sure enough
trust His Word. They sang about hope. Who is your hope? Is He Christ
Jesus, all of your hope? Well, I don't know about you,
but my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's where my hope's building.
I'm building on Him because everything else is sinking sand. Your works? Sinking sand. Partaking of the
ordinances? Sinking sand. Your faith? Sinking sand. Your repentance? Sinking sand. Doing a lot of
good deeds for your neighbors and in society? Sinking sand. But if you build on the rock,
build on the rock, you are on a foundation that is going to
last forever. Let the storms come, the storms
of life. Let the winds of trouble blow. The waves of affliction, they
may seem sometimes like they're going to just wash you away.
If you own the rock, they're not going to wash you away. You
just huddle down a little closer to the rock. Sometimes I feel
like I'm standing on a rock. Sometimes I feel like I'm sitting
on a rock. And sometimes I just lay flat
down on the rock. But I'm still on a rock. And
by God's grace, I'm not getting off the rock. When the winds
get to blowing real hard, you're standing up on the rock, you
may get, you know how it is. But get down low on the rock.
Get down low. That's our position anyway. And
get down low on the rock. Humble yourself before the Lord,
before the rock. It's just two groups of people,
I'm telling you. We got all kind of classifications
today. God's got two classes. The righteous
and the wicked. That's it. Those who are the
children of light. And even the children of light
sometimes walk in darkness now. walk in the darkness of affliction,
walk in the darkness of trouble, even walk in the darkness of
doubt. And you show me a child of light
who seems to be always in the brilliant sunshine and they always
got a silly religious grin on their face, I say, well, there's
something wrong there. Because the fact of the matter
is, and I'll go into this more this evening, You learn more
as children of light, you learn more in the darkness than you
do in the light. That's right. You see, all of
the promises of God that are yay and amen in Jesus Christ,
you don't try those promises out in the bright sunshine. It's
when the darkness comes. It's when the affliction comes.
It's when those troubles come. Agony, things that break your
heart, troubles of the soul, troubles of the heart, emotional
troubles, family troubles, financial troubles. All of these troubles
and you say, oh, it's so dark. That's when you run to the promises
of God and that's when you find that they're real. It's like the stars in the sky. They're up there all the time.
But you can't see them till it's dark. And when it's dark, then
you say, boy, they are beautiful, aren't they? And that's all the
promises of God. They just sparkle. They sparkle
in the Word of God. And they're there for us to make
use of and to lay hold of, lay claim to them, and get some reprieve
for our souls and comfort for our souls. You don't see them
during daytime. But you let one of those night
seasons come. You let things get dark in your
life. Boy, I tell you, suddenly the
sun's gone. Sickness, serious illness, family
issues, your children, your parents, your brother, your sister, your
own physical well-being. The doctor gives you some news,
and boy, you just see that cloud coming over the sun. and all
gets dark. But when all gets dark, children
of light, that's when you see the stars begin to glitter and
all the promises of God. I'll never leave you. I'll never
forsake you. You're my child. You're my child. Everybody else may forget you,
but I'm not going to forget you. That's when the stars twinkle
at night. Children of light. Sometimes
we walk in darkness. But bless God, we're still the
children of light. He's brought us into the light.
He translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of God's own Son. That's the kingdom of light.
But there are others, children of darkness. Children of darkness. Darkness in the Bible stands
for error. So often it stands for error,
ignorance, false religion, lies, children of darkness. And amazingly, they try to walk
in their own light, the light of their self-righteousness.
Sparks, the sparks, that's what it says in verse 11, the sparks.
But those sparks don't amount to anything. Those sparks go
up and say, whoa, wow, those sparks are wonderful and then
you see them and then they're gone like a shooting star. In fact, Jude likens false prophets
to those shooting stars. Whoa, they dazzle us for a little
bit. I bet you in this congregation,
you've seen come in here, somebody come in here and dazzle you for
a little while. Man alive, look at that guy.
Look at that guy. I sure am glad they're coming
to our church. They come in, they're so friendly. You say,
ooh, man, they're going to set this place on fire. We've just
never had anybody quite like that. Then they're like a shooting
star. As quickly as they came in, they're
gone. They just burned themselves out. Children of darkness walking
in their own light. Let me tell you something. You're
either one of the children of light, even though you may walk
in darkness. Or you're one of the children
of darkness, even though you may walk in light that you've
kindled for yourself. But everybody's in one group
or the other, one camp or the other. Everybody is a sheep or
a goat, one or the other. Either believer or an unbeliever.
Either one of God's elect or one of the reprobate. You see, in this world there
are only two groups of people. They are the Abel's of the world
and they are the Cain's of the world. That's all there are. They are the Jacob's of the world.
They are the Esau's of the world. There are some people in this
world God loves with an everlasting love in Jesus Christ the Lord.
And there are some other people in this world God doesn't love
them at all. And He showed this love to His
Jacob's before the world began and before we had done anything
either good or evil. That's what it says in Romans
chapter 9. This election unto grace was an election by God
unto salvation of an innumerable group of people from every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue, and it was an election before we
fell in at Him. All of the human race was spread
out before the eternal, infinite God. And according to His eternal
purpose of grace, He chose some unto salvation in Jesus Christ,
and the rest of them, according to Romans chapter 11, are called
the rest. It's just the rest. People, preachers, don't you
think that God has a general love for everybody? No, I don't. The Bible doesn't set forth that.
God has a love for His people. It's a love in Jesus Christ. It's a love that cannot be diminished. It's a love that is always fervent
and flaming to a full flame in the heart of God Himself. It's
a love that led Him to send His Son into this world to redeem
His people from the curse of the law. It's a love that won't
let them perish. Well, what about the rest, preacher?
God doesn't love them. He says He hates them. The Bible
says, Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. I'm not going to
apologize for God. Let me tell you something. It's His world. We're in Psalm
24 this morning. The earth is the Lord's in the
fullness thereof and everybody that's in the earth, everybody
belongs to God. What God does with you and what
God does with me, that's His business. He said, I'm the potter,
you're the clay. And I'm going to make some vessels
unto mercy to display the glory of my grace and the satisfaction
of my justice in the death of my son. And there's some other
vessels that are vessels of dishonor. I'm going to leave them. I'm
not going to do anything for them. I'll leave them to their
ignorance, to their sin, to their own spiritual death. They'll
perish forever. That's God's business. If you've
got a problem with that, you take it up with God. But I'd
say, who are you to speak against the Maker? Doesn't the potter
have the right to do what he will with his own? If I was you, I'd shut your mouth
before you start going to God and mouthing off about His sovereign
rights to do what He wants. I'd go to God, bow down at His
feet, fall down and kiss His feet and say, Lord, if you will,
you can show me mercy. I'm the vilest of the vile and
you don't owe me anything. All I got coming is death and
judgment and hell. That's all I've ever earned because
the wages of sin is death. But oh God, if you will, you
can show me mercy. He's full of mercy. He's plenteous
in mercy. But mind you, He's going to give
it to who He will. If that's too tough for you,
you just need to swallow it. Because that's the truth of God's
Word. There's some people God loves and some people God hates. I heard somebody say that we
don't preach that God's got a general love for everybody. We lose all
the respect of the lost and they'll come to the conclusion that God's
only got a kindness and He's only got a love for His elect.
Well, that is the way it is. God's got an everlasting kindness
and a love only for His elect. You say, what if I'm not one
of the elect? Well, you're a goner. That's right. You're going to
perish. And now you can get mad, you can get upset, or you can
fall on your face before God. And if you fall on your face
before God in pursuit of mercy and grace in Jesus Christ, I'll
tell you the one who's bringing you down to your knees and bringing
you down to call on Him is the Lord of glory. And He's doing
it because you're one of the children of light. One of the
children of God. Just two groups of people, the
offspring of God and the offspring of Satan. God is our Father and
the Lord Jesus, look at those self-righteous Jews, He said,
you are of your father the devil. That is what He said. And let
me tell you, if you are of your father the devil, you are dead
while you live. You are dead while you live.
You are as good for hell as if you were already there. Because
you see, the children of Satan never become the children of
God. Goats don't ever become sheep. It don't work that way. Well, who knows the difference?
God does. God does. Romans 11 and 7, there's the
elect and there's the rest who are blinded. We're blinded. See, I'm not seeking credibility
with the world. I'm not trying to get the world
to listen to what I've got to say, because the world's not
going to listen to what I've got to say. I'll tell you who
will listen. The children of light will listen. I don't like your message. Nice
knowing you. Goodbye. But somebody's going
to like it. I heard a message Brother Mahan
preached years ago on the trail of God's sheep. I'm on the sheep's
trail. I don't like that message of
sovereign grace. Well, evidently you're not one of the ones I'm
looking for. I'm looking for one who loves the message of
grace, who loves the message of substitution, who loves the
message of satisfaction. You see there are those that
God makes to live spiritually. He makes them to live eternally
to the praise and the glory of His holiness and His justice
which was satisfied in the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. And there
are those who will be left to their own devices. left in spiritual
death who must perish in eternal ruin. And that's also to the
praise of the glory of God's holiness and God's justice. You
see, God's going to get the glory by you and me and everybody else. He's going to get the glory.
Either in our salvation or in our damnation. He's going to
get the glory. There are some people in this
world God knows Now, He knows all about everybody. But in the
Bible, we read of a people that the Lord knows. The Lord knoweth
them that are His. And there's another group of
people that He's going to say to them in the last day, even
though they brag about what they've done for Him, He's going to say,
depart from Me. I never knew you. I know these. I don't know you. I've known
these forever, but I've never known you." What in the world
is he talking about? He's known us in love. He's known
us in Christ Jesus. He's known us in that He saved
us by His grace. You're the children of light
and the children of darkness. Which group are you in? Which group are you in? Well,
I'll tell you, the children of light manifest these characteristics. They fear the Lord. That's what
it says here. Look at verse 10. Who is among
you that fear the Lord? They fear the Lord. They worship
the Lord. And I would just take this question
that Brother Isaiah wrote, by the leadership of the Spirit
of God, and I take it out, and I'm going to ask you, who is
among you that feareth the Lord? Among this congregation, among
those who are watching, who is among you? Who is among us that
feareth the Lord? That worships the Lord? You see,
to fear the Lord, to fear the Lord, is to have a respect for
God, is to have a reverence for God in your soul. Boy, if there's
one thing that's evident today among men, there is no fear of
God in their eyes. No fear of God. But that's true
of all of us. Now this isn't a slavish fear. It's not, I'm afraid of God.
But I have a respect and a reverence for God. Who among us that has
a respect and a reverence for God? I liken it to this. Let me use
an illustration. Back in 75, my dad got sick with
pancreatic cancer. And he had been sick for several
weeks before it was diagnosed. And when it was diagnosed, the
doctors told him, He got 30 days. He died exactly 30 days from
the day that they did exploratory surgery. But toward the end,
he was just fading away, losing weight rapidly. And you've seen
folks die of cancer. You've had similar experiences,
several of you have, as you've watched loved ones, people you
know, they just get down to skin and bone. Well, my dad didn't
have any strength. But when I talked to him, I had
a respect for him. I had a, could I put it this
way, a reverence for him as my father. I listened to what he had to
say. My God is my father. Now, I listened to what he has
to say. To people who are children of
light, they listen to what God has to say. They listen to His
Word. They respect Him. They hear. When the Lord says, hear what
I have to say, say, speak Lord. I'm ready to hear. I'm ready
to hear. See, who is among you that fear
the Lord? Got to respect for the Lord.
I'm listening to you Lord. I'm listening. Oh, if God would let us shut
our mouths and open up our ears. Well, I'll tell you, preacher,
that's just your opinion. I've heard that a few times.
I can study the Bible as good as you can. Go ahead. But the
Bible does say something about how shall they hear without a
preacher. Oh, I've dealt with smart alecks before. Yeah, I
have. And probably will again. Probably
will again. I tell you, the children of light,
they fear the Lord. And they say, Lord, speak to
me. Speak to me. I need a word from God. I hope
when you came here today, you came with this attitude, Lord,
I need to hear from you today. I need a word from God today.
Lord, have a word for my soul from the preacher, would you,
Lord? Lord, you don't owe me anything. I tell you, I'm your
child. And Lord, I'm in darkness. I've
got troubles, Lord, and I know it's all according to your providence,
but Lord, do you see my tears? You know how my heart aches.
Oh God, I reverence you and I respect you. Would you speak to me today?
See, that's the attitude of a child of light, isn't it? Speak, Lord,
like old Samuel. Speak, Lord, for thy servant
heareth. I'm listening. And they have this quality too. They obey the voice of His servant.
That's what children of light do. They obey the voice of His
servant. They obey the voice of His preachers
who say, look to the Lamb of God. They say, I'm looking then.
I'm going to obey you. But more than that, they obey
the voice of the servant of God who is Jesus Christ the Lord.
He's the servant. He is the servant. Look back
here in verse 5 of this chapter 50 of Isaiah. Here is the servant
of the Lord. The Lord God hath opened mine
ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. He
is the obedient servant. I gave my back to the smiters,
my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I didn't hide my
face from shame and spitting. There's God's servant. God's
servant who humbled himself and became a servant and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. You obey the voice
of the servant. And you know what the servant
of God says? You know what Christ the Lord says? Come unto Me.
All you that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. And
when He says that to your heart, you say, Lord, here I come. Here
I come. I'm obeying the voice of the
servant of God. Here I come. If any man thirsts,
let him come unto me and drink. Here I come, Lord, and I'm going
to turn up the cup of salvation and I'm going to drink it. Because
I'm a poor needy sinner and I need your mercy. I need your grace.
I need your righteousness. I need forgiveness of all of
my sins. I know it's found in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, so I'll take the cup of salvation
freely and drink it to the satisfaction of my poor soul. Obey the voice
of the servant. That's what the children of life
do. Well, I'll pick up right there
tonight from this passage of scripture, the Lord willing,
but we're going to sing.