You are all the children of light
and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of
darkness. He just talked about those in
the previous verses. Now Paul says, with regard, now
the whole context here is, the immediate context is the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ back to this earth. And with regard
to his return, we see here that Christ is the difference. He's coming back and there are
those who are going to be one thing and there are those who
are going to be another with regard to his coming. Do you see that
here? Christ is the difference in all
things. He is the dividing force between
men and women, between sinners in this world. There are two
different kinds of people, and the difference is Christ. Even
in His coming, He separates men. You see that? Let me try to illustrate
that. In this verse, there's light
and darkness. That's clear. Day and night. And what divides
them is His coming. What distinguishes them as children
of the night is the fact that They're completely in the dark
with regard to his coming. Who's coming, why he's coming,
what he did, what he's gonna do, what he is doing, in the
dark about it. But he said, you're not. So you
see how it's him in his coming that separates that in this context. The coming, returning, victorious
Christ. He is the divider here. In relation
to the second coming of Christ, in regards to that, There are
children of darkness and children of light. In his life, he was
the difference. Was he not? Turn to John chapter
seven. John chapter seven, verse 40. Many of the people, therefore,
when they heard this saying, when they heard the Lord Jesus
Christ preaching and heard his word, his gospel,
When they heard this saying, they said, of a truth. This is
the prophet. This is God's Christ. Because
he speaks according to the word of God. And he speaks with authority,
with power. You remember they said about
him, nobody ever spake. He doesn't speak like the scribes
and Pharisees. He speaks with authority. Nobody
ever spake like this man speaks. Others said, this is the Christ.
But some said, shall Christ come out of Galilee? They wanted to
argue about that. Does that sound right? Is that what, hath not the scripture
said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and out of the
town of Bethlehem, where David was? So there was a division. That's what we see in our verse
this morning. Light, darkness, day, and night. And what I'm
saying is this, even in his return to this earth, he distinguishes. With regard to his earthly return
to this world, there are those that are in the dark and those
that are in the light. In his life, there was a division
among the people, always because of him. It was regarding, who
is he? Who is he? So in his life, he
was the difference. In his death, he was the difference.
Two thieves, one on each side, and the Son of God in the middle.
One of those thieves died cursing and mocking the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the other, well, the Lord said to him today, thou shalt
be with me, which is paradise. In his second coming, we see
in our text, he's the difference. The children of night are going
to be sleeping when he comes. In the next verses we see, they're
going to be drunk when he comes. Those that are drunken are drunken
in the night. But the children of the day are
going to be watching. So in his coming, he is divisive. He is distinguishing. In eternity,
he's the divider of men. He said in Matthew 13, verse
30, turn over there if you would, please. Matthew 13. In eternity,
he said this is what's gonna happen when this world is no
more. The disciples said, Lord, the
enemy has sown some tares. Let's go pull them up. He said,
no. Look at verse 30. Let both grow together. until
the harvest. He said, if you start pulling
up things, you'll pull up the wrong things. I'll take care
of that. Let both grow together until
the harvest. And in the time of harvest, I
will say to the reapers, who's going to be the one who determines
who gets pulled up and who doesn't? I will say to the reaper, gather
ye together first the tares. and bind them in bundles to burn
them. And I'll tell you this, in this
world, he has distinguished them already because he planted the
wheat. He said, I never planted the tares. They grew up naturally. They are what they are by nature.
But the wheat, he said, you gather the tares, he said to his reapers,
and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into
my barn. He's the one that gives the command.
He's the one that determines who gets torn up and burned and
who gets gathered. And it's His bar. And skip down
to verse 41, where He's still talking about this. He said,
this is what's going to happen in that day. The Son of Man shall send forth
His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things
that offend, and them which do iniquity. and shall cast him
into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. Then, though, then shall the righteous shine forth
as the sun in the kingdom of their father. Who hath ears to
hear, let him hear. So in his life, he divides between men and women. and his death. And that, those
two thieves are just a picture of the great divide. Christ is the difference between
life and death, between paradise and going to hell, cursing his
name. In eternity he's the difference, at his coming he's the difference,
when the gospel is preached. Is that happening right now?
Who's the difference right now? Look at what Paul said in 2 Corinthians
2. 2 Corinthians 2, 14. 2 Corinthians 2, 14. Now, thanks be unto God, which
always causeth us to triumph in Christ. Now, think about what's
happening here. He's establishing a scenario
here. He causes us to triumph in Christ. What do you mean by
that? Well, he make it manifest the savor of Christ's knowledge
by us everywhere we go. We're doing what he said to go
and preach. And when we do, he's making known,
he's making manifest the savor of Christ. Every place he sends
us, verse 15, for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in
them that are saved and in them that perish. We make known his
savor to men. And as far as God is concerned,
when Christ is preached, It's a sweet-smelling savor either
way. If Christ is preached, then that's the purpose. That's why
God sent us, and that's what He is pleased with, is the savor
of Christ going forth. But as far as men are concerned,
look at verse 16. To the one we are the savor of
death unto death, and them that perish. And to the other, the
savor of life unto life, And who is sufficient for these things?
For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God, but
as of sincerity, but as of God in the sight of God, speak we
in Christ. What's happening? Christ is being
preached. What else is happening? Life
and death. Day and night. Darkness and light. There's a division still. among
the people. And it's still because of Him.
So you see how concerning our Lord's return to this earth,
what does it mean to you? What does it mean to you that
He's coming back? Well, it depends. It depends on whether you are
by His grace a child of light or not. What will you be doing when He
comes? Our verse, our context pertains to that, doesn't it?
What are you going to be doing when he comes? It depends. Are you one of his children? He said to Zacchaeus, I'm coming
to your house because you're a son of Abraham. You're one
of the children of light. And what you're going to be doing
depends on that. Are you waiting to go to heaven?
To inherit your mansion, you know, and walk on streets of
gold? Are you waiting for Him? Are you looking for His coming?
Are you desiring to see His glory? It depends, doesn't it? It depends. And the difference is Christ.
As we've seen everywhere we've looked in His Word today, the
difference is Christ. The same Christ who makes the
difference in how you're receiving what I'm saying right now is the one who will make the
difference then. And I pray that this is my prayer
when I thought about this. I thought, how am I gonna, how
do I close a message like this? Well, here's my desire. I pray
that by God's grace, I might present Christ to you. in his
power that I might so present him that he would be irresistible
to you. In other words, may the Holy
Spirit of God take the things of Christ and show them to you. May he
shine the light of the knowledge of the glory of God upon you.
And that light is shining in the face of his son. All you have to do is see him,
and everything else will vanish away. And what you'll be doing
is waiting for him, looking unto him, longing for him, saying
with John, even so, come quickly. Come quickly. May God give it
to you to know Him. He said to His disciples, it's
given unto you to know. May He give it to us. And may we be looking and waiting
and watching and serving in all that we're privileged to do as
children of His light. May He give us grace. Let's pray.