May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in His holy word.
Let's turn to the book of Psalms, Psalm 118, and we'll read verse
24. The book of Psalms, Psalm 118, and reading verse 24. This is the day which the Lord
hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. I'm sure that we are aware that
in the Old Testament there is much prophecy. with regards to
the coming of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. It had been
prophesied from those very early days in the history of the world
and no doubt for all these many years and still continuing the
Church of God were looking forward to that day when the Messiah
would come, that one who would redeem Israel, that one who would
pay the price to redeem them. And of course what had happened
really down through history, they had rejected the truth of
God, they had rejected the Word of God and this would continue
and it continues still Today, people reject the Word of God. And we have here, in these previous
verses, an important statement. In verse 21, we're told, I will
praise thee for thou hast heard me and art become my salvation. The stone which the builders
refused is become the stone of the corner. And that, of course,
was a prophecy with reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, who,
of course, was refused. His people, his natural people,
refused him. They said, we will not have this
man to reign over us. But nonetheless, He did become
the headstone of the corner. And therefore, we can read this
prophecy, which tells us this is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. And so it came to pass that which
had been prophesied came to pass and it was when it did come to
pass when the Savior was born. What a wonderful occasion that
was. This is the Lord's doing. It was the Lord's doing because
Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. The Holy Spirit overshadowed
her so that she conceived and brought forth a son. whose name
was Jesus. This is the Lord's doing. It
is marvellous in our eyes. And so we come down to this 24th
verse. This is the day which the Lord
hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. Well, it was a wonderful day
in the church of God when the Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem. the promise of God had been fulfilled. We should realize that all God's
promises are fulfilled. Nothing fails which God has spoken. And that should be an encouragement
to us today, to realize that if God has given you and me a
promise, a hope, in his mercy, that that will be fulfilled.
It won't fail. And as we read together in this
psalm on a number of occasions, O give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good, because his mercy endureth forever. What a great
blessing it is to have a God like that, whose mercy endures
forever. And we had that little list,
didn't we, as we read through in the first few verses, and
then it came and said, let them now fear the Lord, say, that
his mercy endureth forever. So you see, it's a word that
encloses and encompasses the whole church of God. And it will
be a wonderful blessing if you and I can come within these words
and be part of those who are able to say, yes, by the grace
of God, I do fear the Lord. And I can say, his mercy endureth
forever. Well, this psalm started with,
O give thanks unto the Lord for his mercy, for his good, because
his mercy endureth forever. And it concludes with the same
words, more or less, not quite, but more or less. O give thanks
unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. Well, that is the truth of God's
word. And we should be thankful if
we, in our little life, can confirm the truth of these words, to
realize again and again that the Lord is good. We have reason
to say so, don't we? But it's good when we can come
and begin with desiring to give thanks unto the Lord, because
He is good. Because He's been good to us. And He's been good to us when
we think of our lives and think that where the Lord has watched
over us, really, ever since we were born.
We don't always realize that, do we? But God, you see, watches
over his people from the very first breath they breathe. We
weren't aware of it, obviously, when we were little babies and
children. And perhaps we weren't aware
of it for many years. But what a blessing it is to
come to that position before we die. This great position to
be able to say the Lord is good because his mercy endure it forever. And if we come to that time,
if we come to a time in our life, a day in our life, a day when
the Lord brought into our hearts a desire for spiritual blessings, a desire
to know the Lord, a desire to follow the Lord. If that has
been so, surely we can come in with assignments and say, this
is the day which the Lord has made on my behalf, because His
mercy endureth forever. The Lord hasn't dealt with me
as I deserved. The Lord's been kind and the
Lord's been very gracious to me. And I desire indeed to acknowledge
it. What is the Psalmist going to
say? We will rejoice and be glad in
it. And it is reason, my friends,
to rejoice and it is reason to truly be glad if we have an occasion
in our life like that, and to recollect God's mercy toward
us. A day perhaps when our eyes,
our spiritual eyes, were opened. There we were, spiritually blind. There was a world all around
us. But we were spiritually blind until a glorious day in our little
life, a glorious day when God opened our eyes. Therefore, surely,
if that has been so, we can say this is the day which the Lord
has made. The Lord's done it. The Lord
did it. And it's only the Lord that will
do it. You know, you and I cannot open
our spiritual eyes ourself. No, we need the power of Almighty
God. And why do we need the power
of Almighty God? Because at that time, the Holy
Spirit gives us spiritual life. We have natural life, we were
born, we had natural life. The time comes when God in his
glorious grace and favor to his living church gives life, spiritual
life. And what a day that is. You know,
we may not always realize at the time It may have happened,
and we carry on not realizing. But as perhaps we look back,
perhaps, after perhaps several, perhaps many years, we look back
and can realize, yes, there was a time when God brought life
into my soul, spiritual life. And therefore, we're able to
agree with what Paul says when he wrote to the Ephesians. And
you hath he quickened or made alive who were dead in trespasses
and in sins. What a blessing. What a wonderful
favour it is. Now, what is the result? What's
the result? The result, I believe, is set
before us here very clearly. We will rejoice. We will rejoice
and be glad in it. These things won't just pass
away and lie forgotten in unthankfulness. We have great reason to thank
God for this great truth because His mercy endures forever. Because the mercy of God found
us out. Just like he did Jacob. I sometimes think of that wonderful
illustration that we read in Deuteronomy. We're told Jacob
was found. Where was he found? In a waste
howling wilderness. Some people have said, well,
that's a bit extravagant. Well, the truth is this world
to the believer is a waste howling wilderness. This is not our rest. This is not our home. We are
passing through time. We shall pass out of time into
eternity. And what a great blessing, therefore,
if God deals with us in time because of his love to our soul. What a mercy to be brought to
that position. And when we are brought to that
position, everything takes on a new perspective. We see things
differently in our spiritual eyes, things that we didn't see
before. We realize what a wonderful God
we have, who has touched our hearts and opened our eyes to
behold The psalmist says, wondrous things out of thy law. That means wondrous things out
of the word of God. Again, you see, you and I perhaps
read the Bible. We may think it's, well, it's
quite an amazing book. It's very wonderful, says some
great truths, but when that time comes, the appointed time comes,
not to propose, but to call by grace. When that call comes,
you and I cannot resist it. We may perhaps try to, perhaps
we don't want to. Perhaps we don't want to be a
Christian. But you see, God's grace, there's
a word for it, it's irresistible. You and I cannot resist the grace
of God. What a mercy. What a mercy it
is. And why? It's because of His
amazing love toward us. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. Well, we should be thankful to
that. And you see, what that does,
sets before us then many things. Not only then do we think of
God's amazing love and mercy in bringing the Saviour into
the world, into that Bethlehem, the manger in Bethlehem, born
of Mary those years ago, but also for His amazing life. It's good sometimes to sit down
and meditate And think upon these things. Think. You try. You try. And keep yourself from
sinning. I tell you, it's virtually impossible. You might say, well, I haven't
done anything. No, but how about your thoughts? Are your thoughts
all holy? Are they all righteous? Are they
all God-honoring? No, you see, they're not. You
find that we are all sinners and we all need salvation. What a blessing it is, therefore,
when Almighty God directs us to see our need of Him. What a day that is. What a day
that is. Perhaps we weren't very happy
about it. But you see, the mercy is when
God does these things. It's for our eternal good, and
we can be very thankful for it. And indeed, bless God that it
is so. In the book of Ecclesiastes,
which as you know is written by the son of Solomon, we're
told this in verse 13, consider the work of God. God doesn't
always work in the way that you and I think. But he works in
that way, and there's a word for it, which is effectual. That means it accomplishes what
God determines. And so it's good to consider
the work of God. For who can make that straight
which he hath made crooked? And then he comes and says these
words. In the day of prosperity, be joyful, but in the day of
adversity, consider. We have days of prosperity in
our life. We will have days of adversity
when things don't go as we would want them to go. We may sometimes
think, why is this? happening to me. Well, thankfully
Solomon knew the reason. He tells us God also has set
the one over against the other to the end that man should find
nothing after him. God brings days of adversity
to show us what we are. We may have set out in our lives
we may think I'm going to live a perfect life coming back to
what I was saying to think everything good and you'll find that you
won't be able to just the very thought evil thought is sin let
alone words or actions so what a blessing it would be if God
comes then into our hearts and shows us our great need of a
Saviour. Oh, it'll be a day of blessing.
You'll be able to say, this is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. You may remember there was the
parable in the Word of God that Jesus spoke about the man who
we refer to as the prodigal son. He was a man who got fed up with
his life and he wanted the inheritance that would be due to him and
that his father would give him. So he asked his father for the
inheritance. And his father gave him. the
inheritance, his share of that which he would have received
when the father died. And the son took it and he went
away. And what did he do? He spent
it all in a wrong way. Spent it all in riotous living. But then you see we're told these
wonderful words. The day came in his life. A wonderful day. An amazing day. Perhaps you didn't realise it.
And what was that day? We're told it was a day when
he began to be in want. Yes, he began to be in want. He'd had all the money beforehand.
He wasn't in want. But now he was. He hadn't got
any money. Spent it all. began to be in
want. And God brought into his mind
the happy existence he had when he was in his father's house.
And what did he do? Well, he was determined to return
and to go to his father and say, Father, I've sinned against thee
and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy
hired servants. And so, in due course, he did
return. And the wonder of it was, his father was looking for him, expecting him, no doubt been
praying for him. And he came back, and he said
to his father, he confessed his sin. What have you done? I've
sinned. But he didn't say, make me as
one of thy hired servants. No, he didn't get there. And
his father received him graciously and gloriously. Well, that's
a wonderful picture for us today. To look back in our lives, to an occasion when we began
to be in want. And what was that day? Set before
us here today, which the Lord has made. No doubt the prodigal
didn't realize it at the time. And we may not realize it at
the time. What a blessing, though, to be
able to look back And realize how God has been
gracious to us, how God has been mindful of us. And what was the
effect here? We will rejoice and be glad in
it. And you and I will be truly rejoice
to realize that God has put his hand upon us. And what has that
done? Well, it would have stopped us
in what the Well, it tells us in our mad career, we're going
opposite from God. And yet God put his hand upon
us and stopped us. We may not have been very happy.
We may have been very unhappy. God has stopped us doing something
we wanted to do. But what a mercy if God shows
us the reason. And what's the reason? Love to
our soul. And therefore, we shall be able
to say, this is the day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice
and be glad in it. Glad to come into The first verse,
and the last verse of this chapter, O give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. We may not have
been very happy. He may not have wanted to say
that God was good. But as we think
of these things, God shows us that he is good. because he's
dealing with our souls in love. And it is because his mercy endureth
forever. This is the day which the Lord
hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. Well, I hope that perhaps most
of us, if not all, can say this, that we can rejoice to realize
that the Lord has come to us and given us this great gift
of eternal life. There's no greater gift that
you and I can receive than eternal life. And what a mercy, therefore,
if we are the recipients of it. And if we can truly bless our
God for it, and thank him for it, and acknowledge his kindness
toward us in so doing. You know the Apostle Paul, who
was wonderfully blessed, but was very anti-God in his younger
days. He wasn't going to follow God. Indeed, he decided to persecute
the Lord Jesus Christ. He wouldn't believe. But the
Lord did come. And he called him. And he tells
us when he wrote to the Romans. In the 23rd verse of the 6th
chapter. For the wages of sin is death. And that's what you
and I deserve. Eternal death in hell. The wages
of sin is death. But The gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. What a blessing for us
today if we have the evidence that God has given us. A gift
you and I never worked for. This gift of eternal life we
never worked for, we never merited. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. It's through his life, it's through
his death that you and I receive this wonderful, immensely valuable
gift. of eternal life. Well, I wonder
this evening whether you and I can speak of this wonderful
gift that we have received. We stand amazed that God should
have looked upon us, that God should have had mercy upon us,
that God should have given us this gift of eternal life. Surely then we come and note
this great statement. This is the day which the Lord
has made, a wonderful day in our little lives when God gave
us the gift of eternal life. And the blessing is this, it's
never taken away. Once in Him, in Him forever. It's referred to as eternal security. Eternal security. What a blessing
for us then, and what reason to come in and rejoice. and be glad in it. You see, a
true believer must rejoice. A true believer must be glad
in the great and glorious work of God, which has come upon them
and come to them, especially perhaps when we never saw it. Well, you might say, well, I
prayed for mercy and therefore I brought it on myself. Let me
just tell you this, God gave you a desire to cry and pray
for mercy. You didn't suddenly think of
it yourself. It was the Spirit's work. And because it's the Spirit's
work, there's reason for us to always come and give thanks and
to praise our God. To realize that here we have
a wonderful day. Again, let's just recap on that.
You and I have a natural day of our birth, a natural day of
our birth. We have a spiritual day of our
spiritual birth. my friends what a blessing it
is therefore if there is that day in our life and every one
of us needs to know it every one of us needs to experience
it what does it mean it means this we're a new creature we
think differently we think differently the things of God now take a
rightful place in our lives. We don't just push them aside. We don't just try and get rid
of them. We think of them. We think about them. We realize
how relevant they are and how necessary they are because they
have reference to our eternal life. And so remember, it is
as that the wages of sin is death, that the gift of God is eternal
life through Christ Jesus our Lord. And that's where you and
I need to come to be able to praise and honour Almighty God
for giving us this gift. And surely we come to that place
and are thankful for it. We can say, what a saviour to
think that Almighty God, and it's important that we have a
right value, to think that Almighty God came down in this sinful
world in order to save your and my soul. Amazing, isn't it? We never deserved it. We couldn't
deserve it. We were black sinners. And God and His amazing love
came down into this world. and died in our place. Just ponder that sometimes. It's
good to think of it. Realise that wonderful day when
the Saviour gave His life. It was a very solemn day, but
it was a very glorious day. It was such a solemn day, but
there was darkness. upon the earth for those three
hours. In the middle of the day, darkness. Very solemn time. When the blessed
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, had to endure the hiding of His
Father's face. He'd been with His Father from
eternity, but now His Father hid His face from Him for those
three hours. all part of the punishment that
Jesus endured in order to save ourselves, in order to redeem
ourselves. Can we not therefore say, in
true humbleness and true thankfulness, This is the day which the Lord
has made. It was a day which had been determined
in eternity. A day which had been prophesied
for many, many years. And now it had come to pass.
And it was a wonderful day in the history of the church. Satan
was vanquished. Satan was vanquished. The reason
he was vanquished, because Jesus rose from the dead, a conqueror. He conquered sin. He conquered
death. What a wonderful blessing it
is to have such a savior. And I hope today you and I can
rejoice in this great and glorious truth. And therefore come and
say, this is the day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice
and be glad in it. If Jesus hadn't died, if Jesus
hadn't rose in the dead, if Jesus hadn't lived a perfect life,
there'd be no hope for us. But there is hope. because that
work was finished. Jesus said, did you not, on that
cross, it is finished. It was complete. And again, it's
just a glorious truth which we're told, and it's really worthwhile
just mentioning again. At that time, when Christ spoke
those words, we're told at the very same time, the veil of the
temple was rent entwined, that means torn from the top to the
bottom. You might say, well, what was
the relevance of that? The relevance was this. In the
Old Testament times, throughout the time when the tabernacle
was erected and then the temple, there was a place called the
Holy of Holies, in which the Ark was and the Ten Commandments
and the cherubims and the mercy seat. And that was separated
from the holy place with a very heavy veil, a beautifully embroidered
veil. And no one could go into that
holy place apart from the high priest and that on the annual
day of atonement. He went in to the holy place
and he couldn't go in without blood. Blood signified death. Animals had to be slain. The
blood was taken and the higher priest went in and sprinkled
that blood on the mercy seat to take away the sins of the
Israelites. And that had been carried on
for many years. And then when the Lord Jesus
Christ died, what had he done? He'd shed his blood so that he
might therefore enter in to the holy place, not made with hands,
but eternal in the heavens. He entered in to heaven and there
he is today to intercede for us. And so we see that glorious
picture had been carried on for hundreds of years and it typified
and set forth the glorious death and intercession of the Saviour. Well, when the Holy Spirit opens
our eyes to see this wonderful scene. Surely we can come and
say, this is the day which the Lord hath made. I never realised
the wonder and the glory of it. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. To think that God, in his amazing
love towards me, has opened my eyes. And I see now the reason
why Jesus came into this world. and why he suffered to take away
my sins. Wonderful, isn't it? You and
I couldn't take away our sins, but the Savior willingly came.
Willingly came and died, endured all the agony, the judgment hall,
the wrong accusations. He accepted all that judgment,
all those things which were spoken against him, all that mockery.
Why? Because of his love to unworthy sinners. Just think
of that. And if you and I are one of that number, how really
glorious it is to think that the Lord Jesus Christ condescended
to take our sins, your sin and my sin, upon himself and pay
the price to deliver us from that condemnation which says
the soul that sinneth it shall die. Is it not reason to truly
praise God? This is the day which the Lord
has made a day which was to come, which had been planned in eternity
past. And the day came and the Saviour
did not fail. My friends, you and I would have
failed. The Saviour did not fail. Now he finished the work that
his father gave him to do. It's wonderful, isn't it? So we can say here, this is a
day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. And the previous verse tells us this. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvellous in our eyes. Well, I hope tonight it's marvellous
in our eyes to think that the Lord Jesus Christ was willing
to come and suffer and die in order to redeem us, redeem us
to pay the price for our sin. Well, what a wonderful, wonderful
God we have. And so, as we carry on in these
few verses, we're told, blessed be he that cometh. In the name
of the Lord we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.
God is the Lord, which has shown us light. The light shone from
heaven into our hearts. There it was, darkness. The light shone. The Lord has
shown us light by the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns
of the altar. Thou art my God. We want to be able to say that,
don't we? Thou art my God, and I will praise thee. The outcome must be like that. If we have such a Savior who
is so willing to suffer, bleed, and die on our behalf, and He
is our God, we must come and say, and I will praise thee.
Thou art my God, I will exalt thee. We have great reason, don't
we, to praise and exalt God if he has come and given his life
that you and I might receive life. And the great and glorious
light of the glorious gospel has shone into our hearts with
that wonderful light in the face of Jesus Christ as we read in
the In the second of Corinthians and the fourth chapter and the
sixth verse, this is what we read. It's this, for God who
commanded, you see, to think of that in your life and my life,
God commanded the lights to shine out of darkness, hath shined
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He goes on to say, but we have
this treasure and it is treasure. It's so valuable because it's
the gift of eternal life. You can't put a figure on that,
can you? Because it's forever. But we
have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of
the power may be of God and not of us. Oh, what a God we have. What a God we have to praise.
And may we be able to come in with the psalmist tonight and
say, this is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice
and be glad in it. Amen.