May it please almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let
us turn to the book of Psalms and Psalm 118 and we'll read
verse 24. Psalm 118 and reading verse 24. This is the day which the Lord
hath made we will rejoice and be glad in
it. Well, this is a very wonderful
psalm that we've been able to read together tonight, this Psalm
118. And as we Commence reading the psalm, and
as we finish reading the psalm, to think of those tremendous
words, O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good. because
his mercy endureth forever. Now I wonder if we can all say
such a statement from our hearts and truly be thankful to the
Lord and truly be able to say he is good and truly understand
that his mercy endureth forever. To have been a partaker of his
mercy is a wonderful favour. It is an eternal blessing. And
all of us need to have been or will be a partaker of it before
we pass out of time. Well, we have a God who is merciful. And what a blessing that is so,
and maybe therefore have come tonight with that true desire
to give thanks unto the Lord. Well, this 24th verse tells us,
this is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and
be glad in it. In our lives, in our lives, It's
a blessing if we have many days which we can look back over and
say, this is a day that the Lord has made. May we therefore be
able to consider such days and to truly rejoice and be glad
in it because of what the Lord has done. Just a couple of verses
prior to this, we read what the psalmist says, I will praise
thee for thou hast heard me and art become my salvation. What a wonderful thing that is,
if in our little lives we're able to humbly declare that the
Lord has indeed heard our prayers. May we have been blessed with
prayer, with a spirit of prayer, and to be able to therefore come
and say, Thou hast heard me, which means heard my prayer,
and then to be able to confirm and art become my salvation. Because if our prayer has been
to Almighty God, that he would show to us, and it would mean
showing to me, we need to pray in that way, that the Lord may
show me that Lord God is my salvation. To show to me that I am born
again, of the Spirit of God to show to me that it is well with
my soul, that my eternal life is secure, and it is all because
of what the blessed Lord Jesus Christ has done for my soul. Well, if we are able to join
with the psalmist and say, for thou hast heard me and art become
my salvation, then what cause we do have to be able to look
back perhaps to a specific day when we really prayed, perhaps
really prayed for the first time. You know, the hymn writer said,
we often say our prayers, but do we really pray? Are our prayers just a formality
or do our prayers come from our heart? Now, if the Holy Spirit
has wonderfully shown us something of what we are, shown us that
we are a sinner in need of being saved, a sinner in need of knowing
the salvation of the Saviour. This will truly have been a real
prayer and a true prayer. It won't just have come by tradition. It would have come from our heart,
and if it has come from our heart, we would have been looking for
the evidence that God has heard and God answers our prayers. And we won't want to just say
such a prayer and then forget about it. We will be anxious
to know the Lord is mindful of us. And then if the Lord does
show to us that he has been indeed mindful of us and he has blessed
us, then we will be able to come and say, this is the day which
the Lord has made. We will rejoice. We better say,
I will rejoice and be glad in it. Well, it's a wonderful occasion,
surely. You may remember that little
account in the Gospel of Luke with regard to that character
called Zacchaeus. He was a little man. But he wanted
to come and he wanted to see Jesus. And the Lord was very
gracious to him. You may remember, he was so keen
and he was only short, so he climbed up into a sycamore tree
so that he might have a view of Jesus. Not thinking that Jesus
knew all about him. And that's the same as us today.
Perhaps not always realizing that Jesus knows all about us,
every detail. And so we're told when Jesus
came to the place, he looked up and he saw him and said, Zacchaeus,
make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house. Well, that was a wonderful direct
word to Zacchaeus, wasn't it? And it's a wonderful thing when
God speaks to our hearts a direct word. It's as though we were
like Zacchaeus. The Lord looks at us directly
and speaks to us in a very positive way. And the result was in the
life of Zacchaeus, we're told, and he made haste. That was the
command of God. And he did make haste. And he
came down. and received him joyfully. What good news that was. And
what a wonderful thing it is if you and I receive the Lord
Jesus joyfully. And so the Lord, we go on and
he read. And when they saw it, they all
murmured saying that he was gone to be a guest with a man that
is a sinner. He was, of course, a tax collector,
and tax collectors in those days were notorious for being dishonest
men and that was the view obviously they took and Zacchaeus stood
and said unto the Lord behold the half of my goods I give to
the poor and if I have taken anything from any man by accusation
I restore him fourfold well the Lord ignored those words from
Zacchaeus but responded in a wonderful way. And this was a word to him. This day is salvation. Come to this house. Come to Zacchaeus,
the salvation of the Lord, for as much as he also is a son of
Abraham, a child of God. What a wonderful, wonderful revelation. And then Lord graciously goes
on to tell him, for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save
that which was lost. Well, Zacchaeus was obviously
seeking to see the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a blessing it
is for all of us today if we have been seeking to see by faith
the Lord Jesus Christ. Zacchaeus saw him physically. We won't be able to. But we will,
by faith, view the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a wonderful
thing then, if the Lord should speak to our hearts like he did
to Zacchaeus and say, this day This time, if salvation come
to your house, to thy house, what a wonderful day that will
be. You'll be able to say then, this is the day which the Lord
has made. This is the day when salvation came to me. This was the day when the Lord
Jesus revealed himself to me. as my Saviour." Oh, what a day
that is. What a day it is for rejoicing,
because the Psalmist says, then we will rejoice and be glad in
it. And you will rejoice. And you will be glad in it, because
Almighty God has heard and answered your prayers. You'll be very
humbled to think that such a God has condescended to look upon
you, the vast number of people in the world, and yet the Saviour,
just like Zacchaeus, He came where you were. He knew physically where you were. He
knew spiritually where you were. And he came to declare such glorious
truths to you that he is your salvation. Well what wonderful
relief that brings. What wonderful blessing it brings. how we can then truly rejoice,
we will rejoice and be glad in it. Well, Zacchaeus was blessed
and in reality all the Church of God are blessed. To think
that God Almighty hears and answers prayer. He's looked down from
heaven amidst the vast multitude of people on this earth and that
we have been singled out singled out to hear His voice singled
out to receive the blessing how wonderful it is how glorious
it is and what a privilege it is to think that Almighty God
has not turned a deaf ear to our prayers We deserve that. We don't deserve the Lord to
hear and answer our prayers. But what a blessing it is, and
how wonderful it is, and how true it is that we have cause
then to praise and to rejoice. The Psalmist says here, we will
rejoice and be glad in it. In one sense, there's a wonderful
relief to understand that the Lord God has condescended to remember us. Remember us in
our lowest state. Remember us an unworthy sinner. You will never feel worthy of
any notice. But you'll be very thankful and
very glad and very grateful if the Lord has come to you and
visited your soul. Well, what a day that will be. Indeed, you and I may, if we're
favoured, have many days, perhaps, when the Lord has graciously
come to us in our time of need. But let me not discourage you.
Be not discouraged if perhaps you think, well, I only think
the Lord's really come to me and encouraged me on one occasion. My friends, one occasion, one
visit from the Lord will take you safe to glory. But be encouraged, press on, pray
for more evidences, more encouragements as you journey through life,
more confirmations that you are a true believer. that you are
a true child of God, that you are one of those who the blessed
Saviour has died for. To think that almighty God was
so gracious that he came into this sinful world to redeem your
soul, to redeem my soul. It's such an amazing wonder,
wonder of wonders, when we think of the vast concourse of people
in this world. And the Lord should have singled
us out and come to us where we are, where we were. The Lord
knows where we are every moment of our life. And he knows the
exact time when he will come and shine to you his salvation,
just like he did to Zacchaeus on that wonderful occasion. Just
like he did, as we mentioned this morning, to the Apostle
Paul on that Damascus road. And many other examples in the
word of God. where the Lord met with his people,
he met with Abraham, he met with Isaac, he met with Jacob, he
spoke to them, he encouraged them, he blessed them. Well, our God has not changed. They all had in their life these
times, these days, which the Lord has made that they would
not forget. You may not remember precisely
the exact day when it was, what day of the week it was perhaps,
but you will remember the occasion. You will remember the effect
it had upon your heart. The effect it had upon your soul. And you will realize then, to
you, it was a gospel day. It was a day when the Lord Jesus
Christ gave you that good hope, that hope of salvation, that
good hope that Lord had indeed heard and answered your prayers. Well, those occasions make us
glad. And you know, the blessing is
that that gladness is not just a natural gladness. it's a supernatural
gladness you may say, why do you say that? I say that because
it brings with it an eternal blessing because it is not just
a blessing for time It is a blessing for eternity. Well then, what
a day that is. This is a day which the Lord
hath made, and to think, and it's good to ponder to think
that the Lord ordained such occasions back in eternity, before the
world was created. the Lord ordained that such an
occasion in such a place at such a time would be performed for
his honour and for his glory and for the eternal good of our
souls. It is very humbling. I hope it is very humbling. And
that really is the effect of the blessed work of the Spirit
of God. It humbles us to think the Lord
should have heard our prayers and taking notice of us. Now then, we must always remember
that there are many days in our life And sometimes there are
difficult days. Sometimes there are days of adversity. It's not all plain sailing. In
actual fact, we're told in the Word of God, the days of darkness
shall be many. So if the light has shone, praise
God for it. But don't be surprised if you
do find there are dark times, Don't be surprised that there
are days also of adversity. There are these days of adversity,
and the Lord tells us in Ecclesiastes, in a day of prosperity, be joyful,
but in the days of adversity, consider. There's a balancing. The one is set over against the
other. And the Lord does bring us into
days of adversity. And in those days of adversity,
it will produce a cry unto God for His mercy. As we read here
in this chapter, the mercy of the Lord endures forever. And
you and I will need to know it applies to us in our little life. As we may perhaps ponder and
say, well, can ever God dwell here in such a heart as mine? The Lord sometimes brings us
down that he may raise us up. And when the Lord brings us down
and causes us to earnestly pray to God for deliverance, from
the pit. Again, in the 40th Psalm, we
read, don't we, the words of David when he said, he brought
me up also out of a horrible pit and out of the mirey clay
and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings and put
a new song in my heart. That was a day, in David's experience,
to be wonderfully remembered. But the Lord brought him up. David had gone into that pit.
We're not told how he got there. He was in there, perhaps because
he'd done something foolish. But nonetheless, he was in the
pit, and he needed the deliverance, and he couldn't get himself out. And you see, that's when you
and I are dependent upon the mercy of God. David experienced
the mercy of God, and as we read in these first few verses about
the mercy of God, and in the fourth verse he says, let them
now that fear the Lord say that his mercy endures forever. And such days, when you and I
experience His mercy, will bring with it a wonderful relief to
realise the Lord hasn't cast us aside, as the Word of God
tells us, as a cumbra of the ground, of something of no value. We may perhaps feel like it,
but nonetheless the Lord does hear and answer prayer, and He
does redeem our soul. And then, you see, we are able
to say, well, this is another day which the Lord hath made. The Lord has come. He's brought
me up out of that horrible pit. And he hasn't left me. He's done
far more than that. He's put my feet upon a rock.
He's established me upon the glorious truths of the gospel,
upon what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. And then it is that
we're able to say, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus,
blood, and righteousness. Days of adversity, yes, there's
a balancing. Don't be surprised when you find
yourself in a situation like that. And it may be, of course,
in our lives, We're not as good as we think we should be. And
often, you see, we can wander away. We can become lukewarm. And as the Lord said with regard
to the church at Laodicea, I will spew the out of my mouth. Let
us not settle down in a lukewarm religion. But may we be concerned
to have the evidence that the Lord indeed is with us day by
day, guiding us and directing us. This is the day which the
Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. Now we mentioned
the 21st verse, I will praise thee for thou hast heard me and
art become my salvation. Psalmist goes on to say, the
stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the
corner. What that really means is, in
our little lives, to think that there was perhaps a time when
we refused to bow down before God. We refused to hear the word
of God. We refused to do his bidding. We refused to keep his commandments. And yet we find that by the grace
of God, he is now wonderfully become the headstone of the corner. Does that not mean in our own
lives the most important part of our spiritual building? The
Lord Jesus Christ is the headstone. He's not anything other than
the headstone. The most important stone in a
building is the headstone. The most important part of our
spiritual building is the knowledge of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ. The psalmist goes on. This is
the Lord's doing. It is marvellous in our eyes. Well, what a good thing that
is for us today, if we have the evidence of God's mercy, of God's
love, of God's grace to warn us in not dealing with us as
our sins deserve. And we stand back amazed and
say, this is the Lord's doing. I haven't done it. I haven't produced it. I could
not do it. I could not produce it. It is
marvellous in our eyes. And in such a condition, you
see, we're able to come and join in then with the psalmist and
say, indeed, this is the day which the Lord has made. There's
been a wonderful change in my life. God's given me a submission
to his will. He's enabled me to look to him,
to look away from self, to perhaps turn away from the vanities of
time and to be directed to himself. What a marvellous thing this
is. What a time for rejoicing. This is the day which the Lord
hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. Well, we all have to answer before
God as to the reality of such a spiritual experience. But it's
good if we can. And it's not only good, it is
essential. Real religion is more than notion. Something must be known and felt. Don't settle down on just a notion. Priority to God, that you may
know in your own heart that God has loved you with everlasting
love. and that His mercy has come to
you, unworthy sinner as you are. And the Lord has heard your cries,
your prayers, and the prayer will have been a cry because
there will have been some urgency in it. The Lord will hear, the
Lord will answer. Perhaps you're there tonight
desiring earnestly The Lord will not turn a deaf ear where he
said he will hear the prayer of the destitute and not despise
their cry. The devil may say the Lord won't
hear, but the devil's always been a liar, and he still is
today. Don't listen to him. Listen to
the word of God, which tells us, Seek and ye shall find, knock
and it shall be opened unto you. This is the day which the Lord
hath made, we will rejoice indeed and be glad in it. And so, what
a mercy then, if you and I can trace back to a day of our spiritual
birth. We know when we are born naturally,
we can't trace it back because we wouldn't have remembered our
natural birth. But we do remember our spiritual
birth. It may be a day, it may be a
period, it may be a time when the Lord graciously came and
opened our eyes and gave us a hope in his salvation. Gave us a good
hope to believe that by his grace one day we shall be with him
in glory. And what a prospect that is to
look forward to, the day when we shall see him as he is, face
to face in glory. That'll be a day which the Lord
has made, a day when his work in our soul is complete. When we are then, as the scripture
explains, as a shock of corn, fully ripe and ready to be gathered
into the heavenly garner, there to be with Christ eternally. What a day that will be. We can say really the most blessed
day of our life. the day when we shall cease from
sin, the day when we shall cease from all the vanities of life,
the day when, by His grace, we shall indeed be with Christ,
which is far better, and that eternally. It's a wonderful thought,
it's a wonderful truth, it's a wonderful prospect, to the
whole Church of God. And what a thing it is to look
forward to and believe that will come. If we have had days of
spiritual blessing, if we had a day of spiritual blessing,
we can believe there will be that day, that eternal day, when
the Lord will come to receive us unto himself. But where He
is there, we shall be also, and that forever and forever. Well, we should be encouraged
by such a prospect. And such a prospect will not
be morbid to our spiritual understanding. Sometimes to our flesh we realise
there are many things on this earth which perhaps With our
families and that, we shall be reluctant to leave, but we won't
be reluctant to actually leave the things of earth, because
we know that to be with Christ is far better, far better. And therefore, may we be looking
forward to that wonderful day when the Lord will receive us
unto himself. We will then praise our God as
the Psalmist said, I will praise thee. I will praise thee. Well, I believe that praise begins
on the earth. I don't believe we come to glory
and have never praised God. I believe there will be that
praise in our heart as we journey on and we find the evidence of
God's love toward us. And that brings forth thanksgiving
and praise to God, doesn't it? Well, I hope it does. It will
do if we are a true believer. And it is really the evidence
of life in the soul because we will acknowledge and recognise
the Lord is worthy of our praise. When we think of what he's done
to redeem our soul, an unworthy sinner, He came in this sinful
world and died that sin atoning death, endured the cross, despising
the shame that our souls might be eternally blessed. Surely we will say, worthy is
the Lamb that was slain. Yes, that will be the cry of
the redeeming glory. And I believe it is the cry of
the redeemed on this earth. we wore a desire to sing that
new song, worthy is the lamb that was slain for me. Amazing
grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once
was lost, but now am found. His grace has set me free. Well, it's a new scene, isn't
it? When that day of grace has come
into our life, we're a new creature. Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new. We have spiritual eyes. Our eyes are opened. We have
spiritual ears. Our ears hear. What a difference
there is! And why? All because of God's
superabounding grace to such an unworthy sinner. That's why
there is good reason to truly desire to praise our Saviour,
to praise our God. I believe there will be praise
to God the Father, praise to God the Son and praise to God
the Holy Spirit. Yes, true believers are all Trinitarians. They all believe in the Father,
Son and the Holy Spirit. They all rejoice in the work
of the Father, in the work of the Son and in the work of the
Holy Spirit. What a wonderful thing it is
to ponder and to meditate upon the glorious mystery of the Trinity. We will never understand it,
this side of glory. But when, by His grace, we shall
look on His face, all these things will be revealed. All these things
will be understood. Yes, this is the day the Lord
hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. So may we be encouraged as you
and I journey on through life and be able to trace out in our
little lives, the wonderful evidence of the work of God in our souls. And let me say again, as I often
do, don't despise the day of small things. Sometimes people
expect amazing blessings. Sometimes the Lord grants it.
But very often, the Lord grants us great blessings but in reality
to our mind they may seem to be quite small but they are not
insignificant they are very significant because it shows to us the Lord
has remembered us with that favour he has unto his people He's revealed
Himself to us and has given us that good hope that it is well
with our soul. And so tonight, may we understand
perhaps a little of what the psalmist says here in these verses. This is the Lord's doing, not
mine. It is the Lord's doing and it
is marvellous in our eyes, marvellous in my eyes. This is the day which
the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad