As the Lord may be pleased to
bless us together this morning, I will speak to you from the
118th Psalm and 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. There are in our spiritual life
many days which the Lord has made and also in the history of the
world and history in our lives have been many days which the
Lord has made. And perhaps we might begin with
thinking of the day that the Lord made at creation when he
made that seventh day, the Sabbath, that day of rest. And truly that was a day that
the Lord made And truly it is a day which we rejoice in and
are glad of. And the psalmist directs us to
this thought, we will rejoice and be glad in it. I suppose
it is really quite a test of our standing, our spiritual standing
in religion as to what we think of the Lord's Day, what we think
of the Sabbath day, how do we appreciate it? How do we react
towards it? This is the day that the Lord
has made. Well, if we consider that with
respect to the Lord's Day today, can we truthfully say we will
rejoice and be glad in it. Now we all need to consider that
because it is a test of our religion. It is a test whether we are truly
a spiritual person or if we are just a carnal and earthly and
natural person. But if the Spirit of God has
come to us and given us spiritual life, then surely Our desire
will be to enjoy that day which the Lord has given to us, to
set apart, to worship, and we do then come within these words,
we will rejoice and be glad in it. It's a good test for us,
a good test for you young people to think of the reality of your
religion. As you got up this morning, did
you think, well, I wish it wasn't Sunday? I wish I could carry
on just in the things of the world, and just take out the
things that I left off doing last night. And now, because
it's Sunday, I really can't do those things. Well, is it a hardship? Or are you thankful? You can
leave all those things aside, and realise that there's no problem,
that the Word of God is on your side, You don't have to work,
you don't have to do those things, and you can concentrate on the
things of God. Well, it's a good thing, isn't
it? If we today are able to come and say, yes, this is the day
which the Lord has made, we will rejoice, and come and say, I
will rejoice, and be glad in it. Now, I'm very sure of this,
that in all of our lives, there were times when We didn't really
look forward to Sunday. It wasn't a day that we enjoyed
at all. It was a boring day. And it was
a day that we wished quickly passed by and we could again
pick up the things that we left off on Monday morning. But when
the Spirit of God, and may it be so that you and I have the
evidence in our hearts that we do possess the life of God in
our soul, That would have been the change. So instead of not
looking forward to Sunday, we now look forward to it. And may
you look forward to it as not the worst day, but the best day
in the week. Well, that's just one aspect
of this is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice
in it. We might think, we might perhaps
then jump to that great and glorious day in the history of the world
when the Lord Jesus Christ was born. This is the day that the
Lord has made. It was a wonderful day. It was
a day that had been prophesied way back from the time in the
Garden of Eden and now it had come to pass. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the Saviour, was born into that manger in Bethlehem
for that one reason, and that great and glorious reason was
to save His people from their sins. No Saviour, no salvation. No Saviour, no glory. So it was indeed a day which
the Lord had made a day ordained back in eternity past, when the
Saviour, the only begotten Son of God, the blessed Jesus Christ,
that person in the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, should come
and be born into this world. And so it came to pass. And what a great and glorious
day it was. are thankful for the very clear
evidence of that recorded in the word of God when the shepherds
were with their flocks and the heavenly host came and appeared
to them declaring the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that was indeed a wonderful
day and then moving on again in history to the day that the
Lord Jesus Christ was crucified upon that cross at Calvary. Now we read in the previous verse,
or the previous verse but one, the stone which the builders
refused is become the headstone of the corner. That of course
was the Lord Jesus Christ, and He was refused Many people refused
to acknowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ was the headstone. He was the foundation stone as
well. He was all that was necessary
and needful. And so what a day that was, to
think of the Lord Jesus Christ dying upon that cross to atone
for the sins of his people. He who had been rejected. The majority of mankind living
at that time rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. And ever since
that time, the majority of people have rejected the Lord Jesus
Christ. As we come today, look at our
own hearts. Have we rejected the Lord Jesus
Christ. Have we said, I will not have
this man to reign over us. It was a day, the stone which
the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner. Well, you must answer before
God. You know whether you have rejected
the Lord Jesus Christ whether you turned your back upon the
Lord Jesus Christ, or whether you desire to bow down and to
worship this great and blessed Saviour, who on that day so many
years ago gave His life and died upon that cross to take away
the sins of His people. What a day that was. This is
the day which the Lord hath made. Now the Church of God They don't
just consider it as an historical event, which of course it was,
but they rejoice and are so glad because of it. The death of Christ
means something to the Church of God. My friends, does the
death of Christ mean anything to you and to me? Do we come
and say that our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness? We have no hope apart from a
crucified Saviour who shed His blood in order to atone for our
sins. Is our foundation there today?
And if so, surely It's a day we look back in history, and
we rejoice in, and we bless God for it, and we say we will rejoice
and be glad in it, the day the Lord Jesus Christ gave His life. He gave it. It wasn't taken from
Him. He gave His life. He tells us
it is finished. He finished His work the Father
had given Him to do. And he gave up, he gave his spirit
up. The Lord Jesus Christ did it.
What a day that was. What a day it is for us to look
back upon. What a day it is for us to rejoice
in. So again, this is a word which
is separating, a word which is dividing, a word which indicates
to us the reality of our religion or not as to whether we rejoice
today and are glad because of what Christ did way back over
2,000 years outside the gate of Jerusalem when he endured
the wrath of God which was due to us and he suffered in our
place. He was that glorious substitute
who took upon us our sin, upon himself. and therefore atoned
for our sins. What a day. And so let us examine
ourselves as to whether this has a wonderful and true reference
to us. This is the day which the Lord
hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. Is that true? Can we tick that
box this morning in regard to our spiritual life and to have
the answer with good conscience before our God. Now it would
be a great blessing if that is so and I hope it will be so.
I hope it may be so and if it's not, I pray and I hope it will
be so for every one of us. that this day is a day that we
look back and praise God for and bless His holy name because
without it we are lost, we are ruined. This is a day which the Lord
has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. So we could think
of many days in the history of our nation, in the history of
the world, which the Lord hath made. But perhaps now we'll come
to a more personal line of things and consider how this applies
in a personal way to you and me. This is the day which the
Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. Have we a
day a time in our life when the Spirit of God came into our hearts
and produced a concern as to where we should spend eternity. I believe, generally speaking,
that's one of the first impressions that we have. The Spirit of God
comes upon us and places upon us a desire to know that it will
be well with our souls. It may be in this way that the
Spirit of God directs us to realize that there is a place of glory
and blessing, and there is a place of terrible sorrow and evil,
and that is the eternal state into which we must go, and the
concern will be as to where we shall spend eternity. It is a question, I believe,
which the Spirit of God does bring into our lives. If we are
amongst those whom he calls, the question will be, where shall
I spend eternity? Have you faced that question?
Has that question been put before you? And has it been like that? Where should I spend eternity? And what has been the effect? What has been the result of such
a question being posed to you? What has it done to you? Has
it done anything to you? Has it produced? a concern in your heart? That you want an answer to the
question where you will spend eternity? Has it created a question
and has it produced a desire that you need to know where you
will spend eternity? And you want therefore that question
answered and as it were put out of question so it is no longer
a question, so that you do know where you shall spend eternity.
And it's a wonderful blessing to have the evidence in our hearts
by the Spirit of God that we shall spend eternity with Jesus
in heaven. Now this is the work of the Spirit
of God, because our nature Our natural mind will not really
find anything attractive in spending eternity with Jesus. Natural
man has a visage of heaven so very different from that which
the Word of God portrays to us. But the true vision of heaven
will be a place where we shall be able to worship and praise
God forever and ever without any sin, without any sorrow,
in a place of perfect bliss and complete union. There won't be
any squabbling, there won't be any jealousy, there won't be
any pride. There will be that wonderful
unity, that wonderful uniform spirit. And it's a blessing to
look forward to such an occasion. and to believe that the Lord
has prepared a place like that. Glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's
land. So may we therefore be blessed
with this evidence in our heart that we are concerned about the
condition of our soul, we are concerned where we shall spend
eternity, and can we bless God if we therefore entered into
this day which the Lord has made in our spiritual life to direct
us to our eternal state. And if he has, and he's then
given us a hope in his mercy, it will be a day that we will
rejoice and be glad in, because it was a day when God came and
met with our souls. A day when the Lord came and
met with our souls. It may not be very clear, you
know, sometimes it's quite difficult to look back to an actual very
time when this occurred. But I think sometimes, if we're
faced with that question, well, when did the Lord begin with
you? You may have to say, well, I'm
really not very sure. Well, I shouldn't be too embarrassed
about that. But look carefully, and you might spend some time
meditating upon that, in your life and just very carefully
considering your life and looking for a time when there was a change,
a time when God gave you a concern about your soul. It may not have
been, it may have been in a very quiet way, it may not have been
like the Apostle Paul at Damascus Road, those experiences are very
rare. But nonetheless, everyone does have an experience. Everyone does have a testimony. Everyone is able to look back
to a time, a period, when there was a change. And it's quoted
like this, a day. Well, I believe, as the Spirit
of God may help us, to then look carefully into that period and
then examine it as it were piece by piece and perhaps we'll come
to that clear position. Well, there was a day, I can't
remember what day of the week it was now, I can't remember
perhaps even the year it was, but I can remember there was
a time when there was a change in my life, a time perhaps when
the Spirit of God caused me to pray, to pray from my heart. It wasn't then just a repetitive
prayer, nothing against repetitive prayers, and I would never speak
against people who perhaps say the Lord's Prayer every day,
or people who perhaps say a certain prayer when they get up in the
morning, or a certain prayer when they go to bed at night.
There's nothing wrong in those prayers at all, especially if
they come from our heart. But there will be a time in our
spiritual life when there's been a prayer from our heart to God,
and it's come, as it were, with freshness, and it's come with
truth, and it's come with reality, and it is because it's that which
the Spirit of God has put into our heart, and it has therefore
been a day. This is the day which the Lord
hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. And I believe
that as we think of that at the time, we won't necessarily be
glad, we won't necessarily rejoice in it. we may be very worried
and we may be very concerned about the condition of our soul
and we may be concerned to know that we are right with God and
that may be the real concern and we may not therefore at that
particular time rejoice and be glad but as the Spirit of God
leads us on and then we look back and we then recognise God's
favour and God's mercy toward us And then it's occasion for
blessing God and we're able to say, yes, this is the day that
the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. And we'll desire then to honour
and glorify our God. Well, you'll bless God then for
such an occasion in your spiritual life. And then there may be perhaps
a more specific time, and it may be like this, a day of deliverance,
a day of deliverance. When the Spirit of God works,
sometimes it is to show us our condition of darkness, and we
don't seem to be able to see the light. It seems as though
we're in a dark condition, a black condition, perhaps a hopeless
condition. We may look and we find no hope. All we find is darkness, blackness. Well, the prayer will be, the
Lord will show you his light. He will shine light into your
heart. You won't want to remain there. You won't want to be left
in a dark condition. You want the Lord to come and
to shine light, perhaps upon the Word of God. Again, it may
be as you turn over the pages in the Bible, there seems to
be no light, there seems to be no word that is suitable to you,
And it's amazing really when you think of it, a thousand pages
or so in the Bible and you can't seem to find anything that really
suits your condition and really suits your state. And therefore
you may have been and you may be very near to despair and tempted
to give up and call no more on Jesus' name. But bless God when
a day of deliverance comes. A day of deliverance. And that
is when our spiritual eyes are opened to see light. And where is that light? That
light is in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you look anywhere else, you
won't see the light. If you look to the Lord Jesus
Christ, You will see light. And why? Jesus says, I am the
light of the world. In the two verses further on,
three verses, verse 27, we read this, God is the Lord which hath
showed us light. God will not be your Lord, you
will not bow down to the Lord until he shows you light. And
when He shows you light, it's a day of deliverance, because
the light has shone. And when that light shines into
our heart, there's a complete change, because it reveals to
us the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see then our need of salvation,
and we see that He is Our salvation. Out of Christ, there is no salvation. In Christ, there is complete
salvation. Now, what a day that will be.
What a day of rejoicing that will be. What a day of gladness
that will be. When the light shines and reveals
Christ to your soul as your Redeemer. It's very strange really. We
read the Bible, we may have read it all through in fact, and until
the light shines, we don't understand the truth of God's Word. But
when the light shines, we are really so surprised that we never
understood it before. And it is therefore a wonderful
blessing and a wonderful day when we come to that understanding
and we come to that realisation. It's as it were the scales fall
from our eyes as it was in the case of Paul. The scales fall
from our eyes and it is a wonderful day. And how true this is then. This is the day which the Lord
hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. Today, when your
soul rejoices in not only deliverance, but also revelation. Because
Christ is revealed to your soul. Jesus becomes precious. Before then, Jesus didn't really
mean very much. You didn't really value Jesus
very much. In fact, you put him almost on
the same par as yourself. You didn't worship Jesus. But
when the Spirit of God comes and gives you cause to realise
who He is, what He is, what He's done, your eyes are opened. Oh, there's a change in your
life. You can bless God for it, just like this. This is a day
which the Lord has made. We will rejoice. and be glad
in it, because these things are eternal blessings. They may become
perhaps not quite so bright, but they never go out. When the
light shines, when the light has shone, that light never goes
out. It is an eternal light. It's a light of eternal blessing. and it's the light of Christ
which shines into our dark soul and we bless God for it as that
light shines. Well, what a day that is. A day
of blessing, a day of favour. This is the day which the Lord
hath made. Now then, the previous verse
tells us this. This is the Lord's doing. And it is marvellous in our eyes. And it's marvellous because the
Lord has opened our eyes. We have read together, I shall not die, but live and declare
the works of the Lord. How true that is to every child
of God. They won't die, until they have
declared the works of the Lord. My friend, no one dies and goes
to heaven without declaring the works of the Lord. Because our
lives are for the honour and glory of God. So may we be concerned
about that and bless God for it. And then we read, the Lord
has chastened me sore Perhaps the Lord has done just that in
our lives, chastened us, corrected us. We walked concrete to our
God. We disobeyed God. And in order for the Lord to
bring us as it were to our senses, He's chastened us sore. Now,
bless God, that if we are a son and daughter of the Most High
God, we are chastened. And no chastening for the present
is joyous but grievous, nevertheless afterward bringeth forth the
peaceable fruits of righteousness. At the time we don't rejoice
in it. But bless God, if it is so, And
so the psalmist is able to say, the Lord has chastened me sore,
but he has not given me over unto death. He hasn't left you
to die without being chastened. He hasn't left you to die without
coming to the knowledge of the Lord. It's because of his great
love to your soul. Wonderful, isn't it, to think
of that. There we are, rebellious. against
our God. The Lord has chastened us sore,
but he has not given us over unto death. Open to me the gates
of righteousness." As it were, the gates have been opened. And
we viewed the true Church of God. And we viewed the Lord himself,
King of kings and Lord of lords. Open to me the gates of righteousness,
and I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord." It may
be that we've been standing outside. Maybe the doors seem to have
been bolted and barred. There seems to have been no access,
no entry in. Our cry may be, open to me the
gates of righteousness, And the concern is that we might enter
in. And it may be as bold as this,
because this is a bold statement, but it's a glorious statement,
isn't it? Open to me the gates of righteousness. And when it
occurs, I will go in. I will go into them. And I will
praise the Lord. It is a spiritual experience. It is that which follows through,
as it were, when the gates are opened, we see the truth of God
and we enter in and we praise God for it. This is the day which
the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. He said, this
gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter. We enter
in. We don't stand outside. We enter
in. Well, my friends, if our cry
is that we might have them open to us, our desire will be to
enter in. You won't want to open unless
you want to enter in. It must go together, mustn't
it? I will praise thee. I will praise
thee. Praise waiteth for thee in Zion,
and unto thee will the vow be performed. Just think of that. Praise waiteth
for thee in Zion, and unto thee will the vow be performed. I will praise thee For thou hast
heard me, and art become my salvation." Oh, here's the answer. Here's
the evidence. Here's the child of God. Here
he is. Or here she is. And what are
they saying? I will praise thee, for thou
hast heard me. Who does hear? He does answer. It may seem perhaps You've waited
a long time, press on. Don't despair. The Lord waiteth
to be gracious. It's a testing time. It's a testing
time whether we will press on, whether we will give up. My friends,
you won't give up, because it's the Spirit of God's work within.
I will praise thee, for thou hast heard me and art come become
my salvation. The stone which the builders
refused is become the headstone of the corner. What does that
mean? It means that Christ has become precious to you. Yes, He's now the headstone in
your life. Jesus is precious. He means something
to you. He has become. He wasn't, but
He is now. So, this is the Lord's doing. Bless God. Why do we say that? Because it's the Lord's doing,
it's not your doing, it's God's doing, and because it's the Lord's
doing, He will have the honour and glory, and you're able to
come and say, it is marvellous in our eyes, it's marvellous
in my eyes, that God should have done this for me, should have
blessed me in this way, it is marvellous. Well, what a glorious truth it
is. What a marvellous thing it is
to know the Lord. It is the Lord's doing. And because
it's the Lord's doing, surely our concern is to praise and
honour and glorify His name. We come then back to this point.
This is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and
be glad in it. Well, we've touched on a few
days this morning. My friends, may we each, in our spiritual
life, be able to bless God and to praise Him for this wonderful
favour, and indeed acknowledge that this is so true, and may
it be so true in each of our lives, we're able to come and
say, this is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice
and be glad in it. Amen.