This Is the Day — Chuck Smith

Psalm 118 and the Congregational Reading

Let's turn now in our Bibles to Psalm 118. I'll read the first, the odd-numbered verses, and Pastor Brian will lead the congregation in the reading of the even-numbered verses as we stand to read the word.

O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, because His mercy endureth forever.

Let Israel now say that His mercy endureth forever.

Let the house of Aaron now say that His mercy endureth forever.

Let them now that fear the Lord say that His mercy endureth forever.

I called upon the Lord in distress, and the Lord answered me, and He set me in a large place.

The Lord is on my side, I will not fear. What can man do unto me?

The Lord taketh my part with them that help me, therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.

It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.

It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.

All nations compass me about, but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them.

They compass me about, yea, they compass me about, but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.

They compass me about like bees, they are quenched as the fire of thorns, for in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.

Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall, but the Lord helped me.

The Lord is my strength and song, and has become my salvation.

The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.

The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.

I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord.

The Lord hath chastened me sore, but he hath not given me over unto death.

Open to me the gates of righteousness, I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord.

This gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter.

I will praise thee for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.

The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner.

This is the Lord's doing, it's marvelous in our eyes.

This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Save now I beseech thee, O Lord, O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.

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 hath showed us light, buying the sacrifice with cords even unto the horns of the altar.

Thou art my God and I will praise thee. Thou art my God, I will exalt thee.

O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good, because his mercy endureth forever. Let's pray. Lord, we do give thanks unto you today because your mercy has been extended to us. And we thank you, Lord, for the salvation that we have through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord, we thank you for this day that we can celebrate that special day in the history of man. The day that you had long promised would come and did come. The day when you would send salvation. The day when you would send the Messiah as the savior of mankind.

Lord, as we look at the records today, we ask, Lord, that you will just impress upon our hearts the glory of this day that we are celebrating. The day when the Son of God presented himself as the Messiah unto the mankind.

The Promised Day of the Messiah

So, Lord, bless, we pray, our study. In Jesus' name, amen. In Psalm 118 .24, the psalmist declares, this is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Now, the psalmist is not just talking about any special, beautiful morning that you wake up, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and you go out, and you sort of pull back the drapes and you look out and you say, oh, this is the day that the Lord has made.

We will rejoice and be glad in it. The psalmist is talking about one particular day in the history of mankind. A day that God had been promising would come. For thousands of years, God had been speaking to holy men, prophets of old, telling them about this day, giving them particulars about this day.

The day when God would send His only begotten Son into this world to redeem the world from sin. To be the Messiah, the Anointed One, God's Anointed King. And through the years, the people were waiting for this day that God had promised.

The Fall of Man and Spiritual Death

From the day that Adam sinned, mankind was in need of a Savior. God had told Adam that if he ate of the tree there in the midst of the garden, that he would surely die. God was speaking about spiritual death.

And that day in the garden, when Adam ate of that forbidden fruit, his spirit died. With the death of his spirit came an alienation from God. Because God doesn't deal with the mind of man or with the flesh of man.

But God meets man in the realm of the spirit. As Jesus said to the woman of Samaria, God is a spirit. And they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. But with the spirit being dead, man had lost his fellowship with God.

He had lost that relationship with God. And he became actually only a partial man. He no longer was a whole person because the spirit was dead. Man who was created as a threefold being, spirit, soul and body, is now only a twofold being body and soul.

And as such, he became as the animals, which are only body and soul. God created three forms of life. Plant life. Consisting of a body, but not mobile, but extremely complex as far as its genetic makeup.

And each plant able to reproduce itself. And marvelous design of the seed bearing the genetic code by which each plant reproduces itself. God created animal life. A little above the plant life in that it is mobile.

And it also has a consciousness. So, plant is just body. Animals were body and consciousness or mind. And being mobile, they also were able to reproduce after their own kind. Still that complex genetic makeup in the animal kingdom.

In fact, as we've been able to study genetics a bit, we discovered that the genetics of a frog are far more complex than the genetics of a human being. So, if evolution be true, you're probably on your way to a frog.

But then God created man. He created man, spirit, mind and body. Above the animals because he had a spirit. And through the spirit was able to be conscious of God and able to worship God. But when man sinned, his spirit died and man was reduced to the animal level.

Man far from being a highly evolved animal is in reality fallen from his original creation. For we read that man was created in the image of God. God who is a spirit. And when his spirit died, he devolved from the image of God into the likeness of an animal with just a body consciousness.

Evolutionists have been looking for so long for the missing link. And of course, they haven't been able to find it because they're not really searching in the right place. The missing link doesn't lie between you and a chimpanzee.

The missing link lies between you and God. It isn't that man is evolved upward from the chimp, but man is devolved downward from God. And thus, man lost that link with God, which is in the realm of the spirit when he sinned.

The New Birth and Restoration to God

Having fallen from the image of God, man needed to be restored back into that image. And somehow, there needed to be a way by which man's spirit could be born again. The rebirth. This is what Jesus said to a very religious man.

His name was Nicodemus. He had come to Jesus at night. He was a teacher among the Jews. He was a Pharisee. And thus, very religious. And when he said to Jesus, we know that you must be from God. No man can do the things that you are doing unless God was with him.

And Jesus said to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said, born again? How can I be born again? I'm an old man. I can't enter the second time into my mother's womb and be born.

And Jesus said, no, you don't understand. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. But that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Don't marvel when I say to you, you must be born again. Nicodemus, you have to have a spiritual birth.

If you're going to have fellowship with God, if you're going to enter into a relationship with God, you've got to have a spiritual birth. Now, natural physical birth is a miracle in itself. I had the privilege one time, as I was living in a rural area, the lady across the street came over and said that she was in labor.

She couldn't get the doctor. And it was an emergency. And would I come over and help in the delivery of her child? So Kay and I went over and we got Dr. Spock's book and boned up real quick on the delivery of a baby.

And as she was coaching me, I took charge of the delivery of that child. And as that new life came forth, as I took that little boy in my hands and as I cut the umbilical cord and tied it up and as I saw him take his first breath, as I heard his first cry, I felt like God was right there in the room and I was beholding a miracle of God.

Physical life. The birth. It's just something awesome about it. There's just sort of a holiness to the whole thing because you're sort of there seeing God create life and new life. But the birth of the Spirit is also exciting.

I have been with many people at the time of the birth of their spirit and it is equally miraculous and it is equally awesome to see God's Spirit come upon a person and have them suddenly come into a new consciousness of God.

To have this dimension that was dead now come alive. And often there is weeping, often there is laughing, often there is just that holy sense of awe as the person really begins to comprehend and understand the existence of God and to feel the presence of God.

And what a beautiful experience to see a person born again, to see the spiritual birth. I've been the midwife of many who have had that spiritual birth and had the joy and the blessing of seeing this new birth of the Spirit.

Man cannot produce spiritual birth. Though Kay and I were both born of the Spirit, it did not pass through our genes to our children. It didn't make our children automatically spirit, mind and body. They were born by natural birth.

There came the day in their lives where they also had the new birth of the Spirit. But that's something that we could not pass on to them and it cannot be passed on to you. It's an experience that you must have for yourself, the experience of that new birth, the birth of the Spirit.

The Spirit is indeed the missing link between God and man. That gap between God and man is too great for finite man to bridge it. Man starting with an earth base could never reach the Infinite God. The only hope that you have for wholeness is a spiritual birth.

And it was necessary for an Infinite God to create the spiritual birth. We could not do it by good works. We could not do it by being religious. It takes a work of God to create a spiritual birth in your life.

It's an act of God. And God promised that one day to man who had become dead, to God, His Spirit was dead because of His trespasses and sins. God promised that there would come a day of salvation. That God Himself would visit this world.

Old Testament Promises of the Coming Savior

And that through Him man might be able to experience this new birth, the birth of the Spirit. And as we look then at the Old Testament, we see how that throughout the Old Testament, God would give men inspiration concerning a special day.

This is the day that the Lord has made. The day when the Lord would come. The day when the Lord would present Himself as the Savior, as the Messiah. As God in flesh who could bring to man a spiritual birth and where man could once again through the Spirit be linked unto God.

God promised Abraham, a man of faith, that through His descendant all of the nations of the world would be blessed. That the Messiah would be one of the descendants of Abraham. Later God said it was through Isaac that the descendant would be called.

Not through Ishmael, the firstborn of Abraham. And then later on the Lord promised that it would be through the tribe of Judah that the Messiah would come. Later on the Lord narrowed it down to the family of David that the Messiah would come.

Through David would the King come and reign over the world. And so, the book of Matthew begins the New Testament. This is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

And thus, Jesus Christ, the one that God promised would one day come. In Isaiah 9 .6 the Lord said, For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. God is giving His only begotten Son. He will be born as a child but He is destined for the future glory.

The government shall be upon His shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor. The Mighty God. The Everlasting Father. And the Prince of Peace. And of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.

Upon the throne of Aban and upon His kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever for the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this. Note, the child was to be born but that child was a son who was given.

Note, His name, the Mighty God. The Everlasting Father. The Prince of Peace. Again, the Lord said in Isaiah 7 .14 Therefore the Lord will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and call His name Emmanuel which means God with us.

Paul said great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. John said in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. And the same was in the beginning with God.

And all things were made by Him. And without Him was not anything made that was made. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. To the prophet Zechariah God said Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.

Shout, O daughters of Jerusalem. Behold, your King is coming to you. He is just and He is bringing salvation. But He is lowly. He will be riding on a donkey. So God promised that the day would come when He would send His Son who would be a descendant of David who would bring salvation to the world and that He would be riding on a donkey.

The day was coming. The day of promise. And the people were eagerly awaiting that day. It would be a day of rejoicing and gladness. It would be a day when the people would be shouting out, this is the day that the Lord has made.

Daniel's Prophecy of the Messiah's Arrival

We will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, save now. Blessed is the King. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. But God went one step further. He even told them the day that the King would come.

He gave to them a prophecy by which He specified the day that the Messiah would present Himself as the Savior of Israel. In Daniel chapter 9, 24, as the angel was talking to Daniel, he said, there are 77 or 490 years that are determined for thy people and for the holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in the everlasting righteousness, and to complete the visions and the prophecies, and to anoint the most holy.

Know therefore, Daniel, and understand that from the time the commandment goes forth to restore and to build Jerusalem, under the coming of the Messiah, the Prince, will be seven sevens or 49 years, and three score and two sevens or 434 years.

The street will be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times, and after the 434 years, the Messiah will be cut off and not receive the kingdom for Himself. And the people of the Prince that shall come will destroy the city and the sanctuary, and in the end, the people will be dispersed.

The promise that from the time the commandment would go forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of the Messiah would be 483 years. That is years of the Babylonian calendar, which are a 360 day year.

What are the facts? Well, we read in Nehemiah chapter 2, verse 1, It came to pass in the month of Nisan, that in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, the king, that I took up wine, and I gave it to the king.

The first of Nisan, in the year 445 BC, because Artaxerxes became king over Persia in 465 BC. Twenty years would be 445, and the month of Nisan, transferred over to our Julian calendar, would be March the 14th, 445 BC.

Interesting that the Bible gives us the very date that King Artaxerxes gave the commandment to Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem and lead in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. From the time this commandment would go forth, the Lord said, it would be the 483 years until the coming of the Messiah, the prince.

So God gave them the very date that the Messiah would come. Translating, of course, the 483 360-day years would be 173 ,880 days. And by putting that over to our Julian calendar, counting for leap year, and of course you don't have a year zero, you have 1 BC and 1 AD.

The Triumphal Entry and the Rejected King

It brings you to the date of April the 10th, 32 AD. Let me read to you what the scripture says happened April 10th, 32 AD. Jesus said to his disciples, two of his disciples, go into the village, and when you enter you're going to find a colt that is tied, upon which a man has never sat.

Untie him and bring him to me. And if any man asks you, why are you loosing him? Just say, because the Lord needs him. So they went their way and they found the donkey, even as Jesus had told them. And as they were untying the donkey, the owners said to them, why are you loosing the colt?

And they said, the Lord needs him. And so they brought the colt to Jesus and they cast their garments upon the colt. And they sat Jesus on him, and as he went, they spread their clothes in the way. And when he was come near to Jerusalem, even as he was descending the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all of the mighty works that they had seen.

They were saying, blessed is the king that comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Hosanna, Hosanna. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto Jesus, Master, rebuke your disciples.

And he answered them and said, I tell you that if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. Now when they were come near and he beheld the city, he wept over it, saying, if you had only known, at least in this thy day, the peace that you could have.

But it's hid from your eyes. And the days shall soon come upon you when your enemies will encircle you and close you in on every side. And they will level you to the ground with your children. And they will not leave in thee one stone upon another.

Why? Because you knew not the day of your visitation. Jesus is weeping. Now this is his day of triumphant entry, but he's weeping. He's weeping because of missed opportunity. If you only knew the peace that you could have, at least in this thy day.

This is the day that the Lord had made. This is the day the Lord had been prophesying. This is the day that God had been promising. His son now is standing there outside of Jerusalem ready to enter in and present himself as the Messiah.

But knowing that he would be rejected as we read in our psalm, the stone which the builders refused. The builders being the chief religious leaders refused. But he's become the headstone of the corner.

But this is marvelous. It's God's work. It's marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made. Jesus predicted dire consequences that were going to come because of their failure to recognize this day.

The Present Opportunity for Salvation

What was true then is true down through the ages. I believe that in every life there comes that day when the Lord presents himself to an individual as the Messiah, as the Savior. And they have the opportunity to either accept him as such or to reject him.

The same is true. To accept him is to have spiritual birth. It's to have a revolution take place as you can come now into a relationship with God and know the joy and the peace and the fullness that comes by relating to God.

But also, it is that opportunity to reject and to thus face the dire consequences of rejecting God's offer of salvation and eternal life to you. This could be the day that God has appointed for you as he presents to you his son as the Messiah, as the Savior.

The day that you accept and are born again by the Spirit of God or you reject and find your life turned into shambles as you face the dire consequences of living apart from God's protection and God's hand.

This is the day the Lord has made. They were saying, we will rejoice and be glad in it. And surely, we who have been born again rejoice and are glad for that day that the Lord presented to us the invitation to have eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.

The Promise of Christ's Return

Father, we thank you for this day. And as we gather and remember that special day that you had promised, that you had kept, when you sent your son to be the Savior of the world, knowing that the Messiah would be cut off and not receive the kingdom at that time.

But Lord, we thank you that you've promised another day when you'll come again, not riding on a donkey, but riding on a white horse. Not coming to submit himself to the brutality of man, but coming as King of kings and Lord of lords to reign over the earth in righteousness.

And Lord, we thank you for the hope that we have. We see the world that is destroying itself. A world that is falling apart. A world that is breaking at the seams. And Lord, we thank you that in a world that is fast going to pieces, that we can hold on to your promises and that we can be sustained through the darkness by the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, which is our hope and our stay in these days.

Bless, we pray, Lord, as this day people face the claims of Jesus Christ to either accept or reject. Speak to their hearts, Lord, and by the Holy Spirit, may they yield to the truth. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.