Jesus' "day" encompasses his birth, burial, and resurrection, demonstrating his divine identity and purpose. The sermon contrasts the deceptive "day" of the Nazis with the ultimate "Day of the Lord" and "Day of God." Abraham rejoiced to see Jesus' day, which includes his suffering and death for sin, as well as his triumphant resurrection and vindication. This resurrection proves Jesus' claims and offers power to overcome sin, urging listeners to accept him as Savior.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.87 → restored 4.34
I just want to thank the choir again for all of the effort that they have put into the ministry during the conference and since the conference. They spend a lot of their spare time up here when others of you are taking trips to the holiday house and other things like that, even a Saturday afternoon sometimes. Let's turn to John chapter eight. For just a verse or two here, there are certain incensed Jews arguing with the Lord Jesus.
He has further incensed them by saying, Ye are of your Father the devil, and the lusts of your Father ye will do. That's verse forty-four of John chapter eight. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. That is, in the devil. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it. Verse fifty-two. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil.
Abraham is dead. and the prophets, and thou sayest if a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our Father Abraham which is dead, and the prophets that are dead, whom makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing. It is my Father that honoureth me, of whom ye say, that he is your God. yet ye have not known him, but I know him, and if I should say I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you, but I know him, and keep his saying, Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad.
I'm going to repeat that verse. Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad. There is a verse, and you don't have to turn to it, I'll just read it to you in second Peter chapter one, and it says this, We have a more sure word of prophecy, where unto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn.
What day? The Lord Jesus said, Abraham, your father saw my day and was glad. It seems impossible to me that it is forty-five years since we drove around in Great Britain with the headlights of our cars all shrouded, every one of our homes blacked out so that not the slightest chink of light showed. It doesn't seem to me forty-five years since we heard the siren sound and the heavy throbbing of Nazi bombers flying over the countryside.
I lived in an oft-blitzed city. I lived in the city of Birmingham. We learned in those days that it was possible for us to add to the country's difficulties if we had loose tongues. In fact, there was an ad from the government all over the country, and those of you who were there at this time will remember it. It simply said, be like Dad, keep Mum. I think I might even remember a little poem that was also...
flattered over all of the areas for advertising. And it began like this. If you've news of our munitions, keep it dark. Ships and planes and troop positions, keep it dark. Lives are lust through conversation. Here's a tip for the duration. If you've private information, keep it dark. And no one had to tell us that there was a war raging. At that time, only twenty-two miles away from us, across just a narrow strip of channel, there was a very powerful enemy poised to strike, to invade, and to destroy Britain's liberty.
During those days we heard many voices. The one that always brought the country to us stand still was the voice of Winston Churchill. Whenever he was going to speak on the radio, everything stopped and everybody listened. His was a voice that sometimes encouraged us, sometimes challenged us, sometimes painted for us, a true and very dark picture without any kind of relief. But we appreciated what he had to say because we felt that that man told us the truth, whether good or bad.
Now there were voices that also reached us from outside our own country. There was a British traitor. who used to regularly broadcast for the Nazis, and sometimes until I felt sick to my stomach, I would listen to what he was saying, knowing that he was parading a bunch of lies before the people. But there was one expression that used to stir us up more than anything else and it was a German expression. It was an expression that the Nazis had taken up as their war cry, and it was simply this, Der Tag.
Do you know what that means? The Day. They had plans not only for world domination, they had plans for the destruction of the Jews, and they tried very hard to put them into execution, six million Jews died in the Nazis' march toward that day when everyone would be subservient to Nazi Germany. But praise God, it never came. But I still think of that expression.
the day. Their day never came. But I just read to you about one that surely will, until the day dawn. I want to talk because really that day, and we read about Abraham's seeing it, that day was comprised of the days of the Lord Jesus. In a sense it was a summation of his days, a panorama of his days.
When my wife and I were planning to build our home here at Park of the Palms, because we had water at the back, a little further away now than it was then, we decided we had to have a window that would give us a view to the left and to the right as well as the front. We used to call it our panoramic view, but it was not a panorama, because a panorama reaches out in every direction. three hundred and sixty degrees and this little phrase the day does exactly that that which the Lord Jesus referred to as my day is exactly that it is a panorama of this period that I want to speak about this evening this morning I know that it is Resurrection Day I know that it is Easter Sunday, and I fully intend to make
that the thrust of my message before I'm through. But I think those of you who study the Bible at all or who listen to many preachers know that there are lots of days spoken of in the Word of God. And when the scripture uses that word day, it can mean any one of a number of things. It is used of the light. Natural light is called the day. The combination of day and night is called the day. It is also a word that is used to describe an opportunity.
But here it is a word used for a time of undefined length. Now it's used that way a number of times. The day of small things. There's a period of time that is undetermined. The Bible speaks about man's day. And we're living in the middle of it now. And you can see what a mess. man has made of it. Now, in an oversimplified fashion, I'd like to tell you about the future and the three days of which the Bible speaks, just very briefly, as we pass.
There is the Day of Christ, sometimes called the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ, or the Day of Jesus Christ. or the day of Christ, or the day of the Lord Jesus. Now, in a general sense, that is a time of blessing. And then there's the day of the Lord, and that's spoken of numbers of times in the Old Testament. It's also spoken of in the New Testament, the day of the Lord. And in a general sense, that is a time of judgment.
And then the Bible refers to the day of God. And that is the day when the other things are past and the eternal state of bliss and joy opens up. That is God's day and it goes on eternally. Now, there are some details about the day of Christ. Now, I've just placed it in the future as a time of blessing. But when it says, Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad, that was a day that reaches into the past as well as into the future.
and by special revelation this dead Abraham, as the Jews called him, our Father Abraham is dead. He was still able to get a tremendous revelation from God, and it was a revelation of that which the Lord Jesus called My Day. And it embraced The day of his birth. Do you remember what we read in the Christmas story? This day, this day is born unto you a Savior which is Christ the Lord.
The day of his birth. And it's associated with worshiping angels. There they are declaring that Jesus is born. The star in the heavens is declaring that Jesus is born. The shepherds leave their fields, and the wise men leave their distant country, coming to see this, which is the beginning of what Jesus calls my day. The day of his birth. Now I'd like you to turn with me, if you will, to another scripture.
It's in John chapter twelve. John chapter twelve. And this also belongs in Passion Week, which began you will remember last Sunday. Then Jesus, verse one, six days before the Passover, that was the time of the death of the Lord Jesus. came to Bethany where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper, and Martha served. But Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.
Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spiknod, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair and the house. was filled with the odour of the ointment. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor? This he said not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bear what was put therein.
Then Jesus said, let her alone against the day of my burying, have she kept this? The day of his birth? The day of his burying. And oh, what a lot that takes in. The Lord Jesus could not have been buried until, first of all, he died. And we have thought about his death. We pondered it, some of us, on Good Friday, the day when we commemorate the death on the cross of the Lord Jesus.
He suffered, and oh, how he suffered. On Thursday, we reminded our hearts, they beat him. They pummeled him. They scourged him. They crowned him with thorns. They nailed him to a rugged cross. But they didn't really kill him. He dismissed his spirit. So that they were surprised that he was so soon dead. They break the legs of one thief.
They break the legs of the other thief. But they didn't need to break his legs to hasten his end. He had already dismissed his spirit. The scripture had said prophetically not a bone of him should be broken. And the prophetic scripture is true. Loving hands took him down from the cross. and he was buried. The day of my burying. The prophet Isaiah in chapter fifty-three tells us, beginning, Who hath believed our report, and whom is the arm of the Lord revealed, for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root.
out of a dry ground, and so on. Until we come to a verse like this, and he was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation, for he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgressions of my people, was he stricken? And he made his grave with the wicked. now that is not really what the scripture says in the original version it says they made his grave with the wicked but he was with the rich in his death when they digged a grave they digged a common grave for two thieves and the lord jesus but god said you've gone far enough you've now you have now nailed him to the cross and watched him die, and you'll go no further.
And so God caused his son, who suffered such ignominy and such shame, to have a prince's burial, anointed with costly salves and ointments, and placed in a rock-hune tomb, in which never man before had lain a brand new tomb. The day of my burying. But the phrase takes us back over what led up to it and the awful suffering of the Lord Jesus. I wonder if there's anybody here.
And there's never a moment come in your life. when you have pondered the suffering of the Lord Jesus. And having been reminded of it many times, began to ask yourself, isn't there something I should do since Jesus suffered so much for me and paid the price for my sin? Ah, you say, I've asked myself that, not once, but many times. But have you answered the question? The Lord Jesus suffered.
He bled. He died. He was buried. And all of that he suffered because your sin demanded it. There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. The poet has asked, is it nothing to you that a slave has died? Is it nothing to you? Can you carelessly glance at your Lord crucified? Is it nothing to you? Can you gaze on the dying one sad and forlorn, on the brow of the royal one crowned with thorn, on the hands that are nailed marked, and feet that are torn?
I say, is it nothing to you? unless you do something about the issue that Jesus Christ is. Unless you open the door of your life and receive him as your very own personal Savior, as far as you are concerned, he will have suffered, he will have bled, he will have died, he will have been buried in vain. The day of his Ariel. Would you turn to Luke chapter seventeen with me for a moment?
Luke chapter seventeen. Just one verse you can listen if you choose rather than turning to it. Verse twenty four. For as the lightning that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven shineth unto the other part under heaven, so shall also the Son of man be in his day. The day. My day. This day.
His day. Now what we have here is the vindication of the Lord Jesus. We know because of the resurrection that what he said was absolutely true, for he said, I will rise again. After the third day or on the third day, I will rise again. Now his enemies remembered it. Because, and we read the scripture this morning, they said, set a seal and a watch. This deceiver said, in three days I will rise again from the dead.
His disciples will come and steal away his body and then we'll be in worse trouble than we are now. So seal the tomb. Death couldn't keep its prey. Jesus, my Savior, tore the bars away. Jesus, my Lord, and up from the grave he arose. Now this was the beginning of his vindication. The Lord Jesus, who suffered and bled and died and was buried, rose again, triumphant, over sin and death and hell.
That was the beginning of his vindication. For he who said, I will rise again, rose again. Had he not said, No man taketh my life from me. I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again. Which is precisely what he did on that resurrection morning when he slipped out of the grave clothes. Do you remember the story of John and Peter going to the tomb and Peter the boulder went in while John had reached the tomb first and had not entered, but he followed Peter in and he saw something of which he wrote.
He saw and believed. Do you know what John saw? He saw the grave clothes. Certainly did. with the napkin that was around his head separated from them do you know why those grave clothes had been bound round and round and round and round the Lord Jesus when he rose from the dead he didn't stand there and unwrap himself and leave a heap of clothes on the floor he just slipped out of them and they collapsed where they were the napkin here and the rest of the clothes there.
And John saw it and said, He must have written, how else could he have come out of that to those gray clothes and left them in that state? He saw it and believed. Yes, the word of the Lord Jesus was thoroughly vindicated. What he said was true. My, how his person was enhanced. The resurrection, you know, is spoken of so excitedly by the New Testament writers, writing the history of these things you find they pluck and they pluck and they pluck and they pluck the string of the resurrection all the time talking about the resurrection.
Turn please with me to Acts chapter three. Acts chapter three. And see how Peter, the preacher here, describes the resurrection. Peter, verse twelve, and when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this, or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, have glorified his son Jesus.
A living Christ could not have, a dead Christ could not have raised a cripple. A dead Christ could not have supplied power through us to bring healing to a lame man. He's a living Christ. God has glorified his Son. Now there's a blast of denunciation. Peter pulls no punches, the one who said to the little servant girl, I don't know the man, and then repeated it with oaths and curses, scared out of his wits.
Now he stands before a hostile crowd, and he says this, you delivered him up, you denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. You denied the Holy One and the just and desired a murderer to be granted unto you and killed the Prince of Life. Think of those things. You delivered him up. There were people there who probably lifted no active finger in bringing about the situation that took the Lord Jesus to the cross.
but their very indifference condemns them. You delivered him up. You let people take him and nail him to the cross. Don't you ever think that you can avoid the issue that the Lord Jesus is by just doing nothing, by saying, Well, now, I wouldn't, I would never take the name of Jesus in vain. I believe that Jesus lived and died. I believe he rose again. But are you indifferent?
Have these things made any impact on your life? Or have you surrendered your life to the Lord Jesus or neglected him? Just maybe you've even said some other time. I will do it. I'll get saved. I'll get converted. I'll let Jesus into my heart a little later on. I want to have a good time just now. I don't want my peers to laugh at me. I don't want people to mock me. Let me get a little bit older and a little bit stronger. The Word of God says, Now is the accepted time.
Behold, now is the day of salvation. and indifference to the Christ, will I surely condemn to hell as the blasphemy against his name. You delivered him up, he says, and that certainly must have hit home to some of the crowd who were indifferent and never lifted a finger. And then he said, you denied him. Now he's getting to those people. who were stirred up by the scribes and Pharisees, and who probably would never have done it otherwise to say, away with him, away with him, crucify him, give us Barabbas, give us Barabbas.
You say, oh, I'm glad I would never have done that. But listen. Can it be that you're not only indifferent, or maybe you're not even indifferent, but there is something in your life and you saying, if I become a Christian, That has got to go, and it means too much to me. I cannot let it go. You denied him. And then it says, you desired a murderer to be granted unto you. You made another choice. Not him, but him. Don't you be eternally foolish.
when brought face to face with the Lord Jesus and his death for you and his challenge on this resurrection mourn, don't be so foolish as to opt for something else or somebody else, because if you do, you will eternally rue it. For all the ages of eternity, unable to reverse that decision, you'll be sad and sorry about it and tormented because of it and finally it says you killed him you know what brought about the death of the Lord Jesus don't you it was your sin and my sin he died to pay the price for it but on this resurrection morning we're reminded that he rose from the dead and being a living Savior is not only able to forgive and to cleanse sin, but he is able to bring power into the life to overcome sin, so
that if somebody is saying, I would like to be a Christian, but I really don't think I could keep it up. Or how many people have been deluded by Satan into saying, I want to be a Christian, I don't want to be a hypocrite, I'm afraid if I made a profession of faith in Christ, I wouldn't be able to live up to it? You know what, you're missing the point. The living Christ, the moment he's received into your life, makes himself available to live his own life through you and give you victory in your living in places that you thought you could never know it. My time has gone.
But that is really the challenge of the East today. He's alive. But are you? You say, of course I am. I'm sitting here in the pew looking at you and listening to you. The Bible says if you're outside of Christ, you're dead in trespasses and in sins. That's a very solemn description. I would be so happy this morning if someone in this service refused to leave but instead came and sat down to talk about these things.
himself. Let's pray, shall we? Our Father, we thank thee for the resurrection story. We know it so well. We have not even read the resurrection story this morning because we are so well acquainted with it and sometimes familiarity breeds contempt. But as we think of the day of the Lord Jesus, His birth, His burial and His honor and vindication, we ask that we may not be able to go away untroubled if our lives are not under His control.