I've already begun to experience
the awkward adjustments to a new calendar year. It won't be long
before you are forced to do so. You kids, when you go to school
tomorrow, if betting were legitimate, and I wanted to make some quick
money, I would bet that some of you are still going to write
January 1975, and then you're going to say, whoops, 76, right? those awkward little adjustments
to the fact that we've entered a new year. Some of us will be
making out the monthly bills in a few days. And unless we
write 76 right down the line for the next few checks, we just
forget and we revert to writing 1975. So with the holidays, as
it were, going before us to remind us that a new year, a new calendar
year has come, And with these many petty little reminders before
us, I thought it would be in the interest of our own sanctification
and our general spiritual profit to address myself this morning,
and I have a sneaking suspicion I'll only get about two-thirds
of the way through, and probably then again next Lord's Day morning,
to the very simple but, I trust, useful theme, a Christian or
a biblical perspective towards or upon a new year. A Christian
or biblical, and I use the two terms synonymously, a Christian
or a biblical perspective on the new year. Now why is it important
for us even to consider such a subject? Well, for the simple
reason that we are commanded in Romans 12 to be not conformed
to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God." In other words, sanctification goes on in its
progressive dimensions as our minds are renewed so that we
are enabled to prove, that is, to work out in experience the
good, the acceptable, and the perfect will of God. But we do
not prove and experience the perfect will of God apart from
the renewing of our minds. And the great enemy to the renewed
mind is the influence of the ungodly world. That's why the
Apostle has an order in his directions. He starts with the negative.
Be not fashioned according to this world. Don't let the world
push its thought patterns into your mind, for if you do, you'll
never prove the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Therefore,
there must be a shutting out of the world's perspectives,
an absorption of the perspectives of God, and then and only then
do we prove in experience the good, acceptable, and perfect
will of God. Now all of us have been bombarded
with the world's perspectives on a new year. All the way from
the very licentious that looks upon the season of the coming
of a new year as some kind of a carte blanche for all kinds
of debauchery and drunkenness and gluttony. to what we might
call the more refined humanistic aspirations for a new year, a
new beginning and man will conjure up all of his innate powers and
make a new start and make 76 a better year than 75 and all
that other rubbish that comes out of humanism. Well you see
the world is bombarding us with its perspective and the word
of God says be not fashioned according to this world. but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And how is the
mind renewed? By the Word of God. And therefore
it is in the interest of our own sanctification and ultimately
to God's glory that we as Christians address ourselves to the subject,
what is or what are some facets of a biblical or Christian perspective
on the New Year. Now many things could be said
But of the many precepts and principles in the Word of God
that could be brought to bear upon this broad theme, I wish
to bring to bear upon your conscience just three under two headings. So altogether there will be six.
And the first heading is, what we know with certainty concerning
ourselves in the coming year, and what we can know with certainty
concerning our God. in the coming year. And I would
suggest that if you are thinking biblically or thinking Christianly
with reference to what we can know with certainty about ourselves
and what we can know with certainty about God, we will then have
a Christian perspective on the new year. First of all, then,
this broad heading what we can know with certainty concerning
ourselves as we face 1976. And you know what the first thing
we can know with certainty is? It is this, the uncertainty of
the events of the coming year. The one thing we can know for
certain about ourselves is that the events that will touch our
lives are uncertain. This is the time of the year
when we have political and economic and scientific and agricultural
and investment experts making their predictions and their forecasts.
But you know what God does with all of those things? Two simple
statements, one from the Old Testament, one from the New.
Proverbs 27 and verse 1. What is it to think Christianly
about the coming of a new year with reference to ourselves?
It is to think within a framework in which we face realistically
the uncertainty of the events of the coming year. Proverbs
27 and verse 1. Boast not thyself of tomorrow. That is, do not think, speak,
enact in such a way that you think there is certainty with
reference to the events of tomorrow. Boast not thyself of tomorrow.
Why are we not to do that, Solomon? For thou knowest not what a day,
let alone a week or a month or a year, may bring forth. Thou
knowest not what a day may bring forth. Now, there's no debating
that. That's a statement not only of
special revelation that is embodied in the Scriptures, but it's a
fact of general revelation. The most ungodly man who has
his mental sanity will acknowledge he does not know what the next
24-hour period will bring forth, either in his own life, in his
family, in his nation, his country, in the world, in the whole cosmos
of God. We know not what a day may bring
forth. And you have a parallel statement
in the New Testament, the book of James, in which we have an
incident when Believers were not thinking Christianly. They
were beginning to think like the ungodly. Their minds were
being influenced by the thought patterns of the world. They were
making plans that assumed the certainty of certain contingencies. And James rebukes them in James
4.13 and says, Come now, ye that say, today or tomorrow we'll
go into this city and spend a year there and trade and get gain,
whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. May I suggest
that you're thinking like a pagan and not a Christian. if you face
the coming year as it pertains to yourself with anything less
than the deepest conviction, this realistic conviction of
the uncertainty of the events of the coming year. We do not
know what any day of 1976 will bring to us individually, health,
sickness, prosperity, privation, or death itself. We do not know
what it will bring to us domestically, We do not know what it will bring
to us nationally, internationally. We know not what a day may bring
forth. Now, the recognition of that
simple truth realistically and honestly and continually throughout
all of the successive days that God may be pleased to give to
us in the coming year will have tremendous practical effects.
Think for a moment of what it will do for us who are the people
of God. Look at this passage in James. If we live with that
conviction, we know not what a day may bring forth. We do
not govern our own destinies. We are not the masters of our
own faith and the captains of our own souls. James says it
will radically alter our whole perspective. Look at the same
passage. Verse 15, For that ye ought to
say, If the Lord will, we shall both live and do this or that."
In other words, when you talk in such a way as to reflect that
you've lost this perspective that both the duration and the
circumstances of life are uncertain as far as I'm concerned. You're
thinking like a pagan. And he says you need to think
as a Christian who constantly acknowledges life's duration. If the Lord will, we shall both
live. And life's circumstances are
ordered and governed by a wise and a sovereign God. And therefore, there will be
created in us a sense of dependence upon that God, a constant recognition
of his rights and his claims. In other words, this simple fact
of the uncertainty of the events of the coming year, recognized
in its biblical setting, will bring us into an orbit of deeply
religious perspective. God is God. I am creature. He orders and disposes. I am utterly dependent upon Him. And it should have a profound
effect upon those of you who sit here this morning who are
yet in your sins, who know nothing of a broken and a contrite heart
for your sins. who know nothing of a saving
sight of Christ that has ravished your heart. In the language that
we've been reminded of in the adult class, you know nothing
of poverty of spirit. You know nothing of mourning
for your sin. Nothing of hunger and thirst
for righteousness. Oh, listen this morning, there
are boys and girls among us who fit that description. And tragically,
there are gray-haired men and women who fit that description.
There are others in the prime of life who fit that description.
And my friend, if you really believe this, that there is no
certainty with reference to the coming year as far as your knowledge
is concerned, and you look back upon all of the opportunities
squandered in 1975 and no certainty with reference to 1976, you fit
the description of that man in Luke chapter 12. Jesus spoke
of the man who in his prosperity said, soul, thou hast much goods
laid up for many years, take thy means. It's retirement time. A lot of days and months and
years before death time. Prosperity time has led to retirement
time. And God says, thou fool, this
night shall thy soul be required. Little did those people think
who stood around that carousel in TWA, baggage delivery place,
a few days ago. Little did they think, as they
no doubt were fretting, why in the world doesn't that stuff
come as I also fret. Sometimes it takes longer to
get my baggage than it did to get from Chicago to New York.
And I just pictured in my mind's eye some fretting, some puffing
on their cigarettes, Others may be pacing up and down. Others
looking to see if loved ones were meeting them. The last thought
in the minds probably of everyone is that we are second from eternity. And eleven of them snatched off,
gone to stand before God. They knew not what a day may
bring forth. Let's put a new perspective on
my traveling. I always, the moment the plane
touches down, say, thank you, Lord. You've brought us safely.
When it's about to take off, I pray that God will have His
sovereign hand upon the controls. Now I'm going to breathe even
another prayer when I'm able to get my baggage. You see? You see, we don't think
Christianly. Well, we needed the direct protection
of God to get us up, keep us up, and bring us down safely.
Now, you see, we're on our own steam, picking up our baggage
and getting home. Oh, no, we aren't. We know not. And I speak to you children and
adults. Is he trying to scare us? No, I'm facing you with facts,
my friend. You don't know what a day may
bring forth. Little did those people who perhaps
were caught up in the same holiday festivities as you and I were
in the past days, little did they think that Almighty God,
who in the language of the prophet has His way in the whirlwind
and the storm, little did they think that that God was to send
a whirlwind sweeping through northern Europe and into Britain
that would snatch His creatures out of this life to stand in
His presence. But He did it. They knew not
what a day would bring forth. And you children, you in the
prime of life, you with gray hairs in advanced years. Oh,
that God would sober you this first Lord's Day of 1976 with
the realization you have no assurance, I have no assurance, that we
shall meet in any place of worship for the first day of 1977. There
may be no 77 for any of us. There may be none for you. Now in the light of that, my
friend, do you see how irrational, what madness it is to stay in
your sins, to remain under the frown of a holy God? What can we know with certainty
concerning ourselves? We can know with certainty the
uncertainty of the events of the coming year. My friend, Don't
play Russian roulette with your soul. Well, I've got through
75. I hope I'll make it through 76.
You know what I mean when I say don't play Russian roulette with
your soul? You know what Russian roulette is. Put one shell in
the six-chambered pistol, turn it around, put it to the head,
pull the trigger. that the shell was not in the
chamber that was next to the firing pen. My friend, that's
what you're doing with your soul. If you're out of Christ and you
face another year in the light of its uncertainty, but then
secondly, we can know with certainty not only the uncertainty of the
events of life, but secondly, the brevity of the time allotted
to us in the coming years. Now I'm not saying that there's
an international conspiracy that's going to touch the time pieces
by which all of the clocks of the world are affected. No, no.
There will still be 60 seconds in every minute, 60 minutes in
every hour, 24 hours in every day, 7 days in every week, 365
days in the coming year if the Lord tarries. But what I am saying
is that that time is continually set before us in the Word of
God as fleeting. And we can know for certainty
the brevity of the time allotted to us. Notice how James underscores
that in this same passage. Having said that life is uncertain
in verse 14, he also goes on to say, What is your life? For ye are a vapour that appeareth
for a little time, and then vanisheth away." In other words, life is
not only uncertain, life is brief. You're like a vapour. Some of
you have dryers, and in a winter day where the vent goes outside
and your mom's running the dryer, you see that vapour comes out. And it's there, and if the dryer
shuts off, in less than three seconds, every trace of it is
gone. James says, that's your life. With all that it seems
to have of substance. Look, sit there this morning.
Think of yourself. You say, well, I've got my friends,
my wife, my mom, my dad, my children, my relatives, my home, my car,
my job, my clothes. All of this is substantial. James
says, the whole of your life He are a vapor that appeareth
for a little time. It appears in God. The people that walked the streets
of Caldwell a hundred years ago, who thought everything was substantial,
there's not a one of them around now. If God spares His creatures, and the Lord does
not return, In less than a hundred years, my friend, all of us will
have joined the Vicar. That's it. Oh, how we fool ourselves that
life is substantial. It isn't. And this is the great
theme that runs through the biblical perspective on life, its brevity. I remind you of the language
of Psalm 90, the psalm from which we read at the commencement of
our worship this morning. Moses, the man of God, speaks
of man in the brevity of his life, saying, verse 10, The days
of our years are threescore seven, I'm sorry, are threescore years
and ten, that's seventy, or by reason of strength, fourscore
eighty. Yet is there pride but labor
and sorrow, for it is soon gone, and we fly away. I was thinking
at this Christmas time how real that is. I can't believe, I can't
believe that it's been over 30 to 35 years since I lay awake
half New Year's or Christmas night wondering what my present
would be in the morning. That's as real to me as though
it were three weeks ago. I can recall all the details.
I can relive it emotionally. 35 years! Our generation is gone! Where has it gone? Our dear sisters in their 93rd
year, And I'm sure if she could speak so as to be heard by all
of us, she'd say that the memories of being a little girl with no
cares and concerns are as real to her as though they were yesterday.
We soon fly away. But you know, it wasn't children
who wrote these songs. It was people who already had
lived out the majority of their lives. It was Joe An old patriarch
who said, our days are faster than a weaver's shuttle. Have
you ever seen an old loom? Have you ever seen an old loom
where the shuttle that carries the thread goes through? If you've seen it, you understand
Job's picture. Swifter than a weaver's shuttle! And if we liken every strand
to a day or to a year, in a matter of seconds the weaver is able
to push his shuttle from one side to the other. He says, that's
my day, from infancy to old age and then to death. In the light of this, dear child
of God, you and I have to think as Christians, and the Bible
has much to say. about the consciousness of the
brevity of life being a powerful motive in the way we live as
God's people. Take our Lord for an example.
In John 9, verse 4, He said, We must work the works of Him
that sent Me, while it is day. For the night cometh when no
man can work. He said, I have an allotted period
in which to accomplish the will of my Father, and that is likened
to the daylight hours. And just as surely as the daylight
hours will be followed by twilight and night, and no work can be
done, so, he says, every one of us has a span of time that
is our day, and we must work the works of Him that in grace
has laid hold upon us. Again, the psalmist in Psalm
90 and verse 14, having spoken concerning the brevity of life,
notices prayer. Verse 12, So teach us to number
our days, that we may get us a heart of wisdom. What's he
saying? He's saying, Lord, I cannot live
wisely unless I live consciously aware of the brevity of life.
He who lives indifferent to the brevity of life lives as a fool,
for he squanders what is more precious than gold itself. Time, time, time! And when we meditate upon it,
believers, think of it. Every event in time has reverberations
into eternity. Think of it. The wonder he prays,
teach us to number our days, that we may get us a heart of
wisdom, that we may not live like fools who assume that life
will go on forever. And isn't that the perspective
of the apostle in Ephesians? Ephesians chapter 4, chapter 5, I'm sorry, verses
15 and 16. Ephesians 5. Verses 6, 15, and 16. Look therefore
carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise. And what is the peculiar concern
of the apostle in terms of a wise or a foolish work? Walk, verse
16, redeeming the time, buying up the opportunities there on
the market. is the opportunity allotted in
the hours of the day that is at hand. He says, don't be a
fool. Buy up the opportunity. Seize
it. Invest it for that which will
count. Not only does the brevity of
the time allotted to us have tremendous implications for us
as believers, but, oh, it ought to affect those of you that are
yet in your sins. Children, and I speak out of
the fullness of my heart to you this morning, it seems strange
to think about funerals and graveyards, because life is so carefree for
you now. But listen, you are hastening
to your grave, and surely, as Mrs. Blair and all of us in between,
you're hastening to your grave. every one of us. And the time between that first
cry in a delivery room and that last sigh in a deathbed, the Scripture says, is past,
swifter than a weaver's shuttle. It's like a vapor that appeareth
and vanishes. Again, the Scripture says, our
days are like a sigh. We bring our years to an end
as a sigh. That's the picture the psalmist
gives to us in Psalm 90. You know what hell is going to
be among other things? Hell is going to be the eternal
monument of squandered opportunity, abused privileges, and it's going
to be the place where all the dreams that life would go on
forever are forever dashed upon the rocks of eternal judgment. Few are the people who in their
youth say, well, I think I'll be indifferent to the gospel
so that when I'm an old person I'll be hardened in my sins so
that when I die I'll go to hell. Few are the people who reason
that way. You know how they reason, young people? You children, they
reason like some of you are reasoning. I have yet many years to think
seriously about my sins and about the Savior. Many years to think
seriously about a new heart, being right with God, making
sure that I've entered the narrow gate. But oh, that's a lie of
the devil. Now is the day of salvation. And we know for certain not only
the uncertainty of the events of the coming year, the brevity
of the time allotted to us, but thirdly, we can know for certain
the accountability of all that we do during the coming year.
the accountability, excuse me, of all that we do during the
coming year. Whatever hours, days, or weeks,
or months, or if the entire year is given to us, these things
come as a trust from God. And all the things we have to
use in that allotted time, abilities, The air we breathe, money entrusted
to us, clothing, food, relationships, influence, the totality of our
lives comes as a trust from God. And the Scripture says we are
accountable to God for every bit of it. 2 Corinthians 5, 10,
So then, every one of us shall give an account of himself to
God. Romans 14, 10-12, As I live,
saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall
confess, so that every one of us shall give an account of himself
to God. And this will take in our deeds,
our words, our thoughts, our gifts, our opportunities, our
talents, And oh, how we need desperately to face the coming
year with a sense of that accountability deeply impressed upon our spirits. You who are yet in your sins
need desperately to face this reality. You see, if you enter
this year and God even spares you through 1976, You come to December 31st, 1976,
still in your sins. You know what this year will
have done for you? It will have done nothing but
increase the weight of your damnation. That's the teaching of the Word
of God. For we read in Romans chapter 2, beginning with verse
4, these striking words, Despisest thou the riches of His goodness
and forbearance and longsuffering? Why will any sinner be brought
through an entire year sustained by the goodness of God, upheld
by the sovereign hand of God, while he defies the authority
of God, tramples underfoot the blood of the Son of God? Why
does God tolerate such in His universe? This passage gives
us the answer. Despisest thou the riches of
His goodness, giving you life and breath and sanity and health,
His goodness and His forbearance and longsuffering? Oh, if you
could see for a moment how you tax the patience of God, you'd
fall upon your face in repentance. How you tax the forbearance of
God! Right now in God's ears is ringing
the prayer of martyred saints who cry out, O Lord, how long? How long? How long? You read about it in the book
of the Revelation. They long for the day when God will vindicate
His character, scour His earth of all evil and evil men. You despise that goodness and
forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness
of God leadeth thee to repentance. This forbearance of God is not
indulgence on His part. It's giving you space for repentance. But if that space for repentance
simply hardens you in your sins, look at the next verse. But after
thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurist up for thyself wrath
in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of
God who shall render to every man according to his works. You
see what he's saying? God invests goodness, longsuffering,
and patience. He desires to see as the return
of his investment repentance. And what do you give him? no
repentance, no seeking the Lord while He may be found, no crying
to God to show you the enormity of your sin, no studious application
to the Gospel and to the glory of God in the face of Christ.
God invests goodness, forbearance, longsuffering. You give Him nothing
but hardness and impenitence. You know what God says He will
do with that? He will take that return and He will bind it And
He'll draw it out in the day of judgment to your account.
That's what He'll do. Oh, may God sober us with
the recognition of our accountability to Him. If you're yet in your
sins, I plead with you. I plead with you in the name
of the God of heaven to whom you're accountable. Rest not
until you know that you are in Christ, and in Christ no longer
exposed to the wrath of God. But what about the people of
God? Is this accountability something that has been negated by the
Gospel? No, my friend. It has been intensified. Do you hear me? Our accountability
has been intensified, granted, and blessed by God. We are not
accountable to God as criminals before a judge. The Scriptures
say that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. But we are accountable to God. It is to believers that Paul
speaks when he says, So then every one of us shall give account
of himself to God. We need to be conscious of our
accountability with reference to time, to gifts, to opportunities,
for we are accountable to God as stewards to the head of a
household. Let's read of it in the parable
of the talents and the pounds, Matthew 25 and Luke 19. We are accountable to Him as
servants to a master, Romans 14, to His own master. A servant standeth or falleth. and we are accountable to him
as sons to a father. 1 Peter 1.17 Peter nowhere intimates
that there is a negation of this accountability if ye call on
him as father, who without respect of persons judges according to
each man's work, past the time of your sojourning in fear. Such accountability that we have
as believers is real, it is extensive, it is awesome, and rightly understood
will be productive of godly fear, holy zeal, carefulness, prayerfulness,
a strict walk before God and before men. Every paycheck that
comes into your hand and the dispensing of every penny of
it, you and I will give an account of the stewardship of the money
given to us. Every day of health, all the bundle of energy will
give an account. Will give an account. Now, I
don't understand. I do not understand how that
accountability will express itself in terms of God's dealings with
His own. I know that heaven is not going
to be a place of sorrow. There are many mysteries I cannot
unravel, but this the Scriptures clearly teach. It is not sub-Christian
to walk carefully and in godly fear with a constant sense, I'm
accountable to God who is my Father, I'm accountable as His
Son, I'm accountable to Jesus Christ who is my Master, I'm
accountable to the God who is the head of the household of
faith. We can know for certain, dear
friends, that we're accountable for what's already been done
in the first three days of 1976. Accountable. Accountable. Well, I have time just to announce
one thing about God, and I feel I must. I feel I must close on
this note, and then, God willing, perhaps open it up next week.
Perhaps that's the best thing to do. But let me just tell you what
the three heads are going to be and then I'll stop here. What
can we know with certainty with reference to God? Well, we can
know, first of all, his absolute rule over all the events and
circumstances of the coming year. We can know, secondly, his unfailing
covenant faithfulness to his own in the coming year. And we
can know his unswerving commitment to his saving purposes in the
coming year. You see, if we stopped with what
we can know about ourselves, I think I'd join some of those
fearful saints who've bought themselves a piece of land up
in the hills somewhere and have retreated. I think I'd do the
same thing. I don't know what the day of
the year will hold. You don't know. All I can know is that
I don't know what a day may bring forth. Life is uncertain. Life is brief. And I'm accountable
to God. What is my consolation in all
of this? My consolation is that though
every day of 1976 is uncertain for me, it is absolutely certain
for the God of heaven and earth. 1976 will simply be the exegesis
of God's eternal decree for that year. And I tell you, I've been
made almost shouting happy on my bed thinking about it. What
will every day of the coming year be? It shall be an exegesis,
an opening up of what God decreed and infallibly brings to pass.
And within the fabric of that great all-encompassing sovereignty
of God is that special providence by which He is ordering every
single detail of my life so that every single thing is working
together for my good. And that has significance because
it is encompassed within the larger sphere of that same God
carrying all of history to its consummation, when the last member
of the redeemed shall be brought into vital union with Christ. And he that is tarried will no
longer tarry, but shall come. O dear people, May God help us
to feed upon those things. Lord willing, I'll try to open
them up next Lord's Day, but it would be too much to get into
it, and then I'd be holding you beyond the time that's reasonable.
May I entreat you as we close this morning to pray, to meditate,
to think that you may think Christianly as you face the coming year.
May God purge from us all the paganism of the kind of talk
that speaks of, we're going to do this, and that's what we're
going to do. No, no, my friend. For that ye
ought to say, if the Lord will. That is, have such an inward
sense of life's uncertainty with reference to our plans, mingled
with and joined to an absolute confidence that our lives are
in the hands not of blind fate, but of a loving Father. We do
not serve the God of fate. Fate is heartless, mindless.
Fate is cold steel machinery. We're in the hands of a loving
God who's revealed Himself in His dear Son. And if you don't
know Him, my friend, how in the world can you face a coming year?
without the confidence that your sins are pardoned. How can you
do it? I don't ask that as a rhetorical question. I mean that. How can
you? I'm not surprised people drown
themselves in booze and in spectator sports and in everything else.
Anything to escape facing the awful reality. What have I if
I do not have the knowledge of sins forgiven? Oh, may God grant
that you will seek the Lord while He may be found and call upon
Him while He is near. We're going to sing in closing
a hymn that brings together some of the strands of truth that
we've considered, reminding us the brevity of life. Hymn number
611. I'm sorry, 609. A few more years
shall roll, a few more seasons come. And we shall be with those that
rest asleep within the tomb. Then, O my Lord, prepare my soul
for that great day. Wash me in the precious blood
and take my sins away. Number 609.