if you would open your Bibles
to Exodus chapter 12. I'm trying to learn how to use
my tablet for notes, but I never trust electronics, so I got backup. Exodus chapter 12. I want to
speak on the subject of God's new year. God's new year. We'll start right, we'll read
verses 1 and 2. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron
in Egypt, this month is to be for you the first month The first
month of your year. Now, here in just a few days,
we're gonna change the calendar and go from 2019 to 2020. And the turning of the old year
into the new does have a psychological effect on us. On the one hand,
we realize nothing really changes. The universe does not reset.
In fact, the universe is completely unaware of the fact that we call
it a new year. And you know, while in our culture,
we consider January 1st the beginning of the new year, in the past,
most cultures celebrated at a different time, and I believe China still
does. And actually, when they celebrate
it makes more sense because they celebrate it at about what they
call the vernal equinox, which is the beginning of spring. And
that seems much more like a beginning of something than, well, this. And nonetheless, we're going
into a new year and it has this effect on us that we feel like
the slate's been wiped clean. The old year seems worn out,
and we have lots of regrets. Mostly things didn't go our way.
May have gone through a lot of trials. And to some degree, when
we change the calendar, we are able to kind of leave that behind. And we think we have a clean
slate. And for that reason, we make New Year's resolutions. We look at the old year with
all its failures and we say, well, I'm going to do better
next year. And it can be anything from being nicer to just, you
know, I'm going to lose so much weight. Several years ago, I
made the mistake of posting on Facebook, January 1st, 220, December
31st, 170. Never made it. And so I don't post anything
like that on Facebook anymore. New Year's resolutions usually
last at most about a week. Because you see, the new year
doesn't make a new person. A new year doesn't make a new
you. And because you remain the same, you do the same things. We might restrain ourselves from
certain things that we think were wrong in the last year. We might energize ourselves to
do some things we think we should be doing. I don't know how many
times, and it's been a long time since I did this, but earlier
on in my Christian life, you know, I was all about making
resolutions. You know, okay, this year I'm gonna read so many
chapters of the Bible every day, or this year I'm gonna pray so
much every day. And it usually didn't last very
long. With very few exceptions, the
new year brings no lasting changes. Before the first month has passed,
we are back to acting our old selves. But in the scriptures,
salvation is often spoken of in terms of something new. In Revelation chapter 21 verse 5, we read, he who was
seated on the throne said, I am making everything new. Then he said, write this down
for these words are trustworthy and true. Now our new years are
just an artificial thing. We recognize about how long it
takes for the earth to go around the sun. We call that a year.
And we decide on when in the calendar, we're going to call
it the beginning of a new year. But the earth doesn't know. It
just keeps on going and nothing is ever new. I started last year at the tail
end of 63. And I'll start this year at the
tail end of 64. All I did was get older. There's
nothing new about me. There's nothing new about you,
nothing new about this world. It's old and decaying and wearing
out. But God says, I am making everything
new. Now, just the word new excites
me. I like new stuff. I've told you
before, having first grade, how much I love getting a new box
of crayons. There were five or six of them.
The things were that big around. I don't know why they put those
in the hands of a first grader. But they're flat on one side
and half circle on the top. And, you know, you'd use them,
and then they'd get a little short or whatever, and you didn't
like them as much. And for a nickel, you could get
a new box. And when we'd get a new box,
it was just a little flat thing, you know, about that square.
We'd open it up, and we would even shove all the crayons up
to the top so that they'd leave a mark so that we got the colors
back in order just right every time. And I say we, maybe it's
only me. But I liked a new box of crayons. I like something
that looks like it's not been used. There's no defects, no
scuffs. God says I'm making everything
new. And when God makes something new, it never gets old again. When God makes something new,
it stays new. And when God says I'm making
something new, That gives us hope because we know that nothing
good can ever come out of what's already here. Haven't we tried? You know, it's almost comical
how every four years we have a presidential election and of
course you have Senate elections and congressional elections or
House of Representatives and the politicians go out there
and they make all their promises and the people fall for it every
time and nothing ever changes. But God didn't say, I'm going
to remodel the old. He said, I'm making everything
new. Now let's take a few minutes
and look at the newness of gospel life, which I've called God's
new year. If you turn your Bibles to Jeremiah
chapter 31, Jeremiah chapter 31, Jeremiah chapter 31 and we're
going to begin reading in verse 31. Jeremiah 31, 31. The time is coming declares the
Lord when I will make a new covenant. There's the new thing. Remember
we said I'm making everything new. A new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be
like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took
them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke
my covenant, though I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will make
with the house of Israel after that time declares the Lord.
I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God and they will be my people. No longer
will a man teach his neighbor or a man his brother saying no
the Lord because they will all know me from the least of them
to the greatest for I will forgive their wickedness and I will remember
their sins no more. Now the old covenant that God
made with the nation of Israel back there at Mount Sinai, now
it was made only with them. And that's one reason that you
and I do not count ourselves as believers to have ever been
under that law, that covenant, because it begins here, O Israel. So it was a covenant made with
Israel, but it stands as a representative, if you will, or an example and
the most complex example of the covenant of works. It's a contractual
covenant. What do you mean by contractual
covenant? Well, it means it's a contract between God and the
Jews. And he says, here's my demands.
You do this and I'll do this and that for you. But if you
don't do this, I will curse you. Now that's a contract. It demands
actions on the part of both sides of the contract. Well, of course,
they broke that covenant. They broke it before it was all
chiseled out. And that's just like us. We were
born, as it were, under a covenant of works. We were born under the system
of do this and live, but we couldn't do that. And therefore we were
never able to obtain life by the covenant in which we were
born. So God says, I'm going to make
a new covenant. You know, if the one covenant doesn't work,
then the only thing left to do is make another covenant. Now,
it's called the New Covenant, but actually, it has been the
only true covenant of salvation since before the world began.
It's just that it was newly revealed. It was revealed in the shadows
of the law. It was revealed in some of the
prophetic utterances that were given. In fact, way back there
in the Garden of Eden, the Lord spoke of this new covenant when
he said that the seed of the woman would crush the head of
the serpent. But it did not receive full revelation
and was never put fully in place until our Lord Jesus came. Now this is a new covenant, not
a reorganization of the old covenant. In fact, the book of Hebrews
makes it very clear that through the death of our Lord, by which
he ratified the new covenant, That new covenant is put in place
and the old covenant became obsolete. Obsolete and faded away. The Lord says of this new covenant,
it'll not be like the covenant that I made with Israel way back
yonder on Sinai. And why? Because Israel broke
that covenant. And every contractual covenant
that God has entered into with men, men have broken it. That's why we don't preach an
if gospel. That is, we never say, if you
will do these actions, God will save you. Why? Because anything that is founded
upon the actions of sinners is bound to fail. So God made a
new covenant. It's not like the covenant, the
one they broke. And you know why? Though it doesn't
say it specifically here, it implies it. The big difference
was the new covenant can't be broken by us. Why? It's a promise
covenant. It is not a declaration of what
God will do if we'll just do this, that, and the other. You
read it. He says, I will put my laws in
their heart and in their mind. He makes the covenant. He puts
it in. the hearts and minds of his people,
he personally teaches them the truth they need to know. He says, I will forgive their
iniquity and I will no longer remember their sins. In other words, the new covenant
is simply a list of things God says he will do. Now we realize that our Lord
Jesus Christ was party to this covenant. And it did depend upon his performance. But his performance was perfect.
On the night he was betrayed, he took the cup and he said,
this is the new covenant in my blood. What do you mean by in
my blood? Ratified, sealed, put in place
by my blood. And so there's nothing left for
you and me to do. There are no works remaining
for the Lord Jesus Christ did them all, did them perfectly,
and this new covenant of promise was put in place. Now everything
about this covenant is cause for rejoicing. But what could bring more rejoicing
to our hearts than this last part? He says, I will forgive
their wickedness. Now notice this, he didn't say
I will forgive their wickedness if they promise to do better
and make resolutions. They're entering my new year,
so they need to make a new year resolution. They're gonna stop
doing this, that, the really bad stuff anyway. He simply says,
quite frankly, I will forgive their wickedness. Now I like that because I recognize
that word wickedness because I find a lot of it in me. I don't
need and cannot benefit from a covenant that lays demands
on me because my life is just a continual record of not fulfilling
the obligations that God has for me. But here he says, their
wickedness, I'll forgive it. And I will remember their sin
no more. He doesn't forget the fact of
our sins. This word means I'll not bring it up again. I'll not
bring it up. Judgment day is not going to
be an occasion in which the Lord hauls every man, woman, and child
before him. and plays out their life on a
screen and says, oh, why'd you do this? Why'd you do that? Give
me a reason. No. Oh, it may be something like
that for the unbeliever, but for the believer, their wickedness
is forgiven and God will never bring it up again. Not in this
life and not in the life to come. So God's New Year is founded
on a new covenant and God's New Year is paid for by redemption. Now we read that in Exodus chapter
12 verse 2, he said, this shall be the first month for you. And
the month he was talking about would be in the spring. And he
instituted the observance of Passover. Now Passover is a picture
of redemption. Now the Jews recognize up to
four New Year's days, only two of them can be found in the scripture,
and only one of them is actually called the New Year, and that's
this one, Passover. But those two years, the Passover
New Year and then the other one was the New Year at the Day of
Atonement, Well, Passover was the civil New Year and the Day
of Atonement was considered the religious New Year. But both
Passover and the Day of Atonement marked beginnings in some aspect
of Jewish life. Now, atonement is different from
redemption. Now, we often use those two words
interchangeably, but let me show you what's different about them.
Atonement is nothing more or less than the offering of a suitable
sacrifice to God in order to satisfy His justice against sin. It's done without the beneficiary,
the person who benefits from it. He may not even know it happened. After all, our atonement happened
2000 years ago. We didn't even exist. It's a
transaction carried on between the substitute and God. Atonement never enters our experience. We never experience atonement. It just doesn't happen. We are
never called on to accept Christ's atoning work, and that for the
simple reason that Christ's atoning work was never offered to us.
It is written that our Lord offered himself without spot to God. It's up to God to either accept
or reject the atoning work that Jesus Christ did. Now we know
that God accepted it, and how do we know? He raised Jesus Christ
from the dead, a thing he would not have done had the work he
performed not been sufficient. But atonement requires a suitable
sacrifice, and it requires that sins be laid upon the sacrifice,
and then it is required that the sacrifice die for those sins. And our Lord met all three demands. He was a suitable sacrifice,
having no sin of His own. The sin of God's wandering sheep
was laid on Him. like sheep have gone astray,
and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." We could
go on to say the sin of God's people because later in Isaiah
53 it says, "'For the transgression of My people was He stricken.'
But our sins were laid on Him, and then He suffered and died
for them." And that was what God required That is what the
Lord Jesus rendered. Therefore, atonement was accomplished. Our sins were put away. But redemption involves more
than that. You see, salvation must not only
address the problems of the natural heart and mind of
man, and must not only address the problem of the offense of
our sin against God, it must also address the bondage of guilt,
servitude, and death that result from sin. You see, redemption
is about paying a price. You see the word deem is in there. And we deem things to be worth
something. But if they lose their value,
we redeem them. We give them value again by paying
whatever debt it is that is registered against it. And so, In redemption,
there is the payment of a price to release it from bondage, whether
it be a piece of property that simply was transferred to someone's
ownership, or it be a person who was brought into slavery
by reason of a debt. Redemption pays the debt, but
that's not all that redemption does. Because redemption is not
truly accomplished until the thing that has been redeemed
is also possessed. You know, when you buy a house,
you write up an agreement and there's a day in which you close
the deal. But part of that agreement may
say that you take possession of it somewhere else down the
line. You've paid for it. It is legally
yours, but you don't get to take possession of it, maybe for another
month or whatever. Well, that means that the thing
has not been fully redeemed yet, because redemption is not accomplished
until the thing purchased has also been laid hold of. We read of the blood of the Passover,
but God describes the deliverance of His people in that day as
an act of His mighty hand and outstretched arm. It wasn't just
blood that saved us, though it's blood and only blood that put
away our sin in the sight of God, yet the power of God was
extended to do things for us we could never do for ourselves.
to deliver us from the bondage to sin and death that our transgressions
had brought us. And therefore, the Jews, they're
in their bondage. They couldn't get out of it.
They couldn't walk out of Egypt. There were more Egyptians than
them. If they'd tried to get away, they just would have been
captured again. But God, with an act of power, broke the chains
that held them in Egypt. And when they got to the Red
Sea, and their path was blocked, and here comes Egypt, they're
thinking, wait a minute, we let them go, we shouldn't have done
that. And here they come. And the Lord says, you take a
good look at that army. This is the last you're ever
gonna see of them. Moses said, be still and see
the salvation of God. And he put that staff of his
out over the Red Sea and God caused a mighty wind to blow
and create a trough through the sea. And the whole of Israel
walked through there dry shod. It wasn't even muddy on the bottom
of the sea. And they walked through with
walls of water on either side of them. And when all of them
got to the other side, they looked back, and here comes Pharaoh's
army. And why in the world Pharaoh was stupid enough to do it, I
have no idea. But if I saw an ocean open up
miraculously to deliver a people, I'd say, okay, I'm up against
something too big for me. Fellows, we're going home. These
people got someone on their side that we can't beat. But no, they
tried to take the same path that the Jews did, and when they got
down in there, God stopped the wind and the water, them all. That's power. And all across
the wilderness God demonstrated more acts of power but what was
this? It's Him redeeming His people
not only paying the debt they owed but taking possession of
them. And so we have this new year as it were
it begins with Passover and in the lives of believers God's
new year begins when the Holy Spirit comes and takes possession
of the heart of one for whom Christ died. So we enter at that time a new
year that never ends. A new year that we never mess
up. Brother Bruce Crabtree invented
a word in describing the gospel. He said, I like it because it's
un-messuppable. Un-messuppable. Because if it
was messuppable, we'd mess it up. Oh, this new year is not
a new year of our resolutions. It was a new year brought in
by the resolve of the Lord Jesus Christ who undertook all that
was necessary to put our sins away and is brought about by
the power of God's mighty hand and outstretched arm. And there's
nothing in it of what we have done. There's nothing about it
that depends on us making it right. We are free. We feel this in our spirits,
for they have experienced redemption. We're going to get to that in
just a minute. God has redeemed our hearts. But over in Romans
chapter 8, Paul says, we know that the whole
creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right
up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves
who have the firstfruits of the Spirit. Now that's the redeeming
work of Christ when the Holy Spirit laid hold of our hearts.
We have those firstfruits of the Spirit. We groan inwardly
as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our
bodies. That's all that's left, brethren.
Now, when I say that's all that's left, that's not like it's a
small thing. But what I'm saying, all that remains yet of the work
of salvation, all that remains to be done is for these dying,
decaying bodies to be transformed unto a body like the Lord Jesus
Christ. It will be God laying hold of
that which he bought back and saying, this is mine. And then God's new year creates
a new man. For time's sake, I'll just read
you the scripture, 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Therefore, if anyone is
in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has
come. Now, most think that this means
that if God has worked in our hearts, it will make us act differently. Well, that's true, it will. But
that's not what Paul is saying. The proof of it is this, the
old is not gone. It's just not gone, is it? It's still right there. If they're
talking about that somehow or another this new creation puts
within us a new nature so that our old desires go and new desires
take their place, then I've never met anybody in Christ He's comparing the new creation
with the old creation. He's comparing in Christ with
in Adam. And the old things that pass
away and have passed away once and for all is everything that
has to do with our connection to Adam. Let me read you something
that the Supreme Court said back in the 1850s, and I think it'll
give you an idea. The new man is not a real thing. It's what we might call a legal
construct. But listen, the Supreme Court,
I guess, had to weigh in on what a pardon meant. It said, a pardon
reaches the punishment prescribed for the offense and the guilt
of the offender. And when the pardon is full,
it releases the punishment and blots out of existence the guilt,
so that in the eye of the law, the offender is as innocent as
if he had never committed the offense. A pardon removes the
penalties and disabilities, that means the restrictions of freedom,
and restores him to all his civil rights. It makes him, as it were,
a new man and gives him new credit and freedom. That's the kind
of thing Paul's talking about. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creation. And if you're in Christ, so far
as God is concerned, you are a different person than that
one who was born dead in transgressions and sins. You were born in Adam,
you are not in Adam anymore. You are in Christ and everything
that had to do with Adam and his sin and your fall and your
wretchedness and your sinful actions, all of that is gone. You're a new person. That's why it is written in Jeremiah
that there shall be a search made for the sins of Israel and
the iniquity of Judah and it shall not be found. God's true Israel, His true Judah,
made up of believers from all ages, they're new people. They are not the people who sin. God's new year causes a new birth. In first Peter chapter one, verse
three says, praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. In his great mercy, he has given
us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we were born dead in trespasses
and sins. Well, what a perfect answer to
a bad birth, a new one. A new one. That's why the Lord
Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. The birth
that your parents gave you didn't do anything for you except bring
you into existence. But it did not bring you to God
by any means because all that the children of Adam can do is
give birth to more children of Adam. And with that designation,
children of Adam, they're sinners and they inherit a nature that
is against God. But we're given a new birth, a new birth by the Holy Spirit.
This is a sovereign work of God. The Lord likens it to the wind.
He says, you feel the wind, you see what it does. but you don't
know where it came from, and you don't know where it's going.
It just shows up. How often have I watched as I'm
preaching or over the course of time, and I think I see that
the Holy Spirit's working with someone, and I think, oh, I can
see it happening, and it won't be long. That person's gonna
believe, and then they disappear, and we don't hear from them again.
And at the same time, someone that I wasn't even thinking about,
that I thought was sitting there thinking about anything but the
message being preached, they come up and say to me, I would
like to be baptized. Oh, well, certainly. The Spirit
of God goes where He wants to. And when the Spirit of God, like
a wind, blows upon someone, they are moved. And they receive the
breath of life, the breath of spiritual life. And Peter says,
for you've been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable
through the living and enduring word of God, which he later identifies
as the gospel. You were born again. Everybody
here who is a believer, there was a time when you were born
again. Born from above by a sovereign
act of the Spirit of God, and he did it through the agency
of the gospel. He used the gospel to give you
life. For you see, the gospel called
the Word of God by Peter, but he says it's the living and enduring
Word of God, which by the gospel was preached to you. And you
go over on into Hebrews and it says the Word of God, the gospel,
is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. Sometimes
I think, well, what could I do to win more or restore some? I can't do anything. That is, I can't do anything
that will ensure that anything good happens. But if God picks
up his sword, his living, powerful, double-edged
sword, things start to happen. People's hearts become revealed
to them, Christ becomes revealed to them, and they believe. So
God's new year brings a new birth. God's new year puts us on a new
way. In Hebrews chapter 10, beginning
in verse 19, it says, Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence
to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way, open for us through the curtain, that is His body,
And since we have a great high priest over the house of God,
let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience
and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold
unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Oh, to try to come to God through
that old and dying way. always brought death. If you ever try to come to God
apart from Christ, it'll kill you. But a new and living way
has been opened up. When our Lord Jesus Christ died
on the cross, one of the unusual things that happened was that
the temple veil was torn in two. And the book of Hebrews says
God did that to show us that the way to God was now known. Jesus Christ had entered into
the most holy place, not made with hands, of which that one
in the temple was just a picture. He entered into the presence
of God, burying our sins and pouring out his blood before
God and God accepted it. And the moment God accepted his
suffering, there was no blockade between God and his people. It is written, your sins have
separated you from God. Not anymore, because they've
been put away. and a new way to God has been
made known. A new way through Christ. Christ, the Bible calls him the
pioneer, the first goer. He went into the presence of
God, he went bearing sin, but he bore the wrath so that the
sin was put away. He's the first man to go into
the presence of God and survive the experience. And now we are free to enter
into the throne of grace, there to find mercy to help us in time
of need. Nothing between us and God but
Christ. And God's new year brings new
life. Romans chapter six, verse one says, what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that
grace may increase? By no means. We died to sin. How can we live in it any longer?
Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ
Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried
with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ
was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too
may live a new life. Now here Paul mixes the symbol
of baptism with the reality that it represents. Now shortly we're
going to observe a this world baptism. But all that's going
to be accomplished by that is we'll go from dry to wet. I mean that's the only real thing
that happens. It's a symbol of something that
the Spirit of God did. to baptize us in Christ. That is, He dipped us, He immersed
us in Christ, and particularly immersed us into Christ in His
death, burial, and resurrection. Now this ceremony isn't going
to make that real. It's just a way to show it. But when a person has been baptized
by the Spirit of God into Christ, immersed into Christ, he's given
new life. Now, I do not mean by this a
new lifestyle. He's given new life, a life he
did not have before. Our Lord said, I've come that
they might have life and have it to the full. And people think,
yes, when Jesus comes, he makes our lives better. That's not
what he means. He's not talking about having a direct effect
upon our lives as we experience them now. He says, I've come
that they might have life, which means if he hadn't come, they
wouldn't have had this life he's talking about. This is a different
life. It's spiritual life. It's eternal
life. It's life without sin ruining
it. And it's been given to every
one of the people of God. at their new birth, at the beginning
of their new year. They're made alive unto God. And he says now, walk according
to that new life. You see, the believer doesn't
live by a list of external rules. He lives by the life that God
gave him. And that life expresses itself
in what's called the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, kindness. All these things which
nobody's ever written a law against those things. Do you not realize
every believer knows what to do? Now it doesn't mean that our
flesh won't confuse us, and our flesh won't distract us, and
our flesh won't overcome us. But in our heart of hearts, in
that new spirit, we know what to do. We realize that love is
what is to rule all that we do. And in nearly every circumstance,
we know what the loving thing is. And Paul says, walk according
to that new life. And not according to the old
life. And one last thing. God's new year has a new year
celebration. We celebrate the new year. We
celebrate it. Actually, it's kind of a dream.
You know, we think things are going to be different and they're
not, but we still celebrate it and we celebrate God's new year.
when he starts that new year in someone, and it's by the ceremony
of baptism. One reason that we do not baptize
or sprinkle infants is because that's a new year celebration.
It's a celebration of a new work of God, and we have no evidence
that any new work has begun in an infant. We know this, that
any work God begins, He'll perfect it till the day of Christ. And
while we can never be absolutely sure about anybody, they say
they believe, sometimes they prove that they don't. But we
take their word for it. If they've been listening to
the gospel, and they know what it is, and they say, I believe
that. Jesus Christ is my only hope.
We take their word for it, and we have a celebration. We baptize them to show that
the Spirit of God baptized them into Christ, baptized them into
his death, his burial and resurrection. And by his death, their sins
were put away. And because their sins were put
away, they are raised to life again. And when they come up
out of the water, that is a symbol of that new life that God gave
them. And it's a celebration far more
worthy of shouts of joy, of horns, and streamers. We don't do it
that way, but I mean it perfectly acceptable. It makes sense to
be happy, to burst with joy as we celebrate God's new year. Heavenly Father, I pray that
these words have been helpful to those who have gathered, and
now as we go downstairs to celebrate your new year begun in the life
of faith, we pray that it will be meaningful for all of us,
and that it will be an honor to your name. In Christ's name
we pray it. Amen. All right, James, if you
come lead our closing hymn. And Faith and I will go downstairs
and get ready, and when you're done with the hymn, just go downstairs. We will sing from number five
in the chorus book, and we'll stand as we sing number five,
My Hope is in the Lord.