Let's take our hymnal and turn
to hymn number 137, when I survey the wondrous cross. On which the Prince of Glory
died. My riches gained I count the
loss, And poor contentment of my heart. Evermore and of Christ my God,
All the great things that John did most, I sacrifice then to
this one. ? Stand with me ? ? Sorrow and
love ? ? Hold me, hold on ? ? There's a job and sorrow me ? ? Lord,
Lord, you know so ? ? It's all right ? The realm of nature, her mind,
and her presence. Thank you, Brother Richard. We welcome each one. first day of the new year. It seems really strange when
I wrote down that it was 2020. And it seems like only just a
short time ago, everybody was all in a fret and a tizzy over
Y2K. That's 20 years ago, 20 years
ago now. But we're thankful for the Lord's
mercies that have brought us that 20 years and other gifts
of his grace and mercy that he has bestowed upon us. That's what they have done, John
said. They've been bestowed upon us,
given to us of God's grace and our unworthiness. We pray for
those that are away and for those that are sick. We ask the Lord's
help to each one. We're all sinners in need of
his spiritual blessing more than anything. And we thank you. Thank him that he's faithful
in all that he's promised to give us and help us with in all
our situations. Let's bow for prayer tonight. Our father tonight we come in
the name at the worthy name of the Lord Jesus. There is none
like him. There is none so fitted and suited
to meet both our need as sinners and your need as God. We praise you and we bless you
at the beginning of this year for all the mercies, all the
deliverances, all the help, all the food, all the things that
you have provided for us and all the spiritual blessings and
help and strength that you've given us over the past year. Lord, we can truly say with the
psalmist, had it not been for the Lord, we would have never
made it. But it's your strength and your
grace that brings us to this threshold of the new year. And
we ask, Lord, that you would not leave us or forsake us. We
pray that we would know and be much aware of your presence and
very thankful for your blessing and provision and protection
in the coming year. We ask, Lord, that in all things
that are said and done in this assembly, that it might be for
the glory and honor of your precious and holy name. We pray that you
would strengthen us and that you would enable us in the midst
of this wicked generation to uphold your gospel, to exalt
your name, to magnify you and give thanks and praise to you
in the midst of all that goes on around us and in spite of
all that is within us. We pray that you would help us.
And that you would render us by your grace. Those that are
thankful. Those that seek to bear a good
witness before this world. Those that are earnest contenders
for the faith. And those that are truly thankful. For all that you've given us
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that he is all our salvation,
that he is all our righteousness. He is our hope and eternal life
itself. We pray in this hour that you
might, through your word, comfort our hearts, instruct us, encourage
us, rebuke us, that your word might be truly profitable for
all things concerning us. We thank you for these that you
have gathered by your spirit tonight. We pray that you would
render in Christ's name blessing to their hearts for having been
here. We ask that you would glorify
yourself and we thank you and we pray in Christ's name, amen. Him number 412. No other. I trust the ever-living One His
word to me shall be I need no other, I need He I need no other
plea It is enough that He looks my way At Jesus' stage, this is my fear
and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to ye,
He'll never cast me out. I need no other argument, I need
no other help. that Jesus died, and that He
died for me. My heart is singing of the Word,
the risen Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name,
salvation through His blood. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me. My great position is a saint,
the lost He came to save. For me His precious blood He
shed, for me His life He gave. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me. Turn first to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. 2 Corinthians Chapter 5. I've entitled this
message, The Old Gospel for the New Year. Today is the first day of our
calendar year. We call it New Year's Day. And there's something a bit unique
about it, a bit special to us. Even in this flesh, it seems like
it is a kind of unique day. And there are always things that
we seem to delight that it signifies. We delight in it and like to
come to this day in a way. I think one thing is it's the
prospect of some things being past. It's almost like we're
glad this year is over. And also the prospect of things
being new. We hope for new or better things
to happen to us in the coming year. And we resolve, we make what
we call New Year's resolutions. And I got to thinking about it
this week. I believe Paul may have had the
best New Year's resolution. of had the best resolution. And that was when he said, I
determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. I resolved. I determined to know
nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And that is the everlasting gospel. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And being the everlasting gospel,
it will be and is ever new. and it even was pictured on Israel's
calendar. Hold your place here and turn
back to Exodus chapter 12. Exodus chapter 12. In verse one, it says, and the
Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
he was about to do something for them. He was about to bring
about the Exodus or the bringing out, deliverance of this nation. He said, this month shall be
unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of
the year to you. But if you'll notice in what
follows, he not only gives them a new time or a beginning time,
he gives them a feast also. Speak ye unto all the congregation
of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall
take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their
fathers, a lamb for a house. And if the household be too little
for the lamb, Let him and his neighbor next unto his house
take it according to the number of the souls. Every man according
to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb
shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You shall
take it out from the sheep or from the goats. And ye shall
keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the
whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening. And they shall take of the blood,
and strike it on to the two side posts, and on the upper door
posts of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. And they shall
eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleaven
bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of
it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire his
head with his legs, and with the pertinence thereof. And ye
shall let nothing of it remain until the morning, and that which
remaineth of it the morning ye shall burn with fire. And thus
shall ye eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet,
and your staff in your hand, and ye shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land
of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt,
I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. It is the Lord's Passover. So what we see is that the beginning
of this year, this new year, as God set it for Israel, it
began with the Passover. It was marked not only by this
time, but it was also marked by this feast. And what we find
is that while this was to precede their literal deliverance from
Egypt, It was also a type of the way
that all God's people, spiritual Israel, would be delivered. They'd be delivered by blood. They'd be delivered by a lamb. They'd be delivered by God's
lamb that would take away sin. And this is the way that we are
delivered from our sin. This is the way that we're saved
by the same things represented in this feast, in this Passover,
which was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. All you have to
do is to go to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, And there you'll find
that Paul says, purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be
a new lump as ye are unleavened for even Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us. Now remembering all that this
represented and all that it took place here in Egypt. Turn back over in the passage
that we began with, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Because Paul writes here so much
in this chapter, but I want you to think about it in the light
of what he says, particularly in verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature, or in a new creation, old things are passed
away Behold, all things are become new. Now I've told you on a number of
occasions that Paul's subject in this fifth chapter is not
regeneration. He's not talking about being
born again. But his subject in this chapter
is the subject of reconciliation and how God in Christ, He has
reconciled us unto Himself. In other words, He has brought
us, as if it were from one year to another year, He has brought
us in Christ into the absolute new. If you notice here, it says,
if any man be in Christ. If any man be put by grace in
Christ, chosen in Christ, represented in Christ, redeemed in Christ. Like all of God's people are
said to be in Christ when He died and in Christ when He was
buried and in Christ when He was raised from the dead. In other words, when Christ died
for us as our substitute And as our representative, we are
brought through that death, through that burial, through that resurrection,
we're brought from one state into another state. Because that's the only way that
what follows next could be true. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
He is a new creature. Old things are passed away. That surely hasn't happened to
us in regeneration. We can't say that all our old
nature, all our faults, all our sinfulness, all our inward wickedness,
we can't say that all those old things have passed away. But something has passed away. All those old things in Christ,
which were represented by what we were in Adam, all our connections
to him, all our sins, before the justice of God, all our position
before God as sinners, we are brought from death to life. We've been brought in Him from
a state of being condemned in ourselves to a state of being
justified through the death and burial of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the result of that, the result
of that passage, the result of our being identified with Him
and represented by Him before God, the result is all things are become new. Whenever those Israelites on
that time appointed by God, that signified their new year, when
they partook of that feast, that Passover lamb, it represented
what God in grace would do for His spiritual Israel in their
salvation. and it's not a renovation. It's not a refurbishment. It's not a bringing about a change. It's a making of all things new. Now you notice what he says here.
He says all things are become new. If we're in Christ, and this
is what it says, it does not play particular favorites or
distinguish in any other way. It says, therefore, if any man
be in Christ. If any woman be in Christ. That's the qualification. And
it's not a qualification that any of us have anything to do
with. If anybody is in Christ, God
put them there. And so to every one of God's
elect, to every one of His children, to every one in Christ, He says
this, all things are passed away and all things are become new. We look at ourselves, and if we're honest, we don't
see anything new at all. It looks like the old things. It looks like they're all still
there. So the only way that any of this
can have any comfort to us is when God enables us to believe
what he says. And what he says is if any man
be in Christ, the old things are now passed
away. They're finished. They're ended. They're dissolved. They are no
more. And just like we're brought into
a new year everything in Christ is become new. New. That's an amazing promise. That's an amazing statement. All things are become new in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're new because he says
in verse 18, and all things are of God. That's it. Who hath reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ. This is something that God did
for us, to us, but not in us. It's all outside of us. It's
not Christ in us, it's us in Christ. He says, oh, things are
passed away and all things are become new. Because God has reconciled
us to himself. God didn't have to be reconciled
to us. He never changed. We fell in
Adam. We sin. We alienated ourselves. We went away from God. We made
ourselves the enemy of God. He hath given to us the ministry
of reconciliation. Now what's that? It isn't God telling us that
we need to act new or do something to be new. Praise God for all he does in
us by his restraining, regenerating grace. But there's no hope in
what we feel. There's no hope in what we do. There's no hope in what we're
able to achieve. He says this is the ministry
of reconciliation to which God was in Christ, reconciling the
world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Where are our sins? They've been imputed to the Lord
Jesus Christ. As it says in Isaiah, the Lord
hath laid on Him all our iniquities. We pass from this state of having
sin to not having sin, God imputing all our sins to Christ and Him
dying for all our sins. And all things will become new. I got to thinking about it all
the time in scripture. That it says that what we are
and what we have in Christ is new. I like new, don't you? You drive an old beat up car
for so long and you Yeah, you know, when you tell everybody,
this is a good car, I wouldn't take nothing for it. But when you get a chance for
a new one, it sure is nice, smells good. Everything in Christ is
new. He has made all things new. And I got to thinking about it,
not just new, but always new. Regardless of what we do or did
yesterday, and I'm not excusing our sin,
not in the least bit, but irregardless of what we have done or been
guilty of in ourselves, because Christ put all our sins away
in His death, every day everything is new. New. You see, when our sins burden
us down, and my sins, like the psalmist said, are gone over
my head, My faults, my failures, my sinfulness,
like rushes in on me sometimes like a big wave that overwhelms
me. I'm just surprised myself. But then faith says this, in
Christ, Everything is new. What God sees of me is new. And it's always new. It's eternally
new. In Christ, we've entered a new
year, an endless year that stretches into eternity. It's always new. Always new. And that's pictured
in all the language of Scripture in the New Testament especially. Revelation 21 says, And he that
sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write. for these words are truthful
and faithful. In other words, the enthroned
Christ that John beheld in that vision in the Revelation, which he was told to write and
to confirm with this word that it was spoken by the one whose
faithful and true and therefore they're faithful and true, they're
this, behold I make all things new. That's why the Lord's people
are new creatures yesterday and they're new creatures today and
they'll be new creatures tomorrow and for all eternity. is because
Christ makes all things new. Christ has brought us into a
new kingdom. Not like any in this world that
fade away, that are defeated, brought down, He's brought us,
and in Him, we've entered into a new kingdom, an everlasting
kingdom. And it says that He's made us
to drink the new wine of the Spirit. That's always the picture of
the Holy Spirit is wine, mostly. Wine that maketh glad the heart, But in Christ, his spirit is
not the spirit of this world. It's not our own spirit. It's
the Holy Spirit, and he says it's like new wine, new wine. It says he's clothed us with
new cloth. He didn't take the old and the
new and sew the new onto the old. Because the new cloth is
his righteousness, his robe of righteousness. We didn't have
any old cloth. All our righteousness are as
filthy rags. But he imputed to us and laid
on us and charged us with and counted us the righteousness
of God in Jesus Christ. We have new cloth. And He's given us a new commandment. He didn't give us tablets of
stone. He gave us a new commandment,
which is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that we should
love one another. That's a new commandment. He's
given us, He tells us, to be a new man. He didn't say a new nature. I've heard that preached on for
40 years. And it dawned on me one day,
I've never seen that in the Bible. What is the new man? What is
a new man? The new man is the man or woman
in Christ. He's made us to be new men in
Christ. He's given us this new commandment. He's given us every blessing
in what he calls the new covenant. That old covenant was a covenant
of do. And this is a covenant that is
done, new, ever new. one ever has to be added to,
can ever be taken away from, because it always stood in the
angel of the covenant, or the mediator of the covenant, whose
blood is the blood of the everlasting covenant, and is always new. It says He's consecrated for
us a new and living way, into the holiest of holies with
God within the veil. The old way never reached God. The old way had an earthly priest.
It had an animal sacrifice of blood. It had an earthly tabernacle. It had an earthly holy of holies.
Not the blood of this land. It's a new covenant, a new and
living way. And then he's told us also, he
says that we're to look according to his promise for new heavens
and a new earth. I don't know what all that means,
but I know two things about it. Number one, it says, wherein
dwelleth righteousness. Which means that the only thing
that can be in that is the righteous one and those in him. And the other thing is that it's
new. It'll be new. Then it says he's brought us
into the new Jerusalem. These people can load up and
fly to Israel if they want to and go to Jerusalem and see what
they call the holy city and all this kind of stuff. All they'll
find is ruins and conflict and certainly not the gospel. He's given us the new Jerusalem.
the city of God in His presence. And He's given us a new name. It says it's His new name. This is the name whereby He shall
be called the Lord our righteousness. This is the name whereby she
shall be called the Lord our righteousness. He's given us His new name. And he says in Isaiah 65, For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth, and the former, now listen to this, and the former
shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. The former shall not be remembered
or even come into our minds. Here we are talking about heaven
like it'll be a rehash of earth. The former shall not even be remembered
or come into mind. Peter said, nevertheless, we,
according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth. Wherein dwelleth righteousness. There's a way that we are to
live in this world, and it is by faith. And faith is simply believing
what God says. The more I go along, the more
I'm sure that it is exactly that. Men talk about faith as if it
is a feeling, but genuine faith in what God said is what gives
the genuine feeling, which is peace. which is his promises that all
things are and all things will be everlastingly new. I thought about this verse in
Philippians 3. Look over there at Philippians
3. There's some different things that Paul is
saying here in this chapter, in the context of this scripture. But it just impressed me that this is at least part of it. Verse 13, he said this, Brethren,
I count not myself too accurate. to have apprehended. I haven't laid hold on all that
Christ has laid hold on me for. But this one thing I do for getting
those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those
things which are before, I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. All of our sins, all of our past, all of our connections with Adam, all of our acts of sin. While they may be remembered
in earth, they may even plague us in our mind, but in Christ,
if we're in Christ, that passed away and everything is new. That's why we delight in and love the everlasting
gospel, the good news of the new in Christ. When Joshua was about to lead
those people into the land of Canaan, and they were crossing
the Jordan, he gave them one special instruction. He said, when you see the priests
move, carrying that Ark of the Covenant, when they step down
into that water, go across that river, come up on the other side. When they carry that ark, you
follow after that ark. What is the ark? A type of Christ. A type of the gospel of Christ. So Paul's resolution was pretty
much on point. I determined to know nothing
among you. To say nothing, to know nothing,
to preach nothing, to trust nothing, to have hope in nothing, and
you could go right on and right on. But Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. That blood was sprinkled on the
ark. That blood was brushed on that
mercy seat. And God said, I meet with you
there. So in Christ, if any man be in
Christ, all things are passed away. We're reconciled to God,
and all things are become new. I like new things. All things
are become new. I didn't say that. I'm not some preacher promising
you health and wealth and prosperity in the new year. But I'm telling you this, if
you're in Christ, it's new things. Forget those
old things. Don't let them fret you. It's
all new. And one day the things of this
earth won't even be remembered or come into your mind. I bet
they do today. Wouldn't it be nice if we could
forget some old things and remember what we have in Christ? But getting
those things, we're pressed forward to what we have in Christ. May God help us to see on the threshold of this new
year where everything new is in Christ and Him crucified.
Your kingdom, your covenant, your name, your Jerusalem, Everything
is. And it's always convenient. Our father, we pray in this hour
that you would. Bless your promises to our hearts. And enable us to see a right
what we have in Christ and where we are in Christ. as those reconciled to God in
him, by his blood. We thank you for all that you've
done for us in the past year. And we embark on the journey
of this new year, praying that you would be in Christ like the
cloud over us and the pillar of fire. lead us and direct us,
cause us to follow after him and the gospel, cause us to forget
those things which are behind, and to fix our mind and heart
on the one who loved us and gave himself for us, and the one in
whom all things are new. All newness we know. All good news is in the old gospel. Bind it
to our hearts, for we pray in Christ's name. Amen.