Every new year is like a new chapter in a book. It is still the same book, with the same characters and a continuation of the same plot. But that new chapter usually means some new event or events which will help to develop the story-line. You may expect that 2015 will be little no different from 2014. That may be true to some degree – Most of us will still have the same homes, jobs and responsibilities that we had this year and even last year. But as I look back on my last 12 months, I see things which I hadn’t seen in my previous 780 months. You may think that tomorrow will begin just as today is ending, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be. Why can’t we make the coming year different and better? Why can’t we make ourselves better than we have been in 2014?Of course, I don’t refer to those silly and usually useless New Year’s resolutions. Someone once said,“Satan laughs at acts of Congress and New Year’s resolutions.” They are a waste of energy when they are made in weak and sinful flesh without surrender to the Lord. An imitation Irish blessing says: “May your troubles in the New Year be as short-lived as your resolutions.” If we really meant business with our New Year’s resolutions, we’d have them notarized, or we’d establish an accountability partner to watch over them – and us.
How does this scripture become a New Year’s text?
WE CAN LOOK on the past or the PAST YEAR in the same way that Paul looked on his JOURNEY.
We can realize that 2014 is past – it is just about over – it’s water under the bridge, a tale that is told. There had been a lot of pain in Paul’s life to this point. Sickness and infirmity, betrayal, prison and more prison, desertion, attacks, beatings and treachery. From an earthly standpoint, in some ways, it had not been very prosperous. But he was not the sort of man to dwell on these things. Paul didn’t keep anphoto album with pictures of all his old sweethearts. He didn’t carry around a jar with the appendixthat Dr. Luke had removed in emergency surgery. There were no old tear-stained diaries in his possession. “Forgetting those things which were past, he was reaching towards the things which were before.”
When Paul looked at the past, it was in the light of the Lord, not in the gloom of the Devil. We know, as he knew, that God was with Paul and blessed him despite all his apparent problems. When he was in prison back in Caesarea he was visited and encouraged by the Lord. When the ship that he was on was sinking and heading for the rocks, an angel of the Lord came and instructed him. His opportunities to travel and to preach had been limited for a couple of years, but he knew that the Lord was not finished with him. “The Lord had prepared a table before him in the presence of his enemies.” “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” “Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?” Or “am I a God a far off and not a God at hand?”Everywhere Paul went the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit preceded him. Everywhere Paul went, and into every year he walked, there were angels of the Lord to assist him. But for the sake of argument, let’s assume that this had not been the case in the past. There is no reason why New Years Day 2015 can’t be a day of nearness to the Lord. Remember that the “Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in faith.”
Paul looked back on the past in the light of the Lord, and he was filled with thanksgiving. His life had been often saved, and how spectacularly his preservation had been handled by the Lord. How many times had Paul brushed shoulders with the death angel? II Corinthians 11:23 – “Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
Isn’t it good to know that the Lord whom we serve has at his side the keys of death and Heaven? As 2014 began the world held many people sick enough to expect to die, but who didn’t. And there were millions who expected to live through the entire year, but who died. If the Lord gives us five more hours we will have successfully completed another chapter in the book of our lives – with more chapters yet to come. We should thank the Lord that we have been preserved. We can also thank the Lord for thehealth that we have enjoyed – even though it is not the health which we expected or for which we had hoped. And even if we are not as well as we’d like to be, we have to admit that it could have been worse. Has anyone ever had shingles on one side of his face and Bell’s palsy on the other? Has anyone ever slipped on the ice and broken his arm; only to slip again a week later to break other? Oh, it could be worse – a lot worse. For some of us the Lord has granted some degree of earthly prosperity. Those of us with jobs ought to fall on our faces in thanksgiving. And we should see to do our very best to keep those jobs. Maybe we have had financial struggles. But through the financial problems and crises there has been a faithful Jehovah Jireh. That was the name Abraham gave to the place where the Lord provided the ram in the thicket. And we can thank the Lord, too, for national blessings. We have not seen war on our shores the same way as so many other nations. Our inflation is not out of control. The bread basket of our nation is not yet like the Sahara as some people seem to predict.
How do we look back on 2014? With praise to God.
But how do we LOOK TOWARD the next year?
There are a lot of people who see nothing but doom and gloom. But WE can look at it with courage and with hope. And it takes courage, because as we hang up those new calendars we see a new picture. It’s a picture of a thick fog – a cloud – and we sure can’t see very much on up the road. It’s like a look into the depths of space through window of our spacecraft. We’re going somewhere – we know that for sure – but where? It looks like we’re headed towards that star but then it rushes past us like a Star Trek prologue. No man has yet to see and touch a star, all we have seen is the light that it sends our way. We look into 2015, and we think that we see certain highlights, but can we be sure? James 4 – “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”
Despite what we don’t know about this coming year, we can take courage because of what we do know. We know that the Lord is there in every hour and every minute and every second of 2015. Not just that He will be there, but He is already there, making preparations for us. “Because thou hast been our help, therefore under the shadow of thy wing will we trust.” – for the future. What were the prospects for the Apostle Paul at this point in his life? It really didn’t look all that positive. Perhaps not, yet he took courage, because of the One who had been with Paul, was still there. We will have the same God with us tomorrow Who saw us through this last year.
Do you recall the battle of Mizpeh and Ebenezer? Samuel was trying to lead Israel in a revival. While holiness was progressing, the Philistines chose to attack the nation. But God refused to permit the destruction of His people, especially as they were trying to please Him. The Lord sent a storm which devastated the attacking heathen. A memorial to raised to commemorate God’s blessing: Ebenezer –“Hitherto the Lord hath helped us..” But this is not the whole story. Mizpeh was probably the same place where the Lord empowered Joshua to defeat the alliance of the five kings. Hitherto the Lord hath helped us – and helped us – and helped us again. In the days of Samuel the enemy was defeated in nearly the same fashion as he was in Joshua’s day.
When “God’s people, which are called by his name humble themselves and pray and seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways, the Lord will hear from heaven.” That is as true for us today as it was for Samuel, or David, or Paul. If we should fail Him and shame Him, He who forgave still forgives. “In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.”
And we may have courage to face next year, because all the promises that He has made remain intact. You may say that this past year was the worst of your life. But if the Saviour returned in the next four and a half hours, before the end of the year, all the saints here tonight would agree that this was the best year of our entire lives. Little things loose their pungence in the presence of the really great things. On the other hand, you may say that 2014 was the most fantastic collection of days in your life. But if the Lord translated you right now, that year would be nothing in comparison to the eternity which would be just beginning. “Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what God hath promised to them that love Him.”
But there is one note of caution, and it comes out in the verse just quoted. Could Paul have had real courage for the next chapter of his life, if the Lord was angry with him? The promise of Ebenezer and the goodness of God is to them that love Him. Those who love Him, love to obey Him and to serve Him. Those who love Christ, fear and hate the sin that sent Him to Calvary. If we are yet in our sins – from where will the courage we need come?