I did not specifically ask you visitors to fill out a visitor's card, so let me do that in case you may fail to do that. We would appreciate your filling out the card so that we can get to know you a little bit, and if you just leave it right there in the pew, we'll collect them after the service. Our ushers will come by and get them. Thanks for helping us out. Well, Christmas is long awaited and too quickly over, isn't it?
Time marches on very, very quickly, and we are brought to the awareness of that in a lot of ways in our lives. We're brought to that by physical changes. All we have to do is get up and look in the mirror, as we occasionally have to do, and we're aware of the fact that time is marching on, and we're not getting any younger. The appearance of wrinkles. As somebody has said, where once there were waves, now there's only beach.
Another fellow said, I used to have a crew cut, but then the crew bailed out. When we come to the beginning of a new year, it's another one of those times that we are naturally reminded that time is moving forward unceasingly. Somebody has said, so valuable is time that God gives only a moment of it at once, and He gives that moment but once in all of eternity. New Year's is a natural time for us to do some reevaluating in our lives. I think even the secular world understands this.
People talk about New Year's resolutions. Socrates, the philosopher of the world, said, the unexamined life is not worth living, and God says similar things in His word. In Haggai, for example, it says, Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. In 1 Corinthians, let a man examine himself, for if we examine ourselves, we should not be judged. In Psalms, I thought on my ways and turned my feet to thy testimonies.
Jeremiah said, Let us search and test our ways and turn again to the Lord. Again, the psalmist said, Examine me, O Lord, and prove me. Test my heart and my mind. And that's what I'd like to ask God to do for us today. Let's bow together in prayer once again. Father, we thank you for the periodic reminders that you give us of life's short and fleeting day. As we approach the threshold of a new year, it's another one of those times when we're reminded.
And I pray that today, as we consider the word of God, that you would test our ways. Testify us and wherein we need to turn our feet according to your testimony. Then give us the faith and the courage and the conviction to do it today. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Will you take your bible and turn with me, please, to Exodus chapter 12, verses 1 and 2.
This is one of those days when we have a diving board text, we're going to begin here and then look at many other texts as we swim through the message together. Exodus chapter 12, 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. It seems that we have a most remarkable thing, for in our text today that we're beginning with, God establishes a new calendar.
I don't know of any place else before this in which God carefully prescribed a calendar for His people, the beginning of a year. But it does say here that God caused this particular month to be the first month of the year of the Israelites. This is the beginning of months to them. It was called in their tongue Abib, or after their captivity they named it Nisan. This was their religious calendar. They went by another calendar for their civil affairs, the affairs of government.
The first month then began in the fall, but here is the spring. This month, Abib, does not correspond clearly with the months as we observe them. The months in that day were aligned with the moon, whereas we are on a solar calendar. But roughly, the month of Abib, or the first month for the Jews religiously, began sometime in our middle March and runs through our middle April. That was the first month of the year for the Jews. The name Abib means an ear of corn, or green ears.
The reason for that particular name is that this was the time of the barley harvest in Israel. Thus, they picked that name, Abib, or the green ears, or the ear of corn, to indicate this is the beginning, this is the first month of a new year. The beginning of the new year was important to the Jewish nation. It accomplished several purposes. These purposes were served by their observance of the feasts of Passover and unleavened bread.
The Jews had seven feasts that they observed throughout their calendar year. And let me just stick in a word here that has nothing to do with the message, but it reminds me to say to you that during the month of January, beginning with the second Wednesday night, whatever that is, we are going to have Dr. Earl Warner here on five successive Wednesday nights to teach us from the Word of God about the feasts of Jehovah.
Dr. Warner is the head of the Midwest Hebrew Mission, and is a man who is a tremendous teacher and knows the Old Testament and the typology, the symbols of the Old Testament, so very well. And he will be here to teach to us about all seven of those feasts of Jehovah. Now the first two of those feasts were Passover and unleavened bread. They were observed in the month of Abib, the first month, the first month of the religious year that the Jews observed.
God ordered that those feasts should be in the first month because there were several things that he wanted to accomplish. Now as I've said, our year does not correspond to the Jewish year. We do not observe the feast of Passover. Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us. We do not observe the feast of unleavened bread because now spiritually we feed on Christ who is our unleavened bread. He is our spiritual nourishment.
But as we begin a new year, I would like to draw a parallel with that event in our lives to the beginning of a new year in the life of ancient Israel. God intended for the new year to do several things for them and I believe that he would have the new year to do several things for us. He would have it to be a time of remembrance, a time of recognition, and finally a time of renewal. Now let me show you what I mean. We will compare Israel to ourselves.
In the book of Exodus, look in chapter 13, just down the page or the next page in your Bible, and look in verse 9. Again, God is commanding them concerning the first of the year and the commemoration of these feasts and he says, this observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the law of the Lord is to be on your lips, for the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand.
The first of the year for ancient Israel brought with it the feasts of Passover and unleavened bread. Those feasts were an annual reminder of God's mighty workings in their nation. It was to be a reminder of them of three specific things. It was to be first of all a reminder to them of their bondage in Egypt.
Every year as they began the month of the bead, as they observed these feasts of Passover and unleavened bread, it was a reminder to them that there was a Pharaoh who rose who knew not Joseph and who hundreds of years before had begun to subject their people to slavery in Egypt. It was to be an annual reminder to them that at one time they were slaves in bondage in Egypt. Secondly, it was to be a reminder of them that God had delivered them from that bondage by the blood of the Passover lamb.
We do not have time to recount nor is it necessary for you probably the story of the Passover lamb, the great tenth plague that came upon Egypt. But every year as they observed the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread, it was a reminder to them of that night when God brought death to all the first born. The blood of the lamb though protected the first born of those homes that shed the blood and applied it as God had prescribed it to be applied.
And then that night they feasted there in Egypt upon the body of the lamb that was left over. Their feast of Passover and unleavened bread continually brought them back to that point of remembering the blood, remembering the deliverance of God, remembering the protection of God that night that they were brought out of bondage from Egypt. But then those feasts also at the beginning of their year were to be reminders of the blessings of God as they journeyed in the wilderness.
God supplied for them food, he supplied water for them, he supplied protection, he supplied direction for them. All that they needed during that time God cared for. And every year as they began the observance of these feasts it was a reminder to them not only of the bondage of Egypt and the blood of the lamb but of the blessings of God upon them. May I suggest to you that as we come to 1982, should the Lord tarry until Friday, that the coming of a new year should be a reminder for us as well.
A reminder of similar things as Israel remembered. A reminder first of all of the bondage of sin that you and I once knew before we trusted Jesus Christ. It is good for us to periodically consider where we might be today but for the saving grace of God.
It is impossible for us to know of course where we might be but occasionally it's good for us to sit back and think of what direction our life might have taken if it hadn't been for the deliverance of God from the bondage of sin in our own experience. Surely we would not be in this place today nor would we know the joy and the peace in our hearts that we have today if it had not been for that day whenever it was for you months or years ago when you were delivered from your bondage of sin.
In the New Testament in the book of Colossians it says that he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness. It is easy for us to forget the dominion that darkness has over unsaved people. The control of satanic powers over those that are lost either consciously or unconsciously. They are imprisoned and chained to the powers of darkness. When you and I trusted Jesus Christ we were gloriously delivered, saved and rescued from the powers and the bondage of darkness.
It furthermore says in Revelation he has freed us from our sins. How many of you have seen the film Pilgrim's Progress? Would you lift your hand? Well a number of you. We thought about getting that for New Year's Eve. We will get that again some other time. I think it's a very fine film. I believe it did win some awards in fact the year that it was produced. There is one scene in the film among a number that stand out to me.
It is the scene of Pilgrim when he comes to the cross and receives Christ. At the moment that he is spiritually brought to salvation the heavy pack that was upon his back until that point in the film suddenly snaps away from him and rolls down the hill and away from him. It pictures beautifully what Bunyan wrote in that classic several hundred years ago. Dear friend, when you trust Jesus Christ as Savior that is what happens to your sin. It's removed from you.
You are no longer bearing the load of guilt and condemnation that you had. We are freed from the bondage of sin. As we come to a new year it's time to say to the Lord thank you for that. Then we can thank God too for the blood of the Lamb for us because of that blood that we have forgiven us. In Ephesians it says, In whom we have redemption through his blood. We are not redeemed by silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.
As we begin a new year it's good for us in our minds to go back to the cross and there to think again concerning the price that had to be paid for our free salvation. For while it was very free to us and given by grace, it was very, very costly to God. It required the death of his only begotten Son, the shedding of his blood in the most vicious and cruel manner. A death that he willingly underwent that we might be saved as we begin a new year.
It's a time of remembrance for the blood of the Lamb. And then too it is a time of remembrance for us of the blessings of our Father along our pilgrim pathway. For God has not saved us and then said to us, Goodbye, we'll see you in heaven someday. The moment he saved us he came to be with us, to indwell us in the person of his Spirit. And he walks with us through our pilgrimage.
You and I have right now, not just in heaven, but right now, every spiritual blessing in Jesus Christ as the psalmist said, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ because of that. We need to enumerate our blessings to think back through 1980, 1981, and all the things that God has done for us in the last year or two or five or all of our lives. And then as we face 1982, do it with a heart of gratitude. All of us have burdens. We have sorrows and heartaches.
And yet surely the blessings of God far outnumber and far outweigh those little things that cause us to weep occasionally. Therefore let us remember the blessings of our Father. The time of the first of the year for Israel was a time of remembrance. God planned their calendar so the first of every year they would remember some things. It's good for us to remember some things too as we come to January 1. And then the time of the first of the year was for Israel a time of recognition.
God intended for the month of Abib, and the feasts observed during that month, to be a time when his people recognized him again as their only God. The people of Israel were much like us. They easily forgot. Too easily they strayed after foreign gods and allowed the devotion of their heart that belonged to God alone to be stolen by some false God or some idol in the life. So God intended for the first of the year to be a time when they recognized afresh and anew that the Lord, he is God.
Come with me to Exodus chapter 34 as we see an example of this. Exodus chapter 34 verse 10. The Lord said, I am making a covenant with you before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I the Lord will do for you. Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Parasites, the Hibites, and Jebusites.
Why was God going to drive them out? Because they were all parasites in the land of Canaan that he had given to his people. And he says, be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going or they will be a snare among you. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and cut down their ashram poles. Do not worship any other God for the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God.
Be careful not to make any treaty with those who live in the land for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same. Do not make caste idols. Create the feast of unleavened bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast as I commanded you.
Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. Now why is God commanding all of this, of his people? Because in the month of Abib he wants them to remember when they get to the land that he is the God who brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And in that month not only did they remember what he had done, but they remembered him, that he is the Lord, and as he says in verse 14 that his name is Jealous. You see God is jealous for our affection.
Rightfully he is jealous of our devotion. When you and I today allow ourselves to worship at the shrine of some other idol, then God is not pleased with that. What kind of idols can we have? Well there can be the idol of money. Our Lord warned us about that. Twice in the epistles covetousness, which is greed for money and things, is called idolatry. We can go after the idol of impure thoughts. We can seek the idol of popularity on our campus. We can seek the idol of attainment in our work.
Now those things in their proper perspective may not be wrong, but if those things become priorities in our lives and altars at which we worship, then they become false gods to us. Do you know so serious was this kind of thing in ancient Israel that God commanded in the book of Deuteronomy that those people who worship false idols should be put to death? Did you know that?
Not only those who committed some grievous crime against society, but in chapter 7 of Deuteronomy, God commands that those who apostatize, those who worship some other god, should be put to death. And he says the people who witness against them are to throw the first stones. And he says if your sons or your daughters or your wives or your husbands worship false gods, they are to be put to death and you are to throw the first stones. Now that was God's law to ancient Israel.
That is not God's law to us today, but it does say something to us, doesn't it? It tells us how terribly God hates idolatry and how jealous God is for the devotion and worship of our hearts. As we come to a new year, it should be a time of recognition for us that the Lord deserves to be the Lord in our lives. In the book of Acts, we have an illustration of Lordship in the life of Paul. When Paul met Jesus on the Damascus road, his statement was, Lord, what should I do?
What would you have me to do? You see, that's what Lordship is. Lordship is not saying, Lord, show me what you want me to do and then I'll make up my mind. It's simply saying, Lord, what do you want me to do? It is a commitment to follow through with whatever he says. Is he Lord in your life today or are there other gods that have usurped his place? The first of the year for ancient Israel was not only a time of remembrance and a time of recognition, but it was a time also of renewal.
It was to be a time of renewal in the nation in two important ways. It was to be a reminder to them that they were a people God had called out to be different, a separated people. And it was to be a time when they were to be unified as a nation. We see this in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 16. I invite your attention there. Deuteronomy, chapter 16. Three of the feasts are mentioned in this chapter. The first one is the feast of Passover.
In verse 1 of Deuteronomy 16, it says, observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover of the Lord your God, because in the month of Abib he brought you out of Egypt by night. Sacrifice as the Passover to the Lord your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the Lord will choose as a dwelling for his name.
Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste, so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt. Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until morning.
You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the Lord your God gives you, except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening when the sun goes down on the anniversary of your departure from Egypt. Roast it and eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose. Then in the morning return to your tents. What is God saying here to the people? Well, he is telling them again how they are to observe this feast in the month of Abib.
And what seems to be the emphasis in our text here? It is the fact that they are to be a separated people, that as they eat the unleavened bread it is to remind them that they are to be without the admixture of sin. He has called them out of Egypt. He has separated them from Egypt in order to be his own people. And every year as they began the new calendar it was a reminder to them as a nation that they were to renew themselves as a separated people that God had called out.
We see this in a number of places. We read Exodus 34 and there again God said, don't make covenant with the people of the land. Be separate from them. If you compromise with them then you will begin to worship their gods. I have called you to be different. And then in verse 16 of this chapter God says, three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose. And these are the three times.
At the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of tabernacles. No man should appear before the Lord empty handed. Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you. Three times a year all the men of the land were together in the place that God would appoint. The one time was in the spring, the feast of unleavened bread. Passover is included with that. And then some 50 days later they were together again for the feast of weeks.
And then in the fall they were together for the feast of tabernacles. Three times. Why did God want all the men to come together three times a year? Because he wanted them to be renewed in their unity. You see they would naturally that day be scattered. There were very poor means of communication. Consequently his people living all over the land that he would give them would naturally separate from one another.
And so God said three times a year all of you are to come back to Jerusalem, the place I will appoint, and there be unified, be reminded, be renewed in your unity as a nation. I'd like to suggest to you that we can apply this to ourselves as we come to the first of the year in a very practical way. There's a time for you and me to check our own separation from the world.
There's a time for us to consider whether or not we have in fact compromised the way that we live in order to accommodate a pagan society. If we have, then we are displeasing the Lord. Every first of the year God wanted his people in these feasts to be reminded that he had called them to be different. God has called us to be different too. In fact very similar words are used of us as we're used of Israel.
Of us it says in Peter, he has called you a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation that is a separated, sanctified nation, a people of his own. God does not intend for us to live like the rest of the world lives. God wants us to be different in our lifestyle. The first of the year is a good time for you and for me to reevaluate and see if we in fact have compromised somewhere along the way. It's also a time for us to renew our commitment to one another.
Although we have a lot of communication these days and we're together every week, once, twice, or even three times, it is easy for us in our hearts to slowly grow distant from other believers, just to kind of drift away in our spirit, in our fervency, in our commitment to each other. And so as we come to the first of the year it's good for us too to be reminded that God has called us as one body and that we have a commitment to one another. God intends for us to be unified.
That's why he says in Hebrews, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is. You see even in that day in the very first generation after our Lord, the manner of some was to forsake the assembling of believers. But he says admonish one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. What day is that? The day of his return. And surely as we come to 1982 all of us must be aware that our Lord's coming is nearer than ever before and we believe very soon.
The month of January as we name it is named after a Roman god. Did you know that? In fact the calendar that we observe is basically a pagan calendar in its roots. The month of January is named after the Roman god Janus. This pagan deity of the Romans was depicted as a man who had two faces. One face looked backward and on his face showed sorrow, disappointment and fear. The other face looked forward with hope, satisfaction and confidence.
And we can obviously see where they get that because as we approach the first of January there is a sense in which we look backward at the last year with some disappointment and sorrow. And yet as children of God we also look at the last year I trust as a year in which we have walked with God and we have seen God's hand in an unusual way in our lives.
And then as we look forward to the next year should the Lord tarry it too can be with hope and with trust in the promises of God, confidence that God will not fail us. The same God who has brought us thus far will not leave us here. This is the beginning of months to us as we number the calendar. Could it be for us too a time of remembrance, a time of recognition, the Lordship of Christ, and a time of renewal and commitment to the principles of separation and of unity to which God has called us.
Charles Lamb said no one ever regarded the first of January with indifference. How do you regard it this year? More than a hundred years ago, Frances Ridley Havergl considered the beginning of 1874. Her name is not well known to us today but in her day she was one of the best known Christians who was alive. She was in chronic poor health and she lived in a time when there was a limited educational opportunity for women and yet she became a noted linguist, author, musician, and soul winner.
As she faced 1874 she penned these words as a prayer. Another year is dawning. Dear Father, let it be in working or in waiting another year with Thee. Another year of progress. Another year of praise. Another year of proving Thy presence all the days. Another year of mercies, of faithfulness and grace. Another year of gladness in the shining of Thy face. Another year of leaning upon Thy loving breast. Another year of trusting, of quiet, happy rest.
Another year of service, of witness for Thy love. Another year of training for holier work above. Another year is dawning. Dear Father, let it be on earth or else in heaven another year for Thee. 1982 could see some of us ushered into the presence of the Lord in heaven. As we enter a new year let it be with the same remembrance, recognition, and renewal that Israel knew as she began the first of her years as well. Let's bow together in prayer.
Dear Father, we cannot approach the beginning of another year with indifference. You have told us that we are to redeem the time, to take account of it. We believe that the day is fast approaching which will see our Savior return, and there is much to be done. Much to be done in our lives. Much to be done in the world in which we live. I pray that this year will be for us all that it should be.
With our heads bowed and as we wait upon God I wonder if there is some person here who today would say, Pastor Cole, as I look at the past year and the past years of my life, they're a mess. I've never trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior, and my life today is without root. I am driven, tossed to and fro. I have no direction. I am so unhappy and dissatisfied with my life. I know that Jesus Christ has died for me, has died that my sins could be forgiven.
Today I want to trust Him as my Savior so that I can have forgiveness of sins, so that I can have purpose and meaning to life and abundant life. Pray for me in closing of the service that I'll do what I should do in trusting Christ. Would you lift your hand and then put it back down? If that's your heart attitude today. I need Christ. Pray for me. God bless you. Anyone else? I know I need to be saved. Pray that I'll do the right thing and trust the Lord today.
Now my fellow believer, let me speak to you a moment. As you consider this next year, are you walking with God faithfully? Are you where you ought to be in your spiritual walk? Or have you compromised? Are there other gods that have usurped His place in your life? Would you say by the uplifted hand, Pastor, pray for me? Because God knows as I face the new year, there need to be some changes made in my life. I can't go on the way I am. I feel convicted and I'm miserable.
And I want to recognize the Lord as the King of my life. I want to live a separated life, a pure life. God bless you. Anyone else? Yes. A number of hands. Very quickly, anyone else before I pray? Yes. Dear Father, you have seen our hands lifted today.
I pray for these, my brothers and sisters, who have lifted the hand that you will minister today with great power in their lives and will affect the change in their lifestyle, in their attitudes that will bring them into harmony with your will for their lives. I pray for this dear friend who has lifted the hand saying, I'm lost. Oh God, I pray that that one today would trust the Lord Jesus and be saved. I pray that you will accomplish all of this in our lives for your glory. Amen.