1993 Biblical Compass & Sextant for the New Year

Introduction: Facing the New Year Biblically

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, January 3rd, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now as we pray, seeing a number of visitors among us and not knowing whether you sit among us as those who know and love the Lord Jesus and stand in a saving relationship to him, would you, with the people of God in this place, pray that as the scriptures are opened,

0:37 you would be conscious of having dealings with the living God himself, that you would get beyond the words of the preacher and the person of the preacher, and that as the scriptures are opened, you would be conscious in your heart of hearts of having dealings with the living God himself. You would be conscious of having dealings with the God before whom all of us, all of us, will have dealings in the day of judgment. Let us pray together. Our Father, we bow in your holy presence, acknowledging that you are the living and the true God,

1:19 the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God before whom we must stand in the last day. And we thank you for your holy word. We thank you that you have spoken a sure and infallible, a changeless word. And as we stand on the threshold of this new year and seek to bring to bear upon our perspectives your own holy word, may each one, from the youngest to the oldest, be conscious of having heart dealings with you, the living and the true.

2:01 O Lord, enable your servant to open up the scriptures clearly, and in the power and demonstration of the Spirit, enable each one to hear with an open ear and a heart made willing by your grace. Hear us as we plead for these mercies in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Last evening, as I sat in my study, engaged in the work of preparation for the ministries of this day,

2:43 I rose up from my desk and walked over to my study door and performed a very sobering act. Those of you who are familiar with what's in my study will know that on the back of my study door, I generally keep a calendar that has the whole year spread out before me. And the sobering act was to take, remove the two thumbtacks that held that calendar to the door, remove them, remove the calendar, fold it, and deposit it in the wastebasket.

3:23 That calendar that had 1992 on it is no longer of any use to me, because the year that it sought to represent in numbers and dates and days is gone, never, never, never to be retrieved.

3:44 Now this morning, together, we face the prospect of a new year. The year that the calendar will say is 1993 AD. And as we do, what should our attitude be as together we stand on the threshold of this new year? Well, we know from the scriptures what our attitude should not be, for our Lord Jesus instructs us in Matthew 634 saying take no anxious thought for the morrow, for the morrow will take thought for the things of itself sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

4:29 And the great apostle wrote to the Philippians in chapter four and said be not anxious, or be anxious for nothing. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known unto God. So whatever our disposition should be, it must not be one of sinful anxiety as we face the unknown tomorrows of this coming year. And furthermore, we know from the Scriptures that we should not face the new year with a carnal and presumptuous planning and self-confidence.

5:09 For James writes in James 4 and verse 13 and following,

5:39 Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth. So whatever should be our disposition, it must not be a disposition on the one hand of fearful, sinful anxiety because we do not know what the days ahead may bring. But neither must it be a disposition of carnal and presumptuous planning and confidence that we know for certain what any one of the days of the coming year will hold for any one of us.

The Explorer's Compass: Renewed Confidence in God's Absolute Sovereignty

6:23 And therefore, while our thoughts about the future should not be marked either by sinful anxiety or presumptuous planning, there are biblical principles which tell us what a godly perspective on a new year truly is. And I would like to introduce several of those perspectives by the use of an illustration to which I will make reference several times throughout the message. In days past when an adventurous explorer was setting out to sail uncharted seas,

7:04 he would make certain that whatever else he brought with him, he would surely... he would surely have on board an accurate functioning compass.

7:17 He would have an accurate functioning sextant, that instrument that would help him, as they say, to shoot the stars or the sun in relationship to the horizon and to get his precise bearings. He would never set out as an explorer upon uncharted seas without a functioning accurate compass, a functioning and accurate compass. He would never set out as an explorer upon uncharted seas without a functioning accurate compass. He would also have the charts of those seas and areas that were already explored and charted, and he would have the necessary writing instruments to fill out his own navigational charts

7:59 as he progressed in his journey. Whatever else he forgot, those things, no responsible explorer would leave behind. Whatever else he forgot, those things, no responsible explorer would leave behind. Whatever else he forgot, those things, no responsible explorer would leave behind.

8:12 And using that imagery, as you and I stand on the shore of the uncharted year that is before us, we desperately need to be certain that whatever else we take with us into the new year, that we take our biblical compass and sextant and charts and the instruments necessary to make our own navigational charts and the instruments necessary to make our own navigational charts as we progress. and the instruments necessary to make our own navigational charts as we progress. throughout this year. And as time permits, I want to point your attention to several of these things

8:50 that constitute a biblical preparation for entrance upon a new year. And I would exhort you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, first of all, to enter this new year with a renewed confidence in the absolute sovereignty, God. I exhort you to enter this new year with a renewed confidence in the absolute sovereignty

9:24 of God. If the question is asked, what will 1993 hold for the world? What will it hold for the people of God around the world? What will it hold for this congregation of God's people in particular?

9:44 What will 1993 hold for you as an individual and for your family? It's a tragedy that we've returned to paganism in our nation, that that question has been asked of so-called psychics who are given national voice over television with respect to the coming year. A nation that is turned to soothsayers as they are designated in the scriptures. But when we turn to the scriptures with that question burning in our minds, what does the

10:22 word of God say to us? Well, the answer is this. 1993 will unfold nothing but that which a sovereign God has purposed in his eternal plan and executes by a present governing providence in his world. A plan that takes in every single detail of every single atom of his universe to the farthest galaxy and a providence that governs the execution of that plan down to the falling of a hair from your

11:04 head and a sparrow to the ground. So that with certainty we can say as we face the uncharted waters of 1990. 1993, it holds nothing but what a sovereign God has purposed and that which a sovereign God will execute in his providence. This is where the old shorter catechism is such a help to us in identifying these biblical truths. For in question seven, we are asked what are the decrees of God?

11:43 And the answer is the decrees of God. The decrees of God are his eternal purpose according to the counsel of his own will whereby for his own glory he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. His decree is his own counsel in which he's foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. And when the question is asked, how does he?

12:17 How does he execute his decrees? The answer is in the works of creation and providence. And after the catechism answers the question, what are the works of God in creation? It then asks, what are God's works of providence? The answer is God's works of providence are his

12:35 most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions. Now is that just a statement of a catechism? No. It is the clear teaching of the word of God and I ask you to turn with me to several texts which affirm this in such vigorous language as I call us all to face this new year with renewed confidence in the absolute sovereignty of God.

13:14 Turn to Isaiah chapter 14.

13:18 Of Isaiah and chapter 14. Here in verse 27 we read, Jehovah of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand. Here is a general statement of the fact that God need only think of, and it becomes the rule of his universe.

14:02 Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand. And then in the specific context, notice what that statement encompasses. And I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him underfoot. Then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulder.

14:30 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth. This is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For Jehovah of hosts hath purposed, and who shall annul it? And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

14:52 God makes this statement with reference to his absolute sovereignty, expressing it in terms of his thoughts being executed infallibly with respect to the Assyrian nation, to the movement of other nations, to armies in their cumulative might. And God says, I have thought, I have purposed, shall annul it. My hand is stretched out to accomplish what I purposed. Who will take my hand and pull it back and say, no God, you can't do that.

15:31 The absolute sovereignty of God. Chapter 43 and verse 13 of the same book of Isaiah. Isaiah 43 and verse 13.

15:47 Back up to verse 11. I, even I, am Jehovah, and besides me there is no Savior. I have declared, and I have saved, and I have showed, and there was no strange God among you. Therefore you are my witnesses, saith Jehovah.

16:03 And I am God, yea, since the day was, I am he. And there is none that can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who can hinder it? You see, you and I may often say, I will do this, I will do that.

16:25 I purpose this, that, or the other. And we can be hindered by something that we can't even see. A little microcosm. A microscopic organism can implant itself somewhere in our bodies and level us with the latest flu bug.

16:41 Can level us with a life-threatening illness. Some little unseen living thing can take us and utterly frustrate us. But God says, when I will to work, who can hinder it? Suppose there should be some lapse of all the angelic, post, as there were at a period before the creation of the world, and all of the angels, including Michael the archangel, should all agree to conspire to hinder God in one facet of his purpose.

17:20 Can all the cumulative might of angels, in all of their various ranks and stations, hinder? No. What about all the powers of hell and those demons that we read about, this morning, should they all conspire and all put their demonic influence to bear upon one single concentrated point where God is determined to work? Can they hinder God?

17:49 The answer is obviously no, they cannot. He is a God of absolute sovereignty, who wills and it is done, who purposes and who brings it to pass. Yes. He is the God, who run from a proud pagan king, whom he turned into a beast of the field for seven years.

18:14 He rung from that man this confession. Now I know, he said, who really runs the universe. It's not I, Nebuchadnezzar. The most high rules in the kingdoms and in the armies of heaven and earth, and he does according to his will, in the armies, in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay as an and say unto him, what are you doing?

18:44 And dear people, this doctrine must never become something to which we subscribe, subscribe as an element of confessional integrity. I hope we shall always do that, but we must enter the new year with a renewed confidence in the absolute sovereignty of God, as a present reality, as my life unfolds within the framework of the coming year, as the life of my family unfolds, as the life of our church and our nation and the world unfolds. And if we do indeed have this compass on board,

Sovereignty's First Effect: Worshipful Submission to God

19:26 what will this renewed confidence produce in us? May I suggest at least two things. There are many more, but at least these two. It will first of all produce in us a spirit of worshipful submission to God, no matter what God brings into our lives in the coming year.

19:49 It will produce a worshipful submission to God, no matter what God brings into our lives in the coming year. You remember the experience of Job in Job chapter one? When in a given calendar year on a given day, from being a man who was looked upon with awe and almost reverence, a man whom God had blessed with the greatest of all blessings, true godliness, and had added to that the blessing of wealth and influence and a large family.

20:31 And yet in Job chapter one we read that in one day God took away his wealth. God took away his children. Later on, God would allow his health to be taken away, the comfort and support of his wife to be taken away. Yet, though in one day God took away his whole family, took away all his cumulative wealth, in one day God had decreed from eternity that on a given day Job would lose in a matter of hours, what he had gained over many years.

21:11 And in his providence he brought it to pass. And what was Job's response? After the news of this devastation comes to him, we read in Job one in verse twenty, Then Job arose and rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and commiserated, and wallowed in self-pity, and began to question what God was doing. No.

21:48 It said that he took the symbols of humiliation and brokenness and grief and sorrow, fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, and worshipped, and worshipped. And he said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, naked shall I be, shall I return thither. Jehovah gave, and Jehovah hath taken away. Therefore through gritted teeth I will reluctantly confess, God is sovereign and I can't fight it, so I'll knuckle under.

22:29 No. That is not what Job did. It says he worshipped, saying, Blessed be the name of Jehovah. Blessed be the name of Jehovah.

22:39 Blessed be the name of Jehovah. Blessed be the name of Jehovah. Blessed be the name of Jehovah. Blessed be the name of Jehovah.

22:40 Blessed be the name of Jehovah. Blessed be the name of Jehovah. Blessed be the name of Jehovah. Blessed be the name of Jehovah.

22:44 This God, who in one day, has allowed me to be stripped of all that he had given me over the course of years, the birth of one child upon another, and the joy that those children had brought into the home, the accumulation of the wealth, as he labored and responsibly invested and was generous, as we see later on, when he vindicates his own integrity. For I, me, and mine, us, and no others. He was generous. He was benevolent.

23:17 He was a godly man, godly above any other on the face of the earth in his generation. And yet with no explanation such as we have in the opening verses of what was going on in the unseen world of spiritual conflict between God and the devil, all he knew is this. Whatever I had up until a few hours ago, God gave it in his sovereignty. Whatever has been taken away, God has taken away in his sovereignty.

23:52 Therefore, nothing of God has changed. Blessed be the name of this God. That is, the name of Jehovah is the outshining of the character of God, the revelation of his person. So he is saying this God is worthy to be blessed, to be well thought of, to be well spoken of, even as I sit here, utterly stripped of my family and possessions in a day.

24:23 Now, how does a man do that? That's not a stoic who's just bearing it, stiff upper lip.

24:33 That's not just grudging acquiescence. You can't fight God, so knuckle under. You don't get anything of that in this. This initial response of Job, later on as the trial intensifies, we see him entering into new dimensions of struggles between remaining sin and the posture of faith.

24:55 But here his reflexive response is that of worshipful submission to God. Why? Because he entered that day with a present confidence in the absolute sovereignty. Why?

25:11 Because he entered that day with a present confidence in the absolute sovereignty. You find a similar disposition being expressed in 1 Samuel chapter 3. And this touched not just a man's possession of his children, but the disappointment with his children.

25:31 You remember young Samuel has been visited by God in the night hours. And God has given him a very weighty message to deliver as a relative, relatively young boy to old Eli. And he delivers that message that because of the sin of Eli's sons, and because Eli had not restrained those sons and disciplined them while they were still moldable and pliable, that God's judgment would come upon his household. And we read in verse 14 of 1 Samuel 3, I have sworn unto the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house

26:13 shall not be expiated with sacrifice nor offering forever.

26:20 God would not only bring temporal judgment upon Eli's sons, but they would perish in their sins and go to hell. Their sin would not be forgiven.

26:33 Well, Samuel was fearful to deliver such a message to Eli, that Eli called him in and said in verse 17, What is the thing that the Lord has spoken unto thee? I pray thee, hide it not from me. God do so to thee. And more also, if thou hide anything from me of all things that he spake unto thee.

26:52 And Samuel told him every wit and hid nothing from him. Here's a father hearing the indictment that his son's iniquity would not be purged forever,

27:09 that they would be cut off and destroyed, every one of them. And how does he respond? And he said, It is Jehovah, let him do what seemeth him good.

27:28 Was Eli some unfeeling, old, hard-hearted, hyper-Calvinist who had the idea what will be, will be? Of course he wasn't.

27:40 There's no indication that he was that. But what he was, was this. In spite of his failures as a father, in spite of this revelation of God's decree and purpose to bring this irreversible judgment, upon his children, he was above all else a man who had this confidence in the absolute sovereignty of God. And he knew that God to be too loving, to be unkind, too wise to be mistaken, and too powerful to be frustrated in his purposes.

28:18 And if you and I are to face those circumstances which God has decreed, but concerning which we are utterly ignorant, but in the providence of God as they unfold in the coming year, some of which may indeed be what we would all call dark and difficult providences,

28:42 we need to face this year with renewed confidence in the absolute sovereignty of God so that we may meet those providential unfoldings with the spirit of worshipful, submission to God. You see, God's going to have his way anyway.

29:01 It's like a group of doctors determined to operate on a patient who is going to die without that operation and he's consented to it on paper, but when the time comes for him to be wheeled into the operating room, he's so gripped with fear that he fights the orderlies and the attendants. Well, sooner or later they're going to pin him down, give him a shot and get him out and put him under and operate.

29:28 But oh, the difference when someone convinced that the surgeon's purposes are good and kind and loving, even though as they did with Pastor Lamar, things that if you saw them doing it, you'd say they're out to kill the man. When you split a man open from here to here and take his ribcage and open it out and reroute the blood from his heart into a machine. But you see, he voluntarily and joyfully put himself into the hands of those surgeons without any fight. Because he was convinced they were committed to his well-being.

30:04 And dear people of God, your God and my God is committed to our well-being. All things are indeed working together for good. Though we cannot begin to see the good in this or that providential unfolding as men and women of faith with confidence in the absolute sovereignty of the God whose heart is to be read in the cross of Christ. We can then render in response to difficult providences a spirit of worshipful submission to God, but it will have a second effect upon us.

Sovereignty's Second Effect: Undisturbed Rest in God

30:48 It will give us a spirit of undisturbed rest in God. A spirit of undisturbed rest in God. And this has potential, a particular reference to those things that happen in the larger world around us which impinge upon us and would unstring and unhinge us the kinds of things that are mentioned in Luke chapter 21 in verse 26. When our Lord is speaking of the coming destruction of Jerusalem and in that passage looking beyond that event to that climactic destruction of the world as we now see it.

31:31 We now know it at the second coming of our Lord Jesus. Notice what he says in Luke 21 in verse 26.

31:41 Back up to verse 25. There shall be signs in the sun and moon and stars and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the billows, men fainting for fear and for expectation of the things which are to come. Which are coming on the world for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. As men see these tumultuous disruptions it says they faint, literally expire for fear.

32:20 All the life goes out of them. We've used the term I was scared to death. That's the concept. Men scared to death, fainting for fear and for expectation of the things that are coming on the world.

32:34 How is the child of God to meet these things that unstring and utterly unhinge the worldling? Well, he begins by recognizing that regardless of what men conspire to do, whatever men plot and plan, God himself is utterly unruffled even to the point of sanctified cynical laughter. Remember, remember Psalm 2? The kings of the earth, the great ones, gather together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us break their bands asunder

33:18 and cast away their cords from us. We will do our thing. God doesn't enter the picture. There is no divine purpose.

33:29 There is no sovereign God in control. We, the great ones, who meet and have our summit meetings, we plan, we execute, we determine the course of nations. The scripture tells us, he that sits in the heavens shall laugh.

33:48 God laughs with derisive laughter, with a holy laughter at men's utter folly to think that they can overturn his purposes, particularly his purposes as they all flow in to his design that the Lord Jesus shall reign in heaven. As king of grace and be given the rightful inheritance that is his in virtue of his suffering and humiliation. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. And God laughs.

34:27 And therefore, we read in Isaiah 26.3, we can enter into something of that very disposition of God when we face the unknown, with renewed confidence in the absolute sovereignty of God. Look at the statement of Isaiah 26.3.

34:47 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in Jehovah forever, for in Jehovah, even Jehovah, is an everlasting, rock. He hath brought down them that dwell on high, the lofty city. He lays it low.

35:18 He lays it low, even to the ground. You see, the context is again God active in humbling the enemies of God and in governing the nations of the world. And he says, the one whose mind is stayed upon you in the midst of all of this tumultuous disruption experiences undisturbed rest in God. And therefore, dear people of God, I call upon you to make sure you have your compass that as we together face the unknowns of this coming year, that we face it with a renewed confidence in the absolute sovereignty of God

36:01 to reaffirm in the secret place with reference to your own life and then to your family and to the church and to the nation and to the world, to say to God, Oh God, I know that you have decreed and purposed every event and every circumstance, every contingency, everything that relates to one thing that affects another that affects another. Oh God, I do believe that every single atom of this universe is under your control and only moves at the direction of your decrees and that by a present, providence, not a distant God, we are not deists,

36:46 but a God who presently, actively rules and governs and executes his decrees. You are present, governing and guiding the germs that do break through my immune system, turning away the ones that he's decreed my immune system shall defeat.

37:09 So it means that I can, I can embrace the nagging cold when I've acted responsibly to do everything to avoid it. Nonetheless, I have it. I don't need to be called and I don't need to be raking over. What did I do?

37:24 What did I didn't do? You see, it touches such practical things as that. It touches the fender bender on a crucial day when there's a crucial need at work of any day of the year when you had to be there on time. That's the day some fool ran into you.

37:41 My friend, he didn't run into me. He didn't run into you while God was turning aside to take a drink of water while God was blinking.

37:49 Do we believe it? You see, this is what I mean about reaffirming before God, O Lord, as this year stretches out if I'm privileged to live through it and to its conclusion, you are utterly sovereign.

38:08 Microcosm of my own little puny life to the macrocosm of the farthest galaxy. It's all under your control.

The Explorer's Sextant: Renewed Awareness of God's Promised Presence

38:22 But then, you need not only your compass, you need your sextant.

38:27 And more briefly, may I describe the sextant this way. As we enter this new year, we must face it and enter it not only with a renewed confidence in the absolute sovereignty of God, but with renewed awareness of the promised presence of God. With renewed awareness of the promised presence of God. The scripture says, that his kingdom rules over all, that God fills heaven and earth.

39:00 Psalm 139 celebrates the fact of his omni-presence. There is no place where I can be where God is not. And all of God is present at every point in his universe. The great mystery of God's ubiquity.

39:19 He is everywhere, everywhere present and all of God is present in every place. And that's a glorious truth that stretches our minds to the point of numbness. But then the Bible teaches there is a peculiar covenantal gracious presence that God pledges to his people. And I wish we had the time to trace this out in the Old Testament in passages such as Exodus 29 44 to 46 and Leviticus 26 and verse 12 where God says in conjunction with entering into covenant with his people I will dwell among them.

40:01 I will be their God and they shall be my people. And then as he points to a new and better covenant in the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel the crowning blessing of that covenant is I will be their God and they shall be my people. And we come into the New Testament and find the quotation of some of those passages that God says I will dwell among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people and carried all the way on to the consummation in the book of the Revelation when the apex of the blessing of the redeemed is described in Revelation 21 1 to 3 in that very language I saw new heavens and a new earth

40:46 for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away and the sea is no more and I saw the holy city New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God made ready as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a great voice out of the throne saying behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he shall dwell with them and they shall be his peoples and God himself shall be with them and be their God. You see many of the questions we have about the new heavens and the new earth are passed over in utter silence in scripture

41:31 but this element is brought forward and made prominent what will the new heavens and the new earth be like this much we know it will be the enjoyment of the immediate special presence of God by all of the redeemed without interruption and as we enter this new year dear people of God it must be by God's grace with a renewed awareness of that promised presence of God that is unique to the people of God that promised presence that is the peculiar possession of those redeemed

Presence's First Effect: Courage Over Cowardice

42:15 by the blood of Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit and you say well why is that so crucial well again let me just suggest two answers to that question first of all it will be the difference between courage or cowardice in the face of danger in the face of difficulty the difference between courage and cowardice will in great measure be whether or not there is the awareness by faith of God's special presence with us this is what God gave to Joshua as he was about to be God's instrument to lead the people of God into the land of promise

42:59 and there it was a land filled with warring nations a land filled with people experienced in battle in the implements and stratagems of warfare and Joshua is about to lead a people inexperienced in those things and what does God give Joshua as the great sheet anchor to his soul Joshua 1 verses 5 and 6 there shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life now notice what the promise is as I was with Moses so I will be with thee I will

43:44 not fail thee nor forsake thee be strong and of good courage Joshua all you need to know is this I am with you in the unique and special presence pledged to my own I am with you you remember that incident in the life of the man of God recorded in 2nd Kings chapter 6 the great army of the Syrians is there set to take the prophet because the prophet's been revealing their military strategies and plans and the young servant of the prophet is scared to death and what does the prophet do 2nd Kings 6 we have the record

44:28 of what he did what does he ask God to do for the young man 2nd Kings chapter 6 verse 14 therefore sent he hither horses and chariots and a great host and they came by night and compassed the city that is the Syrians compassed the city of Dothan where the prophet and his servant are and when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth behold a host with horses and chariots was round about the city and his master said unto his servant said unto him alas my master how shall we do all he saw was the Syrians with their cumulative military might and says

45:13 alas my master how shall we do and he answered fear not don't be afraid for they that are with us are more than they that are with them and Elisha prayed and said Lord I pray thee open his eyes that he may see you see he didn't ask God to do something that was not already a reality he said there are right now more with us than with them the man of God shall it be and that reality was the presence of God in terms of the host of God around them and so he says oh Jehovah

45:57 open his eyes to see what is reality reality is it is not just this servant and his master the prophet of God the reality is the special presence of God in terms of the angelic host of God open his eyes that he may see and Jehovah opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha the special presence of God and in the midst then of that which would otherwise produce tripling fear there was courage and confidence Joshua I will be with you

46:41 to the young servant of God open his eyes it says of Moses in Hebrews 11 27 that he left Egypt not fearing the wrath of the king not afraid of Pharaoh and all his armies why it said he endured seeing him who was invisible he knew Jehovah to be at his elbow at his side behind him and before him and the same is true in the New Testament Paul got into Corinth and things got kind of hot and there was opposition and there was a life threatening situation and God knew that his servant was made of the same stuff of which we are made and that these circumstances could have crippled him

47:25 caused a fear that would turn him aside so the Lord comes to him at night to minister to him and what is the focus of his ministry Acts 18 verses 9 and 10 and the Lord said unto Paul in the night by a vision be not afraid but speak and hold thy peace for I am with thee that's all you need to know Paul I am with thee and no man shall set on thee to harm thee for I have much people in this city what was the difference between a crippling paralyzing fear and a man and the confidence to plow on in the face

48:08 of great personal danger it was the confidence that God is with me his promised presence is not a notion it is a reality and as we face tremendous challenges of the coming year things that would otherwise fill us with dread and with fear we must remember the words of our Lord Jesus lo I am with you always each and every one of the days even to the consummation of the age as I was trying to think of a way to somehow illustrate the difference between the man who is in Christ and truly believes this

48:53 as a present reality and the one who doesn't my mind went back to my experience as a kid on almost every block there was a bully the kid who matured earlier than others and took advantage of it and I know who the bully was on our block there was a bully his name was Fonzie that's right that was his name way back in the 40's and nobody wanted Fonzie to get on the wrong side of him because he was bigger and stronger and he could just pulverize any one of us but you know some of the guys had an older brother if ever they had their big brother at their elbow they could walk right by Fonzie and look at him and wink

49:36 as long as their big brother was with them Fonzie wasn't going to tangle well imagine two kids on the block they both have a bigger brother they both have a bigger brother each of which is able to handle Fonzie and they've determined that they'll walk behind their younger brother they've agreed anytime he goes down the street they'll walk behind him so 10 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday kid number one walks down the street his big brother who can handle Fonzie is behind him lo and behold around the corner comes Fonzie and the first response of the kid is fear and then he says no I know who's behind me and he just keeps strutting right on by I don't know Fonzie he knows who's behind him

50:21 and he believes his big brother's behind him you touch me you're going to tangle with him two hours later another kid who's got a big brother walking down the same street big brother behind him he sees Fonzie and breathes his last breath and he starts to tremble and he starts to get afraid and he starts to dive to the nearest hedge and this big brother says hey kid what you doing he says oh I'm not I forgot you were behind me what's the difference the difference is not the reality of the presence of one able to take care of the object of fear it's the present

51:05 remembrance of that reality and I don't know a true Christian in this place who does not believe that there is a unique special covenantal presence of God as a child of God yes you leave that sitting at home when your elder brother says lo I am with you always but not seen but I'm with you but not physically present so we can see him and touch him whom having not seen ye love and what's the difference in 1993 between the Christian who's going down the street of the will of God and faces those Fonzies that would make him

51:50 tremble in fear and die for the hedges and those that walk surely and steadily on the road in their path difference present confidence in the special presence of our mighty Savior that's the difference and therefore dear people of God I call upon you this morning for the good of your own soul for the difference between a life of courage and cowardice to exercise faith unto a renewed awareness of the promised blessing of God and it makes all the difference between stability and instability

Presence's Second Effect: Stability Over Instability

52:32 it's akin to the other truth that we've already touched upon I just remind you briefly of Psalm 46 the psalmist says that that which will keep me steady even though the most powerful symbol of permanence and steadiness should slide down into the sea though the mountains shake and end up leaping into the sea he said I'll not be afraid why he tells us God is our refuge and strength a very present help not a potential help to which we point by faith

The Explorer's Charts: Renewed Faith in God's Certain Provision

53:16 when we're out of trouble but a present help in trouble therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be cast into the heart of the sea the Lord of hosts with us is but then very clearly not only must you have your compass and your sextant you better have your charts and I would call upon you as I call upon myself this morning not only to a renewed confidence in the absolute sovereignty of God a renewed awareness of the promised presence of God

54:00 but a renewed faith in the certain provision of God a renewed faith in the certain provision of God if the Lord delays the coming of his son keeps us in the land of the living think of all of the needs we will have in 1993 from our most elementary physical needs life and breath and sustenance to our basic spiritual needs the sins we'll commit that will need to be washed and cleansed that we might maintain a good conscience the perplexities where we'll need the wisdom of God the strength of God the power of God to mortify

54:45 besetting sins with which we wage constant warfare just think of the world of individual need represented here this morning think of the world of our corporate need as a church grace that we might dwell together in the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace grace that we might be what God's called us to be more and more in conformity to Christ and usefulness in the service of Christ think then of the needs of the family of the church universal think of the vast mountain of need that is before us as we enter this year and what do we need we need by the grace of God renewed faith

55:30 in the certain provision of God and I see two texts that greatly encourage me on the threshold of this new year Romans 8 in verse 32 is the first in which the apostle says he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not also with him freely give us all things then as you go on to read of the concerns that were in his mind the matter of sin who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect those things that in themselves would seek to serve us would seek to serve us

56:13 separate us from the love of God in Christ verse 35 those things that would seek to destroy us and take us away from Christ he is confident that none of these things shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord and on what does this confidence rest it rests on what I would call the logic of the cross he says in verse 32 he that spared not his own son that is when God was committed to our salvation committed to the level that he was prepared to cause his son to undergo the terrors the horrors

56:58 of his wrath and vented righteous anger against the sins charged to his account when he gave him up to death upon the cross he did not spare him he did not merely give him over into the hands of his enemies into the hands of the Roman government he gave him over to the hands of pure and spotless justice that demanded that he bear the curse of the law for his people and God spared him not it was that sparing not that wrung from the heart of Christ the cry my God my God why have you forsaken me

57:41 well he that spared not his own son he that overcame the greatest obstacle to our salvation namely how can God be righteous and just and take guilty sinners to himself without any controversy there was only one way to settle the controversy in the substitutionary death of his own son giving to him what we deserved he that spared not his own son he that overcame the greatest obstacle to our salvation how shall he not with him freely give us all things what all things Cadillacs and mansions on the hill know what nonsense

58:25 to import such carnal notions into the text he will give us all things necessary that everything Christ died to accomplish in his people will be accomplished and he died that we might be brought home safely at last to heaven kept alive kept alive kept alive kept alive kept alive and along the way in the path of holiness and obedience cleansed and forgiven and preserved and protected from the world and from the devil and everything that is necessary for the individual in that course of the unfolding of God's saving purpose everything necessary for his church when it does touch upon material provisions

59:10 as we were reminded in the Sunday school hour in a very real sense dear people this building in which you meet is a monument of God's commitment to withhold nothing from those who he loves and for whom Christ has died and we can take our stand on the cross of Christ and reason from God's greatest gift to the provision of every need that we encounter in the will of God and then the other text is the familiar text of Philippians 4.19 my God shall supply all your need not according

59:52 to the economic predictions of the Wall Street experts my God shall supply all your need not according to the patterns of the economic state of the U.S. or the common market but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus the measure of God's commitment has nothing to do with the state of any economy at any point in human history but it has to do with that which is stored up in his Son and again what a difference it will make with reference to everything from the forgiveness of my own sins

60:36 for strength to overcome sin to facing crises of judgment and guidance and all of the host of other needs we need renewed faith in the certain provision of God we need not be nervous as we face 1993 that in the will of God we will face a need and find God embarrassed that he is neither willing nor able to meet that need he that spared not his own son how shall he not with him freely give us all things my God shall supply all of your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus and then I close

Renewed Hope in Christ's Glorious Return

61:21 by just stating this fourth principle we need to face this new year with a renewed hope in the glorious return of the Son of God face the new year with renewed hope in the glorious return of the Son of God our Lord the angels that were there when he went back into heaven the inspired penman of the New Testament all affirm that he shall come he shall come in like manners you've seen him go into heaven and it is the duty of every Christian to labor and live in the conscious waiting and expectation of the coming of Christ 1 Peter 1.13

62:06 2 Peter 3.10-13 a host of other passages out of the parables and what a difference it will make as we face this coming year as we had occasion to say a week or so ago one year ago in human history we'll have a bunch of calendars that will never be used they'll be printed up for the year but the heavens will part and the voice of the archangel will sound and the trumpet of God will blast as I sat in my study yesterday meditating upon it and looked out the sun was not shining at the time the skies were still grey I said Lord I wonder how you're going to do it will you circle the globe how will you part the heavens

62:50 how will we hear the trump how will we hear the trump my friends there in the other side of the globe in Australia I said Lord I don't know how but I know I will I don't know how but I know I will whether the trumpet must reach the dust of my ears in the grave or whether we remain until the coming of the Lord and oh to live and labor in this coming year in the renewed hope of the glorious return of the Son of God though God has changed me and has decreed the day the moment the hour the year in which His Son will return

63:34 and He's revealed that to no one it is the will of God that every generation of Christians live in the hope and expectation of that return not because they can fit together the jigsaw puzzle of the prophetic teaching of the Bible but because the Lord has told us so to live may God grant that amidst all of those things that would make us earthbound that we will always be a people who have that gleam in our eye knowing that the trump of the Lord will sound the dead in Christ shall rise

64:17 we that are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air this in turn will produce in us an intensified pursuit of holiness augmented patience in the face of adversity an increased zeal to fulfill our stewardship many texts for all of those statements I can't go over them I close by asking you here we are about to embark on the sea of 1993 do you have your compass? do you have your sextant? do you have your charts?

Call to Action: For Believers and Unbelievers

65:02 that renewed confidence in the absence of absolute sovereignty of God that renewed determination to lay hold of God's promised presence and believe it as a reality that renewed confidence that all that you face in your pilgrimage he's committed to give you to his glory and that this may be the year when his son will come but if it is not we will be the better for having lived in the hope and the expectation of his coming and for you who are not Christians I don't ask you to renew anything

65:46 I call upon you immediately today to embrace the offered salvation in Christ so that entering this new year you would not face another day under the wrath of God but that you would recognize today is the only day of salvation for which you have any certain confidence and flee to Christ this day and mark this Lord's day the first day O Lord's day of this new year is the day when at last you took seriously your sin and God's offer of mercy and a crucified risen exalted Savior and no longer dallied with the issues of your soul

Closing Prayer

66:31 but made a straight line from where you are to Christ and laid hold of him for life and for salvation let us pray together our Father we thank you that as we stand on the threshold of this new year that we do not need to look to our fellow mortals to give us some glimmer of hope and some reason for living with purpose but that you our God have abundantly furnished us with all that we need and we pray that you would bring our natively wayward

67:16 unbelieving and dull hearts into line with the great realities of your word that we may live in this coming year as much as you give us life as those who do indeed acknowledge you to be the loving sovereign ruler of the universe even the universe of our lives and O Lord that we shall know the blessedness of your presence that we shall be living monuments of the abundance of your presence and that we may live in a holy life of detachment from this present world with our hearts fixed upon the coming of your son

68:01 out of the heavens and O God for those who are not ready to live nor die nor meet the returning savior have mercy upon them and draw them to yourself even this day hear our cry and seal your word we plead in Jesus name Amen