THE NEW YEAR

TEXT:
(Eccl 3:1-8)  "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: {2} A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; {3} A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; {4} A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; {5} A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; {6} A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; {7} A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; {8} A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace."

Another year has come and gone.  Where did it go?  It seems only a few days ago we were celebrating the beginning of 2005.  Now it is 2006!

Where does the time go?

How many New Year's Days have we seen?

They come and go, and things largely remain the same.  
	But this will not go on forever!

Another year closer to: endtime, judgment, eternity.

From howstuffworks.com
Webster's New World College Dictionary (Fourth Ed.) defines time as: 
II. a period or interval. 1: the period between two events or during which something exists, happens or acts; measured or measurable interval 
At its core, time is fairly elusive. We can't see it or sense it -- it just happens. Human beings have therefore come up with ways to measure time that are totally arbitrary and also fairly interesting from a historical perspective. 
The day is an obvious starting point for time. A day consists of a period of sunlight followed by night. Our bodies are tuned in to this cycle through sleep, so each morning we wake up to a new day. No matter how primitive the culture, the concept of a day arises as an obvious and natural increment. 

We use clocks to divide the day into smaller increments. We use calendars to group days together into larger increments. Both of these systems have very interesting origins.

A gospel hymn writer, the late Tillit S. Teddlie reminded us :

Swiftly we're turning life's daily pages,
Quickly the hours are changing to years;
How are we using God's golden moments?
Shall we reap glory? Shall we reap tears?

Into our hands the gospel is given,
Into our hands is given the light;
Hast let us carry God's precious message
Guiding the erring back to the right.

We are another year closer to: endtime, judgment, eternity.

Time seems to pass so fast.  As Ps. 90:9 says, "We spend our years as a tale that is told."

How many of us hurry to get up and get to work; hurry through eight hours to make production; hurry to get in when quitting time comes; hurry to get the necessary things done so we can hurry and get to bed so we can hurry and get up and start the process all over again?

We spend out lives in a race with the clock,
	and we know what the outcome will be.
No way we can come out on top,
	for we've only two hands, and the clock has three!

As one year rolls out and another rolls in, it is always a good time to reflect, and take stock.  We want to do a bit of that today, as we look to some passages of Scripture which are pertinent in this regard.

No. 1.
(Psa 34:12-16)  "What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? {13} Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. {14} Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. {15} The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. {16} The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth."
    QUOTED IN THE N.T.
(1 Pet 3:10-13)  "For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: {11} Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. {12} For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. {13} And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?"

Many of us lose sight of the fact that a successful life is one that is lived for the Lord.

The world thinks those who are daring and lliving in sin are living it up.  Not so!  If God be for us, who can be against us?

No. 2.
(Psa 39:4-5)  "LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. {5} Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah."

Many times we do not like to think about life, its brevity and its frailty.  But the Psalmist says we need to.  If you only have a half a tank of gas in the car, you want to plan your travel very carefully to make the best use of it.  And the same goes with our lives!

(Psa 89:47-48)  "Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain? {48} What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah."

(Psa 49:7-10)  "None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: {8} (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:) {9} That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption. {10} For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others."

No. 3.
(Psa 90:3-12)  "Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. {4} For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. {5} Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. {6} In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth. {7} For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. {8} Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. {9} For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. {10} The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. {11} Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. {12} So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."

Time is not as meaningful to God and angels as it is to us, because we live in the realm of time, and they in the realm or eternity. (2 Pet 3:8)  "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

The average lifespan is around threescore and ten (70) years.  If we live into our eighties, we are doing well.  We really have no promise of tomorrow. (Eccl 9:11-12)  "I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. {12} For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them."

No. 4.
(Psa 103:13-18)  "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. {14} For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. {15} As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. {16} For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. {17} But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; {18} To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them."

THIS, TOO, QUOTED IN THE N.T.
(1 Pet 1:24-25)  "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: {25} But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."

(Psa 144:4)  "Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away."

(James 4:14)  "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."

No. 5.
(Eccl 5:18)  "Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion."

Don't get so caught up in the rat-race that we lose sight of life!

No. 6.
(Eccl 12:1-7)  "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; {2} While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: {3} In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, {4} And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low; {5} Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: {6} Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. {7} Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."

No. 7.
(Eph 5:15-17)  "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, {16} Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. {17} Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is."

(Col 4:5)  "Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time."

No. 8. 
(2 Tim 4:6-8)  "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. {7} I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: {8} Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."

(1 Pet 1:17)  "And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:"

No. 9: when time shall be no more!
(Rev 10:6)  John saw an angel stand with one foot upon the sea, and one upon the earth, raise his right hand... "And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer."

We are Another year closer to: endtime, judgment, eternity.

Are we ready?

(Jer 8:20)  "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, (and we might add, the year has ended), and we are not saved."

(2 Cor 6:2)  "(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)"