Let us now then together this morning return to the portion of God's word that we read together from 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. And we may take as our text the words that you'll find in verse 17. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 at verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold. All things are become new. These words as the spirit of God, we'd be pleased to help us in our meditation this morning. The title that we give to our sermon this morning is out with the old and in with the new. Out with the old and in with the new. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. On behalf of Joanne and myself, I would wish to extend my hope and prayers for a blessed and peaceful new year to everyone in the congregation, to those friends who've come from Bewley, to those visiting with us this morning, and to everyone who is confined at home listening online. 18 weeks since I arrived here in West Hill on the 30th of August to be your new minister. So things are still relatively new, certainly from my perspective. Anyway, you no longer have your old minister. Though he was much loved and much appreciated, Mr. Clark has gone. You're no longer enduring a time of vacancy. Two and a half years you were vacant. So old experiences, things you have experienced personally, they passed away last night and we are in a new phase of our lives as God continues to unfold. His perfect providence in our personal lives and our life as a congregation. So this is the first year, the first new year that we share together as a congregation. The old year 2024 has passed away, never to be seen again, never to be visited. It will never come round again. And time marches swiftly on. We are reminded even by the opening words of this chapter that everything is dissolving. Everything's passing away. Everything's fading away. James captures it perfectly. Our lives are a vapor. Paul reminds us that the earthly house of this tabernacle is crumbling. And so how wonderful that we can gather freely without fear of arrest Without fear of persecution, without fear of the secret police coming to our doors and locking us up in dungeons, perhaps that's what we need to waken us up. Maybe people would be less complacent with the preaching of the gospel if there was real threat to our liberties. But how wonderful that we can worship an unchanging God. the ancient of days who is the same yesterday and forever as we sang in Psalm 90. He is from everlasting to everlasting God. He is unchanging. He is unchangeable. He is immutable. There is no variability. There's no shadow of turning. That's the God who we seek to serve. That's the God we seek to worship, a great and glorious God. So New Year's Day, is a day to be thankful to our great and glorious God. No better way to begin the new year than reflecting on God's goodness to us on the year past and seeking to cast ourselves on our immutable God for blessings for how many days we are spared in this new year, this 2025. And our text highlights some priorities, some resolutions, some objectives that should be in the forefront of our minds as we begin this new year. It tells us that old things, old things that are unprofitable, old things that are not beneficial to our souls, this is an opportunity to forsake them, to abandon them, and to seek out new things. New things which are beneficial to our souls, there to be embraced, or perhaps re-embraced if we've let them slip. But what it tells us, most importantly, that all our resolutions, and there's nothing wrong with making resolutions on New Year's Day, as long as they are founded in the word of God, that's a New Year's resolution. So let's look at four things, four new things that our text brings to our attention, out with the old, in with the new. Firstly, we see a new sovereign, a new king, a new sovereign. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, Paul is writing to the believers in Corinth. So the beginning of the text, therefore, if, does not convey that there's any dubiety or that there's any uncertainty that the believer is not in Christ. The believer is in Christ. It's the logical conclusion of the argument that Paul has made in the previous three verses, verses 14, 15, and 16. In which he summarizes and says, those who are in Christ will, there in verse 14, they will love. They will love God. Verse 16, they will not live for the world. They will not live after carnal fleshly desires. But in verse 15, they will seek to live for the king. They which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him. but unto him which died for them and rose again. And Christ died for his people in order to be their ruler, in order to be their sovereign, in order to be their king. A Christian is a subject of the king, a servant of the king who lives with loyalty to serve and honour the true king. In other words, a Christian is one in whose heart Christ reigns. He has the throne of our hearts. There's no competitors. There's no usurpers. There's no alternatives. There's no coup d'etat. Christ is the king. Now we have, of course, respect and loyalty to our own king, King Charles III, who we must pray for. He seems to be a woeful king, an atheist king, pandering to all and forgetting that he has been placed there by King Jesus. That one day he will stand, even as a sovereign, he will stand before the true sovereign to give an account of how he has ruled. But if we give respect and loyalty to King Charles III, and we must pray for him, and the royal family, and our Prime Minister, and our First Minister, and our government, the Christian's allegiance on a New Year's Day is to King Jesus. Our first priority, in other words, at the beginning of the year is to be born again. That's what it means to be in Christ. It's a phrase that is unique to Paul. And it's a phrase that Paul uses reasonably frequently to convey that you must be regenerate. You must be converted. Because if you're not converted, there's somebody else sitting on the throne of your heart. There is someone else you are serving. You cannot serve Christ, and you cannot also serve mammon. You must have one or the other. You're either serving the tyrant. If you're unconverted, if you're not in Christ, the prince of darkness reigns on your heart. That's the truth, the truth of God's word. Doesn't mean you'll be a devil worshiper. Doesn't mean you'll be sacrificing and eating your own children. That's not what it means to have Satan ruling on the throne of your heart. What it means is that you're serving carnal flesh, you're serving carnal desires, you're serving everything that pleases Satan rather than serving everything that pleases the Lord Jesus Christ. And that conversion The king assumes he is crowned on the throne of the believer's heart by right. He has the rightful place, and in our sin we eject him. We throw him off that throne. And it is only at conversion, which we shall see later, it's only at conversion that he becomes our King, so that we can sing joyously the opening line of Psalm 145, O Lord, thou art my God and King. There was the day when thou were not. When I loved the Prince of Darkness and I was a child of wrath and a child of disobedience. But on a New Year's morning, I can say, O Lord, thou art my God and my King. And every one of us here from the youngest to the oldest must have that new King reigning on our hearts. Because what a sovereign he is. He is faithful. He doesn't pander to this thing and that thing. He says, take unto you my yoke, which is easy. Take my burden, which is light. I am the way. I am the truth. Follow me. There's no variableness. We don't wake up one day wondering what our king is going to demand of us. His demands are the same. Faithful day after day after day. If you love me, keep my commandments, follow me. So a Christian is one who by definition belongs to Jesus Christ. One who is in Christ Jesus. Who knows by faith. and who knows by the experiences of their own lives what our catechism tells us about how our king rules in our heart. He subdues us. All we need to be subdued. All the fleshly carnal desires that bubble up, they need to be subdued. We can't subdue them ourselves. We need the king. And he subdues us to himself. Not to subjugate us, but to bring us into the place where he will rule over us, where he will defend us, where he will restrain and he will conquer all his and our enemies. At the beginning of a new year, do you not want all your enemies conquered? We leave the external enemies to the king to conquer. But what about your internal enemies? He restrains and conquers all his and our enemies. Is that your confession this morning? As you begin a new year, Lord Jesus Christ, thou art my King. Thou dost deserve my unwavering allegiance. There's a good resolution. I will resolve to be more loyal, to be more faithful, to be more loving, to be more obedient to my great king. Let's begin the year looking to the king who sits on the throne of the earth. Because one day all his enemies will be made his footstool. We see secondly, a new creation. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Nothing better to begin the new year knowing not only that King Jesus reigns in the throne of your heart, but that you are a new creature, a new creation, a new living thing. Something that was dead, but is now alive. A new creature, a new creation. What does that mean to be a new creation or a new creature? Well, in context, the old creature, the old man hates the true king. Who did we serve when we were old creatures? We didn't want to serve King Jesus. We wanted to serve ourselves. You see the old Adam, what we are in Adam is not just rejecting God. We are at enmity with God. There can only be two classifications. You either have peace with God being reconciled to him through Jesus Christ, or you are at war. You are at enmity with God. The old creature is ruled by the prince of darkness, ruled by natural disposition, ruled by sinful desires because of the corrupt, fallen, dead nature. The old man isn't in the king, isn't in Christ. The old man's hiding. Hiding from Christ, outside of Christ. What an awful way to begin the new year. Upside down, hung over behind a settee. Outside of Christ. Ah, but the new creation. The new creature. Note that this is brand new. This isn't a rehash. This isn't a renovation. This is a brand new creature. It means to be born again. to be regenerate, to be converted. For the children to try and explain that this is a new year. And today we begin 2025. 2025 isn't 2024 just tarted up a wee bit, brushed down and renovated and say, right, we'll pretend this is brand new. That's what you need to be children and anyone here and anyone listening who is not a new creature. We must be converted. Converted by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who takes the salvation that was worked by King Jesus and works faith in his people, thereby doing what? Uniting them to Christ, uniting them to the King. by their effectual calling. They have a willingness, a desire to serve the king. There'll be many people will wake up today and they'll make resolutions and they'll try to turn over a new leaf. And what is it? What's the buzzword? New year, new me. Garbage, empty, vacuous, soundbite. Being a new creature is not some superficial outward moral change. Being a new creature is radical, revolutionary. It's undergoing an inner transformation by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit of God. That's what a new creature is. Because there's new principles. Grace is the dominant principle. A desire to live a sinless life is the new principle. A desire to serve the king is the new principle. A desire to get rid of the sinful, rebellious old man that seeks to drag you back into the mire. And it's a new creation, it's a new creature because it comes from God. It comes from the Holy Spirit of God. It's nothing to do with man. We have that in verse five. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. It's a gift of God's grace. God's power alone can take an old creature serving the prince of the world to be a new creature serving a new king. You see, that's what this word means. Man cannot create anything. Man makes things. Man makes things from preexistent material. But God creates of nothing. And when he creates a new creature in Christ, what it means is that there's nothing of man in that. Nothing in man, nothing of man, nothing of the old Adam. It's a new creature in Jesus Christ. Just as you were passive at your original birth, your human birth, your human conception, so you're passive in conversion and regeneration. As Ezekiel tells us, it's God who takes away the stony dead heart and gives that heart of flesh. How can you tell this morning, this New Year's Day morning, if you are a new creature, if you're walking by faith, not by sight? Very simple. You will have a love for the King. nothing else will come before him. Your walk, your talk, your conversation, your desires, your affections, your habits, your energies will all evidence newness of life and that you are in him. A new creation. We see, thirdly, there will also be a new resolve, a new sovereign, a new creation, a new resolve. Old things are passed away. Resolve, children, means a definite, earnest determination to do something. not just something fleeting, not just a soundbite, it's a fixed determination to do something. And that's what we need this morning, a resolve, a resolution. Now this regenerating grace of God creates this new life in the soul, new principles, new motives. And so the motive is to serve the king and not serve self. And so our text reminds us that the new creation should have a new resolve to make sure that the old things are gone. The old things that are past, if they're past, they have to stay in the past. And sometimes you have to force them to stay in the past. Sometimes you have to put them in a chest and nail down the chest forcefully because the old wants to come back. So New Year's Day is a good time to resolve, to put away these old things, to lay aside every weight, the sins which easily beset us. Forget those things which are behind and press on to the mark of the high calling of God. The old things that Paul speaks of here, that the Corinthian church were being encouraged to do and were struggling with, was the temptation to return to the old ways. The old dispensation, the old sacrificial system, the empty ceremony and the empty ritual of the Mosaic law and the Levitical priesthood. And what Paul is saying, these are old things. They've passed away, they're useless, they're unprofitable. Made unprofitable by the death of Jesus Christ, whose once and for all sacrifice did away with all the necessity for the sacrificial system. The Corinthians were being encouraged to go back to the old deadness of the letter. And Paul is saying to them, we worship God in newness of life, in newness of spirit. We worship God in spirit and in truth. And that for the children and those of you who are perhaps not used to our form of worship, that's why we have no bands. That's why we have no stained glass windows, no tapestries, no folder rolls or entertainment. Because all these things foreshadowed the coming of the Holy Spirit. We have the Word of God and we worship in spirit. That means dependence upon the Spirit to open up the Word of God. We don't need anything else. How insulting. How insulting to God, who's given us his infallible Word, sent his eternal Spirit to bless the Word. And we say, ah, but we need some guitars. We need some entertainment. We need something extra because God hasn't done enough. These are old things. Get rid of them. Let them pass away. It's an insult to Christ's finished work at Calvary, as if it was deficient in some way. The new creature wants nothing to do with the old. With integrity of heart, the new creature seeks to worship God. Who doesn't want the old things contaminating the new walk? Paul elsewhere, when he writes to the Thessalonians, captures that. When he speaks of the, when he heard the news of the Thessalonians being converted, he said, how glad I was, how ye turned to God from idols. to serve the living and true God. Leave the idols far behind. Leave them in the past. Even the idols that you've erected in your own heart, leave them in 2024. Because that's what you resolve to do. You resolve to do that when you sit at the Lord's table. But New Year's Day is another wonderful opportunity that the Lord gives us. to examine the old sins, to examine the old behaviors and say, I'm disowning them. I want nothing more to do with these idols. Paul again captures that when he writes to the church at Colossae, he reminds them that they are new creatures. He says to them, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, with his old deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, the new creation. So the new creature must be utterly resolved to live like Christ and be renewed in his image. And so there is that constant war of attrition in the new creature between the old Adam and the last Adam, between the old man and the new. Paul speaks of that in Romans chapter seven. I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity. To the law of sin, which is in my members. And then he says, the good that I would I do not the evil that I would not that I do. Is that not the experience of the Christian? We try so hard to do good. But this old man rages. Satan doesn't like being dethroned from the heart. He wants the heart back. So it takes steadfastness, it takes walking by faith, not by sight. It takes resolve to kill the old man and leave him in the past. It takes resolve to want to engage in the war. That war that's within, that's a far harder war than going out into the street and giving out tracts and setting up tents Doing street preaching, which is a valuable thing to do, but that's easy work compared to the secret war that's going on in the heart. When you look back on the last 12 months or the closing months of the year, the old habits creeping in. The old sins. Has the old man resurfaced? Is he soiling the new creature that you are in Christ Jesus? Well, if so, then New Year's Day is a good opportunity to resolve to have nothing more to do with them. I resolve to walk in newness of life. I resolve to ensure that all those old things remain where they are in the past. And fourthly, To help us do that, we see a new focus. Behold, all things are become new. How wonderfully logical Paul is in his thought process, the way that he writes the gospel. You have a new sovereign. If therefore any man be in Christ, you're a new creature. He is a new creature. You have a new resolve. All old things are passed away. Well, there's a new focus. Behold, all things have become new. I must focus on the new thing. In order to keep the old things in the past, the best antidote to that is concentrate all my efforts on the new. In other words, your gaze and your focus has to be fixed on the king. After all, is that not the one that you profess to be in? United to Christ, you profess to be in him. Well, you cannot be in Christ and have eyes for other lovers. You cannot be in King Jesus and seek to look to the prince of the world, the prince of darkness. It's one of the catastrophic mistakes of the way that the modern gospel is presented as a once and for all thing. Repent and believe and everything will be all right. It's not once and for all. It's once, and then twice, and then thrice, and then four times, and then 10 times. We must continue going on. It's continually resolving to focus on Jesus Christ. It's continually repenting. It's renewal every day of our lives. And Paul tells us in this chapter three things for the children, three things beginning with L that will help us this year maintain our focus on King Jesus. We've touched on them before, but we bring them back into focus, a new focus. First of all, in verse nine, you have to labor. That's how you keep your focus on those things which have become new. If you're new creatures in Jesus Christ, we labor, that means to work. So there's effort required, no complacency, no laxity, no sitting back, but on the front foot, on your toes all the time, like those who rebuilt the wall. A trowel in one hand and a sword in the other, ready to fight off the old man. That's focus. And the focus of the labor is so that we may be accepted of the king. You see, it's not about working for ourselves. It's about working for the king. And it's not predominantly external works that are being spoken about here. It's about the really, really hard work. It's the work of focusing on Jesus Christ in the soul, spiritual things, focusing on new things. New passages of scripture that I've never studied before. New doctrines that I've never explored. I'm going to work hard this year to master the doctrine of predestination because I don't know what it means. That's the labor that the Lord's people are to be involved in. Something that we don't know very much about that will profit my soul. Not a new hobby. Not painting the house. These things have their place. but laboring in things that will nurture and benefit the new creature. The second L, the second thing that helps us focus on those new things is in verse 14. Not only do we labor, but we love. Is that not the accusation that the king made against the church at Ephesus? I have some war against you. You've left me. You've left your first love. The Lord's people profess to love the Lord Jesus Christ with all their heart, all their soul, all their mind, all their strength, and then we love our neighbors as ourselves. You can't love your neighbor first. Loving your neighbor just comes naturally because you love the Lord Jesus Christ. But lest we become confused, this love, can only come from Christ, because this love speaks of Christ's love for his people. The love of Christ constraineth us. You see, if you're not overwhelmed with the love of Christ for you, your love for Christ will be pretty paltry, pretty lukewarm, and your love for your neighbor will be the same. But if we think of Jesus Christ and his love for us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Will that not constrain us to love him more? And thirdly, the third L is there in verse 15. We live, we labor for Christ, we love Christ, And we live for Christ. We live for him who died for us and rose again. That's what we should focus on. We are what we are by the grace of God. Through Christ's sufferings and death, through Christ's resurrection. Now that makes sense, doesn't it? If someone has brought you back from the dead, think how appreciative you would be to a surgeon who perhaps did a kidney transplant, or who found some new drug to cure multiple sclerosis. You'd be so grateful. You'd be singing their praises. How much more should we live, the Lord's people live, for him who has saved us from death? and brought us into newness of life. Surely that's what we should focus on. But of course, it's easy to say on a New Year's Day morning, and it's much harder to put into action. How do you practically apply these three L's, laboring, loving, and living? Well, the only help that we have is in the word of God, the only rule to direct us in faith and life. And it tells us how we do that, how we labor, how we love, how we live more, how we labor and love and live better than we did in 2024. You don't need the words of a man. You don't need to go to a philosopher. You just go to the inerrant and infallible word of God. And it tells us, lay aside every way. And the sin that doth so easily beset us, And let us run with patience the race that is set before us doing what? Looking unto Jesus, the focus. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. That word there in the Greek, looking, means to be attentive intelligently. That's where our focus should be this new year. Edifying our souls, focusing on fresh knowledge of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Even if it's saying something like, I'm going to learn my Catechism. I'm going to learn about a particular doctrine of grace. I'm going to try and improve my singing. I'm going to try and learn a new psalm tune. I'm resolving to study God's word. These are things to focus on, but we can't do them in our own strength. Just as we, as the fools in the world will try to, this diet and the next diet, they can't do that because we're so feeble, but you can do it. looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. Let's turn away from old things and immerse ourselves in all the new things. And it's important. All this is important because we are told, as we conclude very solemnly, we're reminded that we might not see the end of this year. We might not see tonight, we might not wake up tomorrow. We're reminded in verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or whether it be bad. We're all going to die. And one day the great king will sit on the judgment throne, and he will ask us to give an account for what we have done. And that's why Paul ends the chapter in verse 20, pleading. He says there in verse seven, I know the terror of the light. I tried to persuade men. I tried to convince them. And he says at the end, we pray you in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God. And that's my prayer for everyone here. That you're reconciled to the King. That when you stand before the King on the day of your death, you can say to him, Oh Lord, thou art my God and my King. I haven't made a very good job of it. But throughout my life, I have tried to praise and bless thy name. I have tried my best to serve thee. That's how we must begin a new year. Reconciled to Jesus Christ. Do you have a new king on the throne of your heart? Are you new creatures in Christ Jesus? Do you have new resolve to put away the old man and do you have a new focus to concentrate on those things which will profit your never dying soul? Out with the old and in with the new. May the Lord bless his word to us. Let us pray. Gracious and eternal one. We thank thee that thou hast kept us through another year, thou hast kept us through the night. We have awoken and found that we are on mercy's ground. We have found ourselves within the house of God on the morning of another new year. And we pray that thou would make thyself known in the preaching of the gospel through the power of thy Holy Spirit. The efforts of man are feeble. Only through the work of thy spirit will I enable sinners to be reconciled to God. And we pray. We sing in conclusion to God's praise in Psalm 100. The 100th Psalm. All people that on earth do dwell, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice. Him serve with mirth his praise forth tell. Come ye before him and rejoice. The well-known words of the first version of Psalm 100. O people, that on earth do dwell, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice, in song with mirth his praise foretell. Come ye before him and rejoice. Know that the Lord is called with thee. Without doubt, with deed, give us way. We are His flock, He doth us feed, and for His sheep He doth us take. O enter then his gates with praise, Approach with joy his courts unto. Praise, Lord, and bless his name always. for it is simply so to do. For while the Lord your God is good, His mercy is forever sure, His truth at all times firmly stood. Let us stand to receive the Lord's benediction. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.