Would you turn with me to Paul's letter to the Philippians chapter three? Chapter three, I want to read the first 14 verses with you. Philippians chapter three, the first 13 verses. And here we hear the word of God. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation, for we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit. Rejoice in Christ Jesus. Have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so. Circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin. a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning the law, a Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gained to me, these I have counted lost for Christ. Yet indeed, I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him. not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call. of God in Jesus Christ. And our text is framed in the words of verse 13. Verse 13. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word. May he add his blessing to the hearing, the reading, and the preaching of his word again this morning. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ gathered here in Salem with me this morning. Today, of course, marks the first day of the new year. Another year has passed. Another one begins. And it's a time of new beginnings. For some, the past year was marked with great success and accomplishments, perhaps success in a business or in education, in a career perhaps. For others, the year was marked in failure, perhaps a failed business, perhaps financial loss, perhaps a job lost or a failed relationship, perhaps a personal loss of a loved one, For every one of us, as we reflect over the past year, we will remember many successes, but also many failures. And now the danger is that these successes and or failures hinder us on our road to spiritual growth and service. The danger is that we get so hung up on the disappointments in the past that we lose perspective. And that's what our text will instruct us of this morning. Paul speaks of our past success and our past failure, and he recognizes them to be very real in the life of the Christian. But then he helps us to put them all into a biblical perspective when he writes, for whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope by the things that were written. And he's referring to the Bible. I could paraphrase Paul's words and say, the scriptures were written for our learning in order that we might have hope. The scriptures were written for our learning, our instruction, in order that we might have hope. In other words, Paul is telling us that scripture was given us so that it might indeed be a lamp unto our feet as we walk through the complexities of human life and living. Scripture, says Paul, will teach you how to deal with your past. Scripture gives us many things, but the things contained in the scripture that I want to call your attention to this morning for our comfort and for our encouragement is the successes and the failure of the biblical saints. And congregation, God thought it important to have recorded in the Bible not only the way of salvation, but also the manner in which his children experienced and responded to that salvation. For instance, Abraham. Abraham has shown us as he schemes and lies about his wife because he doubts God's providence. We see Moses in his sinful anger, killing the Egyptian and then smiting the rock. We see David in adultery and plotting another man's death, murder. We see Peter in his cowardly betrayal. You know all of that biblical history. And you know the history of the failure of these men. But as we continue to read our Bibles, then we see Moses, that great leader. We see David, the king and the psalmist. We see Peter, the staunch and fearless apostle. And then we've not even mentioned yet those many characters of lesser stature who appear once or twice and then are seen no more in our Bible. For instance, who can forget the tender and trusting Hannah, the mother of Samuel, or the timid and questioning Nicodemus? Think also of the believing centurion. And then think of studious Mary and busy Martha. And all of these and many more make up scripture's biographical information. And now the apostle Paul instructs us that also that information has been written for our learning. Or if you will, God has given us that information so that it may develop in us the Christian virtues of patience, comfort, and hope. And that's what we want to achieve this morning. We want to find the grace, the grace of God to move beyond our failures of the past. And then we want to find comfort and hope and encouragement to grow in grace and in knowledge as we face the future in the new year. And now in our text of this morning, we hear Paul instructing the Philippian congregation, but he does so by way of personal example. And it is that example that we want to examine for our instruction on this New Year's morning. We know that one of Paul's most frequent admonitions was to urge Christians to press on, to press on, to run that race, to run the race of the Christian life. And that's what we want to hear this morning, but we want to consider why Paul urges us to do so, how he wants us to press on, but how he wants us to run that race, but do so by forgetting certain things of the past. And so I want to administer God's word to you on this New Year's morning, using as my theme, forgetting the things that are behind. Forgetting the things that are behind. And we want to see that we are to forget the sin of the past, we are to forget the accomplishments of the past, and we want to forget the difficulties of our past. Forgetting the things that are behind, forgetting the sin of the past, our accomplishments of the past, and the difficulties of our past. May God add his blessing to the Word of God this morning. Congregation, at first glance it might appear unwarranted for us to speak of forgetting as an important activity in the Christian life. Forgetting happens to be one of those words that have all sorts of unpleasant associations. We forget to keep an appointment and someone has kept waiting. We forget to write or respond to an important letter or email, and a relationship becomes strained. We forget an important date or anniversary, and often there are unpleasant consequences. And so forgetting, forgetting is not something, it's not an activity that we usually associate with the Christian life, let alone do we see it as a blessing of that Christian life. And what is not obvious to us, but should be, is that actually the ability to forget is a gift of God. The ability to forget is a gift of God. And it's a gift given to every Christian man and woman. And it's to be used by Christian men and women to assist them on the road to sanctification. Oh, it's true that often our ability to forget is misused, but our sinful misuse does not take away from the fact that properly understood, the capacity to forget is given us for our benefit. I said, when properly understood. And now we need to walk very carefully here, and we are well served to note Paul's example. Follow with me. When Paul says that we are to forget the things which are behind, he's not suggesting that we allow our minds to become blank. No. Being one of the most educated men of his time, Paul knew well, he knew very well that he could understand neither himself nor the world around him apart from understanding the past. He knew that in order to understand the present, he had to have a working knowledge of the past. A wise person once wrote correctly, the man of today is the child of yesterday and the world of the present has come out of the history that lies behind it. How true. The patterns of yesterday are the trends of today. And even yesterday's heresies, they don't go away. They're simply disguised and reintroduced to go around a second or third time. And so Paul did not want us to become mindless in that sense when he said to forget the past. Far from it. Paul did not intend for us to simply erase our memory. No, Paul had in mind that there are things, there are things that must be remembered, but there also exist things that are legitimately to be forgotten. So what Paul had in mind, congregation, when he said that he would forget the things that were behind, was that he meant that he would exercise his conscious being in such a way that he would permit nothing that had happened in his past, whether good or bad, whether that was success or failure, whether that was pleasure or pain, he would allow nothing at all to stand between him and his growth in the Christian life, until at last his race was done. In other words, he made it his business to use his God-given gift of being able to forget to remove any experience he had, good or bad, which threatened to come between him and his relationship to God. No matter what it was, whether it was remorse over sin or failure, Whether it was pride in some achievement, if it hindered his ability to grow in grace, then he put it far from himself. He refused to dwell on it. He forgot it. He made it nonexistent, as it were, and he gave himself with undivided mind to his duties here and now. And my dear people of God, in that sense, Paul, of all people, he had a lot to forget. His education, the very best available at that time, had given him a completely wrong idea of salvation, a wrong idea of Christ. It had developed in him a total misconception of the church. And as so frequently happens with ideas, good or bad, ideas become deeds and actions. And therefore, Paul, with all of his native zeal and leadership qualities, he persecuted the church to the death. You know the story. Listen to these few verses from the book of Acts. As for Saul, Paul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, dragging off men and women, committing them to prison, and breathing threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. He went to the high priest and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any Christian, whether they were men or women, he might bring them in chains to Jerusalem. You know the story. Paul and his misguided, misdirected zeal persecuted the Christian church. And when he was finally brought to see his sin, he was so overcome by it that for three days after his conversion, he could neither eat nor drink. And Paul might well have asked himself, as his enemies no doubt tauntingly often did, how he of all people How could he now be a worthy missionary? How could he be a defender of the faith, speaking in the name of God? He might have become morbid and despairing if he were to have become bitter and self-absorbed in remorse. We could hardly blame him. But no, he repents. He turns to God, and then we hear him. I forget the things that were behind. It's done, irrevocably done. Formerly, I attacked God's people, and I despised the Lord, but now I defend the church. I attacked that same church that I attacked, I now defend, and now I honor and love the Christ whom I once despised, and I forget the things that are behind. He had once been a great enemy of Christ and of the kingdom, but he had met the Lord. You know the story on the Damascus Road, and he met the Lord, and now he says he would press on. He would let nothing hinder him in his resolve to Christian discipleship, and so it must be for you and for me in this coming year. We are to forget the things that were before, and we are to press on. People thought we all have, if I may say it this way, a personal history. And in that history, we find thoughts, words, deeds, attitudes, which we hardly dare to remember ourselves, let alone discuss them with someone else. There are sins of omission and things of commission. There are things in our not to have done, but we did. And there were things that we ought to have done and did not. You know what I mean. We have neglected, for instance, certain obligations. We have, for instance, not spiritually nurtured our children as we ought to have done. We have at times not been loving, but instead we've been cruel to a father, a mother, rather than Rather than with love and respect, we've sinned against and abused a wife or a husband, perhaps even in adultery. We've looked with contempt upon family members or friends or neighbors. We've been cold in our ingratitude for mercies received from another or even from the hand of the Lord. We have allowed our electronic media to morally corrupt our hearts and minds, perhaps even our souls. with what we watched. We've spoken impure words or had impure thoughts, perhaps even did impure deeds. We've spoken unkind words. We have neglected the means of grace that God sets before us again each week. We've withheld our funds and the cause of the kingdom with begging because of our miserliness. We have foolishly perhaps spent our money on ourselves, and the collection plate went by us without contribution. The list is endless, and you can add to it for yourselves. And if we could only comfort ourselves by saying that although these things did happen in our lives, our failures in the past year were few, an exception to a rule of goodness, but no honesty compels us to confess that so often, so often we were that way. In fact, every day again, we were that way. And every day again, we had to bury our face in our hands as we bowed before the Lord in confession, saying, mea culpa. Lord, I am guilty. Congregation, when a person falls into a public sin, he's often referred to as a man or a woman with a past. You know what I'm talking about. We hear that expression so often, don't we? We know of people who, in their younger years, evidenced, for instance, loose morals. We know of recovering alcoholics who, for years, subjected their families to sin and shame, and everyone remembers and refers to those kind of people as a person with a past. We all know of people who have sinfully made a mess out of one, perhaps even more marriages. And we speak of such people as having a history. We all know of such people, and despite repenting of the sins of their youth, their reputation often remains tarnished. And that's the consequence of sin, a consequence that lives on all of our lives. For example, adultery takes place. The sin is confessed and forgiven. But the marriage remains strained for a long time, perhaps forever. That's the consequence of sin. We need to understand that although there is no sin so foul that it cannot be forgiven in the blood of Golgotha, we need to understand that although there is no sin so foul that it can't be forgiven, the consequence of sin remains, sometimes to the third and fourth generation. I'll give you this example of King David. A friend of God. A friend of God. But he commits adultery and murder. You know the story. And when he was confronted with his sin by Nathan, he fall on his knees in genuine repentance, confesses his sin, and he is forgiven by God. Nathan assures him. Nathan assures him that he will die in peace and his bones will be gathered to be buried with his father. But, but, but, says Nathan, listen carefully. But, says Nathan, because you have done this, the sword will no more leave your home. And so it was. You see, David's house, prior to his sin, David's house was a peaceful, prosperous one, before his sin, but afterwards, in his own home, his family, rape, and insurrection. His own children commit shameful sexual sins. His own son plots to kill his father to take his throne. David's sin was forgiven, genuinely confessed and repented of, and his sin was sincerely forgiven by God. But the consequence of his sin remained, so too for each of us. Sin, even confessed and forgiven sin, has consequences. And my dear people of God, we all know people who have committed grievous public sin in the past. And as I said, we refer to them as a people with a past. But, but, but, but, my dear people of God, before the face of God, we are all colored by a sinful past. And the question that Paul wants us to consider in the words of our text is this, what now? What now must we do about the things that are sordid and sinful in the life we have lived this last year? We can't undo them. Well, what then? My dear people, God, it boggles the mind, but God shows us the way. Forget the things that are behind. Forget the things that are bad. Put them away from you. Oh, not with callous indifference, not by cultivating a hardened conscience, not by making our fault insignificant or smaller than it really was, but forget the sin of the past in the full assurance, in the full assurance that God's mercy is greater than any one of your sins. That's Christian forgetting. That's what the prophet meant, or the apostle meant, when he said, come now, let us reason together, said the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. My dear precious saints of God, start to put the pieces of this puzzle together with me. Remember now, as we said, we read it, the things of the Bible are written for our learning to give us hope. The world says, pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile, but that's not the smile of God. No, says scripture. Scripture says, pack up your troubles and bring them to Golgotha and leave them there. in the sea of God's forgetfulness. Tremble in amazement with me here. Our ability to forget all that was before is a great blessing from God, and it is a blessing bought at a horrible price, the price of the blood of his own son. in the eternal counsel of the Trinity, in the love of the Father, in the willingness of the Son, and in the grace of the Holy Spirit, in the miracle of Bethlehem, in the agony of Gethsemane, in the darkness of Golgotha, in the power of the resurrection, God created for us an ability to forget that which was before. Why? Because our sins have been atoned for. We may not add to the sufficiency of that atoning work by punishing ourselves. There's one who has suffered, who has been punished. We may not add to that completeness of that suffering by self-accusation. God has forgotten. He has cast our sin forever behind Him. He has buried them in the sea of His forgetfulness. How dare we then remember them? How dare we hold them before us and still hold them against ourselves? Oh, my dear precious, precious saints of God, it is so good, so heartening in moments of spiritual depression and melancholy to fix our eyes on what God has done with our sin. What a blessed privilege to see that he has promised us for the future. And then in the conviction of his faithfulness toward us to arise from our knees with cheer and good courage and resume Our journey on to glory. But allow me to impress upon your hearts and your minds another related thought. It's not only the dark and unhappy things in the past that can stand between us and our growth in Christian grace. It's not only the failures that can hinder our growth in grace. The bright and happy experiences can also stand in a way, or to say it another way, spiritual success, as well as spiritual failure, are among the things that are to be left behind, which need to be forgotten. It's an important principle. Follow this with me. The laws that govern spiritual life are very similar to those that govern everyday life of men. We hear such expressions as success has gone to the man's head or he has become drunk with his success. Sometimes sports teams lose games because their winning streak before has produced a spirit of overconfidence. Of Napoleon, we read that it was said that he conquered his way to defeat. Imagine that. He conquered his way to defeat. Such overconfidence in the realm of spirituality is also a sin. It is spiritual pride. It is pharisaical self-righteousness. Woe to us when we take God's grace for granted and forget that even the righteous are scarcely saved. Woe to them that are at ease in Zion. The Christian must ever remember that though he stands on a rock, at the same time he stands at the brink of a precipice. Our past success and our past accomplishments can be of a great spiritual danger to us. And Paul was no stranger to the dangers of success in the Christian life. He knew that those who are strongly rooted in the faith are not easily shaken, but they too are equally the targets of the fiery darts of the evil one. The temptation of strong Christians is complacency, a feeling of doing rather well in my Christian walk, a spirit of having arrived, thank you. But Paul knew of that danger, even for himself. And therefore, we hear him, brethren, I do not count myself as to having apprehended or if you have already attained it. No, I have not arrived yet. And so I forget what is behind. I forget what I've already achieved, and I press on. There's work yet to be done. And that work so overshadowed what had been done that the past became insignificant for Paul. I forget the past, and I press on in my resolve to live in the service of the Lord. Imagine that, Paul. such a gifted scholar, endowed with a deeper insight into the things of God more than any other man, honored with the privilege of writing nearly half of the New Testament, the most zealous and blessed missionary of all time, and yet he said, I must forget the things that are behind. I must forget that which I have already achieved, for there is still so much more to do. So great was the danger that his privileged position in the kingdom of God would lead Paul to spiritual pride that he was given a thorn in the flesh, lest he should exalt himself. My dear people of God, Paul knew spiritual humility. He knew himself to be the greatest of all sinners, and yet he knew the admonition to forget the things that are behind. He knew that that forgetting his sinful past was necessary if he was to focus on the vicarious atonement of Christ. But he knew, too, that forgetting his own achievements were necessary to prevent him from becoming impressed with himself. In Romans, we hear Paul putting it all together when he cries out jubilantly, let him who glories, let him glory only in the cross. congregation, our culture, our time teaches us to be rather proud of ourselves. We are to develop self-esteem. No, no, says scripture. No, no, says scripture. We may not become impressed with ourselves. We are to cry out, let him who glories, glory not in himself, but let him glory only in the cross. Try to capture that biblical principle. The Christian is called to a life perfect service and devotion. But as the Heidelberg Catechism articulated so poignantly, even the holiest of men while in this life have only a small beginning of that obedience that was required. And Jesus bursts our proud bubble when he tells us that when we have done well, and have done all that we can and have done well, we must still, read it in Luke, we must still count ourselves as being unprofitable servants. After we have done all and we've done well, we are then still to count ourselves as being unprofitable servants. All our good works are sin-tainted and imperfect expressions of gratitude for the complete salvation earned for us by Christ. There is but one life of good works that is acceptable in the sight of God, and that is Christ. And just as we may not add to the sufficiency of his suffering by dwelling on our sinful past, so we may also not add to the sufficiency of his goodness by claiming our own goodness in addition. Rather, let us demonstrate the spirit of humility, the spirit of humility ever, ever attaining, but never satisfied apostles. Let us capture his humility, who forgot even the great and noble things in his past, because he realized, as he wrote so beautifully, that by the grace we are saved through faith, that not of ourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Then finally, there exists one more class of things to be forgotten, and it is this. the born-again regenerated child of God, along with natural man, lives in a world affected and polluted and corrupted by sin. And like the unbeliever, and sometimes more than the unbeliever, the Christian is subject to the heavy hand of adversity. And there are difficulties in life which arise neither from our personal failure nor from our personal success, but are caused by circumstances quite beyond our control. For instance, the untimely death of a loved one, or some great disappointment, or the inability to achieve a noble ideal or dream, or a serious physical illness or infirmity. And people thought when such adversities afflict us, There are very few among us, there are very few Jeremiahs among us who, for instance, at the deathbed of a child or in the darkness of a lost hope can say, why does man complain for the punishment of his sin? No, instead, we are more apt to the self-righteous side of our nature, and with bitterness and rebellion, permit ourselves to ask that dangerous little question, why? Why, God? Why? Why me, God? Why? congregation, few things are so destructive of the spiritual life as a heart that questions the providence of God. Trust cannot be nurtured through doubt. Faith cannot grow in bitterness. Submission cannot be made ours by a rebellious spirit. Therefore, the pains and disappointments, even the sorrows that we experienced, must also be part of that which Paul tells us to forget. to forget as we press on in our Christian walk. Put it all behind you, says Paul. Put it all behind you, says the Lord God. Forget that which was before, or if you will, resolve to refuse to let any adversity, however painful, to rob you of your Christian joy, hope, and confidence. Instead, recognize every sorrow every tear, every pain as an opportunity to grow in the virtue of godly patience to which the examples of the lives of the saints and especially the life of our Lord calls us to in 2025. People, if we're going to face this coming year with confidence, then we need to first of all be fully persuaded of the fatherly providence of God. We need to be convinced of that most comforting doctrine of the scriptures that God knows, that God cares, and that every trial, with every trial, God will also provide the necessary strength that we may be able to bear it, or else he will provide a way of escape. And now, all the pieces are starting to fall into place, aren't they? how gloriously, how graciously, how completely then God has equipped us as we stand at the threshold of a new year. Our world hasn't changed. It's still a world with devils filled, but we enter it with confidence. We enter the year forgetting our sin of the past, because it's all been cleansed in the blood of Christ, and God remembers it no more. We enter the year forgetting our past accomplishments, lest they bring us to self-righteous sanctimony. And we begin this new year forgetting our difficult circumstances, since even the evil that God sends our way in this veil of tears, he will avert it or turn it to a profit. In that confidence, forgetting what was before, we press on into the year of our Lord, 2025. Shall we pray? Well, Father, we confess that God helped us in our deepest needs. His grace abideth ever. He ransomed us from all our foes. His grace abideth ever. Each creature's need he doth supply. His grace abideth ever. Give thanks to God enthroned on high, his mercy failing.