January 1st, as has every January 1st for the 2,026 years, commemorates the indisputable historical event when God became flesh and was born in a little town of Bethlehem. It is now 2,026 years since that day. And because of what happened 2,026 years ago, everything in the history of the world is now marked by four letters – BC and AD, meaning ‘Before Christ’ and ‘Anno Domini’, which is Latin for “The Year of our Lord.’
Yes,
there are those who make the feeble and clumsily deceptive attempt to deny the
undeniable by changing BC to BCE, meaning ‘Before the Common Era,’ and to
change AD to CE, meaning “The Common Era.’ Thus, they label 2026 ‘CE’ instead
of what it truly is, 2026 ‘AD.’
Nevertheless,
on January first of this past week, and for the remaining days of the year,
when anyone places the date on any letter or document, they will – whether
consciously or unwittingly or grudgingly – acknowledge that the Almighty,
Sovereign, and most Merciful Creator entered humanity to REDEEM humanity 2,026
years ago. Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and those of every other religious
faith – and yes, even agnostics and atheists of every nation and language – God
the Father has compelled the entire globe to acknowledge the birth of His Son
in that little town of Bethlehem.
But
let me now for a moment turn our attention to those who joyfully acknowledge
the birth of our Savior: May God remind us – at least from time to time this
year – that the calendar has changed because God so loved the world that He
gave his only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him would not perish,
but have everlasting life.
AND, to those of us who joyfully acknowledge His birth, here is a reminder: We
have a lot of people to pray for, that in this new year, many will turn from
their spiritual darkness and enter His light.
So,
on this first Sunday at the beginning of 2026 I thought it was apropos to
talk about beginnings. That’s why I draw us now to the very beginning of the
Bible – the Bible which is the very breath of God in printed form. If that
sounds suspiciously like a text from the apostle Paul, you’d be right. Listen
to what he wrote to Timothy: (2 Timothy 3:16) “All Scripture is inspired by
God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in
righteousness.” The Greek word translated as ‘inspired’ means,
‘God-breathed.’
So,
ALL the Bible is ‘God-breathed’ – and it tells us: “In the beginning, God
created the heavens in the Earth.” The text goes on to tell us: The “earth
was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the
deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of
the waters.” (Genesis 1:1-2)
And
then God spoke. And the entire universe and everything in it were suddenly
created on each of the six successive 24-hour creation days.
Fast
forward to the New Testament where we also read of beginnings. Here is John’s
gospel: (John 1:1-5) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with
God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing
came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life
was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness did not comprehend (or, overcome) it.”
Belief in the infallibility of these texts in Genesis and John’s gospel are absolutely
essential to our ability to understand the history of our sin-sick world and
even to understand ourselves. Without a biblical understanding our origins, it’s
not possible to know the meaning of life, the meaning of death, and what
happens to us after we die.
Let’s
look for a few minutes at that trio of philosophical questions people have been
asking themselves since the Garden of Eden: What is the meaning of life, the
meaning of death, and what happens to us after we die?
To
answer those questions, we can look at another ‘beginning,’ this one in Mark’s
gospel: (Mark 1:1-3) The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of
God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I send My
messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way; The voice of one crying
in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.’”
Mark
then gets to the overarching point of the gospel message when he then reports: “John
the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance
for the forgiveness of sins.”
The
Holy Spirit placed this text at the beginning of His announcement of His ‘good
news’ because it is at “Repentance and forgiveness of sins” where God’s good
news begins. Repentance and forgiveness of sins is where we begin to grasp the
answers to that trio of philosophical questions of who I am, how I got here,
and where I’m going. And without a recognition of the Bible as God’s fully
revealed and inerrant truth, no one can ever understand ANY of life’s deepest
questions.
Admittedly,
not many people like to think of themselves as sinners – which, of course, is
why so many scoff at the very idea of repentance. But unless we acknowledge to
ourselves AND to God our continuing treasonous rebellion against the King of
the universe – then the notion of needing a savior, the idea of needing
forgiveness naturally falls flat. Perhaps that’s why Jesus said, (Luke 5:32) “I
have not come to call the righteous but sinners to
repentance.”
Speaking
of making our paths straight, our sin-nature and our sin-saturated culture –
even here at Ashwood – makes making straight paths difficult, doesn’t it? I
know from my 10 years of ministry here that that there are many false ideas in
this place about God, dismissive ideas about Jesus, the trivializing of what
God calls sin, and the rationalizations people make about the growing
immorality in our American culture – immorality among young people and
not-so-young people.
And
in the last ten years I’ve also heard it often enough about the gossip, the backbiting,
the unwillingness of some to forgive others – sins occurring even among
Christians who have lived and who live here.
And
that brings me to the point of this New Year’s message. How are we to keep our
paths straight in today’s culture? How are we, at the beginning of 2026 and then
throughout the year – how are we to fight the good fight and keep the faith?
Please hear this! It is ONLY those who DO fight the good fight and who DO keep
the faith – it is only those who will receive the crown of righteousness, which
the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to us on that Judgement Day. I
suspect many of you recognized my paraphrase of St Paul’s words to Timothy in
that last chapter of his second epistle. (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
How
do we fight the good fight and keep the faith? That question is the focus of
what I am about to say – and yes, it’s nothing you haven’t heard me say before;
And I promise I will say it again in the future. Why? Because ‘I’ need frequent
reminders of this truth; and so do you. As Martin Luther perceptively opined: “We
need to hear the gospel every day because we forget the gospel every day.”
Listen
to St Paul’s guidance to Timothy, which is entirely applicable to all of us in
this sanctuary at the beginning of 2026: (2 Timothy 3:13-17) “But evil men and impostors will
proceed from bad to
worse, deceiving and being deceived . . ..”
Does
that sound like our culture, from the halls of government, the courts, and realms
of finance, and education? I think so. But Paul continued his counsel to
Timothy – and to us:
“You,
however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of,
knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood
you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the
wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so
that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
Christian!
How do we fight the good fight and keep the faith of Christ in 2026? CONTINUE following
in Christ’s footsteps. CONTINUE listening for His voice as He speaks through
His word. I do not think it’s possible to draw near to God if, while we have
such easy access to the Bible, we’re too lazy to read it, or listen to it, and study
it, and obey its commandments.
Listen
now to the apostle John: “Beloved, now we are children of God,
and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when
He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as
He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on
Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (1 John 3:2-3)
Paul
tells us: 2 Corinthians 7:1 “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let
us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of God.”
But
it’s hard to purify ourselves, it’s hard to cleanse ourselves from defilements
of flesh and spirit when we surround ourselves with ungodly talk, books,
magazines, movies and television shows. You’ve heard the expression: Garbage
in, garbage out. That adage is merely a rephrase of Scripture: (1 Corinthians
15:33) “Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”
For
many years I’ve followed what I call the 2+2 =1+3 Scripture Reading Method. Many
of you have heard me speak of it in the past, and I ask your indulgence as I
share it again for those who have not heard of it.
If
you read two chapters of the Old Testament every morning and two of the New
Testament every evening (or vice versa), by the end of the year you will have
read the Old Testament once and the New Testament three times – thus, 2+2=1+3.
On average it takes less than 10 minutes to read two chapters of Scripture. In
five years, you will have read the Old Testament five times and the New
Testament fifteen times. In ten years – well, you can do the
math. With so much of God’s word sown year after year in your heart, think how
the Holy Spirit will mature you more quickly into the image of Christ.
I
have here free copies of the pamphlet I wrote to help anyone read the bible
through each year. I know many of you already have one. I will make them
available again at the end of today’s service.
Make
our paths straight. Fight the fight of faith. And – stay alert to yourself and
your surroundings. Stay alert to lies and deceptions – including the
spiritual
deceptions of false religions such as Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses – both
of which (among their many serious errors) deny the full deity and simultaneous
full humanity of Jesus Christ.
And
please do not be ignorant of this: Spiritual deceptions are increasing at what
seems to me an exponential rate – deceptions not only related to false
religions, but now, and with stunning speed, related to technology.
Let
me give you what ought to be frightening examples of a NEW deception filtering
through our culture and even through some churches. An August 1, 2025 report about
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Chatbots appeared on CNBC.
What
is a chatbot? “A chatbot is a downloadable computer program that simulates
human conversation through text or voice interactions. These programs can
engage in conversations with users, providing responses that mimic human behavior.
These programs can maintain fluid conversations between the user and the
computer, making the Chatbot appear intelligent and responsive.” (paraphrase
from Wikipedia)
Anyway,
back to the CNBC report. Chatbots “have proven to be smart, quick-witted,
argumentative, helpful and sometimes aggressively romantic.” (Link: Human-AI
relationships are no longer just science fiction)
Did
you get that? ‘Aggressively romantic.’ Did you know that some marriages have
broken apart because one of the partners fell ‘in love’ with their chatbot AI
computer ‘soul-mate’?
And
there’s more. This is from a November 19, 2025 Psychology Today report: “As AI
becomes more deeply woven into daily life, many people turn to digital companions
. . . as sources of emotional intimacy
and increasingly, romance. A survey by the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young
University found that nearly one in five U.S. adults has interacted romantically
with an AI . . .[and] more and more users report forming genuine emotional
attachments with AI, sometimes engaging in self-disclosure and intimacy that
surpasses their human relationships (Wheatley, 2025)” (*In
Love with a ChatBot? | Psychology Today)
It
gets worse. According to a recent article in the Washington Post, several
people have committed suicide after receiving encouragement to do so from their
AI ‘companion.’
And
even worse, still: According to a report in a November 18, 2025 issue of Scientific
America, some mourners engage in what they believe are REAL conversations through
a chatbot with their dead loved ones (*https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-ai-griefbots-help-us-heal/)
Has
spiritual warfare ever, in all history, been so openly and pervasively demonic?
Second Thessalonians chapter two and Revelation chapters 12 and 13 seem to be
unfolding right before our eyes.
Christian!
Make straight the way of the Lord in your life throughout 2026. Be quick to
obey God’s commandments. Be quick to repent when you fail. Keep short accounts
with God, don’t delay a minute when the Holy Spirit pings you when you offend
Him. Pay heed to the psalmist: “If I harbor evil in my heart,
the Lord will not hear me.” (see Psalm 66:18)
We
should not expect God to speak to us if we are consciously living
in sin – and that includes being unwilling to forgive others their sins against
us.
I
close this message with a word from the book of Proverbs – a word we all, me
included – need to apply to our lives this year, with and through the aid of
the Holy Spirit: (Proverbs 4:23-27) Watch over your heart with all
diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from
you a deceitful mouth and put devious speech far from you. Let
your eyes look directly ahead and let your gaze be fixed straight in front
of you. Watch the path of your feet and all your ways will be established.
Do not turn to the right nor to the left; Turn your foot from evil.”
What
is the meaning of life, the meaning of death, and what happens to us after we
die? We will ONLY find the answers to those questions when we search for
answers in God’s word. We will ONLY be able to keep our paths straight and
finish the course well as we seek God’s guidance in His word. We will become
aware of spiritual deceptions swirling around us ONLY as we walk by the light
of the word of God.
The
new year, 2026, is open before us. Only God knows where our days will take us.
But WHEREVER our days take us, take the word of God with you.
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