It is the 364^th day of 2001. Tomorrow night, we will celebrate the change into a new year. Technically, it won’t really mean much—you replace your old calendar, get used to writing "02" on your checks. New Year’s is a time of looking back at the year we’ve had and looking forward at the year to come. We think about the high and low points of the year, the defining events that have taken place, and we often make determinations about how we will live and what we will change about ourselves.

Rebirth, reform, resolve to do better, are all involved in our new year’s traditions. That being the case, what better time to look at the Bible principles of repentance and spiritual rebirth?

New Year’s Resolutions are made from guilt. We see a failure to do something like we should and we resolve to do better. A resolution is defined as a "decision as to future action," and to be resolute is to be "fixed and firm in purpose; determined." The most common resolutions involve losing weight and taking better care of our bodies. It is a good thing to see to your health, for your sake and your family’s. But we should conversely consider that while our bodies grow fat from too much intake, our spirits are hungry and malnourished. Let’s include our souls in our New Year’s Resolutions this year. I guarantee that if we consider things in the spirit, it will improve us all around. We can clean out our fridge, take those Krispy Kremes to the poor.

As I said, every new resolution is made of a sense of guilt. That is rightly so—all men are very much guilty and have a need to resolve to change our minds.

In the first epistle of John, we are reminded of the burden of guilt that men bear—the burden of sin.

I John 1:8-10: If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

I John 3:4: Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.

In Romans 3, Paul reminded the Christians in Rome of the guilt of every man in showing that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile in the kingdom.

Romans 3:9: What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin;

Romans 3:21-23: But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Take a literary example from ninth grade English. Edgar Alan Poe’s short story The Tell-Tale Heart is about a man (who’s not too sane to begin with) who kills an old man and hides the body in the floor where no one would find it, but he continues to hear what he thinks is the old man’s heart beating in his head. What he doesn’t realize is that it is his OWN heart he hears. His guiltdrives him even more crazy, until he tears the boards up and reveals his crime.

Of course, this truth didn’t get by old Solomon—

Proverbs 13:15: . . . the way of the treacherous [or "transgressors"] is hard.

Isaiah 64:6: For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

Our own guilt is enough—we can certainly understand what an enormous thing the guilt of every individual who has ever or will ever live is. That’s a lot of filthy garments—one huge load of laundry to clean. Yet in Isaiah, our renewal is prophesied of—

Isaiah 53:4-6: Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening of our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.

All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.

We are guilty, but we have HOPE! What will it take to be cleansed?

Isaiah 1:18-20: "Come now, and let us reason together," says the Lord, "Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.

"If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land;

"But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword." Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

It takes repentance to be cleansed of our guilt. We must resolve to repent. The act of repentance is an act of change, of turning away from evil to God. However, within the Bible it does not always mean specifically that. There have been instances where GOD has repented.

In Jonah 3:10, the Lord turned from His intended course of action against the Ninevites—

[Joel, Amos, Obadiah, JONAH, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah . . .]

Jonah 3:10: When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented [or "repented"] concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.

Repentance has been a principle unto salvation since the very beginning. In Matthew 3, John the Baptist came forth preaching repentance in the wilderness of Judea—

Matthew 3:2: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

This was an urgent message, repeated by Christ, and further repeated by those He sent forth. Why was it so urgent? In Luke 13, Christ laid the truth out plain and simple for the Jews. Here was an instance where some Galileans had been killed while making sacrifices, and the Jews thought surely these men were guilty of sins far greater than theirs—

Luke 16:1-3: Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

And He answered and said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered this fate?

"I tell you, no, but, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

Repentance is something that is necessary in order to enter the kingdom of God. It’s been said that it is easy to believe, confess, and be baptized, but it’s hard to repent.

Repentance is not just coming to a realization of our guilt. Those present at Pentecost in Acts 2 were pricked in their hearts, coming to a full knowledge of what they had done. Yet when they asked Peter what they must do, he told them to repent—in feeling guilt they had not yet repented. Judas Iscariot felt the burden of guilt, but rather than repent, he died in his guilt: he chose to hang himself. However, when Peter sinned against Christ, he repented, turning from that action to do good works for the Lord.

Matthew 21:28-29: "But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’

"And he answered and said, ‘I will, sir’; and he did not go.

"And he came to the second and said the same thing. But he answered and said, ‘I will not’; yet he afterward regretted it and went.

When we go to the work, we are welcomed into His kingdom. True repentance is demonstrated in our actions. When the sorcerers of Acts 19 repented, they burned their books of sorcery. When the Philippian jailor in Acts 16 was converted, he washed the stripes of Paul and Silas—he was hours before in the business of putting stripes ON Paul and Silas.

Let us resolve to act against that which we were formerly committed to.

Repentance, a change of mind, is a necessary part of our renewal and spiritual rebirth. We’re familiar with the cartoon representation of the changing of the year, "Out with the old and in with the new": the old man with a long gray beard wearing the banner of 2001going out as the cherub-faced, curly-headed 2002 baby comes in. That same illustration is used to describe the changing over from a life of guilt and sin to a life of faith and purity.

There are quite a few of us who are just starting out—we don’t have quite a lot to look back and reflect on. Some of you have not committed your life to Christ and obeyed the gospel, though you understand the need. Perhaps you don’t have a lot of responsibility yet, and therefore not a lot of guilt (even though all it takes it a little to torment you). YOU ARE AT AN ADVANTAGE—TAKE THE BULL BY THE HORNS! You have a choice laid before you as another years rolls around. You can choose to take on the tattered and filthy robe of sin and this world, or you can get a fresh start, a new and righteous self, before you have to leave your parents and the world gets a-hold of you.

Colossians 3:5-11

Several major events of the Old Testament are types, or living allegories, of the cleansing and rebirth of baptism.

Consider the destruction of the world by water. God saw a world corrupted by sin, and He determined to cleanse it of that wickedness—

Genesis 6:5-7: Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

And the Lord said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."

But Noah, in his obedience, found favor with God. And in his obedience, he and his family was saved, while the rest of the world was buried beneath them in a tomb of water. I imagine this was the most memorable New Year that the world has ever seen—

Genesis 8:13: Now it came about in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was dried up.

Today our souls are purified by water—

I Peter 3:21: And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Baptism is a burial with Christ, a resurrection into His life. After giving your heart to Christ, your sinful life is dead to you.

Romans 6:1-11

II Kings 5:14: So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

When we are baptized into Christ’s kingdom, we become "as children"—

Romans 8:16-17: The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

We are encouraged to be renewed, "like little children" in our Christian lives—

I Peter 2:1-3: Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander,

Like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,

If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

We’ve already looked briefly at the book of Jonah this morning. Within its text we find many examples of repentance and renewal. Jonah fled from the Lord and His will, but was brought low by His power in the stomach of the fish for three days and nights, during which he prayed and repented to God. Having been cast back ashore, he went and preached repentance to the Ninevites, who turned from their wicked ways and caused God to turn from his path of destruction upon them.

God at this very moment has determined to destroy the world and all the disobedient people within it. His mind is made up. He and only He knows exactly when He is going to do it.

Acts 17:30-31: Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent,

Because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.

The clock is ticking . . . and all we know is that we have one less day than we did yesterday. We have a few hours less now than we did at breakfast.

Christ told Nicodemus—

John 3:3-5: Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?"

Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

I’ve heard of some high school students who don’t want to be baptized because they know they’ll just sin afterwards anyway. To that I can only respond: "That which you purpose in your heart, you will do."

"ALL have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." But there are some who intend to do it, and some who intend to avoid it. YOU have to make the determination which you will be.

We must take stock of our lives and resolve to serve God. "I am resolved no longer to linger . . . ."

Make your New Year’s Resolution a NEW LIFE Resolution.

Acts 22:16: And now why do you delay? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.