Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9. I just asked
our brother to read Luke's account of this. As you heard him read, our Lord right here just finished
telling a group of religious Pharisees that He did not come
into this world to save people who considered themselves to
be in their own flesh righteous before God. perfect before God, acceptable
before God, based on what they saw in themselves. He said, I
did not come to save those who say and believe in their heart
that they are right with God. And you will hear that a lot. People believe that a lot. based on the flesh, based on
this flesh, based on what I do, what I say, what I think, how
I live, a lot of times people will say, I'm right with God. He or she is right with God. Well, our Lord said to a whole
bunch of religious people, I did not come into this world to call,
that means to save, Those who believe when they look at themselves
in their bodies, I am right with God. Based on what I see right
here, I am righteous before God. He said, that's not who I came
to save. I came to save those who see
themselves in the flesh that they live in to be sinners. Sinners before God. Based on
what I see right here in myself, I'm wretched before God. I say that, I believe that in
my heart. I'm a vile, ruined sinner before
God. I ruined it. Based on what I
see in myself, I ruined it. I just ruined it. He said, that's
who I came to save. That's exactly who I came to
save. Now, that's what we looked at last Sunday. And understanding
that will cause us to understand what he's saying for our text
today, all right? Let's read verses 14 to 17 together. Matthew chapter nine, verse 14. Then came to him the disciples
of John saying, why do we and the Pharisees fast oft but thy
disciples fast not? And Jesus said unto them, can
the children of the bride chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom
is with them? But the days will come when the
bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. No man putteth a piece of new
cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill
it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither
do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break
and the wine runneth out and the bottles perish, but they
put new wine into new bottles and both are preserved. These disciples of John, And
all that the word disciple means is a follower of somebody. If
you ever wonder, why did John have disciples? Well, you had
people who followed him, listened to him, heard him, learned from
him. That's what a disciple is. But
these disciples of John took it upon themselves to fast on
a regular basis, not eat food. on a regular basis, and the Pharisees
fasted on a regular basis. Fasting was a sign of mourning. It was a, if a person or if a
group of people or if a whole nation was sad or distressed,
if they were in fear, in need, sometimes they would have a fast,
you know, the king, the ruler, the whoever would declare a fast. And what it was is a, let's take
a moment to deny ourselves and deny everything and wait on the
Lord and look to the Lord. We need help. We need help. So that's what fasting was. And
it was something that the Lord's people did in their moments of
need. But the Pharisees and the rulers
of false religion, they took something that was from the heart and they made a ritual out of
it. All right, this is something
that God's people were doing from the heart. I want to deny
myself and wait on you. I'm gonna wait until you fill
me with your spirit and your will and all right. So the Pharisees took something
that was from the heart and they made a religious ritual out of
it. In the account, we mentioned
it a couple of times recently in the account of the Pharisee
and the publican in the temple there in Luke 18, the Pharisee
said, The religious Pharisee said in pride, and he said in
self-righteousness, boasting of himself and what he saw to
be as goodness in his own flesh. He saw his flesh to be good and
right before God. And this is what he said. He
said, I fast two times every week. So these disciples of John, they
came up to the Lord and they said, we fast. And the Pharisees
fast, but your disciples, those who
follow you and look to you and listen to
you and believe on you, they don't fast. And they wanted to know why not? And the Lord answered them, and
he said, well, for one, it's because they're not sad. They're
with me. He said, I'm the bridegroom.
That's what John the Baptist said. And as a little side note,
all those disciples of John, you know what John told them?
Behold the Lamb. Follow Him. And it says all the
disciples of John left John, and they followed Him. John said, he's the bridegroom. I'm just the friend of the bridegroom
who finds all my joy in rejoicing and standing next to him and
just listening to him. So the Lord said, I'm the bridegroom.
And he said, can the children of the bridegroom be sad as long
as they're with the bridegroom? But speaking of the cross that
he would bear for his people, he came here for one reason only
for this cause came I into the world to endure the cross. Speaking
of the cross, speaking of the death that he would die to put
away the sin of all of his chosen people. Speaking of the resurrection
and the Ascension back to the father that he would go to prepare
a place for his people. He said, there will come a time
when they will be sad. When I leave them, sorrow will
fill their hearts and they will be sad again and they will fast.
But he said, to truly answer your question, they wanted to
know why, why don't we all fast? Why don't they? He said, to truly
answer your question, It's for this reason right here, verse
16. No man putteth a piece of new
cloth into an old garment, for that which is put in to fill
it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither
do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break,
and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish. But they
put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved." He said,
that's the reason why. They came to him wanting to know
why. He said, that's the reason why. Now, three weeks ago, Our
brother Darwin Pruitt preached to us from this very account. I don't know if you remember
that or not, but the Lord very much blessed that message to
my heart. The Lord revealed something to
me, caused me to see something more clearly than I've ever seen
it before. And I want to just repeat it
to you. By the grace of God, all I wanna do is just tell us
what the Lord is saying right here. That's the whole point
of this message. And I don't wanna build up to it. I don't
wanna take the next 17 minutes and build up to this. I wanna
tell you right now. I'm gonna give you the whole
point of the message right now. This is like the light bulb moment,
okay? And then after I tell you this,
we'll spend the rest of our time explaining it and building up
to this moment. The disciples of John came to the Lord and
they said, we and the Pharisees observe and we obey this ritual,
this in their eyes, in their own eyes, religious practice
of fasting. We're religious. And they said, we're doing this
to try to be obedient before God. And we're trying to be spiritual
before God. It doesn't have anything to do
with us being sad. It doesn't have anything to do
with us being in need. We're doing it to obey this ritual
of the law. But they said, your disciples
don't do that. And what they're getting at is,
this is what they're getting at. How can they be saved if
they don't obey the ritual of the law? That's the same response that
the Pharisee had when they saw the Lord's disciples pluck corn
on the Sabbath day. You remember that? Look at it
with me quickly. Matthew 12, Matthew chapter 12, verse one. At that time, Jesus went on the
Sabbath day through the corn and his disciples were in hungered
and begin to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. But when the
Pharisee saw it, they said unto him, behold, thy disciples do
that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. But he
said unto them, the Lord said to them, have you not read what
David did when he was in hungered and they that were with him?
How he entered into the house of God and did eat the showbread,
which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which
were with him, but only for the priest. Or have you not read
in the law how that on the Sabbath days, the priest and the temple
profane the Sabbath and are blameless? How can you be saved if you don't
obey the law in your flesh? That's what they were getting
at. How can a man be just with God if he does not obey the law
in his flesh? And this is what the Lord told
them, all right, in answer to their question, this is what
he told them. He said, salvation does not come
by the works of the law. It comes by the grace of God. It comes by the grace of God. This account is all about works
and grace. It's all about law and grace. That's the punchline to the whole
thing. They said, why are your disciples
not obeying the law? He said, it's because salvation
does not come by obeying the law. It comes by the free gift of
the righteousness and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he illustrated to
them with clothes and wine. That's how he answered them.
They said, why don't they do that? He said, clothes and wine.
That's the whole reason. Clothes and wine. The garment represents the covering
of his righteousness. This perfect, new, spotless,
complete, robe of righteousness. And the wine represents the perfect
payment of his blood. Wine represents blood in the
scripture. He bore the wine press. He answered them by saying, both
of those things are of God. They are of God, the covering
of righteousness and the payment of blood. Both of those things
are of God. of God alone. Salvation does
not come by any work that man produces. Salvation is totally
the work of God alone. Why don't they fast? Because
salvation is totally the work of God alone on you and in you. Clothes go on you, wine goes
in you. Salvation is of the Lord inside
and out. Now that's the punchline to the
whole thing. Let's take just a minute, it won't be long, let's
take just a minute and let's see it in the scripture, prove
it in the scripture, we'll build back up to it, alright? Look
with me if you would at Romans 3. The Apostle Paul is speaking
of Jews and Gentiles here, and he says in verse 9, Romans 3
verse 9, What then? Are we better than
they? No, in no wise. For we have before proved both
Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. As it is written,
there is none righteous. No, not one. Man thinks that
he is obeying God's law, but he is not. He may be trying real hard on
the outside, but he's not on the inside. He's not even trying
on the inside. All men and women are sinners
before God. Verse 19, Romans 3 verse 19. Now we know that what thing soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law. Who's
under the law? Everybody. We know that what
things, soever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God. You, you declare these things,
man's sinfulness and God's holiness. And people saying, Oh, wait a
minute now, but hold on. But the law was given in the
way that it was given so that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become
guilty before God. Verse 20, therefore, and let's
see if the Lord will open our eyes to this. Verse 20, therefore,
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. What the law does for us is it
does not justify us before God. and we'll go on to see why. But
what it does is it exposes how much we break the law. That's
the whole reason the law was given, to prove our sin to us. We read the law and we have to
say, I don't do that. Verse 21, but now the righteousness
of God. Romans 10 talks about You know,
Paul is talking about his sorrow in his heart that men and women
have a zeal of God but it's not according to knowledge because
they're trying to establish their own righteousness and they haven't
bowed to the righteousness of God Almighty who is a person. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. Verse 21, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested. God was manifested. Christ came
being witnessed by the law and the prophets. The law witnessed
Jesus Christ. The prophets witnessed Jesus
Christ. Verse 22, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon
all them that believe, for there's no difference. For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Verse 24 says, being justified
freely by His grace. That means gift, His free gift. Through the redemption, that
means the full payment. You go to the store and buy something,
they will not let you walk out until you've paid the price in
full. If it's $10 and you give them
five, you can't leave with it. You have not redeemed it. That's
payment in full verse 24, being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption, the full total complete payment that is
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God to declare. I say at this time, his righteousness,
that he might be just. and the justifier of him which
believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It's
excluded. By what law? Of works? Nope. By the law of faith. Watch verse
28. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. That's
clear, isn't it? Men and women are justified by
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Where does faith come from? Not
of yourself, that's the gift of God. We're His workmanship. Justified by faith without the
deeds of the law. Look with me at Galatians chapter
three. Galatians 3 verse 10 says, for as many as are of the works
of the law, meaning trying to be saved through obeying the
works of the law, as many as are of the works of the law are
under the curse. Why? For it is written, cursed
is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. If you break one, it's
damnation forever. If that's what you're clinging
to is the works of the law and the obedience of the law. If
you break one, it's damnation forever. Verse 11 says, but that
no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident,
for the just shall live by looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. What
that's saying is, He is our life. That's how we live, by faith
in Him. Verse 12, and the law is not
of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. If that's
the bed we want to make, we'll have to sleep in it. Verse 13
says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being
made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree being made a curse for a standing
in our place, laying our condition on himself. That's how men and women are
justified before God. Look at verse 24 right here,
Galatians 3 verse 24. It says, Wherefore, the law was
our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be
justified by faith. But after that faith is come,
we're no longer under a schoolmaster, for you are all the children
of God by faith in Christ Jesus. just by being given faith from
God to look to the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness
and His blood and His obedience before God alone. We've been
made to be the children of God. Turn the page and look at Galatians
4, verse 21. It says, tell me, ye that desire to be
under the law, do you not hear the law? Do you not hear the
strict demands of God's holy justice in that law? Do we not
see the absolute inability in our flesh to perform any part
of God's unchanging, unforgiving law? In our flesh, we are so far from
being what the law demands, We could never, never in a satisfactory
way to God, never dot one I of the law or just cross one T of
the law, never. There is no ability in us. And that's what the Lord told
John's disciples. Go with me if you would back
to Matthew nine, verse 16 says, No man putteth a piece of new
cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill
it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Now,
when we read that, this is where we naturally go wrong, all right? We hear what that says, and this
is where we go wrong. We view that, naturally, we view
that, this old garment, as still in good condition, It's just
out of date. Really, it's still good. What
happened is I bumped up against some barbed wire and it tore
it right there. Everything else on it is still
good. I just have one little tear right there and a patch
will be fine. Patch will be fine. That's what
man thinks about his sin. That's not what our Lord is describing
right here. He's describing a garment that
is so old, it's brittle. So worn thin, you've seen old
flags and you've seen old cloth that is so worn thin, it's disintegrating. It's fibers are just absolutely,
don't touch it, it's ruined. Just don't touch it, it's absolutely
ruined. That is an accurate description
of what sin has done to us. We have to view this with a correct
view of what sin has done to us. And what he's saying is,
if you try to sew a piece of cloth to that, the whole thing's
gonna just disintegrate. It's not gonna work. Luke's account words it to say,
and this is what was revealed to me. You talk about good. Luke's
account words it to say, no man cuts a piece of cloth out of
a brand new garment and tries to patch up that old
disintegrating. You got a brand spanking new,
perfect, spotless, Nobody goes and gets a brand new garment
and tries to cut a piece out of it to patch this old, rotting,
brittle, disintegrating robe that they're wearing. But do
you know that's what men and women are trying to do with Christ's
righteousness? They're just trying to cut bits
and pieces of it and patch up the little holes that they think
they have in their own robe of righteousness. And the Lord said,
it's not going to work. It is just not going to work.
Man does not want to put on the spotless perfect. He doesn't
want to just wear the robe of Christ's righteousness. He wants
to patch his own. And when that happens, man ruins
everything. He ruins everything. And he's
going to end up with no covering at all before God. He's now ruined
that one for himself. And the one he has on is ruined.
There's no covering at all. Verse 17, and I'll be quick.
Verse 17, neither do men put new wine into old bottles else
the bottles break and the wine runneth out and the bottles perish,
but they put new wine into new bottles and both are preserved. He said, you don't get, you know,
wine bottles back then were leather bags and they find themselves
in the same condition the garment was in. You don't go get a thrown
out, brittled, you know, holes in it. You don't go get one of those
to store new wine. It won't hold it and it's going
to break and the wine is going to be gone. Both will be lost. Spiritually, here's what that
means. You don't mix the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ with
the flesh of man. You just don't do it. Everything
will fall apart and you're gonna lose all claim to the blood. It must be the blood of Christ
and the body of Christ. His body, His blood alone, you
cannot mix His work with ours and you cannot mix our work with
His. Inside and out, it must be Him alone. And when it is,
when it is him alone, when a center receives faith to see that and
to believe that when that realization comes that in Christ, we're free
from the law. You want to know when, when happiness
comes to centers. when they realize in Christ,
we are free from the law and it's such a happy condition.
The Lord Jesus Christ bled and there is remission. I was cursed
by the law and bruised by the fall, but Jesus Christ redeemed
me and all of my brethren in him once, one time. once for
all. He came here and He earned a
perfect robe of righteousness and laid it on me and shed the
precious blood of His own veins to pay the debt for me. I'm free. He said, if you ever come to
know the truth, the truth will make you free. It's a happy condition. It's
such a happy condition. I'm going to close with this.
Go to Isaiah 61. Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help. The God of the sinner for his
help. Isaiah 61 verse 10, I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord. I'll greatly rejoice. My soul shall be joyful in my
God. For he hath clothed me with the
garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe
of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments,
and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. For as the earth
bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things
that are sown in it to spring forth, So the Lord God will cause
righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations."
And He did. His name is Jesus Christ. Righteousness
sprang forth. And all who He came to gather
together with Him, they're so happy. They say, the law came
by Moses. But grace and truth came by the
Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God. Thank God for the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, Brother Eddie, you
come.