All right, brethren, let's be
turning to Luke chapter 5. Luke 5. We're going to be picking
up in verse 27 to the end of the chapter. And there's many lessons that
we could see in these verses. They don't even have to all be
taken together. There's a number of wonderful
messages here. But taken together, I see a wonderful
picture of the work of our God in regenerating his people. And what that word regeneration
means, it speaks of a new birth. Regeneration is a new birth,
it's a new creation created of God, which he does in his chosen
elect people that Christ redeemed, that he purchased with his own
blood. And there's three sections here. One of them is the calling
of Matthew. He's called Levi here, but it's
the Apostle Matthew. And regeneration is witnessed
here in Matthew's calling. Then there's a question asked
of our Lord, and that gets to the heart of the problem, our
problem, that this old man of flesh can put on a show of religion. But we need the regeneration,
the birth, the new creation of God for us to cause us to hear
the word in spirit and in truth, and to walk in the spirit and
in truth. Let it not be hypocrisy. And
then our Lord gives a parable and that parable further illustrates
our need for God's regenerating work. So we're going to look
at each of these three sections here together this morning. And
so to begin, I think it's helpful for us to get an understanding
of regeneration, what that means. What does regeneration look like,
this new birth? What are we talking about here?
Well, regeneration, first of all, is a work of God, which
he does. for the sinner. He's the one,
God himself is the one that regenerates sinners because sinners don't
know the true and living God. We don't have an understanding
of the true and living God and we can't make ourselves to know
the true and living God. We need God to do a work for
us. Man will try to do something
for himself but we don't regenerate ourselves. We don't give ourselves
new birth, a new birth, and we can't twist God's arm or compel
him to give us a new birth by something we do or say. It is
entirely the work of God. It's the free grace of God where
God regenerates, gives a new birth in whom he will. He's gracious to whom he will
be gracious. And second, regeneration is an
evidence. That is, where God has regenerated
someone, there's going to be a testimony. There's going to
be evidence that God has done this. There's going to be evidences
that follow that God has called this person and made them a child
of God. I want to read from John chapter
1. If you're able to get there quickly,
go ahead and turn to John chapter 1. And there's two verses that
reveal, that speak to the evidence of regeneration. And it begins
in verse 12. John 1 verse 12. The Spirit says, but as many
as received him. Now there's the evidence. Those
that receive Christ. Then it says, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on
his name. Now I see the order that it's
written in here, but what this is saying is the power of God
must come. The power of God is the one that
regenerates the sinner. And it's by that power, that
regenerating power, that faith follows, that there's a receiving
of Christ, that there's a believing of Christ, and a following of
Christ that follows the power of God. But the power comes first,
and the evidence follows, that God has done a work in this sinner
to deliver them from their death. That is, when Christ comes, when
the word of Christ comes, they don't reject Christ. They don't
say that's foolishness and nonsense. They hear the word and they believe
the word in the day of his grace. And we're told that it's not
a work of the flesh, but it's a work of God from above. Look
at verse 13. Which were born, right, because
that's what we're talking about, a new birth. They were born not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God." In other words, it's not my will, it's not my
boasted free will that has turned my wicked heart to the Lord and
then God decided to be gracious to me, but it's the power of
God which has given me a new birth so that by His grace and
power I receive Christ and believe Him. and follow Him. It's His work. It's His work
that does this. In fact, James, in James 1.17,
we're told, every good gift and every perfect gift, and faith
is a gift, every perfect gift is from above and cometh down
from the Father of lights. Until there's faith, there's
no receiving Christ. Until there's power and life
and the Spirit, there's no receiving Christ. There's no hearing Christ.
There's no understanding or following of Christ. So regeneration is
a new birth. It's a new birth and it's spoken
of in scripture as being born again. Because what is born of
Adam is ineffectual in spiritual things and the things of God.
We need a new birth. We need to be born again. Our
Lord used those words in John 3. John 3, 3, Jesus answered and
said unto Nicodemus, Verily, verily, truly, truly, hear what
I'm saying. He says, I say unto thee, except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He doesn't
recognize God's kingdom. He doesn't hear Christ and rejoice
in what Christ has done, except he be born again. except the
Spirit comes and delivers that sinner out of the bondage of
nature and our darkness. We need a new birth. There needs
to be a new creation. And we won't hear and receive,
except we be born again. And this new birth happens not
according to our will, but according to the will of God. Look at John
3.8. John 3.8, the wind bloweth where it listeth, or where it
wants to. We don't control where the wind
goes. And thou hearest the sound thereof. You hear the evidence
of it. You hear it rustling in the trees
and blowing the leaves and you feel its breeze against your
skin. There's an evidence. But canst
not tell whence it cometh and where it goes. So is everyone
that is born of the Spirit. So that we're told that this
regeneration is God's will, for whom he will, when he wills to
do it. It's not your will or my will.
We can't make another believe. We can't even make ourselves
believe. It's all according to the free grace of God. And so
the Lord is making new creatures of his people because that which
is born of Adam by our parents, our mom and dad, it's spiritually
dead. There's no spiritual life there
by nature. Your parents can be the most
godliest of people, but that does not mean that you are chosen
of God and saved. But if you are chosen of God,
He's going to cause you to hear. He's going to open your ear.
He's going to give you His Spirit. and His power and grace and give
you that faith that looks to Christ, that hears the voice
of Christ and believes Him, that hears Him speaking in His Word,
not audibly, but you hear that this is the Word of God. This
is Christ for my good, for my salvation. This is what He's
done for an undeserving, unworthy sinner like me. And he draws
out the sinner by a new birth and draws him to himself. And
so the Lord's teaching us that he makes his people new creatures,
new creatures. And we're born again by the seed
of Christ. We've all been born by the seed
of Adam, but we need a new birth. And that's the seed of Christ,
the incorruptible seed of Christ, which is wrought in you. and
life springs forth by His grace and power. Just as we read in
2 Corinthians 5.17 Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. It's not the seed of Adam that
saves us. It's not our flesh that saves us. It's the seed
of Christ. It's what Christ has done. He
saves us. And by His grace we are made
new creatures. All these truths can be seen in the calling of
Levi or Matthew. All these truths can be seen.
We're going to see him receive Christ, which means God's power
did that. God's power saved him and called
him to himself. We'll see that it's not of Levi's
flesh. It's not of his power, it's of
the power of Christ. It's Christ's will that saves
him. And then we'll see the evidences of a man who is a new creature,
born again. He'll rise up and follow Christ. So let's begin now in Luke 5,
verse 27. And after these things, Jesus went forth and saw a publican
named Levi, this is Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom.
He was a tax collector, that's what a publican is. He's sitting
there at the booth and he's collecting taxes from the people that have
to pay. And Jesus said unto him, follow
me. Now I looked in the other Gospels,
there's no record of Levi or Matthew having heard Christ before
this. There's no record of it, that
he's heard him or had an interest in Christ at all. He's sitting
doing his job. This is his interest. This is
his livelihood. This is what he wants to do.
He's collecting the taxes from the people, getting rich. And
Christ speaks his word to Levi, which is, follow me. Follow me. And he does. He does, it says, look at verse
28, and he left all, rose up, and followed him. And I love
the order of that. And Luke, that captures that.
Before he ever moved a muscle, before we see him do anything,
the scripture says he left all. By the regenerating power of
God, wrought in him, in that moment, He left everything, His
attachment to the world. He left it all. Then, it says,
He rose up and followed Him. He left it all first. That's
what the Lord does. He detaches our love for this
world, and He delivers us to the arms of Christ. by his grace
and power. Now, there's three more things
here about regeneration that we didn't see yet that we see
right here. First, the regeneration, it's
a quickening. It's a quickening. Before we
are quickened, which means before we're made alive, we're dead
in trespasses and sins. There's no life there. It's just
the seed of Adam. There's no spiritual life. We
don't understand. We don't have the spirit of God
to understand the things of God. But God quickens us by his power,
meaning he makes us alive. He generates us. He gives us
life from the dead. Where there was spiritual death,
just a barrenness, no life, God makes life out of nothing. Well, in this case, out of Christ,
where nothing was in us, entirely by himself. And so there's a
quickening. Second, we see that it's immediate. Our regeneration is immediate
and it's full and complete. There's not a partial regeneration. Once you're regenerated by God,
you are regenerated by God. Now that does not mean there
won't be growth in the knowledge of our God and Savior and of
His grace. There's growth in us, but you
are regenerated. Just like when you were conceived
in your mother's womb. When you were just a tiny little
cell that divided, you were a human. You were already determined to
be a girl or a boy. And when you grew up, you became
a human. You didn't become an elephant
or a watermelon or anything else. You were a child in you from
that moment. Same thing, when you are regenerated,
you are a child of God. You may grow just like you guys
are growing up and you're getting older and you're learning, but
you're a man. You're a child. And you're either
a man or a woman, but you're growing up as you go. And same thing with us. grow
and learn and there will be a growth and increase but the regeneration
is once and done. It's complete. It's complete. And Matthew was immediately delivered
from the kingdom of bondage and brought into the kingdom of Christ.
He was Christ's He was Christ. And again, we may grow. There
may still be some grave cloths to unwrap off our heads and our
eyes like Lazarus, but we're his. We're his from that moment. And then third, the Lord uses
instruments. He uses the instrument of the
word and of a preacher. to convey this gift of regeneration
to his children. He doesn't have to, but this
is what we see in scripture. Now, in this case, the preacher
was Christ. Christ was the preacher here,
and his word was two simple words, follow me, follow me. And that's what the Lord used
as an instrument to regenerate Matthew in that moment. Peter,
Peter writes this in 1 Peter 1.23. He says, being born again, not of corruptible seed, not
of Adam's seeds, not of the flesh, but of incorruptible, of Christ's
seed, by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever."
And so we see there the Lord uses an instrument of the preacher
and the word to convey this gift. That's how he brings it. That's
how when he reveals it in his people. Now here is the evidence
of his regeneration. It continues to be revealed and
manifest in his following Christ. He rose up and followed the Lord.
Verse 29 And Levi made him a great feast in his own house, and there
was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with
him. Matthew not only followed Christ
but he wanted to make a great feast for him. And not only for
himself, but Matthew went and invited other great sinners just
like himself to hear Christ. He wanted others to hear and
to see the Lord Jesus Christ, that they too would know him.
He wanted that. There was a great company of
publicans and of others that sat down with him. You know,
in this too, we're reminded of the humility of Christ. Christ receives sinners. Christ
is the friend of sinners. And that's good news to sinners. That's good news to people who
can't save themselves, who don't have a righteousness, and who
can't work a righteousness for themselves. And you think about
this. This is the Son of God, who is
the Savior of sinners, and yet He's found with the weak, and
the lowly and the base of society. He had already called, who? Fishermen. Uneducated fishermen. Rough,
tough fishermen. Not people of finesse there. And these were fishers in the
sea and Christ made them fishers of men. He did that, not by fair
words and speeches, but in demonstration of God's power. they proclaimed
and declared Christ. And God made it effectual in
the hearts of his people. And now, not only was it fishermen
that the Pharisees despised and the educated despised, but now
he goes and calls a publican who is hated, seen as a traitor
of the people, for working for the Roman government to collect
the taxes. Now he's choosing someone of an unsavory reputation
and character to follow him. And this is who the Lord called
and gathered together. That doesn't say a lot for me,
does it? You know that it's nothing special
about me, and I'm a sinner, a vile sinner, saved by His grace and
mercy, and that's why I'm here. And by those people, you know
I'm not a great guy. Not a great guy. It's by His
grace and mercy that I'm here to the praise and glory of His
name. And so a whole bunch of other publicans come, and they're
eating and drinking with Christ, and He's talking with them. And
that's another precious view of Christ. You that are sinners,
you that have problems, you that have sicknesses and infirmities
and weaknesses and keep messing up, go to Christ. He receives
sinners. Cry out to Him. lay your cares
before him because we see here time and time again those are
the ones that came to him and he was happy to receive them
and spoke with them. And so now we see here that the
Pharisees, the Pharisees, not the publicans, but the Pharisees,
the ones who were very religious and self-righteous and claimed
to have it all together. These were good people. Maybe
they had a couple things to work on, but they were good people
in their minds. And they came and saw this as
a knock on Christ. They saw it as something harmful
to Christ, something bad, something wrong there. Something's not
right there. He's sitting with sinners and eating and drinking
with them and talking to them. How can he stand to be in their
company? They don't have anything. They're
wicked people. Well, it says in verse 30, but
their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying,
why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? Notice
that they didn't go to Christ. They were afraid of him. They
didn't speak directly to him. They went to the disciples. They
probably thought they didn't see Christ around, didn't know
that he was nearby. And they come whispering to separate
them. Say, why? Do you guys realize
you're eating with publicans, with sinners? The people that
you're sitting down with at that table are sinners, wicked people. Doesn't that seem strange to
you? This is the Christ? You guys think this is the Christ?
Don't you realize you're sitting with sinners? Would the Christ
do that? And I'd imagine the disciples
were taken back and thought, oh, yeah, I didn't even think
about this. We were just having such a good
time. enjoying one another's company and eating together that
we didn't even think about the fact that these people are vile
sinners. And Jesus said unto them, wherever
he was, they didn't see it, but now he speaks up and he says
unto them, they that are whole need not a physician, but they
that are sick. You that are sinners, why wouldn't
you be drawn to Christ? That's who he receives. You that
are sick with the plague of sin, that are spiritually dead, have
no hope, have no hope of standing before God, why wouldn't you
come to him? He is the physician, the savior
of sinners. And the other thing that we see
If we're going to be delivered from the line that would chew
us up and tear us apart and cause us to stumble and to become afraid
and get confused and troubled by the enemy, it's Christ that
saves us every time. Isn't that a precious word? Isn't
that a precious word that when he said, they that are whole
need not a physician, but they that are sick? Because if we're
honest, we know, Lord, that's me. I'm sick. And I don't have
it together. There was a time where I thought
I had it together. There was a time where I thought
I was real close to being perfect. And thanks be to God, He smashed
that and broke me apart and caused me to fall on my face by His
grace. And that's what He does for sinners.
And sinners are thankful because He does that. He strips us down,
shows us our nakedness, shows us our folly, shows us that we're
just clothed, not in a garment that covers our nakedness, but
in fig leaves that have us exposed all over, that wither and die
and fall apart. And he does it now, in grace
and mercy, because one day we're gonna stand before our God in
judgment. And I wanna be found, not in
my own righteousness, not in my works, but in what Christ
has done. and all his people rejoice to be robed in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, those, his people are those that
come to Christ for his salvation. He says, I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. And that's a chilling word to
those that are self-righteous, to those who have a righteousness
of their own, because Christ is saying, I didn't come to make
you righteous. I didn't come for you. I came
for those who have no righteousness, for those who cannot save themselves. When you stand before God in
your works, trusting your works, it's going to be a terrifying
day in that day of judgment when you come to God in your own works
of righteousness. Because your garment that you
thought was covering you is going to be found to be full of holes,
exposing your nakedness, and you'll be ashamed in that day.
be ashamed in that day. So Christ's righteousness is
our garment which covers all our sins and actually our sins
are gone and put away we're righteous in Him. Now just as we see here
in the calling of Matthew how that in those who are saved God
first regenerates them graciously and then they They are made new
creatures in Christ and they follow Him. In the next set of
verses we see how Christ brings our need for righteousness right
out in the open. He is showing us every one of
us needs the regeneration of our God. We need Him to do this
work. I need Him to do it for me. You needed him to do it for
you. That's what he makes known here.
And it's a question that's asked of him. And it's something that
was related to the religious, both in John's disciples and
in the Pharisees. So let's look at verse 33. And
they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often
and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees,
but dine, eat, and drink? You guys aren't fasting. You
guys, we see you having a good time. I don't know if this happened
right on the heels Matthew or Mark say it was the disciples
of John that asked him, but Luke doesn't necessarily get into
that because it's a question that's related to our need. And it exposes our need of our
God's salvation for us. So someone's pointing out, you
guys are attending a feast. We see you guys eating healthily. enjoying yourselves in one another's
company and even with publicans of all people. And they're asking,
don't you guys ever fast? Don't you guys ever take a break
from spending so much time with sinners and just fast and pray? Don't you take, don't you spend
time doing that? And he said unto them, can ye
make the children of the bride chamber fast? Can you do that? Can you make The people do that
to fast, right? Now we can do something on the
outside, can't we? We can put on a show and we can
make it look like we're doing something. But that doesn't mean
it's in our heart. that it's of the spirit and of
truth. We can put on a show, but we can't make ourselves fast. And we can't make ourselves pray
in spirit and in truth. That's the grace of God working
in us to do that. When we make another or we make
ourselves do something, in scripture that's exposed to us as a work
of the flesh. Turn over to Galatians chapter
six. Galatians six, we'll see this.
Because this shows how this is, when you make something, when
you do something to do it, it's connected to a work of the flesh,
not the spirit. Galatians 6, verse 12. We'll
read three verses here. Verse 12 through 14. Paul says,
as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain
you. They're forcing you. They're
making you do something. And he says, they constrain you,
and in this example, to be circumcised only lest they should suffer
persecution for the cross of Christ. They wouldn't want to
be accused of trusting Christ and hoping in his grace and power. They wouldn't want anyone to
accuse them that they're actually believing the word of Christ,
that he saves his people and turns the harp. Verse 13, for
neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but
desire to have you circumcised. Why? That they may glory in your
flesh. You see that when you make something,
when you force yourself to practice or do something for the sake
of doing it, because you think it's right, it's exposed to be
a work of the flesh and a glorying in the flesh. But God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. And what the Lord shows us is
that those who are regenerated live by faith. And we do see
foolishness in us. We see the infirmity of this
flesh and sin. The thing is, you by your discipline
and forced effort aren't going to change that. By all means,
cry out to God and beg God, Lord, help me. Deliver me from this
lust in the flesh or deliver me from this foolishness and
this folly. Lord, help me. Lord, give me
a heart to read your word. And when I read it, show me Christ.
Lord, give me a heart to pray. Lord, give me a thankful heart.
Lord, help me. Because I know that's what your
people do. Lord, give me that heart. Help
me, Lord. Because otherwise I'm just doing
it. And there are times. We know when we're just doing
something out of a discipline motive, and there's other times
when it's so precious, and we thank God, because Lord, you
did that. You blessed it and made it precious.
And that's what we want. Don't not do the things. Don't
stop coming to hear the word, or not read or pray, but always
begging God, Lord, I need your grace and your spirit. Because
that's what he makes us to know. I need your grace. Otherwise,
I'm just doing a fleshly work that's unprofitable and hypocrisy. And so we see, just looking at
the Pharisees, which are given to us throughout the Gospels,
we see that the Pharisees are, we, like them, are very capable
of doing fleshly works and putting on a show. John's disciples were
fasting. They were purposely fasting and
praying, and the Pharisees were purposely fasting and praying,
and it stuck out to them because they saw the disciples of Christ
rejoicing, and spending time with Him, and enjoying one another's
company with others that wanted to spend time with them. And if not for the grace of God,
we'll convince ourselves that's That's our salvation. This is
how God deals with us and trains us and teaches us by going through
these harsh things and conditions that we put ourselves through.
But we see here in this passage, along with all the other scriptures,
is doing religious works doesn't change the heart. It doesn't
make us righteous. We need the grace of God. We
need God to do this. Otherwise, it's just a dead,
empty work. And so, in that sense, regeneration,
again, is not in man's hand. It's in God's hand. We need Him. And He bestows it, He gives it
to whom He will. And that's why we beg God for
mercy, because salvation is of the Lord. It's not in what we
do or don't do or say or don't say. We need the grace of God. We don't wanna be doing things
we shouldn't be doing. We don't wanna say things we shouldn't
say, but it's by the grace of God. And that's what he turns
us to and softens our hard, cold, dead heart so that we desire
and beg him, Lord, please do this for me, because I need your
grace. I need your grace, lest I should
glory in the flesh." And so he shows us we're not going to come
to Christ except God be gracious to us and give us power to believe. Our Lord said this in Luke 10
verse 21 and 22, In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. And if God hides something from
me, I'm never going to find it. I'm never going to find it. And
Lord, don't hide it from me. Don't hide it from my brethren.
Reveal to us, regenerate us, and turn us to Christ. That's
what we need. He said, all things are delivered
to me of my father. And no man knoweth who the son
is but the father, and who the father is but the son, and he
to whom the son will reveal him. And so we need God. to reveal
Christ to us, to reveal our need, and that's what this passage
is showing us. There's a regenerating work of
our God, and we need it, otherwise we're just putting on a show.
Because we'll do that. We will do that. All right. Now, verse 35. But the days will
come when the bridegroom shall, he says, shall be taken away
from them, and then shall they fast in those days. Every believer
here has been taught of God where he broke us and brought us low,
sometimes many times, but we all can remember where we just
were snapped and broken and brought low and had no appetite to eat. And all we could do was breathe
out. A prayer we didn't even know what to say. We were just
broken. That's a true prayer and a true fast that the Lord
gives to His people. And strips you down so that you
are broken and need His... You're not making yourself fast.
You're fasting because you have no appetite. And the Lord does
that for His people. There's a day when He does that
in His people. Now you might fast for health
reasons, you know, you might do intermittent fasting, that's
fine, there's nothing wrong with it, but if it's not by the grace
of God, there's no spiritual benefit there, except God give
it to you. That's what I'm getting at. Now, that's what the Lord's
getting at in his word, that's what he's teaching us. The Lord
then gives a parable to drive this lesson home, verses 36-38. And he spake also a parable unto
them. No man putteth a piece of a new
garment upon an old. If otherwise, then both the new
maketh a rem, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth
not with the old. As I understand the way that
works, I'm not a sewer or a fixer of clothes, but if you put a
new patch on an old garment that's already shrunken, that new patch,
as it shrinks, it'll just tear it away. There's something about
they just won't work together. It's not going to work the way
you or I think it's going to work. I think that's what it
is, but you ladies that I've experienced tell me. I like to
know better. And then it says, and no man
putteth new wine into old bottles, else the new wine will burst
the bottles and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But
new wine must be put into new bottles, and both are preserved. And the thought there is that
in the way it works just naturally in a wine skin you get a new
wine skin and you pour in wine new wine into it and as it ferments
it bubbles and expands and since that skin is also new it can
take that bubbling and expand with it but if that is all if
it's an old wine skin it's already expanded it's already stretched
out And you put new wine in that thing, it's going to expand even
more and burst. And the whole thing's lost. It's
not preserved. Now, that's really the key there,
those key words of preserved and agreement. And that's what
he's talking about here. If there's an agreement that
you're a new creature doing the new works of the spirit, there's
an agreement there. And it's preserved. There's life
there. It's the work of God. If you're
taking of some of the New Testament thing, the problem is that people
take, you know, they hear a little bit of Christ, and they take
a little bit of Christ, and they look at the scriptures, and they
take the Old Testament, they take the Ten Commandments, or
a few rules or things that resonate with them in particular, and
they're like, ah, that's pretty, that seems to make sense to me,
I can do that. And they'll justify some of the other things that
don't make sense or seem like they want to do. And it's just
what the unregenerate man does. He takes and picks and chooses
from the scripture. And he makes a practice of religion.
And in doing that, he's trying to do what? He's trying to patch
up the broken parts of this flesh. He's trying to patch it up and
make something better. And what Christ is saying is
if you're just picking and choosing and you're taking a little bit
of me and a little bit of the Old Testament and some religious
things, you're actually making it worse. as he said to the Pharisees,
you're making a sinner 10 times worse a sinner than what they
were before you found them. You're just making it worse.
You're just being more offensive to God because now you see what
God is saying and you're ignoring them. You're not even hearing
what the Lord is saying, which none of us can do by nature.
We're just making it worse. Christ says, there's no agreement
between me and the works of the flesh. It's either all of grace
or it's all of the law. And the scripture has included
all under sin. I mean, we can't keep the law.
We need the grace of God in Christ. Otherwise, we're just concocting
a spiritual brew or elixir to heal ourselves. But we're not
going to do it. We need the great physician,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one that heals the sick.
And he does it by making us a new creature, putting away the old
things and the works of this flesh, and doesn't need them
or want them or use them. He provides everything necessary
for your salvation. He is the entire righteousness
that the child of God needs to stand before the throne of God,
accepted of Him. And that's exactly what Christ
accomplished on the cross in the death of himself and in his
resurrection. He did it all, everything necessary
for his people. And so where the Lord regenerates
his child, there will be an agreement in what our Lord says. And we're
going to hear the word of Christ and receive that word. And it's
not going to make things worse. The flesh may not like it, but
it's going to be for our good, and there's going to be peace
and joy in the Lord, and a seeking of Him, and we'll be preserved
in Christ, not in hypocrisy. Now verse 39 says, this is something
that Luke alone adds, no man also having drunk old wine straightway
desireth new, for he saith the old is better. And what this
is saying in keeping with what we see in regeneration is we
need God to intervene. We need God to regenerate us. We need God to graciously do
for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We need Him to do
what He did for Matthew. for Christ to come and say follow
me and to quicken us and give us that life and salvation in
Him because this flesh only knows the old ways and only takes and
picks and chooses what it wants and makes things worse and worse
and worse and so this flesh isn't going to receive it we need the
grace of God but if God makes you a new creature there's going
to be agreement there's going to be a receiving of what Christ
says there's going to be peace and rest and comfort in Him. And so we go to Christ. Christ
is the great physician. Beg Him for mercy. Because we
always see Him being gracious to all who come to Him asking
mercy. He gives them mercy. Ask Him. He'll give it. He'll
teach you. He'll make you alive. That's
what He does. And if you go to Him and ask
Him, it's because He made you alive. It's because He gave you
the power to begin with. Amen.