Our Scripture reading will be
from John 6, beginning with verse 24. When the people, therefore, saw
that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took
shipping and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus. And when they
had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him,
Rabbi, when camest thou hither? And Jesus answered them and said,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me not because ye saw
the miracles, but because ye did eat the loaves and were filled. Labour not for the meat which
perisheth. but for that meat which endureth to everlasting
life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for him that hath
God the Father sealed.' Then said they unto him, What shall
we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered
and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe
on him whom he hath sent. They said therefore unto him,
What sign showest thou then that we may see and believe thee?
What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in
the desert, and it is written, He gave them bread from heaven
to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto
you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father
giveth you the true bread from heaven. for the bread of God
is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the
world.' Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But
I said unto you that ye also have seen me and believed not.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from
heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that
of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. and this is the will of
him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth
on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day." We'll stop there. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for gathering
us together this morning. We ask that you would give us
the faith to live upon Christ, trust him, to believe him. We
ask that you'd be with our brother Eric as he brings this next message. Give him what he needs to declare
Christ. Give us what we need to hear
of him, believe him, see him. We ask that you'd be with this
small flock here, that you'd bless us and increase us in grace
and love, and that you'd call out your sheep in this area.
We ask this all in Christ's name. Amen. Hello. All right. We're going to be in Mark chapter
2. Mark chapter 2, verses 18 through 22. Mark 2. I'm going to read the text. And
the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast. And
they come and say unto him, why do the disciples of John and
of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not? And Jesus
said unto them, can the children of the bride chamber fast while
the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom
with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the
bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they
fast in those days. No man also soweth a piece, this
is a parable now he says to them, to bring it home. No man also
soweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment, else the new
piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent
is made worse. And no man putteth new wine into
old bottles, else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the
wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred, but new wine
must be put into new bottles. So our Lord here is being challenged
about a religious practice, a religious ritual that the disciples of
John and the Pharisees both practiced, and that's specifically fasting.
They fasted more than what the law even required of them to
fast. They were being extreme and practicing
excess. And the Lord uses this occasion
to declare that he's the Messiah. He calls himself the bridegroom. He's the groom. He is the Messiah
that has come for his bride. So he's saying, I'm the Messiah,
I'm the Christ here. And he uses this occasion to
expose the deadness of man's fleshy religion, which we all
by nature come forth practicing a religion that is of the flesh,
natural, carnal religion. It's man-made and it's of the
flesh. And then he even addresses the Pharisees' concern. As you
can imagine, part of their problem with Christ is that they were
thinking if he's the Christ, Why doesn't he recognize how
good we are? Why doesn't he side with us and
join himself to us and we can all gang up and get together
and condemn all the wicked sinners that are out there who don't
believe God? Why doesn't he join with us? And so he addresses
that at the end there in the parable. Alright, but what we're
going to learn from this message is, as we often see, and what
we should see, is that salvation is of the Lord. It's a work that
God must do for the sinner, and it's not, it doesn't come by
our dead works. We don't add to the work of God
and make salvation effectual for us. It's a work that God
does in the heart of a sinner. It's a work that He does in the
heart of every one of His children. They've all got to be made alive
in Christ. Okay, our title is Unmixed Salvation,
Unmixed Salvation. And first we're going to look
at Christ as the bridegroom. Then we'll see old garments made
worse, and then Christ makes new. Christ makes new. All right,
so Christ is the bridegroom. If you remember last week, we
saw how the Pharisees were attempting to sow discord among the disciples
of Christ. They came whispering and asking,
how is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? They were trying to sow this
question of doubt the seat of doubt whether or not this was
really the Christ promised of God that should come. And the
Lord rebuked them, saying, they that are whole have no need of
the physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. But this was a feast,
and so John's disciples weren't there. They weren't there, they
didn't hear this exchange, but out comes this noise, out comes
this talk that the supposed Christ, as far as the Pharisees are concerned,
was at a feast with publicans and sinners eating with them.
So they hear this and they probably came under attack of the Pharisees
because John was the one announcing the coming of Christ. Now these
are his disciples and John's in prison, they don't have their
pastor and they're hearing this and they don't know what to make
of it and they hear that Christ is at a feast. And so they come,
they get moved by the Pharisees, but they come and likely the
Pharisees come with them because of course they want to see the
fruit of their discord that they're sowing among the people to see
if they could bring down Christ. But it says in verse 18, Mark
2, 18, because the disciples of John and of the Pharisees
used to fast and they come. The disciples now, John, and
the Pharisees, and say unto Christ, Why do the disciples of John
and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not? Now remember, John the Baptist
had a very unflattering and a severe lifestyle. There was no frills
about John whatsoever. So you can imagine that his disciples
who still were attending to him, they practiced what John practiced. They didn't go to feasts. They
didn't drink alcohol. They didn't eat fancy food. They
didn't wear fancy clothes. They lived a very, what we would
call an austere lifestyle, a severe lifestyle that was pretty pretty
intense, pretty hard. And the Pharisees, you know,
they were willing to just take anything that they could turn
people away from Christ. And so they were out there sowing
discord. It, you know, that Christ was
at a feast and they knew that John's disciples, they didn't
go to feast. This wasn't their, their thing.
And after the Lord stated plainly that Elijah, um, that John was
come in the spirit of Elijah, that he was Elijah. He even says
that John came one way and Christ came another way and it didn't
satisfy him. You guys weren't satisfied with no matter how
we come. It doesn't move you guys off your self-righteousness.
And he said in Matthew 11, 16, So no matter what they did, it
didn't move or change the minds of the Pharisees at all. And he says, for John came neither
eating nor drinking, and they say he hath a devil. And the
son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, behold, a man gluttonous
and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners, but wisdom
is justified of her children. So nothing could persuade these
Pharisees because they were just fixed in their self-righteousness. They were assured that their
religion Their belief, their hope was the truth, and so they
wouldn't even hear Christ who was performing many miracles
in their midst. That God the Father and the Spirit
were testifying, this is the Christ. But because he spoke
the truth to them, they resisted it. And it just shows that man-made
religion doesn't help get man closer to God. it separates us. It moves us even further from
God, because that's why publicans and sinners were entering the
kingdom of God before the Pharisees and the scribes were, because
the Pharisees and scribes were further away because of their
religion. And that's quite opposite to
what we think by nature. We think, well, at least they're
good. They're going to church, and that's a good thing, right?
Maybe God will meet with them there in that false church. But
just going to any church where they're just saying any garbage
that's coming out of their mouth just because they sprinkle in
a little bit of God and a little bit of Jesus once in a while
doesn't do anybody any favors. It makes it worse because it
locks them into their self-righteous comfort zone where they think
that everything's well. But people should go to hear
the truth because you don't know when God's going to break your
wicked heart open and show you the truth and cause you to hear
that gospel by which we're saved. that Christ brings his people
to the Lord. It's what Christ has done that
saves us, not our filthy work. He taught his disciples that
Jesus was the Christ. He did say, Jesus of Nazareth,
this is the Christ here. It says in John 1.32, John bear
record saying, I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a
dove and it abode on him. He knew who the Christ was. And
he says in another verse, I saw and bear record that this is
the Son of God. And again, the next day after
John stood and two of his disciples were standing with him, it says,
looking upon Jesus as he walked, he said, behold the Lamb of God. So John was very faithful in
his ministry. He was making a straight path
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He proclaimed boldly that this
is indeed the Christ. But the disciples of John who
were still attending to him, even though he was in prison,
they hadn't come over yet. And so they're confused. They
don't have, like I said, they don't have their pastor. They
don't have anybody to go to and ask these questions to. And so
they're wondering, is this really the Christ? John doesn't feast.
We don't feast. Why is this guy feasting and
not with publicans and sinners? So they come and they ask him,
which was the right thing to do. They came to Christ and they
asked him. And we see the patience and the
gentleness of Christ our Savior. He's very kind. He's very open
to them coming and talking to him. And they were coming, it
seems like, to rebuke him. And they were wrong in doing
that, but our Lord received them and was very kind. And Paul told
Timothy, because it's a good lesson for us, he says, foolish
and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.
And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto
all men, act to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those
that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance
to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves
out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him
at his will. You know, they, even though it
was a foolish or an ignorant question or they shouldn't have
like even challenged Christ on it, but it was in their heart
and they asked him. And that's, that's a good thing. If you really
are sincere, if you have a question about something that I say, I
encourage you to ask me about it because it helps me even because
then I know where your heart is and I know what you're thinking
and what you're struggling. And then it causes me to go into
the word and seek what the Lord says about it. So it helps me.
It sharpens me. And it's not a burden for me,
especially for the brethren that, you know, and those that have
come here regularly or even irregularly. Like, if you have a question,
ask me. I don't mind. I mean, that's by all means,
ask me. And if you're asking in sincerity, that's even better. Like, I appreciate that. And, you know, that's why I'm
here. So they came to Christ And they asked him, and they
asked, why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast,
but thy disciples fast not? And the Lord says, he responds
to them saying, can the children of the bride chamber fast while
the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom
with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the
bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they
fast in those days. And so one of the things that
we see here is how the Lord defends his bride. The disciples are
taking the hit because they've stayed with Christ and they didn't
leave Christ just because somebody pointed out something that was
questionable about what Christ did and going to that feast.
He defended them. He protected them. He stood and
spoke in their defense on their behalf. And it's a comfort to
us who know that we're sinners, that we're not perfect, and that
we do sin against our Lord because we know that just as he advocated
for his disciples there. He's saying the The children
of the bride chamber, like those that are attending the bride,
those that are there as disciples, they don't fast because the bridegroom's
with them. I'm with them. The Messiah, the
Christ, is here now. They're not going to fast, so
he's protecting them, and so we know that as We sinned, not
that they sinned, but when we do things that are questionable
and people challenge us or Satan comes to accuse us and throw
his fiery darts at us where we feel corrupt and dark and mourn
for our sin, we know that we have an advocate in Christ our
Savior. He is faithful to his people.
He is faithful and kind and gentle to his people so that he stands
for them John, the Apostle John said in 1 John 2, 1, My little
children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.
And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous. So we see how that Christ, even
though he himself is righteous and perfect and in him is no
sin whatsoever, he's still so kind and patient and faithful
to us. He's faithful to us. He won't
turn us away. He doesn't ask us to make ourselves
righteous before we dare approach him for forgiveness. He says,
you come to me as you are, filthy and dirty, because there's no
other one that you can go to. I'll clean you up. I put away
your sin, your sin's put away." So it's not about us making ourselves
better. It's about just trusting the
Lord and He gives us that. He gives us that and He comforts
us and assures us that He forgives us of all our trespasses and
sins. John, before he was imprisoned,
actually said something that was likely very helpful to his
disciples. He said in John 3, 29, he that
hath the bride, when John heard that Jesus baptized more, his
disciples with Jesus were baptizing more disciples than John. John
was decreasing, going down, and people coming to him, and they
were starting to go to Christ more and more. And John heard
this, and he said, he that hath the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom
withstandeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of
the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is filled."
The Lord gave him those very words because now that John's
in prison, his disciples heard him use that term bridegroom
and bride, and so they knew when Christ said, the children of
the bride chamber, they don't need to fast. Now the bridegroom's
here. They knew what he was saying. Christ is assuring them, I am
the Christ. And there's no fasting when the
Christ is here. In Zechariah 8, 9, it speaks
of that time when Christ would come and establish the temple,
which Christ did. He established the temple when
he worked righteousness for his people, bore their sins, died
in their place, was buried, and rose again, that's when he rebuilt
the temple, the true temple, not that physical temple, but
the true temple of Christ is the people, the body of Christ,
the bride. And it says in Zechariah 8 and
9, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Let your hands be strong, ye
that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets,
which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the
Lord of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built." That's
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that foundation
stone upon which the temple is built and the day that it's going
to be raised, right? So here he is in that day, he's
here, He hasn't risen from the grave yet. And it says in Zechariah
8, 19, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the fast of the fourth
month and the fast of the fifth month and the fast of the seventh
and the fast of the 10th shall be to the house of Judah joy
and gladness and cheerful feasts. Not fasting, but feasts. Therefore,
love the truth and peace. So he's saying when the Messiah
is here, there's no fasting. Why are you fasting? The Christ
has come. It's a joyful time. It's a time
for feasting and that's what Christ is saying here. They don't
need to fast now. They're feasting because they
have the Christ among them. I am the Christ and there's no
fasting at this time. So there would be a day, of course,
when Christ would be crucified and buried in the ground and
they would be sad. and they would mourn and fast. We don't fast. There's no requirement
for us to fast. We don't bind ourselves with
any fasting because all such things like that, they're just
a traditional or ritualistic thing that people do because
they think it's going to help them or get them closer to the
Lord. But the reality is, I mean, if
you're sad and you're mourning and you don't feel like eating,
you're going to fast. If it comes naturally like that,
in that sense, and you don't want to eat, don't eat. And the
Lord will bring that upon his people at times, but not because
we brought it on ourselves, not because we necessarily think
that I have to do this and set up a time to do this and when
we should do it, but rather when the Lord is near to us and we're
rejoicing the Lord, that's a feast for us. That's a feast of fat
things and we're rejoicing in him And when we come through
dark times and we're sad or mourning and we don't feel the presence
of the Lord, that's a fast for us. We know that, but the Lord
does that spiritually in his people and we don't need to force
upon ourselves some artificial manufactured work of the flesh
in which we do a fast. So as our Lord said, that which
is born of the flesh is flesh. If you're manufacturing it in
your flesh, it's of the flesh. But if it's of the Spirit, it's
of the Spirit, because the Spirit gives life, and the Spirit does
a work in His people that He does. But you don't have to put
any kind of form of fasting on yourself. You don't have to feel
that, because it's just an outward traditional thing that doesn't
profit us. All right. Now, old garments made worse. Our Lord then gives a parable.
I think it was Luke that actually called it a parable. that the
Lord gave here, and he's bringing this home to John's disciples,
and it teaches us as well. And the first part of it, he
says in Mark 2.21, no man also seweth a piece of new cloth on
an old garment, else the new piece that filled it up taketh
away from the old, and the rent is made worse. Now just so you
understand the mechanics of this happening, if you sew, like if
you've ever patched something, you probably understand this,
but many of us have never sewed, but if you take a new garment
that's never been washed, it hasn't shrunk yet. So if you
take an old garment that's been washed and washed and washed
and washed, it shrinks down, so it's about as tight as it's
gonna be, and you put a new garment on, and you sew and cover that
tear, as it washes and shrinks, it pulls away and rends the garment,
it tears it more because now as it's shrinking it was already
tight and pulls away. So naturally that's the process
that's going on here that he's talking about. But what we see
here is that the Pharisees when they came forth they came forth
dead in trespasses and in sins. And they're trying to do a spiritual
work in their old dead flesh. Now what I want us to see first
here is that we all come forth dead in trespasses and sins.
So turn to Romans 3. Turn to Romans 3 and we'll pick
up in verse 10 because what we see in the Pharisees
is true of us. And what the Pharisees had even
worse was that Again, they were dead religionists, so they really
had it bad. They were really keeping it on
themselves. But it's not just the Pharisees.
It's relevant to us because so many of us were raised in so-called
churches. We've all been raised in religion,
most of us. Very few people, around here
especially, have never been to a church or to a service or something
like that. So a lot of us, because of our
natural upbringing, we tell ourselves everything's alright. I've heard
of Jesus. Maybe even we were baptized either as an infant
or as a young believer supposedly. We walked an aisle or did some
kind of religious work. And so we use those things to
assure ourselves everything's alright with me. and yet there's
no life and it's just deadness. We're just dead in trespasses
and sin still because we didn't even know Christ. We don't even
understand what Christ did for his people. But in Romans 3,
10, it outlines the condition of every single person that's
ever born into this life. Paul says, Romans 3.10, it is
written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none that
understand it. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way, and they are together
become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher.
With their tongues they have used to see. The poison of asps
is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness, Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction
and misery are in their ways. In the way of peace have they
not known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. Now, Cardinal Mann, he hears
this. And what does he do? He interprets it as, all right,
then I've got to ratchet down. I've got to whip these people
more with the law. I've got to give them more law,
more rules, more regulations. I've got to really beat this
flesh and keep it in check because whatever I've been doing wasn't
enough. That's the natural man's reaction. He thinks it's got
to be more law. And that's exactly what it isn't
going to be, because it can't be. We aren't saved by the law.
We've tried to do the law, and yet we fail. We're sinners. We come short of the glory of
God. by keeping the law all the time.
And this is what Paul says in 319, now we know that what thing
soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become
guilty before God. 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. And what Paul is saying and what
we understand that to mean is that The law doesn't make anyone
righteous. Those people who practice the
law and are trying to follow the law as best that they can,
they do so thinking that, little by little, line upon line, precept
upon precept, they think that they're making themselves righteous.
But that's not what the law is for. The law doesn't make anyone
righteous. The law says you either are righteous
or you're guilty. You either are perfect or you're
not perfect and therefore you're condemned and guilty before God. So you can't make yourself righteous
by the law. The law only says you're either
righteous or you're not righteous. That's the purpose of the law
and so if we're hearing the law rightly, if we're understanding
it properly, we're going to understand one thing, guilty. I'm guilty,
you're guilty, we're all guilty because none of us have kept
the law perfectly and God requires perfect obedience to that law. So the Jews weren't able to make
themselves righteous. What about the Gentiles, the
Gentiles who didn't have the law? How do they fare in all
this? Well, in 2 Corinthians Well, let me stay on the Jews
here for a moment there, but 2 Corinthians 13, it says that
when they heard, when Moses came down from the mount, he had to
put a veil over his face because it shone brightly so that when
he was there in the presence of God, he was transformed and
his face shone brightly. having been in the presence of
God. And so when he came down off that mountain, it was so
bright that the people said, you need to put a veil over your
face because we can't even look at you steadfastly because it's
just too bright until his face kind of calm down and stop being
so bright. He literally had to do that.
But the spiritual meaning is that there's a blindness on their
heart. They don't hear what the law
is saying. They don't hear that they're guilty and they think
that they're making themselves righteous. In the 2nd Corinthians
3.13 it says, Moses had to put a veil over his face that the
children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of
that which is abolished. But their minds were blinded,
for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in
the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. For even unto this day when Moses
is read, the veil is upon their heart." All right, so they don't
hear what it's saying. It's upon their heart. There's
no life there. They have no life in Christ.
They don't hear. They think the law is profiting
them, and all the law is saying to them is guilty. They're guilty
or condemned. That's it. That's all that the
law has to say to us. And to the Gentiles, they're
no better than the Jews who had the law. The Gentiles, it says
in Ephesians 4, if you want to turn there, in Ephesians 4, verse
17 through 21, Paul says, this I say, therefore, and testify
in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk
in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who,
being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness
to work all uncleanness with greediness, but ye have not so
learned Christ. If so be that ye have heard him
and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus." So the
Pharisees, they recognized. They looked back at their history
and they said, all right, The Jews, Israel had the law. They didn't keep the law. God
was angry with them and sent them into exile. They were exiled
from their country, but the Lord and mercy brought them back and
created them as a nation again before Christ came. And so they're
looking at that and they're thinking, all right, then that wasn't enough.
We've got to do things better. So they took the law and they
tried to keep the law perfectly. but they widened the borders
of their robes and they put big factories in their faces before
their eyes to keep the scriptures before them, and they just overdid
it with their religion. Christ said it's excess. Excess. You're full of extortion and
excess because you think by these things that they are making you
more righteous and more holy, and they're not. They're not
helping you. And Paul said of the Jews, he said, I bear them
record. They have a zeal of God. but
it's not according to knowledge. They're zealous for God, but
it's not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."
So the Pharisees were even more dead in heart. They were even more dead in their
flesh because They were trying to make themselves righteous
by the law by adding all these other traditions and ceremonies
on top of it with washings and fastings that were just above
and beyond more than the law even required of them. And it
did them no good, because that's what a carnal man does. He tries
to make himself righteous. And Christ said in Matthew 23,
27, and 28, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for
ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which is a grave, a tomb where
you put dead bodies in, which indeed appear beautiful outward,
but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear
righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and
iniquity. They were unable to keep the
law, and they made all this excess of traditions and all these other
things that they did, but it only made them more dead than
they were before. And Christ says in Mark 2, 21,
the rent is made worse. You were already torn and broken
down. Your garment was moth-eaten.
It was already filthy and exposing. your nakedness, you could see
through that you have no righteousness to stand before God, and you
went and sewed all these other things on top of it to make yourself,
to clothe yourself perfectly, and all it did was make it worse.
The rent is worse. It tore it away and made your
garment even more full of holes, and you're more naked than you
were before you started in your religious little charade and
your game. They weren't better, they were
made more ruined than they were before. So, you know, we see
this even today, even though, you know, among us there's a
lot of so-called Christians, but we see what they do, how
they do, just like what the Jews were doing. They had all these
programs and all these things. You know, sometimes Michelle
and I were driving here and we see these special guest speakers
and there's somebody's face up there and all they are is just
a motivational speaker. So that all more people even
come to hear this guy and they have to have cops out there directing
traffic because there's so many more extra people coming just
to hear this guy because they don't preach the gospel of Jesus
Christ. And if they did, that isn't enough for them anyway.
They got to hear just these games or they have bands and they have
all these cantatas and plays and all this entertainment to
entertain the flesh of people because there's no truth, there's
no life, there's no substance there for the salvation of anybody. And all the people that go there
are just confused and they don't know how the Lord even saves
the people and they think it's something that they do. And they
even go so far as to put bands on their wrists to remind them,
like WWJD, what would Jesus do? Because to them, all Christ is
is just a pattern, an example of how they can save themselves.
He just set a little pattern of what they should follow and
do their best to follow Him, but He's not their all. He's
not salvation to them. And to the believer, Christ is
all. You have Christ and Christ alone
you don't have anything so that's why we preach the Lord Jesus
Christ because in him is salvation. He's the one that God provided
to save his people and to cleanse them from their sins. And you
know once we've been given life there's a desire to do that which
is profitable to the brethren and we don't want to do things
that are outwardly sinful and wicked. We don't even want to
do things that are inwardly sinful and wicked. But it's not, that
doesn't give us life, but we seek to bear fruit unto the Lord
because we have life, because he has saved us and has given
us life. him and Paul said in Ephesians
4 22 that you put off concerning the former conversation the old
man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts because
the flesh can contribute nothing to your salvation so we don't
keep looking to the flesh and its works the way the Jews were
looking to the flesh and trying to keep the law and the works
of their in the strength of their flesh and he says but be renewed
in the spirit of your mind and Again, a spiritual thing is not
a work that the flesh can produce. It's given to us by God as it
pleases Him. And that ye put on the new man,
which after Christ is created in righteousness and true holiness,
so that we understand that this is a work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is righteous. He's the one
who worked all the righteousness of His people in His life, in
His death, in his burial and his resurrection. He worked all
that was necessary to save the people of God in himself so that
God doesn't look to us for anything. All we do is come to the Lord
in Christ. And even that he gives us to
do. He works that in us so that we hope in him, not in our goodness,
not in our works, not thinking, well, everything will just kind
of work out. No, it won't. You're either in Christ or you're
not. So the Lord puts his people in
Christ, gives them faith and hope in him, and they believe
him, and they trust him, and they know he's my salvation.
There's nothing I can do except Christ has done it all. And if
Christ hasn't done it for me, I've got no hope. There is no
hope for me unless Christ does that work for me. So he puts
us in Christ. He does it. And that's what Paul
said in Romans 3, 21, but now the righteousness of God without
the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ. He's saying that righteousness
is by the faithful work, the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's how we are made righteous. unto all and upon all them that
believe, for there is no difference. So he works that belief, that
faith in him, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. So whom the Spirit of Christ makes alive, his life-giving
power works that faith in them, he'll give them that faith to
believe and lay hold of Christ. So you've heard people in various
places talk about faith. That's a gift which God gives
to his people so that they do hear what Christ has done And
they say, that's my hope. That's my hope. My comfort, my
joy, my peace, my rest is what Christ has done. I'm not looking
to what I've done anymore. I'm looking to what Christ has
done. If he's given that to you, you'll believe him and he'll
grow you from there. He'll just keep on growing you
and fix your hope in Christ more and more and more. Paul said
that if thou shalt confess with the mouth, the Lord Jesus, and
shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Those Pharisees were
going in their robe of righteousness, which was full of holes. And
they made it even more full of holes by the traditions and rituals
that they practiced. It tore it away and exposed them
all the more. So they're going before God thinking
that they're clothed. And it's just like the emperor
in his new clothes. They're going up there naked before holy God
and all his angels and all the saints. And they're going to
be naked. But we who come before him aren't coming in our own
works, aren't coming in our own robe of righteousness. We're
coming hoping in the righteousness of Christ. And that means we'll
have his robe of righteousness, which has no holes, it's perfect,
it's clean, and we will not be ashamed in that day who hope
in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to him. And
he says, there's no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
None of them are better off than the other one, for the same Lord
over all is rich unto all that call upon him. So we don't mix
anything that we do with the work that Christ has done. We
rest in Christ alone. Just put everything on Christ. He's the only one that can bear
it. We can't bear it in ourselves. All right now, Christ makes new.
Christ makes new. That's exactly what the disciples
of John, they were hearing Christ say that. When he said that,
there's nothing that you can do. That's what they were hearing.
That's exactly what they needed to hear and what we need to hear. Now, the Pharisees, they hated
Christ because he spoke truth to them. They did not want to
hear what he spoke. And what he spoke was truth. And all he did was go about doing
that which was good and helping others. And he spoke the truth.
and they hated him for it. The testimony of Peter when he
was talking to Cornelius was this, that the word which God
sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ,
he's Lord of all. That's what it means like around
Christmas time when you hear, you know, peace, goodwill towards
men, because that's what the coming of Christ was. It declared
to us that God has provided a way in which men can have peace with
God. We don't make peace with God,
Christ makes peace between God and men. That's what that means
in that song when you hear it around Christmas time, that Christ
has made peace. The word I say ye know which
was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee
after the baptism which John preached, how God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about
doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil,
for God was with them." That's what Christ did. He was just
working good before the people and telling them the truth. And
in the flesh, they hated it. They hated it because it meant
that all their religious works were dumb. They were worthless.
It didn't profit them at all, and they hated hearing that. He said to them in John 8, verse
40 through 47, he said, Ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told
you the truth which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham,
because they were saying, we're Abraham's sons. He's saying,
Abraham didn't seek to kill me when I told him the truth. Ye
do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, we be
not born of fornication. We have one father, even God.
And Jesus said unto them, if God were your father, ye would
love me. Do you love Christ? Do I love
Christ? That's the question. Do we love
the Lord Jesus Christ? He's on our lips, but is he in
our heart? Is he in our heart? Do we love
him for telling us the truth that we can't work a salvation? It's in him and him alone. For I proceeded forth, he said,
and came from God. Neither came I of myself, but
he sent me. Now consider what he's saying.
Why do you not understand my speech, even because ye cannot
hear my word? If you have no love for Christ,
and you have no love for his gospel, and it's a light thing,
it really isn't that important. People who don't love Christ
can just take or leave the gospel. It's really not that necessary
for them, and they don't They don't care if they don't hear.
It's not their life. It's not their food. It's not
their drink. They'll make sure that they get nutrition every
day, right? They'll put food in their body and drink in their
body every day, every time they feel hungry. But when it comes
to the gospel, it's just not that important. It's not vital
to my life. That's what we think in the flesh.
But when he makes a person alive unto him, they do have a hunger
and a thirst for him. And they'll make an effort to
get here, or to tune in on, you know, when we're preaching the
gospel, they'll want to hear it, you know, throughout the
week because it's their life. It's giving them strength and
nourishment and helping them go further and further in this
dark, evil world that's doing nothing but pounding us and bringing
us down and taking us away from Christ. So there's a hunger and
a thirst for Him. But if there's no love for Him,
then, eh, you know what, I just, it doesn't really matter if I'm
here or not. They don't, they don't, it doesn't
matter to the unbeliever. But he says to them, ye are of
your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will
do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the
truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie,
he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of
it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of
sin? And if I say the truth, why do you not believe me? He
that is of God heareth God's words. Ye therefore hear them
not, because ye are not of God." So if there's no love, but you
hear that, if you say, I could live without Christ, And now
you hear that Christ is necessary, and you heard what Christ has
done for His people, and He's given you faith and fixture faith
in Him, and come, hear the Word of God. Seek Him. He's merciful
and kind and gracious to all who come to Him, seeking mercy
from Him. He'll receive us. It doesn't
matter that we're not perfect up until this day. We're never
going to be perfect. We need the salvation that Christ
has provided in himself. He is the righteousness and the
salvation for his people. Come and hear and rejoice in
and grow in this gospel word. Come and hear what Christ has
done. The point is that we're to hear is that carnal man is
dead in trespasses and sins. And carnal man tries to work
a righteousness for himself and really goes overboard and excessive
in his religion and doing things that he does and it profits us
nothing. It's been nothing to help us
to this point. And what Christ is saying is
I can't pour this wine, this new wine, this righteousness
of mine into old bottles. Because what happens is the wine
goes in and it ferments. And when it ferments, it grows
and expands. So if you filled up an old bottle that's already
expanded and grown once before in that deadness, once you pour
in that truth, it'll burst. And that's what the carnal man
does. He bursts with hatred against the true and living God. So Christ
must give us a new heart and faith and a new spirit within
He works it. It's the new man that he's created
and that's how we're fed and that's how we hear the gospel,
the new wine. That's how we receive it and
drink it in and grow in it because he makes a new man in us. So
he's got to do that work. If you've heard that today and
he's shown you that you're a sinner and he's shown you Christ, that
he meets need, he is the righteousness of God, then confess the Lord. Confess him. Believe Him in the
heart, confess Him with your mouth, come and be baptized in
the name of Jesus Christ, because He is the righteousness of His
people, and He puts away the sins of His people, and you'll
stand before God on that day unashamed, unashamed. I pray
the Lord will lay it to our heart and help us to hear it, unlike
those Jews who didn't hear it, but help us to hear it in this
day. All right, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, help us. Help us to hear your word, Lord. You know that we are carnal,
that we're of the flesh, that we're weak and tired, and it's
hard to hear these things, Lord. But we ask that you would drive
away the birds that come and take away the sea. We pray, Lord,
that you would deliver us from the fear of persecution. Lord,
that you would help us to see that all our needs are met in
Christ and that the problems and struggles of this life will
not choke out the Word. But Lord, let your Word find
good ground, prepared of the Holy Ghost, and that it would
grow and bear fruit unto you. Lord, that you would call out
your people and settle them in the Lord Jesus Christ, washing
us in the blood of Christ. Lord, make us disciples of our
Savior, for he alone is Lord and he is the salvation that
you've provided for your people. Lord, help those who are sick
and not doing well. Make them better, Lord. Heal
their bodies. Help us, Lord, to not be prevented
from coming here even when there is a desire, Lord. But help us.
Help us to grow in Christ and to love Him and to love one another.
We pray this in Jesus' name, our Lord and Savior. Amen.