Gospel of Luke, chapter 5. Pharisees
were everywhere, always confronting our Lord, asking questions, but
they never asked the right question. Verse 30, they said, why? Why do you eat and drink with
publicans and sinners? Verse 33, why? Do the disciples
of John fast often make prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisee,
but your disciples eat and drink? They rarely ask any real vital
questions like, what is truth? Who is God? Who is Jesus Christ? It's still true today. I hardly
ever have anybody ask me any vital necessary, needful questions. What is truth? What do you all
believe down there? What do you preach? What does
the Bible say about this? You know, true seekers seek the
truth and they will find it. Our Lord said, if you seek me
with all your heart, you shall find me. Now Matthew 22, go over
Matthew 22 before we look at Luke 5. Matthew 22, they asked
him, first the Pharisees came and then the Sadducees came and
then a lawyer came and asked him all sorts of questions. They
asked him about whether they should pay taxes. They asked
him about marriage and the life after and mocking the resurrection,
they said, a man's been married five times, a woman, who's her
husband in the resurrection? A lawyer came. What about the
law? What's the most important law? And after they all, and the Lord
answered them all so well, so amazingly, silenced them, and
yet he asked one question. Look at verse 41. When the Pharisees
were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think
ye of Christ? That's the question. That is
the question of salvation. Whom to know is to have eternal
life. What think ye of Christ? Go back to our text. They asked
him, why, why, why, why this, why that? Verse 33 of Luke 5,
why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers,
and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees? But thine eat
and drink, he noticed, and they were critical of them for eating
and drinking with publicans and sinners. We looked at that. And
we're very grateful that the Lord does, eats with publicans
and sinners. They said, why do John's disciples
fast, the Pharisees fast, and make prayer? Now, fasting and
prayer are good things. They're good things, they're
scriptural things, they're profitable things. In chapter 2 of Luke,
you may remember that Anna, the prophetess, she served the Lord
many, many years, it says, in the temple, with fasting and
prayer. That's what she did always, all
the time. I guarantee you she didn't tell
anybody about it. She didn't talk about her fasting
or her prayers. We're going to look at that in
a moment. Another place our Lord said of a certain kind of possession,
demonic possession. Someone was so possessed by a
demon that nothing could be done to remove him. And our Lord said
this kind. This kind goeth not out but by
fasting and prayer. Daniel fasted. It says in Daniel chapter 9 that
Daniel, he said, I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by
prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed unto the Lord my God
and made my confession. and said, Oh, Lord, the great
and dreadful God, keeping covenant and mercy. There's some secrets
there to what he's praying, who he's praying to and how he addresses
Him. He fasted. Listen to Joel chapter 2. The
subject today is not fasting. And I hope you don't come up
to me afterwards and ask me about fasting. That's what the Pharisees did.
That's not the subject here. Joel chapter 2, listen to this.
The Lord said, Now saith the Lord, Turn ye unto me with all
your heart, with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning,
and rend your heart, not your garments. Turn unto the Lord
your God. He's gracious and merciful, slow
to anger, great kindness. So fasting and prayer are good
things, are scriptural things. But fasting, let me say this
about fasting, which is going without food, but it's not a
conscious doing without food in order to impress God. That's
not what it is. The Lord one time, he said, I'm
sick of that. I'm sick of it. He said, this
is the fast. And I think it's Isaiah 35. This
is the fast that I choose. This is the fast you should do.
Relieve the widows and the fatherless and oppression and do justice. He said, I'm sick of you doing
these things. Try to impress me. It's not a
conscious doing without food or whatever. Silly religionists
go through this lint and all that, and they think they do
without, well, in order to be seen by God. God looketh on the
heart. But fasting, what it is, is a
heart, a mind, a soul so burdened by something that you forget,
you have no desire for your necessary food, the things of this bodily
pleasure you're so overcome by. This burden. You don't think
about eating. And the fasting here, as Scripture
speaks of, is a burden for sin. And that's what we just read.
I read to you in Joel chapter 2. Pharisees loved to be seen
fasting. They loved to be seen. In fact,
our Lord condemned them by saying, all they do, they do to be seen. And that's their reward. And
he warned about prayer. He said, don't pray in such a
way that people will see you. He said, go in the closet. Why
are you praying? To be seen of men? Then you won't
be heard by God. Are you praying to be heard by
God? Then he says, be careful not to be seen of men, because
you'll be very conscious of that. We're flesh. You cannot not be
conscious of people watching you. So he said, Take heed that
you don't do your own to be seen of men. Do you like the Pharisees
stand on the street corner and pray? Don't do it. We pray collectively
together as a church. That's scripture. We don't go
outside the church and let people see us. That's bragging on yourself. We're praying to God to be heard
by Him. Pharisees love to be seen fasting. disfigure their
faces. Our Lord said, when you fast,
wash your face. Don't let anybody know it. You remember the Pharisee in
the temple in Luke chapter 18? You remember what he said? He
said, I fast twice in a week. He bragged about everything he
did. And the Lord condemned him. The Lord condemned him. And prayer. Prayer certainly
is needful. Oh my! Prayer is the life and
breath of a believer. If you don't pray, if you don't
commune with God, call on the Lord, you'll not be saved and
you're not saved. If you don't commune with your
Lord. We don't pray to be seen of men or even heard by men.
All these men that pray for us out loud, none of them want to. I don't want to. Do you? Anybody
that wants to, I'm leery of them. Anybody that thinks they should,
I'm very wary of them. I don't want to do it. Do you? Well, our Lord warned
about that, those who want to be seen of me. Luke chapter 5,
now look at this, He said, verse 34, He said, In answer to why his disciples
did not fast, but ate and drank, he said in verse 34, can you
make the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom
is with them? John's disciples fasted. Why? Well, like John, they were looking
for and waiting for Christ. And when Christ came and revealed
himself to John, John quit fasting. When some of John's disciples
heard it was Christ, remember John said, that's him. You know
what they did? They quit following John. And they went and followed Christ.
Later on, Paul went preaching everywhere and he found some
disciples of John. And they had only been baptized,
and this is not my subject either, They'd only been baptized, the
baptism of repentance, and he said, what were you baptized
for? And he talked to them about the
Holy Spirit. What's the Holy Spirit do? He takes the things
of Christ and shows them to you, reveals the Christ to people.
And they were looking for the Christ, and they believed the
Christ was coming, and Paul said, he's here. Who is it? That Jesus
of Nazareth who was crucified on a cross. They said, well,
let us be baptized then. Confess the Christ. Now we know
the Christ. So John's disciples, they fasted
until Christ revealed himself to them. The children of the
bridegroom, bride chamber. What's that? Look at John chapter
3. John chapter 3. The children
of the bride chamber. That's the church. That's us. Is that you? Are you a child
of the bride chamber? A wife of the bridegroom? Children
of the bride chamber? This is, as it were, the bride
chamber. This is the chamber. This is
the room. This is the bed where we're with
our Lord. We're with our Lord in sweet
communion and fellowship. This is where the Lord fellowships
with His people. the children of the bride chamber. In John chapter 3, verse 28,
John said, you yourselves bear me witness that I said I'm not
the Christ, that I'm sent before him. He that hath the bride is
the bridegroom. That's Christ. He has her. He owns her, he came for her,
he died for her, he purchased her. She's not her own, she's
bought with a price. The friend of the bridegroom,
that's us, that's all of his people, we're the bride and the
friend. Standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because
of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. Christ, John was waiting on Christ
to come and he came and he rejoiced and so did we. Marriage is, in
Ephesians 5, told us that it's a picture of Christ and his church. Listen to Ephesians 5. See, we're members of his body. Well, let me go on up. He that
loveth his wife loveth himself. That's Christ. He loves, he cannot
deny himself. Gomer wouldn't deny Hosea, Hosea
wouldn't deny Gomer. She was his, they were one. She
denied him, he can't deny her. We're members of his body. Well
it says, no man ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes
it as the Lord does his churn. We're members of his body, of
his flesh, of his bone. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, leave his family, leave everyone to
cleave unto his wife. That's what Christ did. And that's
what she does. And the two become one flesh.
And Paul said, this is a great mystery of what I'm speaking
of. Paul said, it's Christ and His church. So while Christ is with us, we
don't fast. We feast. We feast. We don't do without. We feast. Children of the bride chamber,
those in the church of Christ, worshipers, followers of the
Lamb, as long as He's with them, they feast. They feast on that
thing. Wine on the leaf. We're going
to look at that in a moment. Verse 35 in our text. Verse 35. Our Lord says, The days will
come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and
then shall they fast. Then shall they fast. And those
days did come. The longest days of the disciples'
lives were those three days that our Lord was, they thought, dead. That's the longest days of their
lives. I guarantee you they didn't get much sleep. I guarantee you
they didn't feel like feasting. Did they? You reckon they were
praying? Weeping? Distraught, trouble,
calling on the Lord. Three days, no sleep, no laughter,
no joy, no food, no feasting, only sorrow. And brethren, there
are days when all of God's people go without hearing His voice
and seeing His face and feeling His presence. And those ought to be times when
we're not feasting. Let our laughter be turned to
sorrow and mourning. Calling on the name of the Lord,
Lord, take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. David, when he wrote
Psalm 51, he wasn't feasting. He was fasting. He wasn't laughing. He was crying. He was weeping.
He was praying, Lord, please come back. Come back to me, don't
leave me." The woman in the canticles, the Psalm of Solomon, remember
the Lord was with her, her beloved was with her. And it came to
her one morning, she was lazy and slothful, and she wouldn't
hear His voice, and she wouldn't get up. She was dull of hearing.
She would rather sleep. A little slumber, a little sleep.
Scripture says, let us not sleep. Let's do that. She fell asleep.
And the Lord left her. Her Lord left her. And she was
distraught. And she went everywhere looking
for Him. She couldn't find Him. She asked people, have you seen
Him? I'm sick. I'm just sick. He's left me. Oh, I hope He hasn't left me
forever. That's what this is talking about. That's what this is talking about. Come a time, John 16, look at
this now. Let your morning be turned back
to laughter. John 16, I love this. John 16, the Lord was telling
them beginning in chapter 13 that He was leaving. And you
know the time that they slept? You remember when they slept
in the garden? They weren't just being lazy. They were sleeping
for sorrow. The Lord kept telling them, he's
leaving, and they were distraught. Remember, he said, oh, Lord,
where are you going? Where are you going? Like a little
kid, don't go. And he'd go in and pray, and
they cried themselves to sleep. Have you ever cried yourself
to sleep? Not just over your own personal trouble, but over
your sin. The whole world cries over their
personal trouble. But your relationship with him.
That's what they did. They were worried about losing
Him, Him leaving them. And they cried themselves to
sleep. David said, I watered my bed
with my tears. Over what, David? My sin. My
Lord. Look at this, John 16 verse 19. Jesus knew they were desirous
to ask Him and said unto them, Do you inquire among yourselves
of that I say it a little while, and you shall not see me. And
again, a little while, and you shall see me. Verily, verily,
I say unto you that you shall weep and lament. The world shall
rejoice. You shall be sorrowful." You know, the world is laughing. The world is laughing. They're
scoffing, they're mocking at us, at God, aren't they? Where's the promise of his coming?
Let's eat and drink. They're having a good old time,
like those Amalekites, Philistines, that took David's wives from
Ziklag, and they were all laughing and getting drunk and just lying
on the ground, falling asleep with merriment and drunkenness
and all that, all while David's watching. Well, and while they were laughing
and mocking David's wives and friends and all the other men,
they were crying. They were calling on the Lord,
come save us. And that's what God's people,
we mourn, we weep and all that, and yet we joy. It's paradoxical.
Lord, come save us. Save us and our children. Our
Lord said, weep not for me, weep for yourselves and your children.
And we do weep. He said, but your sorrow will
be turned into joy. When David came back and destroyed
all of his enemies and took Abigail home, she's the happiest woman
on earth. Why? Because she went back to
her home, she got all her things back, her home. David, David was her love. He said,
your sorrow will be turned to joy, verse 21. Here it is, a
woman when she is in travail hath sorrow because her hour
has come. And so she is delivered of the child. Who shall deliver
me from this body of death? Isn't that what Paul said? Who
shall deliver me from this body of death? O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me? I thank God. Paul went from crying
to laughter in that Romans 7. I thank God. And she remembers no more, verse
21, she remembers no more the anguish for joy that a man is
born into this world. But born again, oh my. Verse
22, he says, you now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you
again. Your heart shall rejoice, your joy no man taketh from you. Well, that answers that question.
Alright, go back to our text. He spake a parable unto them.
I left myself five minutes, six minutes. Give me ten, okay? Luke chapter 5. He spake a parable
unto them. It goes with this. You know,
as Pharisees went to the law. Verse 36. He spake a parable
unto them. No man putteth a piece of new
garment upon an old. If otherwise then, both the new
maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new
agreeth not with the old. No man putteth new wine into
old bottles, else a new wine will burst the bottles and be
spilled, and the bottles shall perish. New wine must be put
into new bottles, and both are preserved. What's this talking
about? What's he talking about? The new garment and the old garment.
All of God's people are clothed with a new garment. You know
this. You know this. But brethren,
I remind you. of how few people know this. All of God's people are clothed
with a wedding garment. I was going to have you turn
to when our Lord talked about a man being at the wedding feast
without a wedding garment. And he bound him hand and foot
and cast him out. How did you get in here without
a wedding garment? He had something on he liked. What is that? You know. I could
ask any of you, most of you, to stand up right now and tell
us what is this new garment that our Lord has clothed His people
with. Revelation says it's the righteousness of Satan. It's
the garment which Christ Himself worked out and wrought and wove,
as it were, a seamless, perfect robe, spotless robe of righteousness,
which He stripped Himself of on the cross and clothed our
nakedness with. It all began back in the garden.
Two sinners sinned against God and immediately they felt naked
and tried to clothe themselves. With what? Fig leaves. It's no coincidence. People talk
about turning over a new leaf. It's just as bad as the other
time. It'll wither. All flesh is grass. Whatever
we do withers and perishes. It's no good. Isaiah 64, 6 says, all our righteousnesses
are what? Filthy rags. But Christ. Psalm 45 talks about the king's
daughters is all glorious, that she'll be brought to the king
in glorious apparel. Where did she get this robe?
The king's son made it for her, and he gave it to her. When Barnimaeus heard of Christ's
coming, you know what the first thing he did was? He had an old
rag, his security blanket, an old rag, and he was blind. He
couldn't see how bad it looked. Probably couldn't smell it either.
Stunk. look bad. But when he heard of
Christ coming and called on the Lord, and the Lord said, bring
him to me, the first thing he did was cast away that garment. And when you hear of this Christ,
when you hear of this gospel, if you've been blind, dead, stinking,
You will cast away your old profession, you'll cast away that old Jesus,
you'll cast away that old religion, you'll cast it out as a filthy
rag. You say, that was done. And you'll come running to Christ
and the first thing He'll do... Bartimaeus needed a garment.
Where did he get it? Christ gave it to him. The prodigal
son. was down in a hog pen and looked
for help from all these people. He joined himself to a citizen
of that country. He joined a church. And they
had him doing all sorts of stuff. And he thought he was okay, but
he ended up in a hog pen, wallowing with hogs, filthy, wretched,
rotten, vile, stinking, wretched, But God, but the Father, drew
him back or he wouldn't have come. Drew him with cords of
love. And he came and the Father came running to him, fell on
his neck. What's the first thing the Father did? Bring the best
robe. He had a garment waiting on him.
Take that filthy rag off of him. Put it on him. Covered his neck. You can't mix your old religion
with the new. The law and grace. It'll take away from each other.
Law and grace don't mix. You're either saved by grace
or you're not. Either Christ is your rule of
life or it's the law. Can't be both. Right? Christ said you're not under
the law. What does that mean? It means what it means. You know
what's after that? A period. The Pharisees. Oh, I like what
I like. Letting people know I keep the
love. Okay? Whatever you look to, whatever
you brag about, whatever you talk about, whatever you glory
in is what you're trusting in. God's people glory. Paul was
as lawful a man as there was. As moral a man as there was.
As clean living a man as there was. God forbid that I should
go saving the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ. He said if righteousness
come by the law, Christ died in man. He said by the law is one knowledge,
sin. Sin. We're not condemning the
law. There's nothing wrong with the
law, but we're not under it. You can't mix them. It was saved
by grace. Paul wrote about that in Romans.
He said you can't, it's not either saved by work or grace. If it's
work, it's no more grace. If it's grace, it's no more work.
If you add, if somebody pays $99 of your $100 debt and you
contribute a dollar, it wasn't grace. You contributed. It's work, it's merit. This is why we sing and love
to sing songs like, in my hand no price I bring, simply to the
Christ of the cross I cling. Oh, I dare not trust the sweetest
frank. But wholly lean, completely lean on the Lord Jesus Christ
name. Redeemer. New wine, new old bottles. Look at that. No man puts new
wine in old bottles, else the new wine will burst the bottle
and be spilled and the bottles will prepare it. The gospel is
the gospel of Christ's righteousness and shed blood. It's the blood
that maketh atonement for the son. Isn't it? Not the blood and your faith
in it. Blood. Faith's the result of
the blood, not the cause of it. Why were the people in the houses
of Egypt saved? Because they believed in what
was on the door outside? No, because of what was on the
door outside. There's times when I just don't believe like I should. What's my hope? He abideth faithful. Right? It's the blood. There's
times I can't see the blood. And I wonder, did he shed his
blood for me? What's my hope? It's the faithful saint. Worthy
of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came to the world
a safe sinner. He's the chief. Got good hope. Not in yourself.
Christ is our hope. He's blood. Shed blood. It's called new wine. Oh, wine
never touched my lip. It touched the Lord's. Barnard
used to say, you ought to take a bath in it. Seriously. Pharisees. Our Lord made it and
he drank it, but now was never overcome by it. Always in moderation. Wine, no. Let me ask this question. Why did he make wine? Why did
he drink it? Because it's such a beautiful picture of his shed
blood. Beautiful. The Lord was baptized.
He didn't need to be baptized, but he was. Why? Because it's
such a beautiful picture of his death, burial, and resurrection.
He's so one with us. The gospel is compared to wine
throughout the scripture. Wine, the scripture says, feast
is made for laughter. Wine maketh merry. Scripture
talks about wine that maketh glad the heart of man. And that's
not simply or completely talking
about physical wine. It's talking about the wine of
His blood. It's talking about the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It gives good cheer. It's medicinal. Make it the heart merry, make
it the heart glad. It's for feasting. What do we
feast on when we come here? Christ said, except you eat my
flesh and drink my blood. And when we partake of the Lord's
table, we're drinking wine. Of course, that's what it is,
and it represents the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we've
all commented on this, that that little, and we don't, you know,
nobody's touched with the feeling of that little, that much. Okay. But every one of us have thought,
that's the best tasting thing I've ever tasted. Because it's
just a foretaste, a little taste of the truth of the gospel. Isaiah
25 says, they'll feast on fat things and wine on the leaves,
well-defined, red, well-defined. Now he says, you can't put new
wine in old bottles. The old Bible verse. Our Lord
is talking about a new creature. God's people are created new
to enjoy this gospel of Christ's righteousness and blood. There
was a time when I didn't enjoy this. I wasn't a new creature. I wasn't a new creature. But
then God, I believe, begat me with the word of truth, the gospel. And now I'm a new creature, and
now I have a taste for, a love for the wine of his blood, the bread of his body, the companionship
of his people, and none, nobody else. Quickly lost interest in
my old friends. Now I've got new friends. I'm
a new creature with new friends, new taste, new love, new heart,
new old things have passed away. All things become new. And as
a young believer, could not get enough reading, hearing, and
fellowshipping. My dad used to go to the TV station
and record. We'd all go, everybody hungry,
go with him. Men would go out preaching, can
I go? Hungry, thirsty. Got a new taste. I've tasted
that the Lord is great. I've tasted his blood. I can't
get enough of it. And thank God I still have a
taste. I lament, I mourn at times that
it's not as keen as it once was, but bless God sometimes it is.
Bless God sometimes I hear this gospel, it's the sweetest thing
I've ever heard. So I take hope. I got a new bottle. A new bottle, not an old man.
New bottle. New wine must be put in a new
bottle. Both are preserved. We're preserved by the blood,
aren't we? What preserves us? Christ in you is the hope of
God. What's your hope? Christ in you is the hope of
God. You know what we are? We're like
a bottle in smoke. Christ in us and us in Him. Alright? something about old
wine, verse 39. No man also having drunk old
wine, desireth new. Old is better. That's right. She just quoted
it. Sister back there quoted Jeremiah 6, which says, Seek
ye the old paths, where it is the good will, and it's quoted.
But it says here, He says, search and stand in the ways and see
and ask for the old paths. Where is the good way? The old
gospel. We need the gospel as old as
Adam. Abel. Oh, they tasted this wine. What was it? Blood of a sacrifice. That's right. All the way to
Zerubbabel. Old paths wherein is a good way.
Brethren, you can have all these new ways. You can have all these
new vision churches. You can have all this new stuff.
Give me the old gospel of an old covenant. Not the law, but the one actually
before the law. You know, the covenant of grace,
covenant of Christ was before the law. How was Abraham saved? There
was no law. By grace. My grace. How is Enoch? My grace. My blood. Give me that. When
you hear about somebody, we've got a new way over here. You'll
not find me going there. I don't want that. And if you've
ever heard, when you finally hear this gospel, this gospel,
the true gospel, the old gospel, the old, old story, you'll be
done with that news type. This is better. This Christ is
better. Okay.