We have a parable here in Luke
chapter 5, spoken by our Lord unto the scribes and the But he spoke it in the ears of
everyone for everyone to hear and for our benefit. It has been
recorded three times in the gospels. If anything is mentioned one
time, it's worthy to be heard and heeded three times. We better sit up and pay attention. Three times this is recorded,
this parable. And in verses thirty three through
thirty five the Pharisees had asked our Lord why his disciples
did not fast and do the many acts of religious piety such
as public prayer and fasting and so forth. They asked him
why his disciples didn't do those things such as John's disciples
and they themselves did. And Christ said that as long
as I am with my disciples, there's no need for fasting and praying. They can speak to me personally,
and I'll go to the Father. But when I leave them, then my
people will fast and pray. And this thing of fasting, by
the way, it hasn't been done away with in
the Scriptures. It'd be an interesting study
sometimes. But I'll not go into that, but he spoke this parable
unto the Pharisees and the scribes when asked that question, why
do the disciples of John fast often and your disciples, they
don't. And he said, as long as I'm with them, they don't need
to fast. They don't need to be publicly
praying and so forth. I'm with them, but when I leave,
then they will mourn and fast and pray. And in verse 36, and
then he speaks this parable unto them, immediately after that,
after answering that question, he spoke this parable unto them. And he says this, he spoke this
parable, verse 36, unto them, he says, besides, in light of
what he just said, he said, besides, no man puts a piece of a 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. And no man puts 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 in the new bottles and in both are preserved. Now, what Christ is telling them
here is immediately after saying, my disciples will mourn and fast
and so forth when I'm away from them. But he says, anyway, religious
duties are totally unprofitable to you anyway. He's talking to
these Pharisees and these He describes these unregenerate
religious people, these self-righteous Pharisees. He said, you're unregenerate
and these things aren't going to do you a bit of good anyway.
That is, to the person who thinks they are saved, yet there's never
been a real spiritual change made in them. Bible reading,
prayer, church going, baptism, the Lord's table are of no value
to a self-righteous person. They're a hindrance, really.
We'll see that in a minute. To the seeker of truth, yes,
these things are means, are profitable. To the self-righteous man, no,
no. Well, look at this, this parable with me. He speaks in
verse 36. He says, no man puts a piece
of a new garment upon an old. Otherwise, then both the new
makes a rent and the piece that was taken out of the new agree
if not with the old basically two parts to this parable and
the title of this message is a new garment and new wine. Now the garment he's speaking
of here is righteousness a garment is a righteous covering righteousness
and the old garment he speaks of is man's righteousness and
the new garment is Christ's righteousness. This is what he's speaking of
here. And why is the why is righteousness compared to a garment? He says righteousness is compared
to a garment here because good clothing should cover you. It should cover your nakedness.
It should cover your shame. And when you're naked and open,
you're shamed of yourself. It should cover your shame. It
should be useful to protect you from the elements, from heat,
from cold, from whatever you run, thorns and thistles and
so forth. It should be, good clothing should
be ornamental. It should in some way dress you
up. It should render your person
somewhat more beautiful. It certainly does, most of us. Clothes, the old saying is, clothes
make the man. You know, most of us, we get
undressed, we don't look nearly like we do with clothes on. But
it's true, clothes generally make the man or the woman. And
clothing, good clothing, should and sometimes does show honor.
It does, such as royal robes, show honor, reveal something
of a person's state. First of all, this old garment
that he speaks of, this is man's righteousness. This is man's
righteousness, this old garment. It's old because we got it from
Adam. It's 6,000 years old. This is
an old hand-me-down robe that we've received from our great-great-great-great-grandfather Adam. And they've handed it down
through the years, and every one of our parents have worn
this robe. And they've worn it out. It's
worn out. It's been worn by many and it's
rotten and it's ripped to shreds. It's useless, really. And we
get it. We get it just as soon as we're
born. We're wrapped in these rags that we got from our granddaddy. And it's old because it always
needs fixing. And many down through the years
have constantly tried to repair this righteousness by many different
works of religion. And so for the time constantly
tried to improve upon this road is this self-righteous rag that
that all of our fathers have more everybody can improve upon
and it's only gotten worse and worse and worse literally. And
then look at verse thirty six he says. No man puts gets a piece
of a new garment and tries to patch that old one with it if
otherwise Both the new, that new piece, makes a rip, a rinse. The piece that was taken out,
that is the new, it won't mix with the old. And some people
try to mix the righteousness of Christ with this old self-righteous,
man's righteousness. They try to mix and it won't
work. They try to mix God's will with man's will, it won't work.
And we'll get into this a little more in depth here in a moment,
but let's look at this This new garment that's the old garment
it's old because we got it from the first man and six thousand
years old and old worn out rag that we all inherit this new
garment though is the righteousness of the son of God himself. It's
the Christ imputed righteousness or his imparted righteousness
the righteousness that he worked out. Yet it is old. Christ is the lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. People were saved, Terry, the
same way Adam. If Adam was a saved man, he was
saved, he was covered in the same way that I am, wasn't he? Yeah, he's covered with the righteousness
of Christ. So really, Christ dwelled with
the Father. He had that robe on a long time
before anything ever was created. So really, that robe that he
wore is the oldest and the first robe. Yet it's newly revealed
it's new in that respect and all are truly saved by the lamb
slain of old yet his mercies are new every morning new fresh
garments every morning and the righteousness of Christ this
new garment is the righteousness of Christ that he established
perfectly as a man and it's and as I said at the outset A garment
is compared to clothing because good clothing ought to cover
you, your nakedness. That old one won't do it. It's
ripped, it's torn, you can see right through it. God certainly
can. It's as if we didn't have anything on at all. All things
are naked and open before God. But Christ's righteousness will
cover our naked souls. When we're exposed by God's law,
when God's law exposes our sin and our iniquity, Christ's robe
will cover us from the all-seeing eye of God. Yeah, well, it's
a good road. It's a good, thick road. It'll
cover you. It'll cover your shame. It will. Brother Scott said this, the
only thing that will quiet a guilty conscience is the blood applied
to that conscience. You know, when Mr. Conscience
rises up and points his finger at you and tries to lay something
to your charge, the charge of God's elect, throw blood in his
eye. where you can't see it. That's
the only thing that'll quiet a guilty conscience, to cover
it in the blood of Christ. Now, it's able to cover our shame,
Christ's robe of righteousness, and it's able to protect us from
God's wrath. It's a good protection, a sure
covering. It's the, Scripture calls it
the breastplate of his righteousness, the shield of faith. It's able
to cover us. When the overflowing scourge
of God's wrath comes through, it's not going to touch me. I've
got some good clothing on. It's not going to get to me.
I've got the robe of Christ's righteousness on. And the robe
of Christ's righteousness is ornamental to the soul. It makes
you look good. You talk about clothes making
the man. These clothes, these robes, they make the man. They made that man. When he came,
Pilate said, behold the man. And when God sees Christ, when
he looks at us, he beholds the man because we've got the same
robe on that he was wearing. And it makes us beautiful, renders
us beautiful before God. Otherwise, we're very ugly. in
those old rags that we inherit. And these robes of Christ, this
robe of His righteousness, like I said, like some robes they
bestow honor, they're royal robes, royal robes, the royal robes
of Christ. They make us into sons of God,
royal apparel. He said you can't put a new piece
of a garment on an old, otherwise the new will make a rip. Make
a rip. Can't do it. It'll ruin them
both. Why? Why won't the old and the
new mix? Well, Mark chapter 2 says this.
Let me just turn over there and read it to you. This is the other
version of it. He says, Mark chapter 2, verse
21, he says, No man sews a piece of a new
cloth on an old garment, else the new piece that filled it
up or tried to patch it in there takes away from the old, and
the rent is made worse. Now, this is a good illustration
for most of you ladies. You work in these garment factories.
You know, you should know something about this. I once had an old
blue jean jacket. Everybody in my generation wore
them. It was the uniform of the hippie
generation. I had an old one. It had an American
flag on it and all this nonsense. Well, the flag's not nonsense,
but I had a bunch of nonsense. Guitars all over the back of
it. But I had this old jacket and I wore it out. I mean, it's
frazzled, holes all in it. And I kept trying to patch that
thing up because it was my favorite jacket. is I just didn't want
to part with it. My mother tried to throw it away,
I don't know how many times, but I dug it back out and kept
wearing that thing. And I'd patch it every now and
then and it'd look good a while, but one or two washings and it's
right back where it started. Well, grace and works won't mix. Grace and works won't mix because
they're opposites. They're like oil and water. Grace
is a free gift of God. That's, you know, a lot of people,
a lot of people claim to believe in the grace of God. A lot of
people claim that their pastor or preacher is preaching the
grace of God, but they're really not defining it, are they? They're using the term, and that
saves themselves and people who hear it. But we define it. The
free unearned gift of God, he gives it. We don't earn it in
any shape or form. As a matter of fact, we don't
deserve it at all. And it's not really to be ours
to accept or reject. He says, here, take this. He makes us willing to receive
it. Like robing us, he wraps this robe around us. Otherwise,
we don't want it, do we? Unless he makes us willing to
wear this robe, we'll not wear it. Grace of God is a free gift
of God works. And just that you work you earn
it you it's earned wages their opposite grace is a gift works
you are opposite. They won't mix Paul said see
the grace which work can't be both can't be both the whole
of salvation is of the Lord. It's his gift. It's his working.
God the Father planned it, God the Son purchased it, and God
the Holy Spirit applied it. Salvation is of the Lord, and
salvation is for the Lord, for his glory, for his glory. You see, grace, a gift, gives
glory to God, gives all the glory to God, because he's the one
that bestowed it, he's the one that made you willing to receive
it, and he's the one that wrought it out and gave it to you. Works
gives glory to man, what he has done, you know, to make himself
acceptable to God. You can't mix them, you see.
Can't mix, won't mix. It's a deadly mixture. It's like
mixing fire and gasoline. And that's exactly what you'll
have if you mix, if you go before God with the, coin this little
phrase, the fossil fuel of man's works. That is dead, stinking,
rotting works. of hours, go before God, who
is a consuming fire, you have an explosion on your hand. Depart! Get out of my presence. Well, why are people, people
are trying to mix these two. The scripture here says they'll
become worse. When they try to do this, they'll
become worse. Like that old jacket of mine. I tried to keep sewing
and it just got worse and worse and worse. Why do people become
worse when they try to mix grace and work? Why is the scripture?
Why does it say the rent becomes worse? Well, because people think
they're better. They think they're better. Hannah, one time, well, this
Christmas, she got a little sewing machine, a little play machine. And it actually sews some thread. Not very well, of course. You
couldn't make any kind of fine garment at all, but she tried.
She got a little piece of an old rag, just ripped up a shred
of rags, and ran her through there one time, and gave her
daddy a tie. And, you know, I stuck it on
her. I don't know, it was awful. It was awful. But she thought
she had done something special. She thought she'd sewn me a tie.
I mean, one tie's good as another to her. Maybe that's the way
we ought to feel about it. But you see, she did this and
she thought it was something else. And religious people, self-righteous
people, they work and try to get right with God, you know,
and establish this righteousness. They think they're OK now. And
in God's sight, he ain't going to wear that tie. That stinks. It's ugly, right? And the reason
they're worse, the reason the rent is worse, because they think
they're all right. double darkness that they think
they see, but yet they're doubly blinded by their own self-righteous
work. They think they look real good
when they look real bad, like a blind man, you see. He could
be filthy dirty and think he's clean. Well, that's the self-righteous
Pharisee. And secondly, the reason we become
worse if we try to mix works with grace is because once you
get yourself all fixed up, Once you get a robe on, you're not
going to be looking for another robe, are you? All seeking stops. This makes sense, doesn't it?
You can't tell a religious man anything, can you? You can't
teach a religious man anything, can you? You know, you can't. God's got, it seems to be, well,
nothing's any harder for God than anything else, but humanly
speaking, it seems to be tougher to get through to somebody who's
already got these self-righteous rags on, these preconceived notions
of religion. They've got it all figured out,
you know. What is there to learn? God loves me, Christ died for
me, and I'm right with God, may my peace with God. I'm all right. Well, you know, if you've got
a good coat on, what do you need with a new one? But this is the
thing about believers. They're seekers. They're seekers.
But self-righteousness makes people quit seeking, quit learning. They've got it all figured out.
Well, the old garment's got to be thrown away, like old Bartimaeus. If you're going to come to Christ,
you've got to ditch her, don't you? You've got to get those
self-righteous rags off somehow. The Holy Spirit has to do it.
Rip them off of us. We won't throw them away. We
cling to them. I have got a blanket. She's four and a half years old,
and I'm not blanking. And she just had the thing is
just going to literally disintegrate in her hand someday. She's she's
going to keep it until it's gone. And that's us by nature until
the Holy Spirit rips it out of our little finger. And that garments
got to be thrown away like old Bartimaeus's robe, because grace
and works won't mix. And besides, the scripture says
these garments are filthy. rags as a sixty four six all
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. You know what that word
means. You ever been told. I think you
have. I don't necessarily need to repeat
it. Do you know what it means? You heard? My soul. That's what God esteems
our righteousness as. Filthy rags. You know I used
to have a woodworking shop and I worked on cars, everything
in my garage and bought these shop rags and I'd use them and
then throw them in a box and sometimes I'd leave them in that
box a long time until some of them finally began to be so old
and dirty and they'd get hardened. But I'd leave them there and
I'd think someday I'm going to clean those things. Someday,
I'm going to reuse those rags. Someday. Well, we moved out of
that house, and we were moving to another place, and I took
those old things with me. I thought, I'm going to clean
them up someday. Someday, I'm going to use them. Too cheap
to go out and buy a five-dollar bag of rags. Well, I took them
with me. And finally, one day, I had some
good sense to throw those things out of the way. They were always
under my foot, that big box of rags. I had to put it over here,
put it over there, put it over here. Finally, I threw them away. I got good sense. And our old
self-righteous rags are always in the way. They've got to be
thrown out. You've got to have a new garment
on. Besides this, he says the old
garment, back there in Mark 2, verse 21, says the old takes
away from the new. The old garment detracts from
the new rather than vice versa. I'll illustrate that. I look
pretty good. Just pretend I look pretty good
to you tonight. I've got a nice, fairly nice
looking tie on. I look pretty clean too, you
know. I look pretty good probably. I've got my new tie tack on and
everything. Nice clean white shirt. How do I look? Do I look
alright? Say yes, Henry. Well, I look pretty good. What
do you say now? What's showing up? One spot, I hope that comes out. If it doesn't, it'd be a good
illustration. It's an old shirt, really. You know, this is the
only thing you see. This shirt is clean otherwise,
isn't it? That one spot. Rather than the
clean shirt hiding the old, you know, rather than you not paying
attention, you're drawn to that one spot. That's us in God's
eyes. One spot, one spot will take
away one work. Man's one work is room for boasting
in it. If we can come into God's presence
and all our lives have been lived by the grace of God, everything
we are, what we are by the grace of God, we come into his presence
and then we say, I believe it's a big black spot on us. It's room for boast. It's boasting.
It's self-righteous. And it sticks. It's a foul odor
in God's nose, isn't it? Self-righteous. Get him out of
here. Get him out. Got to have that
pure, spotless robe. Not one spot. Without spot. Without blemish. Perfect. Spotless. Holy robes of Christ and nothing
else. Not mixed with anything. No spot
on it. You know, man's final decision,
like they like to speak of, his final decision will finally usurp
God's will. It will finally, in the end.
You know, we all like to get the last word in, don't we? You
don't, but I do. Like to get the last word in,
or you had the final say in the matter, you know. Well, that's
what men are saying about about themselves, that we have the
final say, don't we? In other words, God gets the
glory for a long time for doing this and that and the other,
Christ coming down to die and so forth, but in the end, it's
my will and my decision. I get the final say. I get the
final vote. God voted for me, the devil voted
against me. I get the deciding vote. And God pats me on the
back, come on, you did a good job. Scripture says, no room for boasting.
Salvation is of the Lord. He gets the final say. He's the
first say, the middle say, the last say. It's all of him, he
says. Nothing is going to usurp his
glory. And these old garments, these
old garments are unfitting for sons of the king anyway. Unfitting. What would the English tabloids,
you know, we think our newspapers are bad. Oh, they They just love
to find some juicy gossip on Prince Charles and Princess Di,
you know. What would these English tabloids
say if Prince Charles came out one day wearing some old patched-up
bib overall? You know, it'd be a scandal,
you know, all over Britain. No, he's got to wear the robes
of the prince. He's got to look good all the
time, even so. Only the holy spotless, flawless,
righteous, holy garments of a son of God will do in the presence
of God. You know, he told the parable,
and we'll look at that some night, the parable of the wedding garment,
the wedding feast, how that one man came in, he didn't have this
garment on. And they said, cast him out.
How'd you get in here without this wedding garment? Cast him
out. be weeping and wailing and gnashing
of teeth. This is a robe of Christ's righteousness
also. Us puny little human beings,
we are, I don't know how many of you had a formal wedding,
but we insist upon uniformity in these formal weddings that
we have. All our maids of honor have to look so ridiculous, I
mean so You know, and all the men, the best men and so forth,
have to be in their black tuxes, you know, the bride or the groom's
got the white one on. And the maids of honor, they
have all their same color dresses and so forth. God Almighty says
they all got to look just alike. A man comes in there and says,
hey, like this one I got. Oh, that won't do. That won't
do. The righteousness of God. The robe of Christ, that garment
that Christ gives, will be accepted by the Father in his presence.
The righteousness of God in Christ is the one and only he alone
can provide. He's the only one that could
have done it. He's the only one that could provide it. Christ's
the only man that could work up this righteousness. It's
the only one God requires. It's the one he requires because
it's a perfect one. It's the only one suitable for
a man. Because Christ came down here and he put it on and tried
it out himself perfectly. It's tailor fit for a man. He
didn't take on the nature of angels. He didn't make a robe
for angels. It's on the seat of Abraham.
And he made this robe to fit a man. And it'll fit you, Viola,
a woman. It'll fit us perfectly. Because
Christ, the man, came down here and tailor made it and he takes
it off. And gives it to us. Puts it on
us. And it fits. It fits. And there's
a man up there in glory. And it's the one that exalts
the one who made it to. Because of its exquisite beauty. Psalm 45 said the king's daughter
is arrayed in glorious apparel. She's wrought gold. Spun gold. And this righteousness is glorious
and beautiful because of who made it. with his own hands,
the work of his fingers. Well, all of us need to be exhorted
to cast off our self-righteous rags and works, don't we? Cast
them off and be clothed with the righteousness of Christ,
clothed with his righteousness. Now, boy, I have taken too long. Now, all of us—no, sit up straight. Listen to me. will at least mentally
agree here. Of our need of Christ's righteousness,
and we'll agree at least in our heads that yes, man must be justified
by imputed righteousness. OK. There's a second part of
this parable. As is all of God's truth. Whole
counsel. There's two sides of it. The
second part of it. Look at it. Verse 37 with me.
The second part, he says, Now no man puts 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 in new
bottles, and both are preserved. Now this new wine is the work
of God's Holy Spirit, saving grace, that's what this new wine
is. An old bottle is an unregenerate heart, a new bottle is a new
spiritual heart, a new heart created in Christ Jesus. And
just like sin brought a drastic change upon man, upon Adam. He
was changed from innocence to guilt. He was changed from godliness
to wickedness. He was changed from holiness
to sinfulness. Even so, a drastic change has
to take place within the heart of every saved person. We've
got to go from guilt to innocence, from sin to holiness, from the
world to Christ, a new person. He talked about justification
and sanctification here, too. It's got to be both, Harry. They
go hand in hand. The work of God to us and for
us and the work of God in us, in us, both have to take place. And like I said, most people
will agree with the first, yes, I believe we have to have the
imputed righteousness of Christ. You've got to have the imparted
righteousness, too, Jeanette. There you go. Most agree to a
change of state before God, but salvation is also a change of
heart, change of mind, change of disposition, change of the
person. Christ said you must be born anew again. You must. You must. Must. And again, he said if any
man be in Christ, he is. You must and you is a new creature
if you're in Christ. You are. When God creates this
new world, new heaven and new earth, he's going to destroy everything
that had anything to do with the old one. Wipe it out. The scripture says in Isaiah
65, there'll be no more remembrance of former things. No more. They
won't come to mind. Wipe it out. That's the reason
for fire. Fire really purges things. Clean it out. It's got
to be totally obliterated, and that new That old man has to
be killed, put in a grave and buried, and a new man has to
keep rising to the top. Now he says here in this parable,
he says, old bottles can't hold new wine. Now listen to me. Old bottles are usually cracked,
broken, and dirty. You ever been out digging in
the yard and dig up an old bottle? It's cracked, broken, and dirty,
and usually the cap's missing off of it. Very seldom do you
find the cap. I don't know what the cap is, but somebody figure
it out later on. It's got to have a good illustration
there. But anyway, they're usually cracked, broken, and dirty. You
try to pour something in them, they won't hold it. They won't
hold it, especially wine. You know, wine is strong, bubbly,
effervescent stuff when you first make it. It's full of substance,
and it won't hold, and an old bottle won't hold it. And if
it's a dirty bottle, You just ruin the wine anyway if you put
it in there. You can't clean it up, it's broken. If you patch
it, it's dirty. And the Scripture says a natural
man receiveth not the things of God. He can't. He just can't. A natural man can't do it. Our natural minds and our natural
hearts leak out new wine. They leak it out. They won't
hold it. Listen very carefully. Why does it seem that some people
never hear a word of the gospel? Say this as nicely as possible,
you know, some when you preach to some folks, it's. I don't know, it's just it's
almost as if You just never hear anything, like going one ear
and out the other. Why is that? Why is it? Some people never
seem to hear the Word of the Gospel, and no real change takes
place. Why? Old bottle. Old bottle. Ain't got the new
bottle yet. That's all there is to it. Back to the subject, you put
precious ointment in a dirty bottle, it would ruin the ointment
anyway. And it's like pearls, casting
pearls in the hog trough. Pearls are beautiful, but you
throw it in the mud, you can't see the pearls. They're not good
for anything. You've got to have a new bottle.
It's got to be one created by the winemaster himself. He's
the one making this wine. And he's going to make the bottle
to suit himself, just like he wants. And he's got one bottle
as a pattern. He's got one that he knows will
hold the full measure, and he's making all the rest of them just
like it. He's got one, and he tried out, filled the spirit
full in this one bottle. That's his son, filled without
measure to the top with the wine of the Spirit, and he held. We've
got to be created just like him. Just like him. Yeah, we do. And
that's what the scripture says. This new bottle being created
in the image of Christ, because this wine is precious to the
wine master. Precious! Costly! Now, I tell
you what, you go to a lot that's costly. If anybody's ever, no,
you wouldn't do that around here. Some people that make wine, this
is on tape, isn't it? Some people that make wine, They
go to a lot of expense. You buy a lot of sugar, and I
don't know what makes up wine, but you buy a lot of things.
It's costly. And you're not going to waste
these ingredients. And finally, especially when you get the wine
made up and it's just like you like it. You've let it sit the
proper amount of time, and you've gone to a lot of trouble to make
it. And when the time comes to pour that wine into your bottles
and cork it up or cap it or whatever you do with it, Oh, you're going
to be careful, aren't you? Going to get you a funnel? You're
not going to drop a drop, are you? Not even a man. You're not
going to drop a drop. You're going to be very careful.
You've got a lot of time. It's precious to you. Spend a
lot of time, a lot of money on that wine. You're not going to
drop it. What are they saying about the
blood of Christ? The precious blood of God's Son. They say,
He's just throwing it out there. Uh-uh. Oh, no. He's creating
bottles, just like He's using the funnel of the Word, the Holy
Spirit, and He's pouring every precious drop of blood in every
bottle that He's made. He's not going to spill a drop.
And every bottle is going to be full. There's not going to
be any left over. There's not going to be too much. Just the
right amount. God's all-wise. He's the all-wise wine master. That's who He is. None to be
wasted. None to be wasted. You know there's a final note
on this. There's no joy. There's not going to be any joy
or true peace or comfort or happiness or spiritual experience. Yes
there is experience in this thing. Yeah there is. We don't deny
this at all. There is a spiritual experience that the believer
goes through. Walking with Christ. You can't
walk with the king and not have an experience. Come on now. There's not going to be any joy,
no peace, no comfort, no happiness, no assurance, no spiritual experience,
no enthusiasm for the gospel with an unregenerate heart. There's not going to be it unless
there's a change. There's got to be a change. Some of you know perfectly well
that before, these things had no place in you. You had no stand. You didn't have any use for this
wine of the Spirit. Don't need that stuff. Now, drinking
it in. Let's hear every service that
it can be. Drinking it in. Give it some
more. Give it some more. Ain't got enough yet. What's
the change? The bottle, you see? The heart. New heart. And like I said, no
true joy or peace or comfort or happiness or assurance without
this change. And no place in heaven. Not going
to be any place in heaven. Because that's the only thing
we're going to be doing there. The only thing we're going to
be doing there is worshipping God and rejoicing in Christ Jesus.
The very thing you're doing right now. In a sense. Worshipping before God, bowing
down to His Word, learning of Christ. This is exactly what
we're going to be doing in heaven. Isn't it? Spiritually worshipping
God and sitting at the feet of Christ, learning of His. It's
what we're going to be doing now. If we don't enjoy and make an
effort to come hear this now and enjoy this now, why on earth
would we want to go up there? Hmm? I say, we're going to be
24 hours a day. Hmm? Well, we're not. You see,
He makes you fit. He makes you, He starts you here
and prepares you for there. Because your new bottle here
starts filling you here, and in there, it's going to really
fill you up. Well, verse 39 now, we'll quit,
verse 39, he says, Now no man also, having drunk old wine,
right away desires new, because he said the old is better. An
old man having drunk old wine, right away desires new, because
he said that old wine is better. Those taken up with, those that
really enjoy this world, they don't desire a new one. Those
better. You see? They're happy right
here. What do I need to go to heaven
for? I'm happy right here. I've got my wife, I've got my
home, I've got my car, I've got my grandchildren all around me,
I've got my pension coming up. What do I need to go to heaven
for? I don't want to die. No, no, no! Paul said, oh, I have a desire
to depart and be with the Lord. Oh, it's far better. I'm straight
betwixt the two, and the only reason I want to stay here is
for Christ's sake, for you, the glory of Christ. Oh, I want to
be with him. But whoever by God's grace and by God's Spirit have
tasted one sip of that vintage wine, I've got to have some more of
that. Can't get enough of that. Give
me some more of that. Taste and see. I counsel you
to taste and see. The Lord is gracious indeed. Stand with me and I'll dismiss
this prayer. Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us. Choose from one part
of the expansive solution. Bring it all to pass. Be your
glory on the entire environment. I think. So choose it.