Well, we're rejoicing today as
we think on that scarlet thread that Brother Al spoke to us about. And surely from the very beginning
until the end of the book, that scarlet thread is found. And
just as that scarlet thread is found, so too is the grace of
God. found in every page of the Word
of God as the Lord would show us that the salvation of His
people is not a work of their own, but is the work of the Lord.
I think that is nowhere else demonstrated more clearly than
in the subject of that song that we just sang, that thief that
was on the cross. And he was no different than
the other thief that was on the cross. Scripture says that they
both cast aspersions to the Lord. They both mocked him. But something
happened. And you know, men can't explain
such a thing as that. I don't know how one would describe
it except that the Lord in sovereign mercy opened that man's eyes
to behold the glory of the one that was hanging there, the one
whom he mocked, the one whom he despised, the one whom he
had no time for, but yet all of a sudden he came to a realization
that this man was the Son of God. And there was nothing else
that he could do but to call upon him at that time. Even as
Peter said, when the Lord asked him if he'd go away, he said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And we're
not looking for someone else. We're not desiring someone to
teach us something else. We're not wanting to find out
some mystery. that hadn't been revealed or
whatever. We just want to see Christ and
to behold Him crucified as the Savior of sinners and that is
upon that foundation and that place that we desire to take
our stand and no place else. It doesn't make any difference
what else men may do, or what religions may come along, or
what teachings men may come up with, if it's not Christ and
Him crucified, we're not interested in it. And that's not meaning
to be harsh, or it's not casting any sort of condemnation upon
anybody that believes something else. Because a man can't believe
but what he can believe by the grace of God. But we desire and
we confess and we stand there. Let the cross of Christ be that
whereon our hope is built, on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. We dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. That's the only place we
can stand, and we don't want to stand anywhere else. And may
the Lord give us grace that we might stand there. Because brethren,
we'll each one depart from him tomorrow if he departs from us. If he should remove his grace
from us, we wouldn't have any leg to stand on. We'd be doing
no telling what. And no telling what we'd be believing.
But by his grace. And I believe, as Paul said,
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. And
I do believe that the Lord will not break the bruised reed nor
quench the smoking flax. And the man that's fled to Him
and calls upon His name, He will not forsake, regardless of what
may come their way. Now, we've been looking in Mark,
and we looked a few weeks ago, uh... at the first uh... about
thirteen verses i think thirteen or fourteen uh... verses and
of course these men brought this one sick of the palsy into the
presence of the lord and the man couldn't come there by himself
that's a picture of how the grace of god brings us to the lord
he couldn't come there just like uh... Rebekah couldn't come to where
Jacob was. She couldn't get, or where Isaac
was, excuse me. She couldn't get there. She didn't
even know who Isaac was. Never heard of him. But the Lord
sent Eliezer into that land and he brought her. back to where
Isaac was. What a glorious thing. And though
she didn't know the way, Eliezer did. And he brought her. What a glorious story. And so
it is that these men brought this man sick of the palsy to
the Lord. He couldn't come there. He didn't
have the power to come there. He probably didn't even know
where it was. But they knew. and they brought him there, and
the Lord healed him. Now, the thing that we see about
this is the glorious thing that the Lord said to these Pharisees,
or those that gathered there, and they said, well, this man
doth blaspheme because he said to this man who was sick of the
palsy, he said, son, thy sins be forgiven thee. And they said,
well, what? Who is this man that he thinks
he can forgive sin? He's blaspheming. And he said,
which is easier, to say, thy sins be forgiven thee, or to
say, rise up and walk? And then he turned around and
he said to the man, rise up and walk. And he proved to them that
he was the Lord of heaven and earth, though they refused to
believe it. Yet he showed them that if he
could heal the man, he could also take away his sin. You know, there are a lot of
healers around, and they claim they can heal. But there's no man who's ever
come into this world other than the Lord Jesus Christ who is
the healer. Now, when the Lord gave to his
disciples the gift of healing, and we see it demonstrated with
Peter and John at the temple, with the man who asked, they
said, you know, we don't have silver and gold, have I none?
But in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.
The man didn't rise up and walk because Peter healed him. Now the Lord used him as a conduit
to bring healing, no doubt, but it wasn't Peter that healed the
man. It was the power of the Lord Jesus Christ because He
is the healer and He alone can forgive sin because He is the
one who made us. He's the giver of life and He's
the taker of life. Every one of us have an appointed
time. I don't know what that appointed
time is for any one of us. Some it may be short and some
it may be long. But nonetheless, the Lord has
those times appointed and marked out for us, and we belong to
Him. And so it is that He has the power over life and death,
even as He told this man, Arise, take up thy bed, go thy way into
thine house. And immediately he rose, took
up his bed, and went forth. And they were all amazed and
glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion. And he
went forth again by the seaside, and they resorted unto him, and
he taught them. Now, the Lord taught many men. Many men heard his word in the
days of his ministry. Multitudes followed him, and
they wanted to find out what was going on, and they sat in
rapt attention and listened to him. But sadly, men demonstrate
what they are by nature. Men can't change that. Men are
gonna be what they are. And the time came when they said,
you know, we like this for a while. You know, you can get folks stirred
up. I mean, if you got the right kind of preacher, You know, when
you've got the right kind of program, you can get folks stirred
up and you can get them to come into church. and but as long
as you keep the pot stirred you can get them if you've got some
new activity going on and you're building this and you're doing
that you can keep them coming but you know the time comes when
people say you know we got other things we need to be doing I
mean we just bought us a new boat and we need to be doing
some skiing and we need to be doing some stuff you know and
and this this church business that's cutting into our fun time
and we want to You know, we got to spend time with the family,
you know, and we got to do all these things. And their interest
in religion fades. And so the multitudes, they've
come along for a while because this was a new and novel thing,
and they followed the Lord, but the time came when they no longer
followed him. And only those in whom he had
performed the work of grace in their heart stayed with him.
and that's the way it is even in the present time. Now, you
can stir up, folks, and I mean, there's a multitude of religions
in the world, multitude of those that call themselves Christians,
and whether they are or not, that's between them and the Lord.
I don't know who the people of God are, but I know this, I know
that there's one gospel, and that there's one Christ, and
that there's one way of salvation, and that is in Christ. And it's
not in the things men do and say and think and want to do,
but it's in what Christ has done that our salvation rests. And
so it is that because men follow after something, there's no sign
of anything. You know, people, a lot of times,
they get, I've had people say, oh, we need to go over there
and find out what's going on, because those people's all excited
and stirred up. We want to see what's happening.
Well, I know a few years back they were supposedly having a
big to-do over in Pensacola and there was people would go in
there by bus loads to see what was going on and they were staring
with a big stick and everything. What happened? It all faded out. It's not there anymore. It's
not happening. Why? Because the excitement wore
off. Brethren, we're not following
Christ for the excitement. but if we can be the true followers
of Christ, we're following Him because He's Christ. I mean,
it's not because of anything external. It's not because we
got good singing. I mean, you know, we get good
singing and all this, we can get folks in. I mean, we can
stir them up. But only as the work of God is
working in the hearts and lives of God's people, to give them
a love for the gospel, will they be drawn to Christ? And so it is. And so, they resorted
to him and he taught them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi,
the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the seat of custom, and he
said unto him, follow me. Amazingly, he arose and followed
him. Now when the Lord says to a man,
follow me, what's gonna happen? He's gonna
follow him, is he not? He said, my sheep hear my voice,
I know them and they follow me. Now we didn't make that up and
we can't bring it to pass. But when the Lord calls a man,
that man will come. That's what we call irresistible
grace. A lot of people, they don't like
that. They believe in election, they
say. They believe in total depravity
of man. They believe in other doctrines,
but you know, that means about the irresistible grace or the
effectual call of God, they just have a problem with that. Why?
You know, well, it's gotta be, it's gotta really come down to
what man either is gonna say yes or no. And it is a true thing
that some men say yes and some men say no, but the thing is
when the Lord calls man, he always says yes. You know, the Lord
doesn't leave any behind. And so he said to Alpheus, or
Matthew, at their seat of custom, a tax collector, somebody that
I'm sure the other disciples was happy to see old Matthew
coming along, weren't they? I mean, because, you know, tax
collectors, they were kind of low on the list of those that
were acceptable. And it came to pass. that as
Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat
also together with Jesus and his disciples. And there were
many, and they followed him. And when the scribes and Pharisees
saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples,
how is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?
See, the Pharisees hated the publicans. They despised them. And the centers, I mean, those,
you see, isn't that the way people are? They look around and they
see the centers. You ever find yourself looking
around and seeing the centers? You ever do that? I mean, you
know, you ride by some place and you think in your mind, yeah,
there's a bunch of centers in there. And that's the way people are.
We like to think of the centers, you know, those that's wicked.
you know the wicked that's a wicked over there I hear a fellow on
the radio pretty regular he's got I don't know you know where
he how he gets on there so much but he's on there all the time
and he's always talking about the wicked and his definition
of the wicked is those that do bad things and he's talking about
you know well the righteous they don't do bad things and he's
considering himself to be one of those that don't do bad things
You know, but it's all the wicked men. Well see, the Pharisees
had no understanding of what a sinner was, and so when they
looked at those whom the Lord was with, they could easily,
in their mind, think of them as sinners. But you know, when
the Lord convinces a man that he is a sinner, then when he
looks at other men, he says, Lord, except for the grace of
God, I'd be in the same situation. No, I mean, you think of the
wickedness that men perpetrate in the earth. I mean, awful crimes
and things that men do. And we're not, far be it from
us to say these things are not terrible things, or that the
people that do them are not terrible people. But we must always understand
that we're not a bit different than they are, except for the
grace of God. And so it doesn't make any difference
about the grades of wickedness that's in the earth. I mean,
we recognize that there are greater sinners than others, but in the
sight of God, even the righteousness of the best of men is filthy
rags. It's nothing. We have nothing
to recommend ourselves toward God. And so why should we spend
time recommending ourselves to ourselves? But the Pharisees
did, as they looked upon these men and said, well, you know,
he can't be from God because he is dealing with these publicans
and sinners. He's messing around with them.
And Jesus said unto them, can the children of the bride chamber,
well, wait a minute, I got ahead of myself. And when Jesus heard
it, he saith to them, they that are whole have no need of the
physician, but they that are sick. See, the Lord came to save
sinners. And sinners is those whom He'll
save. It's not those that think themselves to be righteous. Those
that think that they're going to somehow or other earn some
of God's favor. But He said, I came to call the
righteous, not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. 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? Now, religious
activity is a thing that is very appealing to men. You know, men
will go on pilgrimages and they'll beat themselves with whips and
they'll do all kinds of stuff. because they think that by doing
these things, it's going to somehow or other bring them closer to
the Lord. And fasting, fasting's a good
thing. The Lord Jesus Christ fasted. Fasting's a good thing, I think,
probably, from a diet, from a human health standpoint, probably good
for you to fast from time to time. Not an easy thing to do. But, so we're not speaking against
fasting, and the Lord Jesus Christ was not speaking against fasting.
But what he was speaking about, about the matter of fasting,
fasting is not a religious activity that men say, well, I'm going
to fast so I can earn God's favor. But that's why the Pharisees
did it, because they felt like this was a thing that would make
them more pleasing in the eyes of God. when the lord jesus christ
basically fasted because his mind was so caught up in the
things of god that he didn't have time to eat now when you
go ahead and kind of fasted that's a good thing you know that that's
uh... that's uh... that is the work
of the spirit of god but just for a man to just uh... decide
i'm on fast just because i want to fast i don't think there's
any benefit in that Now I'm not saying that there couldn't be
times when we might call upon one another, brethren, we need
to pray. And we need to fast, not so that we're going to fast
for fasting's sake, but so that we can pray. So that our mind's
given to praying. I mean, so that's a good thing.
But so they asked, they said, well, why did the disciples of
John and the Pharisees, why did they fast and you come along
and these guys, they're just having a big time as far as I
can look, you know, they were enjoying theirself. I mean, they
were with the Lord Jesus Christ and he was their friend. And
he was ministering to them and they were enjoying this. And
they said, why are you not putting on a long face and wearing sackcloth
and ashes and going about in some way that appears unto men
to be a righteous way? see men like that, don't we?
Don't we sometimes like to put on our religious face and our
voice? You know, a lot of times when
we're talking about spiritual things, you know, our voice kinda
changes and we get into a certain way or we want folks to think
in some different way by our intonation of our voice. But the things of God are wrought
in the hearts of men. just as he wrote in the hearts
of these men that he's speaking of here, he said, can the children
of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them?
I mean, when the Lord is present, it's a time for rejoicing, is
it not? 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 so you see there is indeed a time of rejoicing in the Lord
when we know the presence of the Lord when we read of the
gospel and we sing the songs of Zion I mean it's a time of
rejoicing That's not always the way it is. When those times of
leanness come, then indeed we fast. I mean, we're weary. See, we're not always jumping
and jiving, but we're not always down in the dumps either, because
the work of the Spirit of God encompasses all things. See,
He brings us up and He brings us down according to His good
pleasure to work His perfect work in us. And so he says here,
when he shall be taken away from them, then shall they fast in
those days. No man also soweth a piece of
new cloth in an old garment, else the new piece that filled
it taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worst, 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 the new wine must be put into new bottles. Now what he was teaching the
Pharisees here, and all who would listen, was that a man must be
born again. He's saying, you don't get what
I'm talking about here because you cannot see the kingdom of
God. That's what he said to Nicodemus, was it not? You can't put new
wine into old bottles. You can't teach a man the way
of God. Only the Lord can do that. And
the way the Lord does that is he takes and makes a new bottle.
and he puts the truth of God in that new bottle. Because if
you try to put the truth of God into just your old religious
habits and ways, it won't do any good. It'll burst and it'll
go out and it'll come to nothing. And that's what we have today
is, in many cases, we have religious teachers who are trying to put
new wine into old bottles. And they're trying to get people
to serve the Lord. So the people that will serve
the Lord is the ones that have the new bottle. Because that's
the nature. See, the Lord gives to His people
a new nature. He gives them a desire to walk
in His way. And so that's what He's speaking
of here. You can't put new wine into old bottles, but you put
New wine in the new bottles, and the gospel of Christ is a
new wine. It's that which is fresh, it's
vibrant, it's life-giving. And it came to pass that he went
through the cornfields on the Sabbath day, and his disciples
began as they went to pluck the ears of corn. Now, it probably
wasn't corn as we know it, it probably was wheat. but often
the scripture speaks about wheat as corn in the scripture, but
they plucked the wheat and they began to eat it. And the Pharisees
saw them. Isn't it amazing how the Pharisees
was always looking to see what they were doing? You know, a
lot of people, that's what they believe that their religion ought
to cause them to do, is always be looking to see what other
people are doing. Not true? You ever look and see
what other people are doing? We don't need to be worried about
what other people are doing. What you need to be worried about
is what you're doing. And the Pharisees didn't need
to be concerned about what the disciples were doing, but what
were they doing? They were spying out their liberty.
They were looking at them and saying, I knew these people was
not of the Lord because they're going out here and eating corn
on the Lord's day. They're actually doing work on
the Lord's day. on the Sabbath day. Behold, they
do what they do on the Sabbath day, that which is not lawful. Now,
what they meant was it was not lawful in the letter of the law.
But the Lord Jesus Christ is going to teach them what the
law actually is. See, because if they'd had any
understanding of what the Lord taught them in the law, they
would have fell on their face and said, Lord, have mercy on
me. It's more than I can bear. But
they thought they could do it. See, men always think that partial
obedience is good. Don't we? I mean, you know, if
we can't do the best, well, we'll just do it part way. And the
Lord will understand. But no, he said no, to offend
in one point is to offend in all. See, that's what he told
that rich young ruler that came to him. He said, you know, you're
a good man. He says, you've done good stuff. But he said, but, he said, if
you would be perfect, and what he meant was he said, if you
would be a law keeper. Now see, the rich young ruler
thought he was a law keeper, did he not? And according to
man's standards, he was. See, men look at other men and
they say, well, he's abiding by the law. But when the Lord
looked at him, he said, you haven't arrived yet. You haven't made
it. See, because the law demands
absolute perfection. There's no grades on this. Either a man abides in every
jot and tittle of the law or he is a lawbreaker and so if
a man is not a abider in every jot and tittle of the law then
he is on the other side of this thing and the scripture plainly
says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now what is the glory of God?
The glory of God is revealed in the law that he gave to men and so All men are unrighteous
men. And the Pharisees said, they're
not doing what's lawful. And he said to them, have you
never read what David did when he had need and was hungry and
he and they were, that were with him? How he went into the house
of God in the days of Abiathar, the high priest, and did eat
the show bread, which is not lawful to eat, but for the priests
and gave also to them which were with him. And that's what David did. Now
they revered David, did they not? But see, they was willing
to make an exception for David. Because he fit their religious
idea. He was one revered to them. But if they judged righteous
judgment, they would have said David was a lawbreaker. And David
was a lawbreaker. David was a sinner. Because if
they had to admit David was a sinner, they'd have to admit they were
sinners, would they not? See, that was the problem the
Pharisees had, was that if they admitted that this man Jesus
was righteous, then that would mean they were sinners. They
couldn't have that, could they? Because they went about to do
what the scripture says, they went about to establish their
own righteousness. Now there's varying ways that
men go about to establish their own righteousness. And we see
it today in our society. Men go about to establish their
own rights. You've got so many of these people
now with all these Supreme Court stuff and all that, and people
are coming out, and they say, well, we don't believe that this
is right, or we believe this is right, or we believe this
is wrong, or this or the other. It doesn't make any difference
what men thinks right and wrong. So we need to get that firmly
entrenched in our mind. It doesn't make any difference
if I think that a person has a right to do this or a right
to do that. What God says is what the truth
is, and that's not for me to say. It's not for me to stand
up and tell somebody. But the truth is the truth. And so it doesn't make any difference
what men want to establish their own righteousness and think themselves,
you know, there are people on both sides of the coin on this
abortion issue who some say, you know, well, it's the Christian
thing to give women the right to choose. Some say, well, no,
that's terrible. You know, they're going against
the way of God. Well, I believe that it is against
the way of God. You know, I don't believe the
Lord would have us to do such things as that. But because I refrain from doing
that, it doesn't make me pleasing in the eyes of God. I mean, because
the Supreme Court, now there's some people that's like they
just gonna turn out church today because the Supreme Court decided
on this thing. Brethren, it doesn't make any
difference what the Supreme Court decides on. There is a Supreme
Court which the Supreme Court will have to answer to one day.
It doesn't make any difference about all that. The problem with
abortion is not the laws of the land. The problem's in the heart
of men because they're going contrary to the way of God and
they don't want to listen to what he says. They want to say,
well, this is right. Oh, the Lord might give us a
heart and mind just to fall on our faces before the Lord and
seek mercy, because we're all sinners. So anyway, they said, well, these
men, they're eating on this, they're gathering this corn on
the Sabbath, and this is not lawful, it's not right, ought
not to be done. And he said unto them this, And
this is the definition. If you wanna know about keeping
the Sabbath, this is it right here. I mean, the Lord, he plainly
said what it was. He said the Sabbath was made
for man and not man for the Sabbath. See, the Lord didn't give the
Sabbath just to give man something he had to do. I mean, some people,
it's like, well, buddy, you've got to do that. I mean, there's
whole denominations that, buddy, you've got to keep this. I mean,
this is one of the tenets. If you don't do that, boy, you're
an outcast. But the Sabbath was made for
man. You know, the law, the whole law of God was made for man,
was it not? I mean, is not the mercy of God
revealed in the law? I mean, men are, see, men are
bent towards stealing. You are. You get the chance,
nobody's looking, and you want something bad enough, you'll
take it. It's just in your heart. It's the way it is. And the mercy
of God is revealed in the law. He said, thou shalt not steal.
Now, because you see, stealing would make me happy, but think
about the person that I stole from. What does that do for them? See, it's just like people always
wanting a good deal when they buy something, but they don't
want to give somebody a good deal when they're selling it,
do they? Everybody's always looking out
for their best interest in things. That's just the way of men. But
the mercy of God shows us different. And he said, look, the Sabbath
wasn't made, a man wasn't made in order to go out here and keep
a day. But I gave you the day that you
might reflect upon the mercies of God. That you might be blessed
in stopping doing what you're doing. See, men just, our society,
it just, I mean, people don't have any more regard to stopping
and giving God glory than anything. They're just going on about their
business. I mean, we, you know, it's just the way it is. But
the Lord gave us this, this teaching that we set aside time that we
spend moments in reflection, that we come together. And so, he didn't make man for
the Sabbath, but he made the Sabbath for man. Therefore, the
son of man is the Lord even of the Sabbath. Oh, that the Lord might teach
us. you know, about the Lord of the Sabbath. Because that,
see, if a man knows who the Lord of the Sabbath is, then the Sabbath
will be a delight to him. Because Christ is the Sabbath.
He's our rest. It's not a day of the week. I
mean, how do we know what day it is anyway? Have you ever thought
about that? I mean, this could really be
Monday. Could it not? I mean, somewhere
along the line, if people didn't count the days right? I mean,
if you figure that the Sabbath day is supposed to be the Sabbath,
I mean, are we sure that somebody didn't mess up sometime and somebody
may be on the wrong day? I mean, what would we do then? You know, it's not about the
day. It's about the mind. It's about the attitude. It's
about the heart. It's about giving unto God that
which he is due. Now, what is he due? he'd do
all things. See every day ought to be in
our mind a day which is given unto the Lord. Not just setting
one aside. Although in practical fashion
we do set a day aside, do we not? When we come together. Now it could be Monday, it could
be Tuesday, it could be Wednesday, it could be any day. But you
see, the church comes together. We determine to come together
for the purpose of remembering the Lord's death till he comes
again. And the Lord gave us that. He gave us that blessing, did
he not? That we might keep it unto him. Oh, that he might teach us what
it is to honor the Sabbath. to honor that one who is our
Savior, our King.