Turn to Matthew chapter 9, Matthew
chapter 9, and I plan to bring a message today that I've titled,
All of the Grace. All of the Grace, or no grace
at all. I'll be bringing to you this
discourse between Christ and the Pharisees and the disciples
of John that leads into a parable that we'll look at, a parable
that's often called the parable of the garment and the wineskins. It's recorded in the Gospels
of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and we'll look at it here as the
accounts given in Matthew. But in this parable of the garment
and the wineskins, using these very common elements, as Christ
often did when he spoke in parables, that is, the elements of the
cloth and the garment, the wine and the wine bottles, we see
taught a profound gospel truth. And it's profound in that it
takes away all the guesswork, it removes all the gray, as in
these elements, in the teachings of this parable. We see the mutually
exclusive nature of God's way of salvation by grace, the religion
of grace, delineated clearly with no mixing whatsoever from
its antithesis, that is, the religion of works. whereby we
all initially imagine that salvation is conditioned at least in some
way, in some degree, on that which proceeds from us the sinner. And I hope that today you too,
whether it'll be for the first time or perhaps just a refreshing
reaffirmation of something God's already taught you, that you
will see as we can see in these passages that God is pleased
to reveal it to us we can discern whether or not we are among those
for whom Jesus Christ came and lived and died and that's great
news for there's certainly assurance therein so look with me Our text
will be verses 10 through 17, and it's important that the parable
actually doesn't begin until you get down to verse 16, but
it's important we capture the subject of the parable in its
context. You know, sometimes when Christ
would speak in parables like the seed and the sower, When
he finished the parable, he would say, well, the seed stood for
this, the gospel message. And he would describe the wayside
here and the stony. He would tell you what the symbols
were. And in other occasions, as in this parable, We learn
the symbology from the historical context of what was going on
at the time. But more importantly, here we
see it in this continual discourse that takes place between Christ
and the Pharisees, Christ and the disciples of John, as we
will see, John the Baptist, in verses 10 through 17. So look
with me in verse 10. And it reads, and it came to
pass as Jesus sat at meat in the house. Now, before we go
forward, if you glance up at verse 9, you'll see that Christ
had just called Matthew, called Levi in other places, the publican. Now, that publican was the tax
collectors of that day, the most despised dregs of society, you
know, for they were known to skim off the top, and they'd
keep a lot of the money for themselves. Here Christ had called such a
one to be a disciple. In one of the other gospel accounts,
we see that it was at Matthew's house, or at least Matthew was
the one that was holding this meal that we read about in verse
10. And so it says, And it came to
pass as Jesus sat at meat in the house, Behold, many publicans
and sinners came, and they sat down with him and his disciples."
Matthew had his buddy, his fellow tax collectors, the publicans,
come and sit down there with him. And when the Pharisees saw
it, they said unto his disciples, unto the disciples of Christ,
Why eateth your master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard
that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick. And then he says this, but go
ye and learn what that meaneth. Notice the word that is in italics,
meaning it was added by the translators. If you leave that out, it reads
like this. Go ye and learn what meaneth. Learn what this phrase
I'm about to quote to you means. And he quotes from the book of
Hosea in the Old Testament, where God was speaking through the
prophet Hosea. And he says, ye learn what meaneth
this. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Now this is a key phrase here
to the understanding of the parable we'll be looking at in a moment.
And then Christ continues and he says, For I am not come to
call the righteous but sinners to repentance. We see here in
these first three verses, see, the very subject of the parable,
we see identified here for whom Christ came. You see, we start
off here with the problem being there's a need that we as sinners
all have before a holy God that we can't meet, and yet by nature
we perceive it not. You see, we imagine that we're
whole. That something that we can do will make the difference
in our obtaining an eternal blessing. So we get ourselves well and
we don't need a physician, you see. We imagine, he said there,
I don't come for the righteous. I came not to call the righteous.
So we imagine that we establish that very requirement of righteousness
that God says he's going to judge the world by. And you know, when
we do that, we put it in rivalry with the only righteousness whereby
God, who is so holy, He cannot commune with sin, can justify,
Senator, the very righteousness of God in Christ. And so Christ
is telling these who come to Him, He says, you know, listen
to this. We would all do very well if
we read verse 12, excuse me, verse 13. as if that admonition
was written to each and every one of us, where he says, but
go ye and you learn what meaneth. I'll have mercy and not sacrifice. And so we have here set up the
dichotomy. When he says sacrifice there,
he's referring literally to the animal blood that they shed in
obedience to God's commandment for that nation Israel under
that old covenant economy. That word sacrifice means an
offering that you make. And as we heard during the 10
o'clock hour though, the book of Hebrews teaches us that the
blood of bulls and goats that they offered, it can never take
away sin. No, the scriptures tell us in
the New Testament that all those offerings, those sacrifices,
under that ceremonial law, that it too, as part of that law,
was a schoolmaster to point us to the one that it typified,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrifice he would make. So when God says,
I'll have mercy, it means God is going to be pleased with a
favor that the recipient of that favor will have no part whatsoever
in meriting. I'll have mercy and not anything
that you have to offer, not sacrifice. And we see at the end of verse
13 there, when he says, I've come to not call the righteous.
That is, you who imagine that you meet the standard of righteousness. You see, for mercy is found based
on a righteousness being established. But that righteousness speaks
of the perfect satisfaction that Jesus Christ made to the law. as he walked on this earth under
the jurisdiction of God's law, God's revealed will, by way of
command, and he alone walked this earth sinless, and loved
his neighbor as himself, and loved God supremely. So that
righteousness I'm speaking of is the very perfect satisfaction
that he made by keeping the law in its precept. He obeyed it.
And you see, God's holy. And where there's any sin, there
cannot be communion. So this one came and he obeyed
it, but he obeyed it as a substitute for a people. But those people
for whom he substituted himself were sinners. And the law says
the soul that sinned must die. See, for God to be who He is,
and He can't just pretend we didn't sin. No, those sins had
to be paid for. And so God imputed, charged,
or reckoned to Christ the very sins of spiritual Israel, as
they're called in the Bible, all those that the Father gave
Him before the world began, and He put those sins upon Christ
so that He might bear them. He who knew no sin, the spotless
Lamb of God, died the just for the unjust, and God reckoned
the very merit of His perfect obedience even unto death, that
is, His satisfaction to law both in precept And in paying the
penalty that was due those for whom he came and represented
as a substitute, he paid for their sins so he satisfied that
law and God reckoned all the merit of that to all those for
whom he came. And there's mercy. That's where
there's mercy. But if we imagine that if it's
some offering, some sacrifice we make, then we imagine to meet
this standard of righteousness, and Christ says, I didn't come
to call them, not the righteous. You see, so until we discover
that God won't have anything to do with our self-righteous
notions, that I could do my part in order to acquire God's blessing
and rather be brought to see I need His mercy and nothing
else will do. Until that happens, you see,
I have no warrant to consider myself among these for whom Jesus
says He came. Because He came to call them
to what? Repentance. So what that tells
us is there is a transformation that must take place, that does
take place for all of those for whom he came and lived and died. And we'll look at that more.
So if we're among those for whom he lived and died, that means
in time we're going to experience the effect of what he accomplished
at the cross of Calvary. You see, for that righteousness
he established for a people, Demands life is that verse on
your bulletins Romans 5 21 says grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life That's why he came out of that grave and
that very life He gives to his people based upon the merit of
what he accomplished unto eternal life and listen the scripture
says that that same resurrecting power is a power that in time
gives spiritual life to all those he represented. So they are made
alive, and that they turn in faith and repentance. You know,
repentance is not just a turning away from something, something
rejecting, but it's a turning to, as in faith. Those two things
are really inseparable, faith and repentance. And so the evidence
is that if, in fact, you're among those for whom Christ lived and
died, there will be a time when you will change. You will forsake
the idea that you could be saved based upon an offering of your
hand. And instead, you'll be looking
for mercy. And that mercy is found in the
mercy seed, as the Scriptures call Christ, that is, based solely
on his righteousness. When verse 14 and 15, this discourse
continues, and it's actually in the other gospel accounts,
it's kind of easier to see that it's one continual conversation. But here Christ, it says, then
came to him the disciples of John, that's speaking of John
the Baptist, saying, why do we and the Pharisees fast off? Other
versions said that both the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees
came together here, but they're speaking for both parties, and
they say, Why do we and the Pharisees fast off, but thy disciples fast
not? And Jesus said unto them, Can
the children of the bride chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom
is with them? But the days will come when the
bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. You see the evidence here as
exposed by their follow-up complaint that was focusing on what? On
their doing. You see, their compliance, as
they saw it, with the old covenant law in obedience to fast. It really wasn't the law. The
law only really prescribed that they fast on one day, on the
Day of Atonement, the annual Day of Atonement. And yet they
had added to that law, much like religion does. This denomination
over here says, well, here's what you have to do. And this
one over here says, oh, no, no, no, this is what you have to
do. And the Pharisees had actually, many of them being the strictest,
most moral, religious, perhaps, that ever lived, they had, many
of them, fasted twice a week. And so they come to him, and
it's interesting that in concert with him are these disciples
of John the Baptist. The disciples of John the Baptist
who had been told by John the Baptist, Look, there's one coming
that much greater than I than I'm not even worthy to tie the
shoelaces of. And he he pointed them to Jesus
and said, Behold, the Lamb of God. that which was represented
by all your sacrifices out here that taketh away the sin, not
of just you, this Jewish nation that was chosen for these pictures
and types under the old covenant, but of all the world. And yet
these disciples of John now, who we must assume would have
had some interest in Jesus Christ, they were pointed to, in fact,
John told his disciples, you follow Jesus Christ, you become
disciples of Christ. So they would have had some interest
in Christ, and yet here we find them in league with the Pharisees,
a religiously zealot sect of Judaism, but of whom the Bible
is clear, Jesus said, your deeds are evil. And they're portrayed
in the Scriptures as being hypocrites, who were all about the letter
of the law, but never really understanding what it was pointing
them to. Now, isn't that much like religion today? You see,
we have all kinds of religions out there. And there's only two. And that dichotomy we read about
in those first three verses of grace and works, that's the two
religions. Either it's conditioned on Christ alone, of mercy, or
it's conditioned on the sinner. At least, as most would put it,
just in one little small way. You see, that small way might
be, oh, I thank God, I thank Jesus for what he's done for
me. And if so many, actually the
majority of today's popular brand of Christianity would say that
what he did for me, he did for everyone, as I once believed.
And so if you confront them with the fact, well, if that's the
case, then Why is it that the Bible says so many will perish?
Why is it that you imagine you'll go to heaven and others will?
Oh, well, you've got to believe. So it's just that one little,
if you'll just reach out your hand and receive Him, see? If
you'll just say this prayer and invite Him into your heart, if
you'll just accept Him as your Savior. It's always an if you
will just, as if it's some little, small, minor thing that you need
to do. But that little, small, minor
thing, if you think about it, if Christ died for their sins
and that didn't get the job done, then it's to imagine there's
a righteousness I can establish. And that's called an offering,
a sacrifice, which God will not have. It's to imagine that the
ultimate difference is that I can talk all day long. And frankly,
we're blinded to the fact that we call it grace and we call
it mercy. But before God's pleased to reveal
something to us, to call us to repentance, as he says here,
we look at that and we go, oh, no, no, no. Listen, 23 days from
now, 22 days from now, what is it? 23, I guess. We're going
to be celebrating all over this land the birth of this One called
Jesus Christ. Like the disciples of John who
here had not yet seen what Christ came to do, they invoked the
name of Christ. They had been directed to Christ,
and we'll talk a lot about Him. We're going to talk a whole lot
about Him here in the next... this nation will. And so we believe
we have an interest in Him, but the real... when it gets down
and you peel the onion all the way back, what do you see? Oh,
it's that I believed, that I did my part. And we may even say,
oh, but God gave me that gift, but it's something that comes
from me, the sinner. God says, I won't have sacrifice,
not your offering. Well, anyway, these, they came
to Christ, and they show their oblivious to what He was trying
to tell them. He just told them some profound
information that we all do well to heed, And what they did, they
went right back to the law and says, but let's get back on what
matters. You see, you can tell where someone's heart is. You
can tell what their religion's about by what they focus on. So they go back to, let's talk
about fasting. Today in churches that call themselves
Christian, their whole message typically is geared toward getting
to the end of the sermon to elicit a response from you that will
cause you to imagine that God will bless you on the basis of
your response. It's the focus of the ministry.
It's not, as Paul said, I determine not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of Christ. Well, in bringing up this issue
of fasting, they just show that they lack the evidence of this
transformation of heart and mind that he calls sinners to, to
repentance. So we see here in verses really
10 through 15 this dichotomy set up. We see the parables illustrating
that this gospel of grace, that is, where mercy is found, and
this religion of works will not mix. It's showing us here that
it really is all a grace, or else it's not grace at all. Well,
look with me at the parable, and he begins in verse 16. This
parable has two illustrations. The first one is an illustration
of the garment. And it reads, Christ said, No man putteth a
piece of new cloth into an old garment. For that which is put
in to fill it up, take it from the garment, and the rent is
made worse. Let me give you the picture there.
Here's a garment, and it's got a tear in it. These people would
have understood this very well. And so they get a piece of cloth,
but it's a piece of new cloth that has not shrunk yet. And
so they sew it in, and when it shrinks, It tears the old garment
and makes the tear even worse. Well, how do we know what these
symbols are? We know them from the context of preceding verses,
which we just covered. You see, he told them when they
came to him fasting, why would you fast? You see, let me go
back there and mention this. Fasting was to be done on that
day of atonement, and it was to be a sign of great mourning
and contrition over your sin condition. You see, it would
be, if it were performed right, it would be like one who found
out they were soul sick. They weren't whole. They needed
a physician, you see. And yet here, Christ says, the
bridegroom's here. I've come for the church, the
bride. There's calls for rejoicing.
There's good news here. And you're focusing on mourning
in keeping a rule, a regulation, a requirement that your religion
prescribes. He says, why would you fast when
the bridegroom is here? Well, what we have here in these
symbols is this this dichotomy that's reflected in those verses.
In other words, we have the religion of sacrifice or offering, which
he says he will not have, or we have mercy, grace that is
in Christ. And so we see then that the symbols
here are that, first of all, you have the new garment. That
new garment would represent this new bridegroom who was on the
scene now. You see, it would be that garment
that's spoken of throughout the scriptures, as many of you know,
the robe of Christ's righteousness. It's that which he came to establish. That would be the new garment.
It's what he procured. It's what he clothes his bride
with. You see, he wove that garment. You didn't have any part in producing
that garment. And he put it on when he imputed
to his people at the cross of Calvary, when God reckoned to
them the merit of what he accomplished. He clothed them with this robe
of righteousness. The old garment, then, And that
robe of righteousness, though, you see, when you see this cloth,
it's new to you. There's nothing new about the
righteousness that God intended before time began when he covenanted
with the Son and the Spirit for Christ to come in time and redeem
a people. There's nothing new about that,
but it becomes new to us. And so the old garment, then,
would be representative of our self-righteous clothing, our
birth clothes. For the Scripture says we come
into this world dead in trespasses and sins. You see, born in spiritual
darkness. We can't see, we can't hear.
You see, because dead men don't see and hear. And the natural
man, as we heard in the last hour, cannot discern the things
of the Spirit of God. No, we have to have life. And
so that old garment would be representative of our religious
works, of the religion of works, whereby we cling to the notion
that something we do, something we're unable to do, something
done through us contributes, at least in some way, in order
for us to be eternally blessed by God. And it's typified by
all these religious rituals, just like fasting was here. You
see, this old garment, this old cloth, it's like a baby's security
blanket. You just can't let go of it. Susan makes fun of me. I've had
old shirts and old coats and things in my closet that don't
even fit me. But boy, back in the day, they
were my favorite, and I just don't want to let go of them,
you know? And that's the way we all are naturally, about the
notion that salvation is conditioned on something we do. You see,
we by nature as sinners, as, listen, self-absorbed sinners,
interested in us, we don't want to give up the control of our
eternal destiny. And so we come, when we get serious
about religion, we say, well, tell me what I've got to do to
go to heaven. The question tells on us, doesn't it? What do I
have to do? You see, we just imagine that
there's something I can do. But we find out, just like these
disciples of John who have an interest in Jesus Christ, we
find out I need something. I got a tear in my garment. I
know it's deficient in some way. Nature tells me it's deficient
because I know there must be a supreme being and he needs
to be appeased. I know I'm not perfect, you know.
I'm a sinner. Why the very churches who promote
that salvation is conditioned on your faith, on your decision
to receive Jesus today, they'll couple that with, you need to
say this prayer, and they'll call it, what, a sinner's prayer.
You got to admit you're wrong about some stuff. But like the
illustration here, what do we do? We take some interest in
Jesus, and we try to sew it into our old self-righteous garment. You see, we try to patch it up.
And he says it just makes the terror worse. So there's no mixing
of these two things. You know, when it says there,
it makes the terror worse. There's two there's two ways.
I believe our two teachings. I believe we can glean from that.
One is, you know, the most effective lies, one that's just surrounded
with a lot of truth. It becomes more and more effective,
the more truth you put around the lie, because the lies more
and more camouflage. And so some will take this word
that talks about Jesus, and they'll get some notion about what He
did, and they'll take that, even some truth about what Jesus came
and did, but they want to patch it in and cling to that old,
and they'll put it in there, and it says the tear is even
worse. I believe that there is a sense where the tear is worse,
for you see, That's part of the strong delusion that will cause
us to continue to cling to that old. We think we've got it patched
up, in other words. Secondly, it could be, and this
is good news, that what takes place for it does take place
in those that God calls to repentance. It could be that what is being
taught there is that when the good news of the gospel, this
robe of righteousness that is of the perfect satisfaction that
Christ has made is laid aside your very best efforts to try
to procure your own salvation, that it just exposes more and
more the deficiency. And if God is so pleased to give
you spiritual life, So that, in other words, call you to faith
and repentance, as he does, all those for whom he came, as we
saw in the Scripture. If he's so pleased, he'll show
you the folly of that old garment, and you'll want to take that
old smelly garment of self-righteousness and just throw it away. And that's
what repentance is. It's a total repudiation and
a rejection. of that which we imagined would
recommend us to God when we thought that salvation was based on something
that proceeded from us. See, grace and works can't mix.
As we studied in Romans 11, Paul wrote, and if by grace, then
it is no more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
There's no works at all. You can't marry these two things.
It can't be Jesus plus. It's not Jesus came and did all
this for you, now if you will. Oh no. And he goes on, he says,
but if it be of works, if you can find an element of works,
let's look and see, let's look at this, flip this thing around
and say, is there any notion that I think I'm going to get
to heaven because of something in me, something I do, some offering,
sacrifice which God says he will not have? Or am I banking on
heaven's glory? based on nothing but pure, unadulterated
mercy. He says, if it be of works, then
it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. Let's look
at verse 17 as he gives us a second illustration of this parable.
He says, Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else the
bottles break. And the wine runneth out, and
the bottles perish. But they put new wine into new
bottles, And both are preserved. The picture here, again, the
people in that day would have understood these common elements
that he was referring to. The wine bottles of that day,
in fact, still I understand in Palestine it's the same way,
they were actually skins, animal skins, wine skins. And they knew
if you took new, unfermented wine and you put it in those
old bottles, those wine skins that had lost their elasticity,
that had become rigid, that had weakened with age, that when
the fermentation process started, it burst those wine skins wide
open. And as Christ said here, the
wine would run out and the bottles would be no good, they'd perish.
Well. What's what's representative
by the symbols again, we go back and we see you think about this. I'll have mercy and not sacrifice. He's talking about something
that he calls sinners to in repentance, a change. So what we have is
the new one is God's way of salvation. It is the doctrine of Christ. This bridegroom, who was present
even now when he was speaking to them, is the good news of
how he saves sinners conditioned solely on Christ having met all
the requirements. And so that new bottle then is
one that can receive that new wine, and that would be representative
of our new state, of one having been born again, born anew, called
by God's Spirit, as we just read, to repentance, one who's figured
out He hadn't figured out God's reveal to him that he needed
a physician. You see, he'll die needing a
physician. That one for whom he came to
live and die will spend eternity in the very presence of God.
And what does Revelation tell us will be his song in glory?
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. I still need that healing. I find nothing here for the righteousness
that I can stand before God today. Holy, unreprovable, unblameable,
the Scripture says. It resides at the right hand
of the Father in my substitute But it's just as much mine by
God's judicial accounting of it to me as the fact that he
had to die for sins, he who produced those sins. It's by that same
principle of God's accounting those sins to him that he killed
his son, that his offering was made. Boy, that's great news,
is it not? Well, the old bottle then must
be representative of the old state. In other words, the unrepentant
sinner, one who continues, who has yet to be made alive to see
something different, who continues in religion seeking God's favor,
seeking blessings from God based upon offering, sacrifice, something
done by or in or through him, not really needing mercy. Well,
what's the lesson here? of the wine This new doctrine, this gospel,
the gospel that Paul said is the power of God unto salvation,
for therein is the righteousness, not of the sinner, but of God
revealed. Now this new line is not new as in recent. It's the
old, old story. It was that which God and the
Father, the Son, and the Spirit agreed in the everlasting covenant
of grace. that the Son would come in time
and establish this very righteousness, this garment, this robe. So it's
not new in that sense. It's new when it's first heard
and believed with the heart by the repenting sinner. You see,
when it's revealed through, God says He chooses to reveal that
through the foolishness of preaching, is the way the word puts it.
Through the proclamation of this very message that you're hearing
today, of how Christ completely finished all that was required
for a sinner's salvation in his life and death. And so it becomes
new when it's revealed, when this robe of righteousness that
you must have is revealed to your hearts and minds so that
he draws out your affection, your love for it. You've got
to have it. You can't do without it. So much so you reject and
are sorrowful for ever having imagined that a holy God, the
difference in whether he would take you into heaven or not is
based upon what you, a sinner, would do if you'll just believe,
if you'll just reach out your hand, whatever the case may be. You see, they must be made alive. As in the new birth, and so like
a new bottle in the new birth, the scripture puts it this way.
God makes them willing in the day of his power under the sound
of this message. You know we're privileged. Not
many people hear this message of grace. And we're privileged. It's good. It's great news like
a new bottle. We receive it because we got
life. You know, 2nd Corinthians 517. This is a verse that's often
quoted. It goes like this. Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. And in the context, as we continue
on down through that verse, we see that he's speaking of that
very reconciliation that Christ was making in the world. God
centers being reconciled into a holy God, based on the perfect
righteousness that he brought out, culminating in his death,
whereby he paid the penalty for the sins that he bore. You see,
and so there certainly old things passed away, for our condemnation
in Adam was taken away. Our sins, the Bible says, were
taken away as far as the east is from the west. Old things
passed away and all things became new, for we were justified, declared
not guilty. Before I was even born, me, a
sinner, not guilty? Yeah, based on my righteousness,
I had no part in producing whatsoever. But we know also that in time,
when God is pleased to reveal to us as a fruit and effect of
what he accomplished for us, you see, there at the cross,
he bought us life. And so he gives life in each
successive generation to all those for whom he lived and died.
And likewise, old things pass away. That's what repentance
is about. And all things become new. You see, the old passes away
as the light of the gospel dispels the darkness which we're born
in. And so we're brought to faith in the accompanying evidence
of repentance. You see, that evidence Testifies
that the faith is genuine. You see, because repentance,
as I said, is turning away from something, it's turning to something
in faith also. And that's how we know that God
has done a work. It's one of the ways we know.
We know that apart from that work, that grace. Having received
that gift, we know we have no warrant to consider ourselves
among those for whom Jesus came, because that's what he said he
came to do, to call them to repentance. New wine requires new bottles. So we see clearly here in the
passage, I hope you see, that it is really all of grace, or
it is not grace at all. That there is no mixing of the
two. That it's not a patchwork religion. That it's not Jesus
plus. There's no cobbling together
of these two diametrically opposed doctrines. The popular brand
of Christianity today, like the disciples of John, they've got
an interest in Jesus Christ. But they expose there's been
no repentance, for they continue to imagine something they do
really makes the difference. Just as I did. And you know,
in repentance, we see the evil of what we're turning from. We
don't just change our mind like, OK, I kind of think that one's
more true than this one. Oh, no. We repent because we
have to. God shows us something that causes
us to see the evil of having imagined that he could save us
based upon something we would do. Why in my own case I imagine
that Jesus died for everybody in the world and that God was
an unjust monster if you think about it because he killed Jesus
for my sins and everybody else's sins but the scripture is clear
most perish. And so he makes them pay in hell,
others pay in hell, for whom Christ died. You see, if righteousness
come by the law, the scripture says, that means if satisfaction
is made by your doing, by your obedience, fulfillment of a requirement,
Christ died in vain. You see the evil of that? And
to imagine that God would kill his son for sins, And then still,
they've been punished and with the supreme, most valuable payment
that could ever be extracted. And he's still going to charge
those sinners with their sins by sending them to hell. No,
it doesn't happen. He didn't die for all men, as we know.
What about those of us who've embraced the doctrines of grace,
as they're sometimes called? In other words, we see that Christ
didn't die for all. And, you know, you can logically
see that if you look objectively at the scripture, that is a clear
It's logical, it's clear, and it's unmistakable. And I've never
known anyone to objectively consider that issue who didn't conclude
that. You see, that doesn't take a
miracle of grace just to come to know that. Well, how then
do you know if they just have some sort of head knowledge of
a truth, if they've just grown into some greater knowledge,
so to speak? How do you know if that's the
case? versus has God really done a new work and made them a new
Bible? Well, the evidence is there to be clear in verse 13. There's repentance. You see,
there's a turning. They reject that notion. And
most often, many, many who call themselves Calvinists will conclude
that even though they have learned something new, they know that
at a time when they were totally ignorant of it, when every thought
they had about how God saved sinners was totally opposed to
the gospel of grace. Or their loved ones, they'll
imagine, but they're still okay. They're mistaken, but they're
still okay. Well, that just reveals they really don't believe that
when God said, I'll have mercy and not sacrifice. You see, that
repentance is a great, great evidence. whereby we can take
great assurance in seeing that we indeed are among those for
whom he came and lived and died. In Luke's version of this parable,
he finished it much like Matthew did. In verse 38, it ends with
a similar phrase. He said, But new wine must be
put into new bottles, and both are preserved. But then he adds
this verse, and he says, No man also having drunk old wine, Straightway,
that means immediately, desireth the new, for he saith the old
is better. You see, that is one who has
become involved in religion, partaking of the wine, but it
is the old wine representative of our insistence that salvation
is conditioned on us in some way. You see, as they become
drunk with this world's religion, so to speak, They don't immediately
like this new wine when it's presented before them. Because
by nature, you see, we're still sinners, and we think the old's
better. You know, if God didn't do a
miracle of grace, none of us, none of us would want this wine. You see, it's our natural taste
buds to imagine that salvation's in our hand, but then God prepares
a new bottle, and He changes us, and He causes us to repent.
So we say out with the old, see, and in with the new. And as new
bottles, we not only embrace that new wine, but we can't stomach
the old. That's what repentance, that's
what it is to be called to repentance. Well, how about you? Has God
granted you repentance? That radical change of heart
and mind as it pertains to how his gospel, how God saves sinners. Well, if so, you can rejoice. No need to fast, you see, for
it would give evidence that the bridegroom has come and he's
swept you off of your feet. And he's clothed you with this
wedding garment whereby you are received by God on the basis
of what he accomplished. His very righteousness. See and
hear in this passage that there's no mixing of works and grace.
I pray you too can rejoice in this bridegroom the Lord Jesus Christ, and with
your heart say, Out with the old and in with the new. As Christ
himself tells us, he's called his bride, the redeemed, the
ones he came, lived, and died for, he called them to repentance.
And in the newness of life, they're truly brought to see that it
really is all of grace, and that what they once believed really
isn't grace at all.