Alright, Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5. We know the setting here. The Lord had called Levi, and Levi had this great feast and invited all his friends, publicans and sinners. seated there with them, eating, drinking, rejoicing. His disciples are there with them. They're having a joyful time.

And verse 33 says, and they said unto him, why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees, but thine eat and drink? It appears that the they that is speaking is the scribes. Before he had said it was the scribes and Pharisees that asked, why do you eat with publicans and sinners? And here it seems like it's the scribes that said this.

The first thing to think about is that legalists have no joy. They don't have any joy in Christ, and they have no joy to see the Lord save his people. This was a joyful time. There's the Lord Jesus, God himself in human flesh. There is the righteousness of God in the same room with him. The Holy One of his people is there. The salvation of his people. And they don't have any joy. There is a sinner that was just saved by the grace of God, who's a babe in Christ, who knows Christ now for the first time. They don't have any joy about that.

They criticized the Lord for eating with sinners. We're very, very thankful that he eats with sinners, aren't we? And now they're criticizing him and his disciples using fasting and praying. Why don't you fast and pray like we do? And they had no joy in Christ.

Legalists are fruit inspectors. They're looking at others all the time, trying to find fault, because that's one of the ways they exalt themselves. Remember the Pharisee that the Lord gave in the parable, he looked around and said, thank you, Lord, I'm not like other people. I do this, this, this, and I'm not even like this guy. They're fruit inspectors examining what the Lord has done, not understanding it, finding fault with it. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.

That's what Christ said. Now, I think there's a lesson here in that, and it's this. Matthew tells us that the disciples of John asked the Lord this question. He said, The disciples of John said, why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but thy disciples fast not? In our text, it's the scribes saying it. I believe Mark says it's the scribes and the Pharisees that said it, and John's disciples. Now, understand, John's disciples, his true disciples, were saved by the Lord, just like me and you are. one of the same spirit, given one faith, one Lord, one hope, one righteousness, just like the Lord's people are.

And I say this as an example of a little leaven, leavening the whole lump, because John's disciples fasted and prayed. We're gonna see what that is here in a moment, fasting. But our Lord said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, talking about their doctrine. a doctrine of works, a doctrine telling you you need to fast, you need to pray, you need to do this, that, or the other.

You remember when Peter in Galatians, when Peter was sitting at the table eating pork chops with the Gentiles and some of the Jews came, he got up from that table and went over and sat with the Jews. And when he did that, it made true believers dissimulate with him. They played the hypocrite with him. They got up and moved over there with him.

Well, I know from experience what likely happened here is that the Pharisees and the scribes whispered to John's disciples first. Why do we fast and pray often? But him and his disciples, they don't fast and pray. And that little leaven caused Jehovah's Disciples to look at themselves and look at Christ and his disciples and exalt themselves over the Lord and want themselves in unity with the Pharisees. Why do we and the Pharisees fast and pray often, but you and your disciples don't?

That's what a little leaven does. A person whispers to one person and points out a fault in another believer, and then that one says it to somebody, and that one says it to somebody. Next thing you know, you got a whole group puffed up just like leaven puffs up the dough. And John's disciples were finding fault with their Savior, finding fault with their brethren. putting themselves in the account with the Pharisees. That's what this leaven of self-righteousness will do. That's why the Lord warned us about it. It puffs up.

But the Pharisees, now to understand what our Lord's gonna say in this parable, we have to understand the Pharisees did what they did to be seen of men. And this was what they thought made them righteous and what they thought made them holy. Go to Matthew 6 real quick. I just want you to get this before we get to the parable because otherwise you won't understand why the Lord gave this parable at this time. But Matthew 6 in verse 1, the Lord said, take heed that you do not your arms before men to be seen of men.

Otherwise, you have no reward from your father, which is in heaven. Otherwise, your father's not involved. He's not your reward. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men.

That's what they're wanting. They want men's praise. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. That's the only reward. If we do anything to be seen of men, and that's our heart's motive, when a person praises you for what they saw you do, that's all you're gonna get out of it. So it's the Lord's not in it. And he says here, but when thou doest dimes, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. that thine alms may be in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are.

They love to pray standing in the synagogue. At that time, they would sit down, but they wanted to do something different than everybody else do, and they stood up in the synagogue and prayed so everybody could look at them. And then they go in the corner of the streets in public, that they may be seen of men.

That's the desperately wicked deceiving heart. That's the only reason they did it. They probably would have said, no, we do this because we're just so in love with God. No, they did it to be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, this is Christ speaking, they have their reward. Men praised them, that's what they were seeking, that's all they got.

But you pray, you enter into your closet, when you shut your door and you pray to your father, which is in secret, and thy father which sees in secret shall reward thee open. And don't use vain repetitions like the heathen do. They think they'll be heard for much speaking. Be not like them. Your father knows what things you have need of before you ask him. So brethren, this is the problem with these Pharisees. They're fasting and praying to be seen of men to get the praise of men.

Lord said, how can you believe which receive honor from men? and seek not that honor that comes from God. God gives us faith and brings us to trust Christ as all our righteousness and all our holiness, and the reward he gives us is Christ and his free salvation and peace and communion with God. And anything else is a vain motive. We looked at Isaiah 58.

Remember, the Lord said, They said, wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou see us not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and you don't take any knowledge? The Lord said, in a day of your fast, you find pleasure. Your pleasure's not in Christ, it's in what you're doing. You exact all your labors, you count up all your good works, and you examine others, and demand of them, and count what they haven't done. And he said, and you, And you fast for strife and debate, to smite with a fist of wickedness, to make your voice be heard on high.

And we saw, you go back, listen to the message from Isaiah 58. Everything he said there, that is a true fast, is what Christ did for us. He dealt the bread to us, he clothed us, he did it all for us. So now, Let's deal with what our Lord says here. So we got the picture. Pharisees and scribes are doing what they're doing to be seen of men. They think it's their righteousness. They think it's their holiness. They think it's what makes God accept them.

And it's not at all, not at all. Now, God's presence, the presence of the Lord Jesus is what separates us from our sinful flesh in this world, and it's what makes us have joy. Having Christ and knowing we have him and his presence is the joy of our heart.

And you can't mourn when you have him. You just can't. It's when we don't have Christ, when we can't perceive his presence. We might be going through some affliction and he makes you, withdraws enough to make you think he's not with you and you mourn then.

And this is what the Lord meant, verse 34, He said to them, can you make the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? Now, for time's sake, let me just tell you this. In Matthew, we're told what fasting is. The Lord said, can the children of the bride chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?

Fasting, mourning is fasting. When you know your sin because the Lord's withdrawn, or maybe he hasn't saved you yet, he's just dealing with you for the first time, making you see your sin, that's your mourning, and you can't eat. It's not just a put-on fast that men do to lose weight or to act religious. No, this is a mourning of spirit, a mourning for Christ, and being mournful over our sin so that you can't eat.

And he's declaring here, he's the bridegroom. He's the bridegroom. Christ is the groom. He's the bridegroom. And his church is, his elect are the bride and the children born of Christ through the preaching of the gospel are the children of the bride chamber. And he's saying, how can these brethren be mourning when I'm right here with them? I'm with them, I'm present with them. They can't mourn right now. There's a joyful time, he just saved one of his lost sheep. How can they mourn when I'm here?

See, the Pharisees didn't get that, because they didn't have the Spirit. And a man that doesn't have the Spirit of God in his heart, Spirit of Christ in his heart, has to look to signs, he has to look to outward works, because he don't have anything spiritual. Our worship is spiritual, it's not carnal. We have no confidence in this flesh. When I look into the form, we're looking to Christ. We worship in spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, okay?

So he said, but verse 34, the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. They gonna mourn in those days. And what our Lord's specifically speaking about is when he went to the cross, and bore the sin of his people and was made a curse for us. When he went in that grave, they were mourning because they thought, remember what they said on the road to Emmaus? We thought he was the Christ. And they're mourning because he's not present with them. They don't know he's present with them.

But when he revealed himself and he sat down and ate with them and they had communion with him, they were joyful again, rejoicing again. And right now, we have his spirit when we're born again of him, and it's his presence that is our joy. It's having Christ. We come to hear the gospel preached because this is where he communes with us. It's a message coming through his servant into the hearts of his people, and we're We're at Christ's feet, worshiping him along with all the hosts of heaven that are worshiping him right now. And this is the joy of everybody that's looking to Christ, Christ himself. He's our reward. And it's his presence that gives us this joy. And it's only when he's withdrawn that we perceive him to be withdrawn. That's when we mourn, because we know all we are in our flesh is sin. And without him, we don't have joy.

Remember Moses? Moses said, Lord, please go with us. Go forward with us. Make your presence known. He said, how else are we going to be separated from this world? Is it not that your presence goes with us? And that's what our Lord said. You can't mourn when my presence is with you. I'm the bridegroom. You're my bride. You're my children. You can't mourn when I'm with you. Can't mourn when I'm with you.

John, let me show you that's what this means. Go to John 3. I'll show you that this is what this means, because John the Baptist said the exact same thing. When they came to him saying, are you the Christ? Here's what John said, John 3, 28. Well, verse 27, he said, John answered and said, a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ, but that I'm sent before him.

He that hath the bride is the bridegroom. That's Christ. He has the bride. And he says, but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase. I must decrease. You see that?

He said, he's speaking of Christ. He's the bridegroom, he's the husband. And I'm like the groomsman, you know, stand beside the groom. And John's Baptist, I'm like the best, I'm standing where the best men stand. And I'm hearing his voice and I'm rejoicing. He's my joy.

He must increase, I must decrease. So that's what our Lord's saying. Under the old covenant, there were four feasts. And our Lord gave this prophecy that when Christ come and accomplish the salvation of his people, they wouldn't be fasting, they'd be rejoicing. He said, let me find it. He said, The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth month and the fast of the seventh month and the fast of the 10th month shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful feasts.

Therefore, love the truth and peace. See, when Christ has come and saved you, he turns your mourning into joy. That's what you just read. That's why he came, to preach glad tidings, to give the oil of joy for the spirit of mourning, and he turns your fasting into joy by his presence.

Now, here's our Lord's first parable. Now, I had to say all that for you to understand why he gives this parable at this time. Now, he told us in another place that when he gave a parable, it was for them that believe not. You give an understanding, you can understand what the parable means spiritually. A parable is an earthly illustration that conveys a spiritual truth, and his people know this by the Spirit of God, but the Pharisees, all they got out of what he's saying here is just the earthly part of it, because they didn't have the Spirit. But you'll get why he said what he said here. Here's his first parable, verse 36. And he spake also a parable unto them, no man putteth 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." If you have an old garment and it's got a tear in it, got a hole in it, you take a brand new piece of cloth that's never been washed, and you sew that into that garment to patch that hole. When you wash that garment, what's going to happen? The new's gonna shrink, and when it shrinks, it's gonna rip the hole more, and it's gonna be worse than it was before you patched it.

That's what he's saying. Now, the Pharisees left that day, and the most knowledge they got out of what he said was, we don't need to patch our clothes with new cloth. That's all they got from it. That's all carnal men get when they hear the gospel preached. They do not get the spiritual. Now let's see, why did he say this? Why did the Lord say that right after they come criticizing him for not fasting and praying?

The garment represents righteousness. And he's declaring, I'm the righteousness of my people. It's not their fasting and praying. It's not their law keeping. I'm the righteousness of my people. That's what he's declaring. And he's declaring this. The Pharisees' religion and all legal religion is patchwork religion. What a legalist is saying is, I'm keeping the law, but now I'm not perfect. I need Christ to make up the difference. I need him to patch up where I have a few holes. And here's what our Lord is saying.

That man that believes that, is in a worse condition if he had no religion at all. Because that's what it means where the new cloth will rip away the old, and it's worse than it was before you patched it. Our Lord told the Pharisees, you cross land and sea to make a proselyte, and when you convert it into your doctrine, you make him twofold more the child of hell than when you found him. I would much rather somebody come into here and sit down to hear the gospel that have never heard preaching at all.

Because the person that comes in thinking they have light and that they have the gospel when they're trusting in their works and what they do, you got to unpack, the Lord's got to strip you all that to get you back to zero to where then he can teach you the truth. He said, if the light that is in you is darkness, You think you have light, but it's darkness. You're looking to yourself, you're trusting yourself. If that's the light you have in you, he said, how great is that darkness?

It's worse than if you didn't have it. I tell people all the time, you know, people say, my son's in a freewill Armenian works church, you know, but at least he's there. No, he's worse being there. He's worse being there. It'd be better if he didn't have any religion at all. than to have false religion. Religion without Christ is double damning. Because a man thinks he's saved when he's still lost. It's double damning.

That's what our Lord's teaching in that parable. He's the righteousness of his people. Nobody fulfilled the law but him. He's the only man, since the fall of Adam, he is the only man that ever kept the law of God. You and me have not kept it at all. He did. Now you might do a little better job than your neighbor, but that's not the standard. God is the standard. Christ is the standard. We have to be as righteous as God. We can never have sinned ever.

And we come into the world guilty. We've already sinned in Adam. We've already broke the whole law of God. When he gave the law at Sinai, every man had already broke it. He gave the law to show us we're sinners. He gave the law to show us we have to come to him in Christ and his righteousness only, no works that we've done. In my hand, no price I bring, simply to Christ I cling. He's got to be our only righteousness. That's why the Lord said this at this time. All right, look at the next thing he says.

He says in verse 36, and he spake also a parable unto them, My computer, let me find where I'm at. He said, verse 37, and no man putteth new wine into old bottles, else the new wine will burst the bottles and be spilled and the bottles shall perish. You had these Pharisees and they think that they're made holy by their religious deeds. They think they're holy by their almsgiving and by their praying and by their fasting and all the things that religion does, they think they're holy by those things.

And now the Lord's talking about putting new wine into a container. He's talking about sanctification now. Before he was talking about righteousness before the law, he robes us in the garment of his righteousness, perfect, snow white garment of righteousness. Now he's talking about wine being put into a container.

Now, they would make wineskins out of animal skins, and they would put new wine in those wineskins, and as that wine expands, the wineskin would expand, because it's a new wineskin. It would expand with the wine. And it would actually become one inside, it would become one with that wineskin. And even if you poured wine out of a wineskin, you couldn't get all the wine out of the wineskin because it actually would soak into the wineskin and become one with the wineskin. But if you take new wine and you have an old wineskin or an old bottle and you put new wine in there, that old has expanded all, it's gonna expand. And when that new wine expands, it's gonna bust that bottle or bust that wineskin.

And what our Lord is speaking of now is is he's declaring he's also the holiness of his people. He doesn't use anything of our old man. He doesn't use anything of our old sinful flesh whatsoever. What we are by nature all came from fallen Adam. We're unrighteous because of his sin, and we're born of his corrupt seed, so we're corrupt in nature. Our Lord's not going to use anything of us. He can't use anything of us. It can't be partly of us and partly of him. Our Lord Jesus said, I will give you a new spirit. I will create a new man in you.

And that new man is holy by Christ's presence within us. It's him. Paul said in Ephesians four, put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. That's Christ's righteousness and Christ's true holiness. It's Christ in you that are born of him that is the holiness of the new man.

And when he's made you holy within is when you see that he alone is your righteousness and your holiness. Because now your heart's made pure and you made to look to him and you see, like Hebrews 10 says, he came and said, I came to do your will, O God, and by his will, we're sanctified by his one offering. Hebrews 13, by his own blood, he sanctified us. He died without the count, rejected by religion, and he sanctified us.

That's what happens when you have a new holy heart. This is what's always ironic to me about sanctification, what religion calls sanctification. They call holiness, You know, you really look at yourself and you really go to the law and you really try to work to be holy and you get holier and holier by degrees. And the ironic thing is, when you're really sanctified, that's what he saves you from. That's what he separates you from. You stop looking to you. You look only to him. You stop putting confidence in your works. Your only confidence is in that he's my righteousness and my holiness.

This is why God saves through the gospel. He said in 1 Corinthians 1 29, no flesh or glory in his presence. He uses nobodies and nothings. He saves people that are sinners and he gets the glory. And he says, and through this gospel, it's of God that you're in Christ. It's of God that Christ is made unto you wisdom and righteousness and holiness and redemption so that His people only glory in the Lord. That's what our Lord's teaching here. If he put, if he entered into us, into our flesh, we would, we'd bust. We wouldn't be able to hold him. But here's, I said that wine and that skin become one, we're one with him.

And it grows, it grow in grace, how? in the knowledge of Christ. Christ is the one teaching us. And what he's teaching us is more of him. And you grow in the grace of Christ. You see his grace toward us to save us. And he grows you in faith and love and hope and every grace. And as you grow, you're more and more one with Christ, just one with him.

Never get more one with him, but you see it more that you're one with him. And like John said, he must increase, I must decrease. You stop trusting self. And everything before was, you know, all your sin was outward, now you see it's what you are in nature. And before, you had so many things, you still baggage you was looking to, and it just becomes more and more Christ is all. He's all, and that's the growth in grace. All right, look at this last one.

He said, verse 39, and no man also, having drunk old wine, straightway desireth new, for he saith the old is better. I don't know what causes this to be so, but anybody that has any experience with wine will tell you old wine is far better than new wine. Old wine's better than new wine.

This is a little confusing, and I think our Lord did it on purpose. He came to blind the Pharisees. He said that through Isaiah. Preach this gospel to them till their hearts are hard and they're blind, can't see. But to you and me, he gives you eyes to see.

And here's what he's saying. He said, in the mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people, all sorts of peoples, you and Gentile, the Lord's gonna make this feast of fat things, of wine on the leaves, of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the leaves, well refined. This is old wine.

The Lord's the maker of it. When the Lord saves you, The law he writes on your heart is the everlasting covenant of grace. It's the covenant of grace. It's the gospel. It's the good news. And what he makes you understand is what we call the new covenant, this everlasting covenant of grace. It's only new to you. It's newly revealed. That's why it's called new.

But it's older. than anything else. It's older than the law given at Sinai. It's older than what we call the old covenant. It's as old as God. It originated with God. It started with God choosing whom he would. He chose his son, and then he chose whom he would by grace in his son, and said, I'm gonna save these people. That's where it begins. It's the Lord Jesus coming to his people, and revealing the gospel to us that he already justified us, and it's him that made us righteous and holy by what he did.

And when you've tasted this old wine of the gospel, this oldest old covenant, this covenant that's from eternity, when you've tasted this, you don't want the new wine anymore. See, what we call the old covenant, it's really new compared to the everlasting covenant, because it came at Sinai. The Lord gave this at Sinai, but the covenant by which God saves us originated with God in eternity. And, you know, people come down the pike and they got some new thing they've come up with, and they come preaching some new salvation, some new doctrine. God's people don't want any part of that. You've tasted the old wine. You've tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious. The salvation's entirely by grace. It's by him giving everything to us. It's all in Christ, and he gets all the glory.

This is the old wine. You don't want new wine, because you've tasted the old, and the old is better. Go with me to Hebrews chapter eight. We'll close with this. Better, the old wine is better, he said. All right, here's what he says to us. Verse one, now the things which we've spoken, this is a psalm.

We have such a high priest. See, the physical high priest came after. It's not as old as the real high priest. The real high priest is Christ. And he sat on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven. He's a minister of the sanctuary, of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched to not man. All that other pictured him, but he was before all of that.

Every high priest is obtained to offer gifts, ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices, wherefore it's of necessity this man have somewhat also to offer. For he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law, which serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things. As Moses was admonished of God when he said, about to make the tabernacle, he said, see that you make all things according to the pattern showed you in the mount. See, the old one is the oldest, it's the best, because when God brought Moses to the mountain, he said, he showed him Christ.

He said, he's the priest. Now you go down there and ordain a high priest to picture him. The Lord said, he's the tabernacle. You go down there and erect a tabernacle to picture Christ. He's the altar, you go down there and build an altar that's gonna picture Christ. He's the spotless lamb of God. Now you go down there and tell them they gotta have a spotless lamb to picture Christ. But Christ came before all that. Now he's come, and he's made you taste the old wine, and you don't want the newer covenant of works. You don't want that now, because you know you've tasted the old wine.

Look, better, better, better. But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he's the mediator of a better covenant, which is established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been flawless, then should no place have been sought for the second for finding fault with him.

He said, behold, the day has come, saith the Lord. I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Now that new covenant is when he makes you to see. It's only new because it's new to you, but it's as old as the Lord. not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they continue not in my covenant, and I regard to them not, saith the Lord. This is a covenant I'll make in those days with the house of Israel. He said, I'm gonna put my law in their mind and write it in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And then I'm gonna teach every man his neighbor, saying, know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. because the Lord is the teacher and he teaches all his people and they know the gospel.

And he's not telling you like that old covenant said, do this and live. This older one says it's all done. Trust him and trust him to save you. I'll be merciful to their unrighteousness, their sins and their iniquities while I remember no more. in that he saith the new, he hath made the first old, now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. And by now, it's vanished away. He destroyed Israel in 70 A.D. He was done with the picture. The express image has come, and that's Christ. and salvation is accomplished. Believe on Christ. Don't look to your praying. Don't look to your fasting. Don't do anything to be seen of men. Men aren't impressed, not God's true people.

We've already tasted the old wine. We're not interested in something new, and we're not interested in looking to you. We're looking to Christ, and you look to Christ, and you trust him only. and the garment that we're gonna stand before God in is the seamless, perfect, spotless robe of His righteousness only. And if He's made you a new wine skin and put this new wine, the wine of the gospel in you and He's in you, you're holy. And in doing so, you've tasted the old wine and you don't want anything else. We don't want anything else. All right, Brother Adam.