Well, good morning. It's good
to see everybody this morning. If you would, open your Bible
with me to the book of Mark, chapter 2. We'll continue our
study through the book of Mark this morning. Before we begin,
let's bow before our Lord in prayer. Our Father, how thankful we are
that out of your goodness to your people, you've given us
one more opportunity to meet together to be able to worship
you. Father, I pray that you would
enable us to worship you this morning in spirit and in truth.
That we not just go through the motions of religion, but Father,
that you would enable us to truly worship. Enable us to hear word
from thee, we pray. Father, I thank you for the freedom
that we have. We're not meeting in secret and
worry of someone coming in and arresting us and harassing us
for meeting together to worship. We thank you for the freedoms
that we have in our country. Father, pray that you would be
pleased to protect those freedoms, that you'd be pleased to give
our leaders wisdom that they do not have, and Father, that
you'd turn their heart to do wisely, to do good for your people. Father, we thank you for this
congregation, this family of believers that you've called
out from the world and called us together, Father, I pray you
would bless each home, that you'd be with each one. And Father,
that you would cause us to be a help and encouragement to show
our love one to another. Father, we pray a special blessing
for our children's classes that are going on right now. Father,
you'd be pleased to use this time to plant the seeds of faith
in the hearts of our young ones. You'd cause us to be faithful,
to teach them the scriptures, and Father, how we beg mercy
for their souls. We beg of you that you'd be pleased
to be merciful to these little ones that you've given to us.
Father, all these things we ask and we give thanks in that name
which is above every name, the name of Christ our Savior, amen. But our lesson is Mark 2, I'm
gonna read our text beginning in verse 21 and come back and
make a few comments. The Lord says, no man also soweth
a piece of new cloth on an old garment, else the new piece that
filled it up taketh away from the old and the rent is made
worse. 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 new wine must be put into
new bottles. Now here the Lord is just using
some earthly common sense to illustrate some great spiritual
truths. And the truth that the Lord is
teaching us is this. Salvation is either all Christ
or it's no Christ. Salvation is either all of the
flesh or it's none of the flesh. Salvation is either all of works
or it's no works. Salvation is either all found
in religious ceremony or it's no ceremony whatsoever. Salvation
is either all of grace or it's all of worse. There's no in between.
Salvation is an all or nothing proposition. And that's why I've
titled the lesson this morning, All or Nothing. It's all or nothing. Now the first example that the
Lord uses is patching an old garment with a new piece of cloth.
Every man in this room, if you're old enough, has an old shirt. that you keep. I mean it's an
old shirt and it's just comfortable, it fits you just right and you
keep wearing it even though you shouldn't. It's getting thin
and threadbare and wore out and you just keep wearing it even
though you shouldn't. Your wife probably tells you to throw that thing
away but you love it. It's an old shirt. Now if you
have an old threadbare shirt and that thing's gotten thin
or gotten a hole in it, you can't patch it. It's beyond repair. You can't take a new thick piece
of cloth and try to patch it into that old threadbare shirt.
If you do, the old shirt is just going to tear. The hole is going
to be worse and worse and worse. You just can't repair it. That
old shirt can't handle a needle and thread. It can't handle the
weight of that new thicker, heavier material. It's just going to
tear the shirt up. You've got to throw it away.
Now that's just common sense to everybody, isn't it? If you
got a shirt like that, you've got to throw it away. You've
got to find you a brand new shirt. That's the example that Ford
uses. And the second example, and this is just common sense,
is bodily wine. You know, at that time, the wine
bottles that they used were skins, bottles made from animal hides. And if you put new wine into
an old, you know, kind of dried out leather bag, that bag's going
to burst. You know, the process of fermentation,
the wine, it's going to expand and the skin is just going to
burst. It doesn't have the strength
and the elasticity to hold the new wine. If you put new wine
into an old bottle, everything's going to be lost. You're going
to lose the bottle and the wine. If you want to bottle new wine,
you got to start with a new skin, don't you? That's just common
sense. Now you can take this common
sense teaching that the Lord is showing us here and you can
apply that to quite a few spiritual truths. And I wanna start by
looking at what the Lord's saying in context. Here's the first
thing. Salvation is either all Christ
or it's all religious ceremony. Now look what the Lord's showing
us here in context. Back up verse 18. And the disciples
of John 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? And Jesus said unto them,
can the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom
is with them? 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. Then shall they fast
in those days. Now this is what we looked at
last week. Fasting was an outward ceremony. that was an outward
sign, outward picture of something that was done in a time of spiritual
need, inward spiritual need. Fasting was an outward ceremony
that someone did as an outward sign of repentance. It was an
outward sign of grieving over their sin. It was an outward
sign of humility, dependence upon the Lord. Fasting was an
outward sign of begging for mercy and forgiveness. And here's what
Charles Spurgeon had to say about that. He said sorrow is not suitable
for a wedding feast. A wedding feast is a time for
celebration, isn't it? Well, the Lord's disciples were
not fasting at this time because they had the joy of being with
the bridegroom. The bridegroom was there, so
there was no reason for them to be grieving and sorrowing.
They were with Christ. Now, fasting was an outward Religious
ceremony people did it in this time It's a it seems to be a
scriptural thing that people did and it must have been useful
in its place And I really don't know a lot about it as always
seems kind of confusing to me but a fasting lets you focus
on, you know spiritual things and focus on your soul, then
That's good. You know, I'm glad fasting would
make me less spiritual because I'd be all I'd be thinking about
is my ground stomach, you know and But it must have been useful,
I guess, in its place, and people did it. But fasting never saved
anybody. Now don't ever forget that. Fasting
never saved anybody, never made anybody more righteous, and never
made anybody closer to God. Fasting never one time earned
forgiveness and mercy for the soul. And no other ceremony did
either. What we're talking here about
fasting applies to every religious ceremony. It's the Lord who shows
mercy. Mercy's found in Christ, it's
the Lord. He said, I'll show mercy to him,
I will show mercy. It's the Lord who forgives sin.
We can't earn the forgiveness of sin. God's the only one who
can forgive sin, because all of our sin's against him, isn't
it? Forgiveness of sin is either found 100% in us going through
religious ceremonies, or it's 100% in Christ. There's no mixture
of those two. And like I said, you apply this
truth to any religious ceremony, any religious tradition that
we observe today. If you add religious ceremony,
any religious ceremony, I don't care how revered it is, if you
add any religious ceremony that we observe to the person and
work of Christ, you've ruined salvation in Christ alone. If
you think you have to observe a religious ceremony in order
to be saved, Christ will profit you nothing. That's how serious
it is. And I'll give you just one illustration.
The Lord's Table. Now believers love to observe
the Lord's Table. Our Savior told us this do in
remembrance of me. The Lord's Table is given to
us to remember. To remember Christ's sacrifice.
It's given to us to remind us of Christ. The Lord's Table is
not given to save anybody. If you think taking the bread
and the wine is gonna save your soul, don't take it. Don't take
it, because that's just, it's a religious ceremony. Salvation
is in Christ alone. By his obedience alone, by his
blood alone. That's what the Lord's table
is given to remind us of. So salvation is in one or the
other. It's in religious ceremony, or it's in Christ. One of those
two. And Breanna, I know which one I want to be in, don't you?
Okay, here's the second thing. This common sense teaching of
the Lord shows us this spiritual truth. Salvation is all in the
new birth, or it's all of the flesh. Salvation is either applied
by the flesh getting some spiritual light, and the flesh believing
something, something done of the flesh, or salvation is entirely
the work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth, where the Holy
Spirit gives birth to a brand new spiritual man who never existed
before. It's one or the other. No in-between. And the Lord gives us a picture
of that and just His common sense example. If you try to patch
an old threadbare shirt with a new good-looking piece of cloth,
you're just going to make the shirt look even worse. You're
going to make the tear or the hole even bigger and bigger and
bigger. That old cloth is going to damage the old shirt instead
of patching it up. And when that happens to your
favorite shirt, you've got to throw it out. You got to find
a new one, don't you? Well, that's what God does when
He saves His people. When God saves His people, He
doesn't patch them up. The Lord doesn't fix us up. He
doesn't come and fix up our flesh because there's nothing to work
with in our flesh. The flesh is dead, sinful flesh,
and that's all it ever will be. It's useless. It can't be fixed
up. So the Holy Spirit comes and
makes His people to be new creatures in the new birth. And when He
does that, old things are passed away. All those old things you
used to believe in, all those old things you used to trust
in, all those old things you used to think, they're passed
away. Behold, all things have become new. Now you trust Christ
and Christ alone, don't you? And eventually, you know what
the Lord's gonna do with this flesh? He's gonna do what we
do with that old useless shirt, throw it out. He's gonna throw
this flesh out put his flesh down in the dirt, and take the
new man to be with him. See, the only robe of righteousness
that Almighty God will accept is a perfect robe. A perfect
robe of righteousness. It can't be something patched
up. It can't be something cobbled together. It's got to be a perfect
robe of righteousness. It's got to be the righteousness
of Christ. It's got to be perfect. It's
absurd to think that God's gonna sow the perfect righteousness
of Christ into the holes of our filthy garments of righteousness.
That's absurd to think about. Besides being offensive, thinking
that, you know, in order for me to be saved, I got to add
Christ to me. I mean, that's offensive. But it also won't
work. If I try to, if I started to
say, well, you know, I've got some righteousness here. I just
got a few holes in my righteousness and I try to patch Christ to
it. You know what it's going to do? it's gonna make that old
filthy garment of my righteousness, those old rags, it's gonna make
them even filthier. I mean, just imagine trying to
pass the pure white holiness, the pure spotlessness of Christ's
righteousness onto my filthy rags. All that would do is make
the filthiness of my rags stand out even more, wouldn't it? It's
just absurd to think about. You imagine what a robe would
look like if we took Christ's righteousness and try to patch
my little works into it. Just to try to add to Christ's
righteousness to make it better. If you take my filthy works of
righteousness and try to add them to Christ, it's just gonna
ruin his perfect righteousness, isn't it? You know, my grandmother
used to make quilts. And she would cobble them together
with a bunch of scraps of material and something that, you know,
that wasn't any good anymore and she'd cut it up and make
these little scraps. Now those things are precious. She'd say,
oh, this was made out of a dress I had when I was 16 years old.
Well, that's pretty precious to me. I kind of like having
that. You know, I like those quilts. God's not going to accept a patchwork
quilt of righteousness. It's got to be the perfect righteousness
of Christ. It's got to be perfect. Either
I have to produce it or Christ is going to produce it, one or
the other. The new birth is also pictured
in putting the old wine or new wine into old skins. God doesn't
put new spiritual life into this flesh. He just don't do it. You know why? The flesh can't
hold it. God doesn't put new spiritual
life into this flesh because the flesh doesn't have anything
to put it into. The flesh just can't hold it. So God the Holy
Spirit creates a brand new man. a brand new man, he's righteous
and he's holy. Now regeneration, the new birth,
whatever you want to call it, it's 100% the creation of a brand
new man who never existed before. He's born from new seed, from
a new father, he's got a new nature, a nature that's holy
and righteous and he can never sin or regeneration is the flesh
getting some light and some life. There's two natures in a believer,
two distinct opposite natures. Either there's two natures in
a believer or there's no such thing as the new birth. And you
got that? Either there's two distinct opposite
natures in a believer or there's no such thing as the new birth.
And I tell you the serious, serious ramifications of this. The believer
is either two natures. He's got one nature that can
never sin. He's holy, he's righteous, he
can never sin. He can never not trust Christ.
And he's got one nature that doesn't do anything but sin.
Now either that's true or this Bible's a lie. Now that's how
serious this matter is. If the flesh can get some spiritual
life, if the flesh can get some spiritual life, if this dead
flesh this corrupt flesh can suddenly become holy, and suddenly
love God, suddenly trust Christ, suddenly believe Christ, suddenly
see Christ, then Adam never died in the garden, and we never died
in him, and the whole Bible's a lie. Now that's so. It's all or nothing, isn't it?
Salvation is either all in Christ, it's all the work of God, it's
all the work of the Holy Spirit, or it's of the flesh, all of
the flesh. There's no in between. And if
I try to include the deeds of my flesh to salvation, I've ruined
the salvation that's in Christ. It's one or the other. All right,
here's the third thing. Salvation is either all of grace
or it's all of works. The salvation of a sinner is
either done 100% by God or 100% by man. It's one or the other,
choose. Somebody's got to do the work
of salvation and somebody has to. If I'm gonna be saved, somebody's
got to do the work of my salvation. It's either me or God. That's
only two choices. And the salvation of a sinner,
now that's no small feat. In order for a sinner to be saved,
now I'm not talking about us saying, well, you know, somebody
walked in the aisle and we're calling them saved. I'm saying
for a sinner to be saved in the sight of God Almighty, Now that's
no small thing. In order for that to happen,
God's justice has got to be satisfied against my sin. The price of
our sin has got to be paid in full before God can accept us. Now it's just got to. You know,
our suffering in hell, if I would go to hell and suffer there for
eternity, you know how many sins I'd pay for? Guse. Not one, not a single one. Well,
then the price can't be paid by me. Salvation can't be accomplished
by man, can it? Because we can't pay the price.
And then in order for a sinner to be saved, that dead sinner
has got to be made spiritually alive. You know, God's not going
to accept a bunch of dead stinking corpses in his presence. He's
not going to do it. A dead man can't give himself
life. A dead man can't bring himself
back from the dead. Well, a spiritually dead sinner
can't give himself spiritual life either. No more than a physical
man lying in a casket can give himself life and get up out of
that casket. Man can't do that. A dead sinner can't do it. So
salvation cannot be accomplished by the sinner, can it? Salvation
must be by God's grace. It has to be. Because man cannot
justify himself with his sinful nature. Look over Galatians chapter
five. Now that's just common sense.
If we try to pay our sin debt by doing more sinful works, we're
not gonna pay the debt down, we're gonna get further in debt.
It's just common sense, isn't it? Look what Paul says in Galatians
five, verse two. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you,
that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For
I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that if
you're circumcised in order to make God happy with you, if you're
circumcised in order to be saved, that you're a debtor to the whole
law. If you try to obey one law to
make God happy with you, you're a debtor to try to keep all the
rest of the law, and if that happens, if you do that, Christ
has become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you're fallen from grace. If you try to justify
yourself by your own works, then you don't have access to God's
grace. Because salvation is either all of works, or it's all of
grace. Now look back at Romans chapter
11. You know, I told you, it's all or nothing. All of grace
or all of works, and those two things, grace and works, they
cannot be mixed. No more than you can mix oil
and water, and you mix grace and works. Look at Paul says
here, Romans 11 verse five. Even so then, at this present
time also there's a remnant according to the election of grace. Now
they didn't do anything to deserve God's love. They didn't do anything
to deserve God to choose them. No. How are they elect? It's
the election of grace. It's all of grace. And verse
six, if it's by grace, then it's no more of works. Otherwise,
grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is
it no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more works. Now you see, you understand exactly
what Paul is saying there. Salvation is by grace. 100% without our works. If you
try to add works to it, then salvation is by works. And if
salvation is by works, you can't count on any of God's grace,
because it's got to be all of works. It's one or the other,
you can't mix them. Look back Romans chapter three. See, this thing's got to be by
grace. Romans three verse 24. Being justified freely by his
grace, by his grace, by his grace, through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. See, we can't be justified by
our works of the law. The only way a sinner can be
justified is by grace. It's by grace. By God doing something
for us that we do not deserve. Through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. See, it's by Christ being made
sin for us by taking our sin into his own precious body on
the tree and dying to redeem us from the law. Dying to pay
the price so that we're redeemed. Now, surely. None of us are so
full of ourselves that we think we deserve for the Son of God
to die in our place. Christ dying as a substitute
for his people, the only explanation for that is grace, isn't it?
It's by grace. Grace is the only way a sinner
can be saved. It's the only way. Look back
at Acts chapter 15. In Acts chapter 15, the apostles
some of the leading men of the church, the early church, got
together to talk about this thing of works. Where do our works
fit in? You know, these people grew up
under the law, being circumcised, observing the Sabbath day, doing
all these things of the law, you know. Now, where do our works
factor into this? That's what this meeting was
about. First Sovereign Grace Bible Conference gathered together
to discuss this matter, grace and works. And everybody had
their say, and Peter waited, to the end. And Peter got up
and stood up and said, here's how we're going to sum this thing
up. Acts 15 verse 11. But we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. Now here are these Jewish men
got together and say, what about the Gentiles? The Gentiles, they're
heathen. They've been worshiping idols.
They've been sacrificing to idols. They've been doing all these
things. And we grew up under the law of Moses. We grew up
with the true worship of God. We grew up with the scriptures.
Surely that makes us better than them. And Peter said, no, sir.
We believe that we, we religious, moral, upright people will be
saved even as those rotten heathens that never heard of God before
until we came and preached Christ to them. We shall be saved even
as they. He didn't say they'll be saved
even as us. He said we'll be saved even as they. It takes
the same grace of God to save a moral, upright person who's
never broken the law outwardly as it does to save a heathen
who'd been sacrificing his children to idols. The same grace. The same grace. Salvation is
all of grace. all of grace, and if I try to
add my works to it to make it better, I've ruined salvation
by grace, and I'll be lost forever. Now salvation, it's 100% of grace
or 100% by works. Again, I say, I know which one
I want. I want grace, don't you? And then here's the last thing.
Salvation is received by faith. not earned by our works. And
here's what I mean by that. Salvation is either earned by
me or it's earned by Christ. Somebody's got to obey the law.
Somebody's got to establish a perfect righteousness. It's either gonna
be me or Christ. Well, I definitely know this.
I know myself well enough to know I know who I want earning
my salvation and it ain't me. It's not me. Now salvation is
either of my works of the law, or it's earned by me doing that,
or it's received by me trusting Christ to obey the law for me.
It's either me doing everything it takes to save me, or it's
trusting Christ to do everything that it takes to save my sinful
soul. It's one or the other. Now look at Romans chapter four. Paul proves this to us by using
the example of our father Abraham. Abraham the father of the faithful. What shall we say then that Abraham,
our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if
Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof the glory, but
not before God. For what saith the scripture?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now when was Abraham counted
as righteous. When was this made clear in Abraham's
conscience? When he believed God. It was
by faith. It's not when he obeyed God and
did any of these other things that we know about Abraham's
life. It's when he believed God. Abraham was not justified because
he went out from his father's house when God told him to. Abraham's
a full-grown man. He's comfortable in his father's
house, all his family around him. And God came to him one
day and said, get out and go to a place I'll show you. He
didn't even know where he was going. Abraham got up and went. Abraham
wasn't justified because he went out. He was justified when he
believed God. We believe God. All right, read
on, verse four. Now to him that works to obey
the law is the reward not reckoned of grace, but it's of debt. but
to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David
also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth
righteousness without his words, saying, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now we've already
established this, everything we do is sin. Now if everything
I do is sin, how can God not charge me with sin? How can God
not impute my sin to me? Because he imputed it to Christ
at Calvary. It's the only way. And how does
God impute righteousness to his people? Why does God say his
people are righteous? It's because he imputes Christ's
obedience to them. And he gives them faith to trust
Christ. That's the only way we can be
counted righteous. All right, verse nine. Come with
this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, upon the Jews,
those who grew up under this mosaic law, or upon the uncircumcision,
the Gentiles, the heathen also. For we say faith was reckoned
Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? When
he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision. not in circumcision,
but in uncircumcision, and he received the sign of circumcision,
a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, being
yet uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that
believe, though they be not circumcised, their righteousness might be
imputed unto them also, and the father of circumcision to them
who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the
steps of that faith of our father Abraham. which he had being yet
uncircumcised. For the promise that he should
be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through
the law, but through the righteousness of faith. The promise was not
to Abraham through the law, it's through the righteousness of
faith. Abraham was counted as righteous
long before he ever obeyed any of the law. Matter of fact, the
law wouldn't be given till 400 years later till Moses came along.
But even circumcision, Abraham wasn't counted as righteous when
he was circumcised. He was counted as righteous long
before he was circumcised because righteousness is received by
faith, by faith in Christ. Our Lord himself said, Abraham
saw my day and was glad. Abraham saw when he offered up
Isaac on that altar and the Lord stopped him and he looked behind
and saw behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horn. And
Abraham went and took that ram, and he offered him up in the
stead of his son Isaac. Abraham, I see. I see how this is gonna happen. God's gonna send a lamb. God's
gonna send a perfect lamb who's got the power and the righteousness
to save, and he's gonna die as a substitute in the place of
his people, just like this ram is dying in the place of my son
Isaac. He said, I see. He believed. That's when he was,
righteousness is received by faith. Now salvation is either
got to be by God's grace, through God given faith in Christ, or
it's got to be 100% by my works. Now you think about being under
the burden of the law. The law says you must keep the
law, you must obey the law, in thought, in word, in deed, in
motive, 24 seven every day, every second of your life. What a burden. Now you want that
burden or do you want to be free in Christ? It's one or the other. And I can tell you why I want
salvation to be by grace through faith. You know why? It's the
only way my salvation can be sure. Look at verse 16. We'll
close. Therefore, It is a faith, that
it might be by grace to the end that the promise might be sure
to all the seed. Not to that only which is of
the law, not to just the religious Jews, but to that also which
is of the faith of Abraham. Salvation is sure to those who
have faith in Christ the same way Abraham had. It's all or
nothing. I tell you where I want my all
to be, it's in Christ, don't you? I hope so. I hope that's what
you want. All right. Lord bless you.