Turn with me to Mark chapter
2. You all remember the lesson that I brought before this about
how these Pharisees came and questioned the company that our
Lord was keeping. And the Lord looked at them and
He said, the whole need not a position. but to sick. And he said, I didn't come to call
the righteous. And this is the position that
the Pharisees took, was a position of righteous. They were sitting
and having a righteous judgment on the company that was gathered
in this home. And the Lord said, I didn't come
to call the righteous. I came to call sinners. That's
why I'm over here with sinners. That's why I'm talking to sinners.
I didn't come to call the righteous. And this is kind of an extension
of that. Our lesson this morning is in
Mark chapter 2, verses 18 through 22. And it's just a continuation
of last week's message, but I thought it needed some time all to itself. Now let's read together these
five verses. Mark chapter 2, verse 18. And the disciples of John and
of the Pharisees used to fast. And they come and say unto him,
why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but
thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said unto them, can
the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom is
with them? They cannot fast. Now, he calls
his disciples here children of the bride chamber. And this is
an allusion to one of those old weddings. And these were friends
of the groom. And the groom was here and he
was gathered off to the side in a room and about to make their
verbal commitments to one another, and take their oath before God,
and here's all these men, and they're there with the bridegroom,
and they're rejoicing with him, and happy for him, and all of
this. And the Lord said, that's what you're looking at. Can they
fast? No. No, they cannot fast. But, verse 20, the days will
come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and
then shall they fast in those days. Now, this is connected. This
is not something separate here. This is connected with what he's
teaching. Verse 21, No man 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 the lesson contained in the
verses I just read to you is about natural men. It's what
we're looking at. Natural men influenced by satanic
religion. And they're trying to make spiritual
observations They're looking around them, they're looking
at the events that's coming to pass, and this man who claims
to be the Christ, and this man who claims to be preaching the
gospel, none of which they knew anything about. And they're trying
to make spiritual observations. And they're saying and doing
what they believe is right. They were absolutely convinced
that they were right. And what was needful. And then
by their outward signs of piety and sincerity, they began to
influence true believers to follow, as Peter put it, their pernicious
ways. Their pernicious ways. And in
so doing, by these things, the way of truth, Peter said, shall
be evil spoken of. Now this is what was going on.
And also in these verses we have the master, and he's rebuking
this rank error that the Pharisees were involved in, and he was
correcting his disciples, and then he's applying the situation
the way it ought to have been seen and understood. And then
our Lord uses a couple of old proverbial expressions. That's
what these were. They were common expressions
among the people, things that the people would immediately
understand and apply. And he uses these things as a
parable to illustrate what he just told them. The illustrations very simply
imply that you cannot mix things that cannot be mixed. That's
what he's telling them. You can't mix things that are
not meant to mix. You can't repair the old by putting
a piece of the new on it. You can't, it's not the, you
got this old favorite sweatshirt. Man, you love that thing. You
wear it and it looks good on you and man, you just like it. Everybody's got that favorite
piece of clothing and they just wear it to death. And then it
gets torn. Well, you don't want to throw it away, so you go get
a patch. You get this new piece, and you
put it on there, and now it don't look like that old sweatshirt.
It looks horrible. It's got this big piece of new
cloth running down on it. It sticks out like a sore thumb.
And it didn't help the tear in it, because that old material
won't hold that thread like that new material. It just makes the
rent in it worse. You can't repair the old with
the new and you can't put the new into the old. Something has to be done. And
the lesson is about natural men trying to be religious by keeping
the law and observing ceremonies. With the things that they did
and their outward piety and their outward actions, they were trying
to patch up the old. That's what they were doing.
They were trying to take the new and put it into the old. It won't work. And any of you
that's ever tried it, you can't take an old natural man and set
him down and by intellect convince him of the gospel. It's not going
to happen. He must be born again to see
the kingdom of God. Something has to take place in
his heart. And I've got three things that
I want you to see in these verses if the Lord will enable me to
show it to you. I want to show you that these
natural men pretending to be the disciples of Christ. I want
you to see that. That's what they were pretending
to be, God's servants. God's servants. And then I want
you to see true believers being influenced by their visible and
outward piety, by the way they appeared to the public, by the
way they were recognized by the public. Everything was outward
with the Pharisees. He said you do everything you
do to be seen of men. That's why you pray in the restaurants. That's why you do what you do
in public. You want to be seen of men. And
then I want you to see the wisdom of Christ rebuking the one and
gently correcting the other. So let's look first at natural
men, deceived into believing that they're saved men, they're
disciples of Christ. Now our Lord's already told them
point blank he didn't come to call the righteous and he looked
them right in the eye when he said it. They knew exactly who
he was talking about. Though I have no doubt that these
were unsaved men. These were self-righteous men. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous but sinners to repentance. By righteous, he
means self-righteous. Those who by observing certain
days and certain ceremonies and the keeping of the law. And it's
not just the law of God. that's involved in this, but
it's also the traditions of men. Paul warns us about that. Even
the Pharisees looked at Christ and said, why do your disciples
transgress our traditions? And the Lord said, why do you
with your traditions transgress the law of God? And so men follow
those as though they were the law of God. And certain churches
have rules and regulations and things that they observe that's
nowhere written in the law of God and yet they treat them like
they are. And they follow them and by doing
those things they consider themselves to be righteous. So this is who
he's talking about, the self-righteous. Those who by their daily efforts
believe they're winning the approval of God's affection and thereby
making themselves worthy of his blessings and worthy of his reward. Now Paul the Apostle pours his
heart out to God in prayer for them that God would save them.
You can read it over in Romans chapter 10. He said, as God is
his witness. He said, I'm pouring my heart
out. They think they're saved, and I bear them witness they
have a zeal of God. They appear to be zealous for
God, just as Paul did when he went down and sought papers and
sought out the Christians to have them punished. He thought
he was serving God. And he said, I bear them witness
they have a zeal of God, but it's not according to knowledge.
For they, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God." And that's these Pharisees.
That's exactly what they were doing. They were going about
to establish their own righteousness. These were not saved men, but
men deceived into believing they were saved. And not only did
they believe they were saved, but according to Romans 2, verses
19 and 20, they had confidence that God had sent them to be
a guide of the blind. That's why they were making these
observations. That's why they were saying these
things. They believed that they were sent of God to be a guide
of the blind, a light to them that are in darkness, and an
instructor of the foolish and teacher of babes. They believed
that. They had a form of knowledge.
They carried with them that form under the law, those ceremonies
that pointed to Christ. They had a form, an outward form. They had a form of knowledge
and of the truth in the law. They had a form of godliness,
but they denied the power thereof. They had the outward appearance
of godliness, but they were ignorant of the truth of it. And it's the same today. Natural
men deceived by antichrist religion believe that they're saved and
believe that they're heirs of God and they're equipped as ministers
of God to men to teach them the things of God. And they stand
up, they're standing up this morning, same way I am this morning.
They're standing up and they're teaching these things as though
they knew them and they don't know anything about God. You
won't have to listen to them very long to figure it out. All right, here's the second
thing I want you to see. These men were not servants of
God. They were not righteous men.
These were Pharisees, men deceived by satanic religion who believed
they were doing right, but they were doing wrong. All right,
here's the second thing I want you to see. True believers being
influenced by these men and by their outward invisible piety
and outward humility often err in the way. Now if that were
not so, this book wouldn't be filled with warnings. Warning
after warning after warning. Turn with me to Colossians chapter
two. In Colossians chapter two, verse
six, it says, as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord,
So walk ye in him. How did we receive him? Well, these sinners had received
him being sinners. They gathered around him in Matthew's
house, and the Lord sat down and preached to them and taught
them. And they took their place as sinners before the master,
and they listened to what he had to say. How did we receive
Christ Jesus, the Lord? Well, we received Him as our
Lord, first of all. He's Lord. He alone has the authority
over us. He's Lord. He's Lord of the dead
and the living. And not only did we receive Him
as Lord, but we received Him as our Savior, as our reconciler,
as our advocate, as our high priest, as the end of the law
for righteousness, He is our sanctification and redemption.
We received him as the physician who healed us. And the one mediator
between God and men. Walk that way. We want to believe those things
when we're hurting. We want to believe those things
when we're guilty before God. We want to sit and we want to
rejoice in them things. And then when we get ready to
walk, we want to go back to the Lord. No. As you received him, now walk
that way. Walk in faith, walk in faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You continue right on being the
sinner that the great position's gonna heal. You go right on being
the sinner who's the recipient of God's calling. You go right
on being that sinner, understanding what you are and who he is and
what he is to you. Now walk that way. Live that
way. Make your decisions of life that way. Raise your children
that way. Look to Him. He's everything.
He's everything. Now watch this. Walk in Him just
like you received it. Verse seven, Colossians two.
Rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as you've
been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Just walk
in thanksgiving. Aren't you thankful that the
Lord didn't pass you by? I guarantee you that man who
fell down the steps and he's in the presence of God now, I
guarantee you he's glad he walked in faith. He was thankful. But then here comes the warning,
verse 8. Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy. That man who sits down and says,
now listen, nobody believes that stuff. Nobody believes that stuff. Everybody believes this. That's
philosophy. What? One of the biggest denominations
in this country believes this. You believe they're all wrong?
You believe this handful of preachers out here that's scattered all
over the world, you think they're right? And all these millions
over here, wrong? Philosophy, beware, lest any
man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. After the tradition of men, That's
what they're gonna do, they're gonna go back and say, well,
traditionally, no, I don't wanna know that, I wanna know what
God said. What God said. After the tradition of men, after
the rudiments, that is the rudimentary accepted principles of the world
concerning religion. That's what he's talking about
here, the rudiments of the world. The basic principles and not
after Christ. Deceived men do things because
they're religious traditions and they've been approved of
men. They wear certain types of clothes. They put their hair
up in buns. They wear a covering, a certain
kind of covering. They wear a certain length of
dress and on and on the list goes. Deceived men have what
I call carryovers. Those of you who've flown on
a plane, you understand you can take on a small suitcase or a
briefcase with you. It's called a carry-on. When
you go on a plane, you can have a carry-on sometimes, too. And
you have to store them up there and take care of them yourself.
But at least when your other suitcases wind up in Japan somewhere,
you've got something to put on. Carryovers. When Noah got on
the ark, he didn't have a carry-on. He went on just the way he was.
Everything he needed was on the ark. There was no carry-on. There
were no carry-overs from the law. When Christ said it's finished,
that's exactly what he meant. It's done. He is the end of the
law. He was the goal. The law is setting
before you a goal. It's setting before you a picture
and a type of the perfect man. And here he is, here's the end
of the law as it's the goal of the law, here's the end of the
law as the law being over you. We're under him, we're not under
the law. And I don't need, it's instructive
to go back and look at the old ark and look at the old sacrifices,
but I have the sacrifice now to tell me what the old sacrifice
was about. You see what I'm saying? He's
the end of the law. And he's the end of the law for righteousness.
To who? Everyone that believe him. Now you beware, he said. to see men have carryovers from
the law, ordinances and ceremonies and holy days and feast days
and priestly dress. If you don't believe it, drive
through Shreveport. I went through there yesterday and we saw two
big billboards trying to point men back to the law and the Sabbath
day. They have holy days, feast days,
priestly dress, They have priests involved in their religion. They
have special buildings and temples and mosques and synagogues and
cathedrals and on and on and on. And having told us that we're
complete in Christ, he goes on to say, verse 14 here of Colossians
2, that Christ blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that
was against us. and contrary to us. And he took
it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. When they fastened
our Lord to the cross and they crucified him, he fulfilled all
of the old ordinances and types that were pictures of him. He
completely fulfilled it. He's our lamb. I don't go get
a lamb and slit its throat, start a fire, put it on the altar.
No, we don't do that. Our lamb is at the right hand
of God. John the Baptist said, behold, the lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world. Here he is. He's our high priest. He's our bread. He's our Sabbath.
He's our jubilee. He's our city of refuge. He's
our tabernacle, our altar, our temple. He's our incense. He's our mercy seat. He's the
ark. And we're complete in Him. And
all these things, verse 15, now watch this, which deceived men,
tried to teach and force on men, He openly made a show of them
on His cross. If these things were of any value,
Christ didn't need to be nailed to a cross. That's what Paul
said there in Galatians, isn't it? Colossians 2.16, let no man therefore
judge you in meat, or drink, or in respect of a holy day,
or of a new moon, or of Sabbath days. These are a shadow, just
a dark image, an outline of things to come, but the body's Christ.
This is what's casting the shadow, Christ. Let no man beguile you
of your reward. What is the reward of the believer? Grace and peace in Christ. Don't let anybody beguile you
of your reward. Now watch this, involuntary humility. That is a pretense of humility,
one of their own will and not of the will of God, and one of
their own making and not of the results of true repentance and
faith. And they worship things that
they shouldn't worship. They worship angels. And they intrude into things
which they've not seen, vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind.
They'll sit and describe angels. Artists sit down and compose
pictures of angels. Artists carve images like unto
angels. jeweler's fashion. The book of
Isaiah is full of it. He talks about the man took a
piece of wood and he whittled it down and he made this image
and then he took it down to the metal smith and he overlaid it
with gold and then they put a fine silver chain on it and he hung
it around his neck. What was it? It was an angel.
How do you know? You ain't never seen an angel. Angels appeared to lot. And they
appeared as men. Another one appeared in the Old
Testament, and he appeared in the smoke. I don't see any images
of smoke hanging on somebody's neck. We intrude. We intrude into things that we
don't know anything about. And the reason you do it is because
you're vainly puffed up. I have a degree in theology. and we don't hold the head. See
that there? That's the problem. We don't
hold to the head. Christ is the head. He's the
federal head. He's the representative. We don't
hold to him. Colossians 1.18, he is the head
of the body, the church. Angels do nothing without his
commission or his commandment. Believers, angels, It says, do
always stand before their Father. They don't work independent of
the Father. They stand before Him, waiting for His commandments.
Verse 20, Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ, from the basic
principles of the world, of worldly religion, why, as though living
in the world, are ye subject to ordinances? Touch not, taste
not, Handle not. If I wanna eat a pork chop on
Friday, I'm gonna eat a pork chop. You do what you want to. And he said, these things are
all to perish with the using, which things have indeed to show
wisdom in will worship. Deceive men, that's what their
worship is called, will worship. and humility, that religious
show, that put on by every man deceived of Satan. And if such
things were not a threat to us, he wouldn't warn us about them.
But they are a threat. All right, here's the third thing
I want you to see. The master's rebuke of these
men and his instructions to the believer. The accusation, and
that's how religious men ask questions, They're accusations. They're not really questions.
They're accusations. And the accusation is that the
disciples of Christ did not fast. Now here's people who were gonna,
they're going to be the protectors of the law. And they're gonna
be instructors of the blind. And they're gonna come in and
they're gonna straighten everybody out on this thing of fasting.
What was the problem? They didn't know what fasting
was. Old Brother Barnard said, you
can't tell what you don't know anymore and you can come back
from somewhere you haven't been. They didn't know anything at
all about fasting. They didn't know what it was about. They
didn't know what it was for. They just did it to be seen of
men. Our Lord talked to them about
it. He told them, he said, you stretch
your face all out of shape so everybody, when they look at
you, they'll know you've been fasting. When you give your alms, don't
go out to the public square where everybody can see you down at
the mall and give. They didn't know anything at
all about fasting. They didn't know anything at all about salvation.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have said anything about those sinners
gathered around Christ. They were ignorant of God, and
they were ignorant of how God saved sinners. But they're asking these questions
and making these accusations, and they were totally ignorant
of what this fasting was. Now watch this. Mark chapter
two, go back to Mark, and look at verse 19. Jesus said to 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. Why would they fast? This wasn't
a time to fast. This was a time to eat. This
was a time of celebration. This was a time of rejoicing,
not sadness and mourning. Pharisees fasted, Matthew 6,
15, so that men would look on their sad faces and admire them
for their piety. True fasting is brought on by
great trials and difficult times and great loss. Believers rejoice
in Christ and we have everything. What have we got to fast about?
You have it, Paul said, all things are yours. whether Paul or Cephas
or whatever, even the world, all things are yours. What are
you fasting about? There's no division, you've been
reconciled to God. All these believers are your
brothers and sisters, your mothers and your fathers. What you got
to fast about? All things are yours. You're
a recipient of the grace of God. Believers rejoice in Christ and
they have everything and so our Lord illustrates this with these
proverbial sayings. Now he's gonna tell you what
these men are doing. They're still in that natural
flesh. Still in that natural flesh and
they love it. They don't wanna shed it. They
don't wanna get rid of it. They don't want anything new.
They want that old flesh. They love darkness rather than
light. But it's rent, it's torn, and they're guilty. The conscience
says you're guilty, so they sew a little patch on it. Sew a little
patch on it. How many people this morning
gonna walk down that aisle, make professions of faith that's no
more than sewing a patch on that old garment? That's all it is.
And now the old garment don't even look good. You know it's been rent. Now
it sticks out like a sore thumb, but they didn't know that. They didn't know that. They thought
that was holiness. I asked a fellow one time, he
just insisted on us praying in public restaurants, and I didn't
like it. I didn't like it at all. And so I asked him, I said, why
do you do that? Can't you just, I mean, if you
feel the necessity to pray and be thankful, just bow your head
Be thankful without calling everybody's attention in the restaurant to
it. And he said, well, how they gonna know I'm a Christian? Henry told one one time, he said,
they'll know when they get the tip. They'll know. That guy breaks open that change
box and puts a nickel out on the table for a $50 meal, they'll
know. They'll know all about it. Believers
are generous. They're kind. They don't call
attention to themselves. You can't patch up an old garment
with a new piece of cloth, and you can't fill an old bottle
with new wine. You have to have a new bottle. It has to be a new creation.
If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. He's not what
he was. He's a new creature. That old
flesh is still flesh. It'll always be flesh. You'll
never do anything about it. It'll keep right on being flesh
until it goes in the grave. On your deathbed, you're still
gonna have evil thoughts. Yes, you will. But there's a
new man and a believer. And that new man is Christ in
you. He forms Christ in you, and you
see that new man by faith. And that faith is a living faith,
it's a growing faith, it's a maturing faith. You can't pour new wine, the
new wine of the spirit of Christ into an old bottle, it won't
hold it. Put new wine into new bottles,
you put new garments on, not patched up old ones. And believers
rejoice in Christ, not in the ordinances. May the Lord give
you and I both a good, solid understanding of what this lesson
teaches. Thank you.