Well, the message this morning
is from Luke's gospel again, but he's very closely connected
with the passage we were looking at in the study at the end of
Romans chapter seven. In Romans chapter seven, we read
about the flesh against the spirit, the flesh contrary to the spirit
in the regenerate man, in the new man of the spirit of God,
in the saved person, in the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. the
desires of the new man after holiness and the things that
God delights in versus the degeneration of the flesh to sin, the constant
lusts of sin in the flesh. And the question is how to constrain
the flesh, how to constrain it, how to keep it within bounds. Most religion and even most evangelical
Christianity says live as if you're under the law. If you
just look at the article on the back of the bulletin, the first
one by Daniel Parks, He says, a certain teacher of the law
of Moses, this is modern day, this is now, taking offense at
what I recently have taught you regarding the law of Moses, has
written, the law sends us to Christ for justification, but
Christ sends us to the law for regulation. So the law is our
schoolmaster to send us to Christ, yes, Correct? Scripture says
that. But then this man falsely says,
as so many believe and teach, that Christ sends you as a believer
back to the law to constrain your flesh. To constrain the
tendency of sin in your flesh. And they say, you have to live
as if you are under the law. You have to live as if the law
is your rule of life as a believer. but law is contrary to grace. How many times in the New Testament
do we read that law is contrary to grace, that the two cannot
mix? It's a mix that cannot be sustained. It's an incompatible mixture,
law and grace, because law, law seeks to achieve its ends by
threats of punishment or by prospects of reward for the works of the
flesh. And what is the result of work? It's wages. Wages. The result of works is wages,
but not like grace. Grace is the gift of God. Grace
is the free gift of God. Flesh is weak. at the best, you
know, we're going to constrain the flesh by the law, but it's
incapable of keeping the law, even as the rule of life. The
flesh is incapable of keeping the law, truly, truly we were
looking in Romans 7 in that innermost being in the innermost thoughts
in the lusts of the flesh inside not just the external acts but
the lusts inside the law is incapable of constraining the flesh even
as a rule of life. Think about Job, whose righteousness
exceeded all other men in the eyes of other men. Because God
said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? He eschews evil. There is none like him. Go and
see what you can do with him. And when Job saw himself in chapter
42, at the end of his life, when Job saw himself in the light,
he that men had considered to be the most holy man in the flesh,
when Job saw himself in the light of God's holiness, he said, I've
heard of you with the ear, but now mine eye sees you. And what
was the result? I repent. I abhor myself. I repent in sackcloth and ashes. He knew what he really was in
the flesh. The law can never constrain the flesh. But most
people, most religious folks, want rules. They like constraints. Most religious folks love deprivations. You know, not allowing yourself
this, that or the other. They love the idea of fastings. They love the idea of sabbaths
and days when you can and cannot do certain things. They love
the idea of rights that you must go through. And here in these
verses from verse thirty-three of chapter five to verse five
of chapter six which we're looking at this morning our Lord Jesus
Christ teaches us that you cannot mix law law works and grace to
constrain the regenerate man to holiness of life because that's
the question how to constrain the flesh that was the question
that Paul was addressing in Romans chapter 7 the end of it that
we looked at earlier on in the study So look at verses 33 to
35, first of all. 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. And he said unto them, can he
make the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom
is with them? But the days will come when the
bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they
fast in those days. These are the Pharisees that
came to Jesus and in the other accounts it tells us it was John
the Baptist's disciples themselves that asked these questions. These
disciples of John the Baptist were probably true believers.
Let's give them the benefit of the doubt. as all believers in
the flesh are prone to be, weak and fickle. You know how scripture
describes the people of God, the followers of Christ, as sheep. If you've ever spent any time
on a farm dealing with sheep, oh, they're stupid, stupid creatures.
They go off on their own, they get themselves lost, they get
themselves tangled up in all sorts of thorns. Sheep, this
is what believers are likened to. They were probably true believers. And they decided that there were
things that they needed to do. Fasting. Prayers. You know, this
is making an out... This is not saying believers
shouldn't pray. Of course not. But it's making an outward show
of it. Making an outward show of it. Remember what Jesus said
about prayer. When you pray, don't pray to
make a show to other people. He said, go into your closet.
And there, pray to God in private. Go there. Don't make a big outward
show of these things. Religious folks love to make
an outward show of these things. They love the outward marks of
repentance. Oh, fasting. You know, Jesus
spoke often, he spoke of that, the Pharisee who would make his
face look ill because he's been fasting so much and he's been
doing so many good things. They're outward marks of repentance. They're outward marks of moral
reformation. And they try to constrain their
fleshly lusts by religious deprivation. That's what the Pharisees tried
to do. And these disciples of John, they were clearly impressed
by the Pharisees. Paul talks about them in Galatians
6 verse 12. He talks about those who want
to make a fair show in the flesh. A fair show of religious acts
in the flesh. And these disciples of John had
clearly been impressed by this fair show in the flesh of religious
deprivation, of religious works. And they'd taken their eyes off
the greater issues. Because what was it that John
had really preached? He preached repentance and baptism
because of the remission of sins. Because there is remission of
sins in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they'd taken their eyes off
the greater issues of redemption and grace. Aren't these the key
things? Redemption and grace. What do
these other external things matter? if you're not right on this about
redemption and grace. As I say, true sheep sometimes
wander off, but not permanently. The Lord Jesus Christ won't let
them wander off permanently. So the question is put, to Jesus,
why don't your disciples fast? Why don't your disciples do these
external fleshly works of religious deprivation? Your disciples eat
and drink. They called him a glutton and
a wine-bibber because he went and had meals with people. and
he drank wine with them. They called him a glutton and
a wine bib. He said, look, these truly religious folks like the
Pharisees, they're fasting and they're making prayers, but your
disciples are eating and drinking. They're not doing any religious
deprivation. Why is this? Verse 34, Jesus
said unto them, can you make the children of the bride chamber
fast while the bridegroom is with them? They're the children
of the bride chamber. The bride of Christ? What's the
bride of Christ? The church of the living God,
which he's purchased with his own blood. The children of the
bride of Christ are the members of the church in the picture.
Can the children of the bride chamber, can the members of the
church of Christ who is the bridegroom, he's here now. Can they be sad
and fast and be in a state of deprivation? Now is the time
for feasting, is what Jesus is saying. Now is the time of grace. Now is the time of the blessings
of the kingdom of God. Now is the time for rejoicing
in the blessings of redemption. of propitiation, of the anger
of God, the just anger of God turned away in the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They will fast, he says. They
will sorrow when he's taken away. At the time of crucifixion, they
sorrowed when he was taken away. But not for long, because the
resurrection is coming. And then they will rejoice. They
will rejoice. The external thing that the disciples
of John and the Pharisees wanted to impose, he says, how can they
do it? Now is the day of grace. Now
is the day of redemption. These are the important things.
Why don't they fast? Because he's here now. They've
got these blessings now. Now this is no call to excess. Our Lord Jesus Christ is not
giving any call to excess. No call to sins of gluttony and
drunkenness and selfishness. But, what he's saying is this. You cannot mix, you cannot mix
the glorious liberty of the children of God. We'll see that when we
get into Romans chapter 8 verse 21. Think of those words. The
glorious liberty of the children of God. That's the state of true
believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. In a state of glorious liberty. The truth, said Jesus, shall
make you free. And if the truth shall make you
free, you shall be free indeed. And I've heard people say, living
under regimes of evangelical legalism. It says the truth shall
make me free, but I'm not free, I'm bound, I'm in bondage. You
cannot mix the glorious liberty of the children of God with the
religious deprivation of fastings and such like. Christ has redeemed
us, we're told, from the curse of the law. Christ has redeemed
us, paid the price, from the curse of the law. How can we
live as if we're still under it? No. This is what he's saying. And he gives them a parable.
Verses 36 to 38. 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. What he's saying, let
me put it another way. You know, you've heard the expression
that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. You know,
you might have lots of very, very strong links, but if one
of the links is weak, that's how strong the chain is. The
weak link will make the entire chain weak. Doesn't matter how
strong the other links are, one weak link will do. Well he's
saying, if you've got a ragged old garment, and it gets a tear
in it, and you put a piece of brand new material on it to repair
it, then the chances are that what's going to happen is it's
going to make more of a tear. Because the new piece of material
will be so much stronger than the old. It will cause other
tears in it. The two will not agree. They'll
be an incompatible mixture. The one piece of cloth will be
so much stronger than the other one. They won't mix. And he goes
on to give another analogy, verse 37. No man putteth new wine into
old bottles. New wine tends to have a bit
of fermentation still going on in it. You know, I don't know
if any of you have ever noticed, but some still white wines, you
go, ooh, that's got a little bit of a sparkle in it. There's
just the traces of a bit of fermentation going on in there. There's a
bit of that going on in the new wine. He says, don't put them
into old bottles. because the old bottles are weakened
and the new wine will burst the old bottles and be spilled and
the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into
new bottles. New wine that might have some
fermentation still in it needs to go into new bottles that are
strong for both of them to be preserved. He's saying, in summary,
Don't mix that which can't be mixed. Don't try to make a mixture
of things which are fundamentally, inherently incompatible. The
one will fight against the other. Christ had come to fulfill the
law, he said. He came to fulfill the law. When
it's fulfilled, his people are no longer under the law. Some
people would say, you're telling them dangerous, dangerous things.
Oh dear, am I exaggerating? I'll remind you of something
I remember, how many years ago was it now? It was about 1987 when I remember Bill Clarke saying
to people at a conference, set them free, set the believers
free, oh they went mad. They went mad, they were furious. How could you tell pastors to
tell people that they were free? Because the word of God says
it. The word of God says you're free. I remember the reaction
was absolute violence against it. There would have been a lynching
party if lynching had been allowed in this country. They were so
mad at that. Christ has fulfilled the law
for his people. Romans 10 verse 4, he is the
end, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. He's the end of the law. What
does the word of God say? You know, no need to come up
with some weird theological making out that you've got a bigger
brain than anybody else. What it says is what it says.
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. So why live as if it is still
the believer's rule of life? This is what the scripture is
saying here. Dare we believe what God says? Or are we too
frightened for what it will do to our reputation amongst the
evangelical community? Are we frightened to go out on
a limb and say what God's word says? That we're free from the
law? That Christ is the end of it
for righteousness? Or are we too frightened to do
that? Must we always bow to what the modern day Pharisees tell
us we must do? To those that attempt to make
a fair show in the flesh? And believe me, Reformed evangelical
churches have got no shortage of those with a pharisaical spirit.
It's all around us. The state of religion as we look
around today is the result of allowing just a little pinch
of the yeast of law religion to leaven the pure lump of the
gospel of God's grace. What do we get? You know how
Jesus taught, it only takes a little bit of yeast to leaven the whole
lump. You know, it starts out a tiny
little pinch. Only a tiny, surely that won't matter. We can compromise
on that, can't we? We can compromise about these
things. Why don't we just, isn't it more important that we just
get on? Let's just allow just a little bit of yeast in it.
And before you know it, it's infiltrated the whole lump. And
what has it led to? Down the centuries, crosses,
icons, images, robes, altars, temples, sanctuaries. Sanctuaries, ooh, now then. I've
heard people say about their evangelical churches, oh, when
I go into the sanctuary, meaning the place where the people meet,
as if that place is a holy place. I'll tell you, there's only one
time that that place is a holy place, and that's when the Spirit
of God is speaking as the Word of God is preached in there.
That's it. You know, you could say, by the
grace of God, we're in a sanctuary now. But it's only because God
is meeting with his people around his word as his word is preached.
This is a sanctuary. In every other respect, it's
just a pile of bricks and mortar with a roof on it. It's a shelter
from the outside cold air. That's all it is. It's never
anything other than that. Oh, but, oh, we're going into
the sanctuary. As I say, it's only a sanctuary
when God's word is being preached faithfully in it. Sanctuaries,
holy places, Sabbath days, holy days that are different from
others. Oh, it's Good Friday today, it's the holiest day of
the year, some would say. Oh, we better have a service
on Christmas Day so that we can speak. Holy days, making one
day different from another. Oh, we can't live in the world
because we'll be defiled. We better go and live in a monastery.
We know that the sins of the flesh are such that we better
enforce celibacy. All of these things, I know we're
going into extreme areas, but all of these things come from
that little pinch of the leaven of law works religion. infiltrating
the gospel of God's grace. And most evangelical reformed
Christians would agree with what I've said, that all of those
things do result from that infiltration. But hold on, hold on a minute.
Now I'm going to make some people mad when I say this if they ever
listen to it. What about the 1689 Baptist Confession
of Faith? Have you read it? There's some
good stuff in there. There's all the stuff that was
in the 1644 and 1646 Baptist Confessions of Faith. But then
to compromise, because they felt persecuted, they added in lots
of stuff about law works and about the law being the believer's
rule of life. And they now say, what does your
church believe? Oh, we're a 1689 believing. No. What does the word of God
say? You are not under law. You are
under grace. It's mixing law and grace. And they have all sorts of rules
and regulations. They have laws of tithing. And
they have laws of Sabbath keeping. And all sorts of things like
this that the Christian is free from. Does that mean we don't
give? Of course not. We give according to God. God
revealing the need to us and us responding to it. Does it
mean that we live as we want and don't worship Him? No, of
course not. We set aside time where we devote it to Him and
to His worship. But trying to impose legal restrictions
on the flesh, what they're doing is they're trying, as it says
in Romans 7.24, they're trying to deliver the believer from
this body of death. Who shall deliver me, said Paul,
O wretched man that I am? Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death, this body of death? And they say, you do
that by applying legal restrictions. And do you know what it is? It's
not discerning the Lord's body. You know when we have the communion
service, and we read out the form that Paul gave in 1 Corinthians
11, and we say, it says there, let a man examine himself Let
a man examine himself and so let him drink. Don't eat or drink
unworthily. What is it to eat or drink unworthily? It's to eat or drink not discerning
the Lord's body. Not discerning that my righteousness
with God is entirely on the basis of the broken body and the shed
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And any of these other additions
of religion are failing to discern correctly the Lord's body. That's
what it is. That's what it is. If you're
correctly discerning the Lord's body, you know in what your righteousness
stands. He made him who knew no sin to
be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. The Galatians wanted to add law
works to grace. didn't they? They wanted to sew
a new patch of grace onto the old garment of law religion as
the Judaizers tried to get them to do. You know what Paul said
about that? In Galatians chapter 1 verses
7 and 8 thereabouts, he said, if any man preach unto you any
other gospel, add anything to it other than the gospel that
I've preached, let him be accursed. Anathema. And he said, you might
not have heard me. when I said it the first time,
so I'll say it again. Paul repeats it. The scripture
repeats it so that we're absolutely sure how serious this is. You know, I might sound as though
I'm banging the same old drum, but it's so serious. It really
is. It utterly infiltrates those
churches where you would expect the truth of God's grace to be
clearly preached and proclaimed. Paul says at the end of Galatians
in chapter five, verses one to four, he says, stand fast, therefore,
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. And be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage, bondage of the law. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you
that if you be circumcised, or indeed any other law work, religious
law work, I, Paul, say unto you Paul the Apostle, the messenger
of God, I, Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised or
any other religious act to try to constrain the flesh, Christ
shall profit you nothing. for I testify again to every
man that is circumcised or any other work of the law that he
is a debtor to do the whole law and you know what the law says
in Deuteronomy and it's quoted in Galatians 3.13 cursed is everyone
who continues not in all things that are written in the book
of the law to do them I testify again to every man that is circumcised
that he is a debtor to do the whole law. You must continue
in it. And look what he says in verse 4. Christ... These are
chilling words. Listen to them. Listen to them.
Those of you that say you must add law works to grace, to constrain
the works of the flesh, Christ is become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by... Oh, they say, oh, he's not talking
about sanctification, he's talking about justification. No, he's
not. It covers every idea of works doing those things which
the law requires. You are fallen from grace. And
he says in verse 39, no man also, having drunk old wine, straightway
desireth new, for he saith, the old is better. Now, some would
say this means that man naturally prefers the old religion of works
to the new religion of grace. Man likes, in his flesh, he likes
to be told what to do. But I think it means this. You
see, I think that the gospel is often compared to wine. Often
compared to wine. The symbol of the blood of Christ
is wine in the communion service. And grace is the oldest wine
in scripture. Isn't it? Oh, isn't it? Yes, it is. Grace is the oldest
wine in scripture. You think back. When does it
tell us in Revelation 13 that Christ, the Lamb of God, was
slain before the foundation of the world in the purposes of
God? Is that not a purpose of grace? And in Genesis chapter
3, how quickly is grace introduced? As soon as Adam and Eve had fallen.
There's the promise of grace, that in the seed of the woman
would be redemption. and he killed an animal and clothed
them and there is grace there is substitutionary atonement
there in genesis three and in noah and the ark and abraham
and isaac and jacob and all the patriarchs there before the law
of moses came at sinai grace is the oldest wine if you've
tasted the old wine of grace you know it's better this is
what it says Those who've drunk the old wine
straight way, no man having drunk the old wine wants the new, for
he says the old is better. The new wine of apostate religion
is not as good, it's bad compared with the old wine of grace. Jeremiah
6 verse 16 says this, Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways,
and see, and ask for the old paths. Where is the good way? And walk therein. The old paths.
And ye shall find rest for your souls in the old paths of grace. In the old paths of grace. But
they said, we will not walk therein. The old paths of grace. Then
in chapter six, verses one to five, let's just read those.
And it came to pass, on the second Sabbath after the first, that
he went through the cornfields, and his disciples plucked the
ears of corn and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. And certain
of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful
to do on the Sabbath days? And Jesus answering said, have
you not read so much as this what David did when himself was
unhungered and they which were with him? How he went into the
house of God and did take and eat the showbread and gave also
to them that were with him, which was not lawful to eat, but for
the priests alone. And he said unto them, the son
of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. The second Sabbath after the
first. Now, Theologians and scholars
have argued till the cows come home about what that means and
which Sabbath it must have been and when it was. I just think
that the Holy Spirit has ordered these words such that he is saying
here and now that Christ has come He has come, he's fulfilled
the gospel promises, we live under a new order, we live under
the order of grace and not of law. We live under the era of
gracious rest from law works to justify. The era of the first
Sabbath, which was the legal law Sabbath, is over. It is now
the second Sabbath, the second Sabbath of gospel grace in the
Lord Jesus Christ, who said, I will give you rest. Remember
what Jeremiah said, walk in the old ways and you shall find rest
for your souls. Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest in the gospel of
his grace. Yet those who claim to know grace
impose legal Sabbatarian restrictions on others. They make Sunday a
Sabbath day. They don't keep the Old Testament
laws because they never could. Because as soon as they see somebody
picking up sticks outside, they'd have to pick up stones and stone
them to death. But of course that's not allowed
in our society today. So they make amended laws about
how far is reasonable to walk on Sunday, the Sabbath day. About
which things you can and cannot do in your own home on Sunday,
which is the Sabbath day. They make all sorts of laws.
They make Sunday a Sabbath day and they amend the Old Testament
laws and its penalties. For example, you know, in certain
Scottish communities, they chain up with padlocks, the swings,
the children's swings in the parks on Sunday, so that they
can't swing and thereby breach the Sabbath day. It's the self-righteousness
of the Pharisees. And God hates that self-righteousness. He, Christ, is Lord of the Sabbath. This is what he says, verse 5,
He is Lord of the Sabbath. He illustrates that in His coming
and fulfilling the law, the law is changed. So that Colossians
2, verses 16 and 17, Paul writes this, this is the word of God
to us, those living in the regime of grace, let no man therefore
judge you in meat, what you eat, or in drink, what you drink.
Obviously he's not saying excess, not at all, for he says elsewhere,
be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with
the spirit. No, but he says let no man judge
you in what you eat or what you drink, or in respect of unholy
day, or of the new moon, or of Sabbath days, and tell you what
you must and must not do. These are a shadow of the things
that are to come, but the body is of Christ and he's fulfilled
it now. You mustn't try to mix grace of the gospel with the
works of the law. The new wine of the one will
burst the old bottles of the other. So then, What will restrain
the works of the flesh in the regenerate man? Isn't this the
question? This is what we were looking
at in the second half of Romans 7. What will restrain the works
of the flesh in the regenerate man? Is it the law? Is the law
what Christ drives us to for regulation? Does he drive us
back to the law? The law drives us to Christ,
but then Christ drives us back to the law. Is that right? Is
it the law that will restrain the works of the flesh in the
regenerate man? Shall we mix, because this is
what this is about, shall we mix law with gospel grace to
bring the flesh into subjection to the will of God? The scripture
says emphatically, no. This is what the scripture says,
Romans 7, 24. We looked at it earlier. Who
shall deliver me? Wretched man that I am, says
Paul. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? Shall law religion? Absolutely
not. He says, I thank God. The grace
of God in Christ who delivers his people by grace alone. That's
the answer.