Again, at verse 33, I'll be working
my way down through to verse 39, to the last statement in
the chapter. Shelby was in the nursery this
morning when I announced what I was going to be preaching on.
She just heard part of it, and she said, you're going to be
preaching on old is better. And she's so sweet. She said,
with regard to you, it's so. But that's not what I'm going
to be talking about tonight. I'll let you get to that when we get
to it. The Lord Jesus had just saved an elect sinner by his
almighty grace, an old publican named Levi. We call him Matthew
most of the time. Having experienced the saving
goodness of God's grace, having been forgiven by Christ himself
of his sin, having seen the glory of God in the face of Christ,
This sinner gladly forsook all and followed the master. Not
only did he follow Christ himself, he wanted others to know him
and follow him. He wanted other sinners to know
the grace he had experienced, the forgiveness he now knew. He wanted other sinners to experience
the healing power of God's grace in their souls as he had experienced
it in his soul. So he threw a lavish party. It
must have been something else. He threw a party in honor of
the Son of God, and hordes of people came. It's hard to imagine
what this must have been like, but there were just hordes of
people there. Tax collectors like himself, Romans, Jewish
scribes, and Pharisees. the disciples of John the Baptist,
the Lord's disciples, and the Son of God himself. And along
with all these people, there were numerous, numerous people
who were obviously sinners. When the scribes and Pharisees
saw what the Lord Jesus and his followers were doing, mingling
with these people, this riffraff, these lowlifes, they raised their
eyebrows and they look down their noses. I can almost see them
standing off in the corner murmuring, chatting, gossiping, like religious
people are wont to do. And they said, why do you eat
with publicans and sinners? And the master answered them,
they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are
sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. And it kind of just floated over.
They didn't hear a word he said. They didn't understand what he
was talking about. They, in their opinion of themselves, were perfectly
whole. They didn't need a position.
They were perfectly righteous. They didn't need someone else's
righteousness. They were not sinners. After
all, they had risen above that. These were the scribes and Pharisees. So they ignored the Savior's
words. But they observed that John's
disciples, the disciples of John the Baptist, were people who
kept the same customs that they kept, the same outward ceremonies
that they kept, the same fastings, the same special fast days that
had been prescribed not only by the law of Moses, but also
by the various additions made to the law through the centuries
by the Jewish leaders. They observed that John's disciples
kept these things just like they did, but the Lord Jesus and his
disciples kept none of them, none of them. None of them. And
so the Pharisees and the scribes perceived an opportunity to create
trouble. There again is what religious
folks are good at. And they thought they would divide
Christ's kingdom. They thought they could drive
a wedge between John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus. They thought
they could drive a wedge between the Lord's disciples and the
disciples of John. And we'll pick up here in verse
33. Now I want you to see this one thing in this text of scripture
as we go through these verses. The one thing clearly set before
us in this passage of scripture is the fact that true Christianity
is not a patchwork of religion added to your life. True Christianity
is a new creation. The Lord Jesus said, Behold,
I make all things new. And as He shall one day make
all things new in the physical creation, in the new birth, in
what's called Christianity, in that which the Scriptures describe
as the worship of God, the Lord Jesus makes everything new. And you've never experienced
God's grace until you've experienced the creating power of God in
your soul. All right, now in verse 33. We
see clearly that true believers may indeed be weak believers.
As weak believers, men and women are often easily sidetracked
by the religious world around them. We read in verse 33, they
said unto him, why do the disciples of John, John the Baptist, fast
often and make prayers? and likewise of the Pharisees. But thine eat and drink. Your
disciples act like they've got nothing to be concerned about.
Your disciples don't engage in our ceremonies. Your disciples
don't engage in our prayer time. Your disciples don't join the
national day of prayer. Your disciples don't join us
in anything. You see, sometimes true believers like these disciples
of John the Baptist, become sidetracked and confused by meaningless things
as they fall under the influence of religious people who don't
know God. Now I know, and I want you to
understand this, Christ's sheep hear his voice. They will not
hear the voice of a stranger. They will not follow a stranger.
God's saints, all of them, have an unction from the Holy Spirit
so that they cannot be deceived with regard to those things that
are vital to their souls. They cannot be deceived with
regard to the gospel of God's grace. You talk to people who
talk to you about free will and works and what they do for God
and how they have put God in obligation to themselves, how
they have gotten God to do things he wouldn't otherwise do. They
don't know God. Those are not weak believers,
those are unbelievers. They don't know God. Weak believers,
however, sometimes fall under the influence of wicked men.
And us being such fickle, frail, sinful pieces of flesh and blood
as we are, we sometimes are conned by influence, the influence of
our own flesh, because we love it. We love outward religion. We love outward ceremony. We
love works religion. We love the idea that somehow
we have control of God. We love that which we can see
and feel and touch and do. That's our nature. And sometimes
by the influence of other folks in the religious world. Just
the preponderance of influence. All these people can't be wrong.
The whole world can't possibly be wrong. How could all these
folks be wrong? We're talking back there in the
office. Folks go to these churches. You and I just pass by the dial
on television or radio and you hear these babbling idiots talking
in the name of God. They've got doctors and lawyers
and politicians. I used to say they check the
brains at the door, I think they check them in the parking lot.
When it comes to religion, people will hear anything, they'll fall
for anything. And at the same time, believers in weakness see
the preponderance of all these things, the constant influence,
and they in weakness are often influenced by it. This is exactly
what happened with John's disciples. As a matter of fact, if you'll
turn to Matthew chapter 9, turn over there for a second. John's disciples got to watching
and listening to the Pharisees. with whom they had common things
in practice. Not in doctrine, but in practice.
They had common things in their outward behavior. Not in doctrine. They didn't believe what the
Pharisees believed. They believed the gospel of God's grace. But
they were in this transitional period where they were coming
out from under the old covenant of works, of law, of ceremonialism. They were coming out from under
that all together, but they still had the trappings hanging on.
And so they kept the feast days and the fast and all those things
that the Pharisees did. And they got the influence here
that somehow they ought to join the Pharisees. And while Luke
doesn't say a thing on earth about John's disciples, Mark
does, and Matthew clearly states it. Look at Matthew chapter 9.
It wasn't just the Pharisees who got to copying. It wasn't
just the Pharisees who got to criticizing, not just other men,
but the Lord himself. It was the disciples of John
the Baptist. Verse 14, Then came to him the
disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees Man,
that'd be like me saying, why do we and the papists, why do
we and the folks at First Baptist or folks at any other church,
why do we and the Pharisees fast off? But your disciples, they
fast not. Now, this is my point. We must
not allow ourselves to be moved away from the simplicity that's
in Christ. We must not be sidetracked by
the issues of carnal religion from the gospel of God's grace.
If he can do so, Satan will get us off the main line. If he can
do so. Turn over to Ephesians 4. Ephesians
4. The unity of the church, the
strength of the church, That which causes us to be useful
in our generation is that doctrine that sets us apart from the religious
world. Folks say, well, doctrine divides.
No, no, no. Gospel doctrine unifies. Gospel
doctrine unifies. Believers are of one heart and
one mind in these things, and we must not become sidetracked
with other things. I have a very dear friend. He's
with the Lord now. He pastored a church below me
in West Virginia. And every, I guess every time
I ever heard him preach, every time I ever heard him preach,
he preached the gospel of God's grace. But every time I ever
heard him preach, he had something to say about Santa Claus and
Freemasons. I mean, he fought them all the time, tooth and
toenail, and they ought to be fought. It had nothing to do
with that nonsense. But that became the issue. That
became the issue. You pastored there for a while
there. Was that the issue? That was the issue. Not the gospel
of God's grace. Evil as those things are, abhorrent
as those things are, that's not the issue. But what is it? Look
here at Ephesians 4. I therefore the prisoner of the
Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
you are called. Walk worthy of that holy calling
by which you've been called out of this world. Walk with all
lowliness and meekness with long-suffering. Not lowliness and meekness in
the sense in which the world looks at it and says, boy, he's
a humble man. That's not it. Lowliness and meekness before
God. Ron Wood, lowliness and meekness before God will make
you bold as a lion before a house full of rebels. Moses was the
meekest man ever walked on the earth. He wasn't a cowering fool. He was a bold man. He spoke for
God. He walked with lowliness and
meekness, knowing himself as God's servant. Knowing himself
to be sent of God. Knowing himself to have a message
from God that men must hear. Alright, read on. Forbearing
one another in love. Put up with each other's weaknesses.
Put up with each other's inconsistencies. Put up with each other's flesh. Just put up with one another
in love. Just like you do in your house. Just like you do
in your family. Well, you know, that's not him. That's not her.
That's the flesh. And you forbear with one another.
Read on. Endeavoring, striving to keep
the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Here we are, this
small band of believers, individually. We're as insignificant as the
straw out there in the garden. It can't do a thing. But bind
us all together. bind us all together. Now, here's
something you can build with. Here's something you can work
with. Look at it now. Here's the unity of the spirit. Here's
the bond of peace. There's one body. God's people
are one. God's people are one. God's people
are one. One body. One spirit. All of God's people have the
same spirit. Have the same spirit. Folks,
sometimes look at me and kind of frown. If I say something
about this Pentecostal age and this New Age religion and I say
it's not of God, it's satanic. How can you say that? Either
they are or we are. One of the two. There's no union.
There's nothing common. No common ground. God's people
are one spirit. They had the spirit revealed
in this book. They had the spirit of God's grace. Read on again.
Even as you're called in one hope of your calling. What's
your hope? What's your hope? Jesus Christ. What else? That's all. It's the
what else, this dead man. Not Christ in what I feel. Not
Christ in what I do. Not Christ in what I experience.
Not Christ in what I think. Not Christ in what I've been
taught. Not Christ in what Mama and Daddy did for me. Christ
the Lord is the Lord my righteousness. And every believer, Gary, has
the same hope. Every believer, every believer
leans entirely upon Christ for atonement, for satisfaction,
for his sin. He leans in Christ, on Christ
entirely for righteousness and acceptance with God. All together
on Christ. Call in one hope of your calling,
one Lord, the one described in this book. And I'm here to tell
you that the Jesus, the God, the spirit of this age, that
Jesus, that God, that spirit that wants to, tries to, desires
to do what he can't do is no more akin to the God of this
book than a gnat resembles an angel. No, sir. One Lord, one
Lord, the sovereign almighty God revealed in the face of Jesus
Christ. One faith, one faith. Faith in
Him, the Son of God our Savior, the faith of the gospel. What
is it? Salvations of the Lord. That's
it. All God's people believe it. All of them. One baptism. That's it. That's it. All following
Christ, Father Christ, and believers, baptism, identifying themselves
with Him, saying, I died with Him. When Christ, my substitute,
died, I died. When He was buried, I was buried.
When He arose, I arose, free from sin, just like He was. One
baptism. Read on. One God, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. One God and Father of all, who
is above all, and through all, and in you all. Now that's doctrine,
and that's peace. That's peace. Folks, I'm frequently
asked by preachers, you know, what do you do with folks in
church who don't believe those things? I preach to them until
they either believe it or get out. the gospel, demanding that men
surrender to the Word. We don't compromise the Word
of God trying to get folks to come. We're not here to build
this church. We're not here to build our name.
We're not here to build this assembly. We're here as God's
servants asking God to use us to build His kingdom. If He builds
it, it's built. If we build it, it's nothing.
We preach the gospel of God's free grace. All right now, look
at verse 34 back in our text. Here our Savior teaches us a
glorious fact about our relationship with Him. He tells us that all
true believers are the bride of Christ, and He's our bridegroom. All true believers are His bride,
and He's the bridegroom. Look at verse 34. And He said
unto them, Can ye 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. This gospel age is the time of
our marriage feast. It's a time for feasting at the
banqueting table of God's grace. A time for celebration and joy,
not a time for mourning and fasting. Fasting in the Old Testament
was symbolic of something. In the Old Testament, God by
Moses prescribed certain days to be set aside through seasons
of the year to fast as a time of personal and public national
humiliation before God Almighty. It was a symbol of sorrow, a
symbol of mourning, a symbol of repentance. So that sackcloth
and ashes put on the face and on the head, men would bow down
and they would fast before God with a symbol outwardly of sorrow,
with a symbol of mourning, with a symbol of repentance. But the
Pharisees, they had learned to ignore all the spiritual significance. and they capitalized on outward
things, just like religious folks do today. Not only did they keep
the fast days prescribed by the law outwardly, but they tapped
on a bunch of others. Anytime in October, if rain hadn't
fallen where it was supposed to, they fasted three days. If
it still hadn't come in November, they fasted three more days.
Kind of like religious folks do today. Religious folks think,
well, you know, boy, if God doesn't answer our prayers, we'll start
fasting and we'll bend his arm. We'll put his arm behind his
back. We'll get him in a hammerlock. Get God to do what he wasn't
in the notion of doing. And so we'll fast and cry and mourn.
That's not what fasting was even in the Old Testament. But that's
what has been reduced to, the outward act by which men think
they're going to persuade God to do something. This fasting
was that which was set aside by God Almighty to show humility
symbolically. To show times of specified devotion
to Him, recognizing our sin. And the Lord also had required
of Israel that they pray. But the Pharisees added certain
specified times of prayer. And they loved to do it. When
they fasted, man, rasting today. And when they prayed, they'd
stand up, clear their throat in the street corner and call
on God. And folks would look at them
and say, my, what devotion. And they got what they were looking
for. They got what they were looking for. Now, our Lord and
his disciples had nothing to do with these things. Nothing. I mean, nothing. You'd never
catch him practicing it. You'd never catch him engaged
in it. With regard to fasting, our Lord's doctrine is clear.
His presence, as He tells us here, His grace removes the need
for sorrow and fasting. Why should I fast? My sins are
forgiven. Why should I fast? The Master's
present with me. Why should I fast? Grace, righteousness,
and eternal life is mine. Christ, our faithful Savior,
our divine Bridegroom, is with us to provide for us, to care
for us, protect us, comfort us, and rejoice our hearts. These
are the days of the Bride's feasting, not fasting. Now certainly, Our
Lord speaks here of a time, and he says, when the bridegroom
is taken away, then the bride will be sorrowful and mourn.
That's what the fasting symbolized. Then the bride will fast. And
there was a time of weeping. There was a time of great sorrow.
A time of great lamentation when the Lord of glory was nailed
to the cursed tree and buried in the tomb. But then he arose. And he showed himself to his
disciples. And the time of mourning was quickly fading. The time
of fasting was quickly going away. And then he ascended up
on high, took possession of the throne of glory in our name and
poured out his spirit upon us and the time of rejoicing has
come because his spirit had been poured upon us. The Lord Jesus
here identifies himself as our bridegroom and all chosen redeemed
sinners as his bride. Turn over to Ephesians 5. Ephesians
chapter 5. I want you to understand everything
the Son of God does. Everything he does for his bride. Everything. Everything. Ephesians
5 25. Husbands, you want to know how
to love your wives? Like this. Even as Christ also
loved the church, and gave himself for it, loved the church, specifically
his chosen, and gave himself for the church, specifically
his church, his elect, for what purpose? That he might sanctify
and cleanse it. That's why he died. Well, that
means they're going to be sanctified and cleansed. that He might sanctify
and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that the
Word of God might be effectually applied to our hearts, that He
might ultimately present His church to Himself, a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it
should be holy and without blemish. And that's what He's done for
His bride. The Lord Jesus Christ espoused us to himself in eternity.
He bought us and washed us with his own blood. We are now wed
to him by faith and gladly wear the wedding garments of his righteousness
which he has provided. We are his bride. He's our husband. That means we're the objects
of his tender love. That means we're privileged to
enjoy the mystical union of being wed to the Son of God. That means
we're His forever because what God has joined together, nobody's
going to put us under. That means that we shall forever
participate in and possess all that He is and all that He has. He's the bridegroom. We're His
bride. Any reason to fast? Any reason for mourning? Any
reason for lamentation? Any reason for sorrow? Not at
all! The Lord Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom of our souls, will
one day present us before the Father and before all the universe
and declare us to be His chaste Virgin, made completely blameless
by His righteousness and His blood. Alright, look at verses
36, 37, and 38. Here, The Lord Jesus tells us that
in spiritual matters, we must never attempt to mix things that
differ. Now, these are proverbial sayings,
and our Lord Jesus is here applying these to specific things. Essentially,
their meaning is just this. We must not mix things that don't
mix. We must not mix things that don't
mix. All right, read it with me. And
he spake also a parable unto them. No man putteth a piece
of 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." In other words, you don't get Christianity
by patching something on. No man putteth new wine into
old bottles. The word bottles, you probably
know, is really referring to wine skins. In ancient times,
folks used to make bottles, skins, sew them together and seal them
up in which they would put their wine, skins of animals, and as
the wine fermented, the new skin would stretch with the wine.
And so it was perfectly compatible. The two were in complete agreement.
Our Lord says you don't put new wine in old bottles. If you do,
you're going to break them. When the wine starts to ferment, the
skins are stretched to capacity already, and they're going to
burst open. No man putteth new wine into old bottles, else the
new wine will burst the bottles and be spilled, and the bottles
will perish. But new wine must be put into
new bottles, and both are preserved. What's our Lord telling us? One
thing he's telling us for certain, we must not do what the Galatians
tried to do. We can't mix law and grace. We
can't mix our will and God's will. We can't mix our works
and God's works. No, sir. Either you and I will
stand before God Almighty because he chose us, because he redeemed
us, because he robed us in his righteousness, washed us in his
blood, saved us by his grace. or we'll stand before him on
our own merit. It can't be both ways. Either you're saved entirely
by what God in Christ does for you, or you're saved entirely
by what you do for God. And the whole religious world
around us declares that men are saved by what they do for God.
Now they try to mix the two. Nobody would stand up in a pulpit
anywhere and say, now we're saved by what we do. I've never heard
anybody say that in my life. Never in my life. But that's
what it all comes out to. They say, we believe in Jesus. We trust the Lord Jesus. But
now, you know your works count for something. The Lord, the
Lord is God. He wants to save you, but now
it's up to you. If it's up to you, salvation
is in your hands. If God wants to save everybody and everybody's
not saved, He's no God. If Christ died to redeem everybody
and everybody's not redeemed, He's no Savior. If the Holy Spirit
calls everybody and everybody's not born again, He's no Savior.
Oh no, we're saved by God alone. By Christ's work alone. By God's
will alone. Now then, look at verse 39. Learn this one last thing. In the spiritual realm, the old
is always better. No man having drunk old wine
straightway desireth new, for he saith the old is better. Now I've been drinking the old
wine. I've been drinking the old wine. The gospel of God's
grace is often compared to wine in scripture. the color of it
symbolic. We're going to drink this wine
here. Our Lord says it is symbolic
with the New Covenant, the New Testament in my blood. As the
wine is the blood of the grape, so the Lord Jesus Christ by his
precious blood has redeemed us. It's compared to wine before
its sweetness. The sweet taste of good wine. The gospel is like that. Oh,
how sweet is the gospel of free grace. Oh, how blessed to hear
God say your sins are forgiven you. Oh, how blessed to hear
of redemption accomplished. How blessed to hear of grace
immutable. The gospel, like wine, is reviving
to our souls and at the same time calming to our hearts. I
turn back to Jeremiah 6.16. If ever you taste the old wine
of the gospel, the old wine of God's free grace, you will not
want the new wine of this apostate age. Jeremiah chapter 6 verse
16. Thus saith the Lord, stand ye
in the waves and seek and ask for the old path. You read of
Adam and Isaiah 35 in the office, right? Old paths. Highway of
righteousness. God's paths. Where is the good
way? Number one. Christ is in. And walk therein. Look at this. And you shall find rest for your
souls. Rest. Rest. I'll tell you what. I tell folks
this all the time. arguing with us about religion,
I tell them, now listen, listen. If your religion gives you rest
as you honestly face God in eternity, keep it. Keep it. Keep it. If it really gives you
rest in your soul, rest so that you now stand fit to meet God. Huh? Does it? I want to tell
you something. Mine does. I stand before God
Almighty, washed in the blood of Christ, buddy, so God Almighty
has no sin to lay to my charge. Oh, my soul, if you can taste
that wine, you'll rest. I stand before God Almighty,
robed in the spotless garments of Christ's righteousness. So
that what God in his law requires of me I have fully complied with
in the person of his son. And I'm at rest. I'm at rest. Now you taste this old wine and
you'll say this is better. You can have that new stuff.
You have that stuff to put up green. He's fixing to burst your
bottle. This is rest, rest, rest. Oh, come now, enter into this
rest. It's called faith in the Son
of God. Amen. All right, Linda, you leave
us in the hymn, if you will. Ron, you help the men serve the
Lord's table, please.