When you turn to the book of
Luke chapter 5, I want to read Luke's account, and I want to
read a few more verses, and I want us to see that all of this story
goes together, and this parable is the Lord's answer. Luke chapter 5. Let's begin reading
in verse 27 of Luke chapter 5. After these things, he went forth
and saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of custom.
And he said unto him, follow me. And he left all, rose up
and followed him. And Levi made a great feast in
his own house. And there was a great company
of publicans and of others that sat down with him, but their
scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples. saying,
why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And Jesus
answering said unto 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 they said unto him, and this
is their response to the statement he just made. And they said unto
him, why did the disciples of John fast often and make prayers? And likewise the disciples of
the Pharisees, but thine eat and drink. It seems like the
disciples of the Pharisees and of John the Baptist are more
dedicated. They pray more. They fast. You don't. What's the problem? There's a problem here. Verse
34, and he said unto them, can you 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. And he spake also a parable
unto them. Now, like I said, this is the
first parable the Lord ever gave, and it is in response to what
has just been said. 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
agreeeth not with the old. And no man putteth new wine into
old bottles, else the new wine will burst the bottles and be
spilled and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be
put into new bottles and both are preserved. No man, also having
drunk old wine, Straightway desireth new, for he saith, the old is
better. I've entitled this message, The
Double Cure. The Double Cure. Augustus Toplady
wrote the hymn that has been said to be the greatest hymn
in the English language, and I wouldn't debate that. Rock
of ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy riven side, which flowed, be of sin the double cure. Save me from its guilt and power. Now in our version, in our hymn
book, it says, be of sin the double cure, save from wrath
and make me pure, which is saying the same thing. I don't want
to go to hell. I don't want to be made to be
accountable for my sins. And I want to be made pure. the double cure. You and I need a double cure
from sin. Now we can be likened unto a
man on death row, guilty of crimes that have called upon for his
death. And he's gonna die in 24 hours. And not only does this man have
a problem before the law where he's going to be condemned, but
he also has heart disease. And if he doesn't get a heart
transplant in 24 hours, he's gonna die. Now, it won't do this
man any good at all to receive a pardon for his sin only. He's still going to die of that
heart disease. And it won't do that man any
good at all to be given a new heart and a transplanted heart
if he's not pardoned for his crime. He's got a double problem. If you take away his guilt, he
still has an evil heart. That doesn't change. If you take
away his evil heart and give him a new heart, that doesn't
take away his guilt before the law. We need a double cure. Rock of ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy ribbons side which flow be of sin the double cure, save
from wrath and make me pure. Now this is the first parable
the Lord ever gave. His first miracle was when he
turned water into wine. I love that miracle. It was water
and it was made wine. It pictures the gospel. And this
is our Lord's first parable And it was in response to what the
Lord had just said. Look in verse 29. And Levi made
him a great feast in his own house. And there was a great
company of publicans and of others that sat down with him. But their
scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples saying,
why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? There's
something wrong with this picture. And Jesus answering said unto
them, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that
are sick. And then he gives us his mission
statement. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Now, instead of these people
saying, I'm so thankful. Praise the Lord. That's what
he came to do. That wasn't their response at
all. They respond with a criticism. And here it is in verse. Thirty three, and they said unto
him, this one who came not to call the righteous but sinners
to repentance, they said unto him, why do the disciples of
John fast off it? and make prayers. And likewise,
the disciples of the Pharisees, that thine eat and drink." Your
disciples are not really up to snuff. They don't fast the way
the disciples of John the Baptist and the disciples of the Pharisees
fast. They don't make prayers like
these other disciples make. They eat and drink. They don't
seem different in their religious discipline the way the disciples
of the Pharisees and John the Baptist are. The disciples of John the Baptist
and the disciples of the Pharisees spent much time in prayer and
the practice of fasting. Evidently, these practices were
known by others. Wonder why that is. You reckon
maybe they had disfigured faces? Maybe they prayed at restaurants
so everyone could see them pray. But everyone knew these men were
men of religious discipline. They prayed and they fasted. But yours eat and drink and do
not practice this rigid asceticism. And this was a slam against them. This is a problem. Your disciples seem to be beneath
the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees. They
are somewhat less. Verse 34, and he said unto them,
can you make the children of the bride chamber fast while
the bridegroom is with them? You know what he's saying? Why
would they fast when I'm here? That answers that question. But the days come, the days will
come when the bridegroom should be taken away from them and then
shall they fast in those days. This is talking about when he
is crucified and gone and they'll fast then, they'll fast then.
And he spake also a parable unto them. And this parable has three
parts. And this is the way he answers
this way of thinking. And the gospel is so powerful
in this particular parable. Now, let's read it again. Here's
the first part. 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. Nobody does that. You've never
known anyone to take a piece of old dry rotted cloth that
had a tear in it and put some new cloth on it and use it to
patch up that old hole. I don't think anybody's ever
done that. No man does that except religious people. We'll see that
in a minute. Now here's the second part. And
no man put a new wine into old bottles or old wine skins that
are dried. Else the new wine will burst
the bottles. That's through the process of fermentation. The
gases that take place will burst the bottles and be spilled and
the bottles to perish. But new wine must be put into
new bottles. And both are preserved. No man
also having drunk of old wine straightway desires new, for
he saith, the old is better. Now, in this parable, we have
the work of Christ for us. We have the work of Christ in
us. and we have the evidence of the
work of Christ for us and in us. You can know whether he's
done something for you and you can know to not whether he's
done something in you. Verse 36, no man puts a piece
of new garment upon an old. Nobody does this. You don't cut
out a piece of new, unshrunk, unmilled, unworked cloth and
use it to patch up a hole in an old, dry-rotted piece of material. If you did, here's what would
take place. Number one, it wouldn't match.
There's no true agreement. Number two, the holes in the
old cloth will actually become larger when that new garment
shrinks. It'll rip it up even more. And number three, you'll no longer
have a whole piece of new cloth. The only people who do this are
religious people. They're the only people who do
something this stupid. If you saw somebody doing this,
you'd think that is stupid. Why are you doing that? You should
know better than that. Well, yeah, you should. And it's
not like intelligence is involved in believing the gospel. I'm
not saying that, but I am saying, look how crazy it is what religious
people do. And it's what I would do apart
from, and it's what you would do and be doing right now apart
from the grace of God to you. Now, religious people try to
use Christ's righteousness to fill in the holes in their own. That's exactly what that means.
I need a robe of righteousness to be accepted by God. They realize
that. And I do have holes in my personal
righteousness. I gotta admit, I commit sins.
I've got some issues. I've got holes in my righteousness.
I freely admit that, but I can use the righteousness of Christ
to patch up those holes in my personal righteousness and thus
I'll have a garment that God can accept. There's a huge problem
with that. A huge problem. Number one, there's no agreement between
those two types of material. Not only they don't match, they
don't agree. They have nothing in common. They are opposed to one another. You see, my robe of righteousness
that has the holes in it, you know what it's made of? Filthy
rags. It's actually called in Isaiah
64 6, minstress rags. Am I going to take fine linen,
clean and white, and use it to patch up the holes in my garment
of filthy rags. I need a garment made only of
His righteousness. That's the only garment that
will do me any good at all. You see, There are only two righteousnesses,
self-righteousness and his righteousness. The problem with self-righteousness
is although it's got righteousness in the name, it doesn't have
any righteousness in the reality. It's nothing more than filthy
rags. Do you believe that about yours?
Filthy rags. The only righteousness that there
is, is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The righteousness that
he worked out when he walked upon this earth. When it says
in Revelation 19, where to her is granted fine linen, clean
and white, this is the righteousness of the saints. You see, the righteousness of
Jesus Christ is the personal righteousness of every single
one of the saints. The only way my guilt problem,
my sin problem, my guilt before the law can take place is if
I have the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It's what the Bible calls
justification. Now, when that man in the temple
beat on his breast, crying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner.
Don't you love what the Lord said? I say to you, that man
went down to his house justified. Having never sinned. That's what that means. Having
never sinned. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ, the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Now, this fella who was on death
row and he was to be executed within 24 hours, now, not only
is he's pardoned, he's declared to be not guilty. But you know what? As glorious
as that is, that wouldn't do him any good unless something
else was done for him. You see, even if he's not guilty,
he still has this bad heart. Now our Lord gives the second
part of the parable in verse 37. And no man putteth new wine,
still going through the process of fermentation, into old wine
skins that don't have any elasticity. They're rigid. And when that
wine starts to ferment, it'll burst them, and all the wine
will escape. And there won't be any wine.
And any bottles, those bottles, those wine skins won't be good
for anything. There was a time when you could at least put water
in them and now they're good for nothing. But what do you do? You put new
wine into new bottles. New wine skins that haven't been
used before. And that way, both will be preserved. Now what's
this talking about? Well, that man had a heart that
was no good. You could give him all the medicine
you wanted. It wouldn't do him any good.
What he needed and what he needs is a new heart that was not there
before, a heart that he wasn't born with. He needs a new heart
to live. And that sinner, he may have
his guilt pardoned, but it won't do him any good if that's all
there is because he's still got a heart. And he would turn heaven
into hell if he was brought there with that heart. You know, preachers exhort sinners to give Jesus
their heart. What would he want with it? What would he want with it? The
scripture describes the heart as desperately wicked, deceitful
above all things. Genesis 6-5 says, And God saw
the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And you know what that means?
Your heart can't get any better. It can't hold the wine of God's
grace. It can't do anything but sin. You need a new heart. A new heart, God said in Ezekiel
36, will I give. If you poured God's grace into
this heart that I have by nature, it couldn't hold it. I must be
given a new heart. Now understand this. This is
important for you to understand. It's important for me to understand.
God doesn't change anything. You don't have a changed heart. You're given a new heart. All the difference in the world.
This is the heart that believes. This is the heart that repents.
This is the heart that loves. This is the heart that does not
commit sin. This is the new heart. This is
the heart transplant. This is the new nature. This
demonstrates how the gospel is not an offer. for the old man
to accept or reject. It doesn't work that way at all.
God gives a new heart, and that man believes the gospel. That
man loves the gospel, because God has given him this new heart. Your old heart doesn't, by its
free will, decide to accept or reject Jesus. Look back up where
this story started. Matthew 5, verse 27. And after these things, he went
forth and saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of
customs. And he said unto him, follow
me. Now I preached on this a couple
of weeks ago. Could Matthew have said no? Absolutely not. If the Lord says
to you, follow me, you know what you're going to do? You're going
to get up and follow him. You won't be able to do anything
else because you have a new heart. This is the second part of this
double cure. The new wine skin is the new
heart. Your sin is taken away. That's justification. You're
given a new heart. That's regeneration. That's the
double cure for sin. A new heart and a perfect standing
before God. That's the double cure for sin. Now, here's the third question. This is what we're gonna close
with. How can I know if he's done that for me? Oh, that's an important question,
isn't it? How can I know if he's done that for me? Well, let's
look at verse 39. This is the third part of this
parable. No man, also having drunk old
wine, straightway desireth new. For he saith, the old is better. What is the evidence that you
have been justified? What is the evidence that you
have been regenerated? What is the evidence that you
have received this double cure for your sins? Now, I think it's
amazing. I read quite a bit about what
the commentaries say that verse 39 means. And what everybody
I read said was, and I wouldn't have believed, I wouldn't have
even thought this unless I read them say it. They said, you can't
expect somebody to adopt new things immediately because they're
used to the old. and they're not gonna just up
and, they've got grave clothes, they're not going to just up
and receive the gospel real quick. They say the old's better, they're
just not used to this. Matthew, follow me. Now that's unreasonable. Expect
him to just get up and follow the Lord right like that. That's
unreasonable. I mean, he's been a tax collector for years and
years. He's been sitting at that seat
of her custom. Why? It's ridiculous for us to consider
that he had to get up immediately and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. I think that that demonstrates
that that's not what that verse of scripture means. No man Having drunk old wine
desires new. You see, old wine tastes better.
It's more expensive. You pay a lot more for old wine,
don't you? I don't understand why that is, but I know that
that's the way it is. Old wine tastes better. No man,
if he's drunk old wine, desires stuff that's not as good. If I've ever tasted of the old
covenant of grace, now understand this. The New Testament is a lot older
than the Old Testament. Did you know that? It's a lot
older. The New Testament is as old as
God himself. It's called the covenant of grace.
And if I've ever drunk of the old wine of the covenant, now
David, the man after God's own heart on his dying bed, We were
singing that song, Abide With Me, and I was thinking, hold
thou thy word before my fainting eyes. I was thinking, he died.
Well, I wanna have the gospel placard in front of me, Christ
placard in front of me. I wanna hear the, hold it before
my dying eyes. Well, David on his dying bed
said, although my house be not so with God. And I've said this before, his
house was a mess. This house was a mess. Although
my house be not so with God yet, hath he made with me an everlasting
covenant. A covenant that never had a beginning,
a covenant that will never end. And it's ordered in all things
and sure. And this is all my salvation
and all my desire. I don't want anything else. Though
he make it not to grow. Now, if you've ever tasted that, you cannot possibly desire anything
else. If you do, you've never tasted
the wine of his grace. Beyond the best is the better. Somebody says, what do you mean
by that? I'm not real sure, but I kind
of know, but I don't know how to explain it. Beyond the best
is the better. Gospel is better than law. Grace is better than works. God's will is better than man's
will. God's I will and you shall is
better than God's God will if you will. Christ's righteousness
is better than any patchwork righteousness that I come up
with. A new heart is better than an
improved heart. Now that word, better, the old
is better. Let me give you some other ways
that that word is translated. The old is gracious. The old
is kind. The old is good. If you can desire the new, you've
never drunk of the old. Rock of ages cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy riven side which flowed be of sin the double cure. save from wrath, and make me
pure. Let's pray.