The Gospel: Unique and Unparalleled

Let's pray together. Father, we are grateful for the fact that you are the one who saves our soul, that you are the one who draws us to yourself, that you are the one who gave yourself away, that we might experience new life in Jesus Christ our Lord. We thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ, the word of God that speaks truth. We thank you, Lord, that we have been commissioned by you to be your ambassadors to preach that gospel. And we ask that, Lord, as we give forth the word of the Lord, it would go forth in truth and in clarity, that people who hear it would receive it for what it truly is, the word of God.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Turn with me in your Bible, if you would, to Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5, as we continue our study through the book of Luke, we will finish the fifth chapter today. But this is a passage of scripture that serves as a springboard for us when it comes to understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we're going to take our time to to go through this text and then use it to help you understand the uniqueness of the gospel, the exclusivity of the gospel. The gospel stands alone.

The gospel stands apart. And the gospel stands above everything else. And we, as the people of God, must understand that the gospel of God is the most important thing we possess. And therefore we are to be able to communicate that to those who do not understand the truth of the gospel. The Christian gospel cannot be blended with any other religious system. The gospel cannot be blended together with Mormonism. It cannot be blended together with Catholicism. It cannot be blended together with liberalism.

It cannot be blended together with the Jehovah's Witness. It cannot be blended together with anything else because the gospel stands alone above and therefore apart from every other religious system. That's what the text is about this morning. We need to come to grips with the fact that the gospel of Christ is so unique, so exclusive, that it cannot be mixed or mingled with any other religious system. It cannot. And because it can't, you who preach the gospel become the enemy of the religious. In chapter five, there are three conflicts that Christ faces.

They grow with intensity with each passing moment. And if you're going to understand the ministry of Christ, you must understand that the ministry was flooded with conflict. Why? Because he came preaching the gospel, the truth. And whenever you preach the gospel of truth, those who are religious do not want to have anything to do with you. It's much easier to share the gospel with the riffraff, with the pagans, than it is with the religious. The people who think they have a form of religion, but in reality deny its power because they do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

And Christ, as he came preaching the gospel, found himself facing conflict after conflict after conflict with the religious establishment of his day. Therefore, we understand that Christianity cannot be mingled or mixed even with Judaism. It cannot. Because when Christ came, he did not come to add to Judaism. He did not even come to alter Judaism. He did not even come to blend the gospel with Judaism. He came to replace Judaism. And they hated him because of it. They wanted nothing to do with him.

And so it was the religious establishment, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. It was the religious right that sought to crucify him and that would raise the crowd in their animosity toward Christ because they despised him so. Let me read to you the text we're going to cover this morning, and it will serve as a springboard for us to discuss the essence of the gospel, what it truly is, what must be covered as we present the truth of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Luke chapter 5, verse number 33. And they said to him, the disciples of John often fast and offer prayers. The disciples of the Pharisees also do the same, but yours eat and drink. And Jesus said to them, you cannot make the attendance of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom was with them, can you? But the days will come. And when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days. And he was also telling them a parable. No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on the old garment, otherwise he will both tear the new and the piece from the new will not match the old.

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wishes for new, for he says the old is good enough. This passage of scripture will tell you why your religious friends want nothing to do with the gospel. Why it's so hard to to present the gospel to a Mormon or to a Jehovah's Witness or to a Roman Catholic because they are so steeped in their ritual, in their ceremony, in their system of religion.

Even when you speak to a Jew who is so steeped into Judaism and presented in the gospel, they bristle at the fact that Jesus Christ came to replace all that they believe. And so when you begin to present the gospel, you must understand what Christ himself was doing as we noticed a couple of weeks ago, that he healed the man who was paralyzed. Remember that story? The people who came and unroofed the roof and put the paralyzed man down in front of Jesus, and he said, hey, your sins are forgiven you.

And the Pharisees began to reason within themselves. They didn't say anything out loud. They just began to reason within their minds. Wait a minute. Only God can forgive sins. Who is this man Jesus forgiving the sins of this man? Jesus being God knew what they were thinking. He said to them, what is easier for me to say your sins are forgiven or to say take up your bed and walk? And of course he said, young man, take up your bed and walk. Sure enough, he did to prove that he had the authority to forgive sins.

And those Pharisees and those Sadducees began to reason in their mind, who is this man? And then you come to the next circumstance or the next situation. Jesus leaves that place, whether it was a house or whether it was a room, wherever he was, he sees Matthew, the tax gatherer, Levi. And Jesus looks at Matthew knowing the condition of his heart and says, Matthew, you're the kind of guy I want to use in my kingdom. Follow me. And Matthew leaves everything behind and follows Christ. And Matthew, as we saw, was a man who truly was converted.

He left the past behind and followed his Lord. And upon doing so, what he wanted to have happen was to introduce his friends to Jesus. So he had this huge celebration, this huge party. The Bible says that he had a large house, so he must have been a wealthy man.

And therefore, to fill the house, he had a lot of his friends come and his friends were not the religious type. They were the irreligious. They were the pagans. They were the prostitutes. They were the thieves. They were the drunkards. They were the thugs. They were his other friends who were tax gatherers. That's who he joined together with him. And then he invited Jesus to come and eat with them. And now the Pharisees begin to speak to the disciples of Jesus. And now what they were thinking about in their minds as Christ healed a man who was paralyzed, now they're going to begin to verbalize to the disciples, why is it that your teacher, this Jesus, eats with those kinds of people?

We don't do that. We're the religious. We're the right wing. So we eat the right things with the right people. But your master eats with the riffraff. He eats with the tax gatherers and eats with the sinners. And so they begin now to verbalize their discontent. And they begin to grumble, the text says, as they speak with the disciples. Of course, Jesus being God knows what they're saying. And he says it's not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick that need a physician.

Those who think they're well, never call the doctor. But those who know they are ill, bang down the door of the doctor. And that's what Jesus was trying to say. That's why he was categorized as a friend of sinners. Jesus is a friend of all those people who know they're worthless. They're no good. They deserve hell. That's who Jesus is friends with. He's not friends with the religious people, the people who think they're right, who think they're good, who think they're on the way to heaven. But they've never come to a place of repentance in their life.

And that leads us now to the third area of conflict. They reasoned in their minds, the Pharisees and Sadducees. Then they spoke to the disciples of Jesus. And now they're going to speak directly to Jesus. And Jesus now is going to explain to them why his gospel does not mix with their religious system. Why what he preaches is completely different than what they believe. And it all begins with the question. From the question, we'll give the explanation. From the explanation, we'll give you the illustration.

That's where we're going today. You with me? Good. I see you're all awake. You haven't fallen asleep yet. That's good news. Okay. The question, verse number 33. Here it comes. You ready? And they said to him, the disciples of John often fast and offer prayers. Disciples of the Pharisees also do the same. But yours eat and drink. Now, this question is very important. Why? Because you see, in Judaism, there was a system. It was a system of ceremony. It was a system of ritual. And there were two things they did on a regular basis.

One was praying. Now, when the Jews prayed, for the most part, it wasn't because there was a broken and contrite heart who cried out to God and would plead for God to have mercy upon them. No, they were prayers that were memorized. They were rituals. A lot of times on our trips to Israel, there'll be Orthodox Jews who stand up in the plane and go through their ritualistic prayers on the plane. Others in the airport will line up one behind the other and go through their ritualism of prayers throughout the day because they were prescribed at certain times of the day.

And so the disciples come or the Pharisees come and ask your disciples, they don't do what we do. Your master doesn't do what we do. If we want to accept him as God, somehow he must fit into our system. That's the way a lot of people are today, right? We want God, but we want him to fit into our lifestyle. We want him to fit into our way of thinking. We don't want God to alter our thinking. We don't want God to revolutionize our life. We like our life just the way it is. And so if we ask Jesus to come into our life, he's going to totally revolutionize everything we think, everything we believe, how we act, how we speak, the kind of attitude we portray, because that's what Jesus does.

He transforms the life. You become a new creation with Jesus. But another thing they did was fast. The Jews had two prescribed fasts, one on Monday, one on Thursday. This story probably happens on a Monday or a Thursday because they're wondering why the disciples of Jesus are not fasting. Why aren't you guys having a party when you're supposed to be fasting? Why isn't your joyous when you're supposed to be sad? And the Jews were big into fasts. Remember the Pharisee in Luke chapter 18? I fast twice a week.

I'm not like that tax gatherer in the corner. I fast twice a week. You see, religious people always try to tell God how good they are, and that's what this Pharisee is doing. I do these things, Lord. I know you approve of me. I know, Lord, that I can gain favor with you. That's what religious systems do. Religious systems, whether it's Catholicism, Mormonism, the Jehovah's Witness, any kind of cult, even Judaism, all is a system of trying to gain favor with God, where Christianity is a relationship where God shows favor to man.

That's the big difference. God graces man, but in a works-based system, I have to somehow find favor with God. So I got to accumulate all these different merits, all these things I have to do to gain favor with God, when in reality the Bible says all that righteous behavior is nothing but filthy wags to God.

It means nothing to Him. And yet the Jews believed that these fasts that they had on Tuesdays and Mondays and Thursdays would somehow gain approval with God. And so they come and ask a question, why is it your disciples don't fast? They should be fasting today. Today is the day of mourning, and they're having a party. That's just not the way we do it in this system. And if you want us to accept you as our Messiah, you've got to buy into our system of religion. Now, you must understand that the Pharisees and the Sadducees came, the Bible says, and they said to Him.

Well, in the context, that's the Pharisees and the Sadducees. If you read Matthew's account, Matthew says the disciples of John came and asked the question. If you read Mark's account, you realize that it's the disciples of John and the Pharisees and Sadducees who come and ask the question. So wait a minute, why is it the disciples of John would ask this question? Well, you remember in Luke chapter 3, when John the Baptist was going throughout all of Judea, or I mean, he was baptized in the Jordan River, and all from Judea were coming and being baptized in the Jordan.

John had thousands of disciples, thousands of them. And they came because he preached the gospel of repentance, that they needed to be baptized on the basis of the forgiveness of sins. And even some of the religious establishment was coming down to the river to see what John was doing. And all these people who had been baptized by John came, confessing their sins, making a commitment to follow the truth of the Word of God and to accept the Messiah when He arrived. But a lot of those Jews were not around on that day when John said in John 1 29, Behold, there's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

I mean, there was no TV, there was no media, there was no way to have, you know, satellite communication all throughout the land of Israel so everybody can watch that. Oh, hey, this is the Messiah. Look, I'm on TV the other day. So now we know who the Messiah is. No, they didn't know unless they were there that day when John said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He was the one who said He, the Messiah, must increase, I must decrease. Now John's in prison by this time in Luke chapter 5.

So he can't correct his disciples from what they believe. And yet these disciples of John wanted to show their commitment to Christ or show their commitment to God by getting on board with the religious leaders of the day. So they began to fast twice a week like the religious leaders did. I mean, after all, if we're going to be ready for when the Messiah comes, we got to be doing the right things when He gets here. And so the disciples of John wanted to demonstrate their commitment to God by doing the right things.

Remember Acts chapter 19? Years, years after the resurrection of Christ, there were disciples of John who had yet to hear about Jesus, the Messiah. They had been baptized in the Jordan River. They were still waiting for the Messiah to come. And Paul says, Have you heard about Jesus? They said, Who? Jesus, the Messiah. He said, Who's that? So Paul begins to preach to them about who Jesus Christ is. And they then receive Christ as Lord and Savior. They are baptized with the Spirit of God. They speak in tongues.

And they then realize who Jesus Christ is. But this was years later, because there were many people who had yet to hear about Jesus Christ, the Messiah. So these disciples of John, these Pharisees came to Jesus and said, Your disciples don't fast. And today's the day of fasting. How come? How can you be so happy? How can you be so joyous? Now, this becomes a very important text for us, because it's going to tell you why the Christian is joyous and the unbeliever is not. It's going to tell you why true Christians have supreme joy and those who do not know Christ have no joy.

And Christ is going to give us the answer as to why that is. You see, in a religious establishment, you have to do these sorts of things to make you feel a certain way. And they were committed to prayers, ritualistic prayers, and fasting. Did you know there's only one required fast in the Old Testament? Only one. That's the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. That's it. That's the only required fast by God in the Bible. That was it. It was a day where they would search their hearts. It was a day where sacrifice would be made for the sins of a nation.

It's where the people would gather together and look introspectively at their lives and see their wretched condition and cry out to God for His saving grace and for His saving mercy in their lives. That was the day of fast. They were so forlorn over their sin. They were so devastated by their spiritual condition that they would not eat on that day. Now, throughout the Old Testament, there were other times when Jews would fast. But it was not required by God that they fast on those days. They came to a place in their lives where they were overcome by grief.

They were saddened over situations and in their commitment to God, they would cry out to Him and they would be so consumed with crying out to God that they had no appetite to eat. But it was not a required fast for them. It was only the Day of Atonement that was a required fast. So when you come to the New Testament, the religious establishment, in order to maintain their piety before the people, required two fasts a week, Mondays and Thursdays. It wasn't because they had a broken heart over their sin.

It wasn't because they were crying out to God that God would do a great and mighty work. That wasn't the case. How do we know that? Turn to Matthew chapter 6 for a moment. Matthew chapter 6. Jesus Christ in His great sermon on the Mount, there on the Mount of Beatitudes, there by the Sea of Galilee, preached this sermon and completely destroyed the religious system of the Jews. He just completely obliterated it. In fact, He said in Matthew 5 verse number 20, that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never ever have a part of the Kingdom of God.

And listen to what He says in Matthew chapter 6. Jews were really big on being showy. They wanted everybody to know how spiritual they were. And so it says in verse 1, Beware of practicing your righteousness before men, to be noticed by them. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. Whenever you do something to be noticed by men, listen carefully, you have no reward with your Father in heaven. Don't do what you do so that others will recognize you and say, oh what a good job you did.

You are so good at that. You say, yeah, yeah, I know. See, you've lost your reward. If you're doing it for that, you have no reward with your Father in heaven. And that's what the Jews did. Listen, verse number 2. When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues, and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. That would be like us coming down every Sunday morning, taking the offering and someone standing up here saying, oh, look at John Richmond over there.

He is writing a check for two thousand dollars. Isn't that wonderful? And John would take that check, he'd hold it up, and he'd come over here and he'd place it in the offering basket, he'd walk away thinking, oh, I've done the good thing, the God thing today. And then the trumpet would sound, and do, do, do, do, do, do, do. And there'd be Kenneth Zaleski, he'd come and check with five thousand dollars. And he'd come from this side over here, he'd hold that baby up and come put it in the offering basket.

And people he must be so committed to Christ. He's given so much money to God. But they do it so that people would recognize. And that's what they did in the synagogues. They'd blow the trumpets, literally blow the trumpets as the Pharisees would reach in their pockets and give their alms. See? And Christ says, if that's what you do, that's all the reward you're getting.

He says, but when you give your alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your alms may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will repay you. Now, a lot of people give to the Lord and are not repaid by the Lord because they give to be noticed by men. When you give, give between you and God and God alone. That's it. That is absolutely, that's why it's so important to give gifts anonymously. No one knows what you give except God. When you give, you give in secret.

And your God who sees in secret will repay you in a great and mighty way. And then, verse 5, and when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners in order to be seen by men. You can go to Israel today and see the Orthodox Jews praying on the street corners. They love to be seen by men. You've got the wedding wall, right? The western wall, the waiting wall, whatever you want to call it. They're in Jerusalem. And they go and they pray and they're always doing these cantations or whatever they are before the wall, always praying so they can be seen by men.

They want to be seen, thinking that when others see them, they will see their commitment before them. And Jesus says, when you pray, this is what you got to do.

Go into your inner room and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. When you pray, just go into your room, shut the door so nobody knows you're praying because you're not doing it to be seen by men. You're doing it to communicate with your God. And your God who sees in secret will repay you. And then down to verse number 16. And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men.

Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full, but you when you fast, anoint your head, wash your face, so that you may not be seen fasting by men, but by your Father who is in secret and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. You see, when the Jews would fast, they would wake up on Monday morning and they would bring out the worst of their clothes and they would put ashes on their faces. They would not shower or bathe. I don't think they had showers in those days. They wouldn't bathe and they would, their hair would be all disheveled and they would walk out in public and they would, they would kind of walk like this.

They wanted people to know that they were fasting. And Jesus says, listen, when you fast, take a shower, put on deodorant, comb your hair, put on your best duds and don't let anybody know you're fasting.

And your Father who knows you're fasting and sees in secret he'll repay you. See, the one thing about fasting is that when you fast, no one's to know you're fasting. No one is, except God. He knows your heart, right? And so Jesus would come and say, you know, the religious establishment, they just want to be seen by men. They want everybody to recognize them. But the believer only wants to be recognized by God because he is the audience of one. He is the one they are committed to. That's all they care about.

The religious man, he wants everybody to know how religious he is. And so he's got to pray out loud. He's got to pray in front of people. He's got to fast in front of people. He's got to look like he's fasting. And when he gives, he's got to tell everybody how much he gives and when he gives so he can have his reward in full while on earth. And Jesus condemns that. And so the disciples of John and the Pharisees come to Jesus and say, how come you guys aren't fasting? Why are you guys having a party?

Today's the Monday. Today's the Thursday. I don't know what day it was. We don't know, but it must have been that day because they weren't fasting. Instead they were having a celebration. And on top of that they were having a celebration with sinners. Man, how can you do that? How can you be any kind of religious person and have a celebration with sinful prostitutes and drunkards and thieves and tax gatherers? How do you do that? So with the question comes the explanation. Listen carefully to what Jesus says.

You cannot make the attendance of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? Now, very important, the Messiah is never referred to as a bridegroom in the Old Testament. This is the first reference in the New Testament by Jesus that he is the bridegroom.

Paul will expand upon this and John will write about it in the book of Revelation, how Jesus Christ the Messiah is the ultimate bridegroom. But Jesus begins to introduce it here by letting them know that he is the bridegroom. So he says very simply, look, you must understand that the attendance of the bridegroom, the friends of the bridegroom, they don't fast when the bridegroom arrives. They don't do that. That would be like you having your daughter get married and you saying, you know, standing up before the wedding saying, you know, my wife's marrying this loser over here.

He's really not much of a guy. And so today, instead of having a celebration, we're going to have a fast. Okay? There's not going to be any punch, no cookies, no celebration, no dancing. It's going to be a day of mourning because my daughter is marrying this loser over here. Ever been to a wedding where that happens? Now there might be a couple of fathers who think that, but that doesn't happen. Jesus says, listen, when the bridegroom arrives, the attendants don't fast.

What do they do? They celebrate because that's what the friends of the bridegroom do, he says. But the days will come. And when the bridegroom was taken away from them, then they will fast in those days. Boy, this is powerful because this is the first reference in Luke by Jesus about his intending death.

Very important. Christ wants them to understand very simply why would the disciples be mourning if the Messiah is here? You see, the problem with Judaism is they refuse to recognize Jesus Christ as the Messiah. That's why there is no joy in Judaism. That's why they sing all their songs in that off key because they won't sing the melody until the Messiah arrives. See, they are still anticipating the coming of the Messiah. And they have no joy. There is no joy in a ritualistic system. But the disciples had joy.

They had been forgiven. They were learning and growing in their walk with the Lord. And this was a time of celebration. It was not a time of fasting. And Jesus says that when the bridegroom arrives, the friends of the bridegroom, the attendants of the bridegroom, they are ecstatic.

Now, that's important because, you see, we always experience the presence of the bridegroom within us. To be a sad Christian is to be a contradiction to the reality of saving faith. Now, there are times you can be discouraged and saddened over events that take place. But there is joy in the heart because of the relationship you have with Jesus Christ. And there are times when even we would fast because of the grief or because of the sadness we are facing in a certain situation. But in the inner part of our being, there is joy.

Listen, there is no such thing as a true born again believer who has no joy. That's just a contradiction in terms. Believers have joy in their heart. That's why Paul said, rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say, rejoice. Your rejoicing comes because of the Lord Jesus Christ, his forgiveness of your sins, his comfort of your soul, his guidance of your life, his redeeming quality in your life. Rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say, rejoice, Paul would say. Why? Because our joy comes from the Lord. And so Jesus says, listen, when the bridegroom arrives, the friends of the bridegroom are ecstatic.

But there's coming a day, there's coming a day when the bridegroom will be snatched away, taken away. And then, then they're going to fast. And then they're going to mourn because the Messiah is no longer with them. And that happened, didn't it? That happened. In fact, I believe that Jesus prophesied the events of Luke 24. Turn to Luke 24 for a moment. Remember on the road to Emmaus, Jesus was walking with two disciples who were saddened over the crucifixion of their Messiah. Remember that? And they did not recognize who Jesus was.

And so he began to speak with them concerning the prophecies of the Old Testament and the coming of the Messiah, how Christ had to suffer these things and return to glory. And they came, as the story tells us, to the home of these disciples. And it says in verse number 28, they approached the village where they were going and he acted as though he would go farther. And they urged him saying, stay with us for it is getting toward evening. And the day is now nearly over. And he went in to stay with them.

So here is Jesus with these two men talking to them all from the books of Moses, all through the Old Testament about the coming of the Messiah, what things he must suffer for the glory of God. And they are encouraged, but they do not know he's the Messiah. And so they say, you know, why don't you stay with us? And so we read verse 30. And it came about that when he had reclined, the phrase at the table is in italics, meaning it's not in the original. So he was reclining with them. Doesn't mean they were eating a meal.

They weren't. They were just reclining. And it says this, he took the bread and blessed it and breaking it, he began giving it to them. And then it says, and their eyes were opened and they recognized him. Now, many say that the reason their eyes were open, because as he broke the bread and handed to them, they were able to see the nail prints in his hand. That could very well be. But had Jesus not prophesied that there would be mourning and fasting when the bridegroom was snatched away? Yes, he did.

Luke five. And could it be that these men were fasting and mourning over the fact that their Messiah had been taken from them and they had not been eating anything? So Jesus reclines, he gets up, he takes some bread, he breaks the bread, he gives it to them. He blessed it and gives it to them. And upon him giving it to them, their eyes were opened that the time of fasting is now over because the bridegroom has been resurrected. Read on. It says, and their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight.

And they said to one another, were not our hearts burning within us while he was speaking to us in the road, while he was explaining the scriptures to us? And they arose that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them saying, the Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon. And they began to relate their experiences on the road and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. It doesn't say how he was recognized by them because they saw the nail placed in his hand.

See? Because there was something about the prophecy of Luke five that demonstrates the fact that when the bridegroom was snatched away, there will be a time of mourning. Why? Because our joy will be gone because Jesus is gone. And it says in verse 36, and while they were telling these things, he himself stood in their midst, but they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit. It says down in verse number 41, and while they still could not believe it for joy and were marveling, he said to them, have you anything to what?

To eat? Could it be that they had not been eating because they were fasting? Because the bridegroom had been snatched away? It says, and they gave him a piece of a broiled fish and he took it and ate it before them. Why would he do that? Jesus didn't have to eat anything. He's in this glorified state. Why would he take that broiled fish and eat it in front of them? Because the bridegroom was present with them. The time of fasting is over. It's the joy that is to be filling our hearts. And Jesus says very clearly in Luke chapter 5, this is the way it's going to be.

This is the way it's going to happen. The bridegroom will be snatched away. And they will fast in those days. And I believe they did. I believe he prophesied their fast. And what he did by the breaking and the blessing of the bread and the eating of the broiled fish was demonstrate to them that the fasting was now over. And now it's time to once again rejoice. It's a great passage of scripture, but it's going to get even better because now he's going to give an illustration. And this is going to rock their socks, man.

They didn't wear socks in those days, but you know, this is a bigger speech. I mean, I mean, this is really going to be amazing to them because he's going to tell you why Judaism is all messed up. Why it didn't work. Why any form of religious system doesn't work. That's what he says. And he also, or was also telling them a parable. No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise he will both tear the new and the piece from the new will not match the old. I want you to notice something.

Seven times the word new is used from verses 36 to 38. Seven times. All referring to the gospel. That which is new, not that which is being added to the old. So he gives some illustration. He says, you know, when you have an old piece of garment, you've washed it. You've dried it. You've washed it. You've dried it. You've washed it. You've dried it. It's like a good pair of worn out jeans that your favorite pair of jeans, they get a hole in them. And so you don't take a piece of new garment, put it on the old garment and stitch it on there.

Because if you do, when you do, what's going to happen when you wash and dry it, it'll rip the garment because that new piece of unshrunk material has yet to shrink. And when it does, it shrinks that which has already been shrunk and begins to rip it. And therefore the garment textures don't match. Color doesn't match. It doesn't make it. Why? Because you can't add the new to the old. You can't alter the old with the new. You can't blend the new with the old. Because once you do, you make both worthless, void, empty.

Now listen carefully. The old garment, listen carefully, is not the Old Testament law. The old garment is not the Old Testament law. The Old Testament law is eternal. It lasts forever. It is a reflection of the character and nature of God himself. And the gospel is the fulfillment of the Old Testament law. It's the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy. So the gospel comes to fulfill all that was prophesied in the old. The old garment is the system of Judaism. The rituals, the ceremonies, those things that we do to gain favor with God that do not suffice in the kingdom of God.

It's that old religious system. And Jesus says, you just can't come along and add the gospel to a system and expect the gospel to work.

It doesn't work that way. The gospel comes and totally obliterates the system. It throws it out the window. How many times you hear people say, well, you know, I was a Roman Catholic. I got saved. I stayed in a Roman Catholic church. How do you do that? How do you add the new to the old? How do you stay in the system of Catholicism, which is based on ritual, which is based on ceremony, which is a works-based religion that has no guarantee of eternal life whatsoever, and place the gospel in there, and remain in there, and expect the gospel to remain alive?

It doesn't. Christ came to replace every system of religion, to obliterate every works-based system with a system of grace, mercy, and forgiveness that transforms the soul of man. That's the story of the gospel. That's the point of the illustration. And then he gives another illustration about wine, verse 37. And no one puts new wine into old wine skins, otherwise the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wine skins.

Now, when you made wine, you took the skin from the animal, usually a goat, okay? You kept the skin intact. You tied the ends together. You poured the wine into the goat skin, or to that wine skin. And as the wine would begin to ferment, the skin begins to expand, right? And all the dregs would fall to the bottom. And as that process went on, you would take that wine, and you'd pour it into a new wine skin, because it's supple. It expands with the fermentation process. So you would do that until the dregs would fall to the bottom.

And then you do it over and over again, until you had that sweet, pure-tasting wine. And Jesus says, you know, when you pour the wine from vessel to vessel, you can't take the new wine and put it in an old wine skin that's already been used.

It's already sat in the sun. It's already brittle. You put the new wine into that thing, and as it begins to ferment and expand, it will shatter the skin. And the skin's destroyed. The wine is poured all on the floor, and nothing is any good. Can't do that. New wine must be put into new wine skins. In other words, the old garment is the Pharisees. The old wine skin are the Pharisees and their system. And Jesus says, you can't put the gospel into the life of a Pharisee, and he maintained his ritualistic system.

It does not work that way. You can't take the gospel as that new garment and put it on an old garment, an old Pharisee, who is completely committed to his ways and does not want to change. People say, well, yeah, I gave my life to Christ and now I'm a Buddhist and a Christian. What's that? See? This added Jesus to my existing lifestyle. You can't add Jesus to your lifestyle. Jesus comes in and completely obliterates your lifestyle and changes you and turns you around in a new direction, because that's what the gospel does.

And Jesus explained to him, listen, this is why we don't do your traditions. This is why we don't fast twice a week like you do. It means nothing to us. Remember, he didn't say anything about prayer though, did he? Because the disciples prayed regularly, because they were committed to a prayer life. But they didn't pray like the Pharisees prayed out in public on the street corners to be recognized by all. This was part of their life. But Jesus says, this is why I don't do what you want me to do.

See, we got it all backwards. We want Jesus to do what we want him to do. And Jesus says, no, you got to do what I tell you to do.

See? Big difference there, isn't there? When Jesus comes and gives the gospel. Now listen, this is a zinger here. Listen to this. Verse number 39. And no one after drinking old wine wishes for new, for he says, the old is good enough. You ever met those people steeped in their religiosity? Steeped in their system of religion? And you come and you present to them the fresh newness of the gospel. And they say, you know, the old wine is just good enough for me. I'm too old to change. I'm too old to start anew.

I'm comfortable with the way the things are. I'm comfortable being the way I am. And now you want me to come and introduce Jesus to my life and expect my whole life now to be altered and changed? What is that? And Jesus says, you Pharisees are like a bunch of old men who've been drinking the same old wine year after year after year after year.

Someone comes and says, this is the new wine. You say, you know, I like my old stuff. It really settles well with me. It makes me comfortable. It sets me at ease. And I like that. And Jesus says, those kinds of people never come to drink the new wine.

They don't. I'd much rather share the gospel with a pagan than a religious man. Because the religious man thinks he's pretty good. A pagan knows he's absolutely worthless. And that's the only people God saves, by the way. He only saves the worthless sinners. And those are the ones he's friends with. Because that's the ones he saves. And this old individual, settled, comfortable, unwilling to relinquish their system, find themselves never wanting to sell everything to purchase the pearl of great price.

Let alone drink the cup of the new covenant. Let alone want to deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Christ. They just won't do that. So what do we do? Do we water down the gospel? That's what a lot of people have done today, right? They've watered it down. So we don't offend anybody when we present it. So people will not be offended when we give it. So people will feel good about the things we say about the love of God and the kindness of God. So we have a gospel that we present, void of repentance, void of cross bearing, void of the centrality of the cross, void of the depravity of man, void of the necessity of repentance, void of all those things that make up the true gospel.

And all of a sudden we think we got all these converts around, but in reality, they just added Jesus to their existing life. So what do we do? We can't compromise. We've got to preach the true gospel. What is that? That's next week. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the truth of the word of God. And thank you, Lord, that you were so pointed when you explained yourself to the Pharisees. They weren't about to change anything about their lives. They were sold on their system. And yet, Lord, you preached in the gospel anyway.

I would pray that there's no one in this room sold on their system of religion, that Lord, they would really come to understand the truth of the gospel. They would forsake all to follow thee and realize that adding Jesus to their existing life doesn't do anything, but realizing that following Jesus and trusting him to transform their life because they've turned from their sin to serve the true and living God is what Christianity truly is all about. And so we pray for those who do not know you that, Lord, today would be the day of their salvation.

They would not sit back and say, no, the old wine, it's good enough for me. Because, Lord, it might be good enough for them today, but it will damn their soul tomorrow. Save them from that damnation, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.