"John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they *came and *said to Him, "Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?" And Jesus said to them, "While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results. No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins."
Good Morning my beloved,
We welcome you to worship in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a privilege it is to come together to study rich awesome Truths in God's Word. We are so thankful that the Lord lead you join us today. We live in a society of habitual whiners and complainers, I mean they are literally everywhere. We are a culture that feeds on narcissistic self-indulgence. The more we continue to indulge ourselves, the less satisfied we are. I believe that we have become disillusioned by a fantasy world that doesn't exist which has gripped our hearts, created by television, movies and social media. And, by focusing our efforts and energy on the constant pursuit of unobtainable personal happiness, we have become the most narcissistic, self-indulgent, materialistic money-hungry success oriented that any generation has ever seen. And, it's built on the horrible illusion that everybody has something more than we've got, no matter how frivolous they are. Not only do we want bigger and better than what they've got, we want it now! If when we can't, we become really distressed and even angry, even making some people violent.
We welcome you to worship in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a privilege it is to come together to study rich awesome Truths in God's Word. We are so thankful that the Lord lead you join us today.
We complain about everything, if someone cuts you off in traffic, it's enough to cause some of you to lose your sanctification, especially if you’re in a hurry. If the line is moving slow because of someone who's in front of you, you become irritated. If our food in a restaurant isn't just the right temperature that we want, we're ready to let the server have it, and hit the cook with a frying pan. And just let someone pull in a parking space we've been impatiently waiting on, we're ready to run them over. What we've ended up with is a generation of people who have refused to grow up, that want everything their way and if they don't get it, it's a crisis. If they can't obtain what they want, they don’t want to work.
It's absolutely ridiculous to imagine that adulthood is about indulging ourselves, continuing to push off any form responsibility and accountability. Nothing is ever enough. That’s why we have an entire society of critically mentality ill people, constantly attacking everything and everyone. Unfortunately, like many other social ills of our secular society, this has made it's way into the church. I've heard complaints about "Why should I come to church, when they never play the hymns I like?" and "Are those new people sit in our pew? The nerve of them, who do they think they are? Our family practically built this church!" And, I've actually witnessed someone turn around and leave because someone took "their parking place." I do not believe there is any place for grumbling and disputing in the life of a believer, we are called to be all that a child of God should be, gratefully living out our salvation. In fact, we are commanded to live a life without grumbling and disputing. The Gospel is not a call to self-entitlement, self-indulgence, it's a call to self-denial.
If you claim to be a child of God then live the way a child of God should live, undefiled, pure and blameless, denying ungodliness. Titus 2:11-12, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age." If you are living in sin, then you have a distorted view of what it means to be a child of God. That spiritual Truth has really stuck in my mind, I do not ever want to conduct myself in such way that would cause someone to ask, "If you're a child of God, why don't you behave more like Christ?" How can you're life have a dramatic impact on a spiritually perverted world, if you're still living in sin? It’s not just what you say; it’s also how you live that matters. We need to understand that all ungodly behavior is a sin against God and I believe that we must learn to see it that way. We are called to be what the world is not; to shine our Light in a world of darkness. Ephesians 5:7-8, "Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light." If we're living as we are commanded to live, we cannot come in contact with this crooked and perverse generation without having an impact on them in some way, whether for good or for bad. We have been commanded to flood the world of darkness with the Light of Christ, which is reflected through our lives. If we are successfully doing that, they will immediately recognize that we possess something they don’t have, holiness and righteousness.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we thank You for Your Word, this great reminder that we have been called for a purpose. How can Your children continue to walk in darkness if the world has lost it's grip on us? Lord, help us to recognize that sin has become such a part of our lives that we no longer even realize it. Cause us to do all things in thankfulness, joy and gratitude, for the sake of the unsaved and never neglect to work out our salvation, for Your glory. Lord, when we are tempted, may we turn to You in prayer, praising You for calling us out of the world of darkness, and into Your glorious Light. May we never be self-deceived, confident that our lives are a light to those who are in darkness, when they’re not. Help us to consistently reflect the Light that reveals that we belong to You, for Christ's sake. In His name we ask and pray.
Amen
Today's Message: New Wine in Old Whine Skins
What was the evidence that the paralytic man's sin had been forgiven? His life was instantly changed, he got up, picked up his pallet, and went home. Let me say, that’s amazing. The power of Christ has an immediate impact on the effects of sin and evil in the life of a believer. How
can the children of God claim to glorify Him by continuing to walk in darkness,
when it is clear from the very beginning that God is a God of judgement,
that God punishes sin, that the sinner will be cast into outer darkness away from the presence of God, and into the
lake of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth; and
that message was predominately given by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In fact, Jesus had more to say about judgment, about damnation, and about hell than anybody else recorded in Scripture. Therefore, we should not be surprised that God is a God of judgement and wrath, when the Lord has given us repeated warnings of the coming judgment.
In Matthew 8:12, He said "But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Matthew 11:24, "Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you."
And, in Matthew 13:40-42, "So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
In the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, "You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’ "For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. 30 Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Then in John 3:19, "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil."
John 5:22-23, "For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him."
All of this is a picture of judgment. I often hear from those who only want to see God as loving, "How can a God of love send people to Hell?" Because God is just, He has a right to be angry, and the right to act in that manner. He has given to men the privilege of the revealed Truth, they either accept it or reject it, therefore man is responsible. Men are judged and sent to Hell because in their free will, they have chosen to turn away from that revelation and reject God's Truth. By the mercy of God, people who accept the Truth and believe the Truth and obey the Truth are saved from judgment and Hell. By His sovereign power, God gets the message to all men, by disclosing Himself in His created order to everyone through all that He has made, therefore, disclosing His invisible attributes, His eternal power and His divine nature in His creation, and they refused to give God glory and glorified Him not as God. And they worshiped and served the creation. Listen, if we can know what it is to glorify God, by contrast, we can know what it is not to glorify God. Glorifying God starts by confessing Him as Lord and by confessing our sin. Acknowledging the Lordship of sovereign God.
Romans 10:13, for "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved." Those who are not saved from judgment are without excuse. The world is not even interested in on calling on His name, in fact, they could care less about what God says, mocking Him, blaspheming His Holy Name in vain, that’s how sinful fallen man is.
Galatians 6:7, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap."
If you have your Bibles, open them and turn with me to Mark chapter 2, verses 18-22. I'd like to encourage you follow along with me as I read to set the text in our minds. I pray that the Lord
would help us to hear and apply what He has to say to each of us today and strengthen our faith. Mark 2:18-22.
"No
one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the
patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear
results. No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins."
I believe in this day and age of tolerance and acceptance, we need to be reminded that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is exclusive, and totally incompatible with any and all other religious beliefs, whether you’re talking about Islam, Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness, Buddhism, Hinduism, the New Age spiritual movement or any other religious cult out there in the scope of inclusiveness. There are a lot of pastors today who would like to suggest that all religious systems have much in common and worship the same God, therefore, should be given equal merit, which is pure heresy and a damning corruption of God's Truth. In John 14:6, Jesus emphatically, unambiguously states there is only one plan of salvation, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."
The Pharisees dogged Jesus' steps, following Him around like the official moral
police and criticized everything He said and did. In our last message,
they criticized Jesus because He associated with sinners and tax collectors, the moral outcasts of society, so in an attempt to ensure they never came in contact with anybody who fell into the general category of sinners at all costs, they weren’t permitted go to the temple. The idea that Jesus would call such a man as Levis to be His disciple, and later an Apostle, a proclaimer of God's Word, much less, openly surround Himself with these unclean people, you can only imagine their shock, adding to their conclusions that His religious views were incompatible with theirs. They were the first to recognize the incompatibility between their religious system, which they believed was from God and His, which they were convinced came from Satan. In fact, it was so different, they concluded it was a threat to their religious system, and they eventually determined that He must be killed.
In our text today, Jesus makes it clear His message is incompatible with Judaism, affirming the exclusivity of the Gospel, it's no coincidence this occurs just after He declared and demonstrated His authority to forgive sin and calling a Levi to follow Him, and offering forgiveness to even the most wretched sinners. Like the Pharisees, many today have the tendency to cling tightly to man-made traditions, over looking the Truth of God.
Verse 18, begins with a critical accusation, "John’s
disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they *came and *said to
Him, "Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but Your disciples do not fast?" John the Baptist’s disciples fasted and so did the Pharisees, who Jesus pointed out in Matthew 6, were fasting to be seen by others as an outward display of their religiosity. "Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do,
for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men
when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in
full."
The Pharisees neglected their appearance so they looked disheveled, piling ashes on their heads and moaning and groaning with gloomy faces so that everyone would know they were spiritual. It was a hypocritical outward behavior to be noticed by men. And noticed by men they were. However, the Old Testament commanded Jews to fast only one day a year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The Pharisees took an act of spiritual discipline, a one day a year fast and had turned it into something else, a badge of spiritual superiority and self-righteousness. Jesus on the other hand, prayed and fasted often as spiritual discipline, rather than a ritual designed by men for others to see. Jesus' relationship with the religious leaders, Pharisees and the scribes, was marked conflict, questions designed to trap Jesus in His Word and that is certainly the case here. Even though John the Baptist was preaching a message of baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and said "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." announcing that Jesus was the promised Messiah, his disciples didn't necessarily make the transition from the traditions of their religion, pledging their allegiance to Jesus. Because here they are associated with the Pharisees, not in their attitude toward Jesus, but in their religious traditions.
In Galatians 6, Paul was able to summarized it when wrote, "Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ."
So, here in verse 18, we see that both are obviously disturbed that Jesus and His disciples aren't observing the religious tradition of fasting. In fact, they were outraged that instead of fasting, He seem to be celebrating, having just finished eating and drinking with sinners and tax collectors. How could He ignore the required separation from sinners, disregarding the required religious tradition of fasting and prayer. Fasting was always connected with sorrowful, heart-breaking prayer, to such a degree that there was no interest in eating. However, as we noted earlier, in the entire Old Testament, fasting was only required on the Day of Atonement. So, Jesus isn't violating God's prescribed command, but a man-made tradition of fasting publicly twice a week, Monday and Thursday. It is not uncommon for people to fast and pray voluntarily when there is some pressing issue, bearing heavily on their heart. In fact, there are a number of voluntary fasts in the Old Testament, such as Ester, Isaiah and Joel. And, in 2 Samuel 12, David refused to eat food, fasting and weeping and laying all night on the ground for the child while he was alive. In fact, according to the ancient rabbinic document, Megillat Taanit, which means the scroll of fasting, fasting is forbidden on all days devoted to happy celebrations.
In verses 19-20, Jesus answers their criticism by comparing Himself to a bridegroom. "And Jesus said to them, "While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day." In Jewish tradition, weddings aren’t a time for fasting, but a time for feasting and celebration. A weddings are noticeably different from funerals, in which mourning and grieving are expected. Jesus is saying you don’t fast and mourn at a wedding. In Matthew 25, Jesus clearly identified Himself as the bridegroom, and the church is the bride, in the parable of the Ten Virgins. However, the Messiah is never referred to as the bridegroom in the Old Testament.
In Isaiah 61, the Lord promises "To grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."
It seems to me the real issue the Pharisees were addressing was, if you were really holy, you should go around being miserable so everyone can see you like us, instead of celebrating. There was no spiritual brokenness, mourning over their sin, no genuine compassion for those suffering. Jesus is characterizing our lives when we discover the reality of a relationship with Him, though you wouldn't realize it by the faces of some Christians, who always seem to have a scowl on their face. Some believe that the call worship should to be a time of morbidity, silence and a somber attitude, I personally believe worship should be a time of rejoicing and praising the Lord our God, demonstrating our gratitude, thankfulness and joy for all He has done. Like many people today, the Pharisees were attempting to pursue a relationship with God on their own terms.
That's why the author of Ecclesiastes 3:4, says "A time to weep and a time to laugh; A time to mourn and a time to dance." The author only mysteriously identified himself by the Hebrew word "qoheleth," translated as preacher, yet went on to call himself "the son of David, king in Jerusalem," one who has increased in "wisdom more than all who were over Jerusalem before me,” and one who has collected many proverbs" which suggests that Solomon was the author, as does most Jewish and Christian tradition.
In Isaiah 58:3, that we mentioned earlier, it says, "‘Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’ Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, And drive hard all your workers." In verses 4 through 6, we read the Lord's response, an indictment for their false religion. "Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high. Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed and for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord? Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke?" He's telling them when your fast comes from the heart, it's not for making a public display, it's for spiritual virtue. Their fasting was an empty ritual, for public display of their spiritual self-righteous, there was nothing spiritual or virtuous about it. Then, in verse 9, the Lord says "Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness."
We all have a daily spiritual decision to make, we can either clothe ourselves with a blanket of despair, or we can choose to clothe ourselves with a garment of praise and gladness. I believe the former is completely out of touch with the reality of our salvation. In John 10:10, Jesus said "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." Satan can’t rob you of your salvation, but he will certainly try to steal the joy of your salvation. Jesus and His disciples were celebrating, as they should because the time will come when the occasion for joyous celebrating will end, and the bridegroom will be snatched away and killed, then His disciples will be crushed, overcome with sadness and they will fast.
That brings us to verses 21 and 22, "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results. No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins." I love that Jesus uses analogies that we can easily understand. Anyone who has ever washed anything made of linen or cotton understands that they shrink. Anybody who has ever had to sew a patch on something knows you cannot patch the holes on an old garment with a new unshrunk piece of cloth. Otherwise when it is washed, the new patch will pull away from the old cloth, resulting in a worse tear. Jesus is saying that the message He came to bring, the gospel of repentance and forgiveness by grace, cannot be used to patch the holes in any other religious system, in this case, the religion of Judaism. The Gospel of grace and Judaism, a religion based on self-righteous works can't be mixed because they're completely incompatible. There’s no hanging on to anything from any other religion. If you think you can just add Jesus to your religion, you can't. Judaism, like an old skin, couldn’t contain the new wine of the Gospel. The Gospel of grace isn't a makeover, it's complete take over of your life.If you think you can just add Jesus to your existing life, you can't.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen