Sermon
#30 Luke
Sermons
Title: Patches, Broken
Bottles,
and Something Better
Text: Luke 5:36-39
Subject: The Fatal Error Mixing Old Things and New Things
Date: Sunday Evening -
Tape # V-86b
Introduction:
Our
Lord Jesus was a master teacher and preacher. He never tried to be eloquent, or
impressive. Instead, his taught with the most profound things utter simplicity
and proclaimed the most wondrous mysteries of the gospel by ordinary things,
common pictures, stories, and events, familiar to all who heard him. All who
would be useful to the souls of men as teachers and preachers of the gospel
ought to strive to imitate the Master. Our object ought never
be to impress our hearers, but to instruct them.
As our Savior used common,
earthly things to teach important gospel truths and spiritual principles, he
also used familiar, parables and proverbial sayings to illustrate and enforce
his doctrine. We see this clearly in our text tonight (Luke
Luke was inspired by the
Holy Spirit to include a proverb (v. 39) omitted by both Matthew and Mark.
And he was also inspired to give us one additional detail. Both Matthew and
Mark tell us that these parables were spoken in response to the cavilings of
the Pharisees about the fact that our Lord's disciples did not fast. Matthew,
Mark and Luke tell us that John the Baptist's disciples were also involved in
this dispute with our Master (v. 33).
This
is an important fact. It exemplifies the fact that true believers are, at
times and for various reasons, led astray and fall into grievous errors of
doctrine and practice. I make no attempt to excuse or
justify these things. Yet, we must not ignore them. As John's disciples here
united with the Pharisees in trying to retain the traditions and customs of the
Pharisees and in trying to mix the gospel of Christ with Judaism, Peter once
caused a terrible division in the early church by compromising with those
legalists from
·
The very best of God's saints in this world are still just fickle,
sinful flesh.
·
It is the responsibility of God's servants to faithfully instruct his
people in sound doctrine, that they be not tossed to and fro with every wind of
doctrine.
Let me point out one more thing before we look at our text. This, too, is very
important. If we are to interpret our Master's words properly, we must
look at the context in which they are found.
Our Savior gave these
parabolic sayings in response to the dispute raised by the Pharisees and John's
disciples over the fact that his disciples did not fast, like them. Notice the
reason he gives for this in verses 34 and 35.
And he said unto them, Can ye make the
children of the bridechamber 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. (Luke 5:34-35)
The
Scribes and Pharisees would have been perfectly content for the Lord Jesus to
have simply established another sect of Judaism. That would not have bothered
them. But Christ did not come to repair Judaism. He came to kill it. The
Pharisees fasted, and very properly so. Their religion was as dead as they
were. It was proper for them to behave like men and women in mourning. Our
Lord's disciples had been brought into the marriage feast. Fasting would have been
totally out of order for them. With those things in mind, let's look at out
text (Luke
36. And he spake also a parable unto them; No
man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the
new maketh a rent, and the piece that was [taken] out of the new agreeth not
with the old.
37. 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.
38. But new wine must be put into new
bottles; and both are preserved.
39. No man also having drunk old [wine]
straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is
better. (Luke 5:36-39)
Proposition: These verses are intended
to teach us one thing. It is a fact about which we are warned incessantly in
Holy Scripture. -- Any mixture of merit and mercy, law and grace, of
flesh and spirit, is fatal.
I.
The first thing our Lord shows us here is that patchwork religion is damning to the souls of
men (v. 36).
Christ is not patch. He is
an entirely new Suit. His righteousness cannot be patched onto your
righteousness. If you try to patch your old garment of self-righteousness with
the new cloth of Christ's imputed righteousness, the two will never agree and
the gaping hole in your ragged garment will only be made worse. Now, let me
briefly explain what this parable means.
A. Righteousness is often
compared to a garment, or a robe, in the Word of God, and very properly so.
·
"The Garments of Salvation" (Isa. 61:10)
·
"White Robes"
1. A robe is used to cover our
nakedness and our shame.
2. A robe is an ornament to
beautify.
3. Robes are used for warmth.
4. Robes often imply royalty.
5. We must be robed in the
righteousness of Christ alone, or we will perish under the wrath of God (Rom.
But
B. The old garment in this
parable refers to that garment of righteousness which all men and women attempt
to stitch together for themselves.
The Pharisees thought they
were holy because of what they did. They thought God would accept them because
of their works and religious practices. We are all just like them, by nature.
We are all self-righteous Pharisees. We all vainly imagine that we can, by
something we do, make ourselves righteous before God. We do not deny that we need
God's help and assistance. We just deny that we need him to do everything for
us. We deny that we are really depraved, spiritually dead, and corrupt at
heart. Self-righteousness is a very old garment.
1. It is as old as Adam. -- Fig
Leaves!
2. It needs mending. -- "Filthy
Rags"
3. But it cannot be mended!
The Lord Jesus did not come
here to patch us up, but to make us new.
C. What is meant by our Lord's
declaration that the rent is made worse (Mark
1. Religion without Christ
makes unregenerate men and women twofold more the children of hell than they
were before (Matt.
2. The rent is made worse
because religion convinces lost men that they are better.
3. The rent is made worse
because those who think they have righteousness, those who think they have on a
wedding garment, do not know that they need one.
4. The rent is made worse
because the old and the new will never mix.
Therefore [it is] of faith, that [it might
be] by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that
only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham;
who is the father of us all. (Romans
4:16)
And if
by grace, then [is it] no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But
if [it be] of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more
work. (Romans 11:6)
D. If we would be saved, we
must throw away our old garments and come naked to Christ. -- We must be robed in
the righteousness of Christ alone.
The only way guilty sinners
can come to God is the blood and righteousness of Christ alone. So long as you
imagine that you have done or can do something, so long as you put something of
your own to the righteousness of Christ, you are sewing new cloth to your old
rags. We must count all our righteousness dung, if we would be robed in
Christ's righteousness (Phil. 3:1-10). Nothing else will answer the demands of
God's holy law. Nothing else will silence the torments of a screaming
conscience.
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To
write the same things to you, to me indeed [is] not grievous, but for you [it
is] safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil
workers, beware of the concision.
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and
rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have
confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof
he might trust in the flesh, I more:
Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, [of] the tribe of
Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church;
touching the rightousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I
counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless,
and I count all things [but] loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count
them [but] dung, that I may win Christ,
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is
of God by faith: That I may know him,
and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being
made conformable unto his death.
(Philippians 3:1-10)
II.
In verses37-38, our Savior teaches us that only those sinners who are born of God, only
those who are new creatures in Christ can hold the new wine of the gospel.
Remember, in this parable,
our Savior is dealing with the life and death issues of the gospel. At the time
he walked the earth, men made bottles from animal skins in which they put their
wine. As the wine fermented over time, the wineskins would stretch. No one with
good sense would put new wine into an old bottle, because when the wine fermented,
it would stretch the bottle to the point of bursting the bottle. The new wine
had to be put into new bottles.
A. What is this new wine?
The new wine is the gospel
of Christ. It is doctrine of Christ's person as God-man Mediator and the
doctrine of his substitutionary atoning work to pay our debt to law and justice
by shedding his blood and establishing a righteousness
by which God is just to justify the ungodly. This gospel is the power of God
unto salvation (Romans
This new wine is
"new" not because it is recent, but because it is new to us all when
we first hear it. By nature, we know nothing of salvation by real grace. By
nature, we know nothing of the true Christ and His righteousness imputed as the
only ground of salvation. All we know by nature is Adam's fig-leaf religion.
This gospel is the product of that eternal covenant of grace made before the
foundation of the world. It is the same gospel that Abel believed. It is the
same gospel that Noah, Abraham, Moses, and all the Old Testament believers
believed. But when we first hear this message, it is new to each of us, and if
we believe it savingly by the power of God the Holy Spirit in the new birth, we
give evidence of being new creatures in Christ. The new wine is the gospel of
Christ.
·
Like wine, the gospel refreshes a man
·
Like wine, the gospel comforts and rejoices the heart.
B. What are the old bottles?
The old bottles represent
lost, unregenerate men and women. If you try to pour free grace into free will
bottles, you'll bust the bottle. Unregenerate men and women simply have no
ability to see, understand, relish, or rejoice in the gospel of Christ. The new
wine of grace does not agree with the carnal lusts of men in natural religion.
The point our Lord is making
here is this: You cannot pour this new wine (the gospel and its doctrines) into
an old bottle (one who is yet without life and grace). Lost, unregenerate men
and women may hear the gospel and even tell themselves and others that they
believe it, but it does not become a part of them like that new wine becomes a
part of that bottle as it expands. When that new wine is poured into that new
bottle, the wine and the bottle become part of each other; they really become
one. A person who is yet without Christ cannot receive the, embrace, and
believe the gospel, not really. He might be able to articulate the doctrines of
the gospel and say he agrees with them all, but he has no grace in his soul, no
oneness with Christ. The old bottle will burst in time.
C. "New wine must
be put into new bottles."
These "new bottles"
represent sinners who are born again by God the Holy Spirit, those who are the
called, called by grace, and have been made new creatures in Christ. Being born
of God, they have a new hearts, a new will, a new spirit, and new principles of
light, life, love, faith, and holiness, implanted in them. They are now made
partakers of the divine nature. As such, new eyes with which
they see, new ears with which they hear, new feet with which to walk to and in
Christ. They have new hands to handle him and with which to serve him.
They have a new life. Christ lives in them and they live in Christ.
"It is to these that
the love of God is manifested and shed abroad in their hearts; by these, the
Gospel of Christ is truly received and valued, and these enjoy the spiritual
blessings of it; and so both the doctrine of the Gospel, and the grace of God,
are preserved entire, and these persons saved in the day of Christ."
-- John Gill
III.
Now, look at verse 39. -- If
ever you drink the old wine of covenant love, full redemption, and free grace,
you will have no taste for new things.
No man also having drunk old [wine]
straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is
better. (Luke 5:39)
A. I suppose this statement
might be to natural men, who having drunk the old wine of their carnal lusts
and pleasures, do not desire the new wine of the Gospel.
·
Irreligious
·
Religious
B. However, this last verse
seems to me to be a point of deliberate contrast.
Our Lord is here giving us
the reason why his disciples did not give into the practices of the Pharisees.
They had drunk of the old wine of the gospel (Jer.
Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways,
and see, and ask for the old paths, where [is] the good way, and walk therein,
and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We
will not walk [therein]. (Jeremiah 6:16)
Come, drink this old wine…
·
Everlasting Love!
·
Everlasting Covenant!
·
Everlasting Redemption!
·
Everlasting Forgiveness!
·
Everlasting Life!