Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - The Fast and the Curious - Luke 5:33-39

Father God, we thank you so much for this opportunity to be here opening

your word. We just asked that the message that you've prepared for us today,

that we would be ready as tilled soil, that our hearts would be

ready to receive your word like a seed that is going to sprout life and

purpose and meaning into who we are. Lork God. We know that without

knowing who you are, Lorgod, we are lost. And so we just

asked that you would be that you would make yourself known today, that you'd

make your presence felt today, and or as we preach your word, as

we open your word and go through it, that it starts to dual work

in us so that we look more like you and be drawn to you.

We love you, we thank you. We give you this time all to

your glory and Jesus name. Everyone said amen, All right, yeah,

first, down right the prayer. So we have been in a series called

Luke The Orderly Account of Truth. In this series, we've been going verse

by verse through the gospel account of Luke. And this is the whole purpose

of this gospel is to investigate the life and ministry of Jesus. So doctor

Luke, He's the one who wrote Luke, he's the one who went and

said, I've carefully investigated all these things, and now I want to put

all of these things down in an orderly fashion. And he wrote all of

these things down for his friend or I don't know if it's friend, but

he says most excellent Theophulist. So it's someone he cared about and respected,

and to some degree, he wrote all of these things down so that that

person, Theophilis, would have certainty concerning the things that he had been taught

about Jesus. And the thing that's really awesome about this series is that he's

not the only one who gets to benefit from this account. As we've gone

line by line and verse by verse, we have actually gotten to follow this

account. We've gotten to see, okay, well, this benefited him in

the things that he was taught about Jesus. And so now we've been seeing

week after week from the very beginning. Luke starts at the very beginning of

Jesus's ministry, and he actually starts so early that it's way before them.

He started with John the Baptist, who was actually born and really made to

prepare the way for the Messiah. He was preparing the way, and he

was preparing the people for the coming Messiah. In that day, then we

got to see jesus miraculous birth, in his upbringing all the way to where

he himself after he had grown up and was around thirty years old, was

then baptized by John the Baptist. Then he was driven into the desert where

he spent forty days fasting and was tempted by Satan. And he overcame that

temptation, like we saw just just a couple of weeks ago, he overcame

that temptation by using and knowing and relying on what God had said over the

lies and temptations that Satan was putting forth. After that, after he had

that successful touchdown, right, so we just see how many we can fit

those into the message. And I, you know, I tease. As

he's successful. He then goes and he starts his ministry. Jesus is going

from town to town preaching and declaring the good news. And what was the

good news. It was that the Kingdom of God had come, that fulfillment

of prophecy was happening in him, that he was the fulfillment of those of

the prophecies in the Old Testament that people were waiting on someone and he's saying,

I'm here, and he was going from town to town, and people

were blown away because of the authority that he was teaching with. They're like,

who speaks like this? Are our religious leaders? Don't speak like this?

Are our elders of our town? Don't speak like this? Who gives

him this authority? And what's actually crazy is Jesus he did speak with authority,

and he taught with authority. But the thing that's awesome is that he

also proved his authority right. And we've been and that's actually what we've been

seeing kind of the last several weeks, is that Jesus has been he's been

commanding demons to leave and leave his presence, and he would exercise these people

to the extent where they were now free from the bondage of these demons.

We saw him heal and restore completely people who were sick with all kinds of

things, from a fever to a man who was paralyzed and couldn't even walk,

and then he was walking again like nothing had happened there was. We've

seen him command creation, we've seen him we've seen him restore a man who

had skin disease and all kinds of issues and was an outcast from society.

And even just two weeks ago, we saw him forgive sins, which I

don't know if you guys know this, but that's something that only God can

do. Only God can forgive sins. It's the only thing that God,

only God has the authority himself to do. So we're starting to follow this

line about who Jesus is and what he's done in the ministry in life of

who he is, and very clearly and very quickly, we've already begun to

see who he is. So Jesus has started his ministry and begun to preach

with authority and do these mighty works. But also we've seen him calling disciples

to come follow him. What's amazing about this is that really he's calling men

from all kinds of backgrounds. We saw him call just some simple fishermen.

And last week specifically, we saw him call a tax collector named Levi,

which created a really big fuss. And the reason was is because the religious

elite were like, how could you, Jesus call this tax collector, this

sinner to come follow you? Why would you call him to come follow you.

And it made sense that they were kind of upset by this because the

tax collectors were kind of outcasts within their own society. They were propped up

by the Roman govern to collect taxes from the people for the Roman government.

And the thing about it is that they were allowed to charge a little extra

so they could pocket it. Now, here's the deal. If your friend

was a tax collector, you'd either hate him or love him, right right,

You're like, I love that we get to go to every nice restaurant.

Ever, also, you keep taking my money, you know, like

there you would have you'd have some issues there. But these religious leaders were

so upset about it, and lead he calls Levi to follow him. Levi

invites him over and a bunch of his friends, other tax collectors and sinners,

and they're having a dinner together, and the religious elite are upset.

They're like, why would you do this? Why would you call him?

Why would you ask him to follow you to be your disciple? And Jesus

replies that he was there for the sinners, that he was there to call

the sinners to repentance, that it was the sick who a doctor, not

the healthy, and so Jesus, being this great physician actually amazingly so was

able to make this sinner Levi well, Levi who is also known as Matthew,

who went on to write the Gospel of Matthew, which is incredible.

It's an incredible testimony to how our lives can turn around completely no matter where

Jesus finds us in life, that he radically transforms us as we follow him.

Right, So we've got that's just what we covered. That's just what

we cover. We're not even into what we're getting into today. That's just

what we've gone through. And it's been amazing. We have all of them

on YouTube. I thinks if you want to go back and follow this because

it's been really really incredible. Also, it's in your Bible, you can

read it. It's really cool. So now today we get we get to

today's text. We's here's the deal. It's only six verses, all right,

it's only six verses. But the thing that's awesome about that is I

know that's still even with only six verses. I know that God has a

message for each and every one of us, and that hopefully as we hear

his word, that we can be transformed as we're listening. So if you're

taking notes, today's message is titled this the Fast and the Curious. All

right, touchdown, touchdown, everybody, the Fast and the curious. Here's

the deal. I really have to work on my humility. I love this

title. Okay, I'm just saying. I was like, I like,

as soon as I did this, I was like, I'm excited to finish

the rest of my message, but I'm very excited to share this. You

know, it does make sense. Just to be clear, we'll get there.

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna read today's text and we're gonna

break it down verse by verse. You guys there with me. Cool,

So we're gonna be looking at Luke chapter five, starting in verse thirty three,

going to verse thirty nine. So let's read it. This is God's

word, says they said to him. John's disciples often fast and pray,

and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. But yours go on eating and

drinking. Jesus answered, can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while

he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be

taken from them in those days they will fast. He told them this parable.

No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old

one, otherwise they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from

the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into

old wine skins, otherwise the new wine will burst the skins, the wine

will run out, and the wine skins will be ruined. No new wine

must be poured into new wineskins. And no one, after drinking old wine

wants new, for they say the old is better. So, like we

just said, Jesus is eating with Levi at Levi's house, tax collectors,

these other various people. The religious leaders are confused. They want to know

why this teacher would do such a thing. Jesus tells them, I'm here

to call to repentance and to help not the righteous, but the sinners.

And this, honestly is kind of a slap in the face to all the

self righteous religious leaders, because they thought that they were so self righteous that

they didn't need any help or saving, which in turn meant that Jesus wasn't

there for them. And honestly, this is one of the biggest dangers of

self righteousness, because if you think that you're all good, you don't need

anybody, then really you're worse off than those who were just sick. You're

sick and you don't even know it. How could you ever get the help

that you need if you don't realize that you need help in the first place.

And this is very dangerous, and we ourselves need to watch out for

this when we slip into mindsets like we've got it all figured out, because

ultimately that's just pridefulness, arrogance, self righteousness, And honestly, we all

have some things still left to learn. I know it's hard to believe,

but we all still have things left to learn in this life and on our

walk following and chasing and being discipled after Jesus, we have things to learn.

And so did these self righteous leaders, which brings us to our first

part of our text. We're gonna look at the first verse, verse thirty

three, a condescending question, They said to him, John's disciples often fast

and pray, and so did the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go

on eating and drinking. So at this time, among those who were considered

most righteous Jewish society there were three things that you would regularly do. You

would pray often. You would give alms to the poor, which is basically

just helping them out, giving a little bit money, get some food,

whatnot. The other thing that you would do is you would fast twice a

week Monday Thursday. And normally these would be things that if you were the

righteous person in the society, you'd be like out on the street corner doing

your prayer, showing how hungry you were, making sure other people saw that

you were giving the coins. You know, that's normally the custom of that

society. And fasting really what fasting is a lot of us may have some

experience of knowing what fasting is. Maybe we have no idea. Someone just

gonna help bring us all a little bit closer together and also some better context

for where they're coming from. Fast thing usually meant not eating for the day,

or maybe just skipping or two for a set time. And fasting is

a biblical practice. We do find it in the Old Testament at various times.

But the interesting thing is that there is only one time that the Jewish

people were required by God to fast. Now that's very interesting. Okay,

we're gonna come back to that, but that's very interesting to know. There's

only one time that God required them to fast, and that was on the

day of Atonement. They were to afflict themselves well, they were sacrificing animals

and releasing the scapegoat and doing various other things to atone for their sin for

that year, so that God would be near them, so that God could

be near them, that there was some kind of covering for their sin.

That is when they were required to fast. That you can find that Leviticus

sixteen. All the other times that people were fasting, it was by choice.

Sometimes a person individually would fast, and other times an entire nation would

fast. The primary reasons that we'd see people fasting in the Old Testament.

I know this is riveting right. The other times that we would see people

fasting in the Old Testament is usually when they're mourning over a death. They're

mourning over and repenting of their sin. Other people would be desperately seeking God

and his guidance and direction in their life, so they would fast alongside prayer.

And this going without food was really meant to humble the person individual or

nation as a whole, as this great sign of devotion and dependence and humility

before God and to plead with him as maybe destruction was coming. And they're

like, Lord, we're sorry. Or maybe they needed a guidance that they

didn't know what to do next, and they're looking for direction. And this

is a great thing that even we can still implement into our lives. And

we'll get into that in a little bit. But what we see here is

Jesus as being asked this question about fasting, and they want to know why

if the disciples of the Pharisees and the disciples of John, the Baptist people

who were thought of as righteous, devout people in their society, if they

did this, why not yours? And the hard thing about this question is

it's very interesting. This is one verse, guys, right, They're like,

it's very it's very interesting because this question doesn't really seem like a genuine

question. It's actually more of an accusation. There may have been some curiosity

in there, but mostly them trying to point out a flaw. If it

was thought holy, righteous devout to fast, and your disciples aren't, what

does that say about you? And this also might seem out of nowhere.

Why are they just springing this question on him. But if we remember,

Jesus was just asked why he ate with sinners, and it's because he said,

that's why I came forward, which is a slap in the face to

the self righteous religious leaders who thought that they might just because of all their

righteous deeds, when the Messiah did show up, they got front row seat.

I might be the most holy and he might actually call me, He'll

see me how great I am, and he would call me to follow him.

But that's not what happened. So they a lobed this question at him,

wanting to know why jesus disciples don't follow the same customs of fasting that

they do, which we must understand is honestly a natural response for any self

righteous person. Think about that. It's the natural response for any self righteous

person. As soon as we're called out, do we find a reason to

justify ourselves by the works that we do and then point to the lack of

works in their life or the lack of holy living in their life. One

of the big problems here, though, is what they were calling or maybe

comparing against holy and righteous living. It wasn't really according to God's standard.

It's what the self righteous called holy and righteous living self righteous people have this

horrible, horrible tendency, this horrible habit of taking God's commands, which is

where God has drawn the line. He set the standard, and self righteous

take that line in like, that's a great standard, but I think it'd

probably be like a little better if it was here. And then what they

go around doing is they say, if all of you believers don't follow this

line, well then you're actually sinning, you're actually in the wrong, or

I might just be more righteous than you. I mean, sure, I

don't do that, but I really don't do that. And kind of for

an example, it's like, let's take thou shalt not murder right touchdown.

What they will do with that, well, a self righteous person does is

they'll take that standard and say, well, if murdering is bad, what

I don't want anything to do with that. So I'm not gonna play any

video games, I'm not gonna watch a movie, I'm not gonna listen to

any songs, I'm not gonna read any books that has anything to do with

murder, which in a sense might seem actually like a wise thing to do.

But then the problem is that now by that standard, you couldn't even

read the Bible, you couldn't even talk about Jesus. You would have lots

of problems. And that's actually the problem with self righteous setting up their own

standard is that most of the time they set up their own traditions, and

what do they do. They end up setting aside the actual command of God.

Right, I'm like, well, I know the Bible says don't murder.

That's great, but I'm not supposed to read books about murder. You

have a problem. And now I guess I can't listen to the Bible and

you're just stuck in a mess. It's a problem. So we ourselves actually

need to be careful that if we're holding a standard of living and calling other

believers to live according to that standard. If we're gonna do that, it's

fine. There's nothing wrong with looking out for another brother or sister in Christ

and saying, hey, are you following God's commands? Nothing wrong with that,

But we need to be very clear that whatever we are calling the commands

of God are actually the commands of God. Right, that makes sense.

We need to be able to point to a very clear place in scripture that

says this is what you were required to do. Believer, we need to

just be careful of that. It's back to our text. So they asked

Jesus this question, which is funny because it doesn't say they ask us as

they said, right, which makes it worse. It actually makes us a

little worse because it's more of like he's like, I'm not here for you,

I'm here for the sinners. And they're like, well, your disciples

don't do what our disciples do, you know. It's like kind of a

question, kind of not. Now we get to Jesus' response, let's look

at it. If you take taking notes, you can write this down.

What time is it? Jesus answered, can you make the friends of the

bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the

bridegroom will be taken from them. In those days they will fast. So

Jesus gives them an answer by asking them a question. It's classic Jesus,

right, it really is. Now it is very important that we looked at

what is That was very important because we understand that fasting was meant to humble

us. It was meant for repentance, seeking guidance, and mourning. So

Jesus asked them, how can they partake of fasting at a time like this.

It's a time for celebrating, so why would they be fasting. It

could feel like we're asking more questions than we're answering, but Jesus is giving

them the answer, because just like with the sinners and tax collectors, Jesus

is saying, you're missing it. The bridegroom, the one everyone is waiting

for, has arrived and now it's time to celebrate. But you've been caught

up and making sure that you looking for the wedding, that you've lost track

at time. You don't even know what time it is. You're missing it.

It's happening. It's going on right now, and you don't even know

what's going on. It's not a time from morning. It's a time for

celebrating. The one we've been waiting for is here. And Jesus continues on

saying that this time won't be forever, that there is a time where he

is going the bridegroom is going to be taken away, and it's in that

time that his disciples will fast. And this is Jesus referring to his death

and ascension. That after Jesus had died for our sins, was raised to

new life on the third day, and then ascended into heaven to rule and

reign until he comes again to judge the living and the dead. That while

in those days, while He's seated on high and not here in bodily form,

that his disciples would return to fasting. And this is actually exactly what

we see happen in the Book of Acts. Well, look at just a

couple quick examples. We see disciples fasting alongside prayer and seeking God's will and

guidance and matters. Let's look at it. While they were worshiping the Lord

and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me, Barnabas and

sauw for the work to which I have called them. So after they had

fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off right.

So we see that they're worshiping there, praying and fasting. Here we

see another example. Paul and Barnabas on mission, appointed elders for them in

each church, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord in whom

they had put their trust, which is super cool. It wasn't willy nilly.

They were very intentional on who they were putting over these churches, that

there was a plurality of these elders in these churches to lead these churches and

fox people who had put their faith in trust in God. But it wasn't

just some decision that Paul like, I guess that guy could do it,

I guess. But they sought the Lord in guidance and prayer and fasting.

Both times there are great examples of disciples going before the Lord in prayer and

fasting seeking guidance in a matter which also gonna make sense if Jesus isn't here

in bodily form in two thousand years ago, he was, and he was

there with his disciples. I mean, I'm just I'm just putting this out

there. I think the quickest route for asking a question seeking guidance would have

just been to walk up to Jesus, say what's going on instead of going

and fasting. Right, But both times are great examples, and I think

that we can actually take note of that that there's an awesome opportunity for us

to occasionally do it, do it every time if you want. It's up

to you that we can put this into practice ourselves alongside prayer. And so

fasting is a good thing as long as it's done in its proper time.

And man, we saw that Jesus himself fasted. We looked at it a

couple of weeks ago when he was in the desert being tempted by Satan.

Jesus fasted for forty days. Good luck, all right. Jesus teaches him.

He himself taught about fasting, and he taught the proper way to do

it to his disciples. Let's look at it, Matthew sixteen through eighteen.

When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they

just figure their face now, the faces to show others they are fasting.

Truly, I tell you they've received the reward in full. But when you

fast, so there is an expectation that his disciples would be fasting, and

that they would at some point be fasting. When you fast, put oil

on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious

to others that you were fasting, but only to your father, who is

unseen. And your father, who sees what is done in secret, will

reward you. So what did Jesus say say? Here? He says,

when you fast. When you fast, don't be like the hypocrites. That

is, don't be like those who just fast to be seen by others,

but do it to actually be seen in the secret places alone with God.

Jesus does teach his disciples about fasting, but it's in contrast with how the

hypocrites were doing it. Also, this is actually hilarious because if you think

about it, if Jesus's disciples were doing what Jesus said, then it would

make sense that the religious leaders wouldn't know that they were fasting and praying all

the time because they would have been doing it in secret. Just like Jesus

said, they weren't doing it for show. It wasn't about the external that

Jesus was teaching his disciples. If you're going to fast, make it between

you and God. This isn't for anybody else. This is between you and

God. And the religious leaders are like, we don't even see him fast.

What's up with that? You know? So once again Jesus is here

calling out the religious leaders, telling them that they're missing the point that they're

missing the time that they're missing who he is. And now Jesus is going

to make a shift into a couple of parables. This is the first time

in the Gospel of Luke that we encounter one of Jesus's parables. Throughout the

rest of Luke, we're gonna encounter him having parables for his teachings and for

him sometimes how he answers questions, and then also sometimes and how he rebukes.

He rebukes through a parable, and Jesus would use these parables to illustrate

a point that he was trying to make. Now, sometimes when we read

scripture for ourselves, Jesus's parables will be really super clear, like that's awesome,

I love this my favorite parable. Other times you come across the parables

like we're about to go through at least experience, like in my own personal

experience, and I'm like, what, I don't know. I do not

know what we're talking about right now. Luckily, Jesus promised, and for

every believer, we have the Holy Spirit who is here to guide us and

lead us into all truth. We have other brothers and sisters to help refine

us and teach us, to help us better understand what Jesus is talking about.

So let's look at it. What Jesus had to say to them and

then break it down, it says he told them this parable. No one

tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one, otherwise

they will have torn the new garment and the patch from the new one,

or the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine

into old wine skins, otherwise the new wine will burst the skins, the

wine will run out, and the wine skins will be ruined. No new

wine must be poured into new wine skins. And no one, after drinking

old wine wants the new, for they say the old is better now.

To be honest, anytime I've ever come across this teaching of Jesus, I've

just been confused, not necessarily confused about like what the parable says. I

get what it's saying, I just don't understand how it relates to what we

were just talking about. Right, let's take a closer look at it and

see if we can kind of figure out some patterns, like this is helpful

even in our own Bible reading. Ready, some practical stuff. We're gonna

look and see, how can we understand what Jesus is trying to get at

here? So he gives two illustrations. The first he gives is with an

old and a new shirt, and he says, you wouldn't take a new

shirt cut a hole in it to patch your old shirt. They're not gonna

match. They're not gonna be the same. And in a different gospel,

he actually says like, and when it's washed, basically it'll tear like it's

it's all gonna it's not gonna work out. He's trying to patch this old

shirt with this new shirt. Then he goes on to old wine or old

and new wine and talking about all those things, and it says no one

pours new wine into old wine skins or else you destroy the old wine skin

and lose the wine. You're kind of like what And that culture, it

was very common and they were very familiar with it of the process of and

the process of making wine. And also housing is not the right word,

but it's like carrying and I can't find that when we're storing. Yeah,

there's all kinds of right like creating. And so just a quick little thing

about that is basically, if you want to do if you had this new

wine, you'd pour it into an animal skin that had some flexibility to it,

and when it was fermenting inside that that pouch. The skin that was

new had a little was able to stretch a little bit as it fermented and

released or released gases and the process and all that stuff. If you poured

it into a old one, well it's already been stretched out, so it's

gonna explode, right, It's gonna burst, it's gonna be problematic. And

then you end up with a broken wine skin, and you broke and you

lose your wine. You end up with nothing, You get nothing. Right,

So Jesus is giving them this example, says, you wouldn't put new

wine into old wine skin, but instead new wine needs to be put into

new wine skins. So what is Jesus talking about? Well, actually,

here Jesus again, he's making a contrast. We see Jesus making a contrast

between old and new. That you wouldn't take the new and try and patch

up the old, that you wouldn't take the new and try to fit it

into or pour it into your old system. Hopefully, we're starting to just

kind of get the outside edges of what he's getting at. The self righteous

leaders have come to Jesus and are asking why his disciples don't follow their customs

as if they're the customs that they followed were the standard set by God.

But Jesus says, you're missing it. You don't understand what's going on.

Something new is here, and it's actually at odds with the standard that you've

set. The religious leaders did all these things because they believed that they would

be justified, made right before God if they did these things. They believe

that they were saved by works, that every fast that they did earned them

a little extra credit towards meeting the big Guy. And the worst part is

that the rules that had been established were rules that they'd just made up.

They were not rules set by God. They were their own man made customs

and standards. But Jesus says, if you try to mix the new way

in the old standard that you've set, you're gonna end up ruining yourself.

Salvation by grace, salvation by works, do not mix. And Paul teaches

us later in the New Testament, as there's believers who are are coming from

a background of Judaism, and there's these gentile believers who are just everyone who

wasn't Jewish. They were coming into the same fold in church and the Jewish

people would come in with their customs that they were used to and be like,

so, yes, I love Jesus, and we should probably you should

probably do all these things too. That is what Paul has to say about

that Galatians three ten through fourteen. For all who rely on works of the

law are under a curse. Uh oh, right, if you've been relying

on that all your life, as it is written, curses everyone who does

not continue to do everything written in the book of the Law. Clearly,

no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because the righteous

will live by faith. The law is not based on faith. On the

contrary, it says, the person who does these things will live by them.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for

us. Where it is written curses everyone who is hung on a poll.

He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the

gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of

the Spirit. Paul what he's getting at is he's saying for those who seek

to justify themselves by works in any manner ultimately end up condemning themselves. The

standard of the law is perfection. So even if you got it wrong yesterday

and you're like, well, but I'll get it right today, it's like,

no, you already failed. You've already failed, you are already not

good enough, You're already not going to make it. The standard is perfection.

But the good news is that we are not justified through our works,

but through faith in Jesus Christ and his perfection. That is what we rely

on. That what we put our faith in is that he perfectly lived under

the law and and and and walked accordingly to it. And what's more,

and what's better, is that he, though being perfect, took the curse

that we deserved. He was hung on a pull, he was hung out

across that was the curse, for that was the curse, and he took

that for us, and he gave us his perfection. I need the band

to come up. We get back to our text in Luke. These religious

leaders thought if they could just get Jesus and his disciples to come into alignment

with their standard of living, then it would prove all the more that their

own customs and way of living were the righteous ones. Right, it feels

really good to have Jesus on your side when he agrees with you. But

all that would do is fuel their self righteous pride. All the more Jesus

shut that down hard. He says, your old way in my new way

are not going to mix. And if you try, you will destroy yourself.

If you try to justify yourself before God by faith and works, you

won't be justified at all. It is by faith through faith alone. Trying

to justify yourself by any work is what self righteous people do. But we

who live by faith trust in Christ and his finished work on our behalf.

God doesn't want your fasting because he sees you putting in the work. He

wants your fasting because it draws you closer to him. It's never been about

the work, because when we're talking about work, you failed, You messed

up, and these religious leaders were missing it and trying to patch Jesus onto

their old way of living. And the last line of the text here is

actually really interesting. Back in our Luke text, it says no one after

drinking old wine wants the new, for they say the old is better.

What Jesus is calling out that he's actually he's calling them out. He's saying,

you're stuck in love with your old ways. There's something new and better

here, but you're missing out on the new. You're stuck on your old

way. You're stuck in your old pattern. And here's the deal. As

much as we want to give the self righteous religious leaders a hard time for

not understanding for them missing Jesus, we need to examine our own lives where

we're missing it. How many of you still feel the need to do everything

good and right in order to be good with God? How many of you

are trying to patch Jesus onto your old way of living. Jesus already told

us that new wine needs to be put into new wine skins. Scripture tells

us that when we put faith in Jesus, that we become new, that

we become a new creation, a new creature. Tewod Corinthians five seventeen says.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come.

What's happened to the old? It's gone? The new is here? What

does that mean for us believers? Instead, if we put our faith in

Jesus, we've become a new created that the old is gone and the new

is here. The old is gone. And the new is here. The

problem is that how many of us still live like nothing has changed. We're

trying to patch Jesus onto our old way of life. We look at the

rough areas of our life and go like, yes, Jesus, I could

really use you here and here and here and here, but don't touch this

stuff that's still mine. I'm actually just fine with this stuff. And Jesus

says, I want all of it. But we've been given a new life.

We've been called to this new life because the old is gone. So

why do we still live like our old self? Why do we still cling

onto our old, self righteous and sinful ways and listen to our flesh that

tries to convince us and tell us that the old is better. This is

a lie which is not true. When you truly put your faith in Jesus,

you will never be the same period qualifier. You have been made new

and you've been filled with the holy spirit of the Living God, to the

point that here's what's interesting about this walk as believers is that even if you

do turn back to your old ways and try to mix those two lives,

well, then you feel like you're going to burst. You feel like you're

going to explode. And there's a reason. Let's look at Galatians five sixteen

through seventeen says, but I say walk by the spirit, and you will

not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are

against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh.

For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you

want to do. And these desires, the good desires, these new desires

that we have come from the spirit that God has given us along with the

new heart Ezekiel, when it's prophesied of the new Covenant, of the new

way of Christ that was coming, the fulfillment in the Messiah. This is

what God says, says, I will give you a new heart and put

a new spirit in you. I will remove from your heart of stony and

give you a heart of flesh. He's given us a new heart, and

he's filled it with his new spirit, his spirit that no longer it's our

old dead self living in there. But we have the Holy Spirit, the

spirit of the Living God, now in dwelling us. He's given us a

new wine skin and poured in this new wine He has made us new,

He's made you new, yet we still hold on to our old ways.

And my hope today is that you would hear his voice and be set free

from your old self and know that you are new, and actually just start

living like it, not to earn anything that's already been done. You put

your faith in Christ. You are a new creation that's happening. Now.

Just live like it. Now, walk in it. Don't turn back to

your old ways. It's dead, it's gone. This is what Paul's talking

about in Ephesians. When you can trast those two ways. And I love

the imagery here. Let's look at Ephesians four seventeen through twenty four. Now

this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as

the gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their

understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in

them. Due to their hardness of heart, they have become callous, and

I've given themselves up to sensuality greedy. This is crazy, greedy to practice

every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ.

Assuming that you heard about Him, and we're taught in Him as the truth

is in Jesus. To put off your old self, which belongs to your

former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed

in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self created

after the likeness of God and the true righteousness, or in true righteousness and

holiness. That is what we are longing for. To take off the old

shirt and put on the new shirt. You can't wear both. You shouldn't.

The old one is done, it is. It makes no sense of

trying cut holes and try and patch up this old thing that wasn't working in

the first place. So ultimately, here's the call. Stop. It's to

stop stop cutting holes out of the new way of living, just to try

and patch your old way of life. To take off your old self,

throw it in the guard, and then put on the new and complete and

whole self that has made after the image of Jesus, that's available to us.

That's not just something that we like, go like, I'm not the

work really hard to get it. Know it's there, we just don't do

it. We're like the old's better, I mean I know this way.

I've really liked this way. The call for every believer who confesses Christ is

to take that old self and put on the new. So ask yourself,

genuinely, how many of us try to patch Jesus onto our old life.

A marriage is harder, finance is harder, sinful habits. We just want

Jesus to come in and patch up those those spots, but we want to

keep the rest. But we need to take off our old self and be

done away with it and put on Christ. And if you realize that you

call Christ your Lord and have been using him just to patch your old life,

then maybe this is actually the perfect opportunity for you to go to Him

and fasting and prayer and repentance and seeking guidance and seeking his will to go.

God, help me here. I want to follow you. I want

to walk in this new calling. I want to walk in this new way

of living that you have called me to and that you've told me is mine

because I've put my faith in you. So please help me. Skip me,

skip lunch, skip a couple of meal, skip a day, seek

the Lord, repent before the Lord for those ways that you've been self righteous

and sinful, and that all of this would be with a hope of actually

being drawn closer to Him, to knowing him better, that we actually would

be enabled and ready to live this new life in Him. And for any

of you who don't don't think that you need this, think again, none

of us are perfect. All of us have sinned and ball and short of

the glory of God. You think you're good because you're still trying to justify

yourself using something other than Christ. But I pray today that you would hear

the words of Jesus and not miss it like the self righteous people did.

And if you realize that you have been trying to justify yourselves by works and

it's sneaky, it's so sneaky, and how we try to justify ourselves playing

the comparison game, checking all the boxes, then I hope today that you

would hear the call to put off that old self and come to Christ is

a good, powerful, righteous, loving, holy savior. He will save

you from your sin. He will save you from your old self, and

he will lead you into a new life that looks nothing like your old And

that's good news. Won't you guys? Please stand