The Incompatibility Of The Gospel, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. You can't take me or my gospel and you can't sell me back into Judaism. You can't do it. You can't. That's called the Old Covenant.

This is called the New Covenant. You see, you can't put Christ and his gospel in some religious system. You can't do it.

It's impossible. One is based on human works. The other is based on the grace of God.

You can't mix them. That's what Jesus is saying. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. Now, you may have wondered how come John the Baptist disciples are also fasting and praying?

Please understand this. A lot of John the Baptist disciples didn't know much about Jesus. Some people when Jesus was baptized by John, and John said, Behold the Lamb of God.

It takes away the sins of the world. If you were there that day, you would know that. John right now is nowhere to be found. He's in prison. His voice is still.

He's now in prison waiting to be beheaded. So many of his disciples, these were Jews who went and got baptized by John, and they're all excited that Messiah is coming. They're not sure yet even who Jesus is, but they're going to do the good religious things that they're taught by Judaism by the scribes and Pharisees. The best example I can think of this in Acts chapter 19. In a missionary journey, they run into some guys all the way in Greece, and when they run into them, they say to him, Have you received the Holy Spirit? And the guys, I love the response. We never even heard of the Holy Spirit.

We don't even know what you're talking about. So they said, Wait, they said, In what baptism were you baptized? And they said, John's. They had come probably during a Passover or something, got baptized by John and then went back to Greece. They didn't know anything about Jesus. Remember, there's no media. They're not writing. You don't listen on the radio and hear about Jesus, watch him on TV, text about Jesus.

Nothing's going on like that. They didn't know who Jesus was, and so they end up receiving Christ way later, all the way in Acts 19. So they're practicing religion. Well, when you get that Matthew six, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus wants to speak and notice how he starts out. He said, Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them. That's Jesus' definition of religion. You want to know what his definition of religion is?

There it is. Practice your righteousness before men so they can see what you're doing, whatever it is. He said, Beware of that. He said, He said, Otherwise, you'll have no reward with your fathers in heaven. God says, Look, religion doesn't work like that. True religion doesn't work like that. It's not to be noticed by people. Jesus says, So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men.

Isn't that interesting? Let's help the poor. I've got $100 here to help the poor. I've got $100 right here. I'm giving it to the poor.

I want you to see the poor are going to get this. We'd never do that, would we? I mean, someone makes a donation and they put his name on a window or a pew.

We'd never do that, though. You see, you don't do this to be noticed by men. That's what Jesus says. Then he says in verse five, And when you pray, you're not to be like the hypocrites.

They love to stand and pray in the synagogues on the street corners so they may be seen by men. I said, Don't do that. He said, I said in verse six, But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close the door and pray to your fathers in secret. And your father, who sees in secret, will reward you. And now watch this verse seven. And when you are praying, please do not use meaningless repetition. That's what the Gentiles do. And then Jesus says, When you're in public, make your prayers short and sweet.

And so he says, Please do not use meaningless repetition. Pray this way. Our father, who art in heaven. And what do we do?

Two thousand years of it. Our father, who art in heaven. This is how Jesus taught us to pray.

Are you kidding? He said, Don't pray repetitious prayers. We said, Well, let's repeat that one, then. That's the church. That's how incurably religious we are. Let's just pray it.

I mean, in some of the disciplines, think about this. It's amazing. In order to do penance for your sin, they make you say twenty seven. Our fathers say it over and over and over again. And then your sins covered. Really? How would anybody possibly believe that?

But he's not done. He says in verse 16, whenever you fast. He said, 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 the reward in full. The Pharisees were known on Mondays and Thursdays to get some charcoal and put it on their cheeks and round their eyes.

Then probably get their worst clothes and then walk around sort of like this. How are you doing? Okay, I'm fasting.

Oh, you're a real godly man. Jesus is very upset by that. This is ridiculous. It's like you don't even understand what a fast is about. If you think of all the fast of the Old Testament, there are many day fast, several days fast, weeks fast, forty day fast, a lot of fast. Guess how many fast in the Old Testament are commanded by God for us? One in Leviticus, the Day of Atonement, the day Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The nation is to fast.

Why? We are fasting about what? Our sin.

Remember that they're going to carry away our sin for another year. Fasting in the Old Testament is always linked to grieving and mourning. When you're grieving and mourning, the whole idea of a fast, by the way, and America's culture is a little different. Look, you want to fast for health reasons. Go ahead.

But please don't try to combine health reasons with spiritual reasons. The fast of the Bible has nothing to do with how healthy it is for you to fast. You want to fast? Go ahead. You want to fast for your health?

Go ahead. But don't make it like it's spiritual because you're fasting. That's as bad as what the religious people are doing. You fast because the circumstances of your life are so grievous, so burdensome, so heavy that you don't want to be distracted about anything except prayer to God. You don't want to eat.

Have someone you love very, very much fighting for their life in intensive care. Someone's not going to walk up to you and say, Hey, you want to go have dinner? You're not going, are you? No one does. Why? I'm focused on one thing here.

The life of this person. That's what fasting is. That's what fasting is supposed to be. It's not magical. It's not mystical. It's none of those things.

It's a preoccupation with God without distraction. That's what he says you have to do. Now, we go back to Luke. Jesus says you cannot make the attendance of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them.

Can you? Now he knows their law. The Jewish rabbis had written laws and this makes sense. The Jewish rabbi said it's illegal to fast at a wedding. No fasting at weddings.

Why? Weddings are celebratory. I mean, when you think of wedding, do you think, boy, this is a deep time of mourning? Now, for some people, I've been at weddings and some of the family members in that, they're struggling to celebrate.

I get that. But the point of it is it's a time of celebration. The mood of a group of people at a wedding and the mood of a group of people at a funeral are completely different. You see, those are completely different moods and the rabbi said you cannot. Notice what Jesus says. Jesus says, look, you cannot make the attendance of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is there.

Now, remember this. The point of the fast is I don't want distracted by anything. I want to simply pray and be as close to God as I can through my mourning and through my grieving in these difficult circumstances. Now, here's Jesus point. The reason my disciples don't fast is this. You're saying I fast so I can get close to God. My disciples are right here.

You know what? My disciples want to touch God. They touch me. You see, I'm with them. I'm the groom.

They're happy for me. See, there's no fasting with my disciples. Why would my disciples fast? I'm the groom. This is a wedding. Then he says something very insightful and prophetic. He says in verse thirty five, the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and they will fast in those days.

That word taken away is a really interesting word. The word is a pair, and it means when they when he is snatched violently and suddenly away. Jesus already knows what's coming, he said. There's going to be a day when they're going to take me away. And they're going to beat me and mock me and nail me to a cross. My disciples are fast then.

They'll fast then. And they did, I believe clearly. You know why I believe that?

Once Jesus is resurrected from the dead, he appeared to them. Right. Do you remember one of the things he wanted to do with them? Let's eat. Let's eat.

Why did he tell them that? I believe they're fasting and I believe he wants to say the fast is over, guys. I'm raised from the dead. You don't have to fast any longer. The victory has been won. No longer a time for fasting.

This is a time of victory. Jesus says they'll fast when the time is right. So all of that gets us to the point where he wants to teach them the principle that I've come up with for today. The incompatibility of his gospel with anything in religion. He says he was telling them a parable.

Here's his first one. He says no one tears a piece of cloth 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. Now, Mark and Matthew talk about this, too. They all say the same thing.

But Jesus point is an interesting point. He said, if I have a one piece that I'm wearing over top of me, like they often wore as an outer garment and say I got a hole in it right here. I've worn this for about a year or two. Now I get a new piece of fabric and I just sew it in right here.

A couple of things. First is, do you think you'd notice it was sewn in? You have an old garment. You put a new piece of fabric.

Anyone notice that? Of course, that's what Jesus is saying. Secondly, though, he says. The new fabric, if you're sewing in nice and tight there, once you wash it and dry it, the new fabric will shrink. The old fabric's already shrunk. The new fabric will shrink. And guess what it will do?

It will just tear away from the old fabric. You see, that's what he's saying. Now I understand what he's saying. You can't take me or my gospel and you can't sew me back into Judaism. You can't do it. You can't. That's called the old covenant.

This is called the new covenant. You see, you can't put Christ and his gospel in some religious system. You can't do it.

It's impossible. One is based on human works. The other is based on the grace of God.

You can't mix them. That's what Jesus is saying. But he's not done.

He then says. 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 the new wine must be put in fresh wine skins.

Wow. What he's talking about here is the fermenting process. You have to get grapes and then turn in grape juice. And then you start what is the fermenting process. And the yeast in it transforms the sugar into what?

Alcohol. What's the byproduct? Carbon dioxide.

What's carbon dioxide do? It expands. Now, how did they carry their wine around? They carried them around in goatskins and sheepskins. Whenever they would slaughter a goat or sheep, they would cut the head off, usually right behind the head, leave the neck. They would take out. They got all the skin off. They would sew all the legs together so you could carry it.

You see, slow the torso together and then use the neck. They put a tie around the neck and then use the neck to pour the wine. Now, whenever you put fresh grape juice into a pelt of, say, a goat or a sheep, it's fresh.

The goat and sheep are fresh. They've been freshly killed. Their skin is very pliable. And so when carbon dioxide occurs, it expands.

And the Jews were so good at it that they could see one by its expansion and know how old it was. Now, what if you have a real old skin? Five-year-old, ten-year-old skin. It's brittle.

It's hard. Now you put new wine into it and the new wine begins to expand. What happens? It tears the skin and all the wine runs out. You don't have any wine. Jesus said, you can't put new wine in old skins.

What's he mean? You can't put me into the old skin of Judaism. You can't put me into any religious system.

You can't. This is a new wine for a new skin. He said, that's the point that I'm trying to make. You can't put me or my gospel into anything else.

But he wasn't done. He then says in verse 39, and no one, after drinking old wine, wishes for new. For he says the old wine is good enough. That's a sobering point for me.

I hope it is for you. Well, here's what Jesus is telling us. It's really hard to convert religious people.

It's really hard. Tax collectors are easy. The homeless are easy. Prisoners in a prison are easy. But when you're trying to convert a deeply religious person, you're in trouble.

Because they like the old wine, they own old wine skin and they say that's good enough for me. See, that's the stumbling block of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said, this isn't easy. This isn't easy. Talking to a religious person about the grace of God is difficult for them.

You see, and sometimes what they want to do is they'll say, well, OK, I want to believe what you're saying. But I want to keep all my religiosity and add Jesus to it. And what the word of God says is you can't do that.

You can't add Jesus. It doesn't work that way. He said it will never work. It'll be exactly like putting new wine in an old skin. It'll be like putting another piece of new fabric on an old garment and it'll tear.

Nothing will work that way. I want to illustrate that now. I want you to go with me to Galatians one. If there was one religion on earth that Jesus and his gospel should be able to mesh with, don't you think it'd be Judaism? I mean, of all the religions, don't you think that'd be the one that's closest? Jesus is Jewish. He's their Messiah.

You see, he should fit in there, but he doesn't. So the whole letter of Galatians is written because of this principle. Whenever Paul went to Galatia, it's a barbarian area in central Turkey.

He led a whole bunch of people to Christ. Whenever he left, a group of people called Judaizers followed Paul into Galatia. And here's what they told the Galatians. They didn't want to put the Galatians under Jewish law. They didn't do that.

Here's what they said. Look, Paul told you about Jesus and his death on the cross, and that's all fine. But he missed out on one most important point. If you're going to be saved, if you're going to go to heaven, you need to believe in Jesus. And all your males have to be circumcised because circumcision is the sign of the covenant.

You see, and that's what we're telling you. You're going to have to be circumcised if you're going to be right with God. So Paul writes Galatians. It's his most emotional letter.

He's angry, mad, upset the whole time he's writing. Just want to look at a couple of verses. Look at Chapter one, verse six. Paul says this. I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel.

Now, that's the first thing he says. They've changed the gospel. Religion always does. See, religion will always tell you, yeah, you need to believe in Jesus, but there are some things you have to do. Paul said that's a different gospel.

Don't you get it? They've changed the gospel. Now watch. He goes on and he says, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. He said, but even if we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. That's eternally damned. He said, even if an angel came and told you, you need to believe in Jesus and be circumcised. He said, I would pray that he would be eternally damned because he's distorted the gospel. You don't realize it, but he killed grace. He just killed and destroyed the grace of God. Grace is God's gift is unmerited favor as an offering. When you say now I need to believe in Jesus and I need to be circumcised, you've now made salvation a human work. Now it's up to you.

You get circuit. Look, you believe in Jesus and you're circumcised to go to heaven. You believe in Jesus and you're not circumcised. You're not going to heaven. You see, that's just religion. Paul says that's terrible.

Don't buy into that. Chapter three of Galatians, the first couple of verses. He says, you foolish Galatians. Who has bewitched you before whose eyes was Jesus Christ, he said, was publicly portrayed as crucified. How did you let someone convince you? I was clear on the gospel with you.

This is the only thing I want you to find out from you. Did you receive the Spirit of God by works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Look, you you put your trust in Christ, you receive the Holy Spirit of God, and now you're going to go back and be circumcised.

He's not done. Chapter five, verse one. He says it was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not subject yourself again to the yoke of slavery.

That's the religious gospel. He says, Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all. You can't do it. You can't mix new wine and an old wine skin. You can't sew on the new fabric on the old skin. You can't put in one little work like circumcision and then say, we're just bring it in. He said it'll be of no value to you at all. He said, I testify again to every man who received circumcision that if you do that, you're under obligation.

You've got to keep the whole law and no one can do that. Jesus Christ is incompatible with any religion in the world. And so is his gospel. Darryl Bock, the Greek scholar, says the passage also warns against syncretism between Christianity and any other religion. If syncretism were possible, one would think Judaism would be the best candidate. Judaism was older, worshiped the same God, shared the same hope when the Messiah prayed for the same deliverance. Jesus made it clear that although he is the fulfillment of the promise, a new way he brings is not ever to be mixed with the old. If Christianity cannot be mixed with Judaism, its closest cousin, then certainly it cannot be mixed with anything else available in the world's cafeteria of religions.

If you try to do so, you'll destroy both. He said, we also learn that religious people resist change, even change directed by God. The message this morning is real simple. I just want you to think of the implications. Don't ever think for a moment in your own life or in the life of anyone else you can mix Jesus Christ and his gospel with anything that's religious. Because once you mix it with religion, you've destroyed the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let's pray. Father, we live in a world that so often will become as synchronistic as it can. And it'll say to us like, no, I believe in what you say about Jesus and he's going to be my savior. But I want to practice my religion because that will give me the addition that I need to be justified before God. I pray if anyone thinks that way in the room, let them look in the scriptures for themselves.

You just cannot do it. We are saved by the grace of God. It's a free gift. We can receive that gift. We can be born again into the family of God by putting our trust and faith in Christ and his finished work on the cross. But Father, we cannot mix it.

Not with anything. That's the warning of Jesus Christ and I pray that we take it to heart. In his glorious name we pray.

Amen. You can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Help for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online. Or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.