Matthew Chapter 9, Matthew Chapter 9. If you have your Bibles, we'll turn there in honor of God's Word. Matthew 9, we're going to read verse 14 down to verse number 17. The Bible tells us in Matthew Chapter 9, verse 14, Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft or often, but thy disciples fast not? Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bride chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast. No man putteth a piece of new cloth into an old garment for that which is put in to fill it up, taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.
Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish, but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. Father, your word today is a joy, is an honor, Lord God, for us to be able to stand in reverence of the word of the living God. Lord, I pray today that the glory of your kingdom would come into the hearts of your people and your will would be accomplished. Make us those who are poor in spirit that we may see and be a part of the kingdom of heaven. Lord, I pray that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear and understand your word. Open our eyes to behold wondrous things out of thy law. May the law of the Lord be perfect and convert the souls of those that are lost and bring sanctification to those that are saved.
In Jesus name, we pray, and God's people said, Man, you may be seated this morning. We live in a world today that has elevated tolerances being the highest virtue that they promote. But it seems as they have promoted tolerance, they have become more intolerant, right?
Anything seems to be acceptable in our world today, except for standards of truth and biblical truth, that is especially. Some things you may not be aware of, but there has been a increase of attacks in our country, not against transgenders, not against homosexuals, not against any specific race or ethnicity. But there has been a spike, in fact, against Christians.
You will not hear this on the news because they do not care to report this. But according to Family Research Council, these 420 acts of hostility have happened against churches between twenty eighteen and twenty twenty two and forty five states. Acts of violence against churches have tripled so far this year. Sixty three attacks against churches in the first three months of this year, which were more than all attacks in twenty eighteen.
Most of those are vandalism, destroying property, arson, starting fires, burning churches, gun threats, even bomb threats. We were all horrified at the mass shooting. In Nashville, where a former student of that school who now professes to be transgender, killed six people, three precious nine year olds and three staff members. In the media sees the transgender individual as the one who is the victim. They have still not released her anti Christian manifesto. And you have to ask the question, why didn't they release that and why will they not yet?
There are certain police groups who are now suing that department for not releasing it. So why is there a spike in aggression against Christianity? Because the Bible makes clear standards.
With the overthrow of Rover's Way, there was many assaults against churches, and why did they do that? The Bible tells us that life begins at conception and that abortion is murder. It teaches that that there are only two genders, male and female. And in Canada today, there are laws that have been passed that if you misgender someone, you have violated their human rights, and that is against the law now in Canada.
You can be prosecuted for calling someone the wrong gender. The Bible teaches homosexuality, fornication and adultery are sins, all of which this society has now celebrated. Today, people now make their sin their identity, like they identify as what the Bible would refer to as a sin. And if you don't affirm that, then you are the evil one. You know, Christians are never called to be offensive. We are not to be enemies of people. We are to love people, the Bible says, as much as lies in us to live peaceably with all men. But I will never lie and call a man a woman or a woman a man.
I will never call evil good and good evil either. My master is not the American culture. My master is the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's nothing. You need to understand this. There's nothing more loving, nothing more gracious and kind and merciful than to give people the truth. Do you understand that every one of us today had to be confronted in our sin before we ever came to the Savior? Like somebody had to confront us about who we are and what we've done in our life has caused us to be separated from God because of our sin. That wasn't hateful for someone to do that.
That was loving. And we don't come to people yelling and shouting and holding up signs and being offensive. The Bible doesn't call us to do that, but it does tell us to speak the truth in love. And sometimes that's offensive.
And most of the time, somebody is going to get upset. And so we must stand for the truth. And those who hold the truth, you need to understand will be hated, rejected and eventually persecuted in whatever society they live in. John 15, verse 18. Jesus said, If the world hates you, you know, it hated me before it hated you. He said, If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you are not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world. Therefore, the world hates you.
It hates you because you don't belong to the world. You belong to Christ. But know this, the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. In the face of great hostility, Jesus always stood without compromise, like he would not. Waver on the truth, he stood firm. Now the world is not our enemy.
It is our mission field. Always remember that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. He loved the lost. He loved the broken. He loved those who were out of line with reality. He came to bring them the truth. But never one time did he compromise to truth to make people feel comfortable. I mean, Jesus was like the most offensive person.
In his day, the first sermon he ever preached in his hometown, they were so upset they took him to the edge of the city and went to kill him. Could you imagine in your hometown? I didn't grow up in Xenia. I grew up in Wilmington. And my wife grew up here in Xenia.
I said, where do you want to start a church? She said, not in Xenia. Not in Xenia. And here we are. You know, when we began to pray about that 13 and 14, 13 and a half years ago or so, God put her Xenia on her heart so much and she she loves Xenia now. And this is our home forever unless the Lord were to take us home or to move us somewhere.
Which I never plan on doing that. But Jesus never wavered on the truth. He stood firm on the word of God. Jesus declared that he was the essence of truth. I mean, he was the most narrow minded person that ever lived. Jesus is like everything I say is truth and only truth. And if you ever disagree with me, you're always the wrong one. Right?
Doesn't get any more narrow than that, does it? Jesus. I mean, Mary could have been like, you know, John, why don't you be more like your brother? James, why don't you be more like your brother?
And James could have been like, Mom, why don't you be more like Jesus? Jesus is the truth. He declared himself in John 14 six.
He said, I am the way, the truth. It's important to understand that it put Jesus in some extremely difficult situations. It's important to understand that because Jesus stood on the truth, he made other people feel very uncomfortable at times. When Jesus came to the earth, he came with grace and truth, but also that caused people to be offended. Jesus didn't seek to offend people and neither should we, but truth on its own offends. Is important to know that because he stood on the truth, some people hated him, some rejected him and some crucified him. But it's also important, though, because he spoke the truth. There were people who were saved, delivered from their sins and eternally in heaven today.
I would ask you, where are you today? Do you stand on the truth? Do you stand without compromise? You just need to know this. The world's going to get worse and worse. You will become more and more isolated. Like if you stand on the Bible, your circle of friends will continue to decrease. Social media will deplatform you or persecute you for things. You will have people who look at you as the enemy. We live in a postmodern society that sees the Bible as unacceptable.
And I'm telling you, it's going to get worse and worse. They will they will begin to claim that they believe the Bible and that you're just interpreting it wrong. People say like Jesus never spoke against homosexuality.
Oh, really? So when he said in the beginning, they made them male and female, therefore shall a man leave his father mother cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. That's what Jesus said. And oh, by the way, Jesus wrote the Old Testament.
If you didn't remember that. You see, God authored the Bible everywhere. The Bible speaks about marriage everywhere. The Bible speaks about homosexuality. Every time the Bible speaks about sexuality in any way. God Jesus authored that right. The Bible is clear.
And it's crystal clear. The world. You either love the world or you love God. The Bible says if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you like you either side with one or the other.
Which one is your foundation? As one man said, choose your world. You want Earth or heaven? There is one thing that you should come to church for above all else, and that's to know the truth. But there are churches today that are getting rid of the truth. They're more worried about being acceptable with man than with God. And the more we are acceptable to man, the less we're acceptable with God. We must preach the word of God.
What are you building your life upon? What America says or what God says? I I'm always disheartened when when somebody proclaims to be a Christian. And they will reject what the Bible says over what their political party says. I'm like, you're really going to place your politics over the Bible.
Like, I don't know of a worse decision you can make than that, right? Y'all awake this morning? I know it's I know it's raining. OK, some of y'all were like, you go to the early service, but you're like, it's going to rain. Let's go to late service because it's like, you know, pitter patter, pitter patter and sleeping good.
Now the early service is home, lunch, taking their nap right now. What are you basing truth upon? What we find in this passage today is Jesus would not waver from the truth. And he's calling us to that same position. And because Jesus would not modify the truth, he would not mold into their desires of the culture. Because of that, they crucified him and they killed his followers. And today I want to look at a message entitled that Jesus doesn't fit.
And if you didn't fit back then, I'm telling you, he's not fitting today. You know, it's Gavin Newsom. Gavin Newsom, California, right? Gavin Newsom was quoting the Bible in support of abortion. We need to love our neighbors is, I believe, the verse that he used on huge billboards in defense of abortion. Really? So is the child in the womb your neighbor?
Unbelievable, isn't it? That's why I say they're going to quote the Bible and act like you're the one that's off. So first of all, Jesus does not fit into the religious customs of his day. Look at verse number 14. It says, Then came to him the disciples of John. According to Mark and Luke's account of this, it says came to the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees. And they said, Why do we in the Pharisees fast after we fast often?
But thy disciples fast not the disciples of John had taken the religious tradition that had been taught by the Pharisees of their day of having regular weekly fasts. A little bit about the Pharisees. They were the leading religious group, the conservative group, the Bible group of the day. They dominated Israel at this time. There were like the main religious groups were the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
The Sadducees were the real liberal group. They didn't really believe the Bible. Pharisees did believe the Bible, but they took it to like a place of like building manmade tradition on top of it. And they became legalistic. Jewish historian Josephus said there was about 6000 Pharisees at this time. And they turned their religious life into external shows.
I mean, it all came down to like a works based system. The Old Testament was in the law was given that we might that might show us that we're sinners in need of a savior. And they're like, no, we're not sinners.
We can actually keep this. And so they they they tried to work themselves into favor with God. They fasted often. They fasted twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. In the Old Testament, only one day a year, God had required a fast, which was on the day of atonement. Yom Kippur in Luke 16, 29, when it talks about afflicting your souls in reference to fasting. There were other fastings mentioned in the Old Testament, but they were to be spontaneous fast, like for grief, mourning.
When somebody was seeking after God, as in Daniel nine. They did not understand why they were being. So religious by fasting twice a week, they just did it. And they didn't do it out of sincerity and love for God. They did it out of out of the desire to be seen. They did it out of a routine, out of a ritual. You know, sometimes people do things in faith and in some some religious traditions, and they don't even know why they do it.
You ever been inside of a church or a group? That, you know, they pray repetitious prayers, take the Eucharist to go through all these formalities. And you ask, why do you do that? And they're like, I don't know. It's just what we've been told to do. Oh, oh, that's what these guys did.
They go through the system. I never want you to come to Lighthouse and be like, why do we do that? Because I have no idea why we do that. So why do we sing when we come in? Well, the Bible says enter into his gates with thanksgiving and do his courts with praise.
We're to come and to sing and to pray. Why do we stand when we read? Well, the Bible tells us in the book of Nehemiah that when they open the book, they all stood. Jesus Christ stood to read in Luke Chapter four.
They stood in reverence of the word of God. Why do we pray for the Bible system? Why do we preach? Because the Bible elevates preaching as being the primacy inside the church.
That's what we're supposed. Why do we why do we take the Lord suffer? Well, the Bible, it's all on the Bible, right? I mean, we quote the Bible constantly. We what's the Bible say? You don't hear him recording a bunch of ancient church fathers. Well, the church said back in the council. Nice.
See, and they charge you. I'm not going to go back to the Council of Trent. We're basing it on what does the word of God say? Now, some of those councils lined up strong with the Bible, but we're not looking to tradition to build truth upon. We're looking to the word of God to build truth upon.
Does that make sense? Now, it's important to understand that they they they prided themselves on their fastings. They didn't do this out of a love for God necessarily.
They did it out of a love for themselves. And Jesus confronts this back in Matthew six, verse 16. It says, Moreover, when you fast and he says, this is something you should do when you do it.
When you fast, be not as the hypocrites. What do they do? Well, they have a sad countenance. They disfigure their face. You know what they would do? They would put ash on their faces. They wouldn't wash their face. They wanted to look like they're really devoted.
It's funny today, some people still put ash on their face so that they may appear under men to fast. Verily, I say to you, they have their reward. Why? Because people can see it.
They become so weak today. What's going on? I'm fat, fast, really devoted to God. God's like, well, that's your reward. They're applauding you.
Good job. Because you get nothing from God. He says in verse 17, but when but thou when thou fastest, anoint thy head, wash thy face, that thou appear not under men so to fast, but under thy father, which is in secret. And thy father, which sees in secret, shall reward thee openly. If you do something spiritual, do it for God and not for men. Men may benefit from your growth in the Lord, but you do it to not be seen by men. You do it so you could honor the Lord with your life. These men came along in their self righteous fastings weren't know why Jesus wasn't being as religious as they were. And then look at verse 15.
That's what he says. Can Jesus answers them? He says, can the children of the bride chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? Can the groomsmen, in other words, mourn when you got the groom with you? He says, but the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them and then shall they fast. So he says, hey, fasting should be so private that no one would ever know it. Fasting is done biblically due to grief, mourning, sorrow over sin.
You're so saddened that you can't eat. It's done out of desire for God. But if the Lord is in your presence, you don't need to fast because that's done in seeking him, longing for him. You're sad you want to be with the Lord.
But if he's there, you're not going to fast because he's there. No one weeps and mourns at a wedding. It's a time of celebration, he's saying here. There is extreme religious guys asked why Jesus disciples aren't fasting in Jesus, like how can they when the grooms in the midst and the Bible tells us in Psalm 16 11 in his presence is fullness of joy. You know, God is is not a cosmic killjoy. God wants you to have joy in your life. The greatest joy you're going to have is when your life is lived for the Lord Jesus Christ. John 15 11 says these things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be what God wants you to have full joy. You're going to have full joy, not when your ball team's doing well.
You're going to have full joy when your life's right with God. They were so focused on their religious rituals, they couldn't even see God's presence right there with them. But Jesus said the days will come when the groom is taken away from you. And I believe that was referring to his death. He said, then they will fast. And I believe that when Jesus Christ died those three days in the tomb, I believe the disciples were all probably fasting because they probably weren't even hungry enough to eat. But what is the first thing Jesus does when he comes back?
He makes food and they eat right. He says he came to them in the upper room. Luke 24 broke bread with them. And so they were more worried these guys who come to Jesus about their rituals and relationship. And that's true of all religionists, the legalists, those in dead orthodoxy.
They're always more worried about your external and appearance than they are about the internal reality. They were good at rituals, but bad at relationship. Jesus, the Son of God is in their midst. And they couldn't even see him because they couldn't get past their traditions.
And let me make an application of that reality. We must be careful that we don't miss Jesus by going through motions. God is not found in vain repetition. We must be careful that the incredible joy and blessing of coming together to sing praises to the name, which is above every name. We don't find ourselves making repetition out of song that we would honor God with our lips, but our heart would be far from him or saying prayers with our lips, but our hearts somewhere else or reading the Bible, but our minds are not engaging what we're reading.
All of us at some points have been guilty of this. Can you say amen to that? So we must come with worship in our hearts.
We must come with sincerity and in truth. He's calling us to be sincere worshipers. In John 4, when Jesus came to the woman at the well, she said, you know, at Jerusalem, you say it's a place to worship.
And we say here at Mount Gerizim, and Jesus says, woman, believe me, the time is coming and now is that God is searching for true worshipers that would worship him in spirit and in truth. It's not there that you worship or here. It's not a place that you worship him.
It's not about where, it's about who. You're worried about location and God's worried about sincerity. So Jesus spoke the truth. He didn't fit into their religious customs. And now in verse 16 and 17, Jesus goes on to teach that the gospel doesn't fit in any other religious system. Here in verse 16 and 17, Jesus gives two different illustrations.
The Bible actually refers to them as parables in Mark and Luke's account. Illustration one is in verse 16, he says, no man putteth a piece of new cloth into an old garment for that which is put in to fill up, taketh away from the garment and the rent is made worse. You know, if you have a pair of pants, I got some old work pants, man. I put so many holes in them things. And you don't cut a new piece of cloth to put in an old garment because when you go to wash that and it dries, the new clothing will shrink and it will tear away from the old garment that it was sewed onto.
So if you have an old garment, you always take an old piece of cloth and you cut out a portion of that so that when you sew it on and you wash it and dry it, it won't shrink. And Jesus says, if you do that, it will just tear it to make the hole worse. What Jesus is saying here is that the gospel cannot be patched into any legalistic system of Judaism or any other system. The word of God, the gospel, Jesus Christ stands alone.
If you try to mix it, you corrupt it. The message of the gospel that he is preaching is a gospel for sinners. Jesus just said back in Matthew 9, notice in verse 13, he said, but go and learn what that meaneth.
I will have mercy and not sacrifice. I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Listen, there is only one kind of person that God saves and it's people who recognize they aren't good enough to get to heaven. You must confess you are a sinner in order to be saved. There's no other way of being saved. And they believed you could be good enough and he says you can't mix them.
You can't put a new patch on an old, it's going to tear away, this isn't going to work. And it wasn't that Jesus, the old garment that he's talking of here is not the Old Testament. Jesus made clear back in Matthew 5, 17, he said, I did not come to destroy the law and the prophets.
I did not come to destroy them but to fulfill the law. The old garment here is speaking about the Jewish religious system that had departed from the Old Testament. They were religious and lost. I have no desire to be offensive but this has happened in churches such as Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, as well as in many Protestant churches.
They have a lot of truth but they've built man-made traditions that have caused them to pull away from the truth. You ask people in many of those churches and systems, hey, how does a person get to heaven and they'll start telling you what you need to do. You need to get baptized as a baby, you need to go through catechism, you need to partake in the Eucharist, and they go through all these sacraments. You're like, where's the gospel?
Where's the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ? I've asked hundreds of Catholics, hundreds, my Purcell, one-on-one, hundreds. If you were to stand before God and he said, why should I let you in heaven, what would you say?
Every single time, without exaggeration, hundreds. Every single time they begin to tell me through some good thing they can do. But I feel like I, you know, got to be a good person.
You know, you got to, can't lie, can't steal, can't go out and murder people. You know, you need to go to church. They begin to tell me all these things.
And at the end of it, I always ask the same thing. So where's, what about Jesus? Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, you got to believe in Jesus, too. Oh, okay. So it's your good works plus Jesus, right?
So you kind of patch him in there, is that what it is? It's just like, hey, you know, well, Josh, I know I'm not perfect, obviously. None of us believe we're perfect. So it's the religionist who says, you know, I'm spiritual, I'm religious, like the guy who told me, you know, I've been going to church for 40 years, and if that's not good enough, I don't know what is. Also, you think going to church is going to get you to heaven, right?
40 years, put your time in, punch the clock, put that down on your resume, going to get you in, right? The Bible teaches there's none righteous, no, not one. The Bible says it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, Titus 3.5. You know, Paul had put together his list of good works.
Paul said in the book of Philippians chapter number three, he says, though I might also have confidence in the flesh, he said, if any other man thinketh he hath worth, he might trust in the flesh. If you think you're good enough, you're religious enough, he said, I have more, I've done more. He says, circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, touching the law of Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
I mean, he just goes through his credentials. He built the Jewish resume. He did it all, man. He's like, you think you're good enough to get to heaven?
He's like, I did it, I did it all. He said, but what things were gained 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, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law. He goes on to say, verse number 10, 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. Verse number nine of Philippians three. It's not through our works, it's through faith in Christ. You know, salvation isn't Jesus plus good works. It's Jesus alone. Isaiah 64 sixes, but we all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fate as a leaf in our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.
The Bible says even our righteousness is like filthy rags. You may be a good quarterback in your backyard, but you go out and play with Peyton Manning. I hate to even say it, but like, well, we won't even go to Tom Brady, Joe Burroughs.
This feels better to go to Joe Burroughs, doesn't it, right? You go back there, you're throwing around with those guys, and they're like, yeah, your arm's not as good as what you thought it was. You know, standards change, don't they, depending on who you're with. You may look good compared to other sinners.
When you stand next to the perfection of the Lord and Holy One of God, Jesus Christ, before whose face the heaven and earth will flee from his presence. I'm telling you, friends, all our righteousness as Isaiah 64 sixes is like filthy rags. It's filthy. Your throw would be filthy to pay Manning. It's not good.
Your hand position on the ball, your rotation of the ball, your accuracy, the way your footwork is, your shoulder. It's just not good. And if you think that's a standard, how holy and righteous, you know, God's perfection is so great that when Jesus came into the presence of Peter and Peter understood who Jesus was, Peter fell down and said, Depart from me from a sinful man. Oh, Lord. Isaiah fell down and said, Man, Lord, I'm a I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. The closer you get to God, the more you recognize your sinfulness.
In the early service. Brandon Johnson was sharing how. He said, You know, I felt like I was a good person. Very nice young man.
Going to young man is in mid thirties and his wife. Trusted in Christ and were baptized. And and he said, You know, I thought I was a good person. You know, I didn't send him my life, but said when I sat down and Pastor Josh opened the word of God and showed me what the Bible says about my condition, it just he said, It just totally opened my eyes. You know what happens when you come to the word of God?
It opens your eyes to reality. You and I are not as good as we thought we were. Better that you find out now, right? And the world thinks we're evil for telling them they need to be forgiven and confess their sin to God. No, you're not evil. You're the most loving people on the planet. You're the most loving people. You know, the people who hate them. You know, the person who hates the transgender, the homosexual, the adulterer, the fornicator, you know, the person who hates them.
The one who says you just need to be you. Oh, really? I'll keep them in their sin that will cause them to die and spend forever separate from God. That's a loving thing. That's gracious. That's kind. No, that's hate.
You must hate them. You know, if God so hated the world, he would he would have let us be ourself, wouldn't he? But he calls us to repentance. Acts 17 30 God God commands every man, men everywhere to repent.
He he winked at our sin. At one point in the Old Testament, it says that he was gracious with people, but now commands men everywhere to repent. So the first illustration is you can't patch the gospel into some garment. Like it like it like a new piece of cloth into an old garment, you can't patch the gospel into some some other religion. Second illustration is in verse 17. He says neither do men put new wine into old bottles or old wine skins. Else the wine skins break and the wine runneth out, but the bottles or wine skins perish, but they put new wine into new bottles and both are preserved. Now in Jesus's day, there wasn't a whole lot of options to drink. Like you had you had water with floating amoeba. You ever been to a third world country? You don't drink the tap, right?
So, Mark, you remember that, right? Down the Honduras, you go to brush your teeth, you go to, oh, I can't drink that. No, no, no, no, don't want to drink that, you'll be sick. Or you drank goat's milk, or you mixed some wine in with your water. To purify water in their day, they often mixed a little bit of fermented wine into their water. The typical ratio was three parts water to one part wine. That was considered their wines. You need to understand this, like people in the Bible days, they saw, like, it was watered down wine. It was like, it was, they would even, they even had methods of de-fermenting the wine because they would take it down to a consistency of like a jam, and then they would stir that in with water and they considered that wine. And it was unfermented wine.
There were, there were also fermented wines and they considered unmixed wine, like just straight wine with no water mixed into it, as being the drink of the barbarians, or Scythians. So, it caused people like, the people who created the grape, the Welch's grape juice. What's interesting is Welch's was a dentist and he and his father were preparing the Lord's Supper and through study of the scriptures, they said, you know, yeast is, causes bread to rise once it begins to ferment and releases air and that's what causes the rise. And he says, if God wanted that removed so you would have unleavened bread, why would we want the fermentation process to happen and drink which can cause problems?
And that's what happens. And so, so they use the same methodology that they did in the Bible times to remove the fermentation and that's how they came up with Welch's grape juice. So, so if you're going to go out and drink beer and say, well, in the Bible they drank wine, you don't even understand the concepts of scripture. Like that's not what the Bible is talking about. Like that's barbaric drink to them. Now, I'm not, you need to, you need to make that decision between you and the Lord. I know some people this is not a stumbling block, but for me, the reason I don't drink any type of alcoholic beverages is, first of all, there's 50,000 things to drink.
You know, it's not goat milk and amoeba water, right? But, but I don't want to ever be a stumbling block to people. I tell you it's a sad thing if you drink alcohol of any kind and people are like, hey man, I'm surprised you do that. You're a Christian. If anybody ever does that to you and you try to defend that, you have to ask yourself, why are you defending something like that?
You must love yourself more than the weaker brother. Because, because you could try to defend that like you have a biblical reason and I'm not saying all alcoholic beverages are always sinful. And I believe you need to, you need to take that between you and the Lord. But if, I do believe it becomes sinful if it becomes a stumbling block to people around you.
And I don't care what it is in life. Whatever you have in your life that becomes a stumbling block to other people, you need to put it away, right? Does anybody agree with that?
Should you do things that are sinful? Okay, okay, you agree with that. Don't make me preach this whole thing over again. I don't even have some of this on my notes, I'm just talking.
It's important to know that though, isn't it? So he says here, you know, so if you put, if you put new wine into an old wine skin, an old baggy wine skin, that fermentation process would cause it to expand and it would blow up the wine, the wine skin. He says you would take a new wine skin that has some elasticity to it so that you could, it could stretch itself out some. And what he's saying here is you cannot, you cannot mold the gospel into Judaism. You can't put the new wine of the gospel into the old wine skin of ritualistic Judaism and its system. It cannot be mixed. This is, this is the truth that stands alone. There's nothing else you can mix it with.
And they kept trying to do that. If you read the New Testament, all you're reading constantly in the, after the four gospels is trying to purify the truth from ritualism and Judaism. Galatians 5 verse 1, he says, stand fast therefore in the liberty or freedom wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage. And he goes on to say, if you believe in Christ plus circumcision, Christ doesn't profit you anything. You can't mix Jesus with anything else.
He stands alone. That's, that's what he's saying here. And let me give you a third and final point as we wrap up today. Like what does it mean when you say that phrase wrap up today? Is that, does that mean like we're almost home?
I'm actually kind of getting hungry. So we'll, we'll make this quick. Spiritual perception thirdly doesn't fit into external religion. And I think this is so important. Look over to Matthew 12, couple pages right in your Bible, Matthew 12. Look at verse number one. When people focus on external religion, they begin to like lose spiritual understanding.
It like goes hand in hand. Matthew 12 verse one. And the first thing that they missed, you begin to not see things that are true. And the first thing they missed was they, they were so focused on their traditions, that they missed Jesus, the Son of God in their presence. Matthew 12 verse one. At that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn and his disciples were in hunger.
Began to pluck the ears of the corn and eat. And when the Pharisee saw it, they said in him, behold thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. But he said unto them, have ye not read what David did when he was in hunger and they that were with him? How he entered into the house of God and did eat the showbread and was law was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them that were with him, but only the priest. Have you not read in the law how that on the Sabbath days, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless. Like they're saying you can't work on the Sabbath and he's like, well, the priests do every Sabbath that are in the temple working and they're blameless.
Verse six, but I say unto you, look what he says that in this place is one greater than the what? So the Jewish temple is like I'm greater than the temple. But if you had known what this mean, if I will have mercy and not sacrifice you would not have condemned the guiltless for the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day. He's Elohim of Sabbath. The Jews would call him. He is his Lord of Sabbath.
Jesus Christ. They're like they're like trying to put Sabbath rules on Jesus and Jesus like I made the Sabbath. You know why you have a seventh day because I created it. Listen to his rebukes to the Pharisees and Scribes in Matthew 12 verse 41. Then the men of Nineveh, he says shall rise up in judgment against this generation and condemn it because they repented at the preaching of generous. Remember Jonas went to Nineveh and all everybody repented. He's like those people in that day will rise up in judgment against the people of this day because a greater than Jonas is here. Your spiritual perception is blind.
You don't see reality. Christ is in your midst and you can't see him because you can't get past eating corn on the Sabbath. Not washing my hands on the set doing things your religious traditions have created. They kept missing the glory of Christ in their presence because of their tradition.
They put so much focus on the external rules. They miss Jesus. I can tell you friends that can happen to people and the Pharisees were the religious group. But their religion calls them to be critical of other people and focus on man-made traditions instead of God-given reality.
And I tell you I've seen people do this. They start reading the Bible getting real sincere about the Bible. Sharing how they're reading the Bible with other people and then before they know it they're critical of other people instead of loving the Jesus they were reading about. They begin to pray they grow in their prayer life and they share their prayer life with others and then they're wondering why other people aren't praying like them and then they get critical of the other people. People starting to serve in a ministry at church and they're telling other people oh this is such a great ministry and then other people aren't serving that same exact ministry as them and then they get critical of that person. I can tell you your spiritual receptors just went off.
Are you doing that for you now? You can start with a very good thing the Pharisees did exactly that. They started with the Bible and it turned into themselves focusing on how spiritual they were comparing themselves with others and then it just went downhill from there. Also people can miss Christ in their traditions of reading and praying and going to church reading the Bible.
If you can go through like when you serve it's like why would you care about other people serving? You should just adore Christ. When you pray you should encourage other people but don't be critical of them just adore Christ in your prayer.
Just worship Him. How has God's Word affected you this morning? Psalm 4 4 says stand in all. Psalm 33 8 says let the inhabitants of the earth stand in all of Him.
Psalm 119 1 61 says my heart standeth in all of thy word. You know that you've become somewhat ritualistic when you become critical of others and you miss the glory of Christ in the midst of whatever you're doing for Him. I mean Jesus is standing in their midst and they're complaining about rituals.
Like what are you, why are you not fasting? And I bet Jesus, here's another thing. Jesus had just eaten with Matthew last week, right? Matthew the publican had a big feast.
It was probably on either Monday or Thursday when this happened. One of their fasting days. Like we're fasting and he's eating, what on earth?
You know they're wiping the ash off their head like what are you doing Jesus? And he's like you don't even understand why you're doing what you're doing. I didn't command you to do what you're doing right now. You're doing it for yourself. When you start comparing, listen, when you start comparing yourself to other people and becoming critical of them, you've just lost your spiritual receptors.
You're becoming blind. Secondly, they missed the truth of salvation. I mean they're so focused on the external rituals, they missed Matthew the tax collector. Remember the little mochas the publican last week we talked about? This is the worst guy in town, the worst tax collector in town. Mochas was one of their publicans. If you weren't here last Sunday, you can go back and listen to that.
But this is like the worst guy in town. Preceding verse the passage we just read about here in verse 14 through 17 in Matthew chapter number 9. We read last week verse 9 to 13 where Matthew the publican gets saved and invites all of his publican and harlot friends to his house to meet Jesus. And I mean John the Baptist disciples, you would thought would have been like the most evangelistic guys.
They're like, why are you eating and stuff? And it's like, hey, didn't you just realize that that there was a great reason to celebrate here that Matthew saved and the work of God's going forward, but they couldn't even see it. You know, I've seen this happen before to people and it just it's so sad to me. Someone gets saved. The Bible tells us there is rejoicing in heaven over one center that repents. Like hey, we had so-and-so called out to Christ today or somebody gets up and shares their testimony. Hey, you know before I met Christ, this was my life.
And then then I came to know Christ as my Savior and he changed my life and heavens exploding with joy. And if you can't even muster up a praise the Lord. Do you think you've lost your spiritual receptors? You think you've become spiritually blind? You think you're taking the word of God and just going through the rituals while I'm sitting in church same chair, same place knowing what I'm supposed to do.
I'm staring at Josh. He hopefully gets done by quarter after, you know, but I mean we kind of go through this thing. Or are we here because we love the Lord Jesus Christ when somebody gets saved. We can't help but say praise God.
Yes. You know so-and-so got saved. They're going to be standing down here on the front row. Do you have enough excitement to walk by? You think Jesus would come by that guy that day?
You think he would come by and say, hey, man, I'm just welcome to the family. Afraid sometimes we miss it. Thirdly, they miss the ministry needs around them. Look what happens in verse 18 of Matthew chapter 9. Right after this conversation with them when they're debating with them about this fasting thing says while he spake these things unto them.
Mid conversation. Behold, there came a certain ruler and worshiped him saying my daughter is now even dead. Come but come and lay thy hand upon her and she shall live. Well, it just breaks my heart when I read that. Here's a father in desperate need of Christ. In desperate need of somebody to care about him.
Little girls dead. And these guys are arguing with Jesus over. Why aren't you fasting like the rest of us? You know, when you get caught up on the externals, you get very insensitive to the needs of others. You know what that can look like in church? It looks like coming in, sitting at your chair.
It's like who's sitting next to me? I don't care. Is there anybody around me that has some prayer needs? Well, I don't know. Well, you know, there's a prayer request that so-and-so has a cancer surgery coming up next week. Oh, you didn't care. Also, are you a religionist now?
You think coming and sitting is really honoring God just to do that if you have no love for him or love for others? You need to be here. It's very important. It's very good.
Wonderful, especially on rainy days. But I'm gonna tell you something, friends. Don't miss the needs of those around you. You know, every Sunday that you come in here, 650 or so people gather in these two services? You know, there are some people that come in absolutely devastated. There are some people that are so broken who've lost loved ones.
We've buried five people in the last four weeks. You know, there are some people that are going through some heavy stuff inwardly, relationship stuff, family stuff, healthy situations. There should be enough concern to where at least the people in the row that you sit in, you should get to know their names, should get to know them.
Somebody at church who... You should know some of the needs of somebody around you. You know, and sometimes it's just external things you can do. Like on Wednesdays, you can come early and Sundays come early. Say, why would I come early? Because you can get around and greet people. If there's ever something you're ever early to in your entire life, it should be the house of God.
Let me ask you this. Why would you come early to anything in life? The only reason you would come early to something is because it would be a value, right?
So say you're going to a ball game, football game, spring baseball game, whatever. You show up early. Why would you show up early?
Or you go to a house state game. You don't get there on time. You get there early. You want to get to your seat. You want to get there on time.
And I just wonder in heaven how God feels when people can take so lax like the things of God. And there's people that just need a hug maybe before church. Somebody needs encouragement. You know, even on like rainy days. You know, we have some men that show up early on rainy days.
And if you're a man, you should do this. If it's raining out or if it's a snowy day or whatever, but if it's raining now this time of year, it's like, you know what? I'm going to grab an umbrella and get there early because I know there's going to be some older folks that may be coming in in walkers or some other health situation that slows them down. And it may take them 30 seconds longer for them to get to the front door than me if I parked in the back of the parking lot. So first thing I'm going to do as a man is drop my family off at the door. But then I'm going to park as far away from the front door as I can so it makes it easier for everybody else.
And then I'm going to get an umbrella and I'm going to find that older person that's coming in and I'm going to keep them from getting wet while they're walking in. That's just an easy physical ministry, right? It's going outside and holding the door for the person behind you, helping that poor senior that's walking out with their loved one who's struggling with dementia and helping them through their car door and open the door for them saying, hey, I'll get your walker.
Do you want me to put it in your trunk for you? Just caring for somebody. Like we live in a cold world, don't we? I mean, I'm so sick of how cold this world is. You go somewhere, people just meh, meh. I mean, just I tell you, the only place I find love is at church.
My home is and I come to church and it's just like this place of warmth and love and reality and people are real and authentic. And I'm telling you, if you're not part of that, you're missing it. You're missing it. You're missing loving Christ. Say, I love Christ. You love Jesus by loving people. Jesus said, as much as you done it to the least of these, that's when you did it to me. So if you want to love Jesus today, you got to love people. We say, I don't love people.
I'd like to live in Alaska by myself on some island. You know, I know how some of y'all are. And as America gets darker and things get crummier in some areas, it's like, oh, I just want to get away from it all. No, that's when we engage the world with the gospel. That's when we reach out.
That's when people need encouragement. Listen, we're not, the church isn't retreating here, is it? Like the gates of hell don't prevail against the church. We preach, we stand on the word of God. We are moving forward. Lighthouse is growing. We're going to be launching churches, send missionaries out.
It doesn't stop. We're not worried about, about the church closing down. We're, the world should be worried about the proclamation of the gospel. The power of God is through this. Paul called in Romans 1 16. He said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's the dunamis of God unto salvation. It's the Greek word for dynamite. It's the power of God unto salvation.
Let me give you, as we wrap up, we are almost done like one minute and a half. Three evidences of a true living, saving faith that is real and honoring to God. From last Sunday, we preached on Matthew through this morning. True faith in Christ is one that sees Christ is valuable above all and that follows him. When Jesus came along, the difference between the external religionist and the one who had internal reality to his faith, Jesus came along and said, follow me. The true believer gets up and follows, making sacrifice. When you're truly saved, there is no sacrifice too great that Christ could call you to. Secondly, true faith points others to Jesus.
Let me ask you a question. When's the last time you told somebody you're a Christian and that you pointed them to Jesus? Who's the last person you ever told about Christ? If you've never told anybody about Christ, do you think Christ will tell the father about you?
Jesus, if you confess me before men, I'll confess you before my father, but if you deny me before men, I'll deny you before my father. If your workplace doesn't know you're saved, well, I'm not allowed to let my faith be known. How could you hide?
If you're pregnant, you couldn't hide pregnancy. How could you hide God inside your heart? Doesn't mean you force it on anyone, but it means that you are who you are, amen. True faith points others to Christ, and thirdly, true faith doesn't get caught up in foolish questions and debates.
That's what external religionists do. Jesus doesn't fit into the religious systems of the day. You can't mix Christ with any other system.
You can't mix the gospel. If you're not saved today, it's not your works plus Jesus. Isn't you saying, you know, I think I just need to work a little harder at this.
Oh, really? You're going to make your filthy rags look a little more filthy. You know what makes our good works even look worse to God is when we try to make them more acceptable to him as though we can. We have to come to God and say, Lord, I am a baker in need of bread. I am naked in need of clothing. I am lost in need of a shepherd and I am dead in need of life today. If you don't know Christ, what men and women stand at that door, I'll be here and at that door as well. You just come down and say, I want to know when my life's over, how I could be in heaven. Listen, there's no other way to salvation. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life.
No one comes to the father but by me and Christian, you need to listen to me. The world will get darker. Just a chance for you to be brighter. You're going to be hated. They're not going to like you.
You're going to have to navigate some conversations that are going to be difficult. You're going to have family. Jesus said, because of me, Jesus said, families will be torn apart. Jesus taught that it's going to happen.
It's not easy, but you love people. You share the gospel. The world is not our enemy. It's a mission field and we stand on the word of God. You cannot waver on this and I'm telling you, if there's ever a day that you need to begin to read and study and pour your life into this book, it's now, it's now, let's all stand this morning.
It has about nights closed. Father, we thank you for your word. I praise you for its truths. I pray that you would fill us with the word of God, with understanding, help us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh. Father, I pray today that if anyone doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ, maybe they've tried to fit Jesus into some goodness in their life or some religious system they were in. That today they would confess the sin of that and they would turn from their own self and turn to you. We have to come to the end of ourself to come to the beginning of Christ. It's not, it's not our goodness plus Jesus, it's Jesus alone. Lord, help us to be sincere, to worship you in spirit and in truth, was to love others, take time to minister to those around us, to esteem others better than self. We give you this time in Jesus name. Amen.
