It's so wonderful to listen to and see the fellowship of saints as you gather together and visit together and spend time encouraging one another. I know that's what a special body this is that we can come together and do this every week and the Lord guides and directs us and blesses us in so many ways. and that we are able to come and not only praise him, but to encourage one another as well. So yeah, so Brad kind of put me on the spot. I was visiting with the elders this morning during prayer time, talking about this week and the preparations for this week, and I'll try to make the story brief. I need to set the stage on a couple of things. One thing that you need to know about me, is that I'm one of those people that requires my sleep, right? And so, you know, don't bother calling me after about 10 or 10.30 at night because I'm in bed and I need to be there in bed. So you just kind of plug that away because that becomes important in the story. As Brad mentioned, I was scheduled to preach this sermon two weeks from now, and I had kind of thought about it some and put some notes down here and there, but certainly not anything that was fleshed out or ready to be presented because it's two weeks away. And so, Tuesday night I guess it was, when the travelers came back from the trip to Nepal, I had told Sherry that, you know, hey I'm picking up Lauren from the airport, I'll go ahead and pick up Kent as well because they live real close to where we are. So, picked him up and It was pretty clear that Kent was not feeling well as he got into our minivan there at the airport Tuesday night. And so I don't know why I turned to Kent and I said, you know, Kent, if you're not feeling well, I'm more than happy to preach for you this Sunday if that should be a need. And hoping the whole time that Kent would go, oh no, I'll be fine. And characteristically, I know Kent pretty well, he said, oh no, I'll be fine. And so I was like, great. And so we had that out of the way. And then the other thing you ought to know is that I don't travel much for my job. I'm pretty much stay in Wichita all the time, but it just so happened this week that I had a trip to Nashville Wednesday and Thursday. So kind of picking up them Tuesday night and then Wednesday I'm back at the airport getting on a plane and heading out to Nashville for two days. And the sovereignty of God that Brad mentioned is in this and that coming back from Nashville, Of course the flight goes through Dallas because that makes all the sense in the world. But coming back from Nashville, my 5 o'clock flight out of Nashville was delayed until 10.30 at night. And so I was not going to catch any connections in Dallas at that point. American Airlines was determined to get me at least to Dallas and so we land in Dallas at 12.31 in the morning basically and the next flight out was going to be at 7 o'clock and so I'm not going to go find a hotel for 3 hours or something like that. So I just stayed in the terminal. all by myself in a terminal there in DFW. And the seats are like this but not nearly this good in the terminal. And in fact they have armrests in between each seat so it's not like you can lay down on a bunch of seats or anything. So I'm sitting there in the terminal trying to figure out a way to sleep at one in the morning and God did not let me sleep. And I kept having things about the sermon that's still two weeks away go through my head there in the terminal. And so, if you don't know me, this is a true miracle because I said, well, I'm not going to try to sleep anymore. And I just set up and found a table and started writing sermon notes. And I was up till 4.30 writing sermon notes there in the terminal of DFW. And then caught my flight and came on home Friday morning. Friday afternoon, Kent calls and says, About that preaching on Sunday, would you be willing to do that?" And I said, well, sure, because it just so happens that I've been working on that, not knowing that it would be needed. So when we talk about the sovereignty of God and how He works, it's in ways that we don't understand. including delaying flights out of Nashville for five and a half hours as part of his plan. And that's something that we should always remember. We don't always recognize that in the moment, but God certainly worked in that manner. So I appreciate your prayers. I appreciate your flexibility and knowing that we're kind of jumping ahead. about a chapter and a half here or so and then Lord willing Kent will be back next week and we'll be back and finishing up chapter 8 and so I thank you for that. I did want to also tell you that story so that if somewhere in the middle of this things don't seem to make sense just remember that a big chunk of this was written at 4 a.m. in an airport terminal so I'll use that as an excuse. We come to a passage here in Matthew chapter 9 that I think is pivotal for the ministry of Jesus Christ and what He came to do and came to teach and what He came to bring to His believers. The nation of Israel for centuries had worked under the old covenant, the covenant that was promised by God that where he says, I will give you my laws and my requirements so that you know that I am a holy God, that I am a just God, and you must come before me in that manner. And this is the covenant promise that I have for you. If you will obey my commandments and do all that I have said, then I will be your God and you will be my people. And the people of Israel dutifully said, whatever you have said, we will do and we will obey. Well, we know the rest of that story that they, just like we, are sinful human beings and didn't always follow God, didn't always obey the laws that he had set out way back in the time of Moses. And he had set out the laws that really highlighted and detailed the separation that he is from whom we are. the holiness of God versus the unholiness and unrighteousness of man. It wasn't just the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses on Mount Sinai. It went on beyond that. A good part of Exodus, essentially all of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy outlines these laws and regulations and ceremonies and duties that the people of Israel must follow as they are to follow this God, the God that has chosen them. And so, as you would expect, following that old covenant of the law was something that the people could not do, could not do perfectly. We would not be able to do it either. And so it became clear to the people of God and to the prophets of God that the law does not provide the salvation that we so desperately need. The law has a purpose. The law is there to point out our shortcomings. The law is there to point out our need for salvation, but the law does not provide that salvation. And so we come to a pivotal point in Jesus' ministry here in chapter 9 when He starts to forcefully point out that there is a new covenant from God. And He is that new covenant. He's starting to point out that He has come so that He might fulfill what the law was not able to do. And that is to provide salvation for mankind. And so we come this morning looking at the claims of Jesus Christ, His boldness in coming before the people saying, this covenant, this new covenant that God is establishing with you, His people, it is me. I am that new covenant. I am here to fulfill that law. I am here to do what the law could not do. He makes bold claims in that manner. Bold claims that were really hard for the people of His time to accept. And I would say they're still difficult for us to accept at times as well. So as we open this and look at the claims of Jesus Christ, we enter the crossroads of the old and the new covenants. Let's go to prayer. Father God, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the privilege of coming together as a body of Christ to not only worship to You, but to lift up prayers to You, Father. Father, we're so grateful for your Word, for the Word that teaches us your will, your character, your desire for your people, and for a love that is hard for us to imagine, Father. We thank you that you not only provided the law that would show us our sin, show us our shortcomings, show us where we fall short, Father, but you would follow that up with a new covenant in Jesus Christ that takes all of our sin, all of our misgivings, all of our shortcomings, Father, and washes them in the blood of Christ so that we might stand before you righteous and holy, not because of what we've done, but because of the work of Christ. Father, we give this next few minutes to you. Speak through the words. If there is anything that I say that is wrong, Father, may it fall on deaf ears. But use these words, Father. Use your word this morning to touch hearts. Draw us closer to you for your glory. Amen. There's a couple of things that we see about this new covenant that Jesus is bringing, and the first one we see is that all who are sick are invited. This is something different, by the way, from the old covenant. You see, the old covenant was a covenant for the nation of Israel. It was for people who are of Jewish descent who could, by right of birth, be called children of God and come before him. But this new covenant is a different one. This new covenant is open to all who would come to receive it, and particularly to all who are sick. We see that as we read the passage, starting with the calling of Matthew. Chapter 9, verses 9, we read this. As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting in a tax booth. And he said to him, follow me, and he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. The first thing we understand about this new covenant is that it's a covenant not for the righteous, but for sinners. Jesus states he as a physician has come not for those who are well, but for those who are sick. He's come for tax collectors and sinners. In this modern day, we may not really appreciate the significance of that, but Levi was a tax collector, Scripture tells us. There's a couple of other things that we know about. I mentioned Levi. Scripture calls him both Levi and Matthew, and from that we know a couple of things. One, Matthew was a Jew. Okay? He was of the nation of Israel, but he was also a tax collector. And that held just a very special place in society at that time. Not a good place, a very special place. You see, the nation of Israel had been given the promised land. You all know that from back in Exodus. And for centuries, that land had been conquered over and over again by different different armies and different nations. And at the time of Jesus, Rome was the one that was now occupying the land that God had given His people, the Promised Land. They didn't care for that at all, as you can imagine. But that Roman legion, that Roman empire, had to be fed with tax money as well. And so, not only did they have an occupying force in their promised land that God had given them, but they were now required to pay tribute to that occupying force, to pay a tax to that force. And the nation of Rome used tax collectors to collect that. So how am I gonna collect taxes from a Jewish nation that doesn't like me? Well, I'm just gonna use some other Jewish people to collect that tax. They knew, they know who's there, they know the people. And so it was an area, as you can imagine, that was not real popular for the other Jews, right? Because Jewish tax collectors were now seen as collaborating with the Roman government. Not only are they part of the problem, they're here supporting the Roman government, and that's not taken well. And not only that, because it was a position of power that involved money, they were also known for, well, let's just say some graft and corruption as part of this. So here's how this works. Let's suppose Phil is a good Jewish citizen there in Jerusalem, and I am a tax collector. And so I see Phil and I say, Phil, it's time to pay your tax, $10. And Phil says, I'm not gonna do it. I don't like this Roman government. I don't like what they stand for. They're occupiers in my country. I'm not gonna pay your tax. And I say, not my problem. I'll just mention to these two Roman guards standing next to me, hey, there's Phil. He doesn't think he ought to pay the Caesar's tax that supports your Roman army. And just like that, the rest of the day doesn't go real well for Phil, right? So finally, Phil comes back and he says, okay, I'll pay the $10 tax. And I say, no, Phil, it's $15. What? That's outrageous. Sorry, you can pay the tax or you can visit my friends again. And so Phil pays the $15 tax. I give 10 to Caesar and I keep five for me. You can see now why the people did not care too much for tax collectors, right? It was a position, a profession that not only worked in collaboration with the Roman army and the Roman government, but it was one that was open to corruption. There was another famous tax collector in the New Testament, and I bet some of our kids may even know who that is. Do you know who the other famous tax collector in the New Testament was? I'll give you a hint. He was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he. Who was that? Zacchaeus, that's right, Zacchaeus was a tax collector. And we know that tax collecting was ripe for corruption because when Zacchaeus was introduced to Jesus Christ, he actually said, Jesus, I will give back four times whatever I have stolen from other people. That's the change that Jesus made, but it's also a confirmation that this was a position that was ripe for corruption. So scripture says that Jesus passed by and he called Matthew unto himself. And Matthew rose and followed him without any question. And then scripture goes on to say that Jesus now reclined at the table with Matthew's friends. Matthew decided to throw a party. We actually know from the other Gospels, by the way, this passage is presented almost verbatim, not only in Matthew, but also Mark and Luke also give this passage, not only of the calling of Matthew, but the questions about fasting. The passages we are covering today are in both of those books as well. But we know from Mark and Luke's accounts that this party was actually at Matthew's house. And so Matthew is there and he's throwing a big party for Jesus and who does he invite? He invites his friends. Who are they? They're Mortax collectors and Scripture says sinners. And it wasn't just they who showed up, because Jesus was involved and He was leading the people and He was gathering such a following, we see that the scribes and Pharisees show up as well. By the way, this was not a following that you would necessarily want to put together if you were going to put together a band of influencers. That's a big term with our young people this day, is there's people out there who are influencers. And you could say, well, Jesus was now starting to influence the people around him. And if you were to put together a group of people that would be on your side as you go around influencing people and gathering support for you, you would not go pick tax collectors and sinners to be a part of it. But that's who Jesus showed up with. And that's who he was in the midst of at this party. It's interesting as we look, we go back to Zacchaeus again. When Zacchaeus came to Jesus and Jesus called him, remember Jesus said, I'm going to your house today and I'm gonna feast with you. And Zacchaeus threw a big party for tax collectors and sinners. So say what you want to about tax collectors, but evidently they knew how to throw a party. Because we see that with both Matthew and Zacchaeus in Scripture. But here they are gathering together, enjoying a meal, reclining together, and the Pharisees show up. And they don't go to Jesus, but they go instead to his disciples. And they say, almost with words of disdain and disgust, why is it that your teacher eats and drinks and fellowships with tax collectors and sinners? tax collectors and sinners. Throughout scripture, throughout the New Testament, whenever the Pharisees in particular mention a tax collector, they throw in tax collectors and sinners. How would you like that? How would you like it if your profession was always mentioned with the worst of society? Why is it that you always hang around engineers and thieves? Why is it that you spend time with farmers and drug dealers? Why is it that you're always eating with accountants and lawyers? Sorry, I couldn't resist that one. And Jesus's answer to them, he starts to show the distinction between the scribes and Pharisees and their old covenant and his new covenant that's in him. And he says it this way, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. He starts to point out that Pharisees, your adherence to the old covenant and the way that you're enacting the old covenant is focused on the outside. It's focused on how we look to others. It's focused on these laws that I can follow, that I can check off at the end of each night and say, yep, I did that and I didn't do that. My outward appearance is impeccable. The Pharisees prided themselves on that. You wanna know what a good follower of God should look like? You look to the Pharisees. That's what they thought because they were upholding the laws. They were the ones that were meeting those requirements. And if they didn't meet those requirements, it's nice to be in a position of power where you just change the rule and say, well, here's the new rule and the new interpretation for that requirement. Jesus said, you're focused on the outside, but I am focused on those who are sick. Those who need to be healed from the inside. That's the difference between you and I, Jesus told the Pharisees. And that's the difference between an old covenant and a new covenant. No longer focused on what's happening on the outside, we're focused on changed hearts. That God comes in and changes lives. He goes on beyond that and reminds them what Hosea says. He says to those Pharisees, go and study again what Hosea said in Hosea chapter 6 verse 6. Prior to that, Hosea is talking about how the nation of Israel had gone away from God, had moved away from Him, and was following other gods, and God was pleading for them to come back to Him. And he says in verse 6, "...for I desire steadfast love, not sacrifice. I desire the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." God was saying through Hosea the same thing that Jesus was saying to those Pharisees. Your religion, your walk before God has become nothing more than rote ritualistic behavior. You're just doing things to check the box, to make yourself feel good. Your heart is no longer in it. He says that's the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant. Because that old covenant can only point out where you fall short. But the new covenant that I bring changes hearts and changes lives. Can I tell you something this morning? I don't know your situations. But if you're here this morning and you're thinking, before I come to God, I need to clean up my act. I need to change what's on the outside of me before I can come before God and come before His presence, come before a sovereign and holy God. If you're thinking that way this morning, can I tell you that you're thinking like the Old Covenant? You're thinking like a Pharisee. Because that's not the gospel that Jesus has brought. That's not the new covenant that he fulfills for his people at that time and his people today. You see, Jesus came for the sick. And you and I are sick. You and I are lost in sin. You and I have a sin nature that draws us away from God. But God is one who cleanses hearts. He comes for the sick and the sinful, and that's you and me. So in this first passage, as we look at the calling of Matthew, we're coming to a point where there's this crossroads between the old covenant that came through the law and the new covenant that came from Jesus Christ. And the first thing we understand about that is that this new covenant is for the sick, and all the sick are invited. But then the passage goes beyond that to describe some more things about this new covenant. And we pick that up in verse 14 with a question about the law in a sense. A question about fasting. Scripture says, then the disciples of John came to him saying, why do we and the Pharisees fast? But your disciples do not fast. And Jesus said to them, can the wedding guest mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wine skins. If it is, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved. Jesus, first of all, says that this new covenant is open to all who are sick. And secondly, that this new covenant is a matter of the heart, not outward appearance. Before we dive into this, we see that, and we'll show in just a moment, that in three short verses, Jesus gives us an overview of the full nature of God's revelation and redemption of mankind. He gives an overview of what this new covenant means, and he does so with three illustrations. But before we get there, we probably need to talk about fasting for just a moment. Fasting is usually designed and defined as something that we give up in order to focus our attention on something that's more important, right? Usually that thing that we give up is food. We talk about this often. I know you can fast for health reasons and people do that and that's very good. But the fasting that's talked about here is for spiritual reasons. I'm going to give up something, we'll say food in this case, so that I may dedicate my time, dedicate my thoughts to what's happening with God in my life, His will for me, what He desires, what His purposes are. And so fasting is a very, very good thing. It's actually only required, though, in Scripture in one place. In the Old Testament, fasting was only required on the Day of Atonement. That one time a year when the nation of Israel came together and put the blood on the scapegoat, the goat that was to carry the sins of all the nation, that goat was then sent out of the society as a picture of the sins of the nation being placed on this one goat and now that scapegoat is what it was called, is sent out now as it carries the sins of the nation, right? And so, that was the only time prescribed by the law of God when fasting was required. It's not that fasting wasn't done in other places. In fact, we see many examples of fasting in the Old Testament. For instance, when someone died that was important, David instituted a fast when Saul and Jonathan were killed in battle. That was one. Oftentimes fasting was done when there was something important coming up before the nation, typically before a battle. You see this over and over in the Old Testament. As the nation of Israel is about to enter into a battle to reclaim the land, for instance, the promised land that God has given them, the one in charge at that time, be it one of the judges or a commander, would institute a fast for that time as the people go before the Lord. It was also done in times of repentance. Scripture records that Moses fasted for 40 days because of the sin of Israel. So fasts are present throughout Scripture and they're a good thing. They help us, they help the people of that time to focus their attention on God just as they can help us today focus our attention on God. A few weeks ago we were studying the Sermon on the Mountain, you recall those passages. Jesus in that passage even brings up fasting, and he certainly doesn't say anything against it. He just says, when you fast, do it in this manner. And again he focuses on what's on the inside not the outside when he talks about that fasting. Don't fast in a way so that you can be seen by men but fast in secret because it's a heart issue. It's a heart issue as people come before God. So that's what the fasting entailed here. And I don't know how But somehow or another the disciples of John the Baptist noticed that Jesus and his disciples were not following all these ritualistic fasts. I mentioned earlier that the Day of Atonement was the only required fasting in scripture. But over the years all these voluntary fasting times have been put together by those who were the religious elite and pretty much became mandatory over time. So that there was fasting at all different times throughout scripture. And because of that, that just lent itself to the ritualism of what was happening with the old covenant. And so John the Baptist's disciples came to him and said, okay, you're eating with tax collectors and sinners. Okay, I get that, but what about fasting? You and your disciples don't even fast. Do you follow any of the law anymore? Does the law really matter? What a great question. And so Jesus starts to set the stage on who He is and what He's there to do. And again, He goes through three different illustrations in three verses that aptly describe who He is and why He's there. The first one is a bridegroom. Who's been to a wedding before? Of course you've all been to weddings, right? What are they? They're joyous occasions. Aren't they wonderful times of celebration? There's much laughter. There's much joy there. There's feasting. Sure, I know that at our wedding Linda's folks weren't all that happy, but everybody else that was there was having a great time. There was much celebration. There was laughter. There was hugging, there were smiles, and there was food. Oh, what great food, right? The last thing you would do at a wedding feast would be to fast, would be to take a solemn time before God and say, now I'm not going to eat, and I'm gonna solemnly turn my attention towards God and submit myself humbly before His will. All those are good things, but they're not things you do at a wedding feast. Good Jews of Jesus's time would have fasted and they would have prayed for many, many things, but the key thing that they prayed for and the key thing that they fasted for was the coming of the Messiah. There they were, as I mentioned earlier, in an occupied country with the Roman army all about them every day in this promised land that God had given them. And throughout the Old Testament, God had promised, I will send someone who will redeem you. I will send someone who will raise up my people. That's what they prayed for. That's what they fasted for on a regular occasion. And Jesus is now coming before the Pharisees, coming before the disciples of John the Baptist, coming before all those who were there listening to him and saying, that time has come. The bridegroom has come for his bride. You no longer need to fast for me. I am here. Salvation is in front of you. Sure, there will come a time when I'm pulled away again. And then you can fast. But for now, the very thing that you're fasting and praying for is among you, looking you in the face and speaking to you this moment. The new covenant has arrived and I am He. So Jesus first of all comes and says, my people do not fast because the bridegroom is already among them. The new covenant is here to fulfill what the old covenant could not do. Second illustration, we read where Jesus says, no one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment for the patch tears away from the garment and a worse tear is made. I am not a seamstress. I don't know how to sew anything. I had a button fall off some slacks the other day and I said, I'll put this on. 45 minutes later, I had that button put back on. So I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to things like this But I do know how clothing works in that when you have new clothing that has not been washed the first time it gets washed It shrinks. Okay kids. This is gonna really just blow your minds when I was a teenager the style was of course Levi's that were very tight and And I remember going to a party once and I had just bought some new Levi's and they were tight and because that was the style. And this party was at a friend's house and there was lots of fun and things going on and somehow or another, I know you'll find this hard to believe, I got thrown into a pool. I know it was nothing that I did, but somehow or another that happened that I got thrown in the pool. I don't recall what caused that, what anything led to that. I do recall this one thing. I could hardly breathe the rest of the night as I had gotten out of that pool because those new jeans had shrunk. And it was really hard to breathe after that because that's what happens with new clothing. And so what's Jesus saying here, if you've got an old piece of cloth, one that you've washed several times, it's now shrunk all that it's going to shrink, right? And if that piece of cloth gets a tear in it, what you don't do is take a new piece of fabric and sew it on top. It will look great, it will look perfect, but then the first time you wash it, that new cloth will shrink and now it will tear the old and your tear is worse than the original one ever was. So what does that have to do with a covenant? What does that have to do with anything that we're talking about Jesus? And he says, I've brought the new covenant to you. And it's not just a patch on the old one. The old covenant did not work. The Old Covenant was not there to save us. The Old Covenant was to point out our sin and our need for salvation. The Old Covenant could not save, and I am not here just to fix the Old Covenant. I bring you a new covenant that fulfills what the Old Covenant could not. I want you to turn, if you will, over to Hebrews, because I think the writer of Hebrews says this very well, when he's talking about the difference between an old covenant and the new covenant. Hebrews chapter 8, beginning in verse 6. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second covenant. But he finds fault with them when he says, and he here being God, says, behold, by the way, he's quoting Jeremiah, and he says, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers. On the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, even in the time of Jeremiah, God made it clear that there was a new covenant that was coming to the people. Continuing on, for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws in their minds. I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people." It's no longer this list of demands from the Pharisees, from the scribes, from the Old Testament. I will write my law upon your heart, and you will know me. I will be your God. and you will be my people." Verse 13, and speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. That's what Jesus was saying. The old covenant had its purpose of pointing out our sin, of pointing out that we worship a holy and righteous God and we are not holy and righteous in ourselves. It had a purpose, but now the time has come, the crossroads are here for a new covenant to be brought before the people, a covenant of changed hearts, a covenant of changed lives from the inside out. So this second illustration, Jesus says, that this new covenant is not just a patch on the old. It is altogether something new. And finally, Jesus talks about wine. Verse 17, neither is new wine put into old wine skins. If it is, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wine skins, and so both are preserved. Does anybody here make wine? You're not gonna raise your hand anyway if you did. Anyway, so, yeah, so I don't know much about wine, right? But what I do know is that there's this thing called fermentation. And it's almost like the exact opposite of my illustration with the clothing that shrinks when it gets wet. We have kind of the opposite thing happening with wine and wineskins. So when you make wine in the old time and you used wineskins, what you would do is you would make that wine and you would put it into new fresh wineskins. Why? Because as that wine ferments, it's going to expand. And if you have new wineskins, they're very subtle, they're very flexible, and they will expand with the wine. And so everything's preserved, right? What you would not do though is take an old wine skin, one that's already been stretched, one that's already now kind of hard, and put new wine into it because what will happen? That wine will ferment, it will expand, and it will burst the wine skins and all will be lost. So Jesus comes to his hearers this morning with this third point of the New Covenant. And the point is this. You can't have both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant together. They don't work that way. If you try to take the grace and the mercy and the heart-changing nature of the New Covenant and pour it into the framework of the Old Covenant's laws and regulations and rituals, it will burst. The law cannot hold that grace, and that grace will be spilled and lost. You cannot force the grace of God into the constraints of the law, Jesus says. This work of the New Covenant brought by the life and death and resurrection of Jesus is a work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And the Spirit cannot be constrained by these laws of man that hold it in. You cannot have both the Old Covenant and the New. It's interesting, you've probably got your Bibles open to a passage that we're reading. I mentioned that this passage is in not only Matthew, but Mark and Luke as well. I'd like you to go ahead and flip over to the Luke version, because I want you to see this for yourself. If I just read it to you, I don't think you'll believe me. And so I want you to read it for yourself. Again, as I mentioned earlier, these passages are almost identical between Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but Luke adds a verse that I think is incredibly important for us this morning. We pick up in, you know, 33, he's talking about, and again, I'm sorry, I'm in chapter 5 of Luke. 33 is where he starts the passage on fasting, and he goes through it, and Jesus says, can the wedding guests fast while the bride grooms with them? The day's coming when I'll be taken away. He tells them the parable there, and again, in Luke, about the unshrunk cloth and the old cloth. And then he goes on to talk about the old wineskins and the new wineskins and they'll burst if you do that. And then he ends with verse 39. And no one after drinking old wine desires the new. For he says the old is good. Is that what yours says? Does that make any sense? Anyone who has tasted the old wine desires not the new, for he says the old is good. Is this a typo that somehow or another got lost in translation? Is Jesus really saying when I'm given two options, one is laws and regulations and rituals and ceremonies that lead to my righteousness before God, Versus the other one that's a work of the heart. It's the work of the Spirit in my life. It's God moving within me. I'm going to choose the laws and the regulations and the rituals. Does that make sense? Could it be that as a people we prefer to have a religion that I can control? A religion where I can see the rules and I can check the box each night and say, yep, did that, didn't do that, did that. Could it be that I prefer that control over my righteousness before God? As opposed to the untamed spirit that might work within me on my heart, leading me in ways that maybe I don't necessarily desire to go. Is it possible that I prefer that? Is it possible that I prefer a religion that allows me to not only check my boxes but to notice whether you've checked yours as well? On the assumption that maybe one day God's going to grade on a curve and all I really have to do is be better than you. That's an old covenant way of thinking. And it's one that's desirable for us if we haven't tasted that new covenant wine, if we haven't tasted the work that Jesus Christ does in our lives. So with this third illustration, Jesus points out that you cannot have the old and the new together. You have to choose. You have to choose where your righteousness will come from. Will it come from your efforts? Will it come from your desires? Will it come from your strength, your abilities? Or will it come from the work of Christ in your life? You might say, well, I'm really not sure which one I'm under this morning because I can go back and forth. Well, here's a thought. How about if you listen to your prayers? You see, there's a prayer that can go like this. Father, I have sinned today. Please forgive me. And tomorrow, I will apologize for what I've done. Tomorrow I will not lie about my actions. Tomorrow I will put away that device that brings pornography into my life. Tomorrow I will be more patient with the people who I come in contact with. Tomorrow I will or I won't or I'll try That's one prayer. Or there's another prayer. A prayer that says, Father, I have sinned today. Please forgive me. Lord, now You indwell me with Your Spirit. Father, You give me Your eyes of patience and longsuffering as I deal with those around me. Father, you pull my heart away from those things that do not honor you. Father, you give me your spirit within me. Father, you draw, you remake, you mold, Father. Father, you cleanse my heart. Father, you create in me a clean heart and renew your right spirit within me. That's a new covenant prayer. That's a prayer that says, if I am going to be right before you, God, it's something that has to come from the heart that you mold, that you shape, that you remake in your image and work out from there. It cannot happen any other way, for the Old Covenant does not save. You tell me this morning that you're a child of God, clothed in righteousness. I ask you, are you wrapped in old wineskins or new? Let's pray. Father God, what a pointed message from Your Word today. It's a message that says and illustrates and points out our intense need for You. Father, if the law that You have given to us does anything, it shows that we fall short, that we miss the mark, and that we are in need of a true Savior that is beyond our abilities, beyond our talents, beyond our intentions. Father, what a blessing it is. That you didn't leave us in an old covenant of laws and regulations and rituals, but that you provided a new covenant through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord, Father. It is in Him that we have righteousness before you. Thank you for that, Father. Father, the ways of the old covenant pull at us daily. As we seek to just have a religion where we check boxes and we say that we're okay, break us of that, Father. Help us rise each morning saying, Father, my heart is yours. Mold it, shape it into the image that you want. Draw me, Father. And to what you are doing and your will, make me a useful vessel for what you are doing today, Father. And may it be done in a way that gives you glory and honor and praise. Help us leave here today, Father, as changed people. Not changed because we learned a new rule to follow, but changed because You are working in our life. And You are making us something altogether new. To Your glory. Amen.