Will you take your Bibles this morning and turn to Mark chapter two, we will be looking at verses 18 through 22, under the heading "The Singularity of the Christian Gospel." And beloved, I trust that you never underestimate the privilege that we have to come together and to worship and freedom. The privilege we have to even own a Bible, in many places that is illegal. But we have the word of God, we can study the Word of God, we can immerse ourselves in it, we can allow its truths to penetrate our heart. And certainly, my responsibility is to clearly and compellingly and boldly present to you what God's Word says, so that we can apply it to our life as we engage in the battle of sin that is always raging in our heart. And certainly, the goal of preaching is to put the glory of Christ on display, so that men and women will come to a saving knowledge of Christ. And so that believers will continually be lost in the wonder of his majesty in his love and his grace, to fall more in love with him and to become more like Him, as together we await his return. I might also add that if you were here today, for any other reason, than your priorities, dear friends, are amiss. And I would challenge you to examine your heart and to repent, and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Let me read the text to you Mark chapter two, beginning in verse 18. "John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and said to Him, 'Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?' And Jesus said to them, 'While the bridegroom is with them, the attendance of the bride groom cannot fast, can they? So long as they have the bride groom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them. And then they will fast in that day. No one says a patch of unshrink cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the patch pulls away from it. The new from the old and a worse tear results. No one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst, the skins in the wine is lost, and the skins as well. But one puts new wine into fresh wine skins.'" What an interesting answer. Don't you know they were scratching their heads wondering, What on earth did he just say?

We live in an age where tolerance is considered to be probably the greatest of all virtues. Ambiguity and uncertainty are celebrated in our society where all viewpoints, no matter how absurd, or even contradictory must be considered equally valid. This is the zeitgeist of our day, or in other words, the prevailing dominating spirit of our age that drives society. Live and let live is the idea and this is why Biblical Christianity is so hated. This is why the singularity of the Christian gospel is so despised. After all, we are telling people, and rightfully so, that the Bible is the only inspired, infallible, authoritative and all-sufficient standard for faith and practice. Because it is breathed out by God Himself. We are telling the world that there is only one true God, the Triune God of the Bible, we are telling people that the only way to salvation is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are telling the world that all other religions are false. Well, our society cannot stand that. Although it is tolerant of the most immoral and absurd and ridiculous ideologies that you could possibly come up with, like transgenderism. They can tolerate that but they cannot tolerate the gospel.

And again, these are the driving forces behind the cultural Marxist mob that is now driving our country. A mentality that seeks to replace biblical absolutes with the kind of moral relativism that is inherent in totalitarianism. This is the natural consequence of people that have no fear of God, therefore, they have no wisdom, they have no discernment. And this is the result now in this postmodern world in which we live with his prevailing attitudes of skepticism, subjectivism, relativism. Concepts like absolute moral truth are completely rejected in our culture. Whether it's politics or religion, emotion has replaced reason. Ad hominem attacks have replaced rational and reasonable dialogue. This is the American nightmare in which we live.

Once again, when a culture celebrates sodomy, and same sex marriage, when a culture believes gender is determined by subjective personal identification rather than biology, when a culture believes that it's okay for a woman to kill her unwanted child, that culture has sunk into an abyss of divine judgment. God has given it over to a depraved mind that is incapable of moral reason Romans one speaks of this, "They have suppressed the truth in unrighteousness." And therefore, the wrath of God is revealed against that culture. And like an out-of-control drug addict, our society continues to ingest the intoxicating poisons that it craves, and it will do that until it od's and dies. Given the insanity of sin....and why culture is tolerant of everything, except those that are intolerant of their views, primarily Biblical Christianity. And this is why we cannot coexist with other religions in some unified global spirituality as the bumper sticker would have us do. We are not of this world. We are not of this world dear friends. When praying to the Father concerning the redeemed Jesus said in John 17:14, "they are not of the world even as I am not of the world." He told His disciples and John 15:19, "If you were of the world, the world would love its own but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. Because of this, the world hates you."

We went to Walmart last night to pick up some things. And just walking around, looking at the people I'm almost speechless with the things that I saw.  And my heart breaks for these people, they need the Lord. But you can tell just by looking at them, even the way they are dressed, the astounding immodesty, the things that they had printed on their shirts, the ways that they conducted themselves, scream of the fact that I don't belong here. You go to the average college campus and you will see the same thing. Turn on the television you see the same thing. Paul said in Romans 6:19, that those without Christ are "slaves to impurity and to lawlessness resulting in further lawlessness." Now, what I want you to understand is, this is nothing new was going on in the first century as well as it is today.

In the first century, when Jesus arrived on Earth, Satan used the same tactic of intolerance. He just use different actors and a different ideology. Satan opposed the gospel through apostate Judaism and the Pharisee and the purpose of this narrative here in Mark two is to expose this. And therefore underscore the singularity of the Christian gospel. It is utterly exclusive. Dear friends, it mixes with absolutely nothing. It cannot be added to any other religion, it cannot be added to any other worldview, it stands alone in total singularity. And its exclusivity is the source of enormous rage. Among those who believe there are many ways that lead to heaven, or who believe that their religion is the only way.

As I was thinking about this, many conversations come to mind, but one was on a cattle drive and branding that I was on for about 10 days in Utah a number of years back. These were primarily Mormon cowboys that I was working with, with some of my buddies, and we would spend from sunup to basically supper, in a saddle, and lots of opportunities to talk and two of my buddies that we became, we became very good friends together, and one of them was a Mormon, and the other one was a Roman Catholic. And so it didn't take long before the topic of religion came up, and oh how I prayed for that topic to emerge. And over the course of many hours, I was able to kind of hear from them. And one of the things that I typically ask people in apostate religious systems is this. So do you think you're going to make the cut? You think you're good enough for God to save you. Of course, there's always a bit of hesitancy and what they rely upon is their church affiliation, their baptisms, their good works, and the rituals that they do and so forth. And it's so good to be able to say to those dear people, you know, I know I'm gonna make the cut, not because of anything I did, but because of what Christ has done for me. And over the course of that time, I was able to share with them the exclusivity of the Christian gospel, and it was horribly offensive. Nevertheless, I was able to present it to them, and we're still friends. Good news is a number of years later, the Mormon came to saving faith in Christ. And he and his family are now walking with Christ. Isn't that a great thing? And who knows what all the Lord used to bring him to that place, but well, we see the same conflict at play in the first century, only the issue is not Mormonism or Judaism or a tolerant, sin crazed society. It is apostate Judaism and other religious system where salvation was earned, supposedly, by keeping the law rather than trusting in Christ who alone kept the law and fulfilled it perfectly.

Now, I wish to examine this text before us under two very simple headings that I trust will be helpful to you, we're going to look first of all at the Pharisaical protest, and then secondly, the divine response. And this is yet another example, my friends of the ongoing war between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light, the kingdom of Christ. The former is the wide gate that leads to destruction. The latter is the narrow gate that leads to eternal life. The former is the broad way of the many, versus the narrow way of the few, as Jesus described in Matthew seven. Now, let's remember the context here. This scenario where the Pharisees confront Jesus is another magnificent manifestation of the providence of God at work. I want you to understand that when we read these narratives, it's not like the Spirit of God just decided, well, "I think I'll tell this one here, and I'll inspire somebody to say this there, and then this here," but all of this fits together perfectly, in the infinite mind, of an omniscient God. What happens here is the inevitable outcome of Jesus deliberate actions. All three of the synoptic writers Matthew, Mark and Luke describe record this particular episode in all three places right after Jesus stunned the crowds by calling Matthew the tax collector. Which is most significant.

Now let's remember what has happened leading up to this, and why God has providentially now orchestrated this particular scenario to occur and the sequence of events. First of all we remember inn Mark two verses one through 13, Jesus returns to Capernaum and heals the paralytic. And then he amazed the crowds remember, he claimed that he had authority to forgive sins? This caused the Pharisees heads to explode. "Yeah, but didn't you see it just heal the guy that was put in...yeah, big deal. He said he could forgive sin." So that's what they were obsessed about.

And then secondly, Jesus demonstrated His love for sinners by calling Matthew, the tax collector, to follow Him and to be one of his disciples. Worse yet, he goes to Matthew's house for a celebration of Matthew's conversion. And you might say Matthew's career change. And he shares a meal with Matthew and a number of Matthew's partners in crime, who according to verse 15, of chapter two, we're also following Jesus, though there was a bit of a revival going on here and the Galilean mafia. And that's kind of what they were. I mean, all these tax collectors getting together they were all crooks, along with politicians out of Herod’s court, assassins, thugs, shakedown artists, con men, loan sharks, prostitutes, every kind of lowlife that hangs around in the criminal underworld. So Jesus does this deliberately to irritate the Pharisees. When I was a kid, we call it scab thumping when you did something deliberate. You know what scab thumping is? Somebody has a scab imagine on their arm, and every time you walk by you just thump it. Used to do that to my sister, drove her nuts. You know? This is holy scab thumping here with the Pharisees. I mean, the Lord is just constantly doing things to irritate them, because he loves them. And he wants them to see the truth. Have you ever heard biblical truths that just really make you mad? I have. Have you ever left here mad? I have. I'm sure you have if you haven't you will. Have you ever had God just totally frustrate your plans and constantly show you something that you just don't want to see until finally you're broken and you humble yourself. Well, that's what was going on here. This is pursuing grace at work. "The mind of man plans his way but the Lord directs his steps," Proverbs 16, nine, right? And remember, Jesus was appointed from all eternity to seek and to save the lost, and to sanctify the redeemed, to deliver and recover sinners from an elapsed and fallen a state from which there is no recovery in ourselves. And some of those Pharisees that are a part of this particular episode, we will see some day in glory. And we will be able to talk with them probably about this episode. Who knows, maybe. I'd love to see what was going through your Oh, he just made me so mad. I mean, everything he said was just, you know, he just kept up and, you know, just constantly drove me nuts. But down deep, I knew he was right. And I repented.

So Jesus has been frustrating, these pompous peacocks over and over again, as he has me on many occasions, and you as well, if you're honest. Well, we've all been humbled, haven't we? We've all been humbled. The Father prunes the vine, and sometimes that's painful. SoJesus wants to expose what these characters already know to be true. And that is that their self-righteous, law keeping hypocritical legalism will not do. Instead, what they need to do is repent and believe in Him for forgiveness of sins. And of course, again, this caused the Pharisees to just be apoplectic, they were just enraged with this whole thing. This Jesus of Nazareth is making a mockery of us, making a mockery of our religion. In fact, later Jesus would say to His disciples in Matthew 11, verse 19, "The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they said, 'Behold a gluttonous man, and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'" Then he said this, "Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds." So Jesus has been deliberately leading these apostate Jewish leaders, and those who are following them to a natural conclusion. And that is that the gospel of saving grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is diametrically opposed to legalistic apostate Judaism, where one must earn their salvation through self-righteous efforts and legalistic works. In other words, he's saying to them, your religion is false. The gospel I preach is true.

Now, with that context, let's examine the text. First of all, let's look at the Pharisaical protest, verse 18. It says "John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and said to Him, 'Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?'" Now we must answer two most basic questions. First of all, why were disciples of John the Baptist with the Pharisees, right? What's going on there? And secondly, why were they all fasting? What's the point of all of that? Well, there's possibly several answers here, and they may all overlap. But one answer for John's disciples to be with the Pharisees here, is that this is one of Satan's great strategies to divide and conquer. In fact, John Calvin adheres to that particular explanation he says this, "There is no room to doubt that the Pharisees maliciously endeavored by this stratagem, to draw the disciples of John to their party, and to produce a quarrel between them and the disciples of Christ. A resemblance in prayers and fastings was a plausible pretext for associating at this time. While the different manner in which Christ acted, was an occasion of enmity and dislike to men whose temper was an amiable and who were excessively devoted to themselves." I love the way the old Puritan spoke. "This example," Calvin goes on to say, "reminds us that prudence, and caution are necessary to prevent wicked and cunning men from sowing divisions among us on any slight grounds. Satan has a wonderful dexterity, no doubt in laying those snares, and it is an easy matter to distress us about a trifold." End quote, And my, how I have seen that over the years as a pastor, I've seen a tempest in a teapot over some little issue in the church blow up into a cat five hurricane, and you just scratch your head and wonder how in the world did this happen?

Well, another explanation about John's disciples being with the Pharisees, and this may overlap, is that not all of the disciples of John the Baptist really knew who Jesus was. You must bear that in mind in Acts 19, the first seven verses, we see how Paul encounter some of them 30 years after Jesus’ baptism. They weren't sure who he was. And maybe they were jealous of all of the people that are now following Jesus, rather than John the Baptist, who was now in prison. John 3:26, we read "And they came to John and said to him, 'Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.'" Of course, this didn't shake John at all. He wasn't in any way upset about this. In fact, in verse 30, he says, "He must increase, but I must decrease." Now, you must remember that those who responded to the preaching of John the Baptist were truly repentant. And they were looking for the coming Messiah, of whom he foretold, and many of them had been baptized in the wilderness. They had hung around there with some of the other believers excited about their newfound faith and then they had gone back to wherever they lived many miles away. They returned home with a real desire for holiness. But they didn't have the New Testament scriptures. All they had was the Old Testament. So they were kind of in this transition between the Old and the New Covenant, not really sure how to conduct themselves in faith and obedience. So like all good Jews, they followed the Old Testament law, which required fasting, one time per year on Yom Kippur. We read about that in Leviticus 16. But they probably also were fasting according to the traditions of the Pharisees, who we know, fasted twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, according to Luke 18:12, something that they made up. However, beyond that, we know that the Pharisees had concocted all kinds of rules and doctrines and superficial traditions that they could obey to make themselves look and feel spiritual. And the three legs of the stool of Judaism were prayer, almsgiving, and fasting.

So they made a big public demonstration of all of that. In fact, Jesus excoriated them in Matthew 15, beginning of verse seven, "'You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'" Now, there were a number ofvoluntary, that is, non- mandatory, fasts mentioned in the Old Testament, and those fast we're associated with things like grieving, mourning, even an opportunity to enjoy a season of intimate communion with God. And so John's disciples would have been motivated by these factors. So, together with the Pharisees, they come together, and they confront Jesus. Now, bear in mind, it's highly likely here that John's disciples were just legitimately confused. You know, what's, what's going on here? The Pharisees, however, we're not. They were driven by wounded pride and embarrassment and animosity towards Jesus. They considered themselves to be the keeper of the gate, the keepers of the gate of Judaism, and Jesus and his disciples were violating their manmade rule rules. And of course, a harsh attitude of judgementalism is always concomitant with what goes on in the heart of people that are caught up in legalism, there's animosity, there's jealousy and so forth.

Now, there are times I want to remind you that sin needs to be confronted, I don't want you to hear that that's never the case. In fact, we read of this in Galatians, six, beginning in verse one, "Brother, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one and a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself so that you too, will not be tempted, Bear one another's burdens." That's the idea of getting under another person's burden of sin that they're dealing with, come alongside them, help them with that sin. "And thereby," he says, "fulfill the law of Christ." Which is the law of loving your neighbor. "For if anyone thinks he has something when he has nothing, he deceives himself." Now, mind you, this was not the attitude of the Pharisees here. It's not like, you know, Jesus is confused on some things here. So I think we probably need to come alongside and, and help him out here, you know, try to figure out what's going on. He's obviously doesn't understand how things are supposed to work. That was not their understanding there. They were filled with indignation. They were motivated by just self-righteous, hypocritical legalism.

By the way, we've all got to guard our hearts against that kind of wickedness. I must as well. In fact, if I can put it this way, whenever you resent a brother, and or sister in Christ, because they don't share your personal preferences, you need to check your heart. More often than not, you're acting out of jealousy and pride, which will always produce strife. My goodness, over the years as a pastor, I've seen people break fellowship over the most ridiculous things. There's so many, it floods my mind even when I think about it, I remember you all may remember we used to have a Christmas wreath back here before we put the cross; I had people on the internet, call me a heretic because we had a Christmas wreath. You know, I mean, it just it just goes on and on. People fight over all kinds of things. You know, if something binds your conscience, then don't do it. Don't ever violate your conscience. But please, on non- essentials don't break fellowship, that is not what is honoring to the Lord, we are to prefer one another in love, right? But when there's legitimate sin, obviously, we're going to deal with it. But we're not all going to agree on everything. As you've heard me say many times, there's never been a worship service in the history of the world, where every single person likes the music, which is not going to happen. And just because things don't go your way doesn't mean that you have the right then to attack other people, we need to be sensitive. There are some people who have what Paul called "weak faith" in Romans 14, one, they are unable to perceive their full liberty in Christ, they're so afraid of committing some type of, of spiritual offense that they are surrounding themselves with self- imposed restrictions. And you know, we need to let that go, honor that. That's why in Romans 14 one, it says, "Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions." But what we need to remember is what Paul said, for example, in Philippians, two, beginning in verse three, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another is more important than yourself, do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others."

Now, having dealt with that for just a moment, that was not the attitude of the Pharisees, right? That's not what's going on here. So we've seen the Pharisaical protest, now the divine response, and here's where it gets really interesting. Jesus said to them, verse 19, "'While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.'" Now, this is magnificent, obviously a brilliant argument, one that they would have understood in their culture, because of their traditions, but also because these were Old Testament scholars. Now let's bridge the cultural divide here for a moment, and then you will understand why Jesus said what he did. A Jewish wedding feast typically lasted about seven days and the festivities began when the bridegroom arrived with his attendants. That was a time of celebration, not a time of mourning and fasting, they would have understood that. By the way, in that culture, in the ancient Near East, especially in Judaism, it was the bride groom that got all the attention, not the bride. You know, today in the bride spends 1000s of dollars on a gown and we rent some cheap tuxedo or wear some suit that doesn't fit very good. We get dressed in the janitor's closet and you know, the rest of it. It's everything's, everything's a bit different these days. But in a Jewish wedding, we find many parallels to Christ and his bridal church, and the events surrounding his second coming. But it's interesting that he says, "while the bridegroom"; he's talking about the bridegroom here. What a fascinating statement. Now, the Old Testament never directly refers to the Messiah, as the bridegroom, but it does describe Israel as the Lord's bride, "in whom He delights", Isaiah 62, verses four and five, in fact, in Hosea's prophecy in chapter two beginning in verse 19, we read this, "I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness, and in justice; in lovingkindness and in compassion, and I will betroth you to Me and faithfulness, then you will know the Lord."

Now, although Jesus reference here, to himself, as being the bridegroom, is a veiled messianic claim, there's a high probability that the Pharisees at least began to think about, "I wonder if he's saying that he is the Messiah, that He is the bridegroom" obviously. So they would have understood some of this imagery from the Old Testament. And of course, we know that in the New Testament, the Spirit of God builds upon this even further by describing the church as the bride of Christ. You read about that in Ephesians, five and Revelation 19, and 21:22, and so forth. If even entrance into the kingdom of God is compared to an admission to a wedding, remember that in Matthew 22, as well as Matthew 25.

I've got to digress here for just a moment, because this is so exciting. I want to remind you of something. If we look, for example, at Revelation 21 and verse two, we read, "And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband." Beloved, that's us. The imagery of the redeemed being the Bride of the Lamb as we see in Revelation 19 seven, is found in numerous passages of Scripture. And it depicts God's deep personal union between himself and those he has chosen by His grace. And this must be understood in the context of a Jewish betrothal and wedding. There were really three parts to a Jewish wedding. First, you had the "kiddushin", which was the betrothal or the engagement period. And that included a contract whereby the couple were considered legally married. And as his bride we are the betroth to Christ, right? We were given to him in eternity past by his uninfluenced, sovereign choice. But secondly, beyond the "kiddushin", and that is the betrothal, there was the presentation.

And so what would happen is at the close of the betrothal period, the groom would go to his bride, often unannounced. And I've seen this actually happen in the Old City of Jerusalem, an amazing story, I won't tell it all to you. But then he would take her to his father's house present her to his family and friends over a period of typically about one week, lots of festivities going on. And at the end of the presentation, the bride would return home briefly, gather her things and her bridesmaids, and then the groom and his groomsmen would go to the bride's house and escort her and her bridesmaids to the actual ceremony. Now, mind you, in Jesus mind, and in their mind, they would have understood, that's not a time for fasting, right? No mourning going on here. This presentation, I believe will occur at the rapture, when he comes for His bride unannounced, and he takes us unto himself as a pure virgin, the sanctified church, he will present us to the heavenly host and glory.

And then the third part of the Jewish wedding was the actual ceremony. And for believers for the bridal church, this I believe, will begin at the marriage supper of the Lamb that's described in Revelation 19, seven through nine, but will extend throughout the Millennial Kingdom, and the final consummation will occur and the new heavens and the new earth with a descent of the New Jerusalem, according to Revelation 21, two "coming down out of heaven from God made ready as a bride adorned for her husband."

And there dear friends in the new heavens and the new earth, the glorified bride, which will include all of the redeemed of all ages, will live in perfect union with her bridegroom in that bridal city. And what an amazing thing to read how that we are likened to a bride adorned for her husband. And by his transforming grace, that is precisely what happens when we come to saving faith in Christ. We're made a new creature in Christ, right? Everything is changed and in Ephesians five, Paul says beginning of verse 25, "Christ loved the church gave himself up for her that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word that He might present to Himself, the church and all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless."

Now back to the divine response. Jesus is saying, Let me tell you why we're not fasting according to your tradition, the stuff that you've made up. Now bear in mind, the focus here is not on the wedding. It's not on the bride; it's on the bridegroom. Remember, He alone is the source of our greatest joy. Boy, the ultimate celebration that we will enjoy at the heavenly wedding feast would have never been made possible were it not for the sacrifice of the bridegroom on our behalf. So Jesus said to them in verse 19, "'While the bridegroom was with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.'" See, again, fasting was a sign of mourning. I mean, it's ridiculous. And I'm sure they're kind of shaking their heads wondering where is he going with this. Then he says in verse 20, "'But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.'" We know that that is a clear reference to the crucifixion of Christ. The idea of being taken away that very verbiage is what the Spirit of God used with his prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 53, verse eight. We read, "By oppression and judgment, He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people," that whole passage is speaking of the atoning work of Christ. And we know that in the upper room with His disciples on the eve of his crucifixion, he predicted that a temporary mourning would occur. We read about this earlier in John 16, in our scripture reading. And he also predicted a time of celebration and time of great joy would eventually follow. John 16, verse 20, "Truly, truly I say to you, that you will weep and lament, that the world will rejoice, you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. Whenever a woman is in labor, she has pain because her hour has come. But when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world, therefore, you to have grief now, but I will see you again.'" There's going to be a resurrection, right? And you and your heart will rejoice. He says, "'No one will take your joy away from you.'" So what Jesus was really saying to his protesters is this; Your apostate religious system is utterly foreign to God's plan of salvation. Otherwise, you would be celebrating right now, instead of mourning and fasting. That's what he's telling them.

John MacArthur says this so well in a summary, he put it this way. Quote, "They were mourning when they should have been rejoicing, because they had rejected Jesus, the Savior and clung to their own rules and regulations to earn salvation. Consequently, they had nothing in common with him. They were consumed with self-righteousness; He preached divine grace. They denied they were sinners; he preached repentance from sin. They were proud of the religiosity, He preached humility. They embraced external ceremony and tradition; He preached the transformed heart. They loved the applause of men; He offered the approval of God. They had dead ritual; He offered a dynamic relationship. They promised a system, He provided salvation."

Notice next how God Jesus uses two more comparisons to support the preceding statement regarding the bridegroom and his attendance. And bear in mind again, now this imagery is being used to clearly indict apostate Judaism as a system that is utterly contrary to the gospel of God's saving grace through faith in Christ. And these two comparisons consist of one pertaining to patching a garment the other pertaining to wine and wineskins. Notice verse 21. "'No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth when an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old and a worse tear results.'" Again, I have to imagine in my mind, the Pharisees are looking at him thinking, Where is he going with all this? And they're looking at each other, doing this kind of thing. Now when you think about it, makes perfect sense. You cannot take a new piece of fabric that hasn't been pr- shrunk and patch it on an old garment. Because if you do, once that garment is washed, the new patch will shrink. And it will tear away from the old garment and there's a worse problem than what you began with. The old and the new therefore are in compatible. That's what Jesus is saying. And the point is Pharisees, you can't patch the new cloth of the gospel of repentance, and forgiveness from sin by grace through faith in Christ, on to an old, worn out filthy, dirty garment of legalistic, hypocritical, Pharisee Judaism. You just cannot mix law with grace. That's what the Judaizers did in the early church. Remember that you believe in Christ, but you also got to be circumcised, and you got to do all these dietary things, and you got to obey the Sabbath. And here we go. Now, be careful here, Jesus is not denigrating the Mosaic Law, I want you to understand that he is not in any way denigrating the Old Testament as a whole. In fact, we know that Jesus did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. Read about this in Matthew five, beginning in verse 17. He said, "'Do not think that I came to abolish the Law, or the Prophets, I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then a knows one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.'"

You may recall, when we were together, the last time, I reminded you that there are three aspects to the law. There is the moral law that regulated how Israel was to love the Lord their God and to love their neighbor as themselves, all of which was based upon the 10 commandments. And then there was the judicial law that regulated how Israel was to conduct itself as a theocracy. And then there was the ceremonial law that regulated how Israel was to worship and ultimately, the Lord Jesus Christ, fulfilled each division of the laws we have just read. And the judicial and ceremonial laws were fulfilled in Christ, they are now obsolete, although the moral law is still being fulfilled through the church, because we are united to Christ through faith and so forth. Now, to be sure, you must be very careful here, you cannot take certain aspects of the law and mix it with grace. For example, you don't go to the Old Testament and read some of the dietary restrictions and say, Okay, no, no, this is how we're supposed to eat, or different aspects of the Sabbath or observing certain feasts and convocations. And somehow missed that in with the gospel of grace, the quasi-Christian cults like the Christian Science, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, the Seventh Day Adventists. That's the type of thing that they do there. They are notorious for arbitrarily transporting certain aspects of the judicial and ceremonial law and placing it into a works righteousness system. It's just, it's just a disaster.

By the way, it's interesting that all four of those, those cults were born up in the Northeast in the 1800s, around the same time, and they were all birthed about 250 miles in radius of each other. They all included extra biblical revelation secret knowledge that they got that they were privy to, that nobody else had. They all had certain self-styled prophets and prophetesses, they all believe they were the one true church. And worst of all, they all had a different gospel, and preached a different Jesus.

But the primary emphasis of Jesus comparison here, was not on those types of things, as much as it was just the incompatibility of the rabbinic stipulations and traditions and the extra biblical prescriptions that they were forcing on people. That whole works-righteousness system that they promoted, somehow mixing that with the new covenant message of salvation by grace. By the way, it's interesting as we're going to see the next incident, that Mark's record centers around Jesus violating their manmade Sabbath restrictions and declaring himself to be Lord of the Sabbath. Oh, my, I mean, that was, you talk about a pork chop at a bar mitzvah that did not go over well at all. So the Lord just keeps moving them along here, trying to get their attention.

Now to reinforce this further, he uses another comparison in verse 22, "'No one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins; and the wine has lost in the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.'" Now they would have understood this, maybe you've seen this before, I have actually drank from wine skins in Israel.

By the way, that stuff that they called wine was pretty bad. I, I was pretty thirsty, but I drink some of it. But what they would do is they would skin an animal, usually a goat, and they would leave the neck portion or some of the the leg portion, they've turned it inside out, and they would sew up an end. And they would use that to put wine and to put new wine in. Because when wine begins to ferment, it emits a gas and it begins to expand, and you have to have a new wineskin that is going to expand with that. If you have an old wineskin that doesn't have any more elasticity to it and that has, you know, usually if you look at them, they they're kind of cracked and they don't look like they're gonna hold them much longer. You put new wine in that and it's just a matter of time, you're going to have an explosion. That's what Jesus is saying here. Jesus is saying, I am the new patch and the new wine. You see where he's going? What I'm preaching here is completely incompatible with what you teach. The question is, will you forsake the old and let it be replaced by the new I might also add in Luke 5:39. Luke records a third parable that Jesus used on this occasion is he said simply this, "'And no one after drinking old wine wishes for new'; for he says, 'The old is good enough.'" And this just pictures the tragic results of inebriation. There's nothing worse than being around an old drunk, which is sickening, isn't it? It's like, oh, just get me out of here. And that's what he's talking about here. This is symbolic of the Pharisees being so intoxicated with their own apostate religious system, that they have become utterly desensitized to the taste of something that is infinitely better, namely, the gospel of grace, the new wine of the gospel.

And so beloved, here we see Jesus underscoring the singularity of the Christian gospel, it mixes with nothing. It cannot be added to anything any other religious system, it stands alone. And I would challenge you to examine your heart. Have you tried to add true Biblical Christianity to some other religious system that's been a part of your life over the years? People are trying to do that today with this whole social justice gospel. Doesn't mix folks. Some people try to mix it with their Roman Catholicism or something else. Whenever you try to do that, you insult Christ's finished work on the cross. You denigrate the glorious gospel of grace. I close with a simple story. You're all familiar with out of John three, remember, Nicodemus boy, he was the head guy. He was the top teacher. You remember, he comes to Jesus, and he basically says, I don't think I'm gonna make the cut. I keep all the law. I know I'm doing all this stuff. But I need to know, Jesus. How do I enter the kingdom? And Jesus said, Well, you've got to be born again. I'm sure the first thing that went through his mind is okay. What are you saying here? Obviously, it's not like I go back into my mother's womb and be born again. Sothis is something spiritual going on here. And, certainly I can't "born again" myself. So that means I'm totally at your mercy. It's exactly what Jesus wants us to hear. It's only by his grace that we are saved. And isn't an amazing thing? I mean not only are we unable to earn our salvation because we're sinners, and if you break one aspect of law, you've broken the whole thing, not only are we unable, but we are even unwilling to embrace it apart from the regenerating grace and the power of the Spirit of God. How thankful we can be. Yes, the Gospel, it mixes with nothing. It is exclusive.

And dear friends never fudge on that. Never give an ounce on that. But rather celebrate it because that is the only gospel that saves and sanctifies. Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, thank You for these magnificent truths that are so relevant to us even today in the world in which we live. We just give you praise for saving us by your grace. Because truly were it not for that grace, we would never believe. And I lift up those that may not know you as Savior. Certainly there's some within the sound of my voice. Father, all we can do is cry out to them, that they would hear the truth and respond to it and faith and obedience by the power of your Spirit. We lift them up to you make them miserable, until they come to faith in Christ. For it's in his name that I pray. Amen.