Well, I do thank the Lord for the privilege of being with you tonight. Will you please turn to the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 9?
We will read from Matthew 9:14.
Then come to Him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but Thy disciples fast not?
And Jesus said unto them, Can the sons of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then will they fast.
And no man putteth a piece of undressed cloth upon an old garment; for that which should fill it up taketh from the garment, and a worse rent is made.
Neither do men put new wine into old wineskins: else the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins perish: but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.
Please turn to Luke, chapter 5. The Gospel according to Luke, chapter 5. We will read from Luke 5:27 through Luke 5:39.
And after these things He went forth, and beheld a publican, named Levi, sitting at the place of toll, and said unto him, Follow Me.
And he forsook all, and rose up and followed Him.
And Levi made Him a great feast in his house: and there was a great multitude of publicans and of others that were sitting at meat with them.
And the Pharisees and their scribes murmured against His disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with the publicans and sinners?
And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are in health have no need of a physician; but they that are sick.
I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.
And they said unto Him, The disciples of John fast often, and make supplications; likewise also the disciples of the Pharisees; but Thine eat and drink.
And Jesus said unto them, Can ye make the sons of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?
But the days will come; and when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, then will they fast in those days.
And He spake also a parable unto them; No man rendeth a piece from a new garment and putteth it upon an old garment; else he will rend the new, and also the piece from the new will not agree with the old.
And no man putteth new wine into old wineskins; else the new wine will burst the skins, and itself will be spilled, and the skins will perish.
But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.
And no man having drunk old wine desireth new; for he saith, The old is good.
When our Lord Jesus was on earth, He loved to use parables. Now, “parable” in the Greek means placing beside, or placing alongside. You place one subject beside another subject in order to illustrate it—to illustrate spiritual things with familiar earthly incidents or objects.
Now, our Lord used parables for a double reason. To those who had no desire for Him, or to those who even opposed Him, He used parables to veil the spiritual truth. Yet, on the other hand, to those who really had a heart for Him and desired to know Him, the parables made the mystery of God clearer and plainer.
Such people would meditate on the parables. They would come to the Lord for the explanation. And through the parables, the mystery of God is revealed.
Now, I hope that we are not those who have no desire for Him. If that is the case, then all we hear is a story. That is all. But if we really have a heart for Him, there is great mystery hidden in these parables, and through these parables the mystery of God is revealed.
Before we go into these parables, our Lord Jesus spoke five parables on the new and the old. In these two passages that we have just read, Matthew 9 and Luke 5, the Lord made a contrast between the old and the new. Altogether, there are five parables.
But before we go into these parables, we need to know a little bit about the background.
One day, our Lord Jesus was passing by a place of custom, and He saw a man sitting there. His name was Levi. If you read the Gospel according to Matthew, you know that Matthew was also his name. He was a tax collector.
The Lord said, “Follow Me.” So he left all and followed the Lord.
Then he invited all his friends—tax gatherers, publicans, sinners. These were his friends. He invited them to a feast. That was his way of saying goodbye to the world, and also his way of introducing Jesus to his old friends.
So a great crowd was in his house, and they were there eating and drinking and having a good time.
Now, the scribes and the Pharisees murmured. They dared not talk to the Lord Himself, but they murmured to the disciples of our Lord, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners?”
The scribes and the Pharisees considered themselves holy. They separated themselves from these publicans and sinners because they were holy. They would not eat and drink with them.
But when they saw our Lord Jesus and His disciples eating and drinking with these publicans and sinners, they were really surprised. So they said, “Why is it that You eat and drink with these sinners?”
Our Lord heard it, and our Lord Jesus said, “I did not come to call the righteous ones—the self-righteous ones. I came to call sinners.”
If you feel you are strong and healthy, you do not need a physician. But a physician is for the sick.
Now, as our Lord answered their question, they raised another question. They said, “Why is it that we Pharisees, the disciples of Moses, and even the disciples of John the Baptist, all fast? But why is it that Your disciples do not fast?”
You know, fasting in Scripture is a sign of afflicting the soul. When people have a burden, and it is so heavy, they have to come to God, humble themselves, and afflict their soul—to the extent of abstaining from eating, sometimes from drinking—in order to seek the Lord and to find His will. That is fasting.
But to the Pharisees and the scribes, fasting was a tradition. They fasted twice a week. They used fasting as a show of their piety.
When they fasted, they did not comb their hair. They made long their faces to show everybody that they were fasting. That was the way the Pharisees and scribes fasted.
You know, our Lord Jesus never goes for tradition. He always goes for reality.
Fasting, in reality, is more than just abstaining from food and drink. Fasting in reality is fasting from the world, from the flesh, from self, from sin, and doing the will of God. That is fasting.
Maybe you will turn to Isaiah 58. There you find God’s challenge to the Jews concerning their fast. We will read from Isaiah 58:3.
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and Thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and Thou takest no knowledge?
Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure, and exact all your labors.
Behold, ye fast for strife and contention, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye fast not this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high.
Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?
Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Now, that is fasting. Here you find that these scribes and Pharisees followed a tradition. They fasted, but it was just an outward appearance. There was no reality in it. As a matter of fact, it was just the opposite of reality.
So our Lord Jesus again used a parable. He said, when the Bridegroom is present, do the sons of the bridechamber fast? But when the Bridegroom is taken away, then the sons of the bridechamber will fast.
You know, according to the Greek word, “taken away” means violently taken away.
Now, who is the Bridegroom to whom our Lord refers? He refers to Himself. Our Lord Jesus is the Bridegroom, and His disciples are the sons of the bridechamber.
So when He is with them, there is joy. Fasting is not the thing at that time. But one day the Bridegroom will be violently taken away, and that refers to His crucifixion. When that time comes, then His disciples will fast.
Our Lord Jesus answered two questions. One question was, “Why do Your disciples eat and drink with publicans and sinners?” The other question was, “Why do You not fast?” And the Lord answered them, saying, “Because the Bridegroom is here.”
Then He spoke five parables on the new and the old. These five parables reveal the mystery of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
These five parables show that there is no mixture, no confusion, no blending together of the new and the old. This is what our Lord wants to teach us.
The first one is in Matthew 9:16:
No man putteth a piece of undressed cloth upon an old garment; for that which should fill it up taketh from the garment, and a worse rent is made.
Now, I think it is evident: no one will cut a piece out of new cloth and try to mend the hole in an old garment. No one will do that.
Why? Because if you do that, it will rend the old garment more. New cloth means unbleached cloth. Cloth that has not been treated has the tendency to shrink.
So when you put a piece of new cloth on an old garment to mend the hole, then when you wash it, it shrinks and rends the old garment even more. That is evident, is it not? You would not do that.
Now, I may do it, because if I had not read this, probably I would do it. But this is common sense. Nobody does it.
But strangely, when you apply it to the spiritual realm, you find that most people are doing just that.
Now, what is a garment? In Scripture, you need to find the meaning of the garment. The way you do it is to read enough passages on garments, and then you begin to see what the garment represents.
Garment in Scripture represents our outward conduct, our outward behavior, our conduct. It is like a garment that we put on. It refers to righteousness.
You remember Isaiah 64:6. It says that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
Now, is it not true that, so far as man is concerned, so far as we are concerned, before we know the Lord Jesus, we all have a garment over us? This garment is an old garment. We have had it for so many years.
Individually, maybe you have had it for fifteen years, seventeen years, or, like myself, much longer—much, much longer. I will not tell you.
And when you think of mankind, the old man has worn that garment for six thousand years. It must be very old. It is like rags now, with holes everywhere.
As Isaiah said, our righteousnesses are all as filthy rags. We consider ourselves righteous and good. But when you really see what your goodness and righteousness are in the sight of God, they are filthy.
What we consider our best virtues, in the eyes of God, are filthy—not to say our sins. And it is in rags. It has been broken into pieces. It cannot cover our nakedness. That is our situation.
But here is new cloth. New cloth here represents the life and walk of our Lord while He was on earth, before He was crucified—unbleached.
When our Lord Jesus was on earth, there was a righteousness that was perfect. In the New Testament, there is only one passage, one place, that uses this term: “the righteousness of Jesus Christ.” Only once in the whole New Testament. I will not tell you where; you try to find it.
Our Lord Jesus, while He was on earth, had a righteousness of His own. He was right before God in every respect.
Heaven opened and said, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” God was satisfied.
You look at the life of our Lord Jesus while He was on earth. It is new cloth. It was not made into a garment yet; it was not finished yet. The garment refers to the finished work of the cross of our Lord Jesus. But the new cloth refers to the life of our Lord Jesus before His crucifixion—His righteousness. He is right.
On this earth, there is only one Person who is seen as perfect, who is altogether righteous in the sight of God. That is our Lord Jesus, the Perfect One.
Now, you cut a piece. You take something of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and try to mend your own garment.
You know you are not perfect, but you think better of yourself than you really are. You think you still have something left to cover your nakedness, and all you need to do is patch these holes.
So you try to take some of the righteousness of our Lord Jesus, apply it, and put it into your life. By doing that, you think you will be covered. Many are doing that.
Even Nicodemus. You remember that night when he came to the Lord. He was the teacher of Israel—an old man, righteous, virtuous, educated. But he was humble enough to know that he was not perfect.
So he came to the Lord and tried to get more teaching from the Lord, to teach him how to patch up some of the holes that were still there, so that he could enter into the kingdom of God.
You know what our Lord Jesus said: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Many people realize they are not perfect, so they say, “Well, we must imitate Jesus.”
People who consider themselves very moral—moralists—say, “Of all the Scripture, we love the Sermon on the Mount. So we will imitate Jesus. We will take the Sermon on the Mount and try to obey and follow that teaching. Then we will be perfect.”
Many people are doing that. But the thing is, the more you try to imitate Jesus, the more you find the rent becomes greater—the hole becomes larger.
The more you try to imitate the Lord Jesus, the more you realize that you are far, far away from Him. You realize your sinfulness. When you see His purity, you begin to see your uncleanness, your impurity, your ulterior motives, and your selfish motives.
When you see His love, you realize your hatred and your jealousy. So the more you try to imitate Jesus, the more you find that your old garment is rent even more.
Why? Because your old garment is set; it cannot expand anymore. It is fixed. The righteousness of our Lord Jesus is new. It has the power of shrinking.
Your own righteousness is old. It is one with the world. What the world thinks, you think too. There is no more shrinking power.
But the righteousness of our Lord Jesus has the shrinking power. It will separate you from the world. It will sanctify you. That is the difference.
That is the reason why you can never try to put the righteousness of our Lord Jesus upon your self-righteousness. If you try to do that, it only rends it more.
The old and the new are incompatible. Now, do we see this spiritually?
Then our Lord Jesus goes to the second parable. This is in Luke 5:36:
No man rendeth a piece from a new garment and putteth it upon an old garment; else he will rend the new, and also the piece from the new will not agree with the old.
This is different from Matthew 9:16. In Matthew 9:16, it is a piece of new cloth. It has not been made into a garment yet. It is just a piece of cloth.
But here you find that this new cloth has already been made into a new garment. It is already a garment. Yet you cut a piece from the new garment and try to put it on the old garment.
Of course, nobody is so foolish as to do that. If you cut a piece from the new garment, you spoil the new garment. And if you put it on the old garment, the piece from the new garment will continue to shrink and will make the hole even bigger.
So nobody is so foolish as to do that. I think even I would not do that. I think I know that much—not to spoil the new garment for the old garment. But many people are doing that spiritually.
The new garment speaks of the finished work of Christ. While He was on earth, He was like new cloth. But now this cloth has been made into a garment that can be put on.
You remember when the prodigal son came home. The father ran to him and kissed him. Then he said, “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him.”
Because he was in rags, the rags had to be taken off and the best robe put on. The best robe is a new garment.
Brothers and sisters, we all know that this new garment speaks of Christ as our righteousness. We have no righteousness of our own, but God clothes us with Christ as our righteousness.
Now, this is different from the righteousness of Jesus Christ. When you study the Scripture, I think you should be very careful. The righteousness of Jesus Christ is His personal righteousness, not yours.
Because He had that righteousness, He was worthy to be our Substitute. He is the Lamb without blemish, and only a sacrifice without blemish can be offered.
Brothers and sisters, if we offer ourselves, God would not accept us. If we die, we die in our sins and for our sins. No one can die for another person, because if you die, you die for yourself. If I die, I die for myself, for my own sins.
We are not qualified to be a sacrifice. To be a substitute, a sacrifice has to be blameless, without blemish, pure, and perfect.
So the righteousness of our Lord Jesus is His personal righteousness. It gave Him the qualification to be our Substitute and our Redeemer.
But once He died on the cross, you find that He is made into a new garment. He can be put upon us as our righteousness. So it is not His righteousness as our righteousness, but Him as our righteousness. He is our righteousness.
Do you see the difference? I hope you do.
There are lots of people who, when they seek for salvation, always try to cut a piece from the finished work of Christ and try to put it on their own garment.
In other words, “Yes, we need to believe in the Lord Jesus, plus we have to do something.”
Many people are unable to really receive the Lord Jesus as their Savior and put on the Lord Jesus. Why? Because they always say, “Yes, we need to believe in Him, but believing in Him alone is not enough. We have to do something also.”
And in doing that, you find the rent becomes even bigger.
So if you want to come to the Lord, you have to take off your old garment. Those dirty rags must be put off. Then you can put on the new garment—Christ as our righteousness.
We come to God only on the basis of being clothed with Christ. We do not come to God on our own. We never come to God on Christ and on ourselves.
Every time we come to God, we are clothed with Christ. God sees Christ. We are hidden in Him, and because of this we are accepted.
This principle is not only true when we first come to the Lord. This principle is true in our daily Christianity.
That is the reason why both Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3 say that we are to put off the old man and put on the new man.
So every time we come to the Lord, remember: there is no mixing of the old and the new. Everything that belongs to the old man, to the old garment, has to be put off.
Not only what you consider bad, but also what you consider good. Not only what is sinful, but even what you consider virtuous. Everything that belongs to the old garment has to be put off.
There is no compatibility between the old and the new. Daily, we need to put off the old and put on the new, being renewed daily according to His image.
That is the gospel.
Then the Lord turns to the third parable. The third parable is this: nobody puts new wine into old wineskins.
You know, in the old days, they did not have bottles. They used skins—the skins of sheep or goats—and they put the wine in the skins to store it.
Now, nobody puts new wine into old skins. That is common sense again. Why? Because new wine is still fermenting. It has the tendency to expand.
But an old skin is so old that it has lost its elasticity. It is fixed. So when you put new wine into an old skin, it will burst the skin. The wine will be spoiled, and you lose both. Nobody will do that. It is common sense.
But spiritually, people are doing that. The scribes and the Pharisees were doing this very thing.
What is new wine? Wine represents life. Wine gives you joy when you drink it. So it speaks of the inner life.
New wine speaks of the life of our Lord Jesus. It is new wine. His life is always expanding.
Brothers and sisters, remember this: the life of our Lord Jesus is never static. It is always expanding, always growing. You cannot confine it.
That is the very nature of the new life—the life of our Lord Jesus. That is the wonder of the life of the Lord Jesus: it never grows old and never comes to a time when it seems to be still. Never.
If you know the life of the Lord Jesus, it is ever new, ever expanding, ever growing. That is the life of the Lord Jesus.
Now, old wineskins speak of our old lifestyle. We all have our old lifestyle, our old habits, and our old relationships.
We have had this old wineskin for so many years, and we develop a way of life, a style of life, a habit of life, that suits the old man and contains the old man because both are old.
But once you receive the life of the Lord Jesus into you, you find that this old wineskin is no longer able to contain that new wine.
If you try to put the new life of the Lord Jesus into your old lifestyle, sooner or later it will burst. The wine will be poured out, and your old lifestyle will also be broken.
You cannot keep on living the old way anymore, because the new life is expanding. You have to change your habits.
Probably you have the habit of rising late. You like to sleep. When you rise up, you have to rush to school, and you have no time to be with the Lord.
But the new life in you is expanding. It will expand in you and say, “No, this old wineskin does not fit. You have to change your habit. You need to rise early and have a time with the Lord before you go to school.”
Do you feel that life in you demanding that?
Or do you think that even after you believe in our Lord Jesus, you can keep on with your old lifestyle and nothing happens? If nothing happens, it only shows that it is old wine in an old wineskin. There is no new wine there.
If there is new wine there, it is bound to burst the old wineskin. That is the reason why everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus will find, sooner or later, that he has to change his lifestyle to suit his new life.
You may have to change your friends. Your old friends may not fit anymore if you are faithful to the new life in you.
Now, I am not trying to tell you to break with your old friends right away and say, “No, I do not know you anymore.” No.
You can keep your friendship, but do not increase it. If you do not increase it, sooner or later it will decrease. Sooner or later, you will find that you have to find new friends—friends in the Lord.
What you read, what you look at, where you go—all these will have to change. Your relationships will have to change, because the new wine does not fit the old wineskin. It bursts the old wineskin.
You have to put new wine into new wineskins. Then both will be preserved.
Now, this is true not only individually; this is also true corporately.
When the new life of the Lord is there, it breaks every tradition of the Pharisees.
You know, these scribes and Pharisees kept the old wineskin. That was their tradition. They considered their tradition the best. They were comfortable. Why? Because theirs was the old life. The old life likes the old wineskin.
They tried to put Christ into the old wineskin. “You keep the tradition. You do not keep our tradition. You are wrong because You do not keep our tradition.” But the Lord said, “No. This new life cannot be put into the old wineskin.”
Judaism was the old wineskin. When the Lord came, the whole system broke.
The same thing applies to Christianity. Christianity today has become an old wineskin. It has lost its elasticity. It is fixed. It cannot change. You have to follow the system.
But when the life of Christ comes in, it will break the system. There is no compatibility between the old and the new.
The fourth parable, of course, is that the Lord says, “Put the new wine into fresh wineskins; then both are preserved.” That is the clever thing to do—the right thing to do.
But remember: you need the new wine first. Then, according to the nature of the new wine, you will get a new wineskin for its containment.
You do not try to prepare a new wineskin first and then hope that the new wine will fill it. That is not the right order.
The right order is: seek the new wine, and with the new wine will come the new wineskin.
Many people, instead of seeking the life of the Lord, try to change their environment and change their way of doing things. They do something new, something novel, something different.
That gives people a kind of feeling that it is new, and hopefully it will be filled with new life. It does not work. It does not work.
You do not change the outside. What is important is to seek that new wine. If you really seek the inward life, drink of Him.
We need to come to Him and drink of Him. To drink of Him is to drink daily, to drink continuously. It does not mean that you drink once and that is it.
We drink continuously of Him, and the more you drink of Him, the more you find this life within you expanding. The Spirit of God will lead you into a new wineskin.
So you find that the new wineskin is not a pre-prepared formal system. It is the outcome of that new life.
You will find it true individually. If you seek the life of the Lord, sooner or later you will find that the Holy Spirit brings you a new lifestyle that will contain the new wine and expand with the new wine.
The same thing is true corporately. If we seek the life of the Lord, when the life of the Lord is growing among the brothers and sisters, you will find that the Holy Spirit gives us a corresponding wineskin that is new and that expands with the inner life.
It will break the old wineskin. That is the reason why we say the church is not an organization.
We do not have a program. We do not have a system. All these are old wineskins. They can contain the old wine, but not the new wine.
We need always to be open and flexible, and to be led by the life of the Lord. When the life expands, then we need to be flexible.
Do not say, “Well, this is the way that we always do it; therefore, this is the way that we will continue to do it.” If you do, you lose both.
Church history is a proof of this. Even if you do not know church history, your personal life will prove this.
You cannot be fixed, brothers and sisters. You have to be flexible according to the inner life. Then both will be preserved.
The fifth parable is again in Luke. He said that no one who has drunk the old wine immediately desires new wine, for he says, “The old is good.”
Now, in one sense, that is true. You know, that is the reason why they drink wine that is one hundred years old. It is very expensive, very tasty, and very good.
I know nothing about wine. As a matter of fact, if I drink wine, my face will all be red. Everybody will know. I cannot touch it.
But anyway, you find that in this world the old is always better. That is the basic principle. Spiritually, it is just the opposite. The new is better.
You remember that feast, the marriage feast at Cana. Usually, in the old days when they had a wedding, it was not like a modern wedding, with just one reception and that was all. In the old days, they had a feast for several days.
The Jewish people at that time would feast for several days. So people would come, and they would eat and drink for several days.
What they did was, of course, put the best wine first. After people had already drunk, they used the poorer wine, because they would not know the difference.
But in that family, evidently this young couple was very popular, so more people came than they expected. After they had feasted for several days, all the wine was gone.
You remember how our Lord turned the water into wine. When that wine was presented to the master of the feast, he tasted it and said, “Where did you get this? People all put the best first, and this is the best wine.”
That is true spiritually. The new wine is better. Christ is better than your old life, better than the old life of the world.
But we need to develop a new taste. As a matter of fact, if you drink of the Lord Jesus, it creates within you a new taste.
You know, Psalm 34:8 says:
Oh taste and see that the Lord is good:
Blessed is the man that taketh refuge in Him.
You have to taste Him to see that He is good. But once you have tasted Him, He develops in you a new taste, and you want more of Him.
That is the story of the Shulamite in the Song of Songs. She has tasted of the Lord, of the sweetness of Him, and she wants more. A new taste has been developed.
Now, brothers and sisters, do you have that new taste? Or do you still have that old taste?
Do you still taste the old wine as better? Do you still taste the world as better than the Lord? Do you still taste the amusement of this world as better than fellowship with your brothers and sisters?
If there is still that old taste there, something is wrong with your life. You are not living in the new life; you are still living in that old life.
Repent. Turn to the Lord and taste Him. He will create in you a new taste.
A taste for Him, a taste for His Word, a new taste for prayer, a new taste for fellowship, for gathering with the saints. We need to develop that new taste.
The more you drink of Him, the more that taste will increase in you.
So again, you find, brothers and sisters, that the Lord is trying to tell us this: there is no mixing of the old and the new, whether it is outward conduct, lifestyle, or the inward life.
Thank God, He has made all things new. We are a new creation. We have nothing to do with the old.
This principle is a very basic principle throughout all Christian life. I do hope that, even though these five parables seem very basic, fundamental, and elementary, we will take them seriously.
These five parables tell us a very important and lasting principle: we who are in Christ are a new creation.
Everything old has passed away, and, behold, God has made all things new. May the Lord help us. Thank you.