(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

If you've got your Bibles of course you should have them go back to Luke chapter 5 Luke chapter 5 and for those that are visiting us for the first time on Sunday mornings We go through the Bible chapter by chapter at the moment We're going through the book of Luke and we're up to chapter number 5 So Luke 5 look at verse number 4 Luke 5 verse 4 the Bible reads now when he had left speaking He said unto Simon launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a dry Draft the title of the sermon this morning is let down your nets let down your nets Let's look at verse number 1 Luke chapter 5 verse 1 else. There's a lot to cover again The chapters in the book of Luke are pretty chunky and I always try my best to go through the whole chapter if possible So Luke chapter 5 verse 1 and it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, all right. So what you're first thing I want you to notice there and I talked about this last week Okay, what should we be pressing upon the Lord when we come to the house of the Lord? What is it that we're seeking to hear? You know, we're seeking to hear some music that's appealing to the flesh You know, are we seeking to be entertained? Are we looking for the smoke machines and and the and the purple spotlights? What is it that we're looking for when we come to the house of the Lord Hey, what were the people wanting when they pressed upon him? Hey, they were coming and they were thirsty to hear the word of God is what they came for Okay and so Churches ought to be and what's saying just our church and saying all the churches that belong to the Lord Jesus Christ Ought to be focused primarily first upon the Word of God you start moving away from the Word of God You start moving losing direction. You start losing the will of God You start moving away from the dark from the example that the Lord Jesus Christ has left us with okay So we need to ensure that our church is always based upon the Word of God in season out of season Whether I like it whether you like it is irrelevant. We need to preach the the full counsel of God Okay, so look at verse number two and and saw two ships standing by the lake But the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets. Okay, so here we have the disciples we have Peter and And Andrew I believe as well. They are washing their nets these these shipping boats were empty Meaning that they had already spent the time the day out fishing and they were wrapping things up They were now just washing things, you know packing up, you know that and you'll see later on that they didn't catch anything They had a pretty unsuccessful Day out fishing look at verse number three Speaking of Jesus and he entered into one of the ships which was Simon's that's Peter and Prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land and he sat down and taught the people out of the ship So, of course the people were pressing upon him, right? There's a lot of people Jesus found it better to just be going to the ship be pushed out into the shore and not have all those throngs of people Around him but he was able to preach there from the ship. Hey look Wherever it is guys, you know, we have a nice pulpit now, but if all we had was a ship Hey, that's that's a good place to preach the Word of God. All right It doesn't matter what you have available to you use what you have Jesus in this case use the ship pulled himself out and preached the Word of the Lord and And verse number four now when he had left speaking so once he finishes preaching He said that to Simon launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draft Okay now that word draft you might not be familiar with it that word draft basically means to pull or to draw when you let down your Nets to go fishing when you collect the fish you're pulling or you're drawing upon that net aren't you? That's the draft That's what Jesus Christ is speaking about. And so when you understand what's going on here It's a bit of an unusual request Because the fishermen just spent all day fishing they're already washing already packing up and Jesus Hey, let down your nets for the draft Let them down because you're going to have a great catch and you're going to be able to catch a great number of fish is What Jesus is saying but notice what he asks of? Peter what the title of the sermon is this morning is to let down your nets nets Plural okay more than one all the nets that Peter had all of them that he was washing Jesus asked him. I let him all down. Okay, and of course We see how Simon Peter answers verse number five and Simon answering said unto him master We have toiled all the nights. So it's not just a day. It's also the night. Oh, they were working the whole night Surely these men were tired Surely these men were sleepy Surely these men were a little discouraged right and then he says and have taken nothing. We've worked all night Jesus, you know, we're tired and we've taken nothing and now you're asking us to do it again But then look what he says Nevertheless at thy word. I will let down the net Wait a minute Peter. How many nets did Jesus ask you to let down? The nets plural all the nets that you had with us how the son respond I'll let down the nets. All right, so we see that Simon Peter had a lack of faith here You know, he did it in obedience to Christ and sometimes we can do things in obedience to Christ But we don't do it in the full capacity that Jesus Christ asks of us All right, and we see this play out and I love these stories in the Bible, you know We see the failure of men, you know that proves to me that I'm going to fail I'm going to do something wrong that proves to me that all of you are going to fail at some point when the Lord Jesus Christ asks of you right, but we need to learn from the examples that we have in the Bible. Okay now Obviously we can say that Peter was tired from a from a night of fishing And I just want to quote to you from Galatians 6 to 9. You don't need to turn there It says and let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season We shall reap if we faint not Hey, Simon Peter was weary. He was tired Right and Jesus Christ says look just keep the work keep going and you know what? Doing the work of the Lord is weary. It gets tiring Okay, there are moments where it's like, you know what it'd be easy if I just don't serve the Lord today It'd just be easier if I don't go soul-winning today, okay It'd just be easier if I just don't do the commands that God has laid out in the scriptures Okay, sometimes you might have that thought in your mind, but the Bible says look don't get weary in well-doing Okay We need to take time to refresh ourselves and we'll soon see that even Jesus Christ had to take time to Refresh himself to recharge his batteries doing good works All right Just make sure when you get weary, you don't stop make sure when you get weary You don't have forsake the work of God. All right, take your break Yeah, but then get back onto it let down all your nets once again and start fishing again look at verse number six Luke 5 verse 6 and when they had done this when they Had this done they enclosed a great multitude of fishes Look at the next thing and their net singular and their nets break Why did that net break because Jesus Christ had blessed them with a great catch, right? What a great what a great blessings for these fishermen right at this point in time It was their livelihood at this time. There were great multitude. They're listening to Jesus Christ I'm sure this great multitude wanted to eat as well. I what a great blessing but what happens? Could they sustain the blessing could they catch the blessing? No, their net broke Because they disobeyed what God had asked of them They were to let down all the nets if he had let down all the nets he wouldn't have this problem He'd have sufficient nets to catch the fish on that day. All right Now this is what I want to talk about guys Is that we need to let down all our nets when Christ asks us to do something Don't doubt be in faith and do exactly what Christ asked of you Okay, look it is everybody if you're an able person if you're a healthy able person It is everybody's responsibility to go fishing. It is everybody's responsibility to let down the nets Okay, and what I mean by that is the soul winning. Okay going out knocking the doors Preaching the gospel the good news You know the words of eternal life You know something that can change an individual's eternal destiny It's all our responsibility. Okay, and if we as a church Have people that are able to do this But don't do it. Then what are we doing as a church? We're not letting down all our nets are we? We're letting down some nets, but we're not letting down all our nets Okay, and of course look I understand there are situations that make it difficult You know illnesses or little babies or whatever can make it challenging But look if you're a saved believer, if you're a saint you've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb It's your responsibility to go out there and do some fishing. All right, and Look we can apply we can apply this to many other aspects of our life, you know many aspects You know, we should be reading our Bible every day We should be spending time every day and if you skip a day, guess what? There's a that's a net that you've not let down Okay, you can be prayed, you know should be praying to the Lord, you know confessing your sins You know following the commands that are in the Lord whenever we disobey whenever we do wrong whenever we sin That's a net in our life that we've not let down and we've held back Okay, and the problem there is when the Lord does come and bless us We can't take in the full blessing that God would have wanted us to have Because if we only have a few nets down our nets can break. Okay, look at verse number seven Luke 5 verse 7 and Because the net break it says here and they beckon unto their partners Which were in the other ship that they should come and help them and they came hey, this is what it means This is this what's good about having good partners. Hey, if you can't go soul winning you're like, I'm too Timid to talk. I'm too timid to preach the Word of God. That's fine. Just be a solid partner Hey be a partner that can come and help the soul winner that can come and help the preacher They came and they helped these were good friends and they came and filled both the ships So that they began to sink. I mean that's how much fish was caught on that day that he began to sink Hey and when this church building when we've run out of seats Right when we have enough people here this building's going to begin to sink and we need to find some other solution moving forward I hope that's the case one day. All right But uh, you know when we go fishing we should share that news with our partners. We should share the blessings Hey you get someone say hey, even if you don't get someone saved, but you had the chance to Plant a seed it's a great thing to share that amongst others to share in the blessings that God has given you the opportunity To be a worker for him a fisher of men Verse number eight when Simon Peter saw it. He fell down at Jesus's knees Saying depart from me for I am a sinful man. Oh Lord Hey Simon Peter recognized his disobedience to the Lord Right when he saw the great miracle that Christ did all he could do was bow before Jesus Christ Confess himself a sinner and say depart from me I you know looking at Jesus Christ in who he is, you know The righteous holy Lord God right and he was able to do that Hey look, and if there's been times in your life where you've held back some nets from the Lord You know, you've not been obedient to the Lord. This is the same thing you need to do You just need to bow yourself before Christ and say look I'm a sinner forgive me. I've done wrong Okay, and do better next time That's number nine For he was astonished why was Peter astonished and all that were with him at the draft of the fishes that they had taken and so was also James and John the sons of Zebedee which were partakers with Simon and Jesus sent out to Simon fear not From henceforth thou shalt catch men Okay, fear not. Don't be afraid you do it better next time In fact, instead of catching fishes you're gonna go and catch men. You're going to be a soul winner You're going to catch the souls of men for the kingdom of God God Jesus Christ uses this illustration you know of catching the fish and aligning that with being a soul winner and I love how they respond in verse 11 and When they had brought their ships to land they forsook all and followed him they forsook all and followed him Now let me just say a couple of things here They forsook their livelihoods. They forsook their jobs They forsook their jobs as fishermen. All right, as I mean did they fish other times? They probably did okay, but as far as a day-to-day job they forsook that Okay. Now what I will say this though Is that it is not a call to everybody to just forsake all your jobs Like you've got a family and kids, right? And then you've got you've got a job and you're like well look at this I want to follow Jesus Christ. So I'm just going to quit my job and serve him 100% That's not a call for everybody. Okay in this part of the ministry of Jesus Christ You know, he was going to teach his disciples and he knitted them on board. It's only three years of his ministry There's a short time that Jesus Christ was there to teach them and they could have made the decision Do I keep working my job or do I follow after Christ and become a fisher of men? All right, and they you know, thank God they made that decision to follow after Christ now Look if your church, you know If the ministry you're going into is able to provide for you and for your family, that's one thing, you know Then yeah, of course, you know quit your job and serve the Lord in your church or what have you but I have come across people believers and They're just like well, you know, they're not liking their job for whatever reason It's like well, I'm just gonna quit my job and just serve the Lord and he'll provide for me look You know, the Bible says that as men we are to work to earn an income to provide for our family To make sure that needs are met That is a commandment of God. This is clearly taught in the Bible So if you're doing that, what are you doing? You're following Jesus Look, you don't need to quit your jobs to just follow Jesus Christ You can do you can follow Christ in all aspects of your life and I've covered this before But you could be working a job You don't even like but as long as your mindset is that I'm serving the Lord Jesus Christ And you work hard and you work for him then you are following Christ. You are serving Christ Okay, so please don't have a mindset that God only wants people that are in full-time ministry Okay, that's not the case God wants all of us to follow after him Okay, even if it's not full-time ministry that you're involved in Verse number 12 and It came to pass when he was in a certain city behold a man full of leprosy who seen Jesus fell on his face and Besought him. So this man is sick with leprosy. He comes and he searches for Christ He's been looking for Christ saying Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean Hey, we see that this man had his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ He had no doubts that Christ could have healed him from the leprosy All right, this man had faith to begin with Verse 13 and he put forth his hand and touched him saying I will Be thou clean and immediately the leprosy departed from him and he charged him to tell no man but go and show thyself to the priests and offer for thy cleansing according as Moses commanded for a testimony unto them I Was going to go through Leviticus 13, but I won't do that because I've got a lot to cover here But if you're interested into as to what Christ is asking this man to do then go home and read Leviticus 13 on your own But I do want to bring this this note though to your attention So if someone was concerned about having leprosy maybe maybe not they were required to go to the priest and the priest was to assess and Determine whether that person was unclean or clean Okay Yeah, this is a practice of the Old Testament This proves to us that as Jesus Christ and this is important for later in the chapter So keep this in mind as Jesus Christ was serving in his ministry. The New Testament had not yet started Yes, Jesus Christ was teaching New Testament truths Absolutely, right and and the writings that you know The Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke and John they were written once the New Testament had started Yes but as Christ was on the earth the Old Testament was still in effect and Christ who was to fulfill the whole law was asking this man to keep the commandments of Moses to go to the priest and Show himself to be clean. All right Now it's interesting in verse 14. He says and he charged him to tell no man Hey, don't go around and tell people that it was me that cleansed that healed you. Okay, and You might you might say that's a bit weird. Why is he saying that don't doesn't Jesus want everybody to come to him? And yes, he does. He does. All right, but we'll see in this chapter that Jesus Christ was already Overwhelmed with the amount of people that were coming to him. That's why it starts off that the people were pressing into him Okay, and of course Jesus would eventually go, you know His goal was to go town to town city by city and even with his apostles He sent them out in places that he could not go or even in places to prepare for his coming And so yes, we see that it was the heart of Jesus to ensure that Everybody knew about him, but it was in his time If everyone came rushing then there'd be people that would be a miss out on on Jesus Christ But look at verse 15 Luke Luke 5 15 Even though Jesus Christ tries to stop You know his popularity it says in verse 15 and so much the more when there are fame abroad of him Because look there are thousands of people coming to him you think they're all keeping their mouths quiet. No, right? They're excited They're telling people of Jesus Christ and look and great multitudes came Together to hear and to be healed by him of their infirmities Alright, so even though Jesus tried to prevent the excessive news about his fame It still it still came the the fame was still spreading all over the place and Christ was being overworked great multitudes were coming to be healed. All right now look at verse 16 and He withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed look even Jesus Christ Needed to take a break even he needed to stop for a while. But look He still healed these people he still made himself available to the multitudes But there came a time even Jesus Christ in his flesh grew weary Put himself aside into the wilderness away from all the noise Away and for us, you know, it's away from from Facebook Yeah, it's it's away from from the noise and the hustle bustle life. Sometimes we just need to get away somewhere quiet You know, we all need to find a place of wilderness that we can go and just be alone with the Lord God You know might be the first thing in the morning before your children wake up just a place of quiet We can just bow your head and go before the Lord and pray and we see that's exactly what Jesus Christ did Remember he left us his steps that we can follow after him even Jesus Christ needed to recharge his batteries Okay, and then get back into the work verse 17 Verse 17 and it came to pass on a certain day as he was teaching that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by which were come out of every town of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and the power of the Lord was present to heal them and Behold men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy. That's like cerebral palsy and they sought means to bring him in and to lay him before him and When they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude They went upon the housetop and let him down through the tiling with his couch. Sorry Yeah with his couch into the midst before Jesus So we have this group of friends bringing their friend who can't walk and they can't come Through the front door because of the multitude that are trying to hear the Lord Jesus Christ So they go to the roof they take down the tiles and they let him down in the roof, you know Could you imagine this place was packed out and people wanted to come and hear the word of the Lord and all of a sudden? We see the the roof open up right the the elements coming down, you know, the beauty material falling down I suppose and this man being brought down, you know, just to hear the word of the Lord, right? I mean and look at verse 20 and I this is the memory verse and I want you to memorize this for a reason and When he saw their faith He said unto him man thy sins are forgiven thee. I Want you to understand this? What is it if we want our sins forgiven if we want to be made right with the Lord? What do we need to have? first Faith, okay. It's not that your sins are forgiven and then you have faith in the Lord No, it's always faith first Just like the man of leprosy. He came seeking the Lord He had faith that the Lord Jesus Christ could heal him and so he did Right and we see here before Jesus Christ even bothers healing this man of his sickness He realizes this man has sins, but he sees the faith of the man and he sees the faith of his friends He says when he saw their faith, right? He said unto him man thy sins are forgiven thee Hey look The only thing that's going to cause you to be forgiven of your sins the only thing that's going to cause you to be right before the Lord and have eternal life is For you to place your faith on the Lord Jesus Christ That's it your faith 100% on the Lord Jesus Christ and look it's my opinion It's not clearly spelt out in the Bible, but I could make a study of this and prove this quite strongly But it's my opinion that Jesus Christ When he when he went healing people with sicknesses It was people that had faith on him that had already Placed 100% their faith on Christ not faith that he could just heal them But faith in who he was the Christ the Son of God The only exception to this that I can see in the Bible are those that were Possessed by Devils or possessed by unclean spirits, okay? So Christ would cast out the Devils and then these people would be a sober minded and they'd be able to believe on him Okay, that's the only exception that I see but every other sort of sickness That's your sort of your standard illnesses and diseases that are in the world You know people had their faith in him and we could do a study we could I could show you how many times it? Speaks of their faith and then healing Jesus Christ healing them all right now I Believe that is that is symbolic of salvation Okay, I believe what Jesus Christ is doing is symbolic. We're all diseased with sin. We're all diseased with that We're all deserving of hellfire, but Jesus Christ says when he looks upon our faith on him. He'd come and heal us he'd come and forgive us of our sins all right verse 21 and the scribes and Pharisees Began to reason saying It's interesting here in verse 21. It says they're saying these things Who is this which speaketh blasphemies who can forgive sins, but God alone? Hey, they're saying the truth But they're not accepting the truth right of course the only one that can forgive sins is God alone Hey, this is a great passage that proves the deity of Jesus Christ that he is God Yes, Christ could forgive sins because he is God all right his God manifest in the flesh and the Pharisees were so close to seeing this, but they just couldn't put their faith on Christ himself look at verse 22 but when Jesus perceived their thoughts Hey, how were they saying this were they using their mouths? No, they were just thinking this right It was just in their minds who can forgive sins, but God alone and again Jesus Christ He proves that he's God he's able to read their thoughts Perceiving their thoughts he answered answer and said unto them what reason ye in your hearts Verse 23 whether is easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee or to say rise up and walk So someone came here that couldn't walk You know let's I don't have the power to forgive sins But it'd be easier for me to say thy sins be forgiven than to make this man walk all right so Jesus Christ is basically saying it's easier for that for that okay, so If his sins were truly forgiven and we'll see this play out Then what would be harder is his ability to walk if he's able to walk Then that proves that his sins were forgiven if that makes sense i'm not sure if I explained that right anyway verse 24 But that ye may know that the son of man have power upon earth to forgive sins So is jesus wanting these pharisees to be saved Of course Right he's trying to show them his deity right he's saying there in verse 24 that ye may know That the son of man have power upon earth to forgive sins He said unto the sick of the palsy I say unto thee arise and take up thy couch and go into thine house So what he's saying as the son of God he does have the power to forgive sins Right and he commands this man to stand up and prove that his sins were forgiven verse 25 And immediately he rose up before them and took up that whereon he lay and departed to his own house glorifying God He was a glorifying god, right verse 26 And they were all amazed and they glorified god and were filled with fear saying we have seen strange things Today right christ healing them forgiving his sins Causing him to walk. These were strange things. These were strange happenings But this is what I love about our lord god. This is what's wonderful about being a christian Is that in verse 26 it said and they glorified god and were filled with fear look look Besides god if you have fear of something You don't glorify in it All right, um brother. Jason mentioned that he has a fear of asparagus Meaning he doesn't glory in asparagus All right, or if there's something that you glory in you don't tend to fear that thing But it's an amazing thing that we can have a god of the universe who's perfect who's holy who's without sin And we know his anger and his wrath And we see how he's kindled when he when he when he casts souls into the lake of fire That's something to fear right we can fear his how awesome he is how great he is How terrible and mighty how great god is? And yeah at the same time when you're when you're when you're a believer when you have your sins forgiven Right when you're made a child of god at the same time you can glorify him It's an amazing thing that you can do both these things with the lord god But there's nothing else in the world that you can do this right fear and glory in the two things So what am I up to verse 27? I think after verse 27 and after these things he went forth and saw a publican named levi now this levi that's matthew Okay, it's the author of the of the book of matthew the same guy Sitting at the receipt of custom and he said unto him Follow me Verse 28 just like the fisherman and he left all rose up and followed him Okay, so What I want to point out there guys Is that jesus christ? Once you're saved once you have your faith on him. He wants us to follow after him Okay, it doesn't matter if you're a blue-collar worker like a fisherman Or if you're a white-collar worker like matthew was a tax collector working for the government, you know behind a computer It doesn't matter what your profession is Obviously matthew wasn't behind a computer, but whatever your profession is What whatever your place is in society whoever you are rich or poor great job poor job Doesn't matter. Okay Jesus christ wants all of us to follow after him. Okay. Here's the final answer to everybody Regardless of who you are. All right And I love how he just raises up He probably had a a good job like a well-paying job and he was willing to forsake that and seek after the lord. Jesus christ Verse 29 and we can see that he's probably a wealthy man because look in verse 29 He says and levi made him a great feast in his own house and there was a great company of publicans So hey, he invites his his work colleagues Right, and if you get an opportunity and I appreciate brother callum every now and again He gives us an update on some someone in his workplace that he's trying to preach the gospel to hey If you have an opportunity in your workplace To tell them about jesus christ do it right we see levi set this example He gets his work buddies to come and hear jesus christ And uh and of others that sat down with them verse 30 But their scribes and pharisees murmured against his disciples saying why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? Now this is an interesting Part of the bible here and jesus answering said unto them Remember the pharisees and and and the scribes these ones in particular were not believers of jesus christ They were being critical of his ministry and jesus answering said unto them they that are whole need not a physician But they that are sick All right Verse 32. I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance wow, all right, so And it's unfortunate because when you go through the bible sometimes you've got you can't just preach the truth I mean i'm hopefully i'm always preaching the truth, but sometimes you've just got to stop and deal with false doctrine Okay, because this passage here For those that believe you've got to turn from your sins to be saved Right, they say faith alone in christ is insufficient. You've got to do more You've got to keep the works of the law. You've got to turn from your sins to be saved Those people that preach a false gospel This is one of the verses they turn to and say see look Jesus christ came not for the righteous, but he's calling the sinners to repentance And so they interpret this verse to say jesus christ is saying to the sinners turn from your sins to be saved But they never explain the first bit About the righteous. All right. So let's let's take a look at this first of all Did jesus christ come? Seeking only some people no the bible says in second peter three nine that god is not willing that any should perish But that all should come to repentance all Okay, so when we look at this when christ says he's called sinners to repentance Is he's talking about just a certain group of people? No, he's talking about all for all have sinned and come short of the glory of god Okay Everyone is a sinner Otherwise what you're saying here if you're saying that To be saved you must turn from sins to be saved Then what are you saying? You're saying that there are some that are righteous On their own and are saved You understand that they're right because jesus says does not come for the righteous So did these people and he's referring obviously to the pharisees and the scribes in the context of this Were the pharisees and scribes here saved? No, they were rejecting the lord jesus christ, all right So let's understand what is jesus talking about here when he says i've not come to call the righteous What he's saying to the scribes and pharisees is that they're self-righteous Okay, they're self-righteous and they need to be like these publicans that recognize they're sinners The only way you can be saved is to turn from your self-righteousness And recognize your condition as a sinner before the lord Hey, this is why when we go door to the soul winning, you know The first things that are out of our mouth is that they're a sinner but they're not perfect that they've broken the law of god Because the very first things that come out of the mouth is i'm a good person God's gonna allow me to heaven because i'm good and we need to tell no you're not good. There is none good No, not one All right Same thing for these pharisees. They thought they were self-righteous. All right, if you're self-righteous you can be that way Okay, but uh, you're not going to be saved You need to see yourself as a sinner first And that's why christ was was able to fellowship with these publicans because they were ready to recognize that about themselves And and uh and receive jesus christ as their savior Verse 33 And they said unto him these are the pharisees why do the disciples of john fast often I find this funny because the pharisees they didn't like john the baptist either but he's using a godly man To criticize in a sense another godly man. All right, that's what the wicker do. All right Why do the disciples of john fast often and make prayers and likewise the disciples of the pharisees but thine eat and drink? So they are comparing jesus and his disciples to the pharisees and the disciples of the pharisees and john the baptist Verse 34 and he said unto them. Can you make the children of the bride chamber fast? While the bridegroom is with them So, you know a bridegroom that's just a the groom we call it the groom today When you're a groom or a bridegroom You're given that label just before you're getting married or shortly after you're married. Okay now a marriage Is that a time to fast Is that a time to not eat bread and to go without food? No You know a marriage is normally followed with a reception with some sort of marriage feast. It's a time of celebration It's a time of rejoicing. It's a time to uh, enjoy food and enjoy fellowship with one another and jesus christ says look You know, we know that he's only his ministry is only for the three years that he's there and he says look while i'm here With them we're going to be feasting because it's not a time to fast Verse 35, but the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them And then shall they fast in those days, right? When was jesus christ taken away from them? When it was after his death Resurrection and ascension into heaven, right? After the new testament was brought in Okay, hebrews 9 15. You don't need to turn there. It says and for this cause speaking of jesus He is the mediator of the new testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament that they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance The promise of eternal inheritance For where a testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the testator for a testament is of force after men are dead Otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. So what is jesus christ saying here? He's saying once the new testament is in force That's when my people are going to fast Okay, and remember the the man with leprosy jesus christ was operating under the old testament at that time And now he's speaking about the new testament the new testament, which is shortly going to come to pass. All right And remember again guys the book of luke keep in mind as you study as you read the book of luke luke Makes makes it makes an effort to keep it thematic to keep it topical Is not too focused on it being in in perfect chronological order Because this all adds up to the end of the chapter the old testament in force the new testament Have been spoken about when jesus christ will be taken away from them And we'll start to see this toward the end of the chapter how it all comes together Verse 36 luke, um luke 536 And um, let me just say the rest of this chapter I've never heard anybody preach on these verses I just i've been in church my whole life baptist union independent baptists People just skip this and I understand why because I had difficulty with it. I was going through it But I think i've come to to an answer. Okay verse 37 That's 36. Sorry and he spake also a parable unto them Now this parable It's it's got three parts. I used to think it had two parts, but it's got three parts. Let's read it Okay No, man put off a piece of new garment upon an old Now the reason I was talking to you about the old and new testament is because I want you in your mind to be thinking About the when he talked about the old and new I want you to be thinking about the old and the new testament. All right Uh, sorry, um, no man put off a piece of a new garment upon an old if otherwise then both the new maker for rent And the piece that was taken out of the new agree if not with the old So if my shirt, you know, let's say i've been wearing this for six months and then it uh, there's a tear So christina, you know instead of me buying a new shirt We we get a piece of new garment and we just patch it on there. Okay, so The new garment has not been has not been stretched like the old garment, you know Maybe it's not shrunk in the watch. I washed like the new garment. All right, it's it's uh, it's a it's a much stronger fabric Because the old garment has been used up a little bit, right? And so when you put a new a new garment on it can stretch or it can uh shrink and it can It's stronger than the old garment so it can cause a tear and just make it worse It's not going to be the solution. You need the new garment put away the old garment and you need to purchase yourself a new garment That's pretty easy to understand verse 36, but the next verse is a bit challenging verse 37 And no man put a new wine into old bottles Else the new wine will burst the bottles and be spilled and the bottle shall perish But new wine must be put into new bottles and both are preserved Now I used to think verse 39 Was part of verses 37 verse 38. I no longer see that because look at how verse 39 starts No, man Okay now Look at verse 36 again. How does it start and it's very comparable unto them. No, man, right? Then verse 37 and no man So there's another part and then verse 38 verse 39. No, man So you see there are three parts to this one parable each illustrating a very similar concept Okay, and I think this is important to help understand what we're reading about here because again and i've got to deal with this Because I don't you know, I believe drinking alcohol is a sin All right, and i've seen people use these passages to teach Hey, look, jesus christ is saying it's okay to drink alcohol No, all right. Let's look at this And I think that's why a lot of people just avoid it Because it there is a bit of a challenge, but I think if we just take it as it is We'll be we'll be fine. All right now look at this Um Let's look at verse 37 first and no man put a new wine into old bottles else The new one will burst the bottles and be spilled and the bottle shall perish. All right, so So I've got some new wine here That's freshly squeezed grape juice All right, freshly squeezed. Don't worry New wine now when the bible talks about new wine, it's always freshly squeezed grape juice fresh non-alcoholic grape juice. All right now When you crush grapes There's a film of yeast on the on on the skin of the grapes and as soon as you crush them Even though you don't you don't notice it with your eye it starts to ferment immediately The yeast starts to eat away the sugars of the grape juice And in time once the sugars are all used up it becomes alcoholic Okay. Now when fermentation takes place it releases, um, you know starts to carbonate It releases carbon and it starts to expand, you know, and I'll give you an example of this if you've ever purchased fruit juice Like in a normal plastic container if you've ever left it out for a few days or it's been in the fridge for too long sometimes you'll notice that the the Or or even milk Have you ever finished milk drinking milk and then you've closed it and you've left it and the bottle just starts to expand This fermentation taking place during that time it starts to expand and what i've learned about the old testament, uh bottles Now, I don't think they were using glass bottles, but a lot of people suggest that we're using leather Bottles and that would make some sort of sense Okay, make it make a bit of sense because if those leather bottles and leather can be stretched All right that when when fermentation takes place That the leather bottle would be expanded. Okay, and then it'll weaken So you wouldn't put new fresh grape juice into that already expanded bottle Because as it continues as the new wine ferments, you know, it'll it'll burst those Those are skins and then it'll be you know, you waste the bottle and you'll waste the juice All right The point I want to say here is guys is that as soon as you crush the grapes Fermentation starts to take place. There's already expansion. It doesn't have to become alcoholic for it to be uh, uh for fermentation to be taking place Now I was I was looking this up a little bit if you took normal grape juice and just left it crush the grapes You didn't add any sugar. You didn't add any yeast to it It takes about a week or two before it becomes alcoholic wine But even then the alcohol content is not as as high as the breweries because the breweries add sugars add yeast And make the alcohol contents even higher. All right So let's understand this um So what christ is saying here what christ is saying is that um Once the new testament is in place Okay, then his disciples will fast And you cannot go back into you can't put the old testament upon you Okay back upon you now if you've read the book of acts or even the epistles you you'll recognize that there are certain jews That aren't happy with how the gentiles, you know were saved by faith on the lord Jesus christ and they're saying look they need to get circumcised, right? You know, they're taking old testament principles and trying to apply that to the new testament, right? And that's wrong You know, they were called out for that Because old testament circumcision was a picture of circumcision in the heart That that takes place both in the old testament and in the new testament Okay, you can't take things that are necessarily physical that were required personally for the nation of israel And then apply that and force that upon new testament believers No, god had had a system for old testament israel the nation of israel Okay, and a lot of what they did was symbolic of truths of the bible All right So we need to be mindful when we when as we're in new testament times that we're not going and sacrificing animals You know that we're not forcing people to go and get circumcised Right because these things are no longer in place. Jesus christ came and fulfilled the law of god Now i'm not saying the old testament you throw out the old testament. No, there is great truths You know, the new testament is built on the old testament Okay, many of the things that we see in the new testament just points us back to the old There's a lot of things to learn there, you know, you should know it all i'm not saying that But you can't enforce the things that god put upon israel and the law of moses upon the new testament saints You know and this is where people start to corrupt the gospel as well. We won't go into that right now All right. Now let's understand verse 39 Well, actually one more thing one more thing Um because i've heard people that that promote alcohol say this Well, they must have been drinking alcoholic beverages back then if this uh, this expansion was taking place now I looked this up, but there's a process called pasteurization If you've gone to high school or school primary school, you probably learned this. Okay, it's a process that came I think it was the 1880s by a guy called something pasture. It's named after him where in order to preserve Say milk or to preserve fruit juice they found because you know There's microorganisms all over like in the air, you know all the time you you've got bacteria in your body all the time You've probably even got parasites and things like that. And so when you open, um, you know juice or milk Stuff that's in the air will go into the into the the juice and spoil it Okay. Now in order to uh prevent to to preserve uh juice or milk, whatever what they found is that you could boil Or heat up, um the juice heat up the milk to kill all the yeast and kill all the bacteria And then you you seal it airtight So there's no other microorganisms that go in it and that will preserve the drink longer In fact, I called the the vineyard that made this and I said how long does this last as it is? They said easily two years easily and probably beyond that. They just don't guarantee the quality after two years Okay, because it's been pasteurized it was heat up. It's been sealed tight, uh airtight And uh, and it'll last okay and so this Cannot become On its own and unless you you go and add yeast to it or something. This cannot become alcoholic Now people say well see pasteurization only came in the 1800s Look Yes Modern pasteurization came in the 1800s. Yes. I recognize that. All right, but do you honestly do you honestly want to tell me? That for the thousands of years and I believe the people back then Were smarter than us, right? Are you going to tell me they could not figure out to just boil juice or boil milk for it to last longer? All right, and I looked this up and yeah sure enough there's documented evidence that different societies throughout the world even before pasteurization Were doing the same process heating things up. So it killed the bacteria and it'd be preserved longer my point is The juice that's in these bottles may very well just be pasteurized grape juice and never intended for it to become alcoholic But you know what? Even if I open this bottle up right now And I left it open for a little while and then closed it and expo and you know Allow the elements to sort of fall into it This will start to become this will start to ferment Okay, there'd be certain bacteria that would come in here start eating away the sugar and it'll start to expand and it starts to spoil Okay, but that doesn't mean it's going to become alcoholic It just means it's going to ferment It's going to uh, all the sugar is going to be used up and it's it's not going to be nice at all It's not going to be good to drink. And so my point is Even with the example of pasteurization The expansion of the bottles does not necessarily mean it's alcoholic. It doesn't have to mean that but obviously those that want to teach That alcohol is fine will find a way You know any scripture they can to put that in there and say see jesus christ is you know promoting alcohol here That's not the case Okay, it's not the case. You're really drawing a long bow there Especially when you know the rest of the bible what it teaches on this topic Okay, but I wanted to give you an answer to that just in case, you know, that's that's on your mind Let's end with verse 39 verse 39 the third part of this parable No man also having drunk old wine Straightway desireth new for his sayeth the old is better and again the alcoholics will say see Here's a man drinking old wine and by that they mean alcoholic wine Okay that they would prefer to drink that alcoholic wine than to drink fresh grape juice Well, here's my question to that if someone Loves their alcohol. Okay loves Alcoholic wine if that's how you interpret it Why would he ever desire new wine? Think about that because the new wine is freshly squeezed grape juice. That's non-alcoholic Why would the the drunkard ever desire the freshly squeezed grape juice? It's not the case. It can't happen right because he always wants the old he always wants the old He's never going to want the new All right. Now what jesus christ is saying here no man also having drunk old wine old wine Straightway desireth the new so eventually he will desire the new So is this talking about an alcoholic? You know wanting fresh grape juice at some point no, it's just that Um, he's been you know, we understand that the concept of the bottle is breaking Obviously he's going to finish what he has Before he opens the new, you know, why is he going to open the new wine and cause that to ferment for that to spoil? Okay, and then you're going to have problems on both ends. You haven't finished the old wine It's it's going to burst, you know, it's going to uh, uh spoil and then you open new wine And it's going to ferment you'd create two problems if that's the case What I believe this is teaching is that he's going to finish his old drink So let's say this was open halfway through i'm going to finish what I started before I open up the new bottle Okay, that's what's happening. And so what jesus christ is teaching here is that we're waiting at this point in time They're waiting for the old testament to pass away so that the new testament could come into fruition All right, hebrews 8 13 says this In that his sayeth a new covenant He have made the first old Now that which decayeth and waxes old is ready to vanish away Okay, the old testament there was the time for it to vanish away and today it's definitely gone Okay, and now the new testament is in effect with the lord jesus christ. This is what he's teaching Okay, and this is what the pharisees needed to understand in their mind Okay, is you need to get to a point now where you're moving away from the old testament and you start receiving? Jesus christ the test data of the new testament All right, let's leave it there. Let's pray