Thanks to Riker, a riot. Sometimes, Ayla. Alright. Take your Bibles if you would. Turn to Mark chapter two.

It's okay to say amen during the sermon as well, just so you know. Alright. But, you know, make sure you say it at the right time. There are times when amen is not the proper response. Alright.

Mark two eighteen through 22. Mark two and we'll begin reading in verse 18 in just a moment. The disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast And they come and they say unto him, that is Jesus. Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast but thy disciples fast not? Jesus said unto them, can the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them?

As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. No man also soweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment, else the new piece that filled it filled it up taketh away from the old and the rent is made worse. And no man putteth new wine into old wine... Old bottles or skins.

Else, the new wine doth burst the bottles and the wine is spilled and the bottles will be marred in the new wine. But new wine must be put into new bottles. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, thank you for your word today. May you grant us understanding.

May the holy spirit take your word and powerfully move inside of our hearts. Lord, we pray if there's one here that is yet to receive Christ as savior that today would be their day of salvation. And we thank you, Lord, for your word. May we rightly divide it here today. In Jesus name, we do pray.

Amen. Matthew five seventeen, Jesus said, think that I... Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am come not to destroy but to fulfill. Jesus didn't come to erase the Old Testament He didn't come to destroy it.

He came to fulfill it. He is the fulfillment of it. Both the Old Testament scriptures and the old covenant between God and Israel. And to institute, therefore, having fulfilled the old, he came to institute a new covenant between God, not just God and Israel, but God and all of mankind, in which we are so blessed to have the opportunity to be part of today. And we're gonna take a few minutes and look at that and the metaphors that Christ used in explaining it here in Mark chapter two.

If you remember from last week's lesson, Jesus and his disciples were partaking of a meal which Levi or Matthew had given in Christ's honor and to which he had invited his friends to meet his new master, his new Lord, his new savior, okay? And many came and earnestly to hear what Jesus had to say. The Pharisees were aghast at Christ's willingness to associate with Matthew's friends because Matthew's friends were outcast like him. To which Jesus Christ exclaimed that he had come to call sinners and not self righteous Pharisees to repentance who did not recognize their sin. Jesus came and he spoke and he shared the good news with those who desired to hear it, to those who knew they needed to hear it, and not just with those who didn't know or were unwilling to consider that they were sinners too and that was the problem with the Pharisees.

Now, the disciples of John the Baptist, they're mentioned here too. Had remained his students. That is John the Baptist students. Some of Jesus' disciples started out as followers of John the Baptist, the the forerunner of Christ, the prophet that God sent to prepare the people of Israel for the coming of their Messiah who preached a gospel of repentance and baptized people symbolically to demonstrate their repentance before God. Some of his disciples, John, James, Peter, Andrew seemed to be followers of John the Baptist before they became followers of Christ and left John to follow Christ full time.

Others did not do that. They remained following John the Baptist. He was still ministering. He was doing good things. He was baptizing people until eventually he was thrown in jail by Herod.

So, John the Baptist disciples, those who had remained his students along with some of the Pharisees also questioned Jesus here as to why he and his disciples did not what? Did you catch that? Didn't what? Fast. Okay.

Why they didn't fast? As John's disciples did and as the Pharisees did. Jesus' disciples rather seem to be quite the merry lot, not as some others were all hoist down the mouth. John's disciples, as their teacher, as I mentioned, was in prison, sincerely were were sullen over his plight and so naturally, what did they do? Well, John the Baptist was in prison.

He would soon be beheaded by Herod. They were concerned for their for their teacher, for the prophet. And so they fasted and they prayed earnestly for him, for the Lord to be with him, probably for the Lord to deliver him. And so they fasted and prayed earnestly, sincerely. Fasting was commonly practiced as a manner of earnest prayer in desperate times or for very serious matters.

In such cases, meals were sacrificed for sincere time in prayer to express a real earnest concern on the part of the petitioner. So fasting included praying, but it was such earnest praying that other things were set aside to spend more time in prayer and to demonstrate the earnestness and the sincerity of those who prayed. Particularly in a case like John the Baptist being thrown in prison. There are other examples in scripture. Daniel nine twenty three.

It says, Daniel said, I set my face unto the Lord to seek by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. The fasting, the sackcloth, and ashes were all a sign of earnestness before the Lord. In some cases, repentance before the Lord. Daniel was in a pickle. Daniel desperately wanted something from the Lord and so he set aside everything else to do what?

To seek the Lord's guidance in the thing that he needed. In Nehemiah one four, it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourn certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Nehemiah had just got the news that after seventy after around seventy years, the walls of Jerusalem still had not been rebuilt. The city generally still was laid waste. A group had gone to go there, but they hadn't accomplished a whole lot, and it troubled Nehemiah greatly.

And so he fasted and he and he prayed and you can read his prayer in Nehemiah chapter one. It is a wonderful prayer to the Lord. And then how about this one? Esther chapter four verse 16. Esther told Mordecai, he said, go gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast you for me and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day.

I also and my maidens will fast likewise and so will I go in unto the king which is not according to the law and if I perish, I perish. Esther, was in a position to to to possibly deliver her people out of complete destruction at the hand of Haman and the law that he had passed but if she went into the king to speak with him without being invited, she was putting her neck on the line. And so, quite literally, yes and so, she asked Mordecai, go back and have people pray and fast. You know, this is very serious. We we need to let God know.

Please ask them to fast and pray. In times like these, fasting is good and necessary and right. It is understandable, therefore, that John's disciples would fast while he was in dire straits. But the Pharisees were another matter. They fasted as a matter of routine and self righteousness hoping to impress God and others with their acts of self humiliation.

They did not impress God. God said the praise... They... God said the praise of men would be all the reward that they would get because God knew they were just going through the what? They were just going through the motion.

They routinely fasted once or twice a week. They went out in special attire and soul in the face so everybody would know that they were fasting that day and it was not for the reason that fasting was intended. There wasn't some great need. There was no great humility before God. There was no great earnestness to get God's attention to answer a prayer that they had.

No, it was just a ritual that they were going through to receive the praise of man and God said, well, that's all you're going to get. Neither group fully understood what Jesus had come to do, which would change everything. Nor the joy that he brought and would bring to those who know him, particularly his disciples, which we're learning presently at his feet. So in answer to them, he first used the analogy of a wedding. We we find that in Mark chapter two and verse 19.

Jesus said to them, can the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them and then shall they fast in those days. Now, we have weddings, and weddings are a celebration that lasts for a day. You have the wedding.

You have the reception. Some are longer than others, but generally a few hours a day the wedding celebration takes. Now that wasn't the case in Israel. Wedding celebrations took a week and not a day, and sometimes two weeks. And it was it was their their outside of the holidays prescribed by God, the feast of the Passover and of Pentecost and of Tabernacles.

Outside of those, it was the greatest time of celebration in Israel was when somebody was married. And boy, they they celebrated. They had they had a wonderful time. It was reason for celebration. They look forward to weddings, and they took them a little more seriously, sadly, than we take them today in our culture, at least the commitment part of of the the wedding.

Jesus compared himself to a bridegroom at the wedding feast and his disciples as members of the wedding party. It was a time for celebration because the bridegroom had what? The bridegroom had come. You see, the bridegroom was engaged, betrothed, which was a little more binding than our engagement today, was betrothed for the woman he would marry, and then he would go away and prepare. And then when the home, when everything was prepared, then he would come back and he would marry his bride and whisk her away to the place.

And so, Jesus was there. The bridegroom was there. It was not a time to fast. It was not a time to be sorrowful. It was a time to what?

Rejoice and celebrate. The Messiah had come. A wedding was a time for celebrating, feasting, and rejoicing especially Hebrew weddings. Nobody came in funeral attire to the wedding feast in sackcloth and ashes. Nobody wore a somber face.

They made merry. They celebrated the union of the bride and groom. So, Christ and his disciples had no reason to be somber, no reason to fast at present while Christ was with them. By the way, Christ is also with us today. We should still be what?

Celebrating every day. However, in the flesh, he's where? In heaven and we're awaiting his return to take his bride to the place he has prepared. The church, us, the redeemed in Christ Jesus. And there are times today Christ is not walking by our side physically in the flesh.

There are times to fast. But that was not the time when Christ was with his disciples to fast and pray. It was a time to rejoice. It was time to spread the news. So they had no reason to be somber, no reason to fast while he was there.

Sadly, others didn't recognize what his disciples knew. That Jesus was Emmanuel, which means what? God with us. And he was living side by side with them. However, the time would come as Christ pointed out when the king...

When the bridegroom would be taken away from them and then they would have reason to fast and pray. He would be arrested. He would die. He would rise again but depart and go back where? To heaven.

His disciples would suffer for his name's sake. There would be reason to fast and pray later but that was not the time then when Jesus, the bridegroom, was with them. There would be time and there are times today. Unfortunately, we often don't seem to recognize those times. A lot of times our prayers involve, Lord, thank you for this food.

And they're not so earnest and when things go wrong, we go to the Lord a little bit more but not so earnestly as to skip a meal or two or three In earnest prayer for a loved one or for ourselves or for the lost. Fasting isn't something that's practiced much today and and shouldn't be practiced as a matter of routine. Fasting is not going on a diet. That's not biblical fasting. It's not simply a ritual.

It's when God's people are so concerned about something very important that food just isn't that important right at the moment, and it takes a back seat. We sometimes miss the point as well. We're quick to judge the Pharisees for their ritualism, but I'm afraid sometimes we act a little more like them than we would like to admit. We either never fast at all or spend very little time in prayer or we do things as a matter of routine and not earnestly from our heart. As God said concerning giving, he says, God loves a cheerful giver.

One who does that from their freely, from their their heart, and that is true whether it be giving or praying or witnessing. God loves a cheerful servant of the Lord. Christ would then go on to illustrate the confusion of his detractors further by using two household metaphors. Number one, is found in verse 21. No man also soweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment.

Else, the new piece that filleth it up taketh away from the old and the rent is made worse. It is... Was only common sense is only common sense that you don't mend an old garment with a new piece of fabric. Okay? Why?

Well, because the old garment, the old cloth has shrunk over time. And the new piece of cloth, the new piece of garment that you put on there, the patch often will then shrink itself, but the old is already shrunk and it's not likely to give much. And as the new patch that you put on there shrinks, it actually can pull away from the old part and the rent is made worse rather than what? Rather than better. So you don't take a new piece of cloth that's gonna shrink and put it on an old garment that's already shrunk because it just doesn't work very well.

Two pieces of cloth were incompatible is the point. The old and the new are just incompatible to put together. You cannot fix the old with the what? With the new. If you're going to fix the the old referring to actual garments, you would take a piece of old off of some other piece and put it on and then the two are the same age and that that won't happen.

But the point here is this, you cannot fix the old with the new. The old in this case needed to be tossed and replaced with something entirely what? Entirely new. That's the point that Christ is making. He goes on in the next verse to make the same point again except this time with wine and no man putteth new wine into old bottles.

Now, it's trend... The word is translated here bottles actually means wineskins. Okay? So we're not talking about a pottery bottle or a glass bottle. We're talking about a wineskin that could stretch.

Okay? And that's what they would put there, harvest their grape juice, put it in the wine skin. Over time, the grape juice would ferment. When it fermented, it would become what we term as wine, and it would produce gases which would push out on the wine skin and make it what? Stretch and stretch and stretch.

And there were many uses for wine, not just for drinking in those days and so this was a common practice for the Israelites and they knew very well that once you had emptied that old wineskin, you couldn't put new wine, new grape juice in it because when it fermented, then it would what? Produce gases which would push out and but this time, that old wineskin had already been stretched to its what? To its limit. And so if you put new wine and old wineskins, it would burst and the wine would dump out onto the ground and then that precious juice that you needed for various things would be what? Would be wasted.

Would be wasted. And so this is the illustration that Christ used here. Again, what is the point? Well, for new wine, you need to have a new what? A new wineskin.

You cast out the old and you get... You need something new. You can't just take the new and shove it into the what? Shove it into the old. It doesn't work that way.

The two are not compatible. Okay? And that is Christ's point. Thus, his point to the Pharisees that the old ways, both the old covenant, we'll look at that in a minute, based on the law between God and Israel, which they had failed to keep, I. The the 10 commandments along with a bunch of others.

And especially the additional regulations placed upon the Jews by their religious leaders were not compatible with the new covenant that Jesus was initiating by his work. The two were not compatible. They had to break from their old way of thinking, the old covenant in order to receive the what? The new. Old not just in age but in quality, in purpose.

The old had its purpose but it had been, it was fulfilled in Christ and now there was a new and you can't just take the new and shove it into the old. You have to break from the old to embrace the what? To embrace the new. And that was Jesus is trying to explain for it, explain to them. Therefore, the old, the obsolete had to be left behind to make for the new.

The old did not need to be added to. It didn't even need to be fixed. It was inadequate for the job of redemption. It was but a shadow or a precursor of the new that had come in Jesus Christ. The old was good.

It had a purpose. The old covenant between God and Israel that contained the 10 commandments and everything else. All of that was good. It had a purpose but it's time had now passed and it was time for the new. That Jesus would institute, initiate by his death on the cross.

That's why Jesus said in Matthew five seventeen, think not that I'm come to destroy the law and the prophets. That's the old. I am not come to destroy but to what? But to fulfill. But to fulfill.

And once it is fulfilled, then you move on to the fulfill the old. Now, you move on to the to the new. Israel couldn't keep the law. They failed over again and again. I'll I'll say that again in a moment.

But who did fulfill the law? Who did keep it? Jesus did. In the old, under the old covenant, Israel had to constantly brings blood sacrifices to atone for their sins. That was the old.

Jesus Christ came and he fulfilled the symbolism in his person. He died on the cross and shed his blood, his righteous blood to atone for the sins of mankind. He fulfilled the old. But in dying on the cross and shedding his blood, he initiated the what? The new.

The new. The Pharisees in particular were looking at everything from perspective of making it all fit into the their outdated beliefs and practice as prescribed by their interpretation and understanding of the law which in many cases was wrong and were thereby unable to see Christ for who he really was and celebrate in faith the fulfillment of the old covenant and the mediator of the new. The religious leaders of the Jews were not looking for a new covenant. They were trying to make everything fit into the old. Not in age, as in quality and usefulness.

Turn if you would to Hebrews chapter eight. We're gonna conclude here from Hebrews chapter eight. So if you turn over there with me, there's several verses I want us to read. And as the writer of Hebrews explains this old versus new and why the new was necessary and why the new is better. Hebrews chapter eight beginning in verse six.

Hebrews eight verse six. But now hath he... Now that he is Jesus, and... But now hath Jesus obtained a more excellent ministry. A more excellent ministry than who?

Moses in the old covenant. But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant which was established upon better promises. Do you get the point? We have more excellent, better, better, better. That is the point of the right view.

The the old was good. It wasn't bad. It wasn't wrong, But now we have something what? Better. And with the coming of the better, we have to let go of the the least to hold on to what is better or in this case, best.

Continuing on, for if the first covenant, that's Moses and Israel, had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. If the if the first covenant, the old covenant was sufficient for the redemption of mankind, then there would not have been a need for the new but it wasn't. It wasn't. So, therefore, we need the new. Going on.

So, we are in verse eight. For finding fault with them, that is with Israel. He say it, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt because they continued what? Not in my covenant.

And I regarded them not, say it the Lord. In other words, I made a covenant with them. That covenant was based on lesser promises than the new covenant because that covenant required Israel generation after generation to do the works of the law to keep it and generation after generation, what happened? They failed and God had to chasten them and God had to bring judgment and eventually, God ripped them out of the land that he gave to them, allowed them to be destroyed and overrun by the enemy because they didn't keep the covenant. Verse 10.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house... Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind. I will write them in their hearts. I will be to them a god and they shall be to me a people.

Look if you would over to verse 13 at the end of the chapter. In that, he say it a new covenant. He made the first old that is obsolete. Now, that which decayeth and wax it old is ready to vanish away. Some of the Jews, some of the Jews who had made professions of faith in Christ and left the temple to follow Christ were being pressured to go back to temple worship and to leave Christ.

And the writer of Hebrews wrote to warn them, don't do this. That covenant is obsolete. It will not serve you. The Messiah has come. The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world has died upon the cross and is risen again from the dead.

The old covenant cannot help you. You must put your trust in the son of God. The one sacrifice for all time that actually takes away the sin of the world. You must choose Christ over the old is what he is saying. In the old covenant between God and Israel was built upon lesser promises because it depended upon the faithfulness of Israel.

Clearly, they did not keep their end of the bargain. So they were cast out and trodden under their enemies. Many at present had completely lost sight of the lesson which the old covenant was intended to teach Israel. Namely, that they were incapable of keeping the commandments fully. Requiring them to humbly seek mercy from who?

From God through the sin atoning blood sacrifices which foreshadowed the sacrifice of who? Jesus Christ. In Romans three nineteen and twenty says, now we know that what things so ever the law say it, it say it to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become what? Guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

The law serves several purposes but one of the main purposes was to reveal to Israel and to all the world thereby that we are sinners in need of a what? Savior and the many of the people of Jesus' day, they didn't get it. They didn't get it. They thought that the law was given so that if they did their very best to keep it, that God would let them slip into the kingdom because of their good works. That that their good works were sufficient and they were not because as we're points out in Romans chapter three, all have sinned and what?

Come short of the glory of God. None of us are going to get there on our own merit. None of us are good enough. Only who? Only Jesus.

Only Jesus. Only Jesus. The old covenant failed because Israel failed to keep their end of the bargain and suffered at the hands of the enemies. The old covenant failed because they could not keep its commands. The old covenant failed because it could not give eternal life or eternal pardon to the sinner.

The old covenant was insufficient because it was established upon the blood of bulls and goats which could not fully atone for their sin as could the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The old covenant failed because they had already abandoned it really for a counterfeit religion of self righteous works. The old covenant failed. Jesus Christ finished it, fulfilled it, and he instituted a new covenant based on better promises. Promises, assurances that it is found not in our effort to keep laws and commands and rules, but in a person, Jesus Christ, who did all of that for us.

He kept the commandments. He kept the rules. He honored the father, and then he died on that cross to atone for for our sins and for our failures. And our salvation, our eternal salvation is not based on our ability or our effort to keep the laws and to keep the rules. It is based on solely on the work of Christ God's grace and our faith in coming to him.

To accept his invitation of salvation. There's nothing left for you to do. Jesus did it what? Jesus did it all. We've sown our sown in him.

Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. There's nothing left for you to do to earn or to keep your salvation. Because Jesus did it all. But you must come to him in repentance.

You must come to him humbly as a sinner who needs a savior. And accept his offer of forgiveness and salvation from sin. It is the only way and praise the Lord. It's not based on my power, my strength, my goodness. It's based on the goodness and power and faithfulness of almighty God.

Of almighty God. For you, and for me. The righteousness of Christ for the unrighteousness of men. He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The blood of Christ better than the blood of bulls and goats that cleanses us from all sin.

The bride of Christ redeemed from every tribe and nation, not just Jews, not just Israel, but he died for the sins of the what? Well, and whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Full justification, pardon in Christ. The way of repentance and faith by the grace of God and not the works of the law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be be justified. The reward of Christ, a home prepared for all of his children who are kept by the power of who?

God through faith. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively or living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He is not a dead hope. He is a living hope because he rose again from the dead. To an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.

Everything we have down here, it it it's corruptible. It's defiled and it it fades away. I got a new phone a while back. I won't have it much longer because it's already becoming what? Obsolete.

And I'm gonna need a new one. And my my old car that I've been driving for ten years, it's having troubles. And so is this body. But praise the Lord, I'm gonna get a new one. And I've got a place waiting for me where stuff doesn't decay and it doesn't fade away, and it's reserved in heaven for me.

Who are kept by the what? By the power of God through faith and the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Praise the Lord. I don't have to keep me. He's keeping me because I would fail.

I know it, but I know he won't. But you have to come his way. You have to enter into a new covenant with Jesus Christ through faith and his work on the cross for you, in faith in the risen savior who has promised to save your soul if you will accept what he did for you on the cross of Calvary. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For whosoever shall call in the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Saved from what? Saved from the penalty and power of sin... Eternal penalty and power of sin in a place called the Lake Of Fire. And this verse tells us if we come to the Lord through faith in Jesus Christ who is our risen Lord and who took our place of God. If we receive that invitation by faith, we'll be forgiven and we shall we will be saved and if this speaking of salvation, if I come and confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and believe it in my heart and I'm saved and if that means I'm saved from the lake of fire and the penalty of sin, that means on the day that I accept Christ as my savior, in order for this first to be true, I can never perish.

Because otherwise, I wasn't what? Saved, rescued, delivered from the punishment of sin and hell based on the goodness and the love and the faithfulness and better promises in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. Is there some belief, practice, or tradition which you can't let go of to receive the good news and be saved? Are you trusting in the works of a church? The Catholic church, the Baptist church, the Methodist church?

Are you trusting getting dunked in water? Oh, a pastor, I was saved when I was 12. Oh, well, tell me about it. Somebody dunked me in water. Oh, okay.

That's it. No, that that's not what the Bible says. We're saved when we humbly come to Christ and accept him as savior. Now, you can do that and get baptized at the same time but just getting dunked in water isn't going to do it. It's not going to save your soul.

Mowing your neighbor's grass is not going to save your soul. Put money in the offering plate, not going to save your soul. Drinking the juice and and eating the bread, we have communion isn't going to save your soul. Only the blood of Jesus and coming to him as a repentant sinner and accepting his offer will save your soul. When did you do that?

I did that when I was nine years old. And Jesus is keeping me. And praise the Lord he is because I would never make it if we're dependent upon me. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for Christ our savior.

Thank you for the new covenant that that he has invited us to be a part of through faith in his shed blood on Calvary's Cross and we pray Lord if there's one here is yet to receive Christ as savior. We pray that this day would be their day of salvation and I pray that we who are in Christ Jesus who have been saved, Lord, would be more grateful and would be more passionate to reach the world with this message and would spend more time on our knees in prayer and sometimes fasting for the needs of the lost, for the needs of our brother, our sister, for victory over sin in our own life, Lord, I I know that we have taken many things for granted. Lord, may you make us salt and light in this world. And Lord, again, if there's one who is yet to make sure of their salvation, I pray they'd come as we give this hymn of invitation today. And any, whose heart you have touched to bring something to you.

May they come. In Jesus name. Amen. If you...