Old Wineskin, New Wine

Good afternoon, everybody. It's my good fortune to be here. We were talking with a few people, and it's been a while, and I don't know exactly what happened. I think there was a scheduling thing where the schedule got changed, but it's a pleasure to be with you. I think I'm coming back in March, so we're going to give you the double dose of too much a party along the way. You do have a hello from Renee and from Drew. In case you hadn't heard, about a month ago, they found two blood clots in her leg.

She was having really a lot of pain moving along, and when the doctors heard about it, they did an ultrasound, and she has a couple blood clots. Unfortunately, they're having problems finding the right dosage of the Coumadin. Her count went up to four, which was too high, and then they backed down a little bit. Then she could barely walk last week, so they're trying to find the right balance. So some to keep your prayers. I know she's definitely frustrated being told to basically sit all day long. She fortunately is now able to walk around without a cane and get around some, but it's an ugly situation.

Other than that, they would be here, but long drives are not a good combination with a blood clot. I think you'll find that my message will tie in well with the sermonette. As you know, a couple weeks ago, Christians all over the world celebrated Christmas. Parents taught their children that singing at Christmas carols, putting up a tree, saying gifts came from a fictitious Santa Claus, all the different trappings, putting a nativity scene out, all the ways of honoring Jesus Christ.

For many families, that's the only time in the year they actually go to church. Well, the irony, of course, is that all the trappings that are observed at Christmas predate Jesus Christ. If you were to grab a person from the time of Christ and put him into today's age and show him everything that was being done, he'd be blown away. He'd be saying, what do those things have to do with Christ's birth? I recognize all of those things, and there's something very different. Well, my purpose today isn't to go into an in-depth history of Christmas, but I do want to share a brief history as an example of my main point.

And for those of you who didn't see it, there was a wonderful article by Gerald Ost in the November Good News. But let me go through a very brief history just to reinforce, and then you'll hopefully see how it blends into my message. In a nutshell, December 25th became the date for Christmas because it was when the Roman Empire celebrated the birth of the Sun God. So it was called Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, the Roman God of the Sun, or the Roman Sun God...

Actually, he was the God of Agriculture, but agriculture is what helps by the Sun. And what predated them was that the Persians used the same date hundreds of years before to worship the Sun God, and you could keep going back in history. So ultimately, the Roman Catholic Church absorbed this festival by renaming it. Now, interestingly, when I was looking into this, the early Church actually did not want to bring this custom in. It was the people who pushed with such effort that the Church acquiesced.

And so the Church leaders had this concept that let's meet paganism halfway because it'll be okay if it brings more converts. If it brings more believers, let's go down that path. Well, they started to get to this point of blending Christianity and paganism with that justification and then the sentiment that comes in saying, it would be too hard to ask these people to leave that behind because they're just so entrenched in this. It's something they're accustomed to. They feel strongly about it. And then, of course, once the Sun worship festival came in, then it was easy to add other things, such as the Christmas tree, Santa Claus, fill in all the different pieces along the way, Mistletoe, and so forth.

All of those could be brought in. If you will turn to Luke 5 and verse 36-39. Another interesting part when I was looking into this is to realize that Christmas was actually forbidden in the United States in the early founding of it. And it was, again, the people that pushed and said, well, we'll go attend someplace else if you don't let us do it.

So interesting history. But today's message isn't about Christmas, but the tendency that we all have to mix the ways of the world with how we live as Christians. We have that tendency to mix the two. And what's been done, whether it's Christmas or Easter or Valentine's Day or Sunday instead of Sabbath, are very public examples. But the reality is that you and I can easily make similar decisions to justify our actions every day of our lives. Well, the focus today is going to be to learn from two parables that are written here in these verses.

The parables are also appearing in two of the others. So in three of the four Gospels, these parables are written. And that shows you that God intended us to learn something from this. They're reinforced, in a sense, through multiple telling. And a little bit ago, a month or two ago, I heard a sermon on it, and it just really crystallized in my mind.

So hopefully I can help do the same for you. Let's first read it through, and then we'll take our time and delve into it some. Luke 5 and verse 36.

No one having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says the old is better. It's two examples that we've heard multiple times, but you don't really hear it discussed that much. That's what intrigued me. To understand this, I think we need to move back and see the context of what led Jesus to tell this. If you look in Luke 4, you have Jesus coming home from being tempted by Satan. He then comes to his hometown of Nazareth. He gives his first sermon, after which they attempted to throw him off a cliff. Now, for all of us who give messages up here, we like different reactions, but I encourage you not to throw me off a cliff. Thank you very much. But the reality is that he challenged their norms. We then find we progress through Luke 5, and we find a whole series of new things that he did that unsettled people. If you look in Luke 5 and verse 12, it says, And it happened when he was in a certain city that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus. And he fell on his face and implored him, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. So the leper approached Jesus and asked him to heal him, so Jesus did. But Jesus offended the people around because he healed on the Sabbath. Again, that was against the religious principles that were being taught at that day. We then continue in the story in verse 27. And it says, So the apostle we know as Matthew is who is being referred to here as Levi. He went by two names. But even worse, he was one of those dreaded tax collectors. Oh! Despite this, Jesus invited him to be one of his followers. And Matthew, Levi, was so excited that he threw a party. In verse 28, And now in verse 30, the Pharisees come up to Jesus and they say, Why do you eat with people like this? Why don't you and your followers observe the laws about fasting? And the Pharisees complained against his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answered and said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. So the Pharisees were condemning Jesus for meeting with sinners and tax collectors. They saw this as unacceptable. Just like we have our norms today about Christmas, and that day and age the Pharisees had their own norms around fasting. The Old Testament required that the Jews fast on Yom Kippur, on the day of atonement. People were also encouraged, and that's when the high priest would go up and make atonement for the sins of the people, people were also encouraged that other times in the years to fast as a way to draw closer to God. We have church fasts, you'll have your personal fasts, you do. But God respects that. But fasting was never expected at the level that the Pharisees created this norm around. The Pharisees got into a custom of fasting twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays from 6am to 6pm.

And if you reflect back, you don't need to turn there, but reflect back to the parable about the Pharisee and the tax collector going up to the synagogue to pray. It's in Luke 1811, but I'll read it to you. It says, God, I thank you that I am not like the other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as a tax collector. I fast twice a week. That's what's being referred to.

So Jesus wasn't saying that it wasn't important to fast. Instead, he was challenging the custom of the days that they had adopted and called worship.

And so they were unsettled by Jesus. Jesus was constantly challenging things that people had just taken for granted. And he was teaching them that God and following God is in a way that they aren't comfortable with. It's different than their norms. It's different than their comfort zones. And so he was showing that their concept of theology, their concept of obedience, their concept of religious practices didn't accommodate the God he was presenting to them.

The Pharisees, meanwhile, were trying to analyze everything that Jesus and his disciples did in finding holes in it. So you had this interesting conflict taking place. Do you fast 105 times a year? You don't fast 105 times a year. You must not be very righteous. That is the background. So with that background, let's go back and start digging into these two parables.

And the fact there are two parables that are actually quite different, but they accent the same point. The lesson on both of these is about mixing the old with the new. And the fact that he used two different parables to stress that says it's an important lesson that we need to apply in our lives. In the first parable, Jesus gives a sample around new garments.

And it's being used to patch an old garment. So let's read it again in Luke 5 and verse 36. Then he spoke a parable to them, saying, No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one, otherwise the new makes the tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.

Notice the deliberate attempt to contrast the old and the new. Now in these days, fabric and garments were usually made out of three different fabrics. They would be made out of linen, wool, or leather. So when the listeners were hearing this, they were thinking of linen, wool, or leather. And all three of those have something in common. After they're new, they will either shrink or stretch depending on what you do to them. So no one with common sense would take this perfectly good garment and patch an old one. If any of you have done sewing, you know that if you pass that on, when you go to wash it, what happens?

The new garment is going to shrink, which is going to cause tears around the outside. And so what the analogy goes on, actually before we go to that part, if you look at this parable in Matthew or Mark, there's a word that's added. It specifically mentions the fabric as untrunk. So it's bringing out that concept. So what's being pointed out here is that it's not only going to destroy the new garment, but it's going to destroy the old one, even more than it was already.

What's the point? So God wants our focus solely to be on Him and not to be distracted by worldly pleasures or satisfying everybody else's desires. He was teaching about purity here. But if you think about it, He doesn't really say whether the new is better or the old is better. That comes out in the next one. Let's now transition to the parable about the new wine. Parables are usually analogies about everyday life situations because people can associate with them. They kind of crystallize and give color to a lesson and you say, Oh, okay. I hadn't thought about it that way. We don't make wine these days around town.

I wish I would have. That's something I'd still like to do someday. But in this day and age, winemaking was something everybody knew about. So let's read the parable starting in verse 37. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the wineskin and be spilled. And the wineskin will be ruined, but new wine must be put into new wineskins and both are preserved. And no one having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says the old is better.

So what is Jesus talking about here? Again, part of the confusion is because we don't do this all the time. But this was most everybody had grapes in their backyard. And this was almost like a village custom of making wine. So let's go through a little bit of the practice of the first century. Back in those days, you would pick the wine and you put them in these huge bins. And then you'd walk up to the bin, and you would take off your shoes, and you would take off your socks, and you would wash your feet.

And you'd walk and you'd stop on the grapes. Women and children and the whole village would go around and do this together. If you want to picture I Love Lucy, for those of you who remember that episode, when I was putting this together, we actually showed that to Drew to give him a concept of how it worked.

Granted, I don't think they fought and wrestled at the end. But the juices would then flow into the lower section of the vat, and it would sit there for about a week to start the fermentation process with the yeast mixing in. Now, the interesting thing about Palestine is it was so warm that it was actually hard to stop fermentation. Fermentation is really natural and common in that area. So after this first stage of fermentation had taken place, they would then go and separate the wine from the leaves, which in a sense is the yeast sediment and the skin of the grapes.

And they would then pour it into storage bottles to further ferment. Now, if you just take that word from the King James Version or whatever, you're going to get this mental picture of a glass bottle. That's not what's being discussed here. The actual Hebrew translation of the word bottle is skin bottle. What they would do is they would take an entire tanned goatskin. You'd tie off the legs, you would tie off the tail, you would pour the grape juice down the neck until it was full, and then you'd feel off the neck.

And then you'd hang it. After about two to four months, this fermentation process would stop. And what would happen is the carbon dioxide gas from this fermentation process would stretch that skin to its limits. What we love about leather clothing is that collagen protein in it that makes it give a little bit. All of that flexibility was gone. There would be nothing left. It would almost look like it was about to burst. So what did a person do with an old wineskin? I don't know.

I'm sure somebody tried to put new wine into it, but they all got the image. That thing had already been stretched way beyond its limits, and it would just pop like a balloon over time once that fermentation process started up. And so both the wine and the wineskin would be ruined. That's what was being mentioned here by Jesus. So everybody would have gotten that. But I guess the key question is, what lessons did the parable imply for the people of Jesus today, or for you and I?

What are we supposed to take from that? Again, in contact, Jesus had come with this radical gospel of the good news. That he preached to the poor, that he preached to the oppressed, and the brokenhearted. And he spoke with this authority that challenged the concepts that they took and given, and their religious experts said were the right way. Meanwhile, the Pharisees were busy judging every single thing that Jesus did, saying, how could he eat with that tax collector and not fast a hundred times a year?

So there was this contrast. If you will turn to 2 Corinthians 5 and verses 16-17. 2 Corinthians 5, 16-17. Jesus was aiming to expose the heart of the ancient faith that had been lost. He said that there's a lot of old wine skins around here. And I think there's something we have to look at there, too. We have to evaluate, does our form of religion, does our theology, do our biblical interpretations and practices, are any of them stuck in the past? Are we doing things that come from the world around us?

Or are we truly being a new wine skin to God? And the challenge is, I think most of us don't like change. We don't like doing new things and giving up things we're comfortable with. And so Jesus is saying that in order to truly hear the gospel he was teaching, we've got to have a pliable wine skin. Our hearts and our minds have to be pliable to allow God in His Spirit to work through us. And he was trying to help them return to having that love for God, love for neighbor, to do mercy, to love justice, to walk humbly before your God.

That's really the teachings of the Old Testament, but it has gotten lost over time. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 16. Therefore from now on we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away, behold all things have become new. 2 Corinthians is telling us that when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, we become a new creation. And if we are in Christ in a new creation, then the old should be gone.

We should put that away and not hold on to that old wine skin. But the reality is, new wine doesn't seem as smooth to the tongue as old wine. If you've ever drunk a brand new wine, it just doesn't taste as good as the old ones. And I think that's very well recognized by Christ in the parable. So we say something similar. Actually what Christ said, He said, And no one having drunk old wine immediately desires new. He recognized that. But spiritually, I think this is even more profound. Because spiritually, it's always easier for us to fall back to that familiar and that comfortable.

And we like the old wine better spiritually because our taste buds are conditioned by what Satan wants us to think is right. So we're overcoming this nature that's within us. And he absolutely wants us to think the old wineskin that we grew up with was the right way. But Jesus is saying that the gospel of the kingdom can't be hindered by man-made rules.

If you will turn to 1 Kings 3 and verse 5-9, Solomon is a wonderful example of this. Solomon is both an example of the good and the bad. Because Solomon started very humbly recognizing his need for God and for him to create a new wineskin inside him.

And we'll look at that. And then later, Solomon was too interested in appealing to everybody else around him. And he just started God and went to his old way, to the old wineskin. 1 Kings 3 and verse 5, Solomon was succeeding his father as king of Israel. And God came to Solomon in a dream. It says, At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And God says, Ask what shall I give you? Now this is beautiful because Solomon realizes his youth.

He realizes that he couldn't lead the people without God's help. And so he said, You have shown great mercies to your servant David, my father. Because he walked before you in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with you. You have continued this great kindness for him, and you have given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day. Now, O Lord, my God, you have made your servant king instead of my father David.

But I am a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people, whom you have chosen a great people. Too numerous to be numbered or counted. Therefore, give to your servant an understanding heart to judge your people. That I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to judge this great people of yours? It's a beautiful example of humility in saying to God, Make me, you know, work reshape me so I am a new wine skin, and you can work through me, because I can't do it by myself.

And as a result, God rewarded Solomon with wealth as well as wisdom. And he had tremendous wealth. If you look over the stories in the Bible, he was an amazingly wealthy man. Solomon's downfall was his many wives. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Ay yai yai. Ay yai yai yai.

It's all awesome. But it wasn't just the number of wives that created the challenge, and God didn't support that. But it was the fact that his wives brought in, they came from foreign nations, and they brought in the foreign religions. And so, you would think just being a wife of Solomon would have as many blessings and riches that followed it. But his wives weren't satisfied with whatever luxuries that came with it. And instead, they didn't respect or recognize the spiritual source that had given Solomon that wisdom as well as that wealth.

They didn't recognize that. Instead, they wanted to bring their old way of life into their new way of life. Turn forward a few chapters to 1 Kings 11 and verse 7. 1 Kings 11 and verse 7, that will be four and a half pages in your Bible. It says, So two things happened. One was by agreeing to mix the old with the new, Solomon personally participated in this false worship.

In time, he actually started worshipping their gods. So he did the devil-whammy. Solomon started amazingly well. He started humble. He started trusting God. But over time, he forgot the need to rely on God's wineskins. As a result, God said that he would tear the kingdom away from him. Let's consider the contrast here. You have Solomon who wanted most to be accepted by his wives and by people. That's comfortable. Then you had Christ who came in, and he was very dogmatic and did not let gray pass. He made sure he understood black and white.

It was hard for the people of Jesus' day to hear his message. That's why they killed him. They called him a heretic and demon-possessed because he shook up the religious establishment. By the time this Gospel of Luke was written, the church got it. This was around 70 AD. By that time, the Jews said, You aren't part of us anymore.

We have some serious differences. Remember Rome burned around 70 AD and it was blamed on the Christians? The Christians were kicked out of the synagogue. The people realized when they saw Christ's words that you can't put new wine into old wineskins. What about us? What are the old things in our lives that we allow to mingle? That we allow to intermix and that we hold onto? What is it in our life that keeps us from drawing closer to God? Interesting question. When you think of the context and they didn't see it, the people we were talking to didn't get it.

What do we not get? What do we not see? If you'll turn to Romans 12 and verse 2. As Christians, I think we need to be aware of what our motives are. Are our motives pure? Are we trying to satisfy the flesh? Do we do both? Which may be more accurately what happens. I think we have to examine the true reasons for why we accept the old with the new. Sometimes I wonder if deep down inside we don't want to draw any closer to God because we don't want to give up something we really like to do.

I don't know that I really like that thing over there. If we go through life in that way, kind of complacent and satisfied, then we'll never know the riches that God has in store for us. We'll never know all that He can do through us. If you want to use an analogy going back to the time of Israel, it would be like being freed from Egypt, but being content with the east side of the Jordan and not wanting to go into the land of milk and honey.

We're like, I'll take a little bit, but I don't want to give up everything along the way. Sadly, what happens over the time is not only that we accept the old with open arms, but we get offended and angry when the old is exposed as being unacceptable. Or, how dare they question what I'm doing? I've always done it this way. The Bible tells us that we have to prove all things. Romans 12, verse 2, Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good pleasure and perfect will.

There are so many elements of our current age in our culture that don't coexist with what God wants us to be and wants us to do. So what have we tried to sow from the world around us, from modern Christianity into godly Christianity, that don't fit together? Where has this happened in our lives? What is there in our work, or in our community, or in our family that doesn't blend with Jesus' wine skin? And I ask you to think about that and go to God and ask Him, because if you ask Him, He will show you where those areas are.

He will reveal what's choking, in a sense, our seeds of faith. For the rest of the sermon, what I'd like us to do is to look at different ways people today can bring their old wine skin into what God wants us to do. And I ask you, as you look at the introspect, look and say, in what kind of shape is my wine skin? Is it old? Is it brittle? Or is it pliable to God?

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to cover three major categories that look at my fingers and make sure three do it. Three major categories of how we bring in the old wine skin. For each, I'll give you several examples. So the first major category is this. Some people put Jesus' wine in their own wine skin. Some people put Jesus' wine, his message, in their own wine skin. Now these people try to package Jesus' wine in the wineskin of their modern concepts. They respect the aged wine, but they feel it needs a little bit of repackaging. What Jesus taught was great, they would say, but it's old and it needs like a little facelift to keep modern.

And as a result, they frequently are the ones who call for changes to what God outlines for us believers to do. And so for each of these groups, I will share how I would summarize their common attitude. The common attitude for this group is they fail to appreciate the value of the original wine skin.

And let me highlight three ways that people can put Jesus' wine in their own wineskin. The first one is found in how people worship in general. And this is where people mix God's required way of worship with customs that are practiced by others around them. Let's look at a Bible example, first of all. This will turn to Exodus 32, verses 1-8.

Exodus 32, 1-8. And what we're looking at here is a classic example of trying to mix the new wine and the old. We're coming into the situation where Israel had been freed from Egypt. They had just had Moses go up to Mount Sinai to get the Ten Commandments. But somewhere inside the people, their body clocks it. Something is wrong here. It's been too long.

I'm not feeling good about this. Never mind that the God who freed them had just freed them by 10 of the most amazing miracles possible and had freed them from the most powerful nation in the world. If you ever think, oh, if only God would do a miracle in my life, then I will believe.

Get over it. These people had 10 of the most amazing miracles, and it shows human nature. And so they were twitching, and they were saying, we've got to do something. Exodus 32, verse 1. Now when the people saw that God delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, Come, make us gods that we should go before us. For as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

And Aaron said to them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. For all the people broke off... I'm sorry. So all the people broke off the golden earrings, which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hands, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molten calf.

Then they said, This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. So when Aaron saw it, he brought an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast for the Lord. Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. And the Lord said to Moses, Go get down for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.

They have turned aside quickly, out of the way which I have commanded. They have left that new wineskin. They have made themselves a molten calf, and worship didn't sacrifice to it, and said, This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of Egypt.

So somewhere along the way, Israel and Aaron felt this need to make a golden calf. Meanwhile, God was given the Ten Commandments to Moses. And I would say what they created was not accidental. They were linking a past religious concept with a current belief. The bull was something that was worshipped in Egypt. It was a God. They thought they needed to represent something that was like a God. They realized that wasn't exactly the God that was leading them.

They said, they're justifying it, saying, This represents the God that led us out of Egypt. They were trying to do it. Then it goes on to say, in verse 6, that they used worship methods they knew God liked, in methods that would bring a burnt-in-the-peace offering. See how justification works? You start mixing these different thoughts and concepts in. Well, let's bring this closer to home.

Let's look at a couple personal examples. How do we view the reason for God's Kingdom? What do you see as the reason for God's Kingdom? The world teaches this concept of heaven, which in a sense is thought of as this eternal retirement, where we either sit on a cloud, or we can go talk to Peter or our friends, or we can play a harp. Well, we can fall prey to blending the concept of the kingdom with the world's concept of heaven and come up with this heaven-on-earth type concept. And that's not what the Bible teaches. That's not what we learn about at the feast. We're not called only for our own salvation.

You see how subtleties start to build and will totally distort the purpose that God has in mind for us. So much of the world doesn't understand the purpose for God calling mankind. There are thousands of books out there talking about why we have to proselytize the world right now. There are thousands and thousands more trying to explain why do bad things happen to good people.

But if you go along the concepts or the misunderstandings of God and what He's trying to do, you ask very logical questions. You would say, if God is not calling everyone now, then why is He calling anyway? You would say, if God is trying to save people, then why didn't He call the next person?

Those are logical questions. They're questions He will be asked. They're questions you probably have been asked. But God is calling us at this time for something that is far more than our own personal salvation. He is calling us to do a work. We are called to be kings and priests underneath David and the apostles. We are called to be servant leaders who give, who serve, who are there to help the entirety of mankind who has not been called to become sons of glory. That is the purpose of what we're called. That's what we look forward to in the Second Resurrection. But we can mix this concept of heaven with what God's kingdom really is.

People who enter the church easily bring concepts in. And I think it goes on and on. If we don't see the differences between the God we worship and the real God, we're going to run into challenges. And it plays through in a lot of areas. God isn't a closed trinity.

The trinity doesn't recognize God's plan to expand his family. His greatest objective is to bring many sons to glory. Again, nuances you may say. Well, what's the form of God matter? It matters to God's intention, to his purpose. We can't understand or achieve this if we insist on putting Jesus' wine into our own wineskin.

Let's move on. The second way people can put Jesus' wine into their own wineskin is how the church is organized. How the church is organized. We live in a non-committal age. Don't we? As a result, you hear these churches and politicians teach the value of not making waves.

Churches should be non-denominational. These still-good advocates will start going along and they'll talk about that every religion is okay to God as long as it teaches loving each other and believing that there is a supreme power. That's all that really matters.

Other people start pointing out how churches are organized and saying, we need to create a structure that's a little more democratic so we can get more group consensus about ecclesiastical decisions. Let the Bible or anyone interpret right or wrong. Let's do it as a group. The goal of all of this is to create a place where everyone can believe something different and still attend together.

So how does this relate to us? We are not Jews who believe in Christ. There's a difference between us and Messianic Jews. If you will turn to Revelation 17, verses 1-6, I will admit that my tendency, my nature, is to do everything possible to avoid any type of a judgmental statement about other groups. That is something I really shy from. But the Bible also clearly states that we shouldn't be afraid to address the realities that are inside here. Look at what it says in Revelation 17, verse 1.

So who is this scarlet woman being mentioned? If you open up most commentaries, let me read to you from Barnes' notes on the New Testament. It says, The meaning is that papal Rome, unfaithful to God and idolatrous and corrupt, had seduced the rulers of the earth and led them into the same kind of unfaithfulness, idolatry and corruption. If you look at James and Sosselin Brown, if you look at Adam Clark, you can keep going. They also make this link to papal Rome. I'm bringing this up, please, to help us think of where our past concepts of religion come from and why we do what we do. The old wine skin. Let's keep reading.

Having in her hand a golden cup filled with abominations and the filthiness of her fornications. Picture a Roman Catholic ceremony with the cup being lifted up above the head. In honor forehead a name was written. Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abomination of the earth. I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled with great amazement. Let's work on this concept that a number of well-respected commentaries bring out. We find that the Catholic Church has clearly had a history of influencing kings, influencing wars. Most of the world's dominant powers over the last 2,000 years have been influenced by them. Most of the old wineskin existing in Christianity comes from here. Well, who are the harlot daughters being mentioned? Who came out of the Catholic Church? And please understand, I am not judging any person in these churches. I know hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them, and they are passionate to serve Christ. They are sincere. But most of the first-generation Christians in the Church came from either the mother or the daughter. It is where we all came from. But the lesson is this. God tells us we need to repent of any parts of our past religions or forms of religions that are not from Him. In a recent conversation that I had with my mom, she brought out a sermon that she recalled from like 20 years ago. That's the sign of a good sermon if you remember something from 20 years prior. But the key point of the minister in the way he started the sermon was by saying, what part of Babylon are you from? Interesting. What part of Babylon are you from? If we want to avoid using the old wineskin, we have to look carefully at where our concepts come from and why we do what we do. Have we let go of all of Babylon? Are we still a citizen of the outskirts? Let's go on to the third way that people can put Jesus' wine in their own wineskin. And that's how people worship in Church. People can want to mix modern dance and praise teams and rock music into every sermon to create an experience. Let's make it a show. Please understand, I'm not saying that we can't create an environment in Church that appeals to all, that makes it a good environment to be in. But at the end of the day, we have to look and say, what is our intent? Is it just to create or feel emotion? Is the emotion of the experience more important than the teaching? And if so, we're missing the point. If so, we're trying to put Jesus' wine into our own wineskin.

Other people try to grow closer to God by watching every show on religious stations. And so it's this great homogenizing thing that you say, well, I will take what I'm learning and I'll mix it with what I believe. And at the end of the day, I create this Christian muck that's just a big combination of thoughts. Well, it's easy to say, well, they say they're Christians, so it must be okay, right?

Turn to 2 Corinthians 11 verses 13 through 15. The kingdom of God is not widely understood.

If a person tries to look hard enough, in contrast, you will find the type of God who you want to worship. There's enough varieties of Christianity or whatever itty you want out there of religion that you can find somebody worshipping the God you want, and you can make it and people will join you. What we should keep in mind, though, when we hear things is what it says in these verses. 2 Corinthians 11 verses 13. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.

Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose ends will be according to their works. I am certainly in no place to judge any televangelist. That is God's job. But this is a frightening thought. This tells us that Satan's demons and his human instruments present themselves as ministers of light and ministers of righteousness. We have a responsibility to judge anything we hear, judge what I am telling you, based on what the Bible says.

Is it following biblical principles, or is it not? Do we try to blend a new God with an old pagan tradition and belief? Other people experience worship heavily impacted by how churches are decorated. You have all these statues and crosses and things that are in there that are supposed to help you sing the dove and the fish and all the rest. And people then bring those icons home, or they wear them around their necks. And if you were to ask them, but you interrogate them, they would tell you, Oh no, no, these aren't idols or graven images.

These are ways that I'm trying to praise God. But it's examples of mixing the old with the new. Are we trying to take a new understanding and fit it into our old? Let's go ahead and go to the second major category. Remember, there's going to be three major categories. The second major category of how people bring in the old wine skin is this. Some people put their own wine in Jesus' wine skin. Some people say, I'm going to put my own wine into the church organization. Now, these people believe the Spirit is guiding them to new revelations. And while they may respect the old wine skin, they want new wine as well.

So as a result, they commonly ask the church to update its teachings and its doctrines. The first group failed to appreciate the value of the original wine skin. The common attitude for the second group is they fail to appreciate the value of the original wine. So let me highlight two ways that people do this.

The first wants church teachings to be updated with new doctrine. The first wants church teachings to be updated with new doctrine. And this has been common in the world of religion. All you have to look is what's happened over the years with church holidays and God's holy days, and you see what happens. Rather than observe the Sabbath, most Christians observe Sunday. What's the difference, they'll say? The key is that we're still dedicating a day to God. Rather than observing Passover in the Feast of my Love and Bread, they observe Palm Friday and Easter Sunday and take symbols weekly.

Let's take booster shots of the bread and wine. Rather than observing the Feast of Tabernacles celebrating Christ's future return, they celebrate Christmas with a fictitious date for when Christ first came to the humans. We could go on and on. Rather than doing immersion baptism, they sprinkle the water on. And so many different things that we could go down this path. And if you looked at a rationalist, they would look at this and they would say, the intention is the same.

What's the difference? Why would God care? Ultimately, though, if you take that logic forward, what it's saying is that it thinks the reasons that man came up with is better than God's. Right? At the end of the day, that's what it comes down to. Some days are better than God's. He just didn't know well enough. Meanwhile, God is testing us on what we chose to do with the knowledge that He gave us.

Interesting, isn't it? It's this contrast taking place. So what do we do with the knowledge that God has given to us? Do we put it into our own context? You could say, well, I keep the Sabbath. I'm good, right? Well, the natural reaction to any question like that is, it depends. How much of Sunday worship do we let transition into how we observe the Sabbath?

Because I've seen people who go along and they'll say, they'll basically make it like any other day. Let's do our shopping. Let's watch all the shows we're going to do. Let's read our little books that we normally read. Let's play on the computer. I've got to make time to go to church.

Oh, they all said all those other things then. Is that how we observe the Sabbath? Or do we make it a day that is special to God? Do we treat it differently than every other day? The second way people can put their own wine in Jesus' wine skin is expecting the church to be okay with new lifestyles.

Expecting the church to be okay with new lifestyles. And as I mentioned, we live in this very non-committal age where the biggest priority is, let's not make waves. So, as a result, we have to accept every lifestyle and every approach. Now, the Bible does say that we need to always be willing to love, to forgive, and to show kindness. But it doesn't condone evil behavior. And so you have this push in society around everyone viewing homosexuality and same-sex marriages as acceptable.

The Bible doesn't share that view. But it goes way beyond that. You could also look and you could say, one out of every two marriages ends in divorce. Would that happen in a world that didn't accept that as an easy option that you could just flip a coin and go to?

All these things play through, and they're slight adjustments where we just accept different things. Well, I hope you've seen for each of these categories, I start with a blatant example, but then I want to bring one in that really hits closer to home for us. What influences our thoughts the most?

Is it the Bible or is it society? Because there's a whole lot of polls around us. Satan's throwing them at us. And Satan's perfectly fine if we act right for the first 15 and he nails us with the 16th. Because if you keep doing that enough over time, there's a whole lot of 16ths along the way that he's going to start twisting your way of thinking based on.

And that's what he's trying to do. What occurs most often is that people ultimately forget who the true source of right and wrong really is. And that's a danger that we can all run into because none of us is wiser than God. And so as a result, if any answer we come up with disagrees with God, we need to stop right there. That's not...we're going down a wrong path. We're blending our own wine skin along the way. The problem comes when God's way means having us let go of something we really kind of like. It's that I really like doing that, though. And that's where the challenge comes in.

So the parable of the wine skin is really talking about how we deal with change. I don't know if we can't. None of us really like change that much. We kind of like things the good old way we're used to. And we're okay from time to time with change. If we're the ones that are driving the change, we want to change something, new change. After church, everybody gives me 15-minute back reps. Okay. Then you're going to change the rules and say, wait, I have to do what? I have to give you a back rep and go to the next person?

That's not fair! We all have different approaches unchanged. And I think the older we get, the more we struggle with that. But that takes us back to the parable of the wine skin. What if the things we don't want to change are the things God says are wrong? What then? And that's where Jesus asks, how pliable are your wine skins? Are we willing to look into the Bible and be shown that our choices are wrong? Let me share with you an interesting quote. This quote comes from Jefferson Davis. And as you know, Jefferson Davis was the president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.

Slavery was established by decree of Almighty God. It is sanctioned in the Bible from both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelations. It has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilizations, and in nations in the highest proficiency in the arts. Now, he's right to a point. The Bible gives directions of how to act if you are a slave. It does not directly condemn slavery. The Bible is written from the perspective of, here's how to properly behave in the world you exist. And that's the direction it took. Now, over time, people started to understand Jesus' teaching when he says, Love your neighbor as yourself includes slaves. You're not supposed to own people. You're not supposed to mistreat people. And so, finally, the old wine skin burst, and people became more pliable. To use an example, it relates to this message. But it's interesting how people can go down different paths and where Jefferson Davis went, trying to interpret the Bible. So we need to recognize that there are decisions and actions in our lives that come from centuries back. They come from things we've always absorbed in thought. But are they right? We can't afford to twist God's truth in hope of justifying our own traditions, our own culture. Well, let's go to the third major category. The third major category is this. Some put their own wine in their own wine skin. Some put their own wine in their own wine skin. Now, these people believe the Spirit guides them to make total change. These people take to themselves the power to change the message, the wine, and the organization, the wine skin. And this attitude reflects both a disregard for the original wine and their wine skin. So I think a classic example is you know people who church organizations, I'm not going to name any, but where the leaders that they were inspired by God to write new books, that God missed some things in the Bible, and so they're inspired to write these different truths that all of their believers are supposed to follow. And oh, by the way, some of those truths written in there contradict what's in the Bible, but that's new revelation. Well, I think that's a pretty obvious example. But let me go to two other ways that people can put their own wine in their own wine skin. I think you'll find it a little closer to home. The first is found in the biases we carry around with us. If you'll turn to Matthew 24 and verses 7. I am an Armenian American. My dad grew up in an orphanage in Switzerland at the age of 5 because the Turks were trying to kill him and his family. And so my grandfather thought the safest way was to send his two oldest sons to an orphanage. Now, I have no biases against the Turks, but I have an absolute understanding of the impact of that upon my family.

And the truth is, America is a big melting pot, right? So we all bring different cultural challenges, and God's working with a church that is worldwide. Think of all the tensions that have happened around the world. Matthew 24 and verse 7. For nations will rise against nations and kingdoms against kingdoms. So we're warned at the end times nations, and the Greek word here is ethnos, will rise against nations. Don't we see that right now? Don't you see ethnic challenges and people rising in revolts? We have the Arab summer, which is now becoming the Arab spring. We have people who feel so passionately that they have to go and do the Occupy Wall Street movements and camp out. People react differently. I mean, there are different people. Some people just love a good riot, and any time a crowd gets together, they'll go there. Others, for the life of them, will not do anything unless their life or their family's life is threatened.

But either way, there is a lot of animosity rising up that's creating more and more revolts these days. So how does this impact us? As the numbers of protests and riots increase, it will be easier for us to hate. Have you thought about that? We live in a country that's amazingly blessed.

The poorest of us lives better than the wealthiest people in some countries in this world. But that means that we have the most to lose as times get tougher. It will be easier for us to go back to the old wine skin when that happens. What would happen if a person from a different country came to attend here the day after somebody from that country bombed and killed thousands of people in Washington, D.C.? How would you react to that person? What if the people who were killed were your friends or your family?

Would you act Christian? Or would you have anxiety against that person's ethnicity or that person's background? Interesting question. Tough times make it easier for us to justify when we incorporate the old in the new wine skin. It's not just something as radical as somebody blowing up a bomb. One of the first things I noticed when I moved here was that there were a lot of people in the South still fighting the Civil War.

There was a natural tendency between people in Virginia and people in Maryland, and there was just a lack of trust. I started talking to other people who managed people across the states, and they finally helped realize, you know what, this is just the Civil War being fought. Do you carry grudges from something 145 years ago? What biases do you bring with you? It even carries down into the area of, do we make comments that aren't thoughtful? Do we make racist comments? Do we say that, well, everybody from that ethnicity does such and such.

They all drive this way. They all behave this way at work. They all fill in whatever all is out there. It's so easy. Do we do it in the areas of our political leanings? Supposedly, we are a non-political organization. But for crying out loud, I've seen some people who spend all their days listening to talk radio on political things, and will talk your ear off about all the evils of whatever our party is opposite to them, to the point their anger has gotten to the point of hate. Well, the Bible tells us that we are supposed to respect our leaders, do we? I mean, it's interesting how the biases around us can impact us and can affect us.

I think a good summary of this is in Colossians 3 and verses 9-11. Colossians 3 verses 9-11. Do we think that one nation is superior to another? Do we have some kind of a view that one ethnicity, one whatever, is greater than another? Colossians 3 and verse 9. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with your deeds, and have put on the new man who was renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him.

Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Have we put off that old man? Do we have a new wineskin, or are we trying to fill it with the old? Interesting question. Because Paul told us that we shouldn't be trying to identify ourselves with being Roman, or French, or German, or Armenian, or whatever. Instead, it says, Therefore, as the elective God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another, forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your heart, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart, into the Lord, and whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

There are so many ways we let things hang on, and there are a lot of biases that we have. The final thought I'll share with you related to this, of how we can put our own wine, our own wineskin, is by justifying our daily entertainment choices. By justifying our daily entertainment choices. We all have a lot of things that we do in the privacy of our homes, whether it's the movies we watch, the TV shows, the books we read, the music we listen to, the computer games.

And we say, I'm not killing them. I'm not out there committing adultery. It doesn't matter. Well, I have to say, preparing the sermon made me think on some of the things that are just exposures that are around me. And I encourage you to do the same. I'll give you a little silly example.

But when I was putting this together, I was humming along to an old song that I loved. I grew up with Billy Joel and his album, one of the songs from the album, The Stranger, says, They say there's a heaven for those who will wait. Some say it's better, but I say it ain't. I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. The sinners are much more fun. You know, it only the good die young. And all of a sudden I stopped and I thought, I don't believe that. But, you know, how many things I can please understand. I love Billy Joel. I'm not saying he's satanic. He tests people who throw the buckets of black and white. But the reality is we expose ourselves to a lot of things that we don't think about. And I think we do a good job of separating the huge, the things that are blatant. You know, I mean, we try to keep away from things that are obvious, overly violent, overly sexual. But I think there's a lot of nuances that we can look at. Do we expose ourselves to example, children being disrespectful of their parents? Is that something we're okay exposing ourselves? You know, it can keep going. So I'm going to stay away from anything more on this topic because it's very touchy and I'm no place to judge. But I think it's an interesting principle. There's nothing else that the end when we come before Christ's throne, we each are going to be held accountable for the personal choices we make. And we can't say what we do for our daily entertainment is not a personal choice. It is absolutely done by cognitive selection. So I hope today has made you think. There are a lot of people who believe that they can simply discard the wine and the wineskin that Jesus gave us. And it happens in a couple of ways. Let's say the main ones are, some try to repackage his wine with wineskin as their own whenever they see fit. And others feel they can replace his wine with a new wineskin. If you'll turn to Colossians 2 and verses 8-10, it's an important thing for us to examine ourselves for. Because there will come a time in every Christian's life that they will not be satisfied with the status quo. And that's a good thing. As Christians, we should want to grow. We should want to get...what's the Bible talk about where we throw away...I'm trying to remember... the Scripture. But either way, move from our spiritual infancy to maturity. Go beyond having just milk. But the question then comes down. What are we going to move to and what rationale are we going to use for whatever changes in our life? And I encourage you to be very intentional to consider the reasons that you use to justify what you change or why you do what you do every day. Where is that wineskin getting mixed in? Colossians 2 and verse 8- And so I'll leave you with a passing thought that my dad once shared with a group of church leadership. And he said, you cannot do the work of God. God will do it through you. God will do it through you. That applies equally to you and I as it does to church leadership. And so I encourage you, let God put his new wine into you and become a new wineskin that comes from him.