 Beginning at verse 27, reading to verse 32, Luke chapter 5, Luke writes, After these things, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, follow me. And he left all, rose up and followed him. Then Levi gave him a great feast in his own house, and there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. But there's scribes in the Pharisees murmured against his disciples saying, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered and said to them, Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Now, last time we were together, we looked at verses 16, actually verses 17, following to verse 26, and we saw that the Lord Jesus Christ in that particular portion of scripture has the authority to forgive sins. As we continue though, we need to know that his forgiveness gives us something that reveals what God is truly like. And people today will wonder, what is God like? What is the kind of God that you worship? Well, the God that we worship is forgiving, and the God that we worship is merciful. And that's what we'll be looking at today. We're going to be seeing the forgiving and merciful love of God towards us. The Psalmist in Psalm 86 verse 5 says, For you, Lord, are good and ready to forgive and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you. And that's what we're looking at today. We're looking at the fact that God is merciful and God is quick to forgive us of our sins. And the bottom line is, in the ministry of Jesus Christ, he dealt very often with that one basic human need, and that is the need to be forgiven, the need to be forgiven by God. Because without forgiveness, man will be eternally separated from God. The Bible makes it very clear that our sin makes a separation between God and ourselves. Sin has a tendency of doing that. If I have a problem with one of my children, if I have a problem with a friend, if I have a problem with my wife, and we have an argument or something, and while I'm waiting for them to say I was right and all, if we have a problem with them, and they're having a tough time seeking my forgiveness, no, if we have a problem, there's going to be a separation between us. The fellowship that we at one time enjoyed is broken, and it's broken because sin makes separation. Sin makes a separation between human beings. It also makes a separation between man and God. And so the Lord Jesus Christ has come to demonstrate that God is willing to pardon, God is willing to forgive, and God is willing to do so because God is merciful. If I do not receive forgiveness from Him, then I am going to be separated from Him for eternity. In John chapter 5, verse 24, the Bible says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he who hears my word and believes on him who sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death unto life. And so God's Word is intended to bring me into relationship with my God. And the Word that God brings to us in the gospel is a message of forgiveness, a message of salvation, a message of reconciliation, a message of relationship that you and I can have with the God of this universe. Now, of course, forgiveness is not an automatic. Many people mistakenly believe that they will automatically be forgiven, or perhaps that God somehow is going to grade on the curve, and they're going to make it because there are so many bad people, or people who are worse than them. But the Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible teaches that forgiveness is a result of repentance and humility, repenting from sin and humbly asking God to forgive me. If you take notes, 1 John chapter 1, verses 7 through 9 says this, If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have no sin, we are not speaking the truth. But if we confess our sin, when you study the Bible, you'll note that the New Testament was written in what is called Koine or Common Greek. The word confess that you find in verse 9, if we confess our sin, that word confess there in the Greek language is the word homolageo. And it literally means to say the same thing or to be in agreement with. That's what homolageo means, to say the same words. And all that is saying is for you to agree with God. God says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I agree with that. When I agree with that, I'm confessing that. If I confess my sin, I'm simply saying, God, you're right. I'm not perfect. You're right. I have done wrong. I have done wrong in the way that I think, in the way that I speak, and the things that I do. Lord, I am saturated with the reality of my sinfulness. And so if I can only admit that, if I can only say to God, God, please be merciful to me as sinner and forgive me, I can be forgiven. I can be forgiven. The problem is a lot of people don't want to see themselves as being as bad as they are. Don't want to even recognize that they're sinners. And that's where the problem is. And so people aren't automatically forgiven. People are forgiven when they confess. People are forgiven when they repent. People are forgiven when they're forsake, when they come to God and say, God, be merciful to me. And so what we're seeing here in this passage is going to be how the Lord Jesus Christ forgives. He forgives sinners. And He's going to make an example of that for us in the life of a man by the name of Levi. Now in verse 27, notice how Luke writes, after these things, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi. Now Levi actually is identified in another passage as being Matthew. You see that in Matthew chapter 9, verse 9. It's the same event, but Matthew obviously had two names, Levi and Matthew. Now he had two occupations. One is he was a tax collector, and the other is he made jeans. And they've continued on for 2,000 years. This is an amazing thing. No, I'm just kidding. Somebody write that down. Made the Levi jeans? No. I'm just teasing. We're going to see how the Lord works in the life of people, and Matthew's a great example of how he works. He's a God who forgives, and he's a God who loves, and he has mercy. That's what we'll be looking at. And so anyway, as we look at this, people are beginning to follow Jesus Christ. He's a carpenter turned preacher. His message, his miracles are drawing people to himself now. People are wondering who this man just might be. As they're beginning to gather around him, he teaches them concerning the things of God. The things he teaches them are not things that he made up. They're things that he received from his father to speak to them and to give to them. That's why Jesus in John 7, verse 16 said, And so Jesus is revealing to them the things that God has given to him, and that's what he's about to do. Now what he's about to do is he's about to teach concerning the love of God and God's mercy and the life of man. And so it says in verse 27, after these things, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office. Now he's called a tax collector. The word tax collector is the word publicani, publican. That's where we get the word publican from. It's a man who served occupying Rome against his own people. Matthew was a tax collector, and that simply means that he collected told taxes, he collected import duties and boat docking fees, business license fees, things like that. The fact is during the time of Christ, Jews could buy franchises, and the franchises entitled them to levy taxes on citizens as well as travelers. Sadly, during the day of Christ, many of them were extortioners. They were bribed very easily, and they became wealthy, and they also became hated by the other Jews. This is one who most likely assessed taxes by whim, and therefore would be hated all the more because Rome would give to him a certain amount that he was the levy on people if they had, you know, certain goods. They said, for these goods, you are to receive at least this much. So what he would do is he would increase it a bit, and that's how he made his wealth. The rabbis, during the days of Christ, would call them licensed robbers. They were called beasts in human shape. They were greatly hated by people. According to the rabbis, there was no hope for a man like Matthew. He was excluded from all religious fellowship. He was considered to be unfit and unclean. His money was considered to be tainted, and any who accepted it would be defiled. He was an outcast, and he was classed with people like harlots, gamblers, thieves, and nobody would have a relationship with Matthew outside of people like Matthew. But how does Jesus teach this man? Well, notice with me that Jesus actually approaches him because in verse 27 it says, he said to him, follow me. You see that Jesus initiated something there. Why would Jesus approach Matthew if anybody else would have relationship with him? Well, the reason that Jesus would approach him, at least one reason, is because he came to seek people to follow him, and Matthew needed to follow him. He came to seek people out who would serve him. Matthew was being called to serve him. Jesus came to seek and save those who were lost, and Matthew was just as needy as anybody else. And so that's because God is the one who chooses us. In John 15, verse 16, the Bible says, you didn't choose me. I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain. And so Jesus sought this man out, the way that he sought you out. And you may ask yourself, how did the Lord seek me out? You know how the Lord sought you out. The Lord is the hound from heaven. He is constantly at your heels. He was convicting you of your sin. And there was a time when you finally heard his voice as he was calling your name and calling you to follow him. That's what happens. He does that through the Word of God. He does that very often alongside of a praying parent or somebody who loves you and lifts you up to God in prayer and says, Lord, in Jesus' name I'm praying for my mom or I'm praying for my dad or I'm praying for my brother. I pray for my sister. I pray for my aunt, my uncle, my friend, and my co-worker and guy I go to school with, whatever. There's somebody praying for you because God works within the prayer and he works within the Word of God and he has a heart to seek you out. And that's what Jesus is doing here. Jesus is seeking him out. And as he seeks him out, he gives to him a simple command. I want you to see the command. It's only two words. Follow me. That's the command. He's saying, look it. I'm calling you to do something. I'm calling you to follow me. And the fact is, Matthew, according to verse 28, left all, rose up and followed him immediately. He left it all behind. Everything. He said, follow me. And Matthew was ready to do just that. Paul, when he was writing in the book of Philippians chapter three, verses seven and eight, Paul the apostle said, whatever was to my prophet, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I might gain Christ. And so everything is left behind. He decides to follow Christ because Jesus Christ has ministered to him. There's no indication up to this point, at least in any of the gospels, that I can see that this was a prearranged signal of any sort. But I do have a belief that Matthew was well aware of the claims of Christ and that he was a prime candidate. And so Jesus calls him to follow him. Now, what does he do now that he's a follower of Jesus Christ? Well, notice verse 29, Levi gave him a great feast in his own house and there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. But the scribes and the Pharisees murmured 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 do not need a physician but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentence. So Matthew did something. I want you to see this. Matthew made his calling by Jesus Christ public by giving Jesus a banquet in his own home. There are quite a number of people who are called secret disciples who are basically hiding their faith in Christ. Matthew wasn't one of those. Matthew wasn't a person who was a secret follower of Jesus Christ. He wasn't a chameleon. There are numbers of people who I refer to as chameleon Christians. They blend into the surroundings. If you're around other believers then you can quote Scripture. You talk about the Bible. You talk about church. You talk about fellowship. You talk about prayer. You talk about those things. If you're with the world, you talk about those things. You just blend in. Matthew wasn't that way. Matthew was called by God. Jesus Christ said, follow me. He got up and as a result of that he said, I'm going to make this open. I'm going to make this public. People are going to know that I'm a follower of Jesus Christ and so he has a banquet. He gives Jesus Christ a meal. He decides to openly identify with the Lord Jesus Christ and let me encourage you. Let me encourage you strongly today to openly identify with Jesus Christ. Don't be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't be ashamed. The word ashamed in the Greek speaks of shrinking back. Don't shrink back from admitting that you're a follower of Jesus Christ. Listen, you know, you look at me now perhaps and you say, well, you're an old man. You're standing up there and that's your job. You're supposed to talk about Jesus. There are numerous pastors who don't speak boldly for the Lord. I can tell you that for a fact, but beyond that, I haven't started just being open and bold for the Lord because I'm a pastor. I did that when I was a college student, when I was in secular school, when I'd be one of the only or the only Christian in the class and I was willing to stand up and be counted. Why? Because a professor needed Jesus Christ, because the students needed Jesus Christ and because I'd been given a responsibility to share when I have opportunity to. So I did. And do you want to know something? I was one of these guys who would just take a deep breath and say a quick prayer and then open my mouth and see what the Lord was going to do. I was very careful to be honest with you. I didn't want to bring shame to the name of Jesus Christ. They didn't want to say some brainless thing, you know, to make the gospel look bad. But at the same time, I would be in class and I would look around and I'd say, God placed me in this position for a reason, you know, whether it was political science or social psychology or whatever class I was taking. He put me here for a reason. I'm here to be a witness for Jesus Christ. And so I made a point of making it clear as soon as I could when given opportunity in class to say, I follow Jesus Christ. And I did that at the age of 23 and 24 and 25 and all the years that I was in college. Both secular as well as Christian college. But I spent a lot of time in secular college and I can tell you, it's a difficult place and some of you know exactly what I mean. It's a tough place. Your faith is there on the stand. People are looking for things to accuse you as a believer of and all. But you know what I just said, Lord, you know, I've been given the responsibility of being an open Christian. I'm not going to hide this under a bushel. I'm not going to hide this. You know, you said that I'm to be a light, a light of the world before you don't hide a light under a lamp stand. It's to be open so that the house can be lighted up and therefore, Lord, use me. That's all you need to do. You'll be amazed at what God will do with a vessel that is simply usable. You'll be amazed at how God will use you. There are going to be times that you'll be sharing when you have an appropriate moment that you're going to probably wish that you had, you know, some kind of recording device so that you could put it on K-Wave later on. So people get here, this marvelous message that God just gave to you. It's just an amazing thing. Now the Holy Spirit will begin to flow when you simply, like Isaiah, say, here am I, Lord, use me. I want to be used by you. It's just, God is just looking for people like that. And you know what? Matthew was the kind of person who was willing to be identified with Christ. In his gospel, Matthew chapter 10, verses 32 and 33, Matthew records that Jesus said, whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven. So he wasn't a secret disciple. He was openly and willingly identified with Jesus Christ. Now notice verse 29, there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. Matthew in his gospel in chapter 9, verse 10 says, there were many tax collectors and sinners sitting down with him. Now these friends were the only friends that he had. But these friends became his ministry and he invites them to meet the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the Jews who considered themselves righteous would not have accepted an invitation from Matthew but his friends did and Matthew would bring his friends and he did. He brought his friends to a saving knowledge of Christ. He wanted them to know Jesus Christ and so he is willing to identify them the way many of you, just this last weekend for Easter were inviting friends and family. That's why you do that. That's why I did that. I wanted my friends, even though I knew my friends would reject me, I wanted them to know the Lord and I would openly invite them. Why didn't you come with me to church? I would tell them the little that I knew. What do you really know when you're a week old in the Lord? Once I was lost, now I'm found. Once I was blind, now I see. Once I was dead, now I've been made alive. That's all I knew. Once I was a doper, and now I've been set free. I want you to know God and they'd say, well, why? Well, you know what? I can't really, I can't explain it yet, you know? You've got to just come and I did that and I would bring friends. I would bring them to Calvary Chapel there in Costa Mesa. I would tell them about the Lord. This is kind of dumb. I don't know if I've ever admitted this to you before. But I, within two weeks, no more than three, of becoming a Christian was actually and this is so stupid. I was inviting people to my parents' house so I could teach them the Bible. Now, is that stupid or what? What did I know? I already told you. Once I was lost, now I'm found. Once I was blind, now I see. That was it. But you know what I did? I would go to Bible study and I would memorize what the teacher was teaching. I would listen. God had restored my memory. And I would listen to the passage and I'd make my little notes. And then I'd bring people over and I'd say, you know what this means? Thus saith the Lord, I would it? I know. God is very gracious. He drafted me, put me in the army and said, you know, you've got to stop killing people with your stupidness. I'll give you two years in the military because I just wanted people to know the Lord. And who else is a better candidate than those you already do know? Your friends. Your family. That's why my sister Madeline, the day I got saved, the day I got saved went home. It went to bed, actually. I was home and she went to bed December 27, 1970 just like I did. And she prayed when she went to bed and she said to the Lord, this is what she told me. She said, whatever you did for David, I want you to do for me Jesus coming to my life. I mean, the first person who was converted to my, in my family was my sister that I had witnessed to the day I got saved. Within three weeks my father and my mother got saved. A couple years later, my brother got saved. You know, that's how it works because that's what you want, isn't it? Don't you want your family to know Jesus Christ? Don't you want them walking with God? Don't you want to know who did it? And Matthew did. And so what does he do? Well, he invites his friends and he gives Jesus a banquet and it's an open declaration of being a follower of Christ. Well, as this has taken place there are people who showed up, too, verse 30 tells us there's scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples. So there were some people there not to discover Jesus but to make judgment. And so, they're murmuring against his disciples saying, why do you See, not everyone was pleased that Jesus would spend time with sinners, but you know the neat thing about the Lord? He still does. He still spends time with sinners. He hangs around with you, he hangs around with me. He still hangs around with people like us. It's not that Jesus had so much in common with these sinners is that Jesus wanted to reach them. Now it's interesting, they don't like what the Lord is doing, so how do they deal with that? I want you to see, they spoke to His disciples. Matthew chapter 9 verse 11 says, they said to His disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? And so this is something that he's not simply being confronted with, but the disciples are being asked this question too. Here's your question for you, why would they begin to address the disciples with that kind of question? Well, I'll give you the answer. There's a principle involved here. If you want to destroy a work, cast doubt on the leader. If you want to destroy a work, cast doubt on the leader. All you need to do is undermine the pupil's trust in the teacher. You will destroy the ministry. Human nature, being what it is, loves to believe evil over good. I was toying with the idea of sharing some of the things that have been said concerning me, but I don't think you want to be bored with that. But I can tell you this. I can tell you that one of the ways to undermine a ministry is to try and undermine the leader of the ministry, because if you smite the shepherd, the sheep will be scattered. And so if you can raise a question concerning the ethics and morality of that leader, even if it's untrue, there are multitudes who are dying to believe such a thing. I'll give you one example, just one. I remember receiving a report that somebody was saying, Pastor David can't possibly love his wife Maria as much as he seems to. I'm just waiting to see him when he goes out on her. There are guys and people who say things that are absolutely incredibly vicious and evil and so wrong, and what they do is they want to undermine the ministry by attacking the leader. That's a principle. You see that, you know, like Jesus, I just quoted this a moment ago, Jesus said that a house divided cannot stand. If you can create a division, if you can bring a spursion on the character of Jesus Christ, then the disciples will cease following him, and that's the way they were doing it. The Bible in Proverbs 16 verse 28 says a perverse man sows strife, and a whisperer separates the best of friends. And so Jesus answers this. Notice how he answers this. When the question is asked, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus' answer, verse 31, is those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. And so the bottom line is, is only the sick will visit a physician. And he's pointing out unless you understand your own condition, I can't help you. John Wesley once said, I am fallen short of the glory of God. My whole heart is altogether corrupt and abominable, and consequently my whole life being an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit. You need to know that you have a sick condition, and the sick go to the doctor. That's a general rule. There are some people who like to go to the doctor just because they like to go. But you can't get me to the doctor unless I'm half dead. I was in Scotland and we went and got some food in this little shack, if you will, and got something to eat. And the next day our friends asked us, what did you do last night? We said, well, we went to look at the town a little bit and stopped and grabbed something to eat. Where'd you guys eat? Well, we ate just up the street from the hotel here at this little place and we named it. And my friend said, you shouldn't have eaten there because that's been condemned by the health officials here. And I said, well, you know, what's done is done, didn't think a lot about it until six weeks later. Six weeks later I'm laying in bed and I am just perspiring and I'm drenched. And so Marie says, honey, what's wrong? And I said, I don't know and I don't feel good at all. And we take my temperature and I've got 100 and 304. She says, you better get to the doctor. I said, no. No, I'm not going to a new doctor. I just got a fever. It's no big deal. I'll be all right. And so for the next three days I wouldn't sleep in bed with her because I was drenched so I slept in the front room. You and I are not getting me to the doctor. She finally get calls my dad and my dad comes over and no son and basically has me climb in the cold tub and to try and bring my temperature down. I'm still not going to the doctor. There's no way. I'll be okay. Give me some aspirin. So I go to the doctor finally and he gives me some medicine that actually gets me sicker because he misdiagnoses me. So now I'm getting even worse. And so finally I remember going to a blood specialist in Pomona and I remember it was August. I remember walking into his room and looking at him and saying to him, do you mind if I lay on your carpet? I was so sick I didn't even want to sit down on a chair. Can I sit on your, lay on your carpet? He says, okay. So I'm laying there on the carpet. And he says, this guy's got hepatitis. That's what he has. And so I said, you know what, okay, I got to go to my car. So I remember walking to my car opening up the trunk, the lid there and laying down in the back. And I'm laying on these metal rods that have been baking in 100 degree. And I didn't feel a thing on my back. I was Superman for a day. I didn't feel a thing on my back. My wife ends up taking me to the hospital. And I was in the, I was imprisoned for four days, for four days. They came and they gave me an IV. I remember the lady trying, you know, sticking in and she says, oh, it didn't take. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. It's supposed to be painful, I guess, when you do that. I was so dehydrated, I didn't feel a thing. But there was no way you were going to get me to a doctor that is still true now years later. Marie gets mad at me all the time. She says, if I say, I'm not feeling well, we ought to get you into the doctor. I say, no. You go to the doctor. Only the sick will go to the doctor. And I'm not going to admit I'm sick. There's no way. See, now some people say, oh, I've got a temperature. I better get in to see them. You know, they become best friends with their doctor. You know, I'm not that way at all. So I kind of understand what Jesus is saying. You got to be sick to go to a doctor. And you know what? Only the sick do go to the doctor. The righteous, or those who are not sick, don't need to. Well, the bottom line is, and he says it, those who are well do not need a physician. Those who are sick, I haven't come to call a righteous, but sentenced to repentance. You've got to be willing to say, I'm sick. You've got to be willing. And you know the thing that amazes me about that, as I am still amazed at the amount of people I encounter who will not admit that they're in need. They just don't. The way I would not admit that I needed to go in. The way I would not admit that I needed to go in. I broke my ankle in high school. I broke it. And I didn't know about that for two years, until I sprained it. And then I went in and the doctor said, well, this ankle that you sprained has been broken. And I said, oh, yeah, I remember, I remember when I twisted it. You broke it two years ago. You never came in. Didn't bother me enough to come in. I broke my wrist. I was lifting weights, fell back, snapped my wrist. Weights fell on top, snapped my wrist. I didn't want to go in. My mom made me go in. I can tell you story after story. I do not like to go in. So, I don't know why I'm telling you this. I just feel like it, because I'm sick. No, because mental illnesses don't count. You just have to be willing to say, I need a doctor. These people were not willing to do that. That's why Jesus said, look it, you see these sinners here? You see these tax collectors? You see Matthew? These people are sick. I'm the great physician. I can forgive them of their sins. I can cleanse them of their unrighteousness. I can heal them. You, on the other hand, you say, we see. There's none so blind as those who cannot see. You can't see yourself. And because you can't see yourself, you're not going to ask me to help you. That's why a lot of people will come to churches just like this and will know, will know that they're not perfect. But when they're invited to come to Christ, they'll say, I really don't need him. I'm doing fine. I'm doing fine as I am. I have talked to too many people who are alcoholics who won't admit that they're alcoholics. I've talked to too many people who have anger problems who won't admit that they have problems. Always somebody else's fault that provokes them to do that. I've seen people in multiple marriages who always married the wrong person. The person was the real problem, not me. But Jesus says, listen, you have to admit that you're sick in order to get well. And if you don't, you'll remain sick even though you think you're well. While all of this is taking place, verse 33, they said to him, why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers? And likewise, those are the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink. And he said to them, can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them and then they will fasten those days. Then he spoke a parable to them. No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one. Otherwise, the new makes a tear. And also, the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wine skins or else the new wine will burst the wine skins and be spilled. But the wine skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wine skins and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new, for he says the old is better. And so as the Lord is speaking here, he's beginning to give to us an insight into the newness that God is bringing through his message. Now notice how it says in verse 33, they're asking a question. Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers? If you take notes, you might want to note Matthew 9.14, because Matthew tells us that the question is being asked by John's disciples. And the question is, why do we and the Pharisees fast often but your disciples do not fast? You see, the disciples of John were the ones who had not given their allegiance to Jesus as of yet. The disciples of the Pharisees are busy rejecting him. So it appears that Jesus' association with sinners disturbs both of them. Now in verse 33, that's really a question that relates to Jewish ritual religion. In that day, they had adopted twice weekly fasts, and they were saying that that is the evidence of righteousness. And what has happened is external ritual became a badger outer emblem of godliness. When Jesus was speaking in Matthew on one occasion, he spoke concerning praying and fasting and giving, because those were three external evidences of religiosity. A truly religious person is a generous person. A truly religious person is a prayerful person. A truly religious person is a separated person. And so those were three elements of the Jewish religious faith during the time of Christ that would denote that somebody had a godly walk. So external ritual has become an evidence or an emblem of being a godly person. That's why in Luke 18 verses 10 through 12, Luke speaks in this way and says, two men went up to the temple to pray, when a Pharisee, the other a tax collector, and the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector, I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess. So Luke recording the words of Jesus as he was speaking concerning that was pointing out that people's external religiosity counted for something in the Jewish society at that time. The fact is, according to Galatians 2, 6, God does not judge by outer appearance. And so just because somebody has this outer appearance of being religious doesn't mean that their heart is close to God. We know that, don't we? I mean as a young man, and boy it's a long time ago I realized that, but as a young man, you know when I was young and people my age were coming to Christ and at that time the big taboo was the long hair and all of that, people were looking at us and saying you can't possibly be committed to Christ. You got long hair and they were really uptight with us and they would point to other people and they would say well look you ought to have short hair like them. Mormons looked wonderful compared to the hippy Christians. They would point to them and they'd say look at these devoted kids, their hair is short and they wear these ties and white shirts and they do all of that, but you hippies, how can you say you know Jesus Christ? And we would hear that. We were confronted by older people about that all the time. Now you would think we learned something from that, but we haven't because people my age do the same thing, the same thing except now we're pointing at tattoos. Now we're pointing at piercings and we're saying if that person was really saved they wouldn't have that tattoo. How can you call yourself a follower of Jesus with a tattoo? I mean we do that. We are constantly caught on the external thing and so you can have somebody who fasts and prays and gives and automatically somebody will say oh that is a righteous person. But you know what? God doesn't judge according to outer appearances, men judge. He looks at the heart and he sees what's inside there and that's what the Lord wants to teach us. How come you guys don't fast off and make prayers like those of the Pharisees? Yours eat and yours drink, Jesus gives the answer, verse 34. Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, then they will fast in those days. His answer, in Scripture fasting represents voluntary humility and mourning over sin. You see the Bible tells us in Psalm 3513, I humbled my soul with fasting. And so Jesus is saying this isn't a time to sorrow, this is a time of joy. My being here is like a wedding. I mean you know there's a difference between a wedding and a funeral and I've done a lot of weddings and there haven't been too many like funerals. Most of them are happy places. Most of them are joyous occasions. And so we say listen, you know, this is not a funeral. This is like a wedding. My being here with you ought to cause such incredible joy to be in your heart because I'm here to set you free because I'm here with the words of life because I'm here to show you what God is like. And a Christian is the candidate for being the most joyful person on the face of the earth because the fruit of the Spirit is joy. I mean what a joy it is, listen to what a joy it is to know your sins are forgiven. What a joy it is. My sins are forgiven. What a joy that is for me to know that. I hope you know that tonight. Your sins are forgiven because of Jesus, do you know that? Because I'm telling you, before I was saved, there was no joy in my life, not one eye out or not a shred, not a bit of it because I was inundated with my own guilt. But the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 5 verses 10 and 11 if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life. Not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement we are rejoicing. Now when he says can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast, the friends of the bridegroom were the groom's best friends, they were in charge of all the festivities. And so that's the point he's making. Now he goes on in verse 35, but the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them and at that time they're going to fast. Now the words taken away speaks of a violent taken of Christ and it's pointing towards him being taken and crucified. The day is going to come when Jesus Christ is taken and crucified. Peter spoke about that in Acts 2.23 when he said that Jesus was delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God. He said, and you have taken by wicked hands have crucified and have slain him. And so the day will come when he is going to be removed or taken forcefully. But the bottom line is is you need to understand, you need to understand who Jesus Christ is. Now he's speaking to these disciples of John and he's saying your loyalty to John is getting in the way of your being saved through faith in me. You need to begin to follow Jesus Christ is what he's saying. John's purpose has been fulfilled. He came to present Jesus to the world and therefore you ought to be following him. He continues in verse 36 and spoke a parable. No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one. Otherwise the new makes a tear and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. We all know that. That's easy to understand. You have a rip in your jeans or whatever and you put a patch on it. It's a different color. If it's not shrunk and you wash those jeans and everything when that cloth shrinks when you dry it and it pulls away and that's the point that he's making there. So what is he saying? He's saying there's a time when attempting to patch up something's foolish. My ministry isn't here to repair the Pharisees' religion. My ministry isn't here for that at all. You need to understand that that Phariseeism cannot be repaired. He goes on and he says in verse 37, no one puts new wine into old wineskins or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled and the wineskins will be ruined. New wine must be put into new wineskins and both are preserved. No one having drunk old wine immediately desires a new, for he says the old is better. And so he's saying this. Three things. One, he's saying that the Pharisee order is not right because it's built on self-righteous legalistic traditional Judaism. It is not spirit-led. It produces religious but unspiritual followers. Second, he's saying as disciples of John you need to remember what his ministry was. To present me as Messiah to the world. And then third, it's time to be open to God and the work that he'll do to Jesus in you and be willing to accept whatever new thing God would do. Do not become traditionalized or you become an old wine-skin. When I first got saved and I'm going to make this personal and we'll close. When I first got saved, coming out of a religious denominationalism, the United States being a very religious nation and still is. But not as firmly religious in terms of the Christian faith as it was when I was growing up. Pastor Chuck Smith there in Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa. That pastor who's now 79, almost 80 years old. That people look at and say, well you know he's just an older man now. First time I encountered Chuck Smith, Chuck Smith was 43 years old. He was 13 years younger than I am right now. I was about 20 years old. First time I came into contact with Pastor Chuck and he was 43. And I looked at him at that time, I have to be honest with you and I thought he's an older man. He's an old man. What does he know? But there was something, and I want to share this with you. I hope you can hear this. I hope it makes sense to you. There's something that younger people can't identify with if you try real hard, maybe who are older, an older generation here now. We have to kind of cast our memory back there and try and remember a little bit. But there was a time, there was a time when if you went into church you had to be dressed in basically a suit everybody. I grew up, I grew up in a time when the women, the women who are widows wore black all the time. I grew up in a time when women went to church they would wear these little doilies on their head. They had head coverings. A lot of you know what I'm talking about. They had head coverings. And I mean that was typical garb. I mean when a woman went to church she had a head covering in the church I went to. I remember Marie's aunt, who's a platinum blonde, got up early one morning and rushed to church and she put her little hat on or, I forget what you call it, but she went to church and one of the ushers tapped her on the shoulder and said, excuse me, she turned and said, you know, leave me alone, I'm listening, she said, excuse me. She goes, leave me alone, I'm listening to what you say, ma'am you've got your underwear on your head. True story, she had some black underwear on her head and she was embarrassed because it said Monday. But anyway, and it was Sunday. That's a true story, I'm not kidding about that. I mean they used to put the hat on, they put these little things on their head and everything, she just put it on and off she went. But it was a different era, it was a different time, it truly was. There was no way you'd ever have somebody with a guitar playing up in a church. It just didn't happen, it just did not happen. When Pastor Chuck, in 1965, when he took over Calvary Chapel there in Costa Mesa, and then when he began to serve in that area, when Pastor Chuck originally saw the hippie kids 66, 67 and all, 68, when he began to see the kids, you know, for Chuck coming out of my dad's generation, these hippies were everything that my dad's generation hated, could not stand. There were bums, there were dopers, you know. My dad had such a difficult time with me, my dad had a tough time with me because I was growing my hair and I was going the hippie thing, and my dad and I just, my dad had such a difficult time, he wouldn't, you know, he just didn't talk to me, I mean because I was everything his generation thought was wrong with the world. That's how it was with my dad and me, he didn't hate me, that loved me, but my dad could not stand what I was, and I can tell you that beyond a shadow of a doubt, and me, I didn't care, so what, you know, so we had real major conflicts about that, and I'm growing my hair and I'm doing the dope in the whole nine yards and not working, and when I would work, I wouldn't work, I would only work for a week or two at a time, save up some money, and then I would just use it for, you know, I just use it very sparingly and then that's just the way it was, and it was that way for a long time. But the church, the church was just a different place, I mean when you went into church, it was quiet, it was different, there was, there's no joy, it was just a different kind of place to go to, and it was a place that young people didn't want to go to, but Pastor Chuck and Kay would go out there to Huntington Beach and they would look at the hippie kids who would be walking by, and Kay, and Chuck would be folding his arms, you know, and just looking at these off-scouring, and Kay would cry, and his wife Kay would cry, and weep for these lost hippie kids, and Chuck just couldn't handle them. He couldn't handle those kids because there was everything that he preached against. But it was the love that his wife had for these kids that broke the heart of Chuck Smith. Everybody associates Chuck Smith with the Jesus movement because God used him tremendously to reach guys like me. But the bottom line is, is he had to be broken too. He had to see that God could do a work in the life of that generation, he had to see that, he had to believe that, he had to know that, and God brought him to the place where he did see that. And there's stories that are legendary, you know, when I first went over there it was in 1970, I was 19 years old, and I went in for the first time, and I sat amongst the hundreds of hippie kids who were Christians and all, and I experienced that, and then I started going there when I was 20 to Calvary Chapel. And it was different, I mean, they had music up there that I related to as a 20-year-old. It was just a different feel, a different thing that was going on there. It was a new thing, but the churches around there didn't like it. The churches would say that these hippies can't be Christians, these hippies can't be saved. Look at them, they're still walking in there, and they're barefooted. And Chuck tells the story of how the hippies, and this is true because I did it, how the hippies would be sitting in those pews, like you are right now. I didn't wear shoes. I did not wear shoes. I didn't wear shoes. I would wear slacks and a shirt that was a dress shirt with no shoes. I didn't wear shoes even to this day. I still wear my flip flops, you know, I would preach in flip flops on Sunday, but my mom said I don't like looking at your stupid feet, put shoes on. And so, I mean, that's the way it was. And I remember, I stuck my toe in that communion cup holder there just like the others did, and people would get all freaked out, how gross is that? Make those hippies put on some shoes. The old people, man, they had a tough time with the young people. But there was something that was happening, and it was that God's love was spilling out into the life of the young people. The Jesus movement is a youth movement. It's a youth movement. It wasn't started by the old people like me now. It was the 20-year-olds, the 19-year-olds, the 21-year-olds. It was the young people who said, I hate this hypocrisy. I hate it. Something's got to change. It's got to be real. We got to be real. And that was my heart. It still is at my age. It's got to be real. It can't be phony. It's got to be real. And we saw that in Chuck. We saw that in my youth pastor, Lonnie Frisbee. We saw that. We didn't want to be old wineskins. We wanted the fresh work of the Spirit of God in our life. We would leave on Wednesday night Bible study just like this, packed out with hundreds of kids, hundreds of kids. And we would go straight to my friend's house. And we would hold hands, and we would pray and worship God in song. And we'd open the Bible up and somebody would say, look at what God has promised us. We need to embrace this. And I saw God do marvelous works by the power of His Holy Spirit. Some of the largest churches in the United States are Calvary Chapel churches that are pastored by these hippie off-scouring. We've gotten older. That's true. But we haven't lost our love for Christ in His Word and His ability to change lives. And I'm praying. I'm praying. I am praying that the Lord will raise up an army of 20-year-olds, 21-year-olds who get away from the drugs and the fornication and the drinking and the partying, get away from that and start telling their friends about Jesus Christ. Well, I'm praying for revival. I've been praying for one for years. Lord, let your spirit, again, again touch these kids because they're lied to. They are being lied to. They don't understand. And I don't know what to do other than what I do. I teach the Word and I pray. God touch the youth. Only because I know one day the Lord will say, you know, Dave, come on home. And I won't say, oh no, can I stay one more moment? I'll say, take me, Lord, here I go. Yes, I want to go and be with you. No doubt about it. Thank you, Lord. But I know that when the Lord takes me home, should He tarry, I need to have someone in this pulpit who can lead this fellowship to love and serve Jesus Christ. I am praying for a Joshua, for a young man in this church to be raised up so that I can one day put my arm around him and say, I'm seeing you later. I'm handing this ministry to this young man who's going to take you further on and further in in Jesus Christ. I pray that he may even be here now, that God is putting on the heart of a young man, a desire to win the loss for Christ, to honor God and to serve him with all that is within him so that this church will have a pastor who has a passion for the things that please God. That's my prayer. I don't want to be an old wineskin. And when I get to the point where I see somebody with some funny looking taps and some weird piercings and I start saying, oh, my, my, my, I can't handle that, I should get out of the pulpit. I should step out because I'm going to, you know, I'm going to explode. Just like Jesus is saying, you see, you don't put new wine in an old wineskin because when the fermentation process takes place, that dried up old piece of leather is going to explode. Well, me, I don't want to be an old wineskin. I don't want to be an old wineskin. I don't want to be one of these judgmental grumpy old men who says, oh, look at you. You ought to do that. I don't want to be that way. I want to be somebody who just sees the potential of what God can do in somebody's life if that kid will just let go and just let go and let God do something in him. And I'm going to, I've seen it already. Many times we've seen 20 some churches birth from here. I know that God is raising people up. And you might be the person God is raising up to be the pastor of this church. He's here. He's going to be here. Either he's here now or he will be here someday. And I'm waiting for him because the day is going to come when I know the Lord is saying, son, you know what, you can't hobble up there anymore. You're boring them to pieces. They don't want to hear stories of Marie. She's 92 years old. I know that's going to happen someday. So all I'm saying, let's not become old wineskins. My Chuck, he's going to be 80 years old in June. He told us recently, told me recently, he said, you know what, ministry starts at 80. He said, I'm just beginning. He said, I'm just starting my ministry. And I agree with it. I know that Chuck's got a lot to give. And he's a great example to men like me. And I look at him and say, well, you know what, I want to serve the Lord like my pastor does until, you know, my prayer is, I hope it doesn't scare you. But my prayer is that I just die here in this pulpit. If it scares you, you know, I'm sorry, but you know where I went. You know where I went. I want to serve the Lord and I want people around me who want to too. And the bottom line is, is we need to be careful that we don't get hardened. We don't get traditionalized. We don't become old wineskins. I want the spirit to move us and keep on using us and we have to have an eye for what God wants to do. We need to have a vision for what the Lord wants to do. And I believe that I do have vision for what he wants to do. And I know he wants to do more. And so Jesus made it very clear. Listen, I didn't come to reform the Pharisees' religion. I came to bring the Holy Spirit to take people and transform their lives with new life. That's what I came for. I didn't come to make righteous people who think they're righteous feel comfortable in their sin. I came to reach out to the sick people who recognize that they need help. That's what I came for. And you know, this church is filled with people who understand that, starting in this pulpit and throughout this church. I understand that because I know my testimony, especially the parts I've never told anybody. I know my testimony and I know what God can do. And I know what God can do in a life that is fully yielded to him. And that's my prayer for me and that's my prayer for you, that we would fully yield our lives to him. Let the Holy Spirit loose in your life and watch what he'll do.