Scripture: Matthew 9:14 – 17
Title: “Something’s Got To Give”
Introduction: I have been very privileged to have owned a number of very good cars. When I bought them they served me very well and lasted for a number of years. But the time came when they had to be replaced. The use of the vehicle had taken its toll and it had to be replaced. I have had to patch up my cars many times to keep them going for a few more miles, but the time came when the patch didn’t work anymore. You can get pretty tired of trying to fix up something that is just worn out.
This is what Jesus is saying here. The Old Testament had served its purpose and the time had come for something far better.
PATCHED UP LIVES.
· I have had to wear patched clothes when I was a little boy.
· I didn’t know anything was wrong with it until they were washed.
· The patch won’t hold to the old worn out fabric.
· Jesus refuses to be a patch on an unchanged life.
· Jesus refused to be a patch on the old traditions.
· He will not be a band-aid.
· He is to be a whole brand new garment.
· He is a new way of thinking.
· He is to be a new way of acting – a new way of living.
· He is a new way of thinking about God.
Jesus came to re-create – he came to re-generate – he came to re-make us into the likeness of God that was lost when sin came in.
2 Cor. 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW!
· The Old Testament had reached its limits.
· It had brought man as far as it could.
· The Old Testament letter of the Law only amplified the sin.
· There was a need for a New Testament.
· Death was to be replaced by life.
· The Old was to be replaced by the New.
· This new was to be ever expanding and ever growing and always getting better and better.
· The Old Person becomes a New Person when we are born again of the Holy Spirit.
OLD AND NEW WINE SKINS.
· Grape juice stored in bags made of goat or sheep skins for a period of time went through a process of fermentation.
· Fermentation is a process of CHANGE. (It takes time!)
· There were some things that had to go when I became a Christian.
· The Life of the Holy Spirit has to have room to expand.
PRESERVING THE WINE.
· Failure has been the result of patched up lives.
· Failure has been the result of trying to put Christ into an old life that has not changed.
· The old spirit of man cannot be put into the body of a new Christian.
· The spirit of man has to be changed.
