EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/7/2026
8:45 PM
My
Worship Time
Focus: “The Illustrations”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Luke
5:36-39
Message
of the verses: “36
He also told them a parable: "No one tears a piece from a new
garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and
the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.
If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the
skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine
must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And
no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is
good.’" (ESV)
John MacArthur begins this last
chapter in his first volume on the gospel of Luke with the following: “To illustrate the uniqueness of the gospel,
Jesus told a parable (parabole; a figurative example, metaphor,
analogy, or story), or more specifically, a series of three parables. First, He pointed out that no one tears a
piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. To do so would be foolish for a couple of
reasons. In the first place, tearing a piece of cloth from a new garment obviously
would ruin that garment. Nor would the
new patch work if sewn in the old garment, since the piece from the new will
not match the faded color or the pattern of the old. Even worse, after the patched garment is
washed, ‘the patch [from the new, unshrunk garment] pulls away from the [old,
patched] garment, and a worse tear results’ (Matt. 9:16).
“The Lord’s point is that the gospel
cannot be patched into Judaism (or any other system of salvation by
works). His teaching was completely at
odds with that of the Jewish leaders.
They viewed themselves as righteous (Luke 16:15); He preached the
necessity or repentance (Luke 5:32; cf. Matt. 4:17).”
(Luke 16:15)
“15 And he said to them, "You are those who
justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted
among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”
(Matt. 4:17)
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
“They were
proud of their supposedly exalted religious status (Luke 20:46-47); He
proclaimed the need for humility (Matt. 5:3).”
(Luke 20:46-47)
“46 "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk
around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats
in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 47 who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense
make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.’”
(Matt. 5:3)
3 ¶ "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
“They
focused on external ceremony, ritual, and outward observance of the law; He
focused on the heart (Matt. 15:7-9; Luke 11:39-52).”
(Matt. 15:7-9; Luke 11:39-52)
“7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of
you, when he said: 8 "’This people
honors me with their lips, their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as
doctrines the commandments of men.’"
“39 And the Lord said to him, "Now you
Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are
full of greed and wickedness. 40 You
fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But give as alms those things that are
within, and behold, everything is clean for you. 42 "But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe
mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you
ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best
seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. 44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves,
and people walk over them without knowing it." 45 One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in
saying these things you insult us also.” 46
And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens
hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your
fingers. 47 Woe to you! For you build
the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. 48 So you are witnesses and you consent to the
deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I
will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and
persecute,’ 50 so that the blood of all
the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against
this generation, 51 from the blood of
Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the
sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. 52 Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away
the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who
were entering."
“They
loved the approval of men; He offered the approval of God (Matt. 23:5-7; John
12:43).”
(Matt. 23:5-7; John 12:43)
5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others.
For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at feasts
and the best seats in the synagogues 7
and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.”
“43 for they loved the glory that comes from man
more than the glory that comes from God.”
“The old garment in the Lord’s
illustration is not the Old Testament.
It is not God’s eternal law, which is holy, righteous and good (Rom. 7:12),
and which Jesus came to fulfill, not to replace (Matt. 23:17-19).”
(Rom. 7:12)
“12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is
holy and righteous and good.”
(Matt. 23:17-19)
“17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the or
the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18
And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if
anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’
19 You blind men! For which is greater,
the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?”
“Rather,
it is the ritualistic, legalistic religion based on rabbinic tradition, with
its man-made regulations (Matt. 15:3-6) that obscured the Law of God.”
(Matt. 15:3-6)
“3 He answered them, "And why do you break
the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and
your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father his
mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” 6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the
sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.’
“Jesus did
not come to patch that system, but to replace it with the garment of salvation
(Isa. 61:10)—the good news of salvation by faith in Him. No works-righteousness system can be patched
into the gospel of grace and faith.”
(Isa. 61:10)
10 ¶ I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul
shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he
has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself
like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with
her jewels.”
“It would be just as foolish and
futile to put new wine into old wineskins; because the new wine will
burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. Wine was typically stored in containers made
of animal skins. As the new, fresh wine
fermented, gas would be released and the skins would expand during the
fermentation process.
“Like the first illustration, this
one also highlights the futility and impossibility of mixing the gospel of
grace with any system of works-righteousness.
Grace is antithetical to and not compatible with any such system (Rom.
11:6; Gal. 5:4).”
(Rom. 11:6; Gal. 5:4)
“6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the
basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.”
“4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be
justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”
“The Lord’s final illustration describes the tragedy of
those who reject the gospel of grace and cling to their false system of
works-righteousness. Jesus
likened such people to those who are content with the old wine they have been
drinking, and have no desire to taste the new.
No one, Jesus said, after drinking the old wine wishes for
new; for he says, “The old is good enough.”
False religion deadens the spiritual senses. Far enough into the drinking experience, the
drinker does not care about the taste of the wine. It is one of the chief ways that the ‘god of
this world [blinds] the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the
light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God’ (2 Cor.
4:4). Like wine drinkers sloshing their familiar
drink, people stubbornly cling to their comfortable religious traditions, and
have little or no interest in the new, fresh saving truth of the gospel.
“For those unwilling to leave their false religions and
embrace the gospel, there is not hope of salvation (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).”
(John 14:6; Acts 4:12)
“6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and
the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
“12 And there is salvation in no one else, for
there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.’’
“The
church’s goal is not to make unbelievers comfortable in their false religious
systems or to help them assimilate Jesus into those systems. The commission the Lord gave to the church is
to ‘go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe
all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the
age’ (Matt. 28:19-20).”
6/7/2026
9:33 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment