New Wine into New Wineskins (Part 2)

11/1987

Ok, the passage about not pouring new wine into an old wineskin - an inflexible wineskin - is similar to the idea that we find in Romans 1 and Romans 15 where it says that God hindered Paul from going to Rome because God desired that Paul not build on another man’s foundation.

In a sense, there’s no way to build at ALL, if you’re not going to build on another foundation. I mean Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3 that he laid the foundation, which was Jesus Christ, as a master builder. Now he said each man should be careful how he builds. Build with gold, silver, and precious stones, and wood, hay, and stubble. So the real question really isn’t, “Who laid the foundation?” as much as it is “What IS the foundation?” Paul laid the foundation as a master builder, and Jesus Christ was the Chief Cornerstone and the Foundation, and no man can lay another foundation other than that one.

But what has happened is men HAVE laid another foundation other than that one, and if we try to pour new wine into a wrong wineskin that’s not willing to grow and change, they’re not hungering and thirsting for righteousness, they have it set in their minds what they’re going to do. Period.

And if you question them, then their pride flares and they strike without ever really thinking and praying and studying diligently the scriptures - with no desire to be all that they can be, but they’re trying to protect something rather than learn and grow. That’s an old wineskin, because it’s inflexible. That’s a faulty foundation because it’s a wrong foundation. It’s not Jesus Christ as a foundation, who is the Master Teacher, and we’re Disciples, which means learners.

“Mathetes” means learner. It means apprentice. If we’re not apprentices, if we’re not learning anymore and changing, and being apprenticed into truth, then we’re not Disciples. And if we’re not Disciples, then we’re not the Church, and if we’re not the Church then we’ve got a wrong foundation.

So we all have to be willing to grow and to change, and every time truth is presented to us, to lay down our weapons and our prejudices and our traditions of men and say, “Ok, I didn’t know that. I wish I’d known it sooner. But I’m not apologizing it. I’m gonna live up to what I’ve already attained,” as Paul said in Philippians 3. I don’t care where I’ve been because God keeps no record of wrongs. I’m not going to worry about it either. I forget what’s behind. And I press on towards what’s ahead. And if I made mistakes before, if I had Stephen stoned, murdered one of the greatest men that ever walked on earth, it’s hard for me, but I can go on. I’m going to press on. I’ve been shown great grace, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:10, and that grace God showed me will not be without effect. It will not be in vain. I’m going to work harder than all the rest, by the grace of God that’s at work within me.

That’s got to be our attitude, is no apologies for the past, but to live up to what we’ve already attained and to keep moving. Now that’s what a Disciple is, to live up to what we’ve already attained, with all of our heart, and then to be an apprentice, a disciple, a learner, to just keep right on going and going. Now if that’s not the foundation, where everybody has that heart - “I’m going, I’m going. Jesus is my Lord, not my parents and my grandparents. Not the college I went to. Not the fear of men of the next denomination down the street. The next congregation of our brotherhood that’s going to sit in judgment on me.”

We’re either autonomous like we say we are, doctrinally, or we’re not autonomous. If we’re not autonomous, that means we’re afraid of what other people are going to think, so we conform to their pattern in order to appease them. And that’s not autonomy. That’s dishonest. It’s fear of men, and we cease to be a servant of God when we fear men it says in Galatians 1:10.

So, we’ve got to move on ahead. If the foundation is “I will be everything that God calls me to be, if it costs me my mother, father, brother, sister, lands, possessions, homes, I will lose all that for Jesus’ sake. I will not try to save my life. I will lose it for His sake. And therefore, He will highly exalt me. I’ll empty myself of my rights, make myself nothing, become a servant, and obedient even if it costs me my life. And I’m going to count on God to exalt me if I humble myself. I will not exalt myself. I will humble myself and trust Him to save me from this situation that I don’t know how terrible the ramifications are going to be. But I will not consider ramifications. I will only consider truth.”

Now that’s got to be our hearts. And if that’s not the foundation, then we’ve got an old wineskin, and then we’re trying to build on a faulty foundation. It’s ultimately not going to work out. But see, the thing is, a famine in the word of God has left an awful lot of people thinking that they’re living in the light of God’s glory and in His Church and if they knew more, they’d live up to more, just like they gave up an awful lot to get where they are at now. They gave up families and traditions and a lot of things to get where they’re at now. What makes us so sure that they won’t keep doing that if more truth comes along? I mean, why are we so arrogant to think that we’ve got better hearts than somebody else does?

So, what I’m saying is, not to look at a circumstance and say, “Well this will never work because it’s different than it ought to be.” Our job is to lay down our life, to give our life as a ransom for many, and just to see what pops out the end. We’re servants of God. We’re not judges of men. We’re servants of God.

The physician comes for the sick not for the well, and if there is something that God has shown us through His mercy even though we were undeserving, well, it’s just one beggar showing another beggar where there’s food. That’s all in the world it is. We’re not better than anybody else. We’re just other beggars showing men where there’s food.

Now if they reject it and stick their tongue out at us, there’s nothing we’re going to be able to do because we’ve still got to live up to everything we know is true, regardless of what anybody else does. So we’re left without any options in terms of “staying there” if you will. If everybody collectively on the count of three sticks their tongue out at us, there’s just not much we’re gonna be able to do.

But it’s not our job to decide BEFORE we’ve brought truth and honesty and self-sacrifice into the situation. It’s not our job to decide what will happen and to consider the ramifications either direction. It’s just our job to live honestly and to speak the truth in love and see what happens.

We know that many will want to gather around themselves a great number of teachers who tell them what their itching ears want to hear. Now GOD said that. That many would want to gather a great number of teachers to tell them what their itching ears want to hear. We know that’s going to happen. But we don’t know which ones are which. We don’t know whether they’re weak, or whether they’re selfish and prideful, and they’re rebellious against God’s Lordship. We don’t know which one it is, because they look the same, until the word of God comes. As long as there is a famine of hearing the Word, we’ll never know the difference between those two.

So in other words, we’re vessels. We’re not judges. We don’t isolate ourselves. We spend ourselves for the sake of the people that God has brought us into contact with. That’s a little bit about foundations.