No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment.
New cloth on an old garment
God’s forces not to be fettered by man. You cannot thrust life into human moulds.
I. Every force has a definite mode of action. Spring does not produce the same results as autumn, nor can young converts yield the same fruits as aged saints.
II. To coerce these forces into human channels is impossible. No one dress will fit all men. If you want to alter men’s habits begin by changing their principles.
III. It is only wise and safe to act with God. Learn the methods of the Spirit’s working and follow them. (D. Davies, M. A.)
The new supplanting the old
A missionary in India writes of a large tree near his home, in whose branches a second top of entirely different species appeared. The old was the “bitter nim,” the other the “sacred fig.” And this, on examination, was found to have thrust its root through the decaying heart of the great trunk to the ground. There, like a young giant in the embrace of some huge monster, each was engaged in a struggle for life. If the old could tighten its grasp, the young tree must die. If the young continued to grow it must at last split open and destroy the old. This it seemed already to be doing. So with the good seed of the gospel dropped into the rotten heart of some ancient system or practice. Thrusting its root downward and its branches upward, it is gradually to supplant all else and stand, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding her fruit every month; and the leaves will be for the healing of the nations. (De W. S. Clark.)
New things in Christianity
Christianity sets up a new kingdom-a kingdom within men-a reign over the spiritual in man. “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” It publishes a “new law,” and gives men “a new commandment.” “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Christianity introduces us into a “New Jerusalem,” “the Jerusalem which is the mother of us all.” Everything in the city is new. The Temple is new; it is a spiritual temple; spiritual men “are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.” “What! know ye not that ye are the temple of God?” The Altar is new; “we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.” The Sacrifice is new; it is the “offering up of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” The Incense is new; “the sacrifice of praise, even the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” The Priesthood is new; “we have a great High Priest who is passed into the heavens for us, even Jesus, the Son of God.” The Way into the “Holiest” is new; it is “a new and living way consecrated for us.” The Worship is new; the hour has come when the character, and not the scene of worship, is everything. The song is new; we sing “a new song.” The Ritualism is new; “for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” God sustains a new relation to us; He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We come to God and say, “Doubtless Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not.” “Christ is the Mediator of the new covenant.” The days have come when God has made a new covenant with man. The Spirit is new; even the Comforter, proceeding from the Father and the Son. The gospel is new; “God hath spoken unto us by His Son.” The phraseology is new; “we preach Christ crucified.” The symbolism is new; “the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Since everything in Christianity is new, we must ourselves be new; we must be “born again.” There must be the passage from death to life. The life we live in the flesh must be a new life. “Old things must pass away; all things must become new.” (H. J. Bevis.)
New things in Christianity
I. That the spirit of Christianity is new. It is “new wine.” Judaism was the body; Christianity is the soul. The one was materialism; the other is spiritualism. The one was “the letter;” the other is “the spirit.” The one was a “ministration of death;” the other a “ministration of life.” “The law came by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ.” We have got beyond the shadow, we have the substance. “We behold with unveiled face the glory of the Lord.”
II. That the thoughts and words of Christianity are new. New thoughts require new utterances. The people said of Christ, “Never man spake like this Man.” New things want new words. The everlasting Son has taken our nature and become our brother. The gospel calls this “the mystery of godliness.” God hath given His Son, that whosoever believeth on Him might have eternal life. Even the gospel seems to want words here, and can only say, “God so loved.” The gospel takes us by the hand and leads us to the cross; and as we look on the Crucified, it unfolds the record, and bids us read, “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.” We want not old forms. We have truth for the understanding; we have love for the heart. We have new thoughts and new words, the utterances of which are as the divinest music to the soul that is seeking a Saviour. “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even the chief.”
III. The manifestations of Christianity are new. “There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” Christianity is from heaven. God’s work is not to be improved by man. Where there is real religion in man, its own manifestations will not be wanting in a Divine life, in all the graces of the Spirit, in godlikeness.
IV. The ritualism of Christianity is new. It has few symbols, but these are most expressive and appropriate. It meets us on the very threshold of life with its washing of water, and water is the universal and undying type of purity. It gives us, as Christians, the memorials of Christ’s death. The ritualism of your spirit must be left to the moods and feelings of your own heart. You may content yourselves with mere outward acts of reformation, but these are manifestly insufficient. This is but a new piece of cloth on an old garment. This is the world’s attempt to mend human nature. Christianity requires “a new heart and a right spirit.” You must be a “partaker of the Divine nature,” “a new creature in Christ Jesus,” to be a Christian. The “inner man” must have its new attire. You must put off the old garment and put on the new. You must “put on Christ Jesus the Lord, and walk in Him.” Do not try to mend the old nature Seek a new one. Old habits will not do for a new spirit, and yet we cling to them, or they cling to us There is often little agreement between our principles and our practice. (H. J. Bevis.)
Legal ceremonies superseded
Paul calls legal ceremonies “beggarly rudiments;” such are the popish-like a beggar’s cloak, full of patches. When the debt is paid, it is unjust to keep back the bond: Christ being come, and having discharged all, it is injurious to retain the bond of ceremonies. In the spring we make much of buds and flowers to delight the eye and cheer the sense of smelling; but in autumn, when we receive the fruits to content our taste and appetite, and to nourish us, the other are nothing worth The affianced virgin esteems every token her lover sends her and solaceth her affections with those earnests of his love in his absence: but when she is married, and enjoys himself, there is no regard of the tokens. It was something to have a ceremony or a sacrifice, representing a Saviour; but this “made nothing perfect” and all the life which those things had was from that Saviour whom now we, have. (T. Adams.)
Old bottles and new wine
Christ gave his replies to John’s disciples and the Pharisees. The first had a temporary application; the other a permanent one.
1. Fasting was a sign of sorrow; but how could these disciples sorrow while Jesus was with them? it was like trying to weep in the midst of a wedding feast. Christians have alternations of experience. Sometimes the Bridegroom is with us; sometimes far away.
2. The other answer sets forth the essential difference between the new dispensation and the impossibility of confining it by the old forms and ceremonies of religion. Now, these bottles represent religious forms, and wine represents religious spirit or life. Consider-
I. The superior energy of Christianity over Judaism. It is new wine. Judaism was wine; but this is newer, and also better. But this is not the point of comparison. The point is, that the gospel has a freshness, expansiveness, and power, beyond what we find in Judaism, so that it is like new, working and fermenting wine as compared with old acetic wine, now cold and still. See it in a few particulars:-
1. Its earnest aggressive spirit and aim. It was meant for the world, to go out to all nations. Judaism was for the Jews, or if for Gentiles, it was by these coming to the Jews as proselytes. Its agency is the same.
2. Its potent and stimulating motives. Christ’s love and death constrain us; and the apocalypse of the eternal world is made more impressive and influential. Compare these with Jewish types, etc.
3. The ardour of affection awakened in the followers of Christ. Their whole nature is elevated and vivified by a new love and a new hope.
4. The accompanying energy of the Holy Ghost.
II. The unsuitableness of old Jewish forms to the new Christian spirit. All are too narrow, cold, and cramping. As fastings, sacrifices, priestly exclusiveness, and even the Sabbath.
III. Yet Christianity has its own forms. The wine is not spilt on the ground, but kept in bottles-the Christian Church in its New Testament simplicity, the ordinances, the Lord’s day, spiritual modes of worship. All these naturally come out of the spirit of the gospel. The life makes its own body. Truly, this law has been tampered with most grievously by men, and the energy of the gospel has suffered; its freedom has been trammelled, and its life deadened. Lessons:
1. Our supreme concern should be to get the life of the gospel into our souls.
2. We should avoid a superstitious stickling for mere forms, however old and elegant, if they are but arbitrary and mechanical.
3. We should be willing to endorse and adopt the simple, natural, and living forms of the New Testament-joining the church, engaging in worship, etc.
4. We should apply it to our whole deportment and life-all must be renewed, and new wine put in new bottles. Let all our habits be determined and controlled by the inner spirit of piety. Things once pleasant to us will now be unpleasant and irksome. Many amusements and pleasures will be instantly abandoned, when we have got the right spirit within us; whereas, otherwise, it would be vain to contend and argue against them. (Congregational Pulpit.)