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This message is the continuation of the previous message on Matt. 9:9-17.
In 9:16 the Lord continues with something even finer, sweeter, and more intimate. He says, “Now no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for that which fills it up pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear is made.” The Greek word translated “unshrunk” is agnaphos, formed with a, which means not, and gnapto, which means to card or comb wool; hence, to dress or full the cloth. Thus, the word means uncarded, unfulled, unfinished, unshrunk, untreated. The unshrunk cloth signifies Christ from His incarnation to His crucifixion as a piece of new cloth, untreated, unfinished; whereas the new garment in Luke 5:36 signifies Christ, after being treated in His crucifixion, as a new robe. (The Greek word for “new” in Luke 5:36 is kainos, the same as the word for “fresh” in Matthew 9:17.) Christ was firstly the unshrunk cloth for making a new garment, and then through His death and resurrection He was made a new garment to cover us as our righteousness before God that we might be justified by God and acceptable to Him (Luke 15:22; Gal. 3:27; 1 Cor. 1:30; Phil. 3:9). A patch of unshrunk cloth put on an old garment pulls away from the garment by its shrinking strength, thus making the tear worse. To do this means to imitate what Christ did in His human life on earth. This is what today’s modernists are attempting. They only imitate Jesus’ human deeds to improve their behavior; they do not believe in the crucified Jesus as their Redeemer or the resurrected Christ as their new garment to cover them as their righteousness before God.
The old garment in verse 16 signifies man’s good behavior, good deeds, and religious practices by his old natural life. The Lord Jesus was very wise. In verse 16 He did not say, “You disciples of John must realize that your garments are torn and full of holes. By fasting you are actually cutting a piece of unshrunk cloth and using it to patch the holes in your garments.” Instead of saying this directly, the Lord Jesus indicated to the disciples of John that they did not have a perfect garment. He indicated that their garments had holes and that by fasting they were trying to patch the holes. No human being could utter such a word as that spoken by the Lord Jesus in verse 16. His wise word is full of meaning, rebuke, revelation, and instruction. The Lord was saying to the disciples of John, “Why do you ask Me about fasting? Your fasting is a way of patching your torn garment. By your fasting, you show that you realize that you have holes in your garments that need to be mended. Your teacher, John, introduced you all to Me. Now you are utilizing Me to patch your holes. This means that you are cutting a piece from My unshrunk cloth to mend the holes in your garments. But My cloth is full of shrinking power. Don’t put any part of it on your old torn garments. If you do, the hole will become larger.”
The account in Luke 5:36 is somewhat different from that in Matthew 9:16. Luke 5:36 says, “No man tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old.” Notice that Matthew says “cloth” and that Luke says “garment.” The Lord Jesus likened Himself to a piece of unshrunk cloth. This points to what He was between His incarnation and His crucifixion. During this period of time He was unshrunk cloth, new cloth that had never been fulled or dealt with. Through His death and resurrection this new cloth was dealt with and was made a new garment. The Lord’s intention was to give Himself to us not as a piece of unshrunk cloth, but as a complete, finished garment that we might put on as our righteousness to be justified before God. After His death and resurrection, He was made the finished garment for us to put on so that we may attend His wedding. Thus, He is not only the Bridegroom, but also our wedding garment that qualifies us to attend His wedding feast.
Why did the Lord Jesus, after telling us that He is the Bridegroom, go on to speak of the new cloth, the new garment? We must look deeper to discern His meaning. The Lord tells us that the Bridegroom is with us. But look at yourself — do you deserve His presence? Do you think that your real condition in the eyes of God is worthy of the presence of the Bridegroom? We must all answer, “No.” All we have and all we are does not deserve the Lord’s presence. To enjoy the Lord’s presence we need certain qualifications; we need to be in a certain condition, in a certain situation. What we are by birth, what we are naturally, whatever we can do, and whatever we have, do not qualify us to be in the presence of the Bridegroom. The Bridegroom is Christ, and Christ is God Himself. Suppose God appeared to you today. Could you just sit there? He is the holy God, the righteous God, and such a One is the Bridegroom. Recall the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. The prodigal son came home. The father undoubtedly loved him deeply, but the son’s condition was utterly unfit for the presence of the father. Therefore, the father immediately told his servant to take the best robe and to put it on him, thus making him fit for his presence. Our Bridegroom is God Himself. How may we, poor sinners, enjoy the presence of the heavenly King? We must remember the context of these verses in Matthew 9: the Lord Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners. We are “tax collectors” and sinners. We are not qualified; we need something to cover us that we may sit in the presence of the Lord. This is why, after the Lord spoke of Himself as the Bridegroom, He told us that we need to be clothed in a new garment. When we put on the new garment, we are worthy of His presence. When the prodigal son was clothed with the best robe, he could immediately stand in the presence of his honored father. The best robe qualified him to enjoy the father’s presence. We as sinners and “tax collectors” need to be clothed in a new garment that we may be worthy of the Bridegroom’s presence.
I do not like to present mere teachings and doctrines — I prefer the practice, the experience. Let me check with you: Since Christ became the new garment after His resurrection, how then may we put Him on? Galatians 3:27 says, “As many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” We must put on Christ, and the way to put Him on is to be baptized into Him. Now we must see how we may be baptized into Christ. We have seen that after His resurrection Christ became a new garment, but the Bible also tells us that after His resurrection He was made a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). If Christ were not the Spirit, how could we be baptized into Him? By being crucified, buried, and resurrected, Christ was made a life-giving pneuma, a life-giving breath, the living air. As the breath, it is so easy for Him to get into us, and as the air, it is so easy for us to get into Him. Christ in resurrection was made a Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is the all-inclusive One. In this Spirit is all that Christ is and all He has accomplished. This all-inclusive Spirit is the all-inclusive Christ Himself, and this Christ as the Spirit is the new garment for us to wear. Hence, even the garment is the Spirit. We were baptized into Christ as the Spirit — it is thus that we put on Christ. Christ is the pneuma, the all-inclusive Spirit. When we are baptized into Him, we put Him on. Immediately He as the Spirit becomes our clothing, our covering, and we are qualified. Therefore, the new garment which we must put on is Christ Himself as the all-inclusive Spirit.
This is the meaning of the Lord’s word in 28:19, “Go therefore, and disciple all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” The reality of the name is in the Spirit. To baptize people into the name means to baptize them into the Spirit, who is Christ as the all-inclusive pneuma. Christ became incarnated, He lived on earth, He was crucified and accomplished redemption, and He was resurrected. After everything was finished, He became the all-inclusive pneuma in His resurrection. Incarnation is included in this pneuma; crucifixion and redemption are included in this pneuma; resurrection, the power of His resurrection, and the life of the resurrection are all included in this pneuma. When we were baptized into Him, we were baptized into this pneuma. When we were baptized into Him, we put Him on. We must put on Christ as the new garment, and this new garment is the all-inclusive Spirit. Christ is no longer the untreated cloth; He is now the finished garment. In this finished garment we have redemption, resurrection power, and all the elements of the divine Person. This new garment is not just a piece of clothing, but the divine pneuma, the all-inclusive Spirit, including Christ’s incarnation, His crucifixion, His redemptive work, His resurrection, and His resurrection power. Now He is the finished garment for us to put on. Hallelujah, we can put on such a Christ!
Verse 17 says, “Neither do they put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out, and the wineskins are destroyed; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” The Greek word translated “new” in this verse is neos, which means new in time, recent, young. The new wine here signifies Christ as the new life, full of vigor, stirring people to excitement. The new wine is Christ’s cheering life. The divine life is likened to wine that has cheering strength. When we receive His life, it works within us all day long to stir us up and to excite us. This new wine strengthens us, energizes us, and makes us very happy. The kingly Savior is not only the Bridegroom to the kingdom people for their enjoyment, but also their new garment to equip and qualify them outwardly for attending the wedding. Furthermore, He is also their new life to excite them inwardly for the enjoyment of Him as their Bridegroom. He, as their heavenly King, is the Bridegroom for the kingdom people’s enjoyment, and His heavenly kingdom is the wedding feast (22:2) that they may enjoy Him. To enjoy Him as the Bridegroom in the kingdom feast, they need Him as their new garment outwardly and their new wine inwardly.
Consider again the example of the prodigal son. After putting on the best robe the prodigal son could still say, “O father, the best robe satisfies you, but it doesn’t satisfy me. I am still hungry and need to be satisfied.” Immediately the father told the servant to kill the fatted calf and said, “Let us eat, and be merry.” Thus, the father’s provision is not just for something outward, but also for something within. Therefore, after the Lord spoke about the new garment, He directly proceeded to speak of the new wine. The new wine is not a provision for the outward need, but for the inward need. We need something to cover us, and we also need something to fill us. We are so poor outwardly, and we are so empty inwardly. We need the robe upon us for the Father’s sake, and we need the new wine within us for our own sakes. We need both the new garment and the new wine. The Lord is the new garment to us, and He is also the new wine. He is our covering and also our content. He not only qualifies us, but He satisfies us as well. Hence, He is our qualification and our satisfaction, the provision for our outward need and the provision for all our inward hunger and thirst.
In verse 17 the Lord said that we should not put new wine into old wineskins. Old wineskins signify religious practices, such as the fasting held by the Pharisees in the old religion and the disciples of John in the new religion. All religions are old wineskins. New wine put into old wineskins bursts the wineskins by its fermenting power. To put new wine into old wineskins is to put Christ as the exciting life into any kind of religion. This is what the so-called fundamentalists and Pentecostals are practicing today. They attempt to squeeze Christ into their different modes of religious ritual and formality. The kingdom people should never do this. They must put the new wine into fresh wineskins.
The new wine needs a wineskin, a container. Because the new wine is filled with fermenting power, if you put it into an old wineskin, the fermenting power of the new wine will burst the old wineskin. Any religious practice is an old wineskin. In this verse Christ seemed to be saying to the Pharisees and the disciples of John, “Fasting is an old wineskin. Do not try to put the new wine of My life into the wineskin of your old religious practices. The wine will burst your religious practices. The new wine of My life requires a new wineskin.”
Some indeed have received the new wine, but they have attempted to take the new wine back and pour it into an old wineskin. I have been observing this kind of folly for more than forty years. Many people have come to the local church and tasted the new wine. They have said, “This is really wonderful. This is just what ‘my church’ needs.” Then they tried to bring this new wine back to that old wineskin. Do you know what happened? The old wineskins burst, and the new wine was spilled. However, if you put the new wine into a new wineskin, both will be preserved.
We have seen that the new wine belongs in the new wineskins. But today the so-called charismatic movement has been brought into the old Catholic wineskin. Even some Catholic churches have charismatic masses. The charismatic things are being mixed with the mass and with the worship of Mary. What confusion! This is the leaven mixed with the fine flour (13:33). In other words, it is the new wine put into the old wineskin. I am concerned that this wine is no longer the new wine, for it seems to have no fermenting power. If it did, the old wineskin would burst. If the charismatic movement were the genuine new wine filled with the fermenting power, it would burst that old Catholic wineskin.
In verse 17 the Lord also said, “They put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” The Greek word for “fresh” is kainos, which means new in nature, quality, or form; unaccustomed, unused; hence, fresh. The fresh wineskins signify the church life in the local churches as the container of the new wine, which is Christ Himself as the exciting life. The kingdom people are built into the church (16:18), and the church is expressed through the local churches in which they live (18:15-20). They are regenerated persons constituting the Body of Christ to be the church (Rom. 12:5; Eph. 1:22-23). This Body of Christ as His fullness is also called “the Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12, Gk.), the corporate Christ. The individual Christ is the new wine, the exciting life inwardly, and the corporate Christ is the fresh wineskin, the container to hold the new wine outwardly. With the kingdom people, it is not a matter of fasting or of any other religious practice, but a matter of the church life with Christ as their content. Christ came not to establish an earthly religion of rituals, but a heavenly kingdom of life, not with any dead religious practices, but with Himself, the living Person, as the Physician, the Bridegroom, the unshrunk cloth, and the new wine to His followers as their full enjoyment that they might be the fresh wineskin to contain Him and become the constituents of His kingdom.
We see then that the new wineskin is the church life. The church is actually the enlargement of Christ. The individual Christ is our wine within us. When this individual Christ is enlarged into a corporate Christ, that is the church. This corporate Christ is the wineskin, the container, to contain the individual Christ as our wine. Never consider the church a religion; the church is a corporate entity full of Christ, because the church is Christ enlarged.
Christ is not only our new garment and new wine, but, being increased, He is also our new wineskin to contain the wine. He is our outward qualification, He is our inward satisfaction, and He is in a corporate way the church, the Body (1 Cor. 12:12), capable of holding the wine. Christ is everything. He is the Bridegroom, the new garment, the new wine, and also the corporate vessel to contain what we enjoy of Him. The meaning here is very profound.
We need to see something more concerning Christ as the new wineskin. First Corinthians 12:12 says, “For even as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body being many are one body, so also is Christ.” We read in this verse not only that the members composed together are the one Body, but that this Body is Christ. We have always considered Christ as the Head; we have considered little, if at all, that Christ is also the Body. How, speaking in a practical way, is Christ the Body? He is the Body because the Body is composed of so many members who are filled with Christ. Christ is in you, Christ is in me, and Christ is in every one of us. We all have Christ within. In 1 Corinthians 1 Paul said that Christ is not divided. The Christ in you is one with the Christ in me, and the Christ in us is one with the Christ in all other Christians. Therefore, Christ is the Body composed of so many members who are filled with Him. This is the new wineskin, which is the church life to contain Christ as the new wine.
Without the wineskin, how could we keep the wine? Do not consider that you yourself as an individual are the vessel. No, you are just a part of the vessel. How can a glass contain water if it is cut into pieces? How can the pieces contain the water? It is impossible. Do not consider that you are somebody. You are nobody. You are just a member of the Body, a minute part of the Body. It is true that some amount of blood is in my little finger, but this little finger is just a part of my body. If you sever it from the body, the flow of blood in the finger immediately ceases. Instead of containing the blood, the finger will lose the blood. From the day you leave the church life, you begin to lose Christ; the new wine starts to run out. Nothing but the church life can contain the very Christ we enjoy. Never consider the church as an insignificant matter.
We must also realize that the wineskin is not only the container of the wine, but also the means for us to drink the wine. Many of us can testify that whenever we come into a church meeting, we discover that it is truly the place where we can drink Christ. It is here that we drink the Lord as never before. The church life is not merely a container, but a vessel from which we may drink. We need Christ as the new garment, we need Christ as the new wine, and we also need Christ in a corporate way as the new wineskin. We need the church life. We do not care for religion, forms, or rituals. We care only for Christ in you and Christ in me. This is the new wineskin.
At this point, I would like to say a word to the young people. The young people may say, “As long as we stay with the older ones, we will be in religion. But if we get away from them, we will not be religious.” This concept is wrong. Everything depends on whether or not the church is the enlargement of Christ. It is not a matter of age. Even if all the babes came together, they could still be in religion because they do not have Christ as their content. If the older ones are filled with Christ and saturated with Him, they are the church, no matter how old they may be. Remember that religion is something for God without Christ. But the church is Christ enlarged; it is the enlargement of Christ. And the new wineskin is Christ enlarged into a corporate expression. This is the church. The church is not something for God without Christ and without the Spirit. The church is an entity which is the enlargement of Christ and which is full of Christ. The church is filled with Christ and constituted with Christ. No matter what our age may be, we must be filled with Christ. Then when we come together, we shall be the local expression of the church. This is the wineskin. No matter how much fermenting power there is in the divine life of Christ, it can never burst the church.
Today there are four kinds of Christians. The first are called Christians, but they are not truly Christians. They are the modernists, the so-called modernistic Christians. They only take Christ as the new cloth. They say, “Look how Jesus lived: He was so full of love and self-sacrifice. We must imitate Him and follow Him.” But to do this is just to cut out a piece of new cloth with which to patch an old garment. The modernists are trying to take the unshrunk cloth of the Lord’s human living and use it to patch the holes in their behavior. But this unshrunk cloth pulls back and makes their holes larger. The modernists do not believe that Christ died for their sins on the cross, they do not believe that Christ is God, and they do not believe in His resurrection. They simply believe that they should imitate the human living of Jesus.
The fundamentalists are the second kind of Christians. They believe that Christ is God, that Christ is their Redeemer, that Christ died on the cross for their sins, and that He was resurrected. The fundamentalists receive and accept the resurrected Christ as their righteousness. They take Christ, not as a piece of new cloth, but as the new, finished garment. However, they know little of the inner life, of the inner wine. They put on Christ as the outer garment, but they do not drink Him as the wine within.
The third kind of Christian may be called the inner life Christians. They not only put on Christ as their new garment, but they also know Him as their inner life. In fact, they place great emphasis on the inner life. The inner life Christians are an improvement over the previous two groups. However, as good as they are, they lack one thing: they lack the wineskin, the church life.
The fourth are the church people. The church people are not modernists. Moreover, they are neither merely fundamentals nor only the inner life people. They are churching, because they have the new wineskin.
In the last days the Lord is recovering not only the new garment — this He recovered through Martin Luther in the matter of justification by faith. Neither is the Lord only recovering the inner life — this He recovered through ones such as Madame Guyon, William Law, Andrew Murray, and Jessie Penn-Lewis. We thank the Lord for all these items that have been recovered. However, at the end of this age the Lord is recovering the last and ultimate item, the church life. Those who enjoy the church life are the church people. Among the church people the new garment, the new wine, and the new wineskin have all been recovered. We have Christ in a corporate way as our church life. The Lord did not stop with either the new garment or the new wine. He went on from the Bridegroom to the new cloth, from the new cloth to the new garment, from the new garment to the new wine, and from the new wine to the new wineskin. After the wineskin, the church, there is nothing more. The church is God’s ultimate goal. When we arrive at the church, we are in the ultimate consummation of God’s purpose. Thus, after the wineskin, the Lord mentioned nothing else.
Praise the Lord that He is our Physician! After He heals us, He becomes our Bridegroom. He is also our garment to qualify us and our new wine to stir us up. As I see the faces of the brothers and sisters in the meetings, I can tell that they have been stirred up by the new wine. How we praise the Lord that this new wine is in His enlargement, the new wineskin. Christ is everything to us! We need to know our Lord to such an extent. He is not only our King, our Savior, and our life. He is also our Physician, and this dear Physician is our lovely Bridegroom. And this Bridegroom becomes our garment, our new wine, and eventually the wineskin. We are now in the wineskin, in the church life, enjoying Him to such a high degree. Hallelujah for Christ and the church!
