“No man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled. But new wine must be put into new bottles: and both are preserved. No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.” Luke 5:37-89.
The ushering in of the Dispensation of the Holy Spirit was the ushering in of a new regime.
'Twas not an adding of new incense to an old censer, new flame to a discontinued burnt offering, or new wine to ancient and shrunken vessels.
New wine necessitated new bottles. New reservoirs — yielded, flexible, pliable, tractable — were required by the descending Holy Spirit.
It is difficult to take an old leathern bottle, which, having stood for years upon the shelf of Formalism, has hardened to the consistency of stone, and soften and endow it with the curves and contours of living, resilient fulness. In other words, ’twas hard to teach old Pharisees the ways and means of the new Pentecostalism.
Graphically the Master set forth this truth in the parable of the new wine in old bottles.
This Dispensation is really a wedding feast! These, a series of wonderful days leading up to the glorious Marriage of the Lamb.
Ancient nuptial customs in Palestine set aside several days of feasting, rejoicing and preparation ere the actual marriage ceremony took place. During those days of preparation, wine flowed freely and hearts were merry with gladness and song.
The Dispensation of the Holy Spirit has been a continuous series of blessed feasting preparation days, leading like golden stairs to the Marriage of the Lamb. Upon the coming forth of the Heavenly Bridegroom, these days of anticipation will terminate.
With the crash of Heaven’s cymbals, the sweep of mighty harps, the singing of the angels, the shouts of the redeemed, and the waving of triumphant banners, the Blood-washed shall go marching up through wideflung gates, into the City of our God.
On the Day of Pentecost the wine flowed freely — not wine wherein is excess, or whereby men are made drunken as the world knows the term — but the wine Zethe Kingdom, the new wine, the wine of the Holy pirit.
What a time of rejoicing! The hundred and twenty shouted, sang, and talked in new languages until the amazed spectators said:
“These men are full of new wine!’
“These are not drunken with wine as you suppose,” cried Peter in that hour. They were indeed exhilarated with the power of the Holy Spirit. This constituted a vastly different type of intoxication.
Years sped by. Dark Ages closed in upon the church. The heavenly wine ran low in comparison to the ebbing of faith.
Even as Mary at the marriage in Cana of Galilee cried unto the Master until the wine was replenished, so a great cry arose from the heart of the ‘Mary Company”— they who were not content with backsliding and emptiness.
Again came the command:
“Fill the vessels with water.
“Bill them from the wells of salvation, and I will turn the water into wine.”
And so He did.
Standing in the closing hours of this Dispensation wherein the Lord is pouring out His Spirit without measure, we lift our voices with those of yester-year, crying:
“Thou hast kept the best of the wine till the last of the feast.”
New wine! New wine!
Have you received your portion?
Aptly is the Holy Spirit likened unto ‘‘wine.”
Earthly wine exhilarates, intoxicates, makes the eyes to shine, makes those who partake thereof to
f skip, to sing, and shout; but the aftermath thereo leaves but a broken heart and an adder’s sting.
The new wine of the Holy Spirit makes happy the recipient thereof, lifts him from the rut of formality,
his coldness, stiffness and indifference; puts a song in
d no heart and a glory in his soul, but leaves behin trail of sadness or regret.
Would to God that all who have naught
dried up, cobw ebby mildewed wine in old, shriveled, wine-skin bottles, might get a brand new bottle and
t! have it filled with this glorious new wine — the Spiri
What a revival should result!
What a shout within the camp!
With the opening of the portals of Christ’s ministry, the old order passed and a new order came into being.
Previously had been cherished the old wine. There were the Scribes, the Pharisees and the Priests. They knew nothing of the new wine, nothing of the new order, nothing of the new Dispensation of Grace and of the Spirit. Theirs had become a religion of mere forms and ceremonies. These they had down to the letter.
But “‘the letter killeth’’!
It is the Spirit that maketh alive.
They were orthodox. They taught according to the perfect manner and ceremonial rights of the fathers. They were authorities on doctrine and teaching. They knew every precept of the laws of Moses. But — they were dry, formal and stiff!
Orthodox? _ Yes, but knowing naught of the new wine. Knowing the truth, they were without the spirit of it.
But now the new order had come! The outpouring of grace, of mercy, of love and of the Spirit was at hand.
To convey the new wine of the Kingdom unto the needy, the Lord must needs have vessels in which to bear it. Old bottles would not suffice — new bottles were absolutely necessary!
Who would constitute the ‘‘bottles’? Where were such to be found? Whom could He trust and fill and use as safe conveyances for this precious new wine? Whom could He fill and send out to preach this new and wonderful Gospel of grace?
There were the priests. There were the Lord’s ministers. Many there were with great degrees of learning. There were those who knew the law to the ’nth degree, who could lay it down with a flourish — firstly, secondly, thirdly. They knew how to organize and operate according to the old plan.
But they were old bottles. They were so set, so stiff, so formal that for the Holy Spirit to break forth in an assemblage such as theirs was wholly out of the question. No loophole for a revival! They knew exactly how they wanted everything run. All the forms and rituals permissible were contained in their ministerial manuals. No leeway was there for any expansion of the new wine.
Thus it was that the Lord looked beyond the old bottles.
Full well He knew that if ever they received this new wine with a shout and a lilt and a lift of glory in it; if ever they had areal “Amen”’ or “Hallelujah” poured into their dried up skins, they would burst, and thus both bottle and wine would perish.
Had you or I been delegated the task of selecting new bottles for the Lord, we might have chosen kings, rulers, professors, the learned, and the high priests.
“Now there is so and so! He is highly spoken of. He knows the Ten Commandments, is informed in the laws of the Medes and Persians, and of the Prophets. He has a string of letters after his name that run over to the second line on the envelope. Then, too, he has a private fortune which he might bring in. Surely he will do!’
But the Word answers: “No! That man is an old bottle. He could never endure this new wine. Put him in one good, red hot, live Holy Ghost meeting and he would explode.”
It resolves itself into this:
“Old bottles’ shelved.
“New bottles” indispensable.
Seemingly the Lord chose the most unlikely people. Yet He delights to do that very thing! Delights to prove that when we are weak then are we strong! Delights to take the foolish things to confound the wise, and the things that are naught to confound the things that are! Delights to take a worm to thresh a mountain! For when we are small in our own eyes, then can the Lord make use of us.
“Come, Peter! Come, Andrew! Come, John!
“Mere fishermen ye be, but humble, pliable, empty! No preconceived ideas are yours, no boasting over set, staid catechisms. You are new bottles!”
Oh, for people who would let God have His way in their lives — vessels which would give Him no argument concerning the manner in which He should conduct His meetings and pour out His Spirit! So He chose to this end a fisherman here, selected a money changer there, called a man bronzed with the sun from yonder field, a man with rugged hands.
Lack of training seemed not an insurmountable barrier. Vesselsnew and yielded, that was the essential.
“How may I become a new bottle?” you ask.
By being born again! By being made completely new!
Many of us have a great deal to unlearn. We are stiff, staid and set! _ We “don’t believe in this,” and we ‘don’t believe in that!” “My father did not preach this” and “Our particular creed does not teach the other.”
O Lord, help us to cast aside these reservations! Help us to become new bottles filled with the new wine of the Kingdom!
Wherever the Lord journeyed, preaching the new order, dispensing the new wine, He was a source of annoyance, yea, exasperation to the old bottles! He was forever offending them, breaking their laws of etiquette. To them He was nothing short of an enigma!
Gazing upon Him and watching His life, they were at first astonished, amazed, dumbfounded! Then they became resentful and, erelong, very angry! The idea! He was bringing in a new order! He refused to be tied to the precise rules which they considered the vogue!
One day they asked of Him:
“Lord, why do Thy disciples eat with unwashed hands? Behold, how clean and circumspect are we!”
Bending upon them His searching gaze the Master replied:
“Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter: but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.”
“Why,” exclaimed they, “this is a new wine! Such teaching we cannot receive!”
They found Him one day eating with sinners and they remonstrated with Him. Little realized they that through this new wine was brought grace, mercy and love unto the veriest sinner.
They were scandalized when the Lord and His disciples were found plucking corn on the Sabbath and rubbing it between their hands. 238 THE’ HOLY SPIBit
“The Son of man is Lord of the sabbath day,” He replied. ‘The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.”’ Mark 2:27.
Such teachings were conundrums unto them! Utterly amazed were they at this Man who, in such a simple, unpretentious manner, had ushered in His gospel of grace sans bugles, sans banners, sans fanfare or red tape.
For instance, they could not understand His pardon of the woman whom their law declared worthy of stones and death.
They went away grumbling among themselves!
Don’t you see? The Lord could not possibly use those Scribes and Pharisees! True, they knew the law, but they were as old cisterns and old systems — they had a leak in them somewhere! Poor old, dried up, skin bags, filled with old wine — without any latitude, without give! They strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel.
“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me?” saith the Lord. “I am full of burnt offerings .. . bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me;... 1am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil.” Is. 1:11, 18, 14, 15.
"Twas on the Day of Pentecost that the Lord filled his believing disciples —the new, new bottles — with the Holy Spirit. The yielded vessels of their lives, erstwhile filled with the water of salvation, were now filled to overflowing with the rich new wine experience of the Holy Ghost!
Descending from the Upper Room hilariously happy, they noised abroad that thing which the Lord had done. There seemed to be no stopping the effervescent bubbling over of that experience! The vats o’erflowed with wine and oil.
Hearing the “‘noise’’ the old bottles came together, with long, set faces ‘‘confounded,” “amazed,” they “marveled.”’ They were “in doubt” and ‘‘mocking.”’ One said to another, ‘‘What meaneth this?”
Not only had Joel prophesied this great outpouring, but looking down through the years Isaiah had foreseen and cried of it.
“Stay yourselves, and wonder: cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink . . . Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.’ Is. 29:9, 14.
What a marvelous work the Lord accomplished on the Day of Pentecost!
Old bottles had been laid upon the shelf and there they stood, glowering down upon the new bottles which had been filled with the Spirit and who even now flooded Jerusalem with their doctrine. ?
O Scribes and Pharisees!
O Priests and Levites!
Can you not understand the workings of the Almighty?
“Turn ye to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope . . . They shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar. And the Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land. For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! Corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.” Zech. 913815; 16617;
“The multitude came together’”’ on that day!
No trouble to get crowds once new bottles were filled with new wine! The people were delighted. Three thousand turned to Christ in a single day.
What a contrast this new religion was! They had been accustomed to set, staid formalities. Now, all was changed, and the joy of the Lord was their strength!
The Baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire so overcame the recipients thereof that they staggered, but not with strong drink. Faces shining, feet skipping, hearts shouting ‘‘H-a-l-l-e-l-u-j-a-h!’ It seemed they would revolutionize and turn the city upside down before the sun had set!
But, though the great Holy Ghost revival went on before their very eyes, the ‘‘old bottles” instead of being convinced made up their minds that these “‘upstarts’” were mad. They had put themselves on record as saying so, and nothing could cause them to retrench.
Thus the old order hailed the new before the magistrates and scourged them in the synagogue.
But the wine of the Spirit continued to flow. The work of God spread and prospered until multitudes of believers, both men and women, were added to the Lord. No sooner was one put to death than God picked up another new bottle! Usually most unexpected and unlikely vessels were chosen.
As centuries rolled by, unbelief and formality, like creeping paralysis, stole o’er the church, and “Dark Ages” ensued. The rich flow of wine was stayed for a time.
But today the great revival is on!
New wine is flowing down from the mountains of God! Be sure you are willing to keep pace with the Lord! Let Him have His way, fill you to the brim and to the running over. We must get back to the Bible, back to a realization that the Saviour is coming soon, that a great Holy Ghost outpouring is preceding that event.
But there! There is no use trying to force the old bottles to receive a genuine second chapter of Acts, new wine baptism of the Holy Ghost. They would burst! The bottles and the wine would perish together.
Then, too, we must in charity remember that “no man having drunk the old wine and having been filled with old ideas, straightway desireth the new, for he saith, The old is better.”
Many staid and dignified churches who are asking for a Holy Ghost revival today, know not what they seek. This new wine experience in the old bottle container would split the church wide open.
One good ‘‘H-a-l-l-e-l-u-j-a-h”; one real, rousing, heart searching sermon; one good altar call would so shock the fashionable, lodge-going, dancing, cardplaying smart set that they would stop payment on their last checks, and pandemonium would reign!
But, praise the Lord, there are thousands of hungry, honest, spiritual men and women who are crying mightily unto God today and who are being filled to the brim!
Come! Open your heart now. Today is the day of blessing. If you are dried up, stiff and unpliable, bend to the will of God. Let your spirit, your heart, your life, your thoughts be filled with the wine of the Kingdom.