We'll be looking at just three verses as we're continuing our study through Matthew.
Moreover, this is, first of all, this is the word of the Lord.
These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to his people there on that Galilean
seaside as they're seated upon the mount.
He says, moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites with the sad countenance,
for they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting.
And surely I say to you, they have their reward.
But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that you do not appear to
men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place and your Father who
sees in secret will reward you openly.
Let's pray.
Father, the warnings that we see often repeated in the pages of Holy Scripture is the warning
against hypocrisy.
That our heart and our life are not synchronized, Lord, they're disordered.
That we appear to be one thing and inwardly, Lord, we are radically something different.
Father, would you deliver us from such hypocrisy this morning?
Lord, one of the dangers that is inherent with any sin is that we're blind to it.
So Lord, we ask God in your mercy that your blessed Holy Spirit would work, Lord, reveal
to us our sin and show then us the Savior, Christ the Lord.
Lord, we need you this morning.
Feed your people, I pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Jewish religious life was actually built upon three pillars.
You had the pillar of giving and praying, but the third pillar would have been that
of fasting.
Now, each of these is good and proper when done correctly and with the right motive.
So we should start with the beginning.
God's people ought to give.
God's people ought to pray.
And God's people ought to fast at times.
But there was a huge problem in Jesus' day.
The religious leaders were busily engaged and in much activity, and yet they were doing
so with hypocrisy.
The scribes and Pharisees, that's the religious leaders whom Jesus is addressing, they looked
pious.
And we have to understand that no doubt people saw them as God-fearing men who would serve
as great examples to the people.
If you would have asked anyone on that day, the people looked up to them and revered them.
Yet their religious devotion, which seemed exemplary, it looked good, was done only so
that they would be seen by men.
The God that they were serving was the esteem of men.
They loved, they craved the acclaim of people.
And the more pious they looked, the more the people were impressed.
And since the people were impressed, they praised them even more.
Now for some, and I think for some in here, for all of us perhaps, praise, flattery, can
be like a drug.
It's intoxicating.
The more you get, the more you crave.
And you keep chasing after it.
That's what the policemen were doing.
They were held in high regard, and they were given titles, and they loved these titles.
They loved being called teacher or rabbi.
When they would go to worship and they would take a seat in the synagogue, they would be
offered the best seat there.
If there was parties being thrown, they were no doubt on the guest list, and they were
the VIP.
Our Lord, he sees through this charade.
He saw their hearts.
He saw the corruption.
He saw the iniquity that lay within.
And the sobering thought for any of us here this morning, it ought to be sobering, it
is for me, it ought to be for you, is that God sees who you really are.
He sees.
He sees into the deepest recess of your hearts.
He knows your motives even better than we know them ourselves.
He knows why we do what we do.
And Jesus issued a heavy indictment upon these seemingly pious leaders, and he called them
a son of hell.
In Matthew 23, 15, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel land
and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of
hell as yourselves.
Not only were they sons of hell, he said all your converts are, and they're doubly so.
Elsewhere, Jesus called these men blind fools.
They were fools and blind, leading blind men.
And I don't know that anything could possibly be worse than the Son of God upon seeing your
heart calling you a blind fool.
But they didn't think they were that way.
They were deceived.
And the worst deception is self-deception.
The men were devout.
I mean, think about all they were doing.
They gave, and they gave a lot.
People knew it, but they gave.
They prayed, and they prayed for long periods of time, but people knew it.
They fasted, and they fasted often, but people knew it.
And Jesus said at the end of the day, you are more a child of hell than ever before.
Terrifying.
So I think this morning, you and I, this is recorded in Holy Scripture for our learning
this morning, we need to heed what the Lord is saying, and the key at the very beginning
is this, do not be like the hypocrites.
This is a warning.
And by the way, that's the theme of Matthew 6, the entire chapter.
Unless you also want to be a son of hell, do not be like these men.
Now in this chapter, Matthew 6, Jesus has a bunch of followers, and they're seated on
a mountaintop there, on a hillside.
And he's going to show them what true piety looks like, what true religious devotion really
looks like.
And how we should practice our religion, if you want to say it that way.
What does devotion to God that is pleasing to God look like?
Well, rule number one, our acts of piety are never ever to be done so that others may see
us and think well of us.
Now there are times people are going to know that you give.
They don't even know how much, but they might see you giving something in the plate.
They might see you bowing your head in prayer, but you don't do it for that purpose.
The applause and esteem of others should never be a factor into the equation.
When preachers stand behind the sacred desk, they should not be wondering, do the people
like it?
We have an audience of one.
So when we're doing religious activity, it has to be done with a heart that is grateful
to the Lord and wants to draw closer to him.
That's it.
So you're not, we don't pray, we don't give, we don't fast to impress others, but rather
we do those things because we love God.
We've been called by God.
Now we've already looked previously in Matthew 6 at the issue of giving, and then we've also
looked at the area of praying, and today we come to that third and final pillar, which
is fasting.
Now what does it mean to fast?
In its literal sense, it literally means to abstain from food or drink.
That's all it means.
But what was the purpose of fasting?
It was done in order to show dependence on God and submission to his will.
David Mathis, I love what he wrote or had written on this.
We fast in this life because we believe in the life to come.
We don't have to get it all here and now because we have a promise that we will have it all
in the coming age.
We fast from what we can see and taste because we have tasted and seen the goodness of the
invisible and infinite God, and this last line, and we are desperately hungry for more
of him.
That's why we do it.
See, there were many occasions for fasting recorded in scripture, particularly in the
Old Testament.
Sometimes you get the impression that the Old Testament was, you had all these required
fasts, not so.
But so a lot of these were, in fact, all of them were voluntary except one.
But you find people fasting, first of all, when they want to seek God's deliverance or
they were seeking protection.
Do you remember Queen Esther?
She called for a fast before she went into the king.
Look in Esther 4.16, and I'll read through these verses quickly.
I just want to give you an illustration here.
Go gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan and fast for me.
Neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day.
My maids and I will fast likewise.
And so I will go to the king, which is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.
She did not presume upon the Lord.
She was fasting.
May the Lord protect me and give me favor.
Secondly, it was a sign of confession and repentance.
You see this in Joel, or God himself speaking.
Now therefore says the Lord, this is the high and lofty one, turn to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.
So rend your heart and night your garments, return to the Lord your God.
Later we're going to see also in Deuteronomy chapter 9, verse 9 there.
And you see that.
This is Moses.
Excuse me.
Moses, we know, went into a 40-day fast upon receiving the law.
And he says, when I went up into the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, then look
at that last phrase.
I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.
I neither ate bread nor did I drink water.
But what you see here in that Joel passage as well, fasting does not substitute for confession
or repentance.
You can fast, but if there is no repentance in your heart, it is done in vain.
We must be willing to part with our sin and not just to acknowledge it.
Thirdly, it was a sign of humility before the Lord.
You see this with King Ahab.
So it was when Ahab heard these words that he tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his
body, and he fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about mourning.
Later on, it says he humbled himself before the Lord.
This is one of the ways that we show our humility before God.
It was also done in moments of tragedy or deep disappointment.
Nehemiah, you know, the one that came back to build the gates and the walls, he said,
they said to me, the survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there
in great distress and reproach.
The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire.
That just devastated Nehemiah.
He's still in Babylon.
He hears the news.
So it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days,
I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
Notice what fasting goes along with, prayer, fasting and prayer.
Later on, you'll go see when there was a threat or the looming threat of war, they would fast.
When loved ones were sick, they would fast.
Do you remember David, when he sinned with Bathsheba, she conceived, the child was born,
the child was born sick, and David was fasting for his infant son who later died.
When loved ones died, you remember Saul and Jonathan were killed in war and when Israel,
when David and all Israel found out about it, they fasted for many days.
So if you look at this idea of fasting in the Old Testament, basically they were fasting
whenever they were seeking God's favor.
They were courting the favor of God.
But as I said just a moment ago, there was only one commanded fast that was commanded
every year and this is on the day of Yom Kippur or what we would know as the Day of Atonement.
On that day, all the nation was required to fast and it says to afflict their souls.
And we read about that in Leviticus 16.
This shall be a statute forever for you.
In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls.
And by the way, that means to fast.
Do no work at all, whether native of your own country or stranger who dwells among you.
Everyone who is in the nation was required to fast.
You're like, yeah, but that's all Old Covenant.
That's all Old Testament.
And as we come to the new, we do not find any direct command whatsoever to fast, but
there's an assumption that we will fast.
Where just as there was an assumption that God's people pray and God's people give, that
same assumption we find that it is assumed God's people are going to fast.
In Matthew 6 verse 3, but when you do a charitable deed, that's giving.
Verse 5, and when you pray.
Verse 16, moreover, when you fast.
It doesn't ever say if here.
Just as you were giving, just as you were praying, it is also assumed that you would
fast.
Now, keep in mind, the Pharisees though, they began to fast two days a week on a Monday
and on a Thursday.
And we read about that in Luke 18 when Jesus was telling the parable.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.
And that's so telling.
He's praying with himself, not to God.
God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even
this tax collector.
I fast twice a week.
Now why?
There's a Jewish tradition that said when Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the
tablets of stone, that he went up on a Thursday and the day that he descended from the mount
with the law was a Monday.
As a result, the Pharisees considered these two days holy, so on Thursdays and Mondays,
they would fast.
And they did it devoutly.
But they were fasting in a way that people saw that they were fasting because what they
really wanted was to be seen by others.
They were hypocrites.
They were wearing the mask.
They weren't doing this to show any dependence upon God.
They were not confessing their sins.
They were not contrite or repentant.
They weren't trying to seek him at all, but rather they really were seeking man's applause.
That's what they wanted.
Jesus tells us that they purposely made their faces sad and they appeared disheveled.
They did not properly groom on those days.
They didn't get up and wash their face or comb their hair.
Now some commentators report that the Pharisees at this time would even go so far as to put
on a little makeup to look more pale and more gaunt.
They wanted to look this way.
Why?
And then others would cover themselves with dirt and ashes, a sign of mourning.
Why?
They wanted you to see them.
They were simply playing the part as an actor would.
Like an actor might put on stage makeup.
So did these men.
In contrast, the word Jesus is going to show his disciples, if you're going to fast, here's
how you must do it.
And we find it in verse 17 and 18.
But the key is verse 18.
This is the key of why we're here in worship this morning.
God sees what you do in secret and he rewards openly.
God sees into the secret places.
God is a rewarder of those who are diligently seeking him.
It's the same with our giving.
It's the same with our praying.
Do it as privately as you possibly can.
Try not to be seen by others.
Now I will tell you, admittedly, it is difficult for me to preach on fasting because this has
not been something that I have often practiced.
It has not been a part of my habitual routine.
Now some Christians think that fasting was only a Jewish custom and that's no longer
practiced today under the new covenant.
That's a false assumption, by the way.
Christians refuse to fast because if you look at the Middle Ages, you see the abuses and
the extreme asceticism that had risen and developed in the Middle Ages.
They thought this was a sign of godliness.
That's gone too far.
But can we be honest this morning and be frank?
Let's admit to ourselves that another reason we don't fast is because it is too difficult.
We like comfort.
We like convenience.
I mean there are some Christians, if you talk about fasting, they think you're fanatical
to go without food.
And this is one of the dangers that I think we face in our day, a day of comfort and prosperity
and abundance.
Many today want an easy Christianity that doesn't cost them anything and yet still benefits
them greatly.
They want a relationship with God that requires no discipline, that requires no commitment
from them whatsoever.
But I want us to hear the words of our Lord.
In Matthew chapter 7, just one chapter over, look at verse 13.
Jesus is talking to those following Him.
He's not primarily talking to the scribes and Pharisees.
These are His followers.
Enter by the narrow gate, for wide, broad is that gate, and broad is the way that leads
to destruction, and there are many who go in by it because narrow is the gate.
And notice this next phrase, and difficult is the way which leads to life.
And there are a few who find it.
Difficult is the way which leads to life.
I think we ought to take every syllable spoken by our Lord seriously.
In Luke chapter 14, Jesus said, great multitudes went with Him, and He turned and said, if
anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and
sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
We skip down to verse 33, so likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot
be My disciple.
And I heard like, oh, He's talking to the first century, first century followers.
And has the bar been lowered for us?
Has there been an abomination, a recall of this particular command?
And I will say this, and I mean this with all my heart, if you are turned away from
following Jesus because of what He said in these verses, then you don't know Him, nor
do you understand His worth.
You cannot possibly understand His worth and be willing to depart from Him, because this
I know, once the Spirit of God has opened your eyes and you see Him for who He is, then
you are willing to give up everything, you must have Him.
You must have Him.
If you have seen the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus, then you know that the
reward of following Him is far surpassing, far outweighs any sacrifice that we're required
to make in following Him today.
We know that.
Friends, following Christ, it cost us.
The life of the disciple is hard, but it's worth it.
No wonder we don't preach on fasting.
Requires sacrifice.
And that runs counter to our flesh and to our culture, which loves comfort.
See, now let me just say this.
Fasting is not simply for the sake of denial.
It's not simply for the sake of sacrifice, and nor, especially, it's not about self-discipline.
Biblical fasting is so that you can seek God more earnestly.
That's why you do it.
See, unless there is worship of God or devotion to Him in your heart when you're practicing
these things, it means nothing.
You can go without food for 10 weeks if you want.
But unless you're seeking God, it matters not.
But let's be honest, we can see then from this passage, it is clear that Jesus does
have an expectation that at some point His people will fast.
But we're told how to.
He gives us instructions.
He says, hey, get up.
Anoint your head.
Wash your face.
What's He saying?
For goodness sake, look normal.
You ought to go to bed, shower, shave, get dressed, and present yourself as you normally
would.
In other words, here's what you are not to do.
Don't mope around so that people see you moping around, looking weak and looking faint,
so they're going to ask you, why do you look this way?
And then you can mostly say, well, I'm fasting.
Don't do that, He says.
Fasting is to afflict your soul before God.
It's never to impress people.
Don't do it.
Now, some say, hey, but it's not required.
There's no command, pastor, and you are right.
But there is an expectation, and Jesus suggests that it is still, takes practice today.
Look at Matthew 9.
The disciples of John, that's John the Baptist, came to Him and said, hey, why do we, disciples
of John the Baptist, and the Pharisees, we're often fasting, but your disciples aren't.
They're having a party and we're going without.
Jesus said, can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom was with them?
But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they
will fast.
And then they will.
So fasting is associated with mourning.
Jesus' disciples were not mourning.
Why?
The bridegroom was still there.
Christ is still physically present.
But He said, the days are coming when the groom will no longer be here, and then they
will fast.
Well, when was the groom no longer there?
At His ascension.
He left them.
He was taken up.
He has not yet returned in glory.
Fasting has resumed, and it will continue until, once again, we are reunited with our
Lord.
And then fasting goes away, and it's all feasting from that point.
Fasting has always been common in the Old Testament and the New.
As I said, with Moses, he fasted 40 days.
But you find a greater Moses who is going to deliver his people, and his name is the
Lord Jesus.
And what did he do before he was tempted by Satan?
He's fasting for how long?
40 days.
You go to the book of Acts and you look at the early church.
What are they doing?
They're fasting and praying.
Acts 13, as they minister to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, separate Barnasm
and Saul for the work I have.
Verse 3, having fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on them and sent them away.
But notice, again, fasting is not just fasting, it's fasting and what?
Praying.
That's what you see that all the way through.
Disciples fasted and prayed.
One more example.
Next chapter, Acts 14.
And when they had preached the gospel to that city, they made many disciples and they returned
to Lister, Iconium, and Antioch.
What were they doing?
Strengthening the souls of disciples.
Now listen, church, this is for us.
Exhorting them to continue in the faith.
Why?
Because they know it's going to get tough and some are going to be tempted to abandon
the faith.
Saying, we must, through many tribulations, enter the kingdom of God.
That's exactly what Jesus said.
The road into life is difficult.
So when they had anointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended
to the Lord in whom they believed.
Why do we have this different expectation than any of the early church did?
They prayed and they fasted.
The late Andrew Murray says, faith needs a life of prayer in which to grow and to keep
strong.
We see that.
Prayers need fasting for its full and perfect development.
I love what he writes here.
Prayer is the one hand with which we grasp the invisible.
Fasting is the other hand with which we let loose and cast away the visible.
Prayer lays hold of the invisible.
Fasting casts away the visible.
J.C.
Ryle.
He says, we find no direct commandment in the New Testament.
It seems to be left to everyone's discretion whether he will fast or not.
In this absence of direct command, we may see great wisdom.
It is a matter in which each person must be persuaded in their own mind and not rashly
condemn others who do not agree.
One thing only must never be forgotten.
Those who fast should do it quietly, secretly, and without ostentation.
Yeah, it's not commanded.
But you see Jesus doing it.
You see the early church doing it.
And by the way, the church fathers, they wrote about it.
They all practiced fasting.
If you look through the annals of church history, you see it, at the time of the Reformation,
you had Martin Luther, John Calvin fasting.
You can go from the Reformation, you see our spiritual forefathers like Wesley and Whitfield
and Jonathan Edwards, they were all fasting and praying.
But what is fasting not?
It is not twisting God's arm to get him to do so, something that he was not inclined
to do in the first place.
Some people think if we're fasting, it's like prayer supercharged, like God's like,
oh, I don't want to do this, but now since they're praying and fasting, I have to do
it.
That's not it.
Fasting helps us to align our desires with God, not for him to align his desire with
us.
It helps us to be more in tune with God.
It helps us to be more in tune with his leading in our lives.
At the same time, what are we doing?
We're subordinating our earthly desires, our earthly passions.
It does help to deny the flesh.
It's interesting today, if you turn on any health program, you'll see the benefits of
fasting or intermittent fasting, but that's not the biblical focus.
In biblically fasting, the focus is on God, not on the benefits that may be gained by
us.
There are benefits, but that's not why we do it.
Now, as we start to close, we're not there yet, so hold on, there are ways that fasting
can be abused.
It can make us proud.
Look at the Pharisees, exhibit A. You may be tempted if you practice this discipline
that you're more holy or more pious because of what you do, but fasting never makes anyone
holy.
Only the sanctifying power of God makes us holy.
However, some people get proud of how disciplined they are.
That's legalism.
You're supposing that your good deeds or your religious devotion somehow is earning favor
with God.
He looks favorably upon me because look what I'm doing.
That's an abuse.
Secondly, it can produce a judgmental spirit.
If you practice fasting and you know someone else never does, you may look down with them
in judgment and think, well, they're just not that spiritual.
They don't take their walk with the Lord that seriously.
But we must keep in mind the issue has never been about food, ever.
First Corinthians 8 verse 8, food does not commend us to God.
There was all these wars in the early church about what you could eat and what you couldn't
because you had Jewish kosher laws, dietary laws.
You had these pagans being saved out of paganism who used to eat things offered to idols.
And then you have the church that says, hey, let's have a smorgasbord and have it all.
And so the people said, and Paul is like, listen, stop.
It's not about food.
Food does not commend us to God.
If we eat it, we're not better.
And if we don't eat it, are we better?
Or if we don't, are we the worse?
It's never been about food.
God is not primarily concerned with what we eat.
He's primarily concerned the state of our heart.
That's it.
And you see that in Colossians 2.
Therefore, if, and it means since here, since you died with Christ from the basic principles
of the world, why is the living in the world do you subject yourselves to regulations?
Because there were people in Colossi who were thinking, I have to do this in order to impress
God.
What were they doing?
Don't touch, don't taste, don't handle.
They became legalists in ascetics.
And he said, all these things are going to perish.
These are the doctrines of men.
Look at verse 23.
They look wise, they have an appearance of wisdom, that it's self-imposed religion.
It's will worship.
It's false humility.
It's neglecting the body, and they don't help at all against sin in the flesh.
Do you see?
Like we can, we're so prone to go to extremes.
There is nothing intrinsically good about fasting unless it is accompanied by the right
heart and the right motive, which is to seek the Lord.
Now some of you here, you're like, well, I just think anyone who fasts and you teach
on it, that's legalistic.
I get so tired of hearing people brain me about the word legalism anytime you talk about
standards or obedience.
Listen, grace.
God's grace teaches God's people to do something.
Grace is active, it's not passive.
If grace in your life isn't doing anything, James 2 says it's a dead faith.
Listen, Titus 2.11 says, for the grace of God that brings salvation as appeared to all
men, wonderful, verse 12, teaches us, what teaches us?
The antecedent, grace.
The grace of God teaches us what?
To deny ungodliness and to deny worldly lusts.
It also teaches us to live soberly, that's seriously, righteously, and godly right now.
Do you see, friends, this type of licentious behavior we see in the church today is an
antinomian spirit and it's of the devil.
The grace of God teaches us and it teaches us to deny ourselves and to seek him and fasting
is one of the tools that you can use to do that.
You say, oh, you're just fanatical, legalistic.
Or maybe you just want to go along with the cultural norms.
Our culture is always about self-indulgence.
Don't sacrifice anything.
If your walk with Christ asks you to sacrifice, don't do it.
Because these people have Christ as a means of convenience.
But you don't get to use Christ.
That doesn't happen in any relationship, does it?
And it doesn't happen in our walk with Christ either.
He will not allow you to use him as a means to your own benefit, nor can you take advantage
of him.
That doesn't work in human relationships.
My wife can tell if she's being used if I'm just taking advantage of her.
Christ certainly knows that.
Love in any relationship requires sacrifice.
Any relationship.
Are you willing to sacrifice so that the relationship you have with our Lord might be strengthened?
That's what we're asked this morning.
Now, it might mean fasting at times.
Now, I said earlier, fasting in its pure form means going without food, going without drink.
But there are other ways that Christians fast.
There's one other way mentioned in the New Testament.
We find it in Paul's letter to the Corinthian church.
And this was about a sexual fast for husband and wives in 1 Corinthians 7, starting in
verse 2.
He says, but because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his
own wife, each woman have her own husband.
This is the only legitimate sexual expression.
The husband should give his wife her conjugal rights and likewise the wife to her husband.
For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.
They would have known that, but this next part would have been radical.
The husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
Women have very few rights.
And Paul's like, no, man, you don't have a right to your own body.
Your wife does.
Verse 5.
Now listen, don't deprive one another of what?
The sexual relationship.
Except perhaps by agreement, husband and wife both aligned here, for a limited time, it's
temporary, so that you can devote yourselves to prayer.
Then come together again, resume normal sexual relationship, so that Satan does not tempt
you for your lack of self-control.
Do you see what he's saying?
The husband and wife have agreed to have a sexual fast.
Why?
Because they're going to seek the Lord more earnestly in prayer.
It's right there.
It must be mutual, it must be agreed upon, and it must be temporary.
Then come together again, he says.
So what are we doing?
You're setting aside the normal routines of life for a special, specific time of seeking
the Lord.
I have known people who have fasted when they have an important decision to make.
I've known people when they have a health diagnosis and are waiting to see the results
have fasted and prepared their hearts.
The fasting also could take other ways.
It could be a fast from your resources, a fast from your time.
Something that I've engaged in, and I think this can be helpful for us in our day, it's
a media fast.
Take a break from TV, movies, internet, social media.
Why?
To engage in a more concentrated time of prayer.
Martin Lloyd Jones talked about that.
He said, fasting, if we conceive of it truly, must not be confined to the question of food
and drink.
It should really be made to include abstinence from anything which is legitimate in and of
itself for the sake of some special spiritual purpose.
There are many bodily functions which are right and normal and perfectly legitimate,
but which for special peculiar reasons in certain circumstances should be controlled.
Well, that's fasting.
So we're gonna close now, okay?
Let's say that the Spirit of God has impressed upon your heart and you have never fasted.
Can I just give you some three practical suggestions here?
First of all, start small.
Don't start with a 40-day fast.
Don't start with a week-long fast.
The Jews, when they would have daily fasts, it would be from sundown of one day to sundown
of the next.
After the sun went down, you could resume eating.
It could be, friends, fast a meal and seek the Lord in prayer in that one meal.
It could be where you have a liquid fast, you're abstaining from food, but you're still
having juice and other liquids.
Secondly, and I think this is key, plan the purpose.
It's not simply about denial, friends.
Not simply to deny yourselves, rather to seek God.
Spend the time that you would normally engage in these particular activities, either praying,
reading, meditating upon some passage.
It's because you have to plan what you wanna do or else fasting is just a way for you to
get hungry.
Thirdly, lastly, in our day, and I would say this, in Jesus' day, diabetes almost didn't
exist because of their diet.
But today, if you are diabetic, it may not be wise for you to undertake a fast.
It may, going without food may throw you, I don't know, glucose levels off, hypoglycemic
reactions, I don't know.
Consider another type of fasting.
If your health does not allow you to fast from food, then be creative and undertake
another type of fast.
Again, that will allow you to specifically and specially focus on the Lord.
And I close.
Look at the reward.
Look at the latter part.
Look at the last part of verse 18.
Your Father who sees in secret, He's gonna reward you openly.
This is the key.
We fast from food in order to have a greater taste of Jesus.
It's intensely Godward.
We do it to commune with Him.
We seek Him when no one else knows that we're seeking Him.
Do you wanna have a greater hunger for God?
Or I wanna know you more.
Desire Him.
But see, fasting is awesome.
I love this.
We're getting ready to feast at the table.
Fasting is a reminder that a feast is coming.
In this age, we fast.
In the age to come, we feast.
In this age right now, friends, this is the age in which we bear our cross.
We cross-bear.
In that age, we wear crowns.
There's cross-bearing and crown-wearing.
You're never, ever gonna fast in heaven.
You're never gonna fast in the age to come.
Why?
We will be with the heavenly bridegroom.
Remember, Jesus said, you don't mourn.
You don't fast when you're with Him.
And we're gonna be with Him.
So right now, we can deny ourselves because we know in the age to come that all our desires
will be perfectly fulfilled.
It's a declaration of faith.
We believe that.
Earlier, I quoted David Mathis.
I wanna do this one last time, cuz he says it better than I.
When Jesus returns, it's gone.
Fasting will be done.
It is a temporary measure for this life and age to enrich our joy in Jesus and to prepare
our hearts for the next, for seeing Him face to face.
When He returns, He's not gonna call a fast, but He'll throw a feast.
Think of the prodigal.
There's a feast that's coming.
Then all holy abstinence will have served its glorious purpose and be seen by all for
the stunning gift that it was.
But until that day, we fast.
We're gonna come to the table, folks.
And we're gonna come to this table in faith.
We wanna feast upon the Lord.
It's just a glimpse, right?
This is a small preview of the age to come in which we will forever enjoy perfect and
unhindered fellowship with our Lord.
But this is a special means of grace that God has given to His church.
We remember Him, we feast upon Him, and we grow closer to Him.
And all of this is with this longing, oh, to be with Jesus in that coming age.
With the saints of old, we cry out, even so, come Lord Jesus.
Before we partake of the meal, we're gonna sing a song.
It's a new song that Katie, I think you know, and Kirsten and Brian, have we sung it here
before?