I think I'm on now. We're taking up midway in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6.16. Let's stand together for the reading of God's Word. Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites with a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But 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. And then turn over to Mark chapter 2, where we see some controversy over the fact that Jesus' companions were not fasting, whereas the disciples of the Pharisees and John were. Matthew 2.18. The disciples of John and the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to him, Why do the disciples of John and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. And then finally, Acts chapter 14. Something we covered some time ago, but as we're nearing the book of Acts, we come back to this midway where we hear of the use of this spiritual discipline of fasting. Matthew, I mean, Acts 14, 21. And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, We must, through many tribulations, enter the kingdom of God. And so when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. Thus far, the word of God. Let us pray together. Father in heaven, we do look to you as the God who has spoken in your Son the living word. and that Your Son has sent His Spirit from ages of old, even into the close of that New Testament period, to move holy men along to write the Holy Scriptures that are sufficient and authoritative. Father, we turn to the Word to learn about the things that You called us to, that we might gain an understanding and use all the means that You have provided for us for a holy living. We ask, Lord, that You would bless now the preaching of the Word that You would capture our hearts and minds to be attentive, that Your Spirit would be working both as the Word is spoken but also as we hear it, that Christ would have the preeminence to be glorified. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. So we work through the book of Romans, reflecting back at the beginning. One of the great themes in those first three chapters was that we are sinners. And of course Paul is moving to instruct us that we have a need for a Savior. In chapter 3, quoting from the Old Testament, Paul instructs us, there is none righteous. No, not one. There is not one who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have all together become unprofitable. There is none who does good. No, not one. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asp is under their lips. whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, and their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways." That's a desperate condition. The description of all humanity as sinners, we are honestly that bad. But as Christians, as we reflect on the reality that having fallen short of the glory of God that we are reminded that God so loved the world that He gave. He gave His only begotten Son to be the Savior of sinners. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners and that is our hope. Christ is our hope. We rest upon Him. We look to Him as the salvation that we so desperately need. It has delivered us from that sin, the guilt of the sin, the stain of the sin, and the sure punishment, the wrath of God that comes for sin. We rejoice, as we've seen in the book of Romans, that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But we also know that our salvation has a progressive aspect. In Romans we have dealt with how justification is the act of God's free grace when God the Spirit acts in us in the cluster of things that happens. We're made alive under God. We repent of our sins, we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and we stand right in the presence of God. But we know that there's an aspect of our salvation that is progressive. There's our catechism and the confession capture that sanctification, which always follows justification, it is a work. It's an ongoing work of God's free grace. And so we know in the Paul writing in Philippians, he says, work out your own salvation. with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure." I love that verse because we're called to do something that we're inadequate to do in and of ourselves, and then there's the promise that God is at work in us, both with our will, for it is out of the heart, the will, that we do what we do. And God is there with us to enable us, to give us the strength to do those things that He calls us to. And so Scripture reveals to us that salvation is a once-immediate, but it is also progressive. The Scripture also teaches that there's culmination. We are right to say, theologians have long said, that the Word of God teaches that we are saved, we are being saved, and we shall be saved. That's our blessed hope. I mean, the very name of our church, Christ our hope, it expresses our confidence, not just for this life, but when we are called from this life to the next one, we are called in the presence of God. Christ is our hope. He is our only hope, our only confidence. We rest upon Him in that moment, that as we stand before Him as the judge, that in His throne room, in His court, that we will be acquitted. because of the blood of Christ and the righteousness of Christ. And that's when we come ultimately to the being saved. It's when all that God has begun in us has been completed, even against that day. By faith, we're hidden in Christ. And by faith in Christ, we have the power of Christ over sin. It's by faith in Christ that we have this ability to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. And someday by our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we will stand in His presence and we will receive gifts from our beloved and not the wrath of God. But what's it like day by day? We know, I hope every one of you would confess that indeed your sins are forgiven, that the righteousness of Christ is yours, and that the power of sin in you has been broken, for that is indeed what Christ has accomplished. The power of sin has been broken. And yet, we find that we're still sinning, right? every day. That is the nature of living the Christian life. But as believers, we're troubled by it. We're ashamed for our sins. We know that it brings a blemish on the reputation of Christ and His church when we're sinful. And so we return to Christ again and again with a confidence and assurance of His promises. we all should go to Him that we would put to death the deeds of the flesh. Jesus says in Luke 9.23 that if we would come after Him, that is to be His disciples, that we must take up our cross daily and die to self. That's really what's in view as we think about fasting this time, this taking up of our cross daily, or as Paul says in Romans 8, 13, to put to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit. He says, if we do that, then we shall live. But if we fail to do that, if we just live by the flesh, go along with whatever our flesh wants, we indulge the flesh, we never deny the flesh, we will die. And so what Paul is getting at in that passage is one of the manifestations that we are the sons of the living God is that by the Spirit we're putting to death the deeds of the flesh. Isn't it wonderful that it doesn't say there, and only those who succeed fully and completely and in every category will finally arrive in heaven. No, that's Christ's righteousness that brings us to glory. But as Christ has given us His Spirit, He has called us to live as the followers of Christ. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5.17, if any man is in Christ Jesus, he's a new creature. The old is gone. That old way, that old pattern is gone. John writes in his first letter that those who are justified in Christ, they don't keep on practicing sin. There will be sinness, but it's not our practice. We're not comfortable with it. We are about dying to self. It's hard to do, isn't it? Children, if you've ever gone on a hike, maybe some of your little ones, it might be a hike in a park, maybe a half mile or something. Maybe some of your older ones have gone on a hike where it's all of five miles. And it gets hard, doesn't it? It just seems like, how in the world? Your feet get sore, and you get cranky and crabby, and your parents are encouraging, and sometime what happens? Dad picks you up, puts you on his shoulders, and he carries you. And then that hike's easy, isn't it? You got the ride up there on Dad's shoulders, and you still take it all in, and you're just going along. Life is like a long hike. It's hard. We get tired. Our feet get sore. We get weary. And yet, we are called to press on towards the prize of the upward call, which is in Christ Jesus. Paul wrote that, but at the end of his life, his last letter that he writes to Timothy, he celebrates that. He's writing to Timothy with a great sense that his life is about to end. And in that context, Paul is mindful that he was saved, he was being saved, and he is about to be completely saved, even as his life is to be taken from him. And he's celebrating. He said, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. That's the desire of all those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, we only do so by the grace of God given to us by the Spirit of Christ whom He has promised to all who believe. Indeed, we're new creatures now. We know that Christ says in John 15 that if we abide in Him, He gives that image of a branch being grafted into the vine. If we abide in Him, then we can bear much fruit. But then He also says, apart from Him, we're disconnected from Him. We can't do anything. So there's all these scriptural descriptions and pictures of how it is necessary that we abide in Christ. But there we are in our homes, young and old, mom and dad, husband and wife, and children, and what happens? Angry words. Hateful words. not to pick on, I won't name the couple, but the couple that we know that just got married, in their premarital counseling, I was dealing with a section about when you said something very hateful to your spouse, what do you do at that point? And they were going like, we can't imagine that we would ever do that. I said, well, I'm sure when I got married, I never imagined I would do that either. But indeed, those moments come. And you children, you know how your parents, there's those times when they've just given you blessings and gifts. Maybe it's your birthday and you're just, it's just like, wow, mom and dad have been so kind to me. And then maybe even later that day or tomorrow, you're stomping your foot and pitching a fit at them because they told you to do something and you don't want to do it. How is it we can go from one extreme? It's because we're sinners, and that's what Jesus is driving at. He says, if you'll follow me, you must take up your cross. He doesn't say, okay, when somebody sets that cross on you, bear it. He says, take it up. We are called to die to self, and that's really the aspect of what fasting is about. We must deal with sin and our condition. Some of you will recall reading Daniel's great prayer. It's a prayer of repentance for the nation that is in captivity, and it's just a remnant, a small portion, I mean, a tiny little portion of the hundreds, no, the millions that once occupied the land. There's only 40 some of them have gone away, 40 some thousand have gone away into captivity. And there, Daniel, as the captivity progresses, he, on the behalf of the nation, mindful that the 70 years that was told by God that it would be, he's confessing the sins of the people. And I suspect most of us have just kind of slid right over verse 3 where he says, Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make requests by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. That's an Old Testament typical pattern, those three, fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. Aren't you glad in the New Testament that when we talk about fasting that the sackcloth and the ashes aren't there? But those are all things that are to teach us to subject our flesh, to bring our flesh under control. Samuel Miller, man of an earlier generation speaking of Daniel's prayer and fasting, he says, such is the spirit of genuine piety. It's an old word for holiness. And neither despair is an adversity. Remember, Daniel's a captive in a foreign land. nor is it elated with pride at the approach of help. On the contrary, the firmer its confidence in the divine fidelity, that is God's faithfulness, the lower does it lie in humility and impenitence, and the more powerfully does it excite two holy action and two holy desires to be a worker together with God." Now, he didn't have what Paul wrote, that God works in us, but that sounds like it, doesn't it? He's quoting Daniel. It was then, it was when this man of God distinctly understood the desolations of the 70 years were about to come to an end that he set his face to seek God by prayer, supplication, and fasting. Something great was about to happen. There was an anticipation, but in that context, Daniel subjected himself, he willingly afflicted himself with fasting in expectation of what God would bring about. This morning I want to consider this spiritual discipline under two main headings. First, the spiritual discipline of fasting and prayer. It's going to be a description, instruction on it from the Scriptures. And then secondly, some practical matters concerning prayer and fasting, that when we use it, what are some practical considerations? I'm going to use a definition from a Dutch theologian from the 1500s, Wilhelmus de Brockel. Some of you have heard me speak of him with great affection before. And he says, fasting is a special religious exercise in which the believer deprives himself for a day from all that invigorates the body, humbling himself in body and soul before God as a means to obtain what he desires. So it's willingly, it's not a legalism, it's a willingness of oneself to deprive himself for a day of the things that animate our life that he might obtain what he desires. Now notice it's a special religious exercise. Children, we've talked about a means of grace. Fasting is not a means of grace. It is joined to the means of grace, a prayer. and certainly we should be reading the Word during such a season as well. It's a spiritual discipline. It's very much tied to the denying of self, to taking up the cross, where we willingly deprive ourself of things that we desire and delight in. The Old Testament word for fasting It's related to Hebrew words of oppress, humiliate, and torment, kind of strong words. It's connected to the Hebrew word of distressed. It's translated in various ways. This Hebrew word is used in Ezra 9, 5, and it says, and at the evening sacrifice, Ezra speaking, I arose from my heaviness. Those of you that have ever fasted, you can relate to that. That's the word that's used in the Old Testament. God speaking in Isaiah 58a says, it is such a fast that I have chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul. Again, it's the same connected word in Hebrew. In the New Testament, the Greek word, it's more what we're akin to. It's not to eat or to fast. Children, the idea carries over into our English expression. What do we call the first meal of the day, children? Breakfast. Isn't that how we often say it? Breakfast. But it is two words joined together. It is the breaking of the fast. because we have not eaten since the previous day, our last evening meal, and we've had this fast over through the night, and we arise and we break fast. Have you ever thought about that we tend to fast every single day? In a 24-hour period, we have a period where we fast. It's good for us. The medical doctors tell us that it's good for us that we should have this period where we don't eat. so that our organs that do that thing, they get to do what they need to recover and get ready for the next day when we break the fast. And those people who sit in front of TV and eat the popcorn and drink the soda and have a piece of pizza and then get up in the night and have a snack, their digestive system is constantly working, working, working. And what happens to the rest of our body? If we get up and we play all day long, children, what happens at the end of the day? You're tired, right? And so it is, if we work our digestive system, we put too much to it. And so God, in His order, has given us hours to sleep, and we fast. And so our first meal of the day is breakfast. We break the fast. Now, let's consider and understand the true nature of fasting. As I said in the definition, fasting is a religious exercise, an exercise in which we seek after God. So let me tell you what fasting is not. Fasting is not missing meals because of poverty. or because of illness, or for some other health reasons, or being prevented from eating food due to business activities. That's not fasting. Those are just providential, circumstantial activities that may prevent us from eating. What we talk about, this spiritual discipline of fasting, what it is, it is God-focused with the intent to seek God earnestly. All religion practices dare not to be self-willed or practice according to human innovation, but only according to God's command and precept. It's only when we're doing what God has prescribed that we are indeed engaged in the spiritual discipline of fasting. And so we're going to look at what is that like. Abrakel says that fasting does not consist of idleness. but is an activity where a day-long engagement is consisting in secret dealings with God. Fasting is something we actively engage in. Now think about it. Do you ever get hungry, children? You ever been outside playing hard, maybe been in the pool, and you come in, and you go, Mom, I'm hungry. You know what that feels like, right? When you're hungry, there's something going down, down here in your abdomen. Maybe you hear growling and rumbling. Some people can do a pretty impressive job of it, right? You've heard it, and it's like, because your body wants something. And if you've decided before God to engage in fasting for a purpose, when that happens, you're reminded, I'm engaged in something for a purpose. And when you feel that turmoil within and that desire for food, You say, I'm doing this because I'm focused on something, and it reminds you to pray. And you come apart and you seek God about the matter for which you are praying and fasting, seeking the Lord for it. And indeed, fasting must be done in faith. First Paul says in Romans 14, 23, whatever is not done of faith is sin. Wow. It's a verse we don't think on too often. Whatever is not done of faith is sin. There's many things we just kind of carelessly do. We're to live our lives in faith, doing all unto the Lord. Paul also writes in 1 Corinthians 10.31, and he's been talking about food there, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. That's the nature of how we're to live. Our heart must be engaged. No empty rituals here. Again Samuel Miller notes that the captive Jews in Babylon as a body seem to have been in the habit before this time of observing certain stated days of fasting and prayer. but they were evidently observed in a formal, in a heartless manner. Children, they were not fasting and praying by faith. It was just because, oh yeah, we just need to do this, and they're just going to go through it. And so they missed the blessing, Miller points out, and what they did, because it wasn't a faith, they increased their guilt. And so, moving on, unraveling our definition, it's a spiritual exercise. This is not a daily activity such as prayer, reading, thanksgiving, singing, those things that we should do day by day, means of grace that we'd use. This is something we do occasionally. It's practiced at special seasons when there's a need for it. These are some of the occasions in scripture that have been used actually in human society since the time of scriptures. Why there have been a call for fasting when there's a threatening or oppression through the danger of war. or a plague. The civil magistrate has called the people to prayer and fasting for God's deliverance, His faithfulness. Or when faced with a very weighty matter, something really important, a big decision, it is often then that the church will be called to fasting, which is our context when we consider electing officers to the church, that there be a season of fast and prayer. But we might use fasting related to everyday matters when we're seeking closer communion with God to remove the distraction of meals and meal preparation and to use that time that we might have done that in order to look to God and seek Him more earnestly because we need strength to overcome some specific sin. I begin in the outset looking at sin, that besetting sin, sins that trouble us, and we go on day after day, week after week, year after year in some cases, and it's still there, we know that. Probably every one of us right now has something in our mind. When have we ever sought God with fasting and prayer? Oh God, I afflict myself by depriving myself of food that I would seek you. I want to be free from this. We have not because we ask not, James writes. And what's interesting, he goes on to say, and then if we do ask, we ask that we might receive and spend it on ourselves. That'd be completely contrary to fasting, wouldn't it? Too often we ask God for things because we want more. You fill in the blank. But if we ever ask God for more holiness by denying ourselves food for a season, Again, considering our definition, fasting is to be deprived then of all that invigorates the body. Fasting primarily consists of depriving oneself of those things that refresh and strengthen us. The goal is to bring the body for that given day into a condition of withdrawal, distress, pliableness before God, yes, even weakness. And if you've ever fasted for a day, by the end of the day, you feel something of a weakness. Depriving ourself of all food is what's called fasting. When you take food, then you have broken the fast. Esther, when she was faced with really life-threatening circumstances, she sent the word through her relative Mordecai to ask the Jews in the city to pray and fast with her in preparation to just walk in before the king. And in the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, if you just showed up in the king's throne room uninvited, without an appointment, if he did not immediately extend his scepter to you, there were men standing by with sharp instruments which immediately take you away and execute you. It didn't matter who you were. That's what's called an absolute sovereign. And she knew that. And she had not seen the king in some days. I don't remember what it was, 30 days or something. She hadn't seen him. And Bordecai was saying, you need to go seek the king's favor in this matter. And so she asked the people because this is weighty. Her life is at stake, but indeed all their lives are at stake. And so they prayed and they fast before she went. And it was through that depriving themselves that they were more earnest in seeking the Lord in prayer. Second thing we want to know about our fasting was what we read from Matthew 6. When we're fasting, we're not supposed to show it. Back in those days, they didn't have showers. It's hard to imagine, isn't it? It doesn't take maybe two or three days, you know, if you're camping or something without a shower, man, I'm just, I'm a mess in every sense of the word. I just, I'm uncomfortable. I look bad. Just a shower is such a wonderful thing. Well, they didn't have those things. They bathed infrequently. So they would anoint their hair and their head with oil. They would do things to brighten their countenance and diminish the odor. And what Jesus is saying when He teaches on it, He says, you continue to do those things. Don't stop doing them so people go, oh, He's fasting. He says, no, that's not the point. You should do it in secret. Go about your activity so that you're not parading it, you're not making a deal. And remember that context in the Sermon on the Mount, He gives that also. When you give your alms, when you give to the poor, don't make a big show about it. When you give your prayers, don't stand on the street corner so everybody can see you praying. Go apart, do these things in secret. And He says so about fasting as well. Thirdly, on the day of fasting, we must deprive ourselves of all entertainment, recreation, and other activities merely for pleasure. We're focused on something, whether it's to be free from some sin or seeking God's direction or something, or because there's some oppression, a plague that is upon the land, and we're begging God for his mercy. Why would we then indulge ourselves in ordinary pleasures and distract ourselves from the whole point of the day? God indeed rebuked His people of old for failing to do that. Isaiah 58.3, behold, in the day of fasting ye find pleasure. God's rebuking them. In Daniel passage, there was a rebuke because the people were just going through the motions and doing their normal routines. Paul even writes in 1 Corinthians 7 that a married couple should refrain from their conjugal rights for a season as they would seek the Lord together. It's to be a sober day of seeking God. for His blessing while we pray. Fourthly, we should refrain from napping or other idleness. When fasting we arise early and we retire no earlier than normal. Slumber and idleness would be entirely contrary to the goals of the day. It would be in conflict with the idea of humbling ourselves. Wilhelmus of Broncos says, sleep invigorates a person, and the purpose of this day is to humble the soul as facilitated by the faintness and the weakness of the body, and so to humble oneself deeply. And fifthly, above all things, we must carefully guard against the commission of sins. Think about the purposes. We're seeking God. In earnest, we're taking up our cross on this day, denying ourselves food as we would appeal to God and plead with God for whatever it is we're praying about, and then on that day when we're supposed to be seeking God, then to engage in sin, when we're supposed to be humbling ourselves perhaps over our sin or the sins of others in the nation, and therefore this plague is upon the land, and then we just go on wantonly sinning, completely contrary to the purpose. So we understand that fasting is a humbling of ourselves. This is the second aspect overall. The soul and the body are so united in the way that God has made us that if indeed our soul is troubled, we experience it in our flesh. You know, when somebody has something really troubling, the way you can see it usually on their face. I mean, oftentimes they say, what's troubling? I mean, parents last a child even. Children, have you heard your parents say, what's going on? That happened recently with someone present, so I won't say too much, but I saw the countenance of this individual. I said, what's the matter? And he was angry. I could see that. We reflected what's happening in the soul is reflected on our outward appearance. Likewise, if we are abasing our body, that somehow affects our soul because we're so connected in our being. When the body, due to the withdrawal of all refreshment, is rendered feeble and pliable, it is subdued. The soul will also be in such a disposition, and thus the natural disposition takes on a spiritual dimension. So says Wilhelmus of Brockville. It continues, fasting in and of itself is not a religious practice. Let me repeat that. Fasting in and of itself is not a religious activity or practice. It is so only when it is seeking after God by way of fasting. He who has merely deprived himself of refreshment has not partially observed a day of fasting, for fasting and a humbling of ourselves are not two separate duties. Fasting must be characterized by a humbling of ourselves. The humbling of ourselves must be done by way of fasting. They go together. The fasting serves one purpose. to stir up our inner man, to bring body and soul together, to seek the Lord over the matter. When we are engaged in a day of fast and prayer, we should do some other things. It should be a day where we confess our sins. There is grief and shame within us confessing our sins. In Nehemiah 9 we find that people did that. Now in the 24th day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting and confessing their sin. Again in Ezra 9.6 we hear Ezra say, Oh my God, I am ashamed and blushed to lift my face to Thee, O my God, for our iniquities have increased over our head and our trespasses have grown up to the heavens. It was the context of Ezra's fasting. He was mindful of the sins of the people of God. This humbling of ourselves includes declaring ourselves to be worthy of the judgment of God and acknowledging His justice. Let me just tell you something that I'm reflecting on that's very related to this, and it may be a very appropriate occasion for a church or a presbytery or even a whole denomination to call for a day of fasting and prayer. We hear the reports of ISIS, the radical Islamic extremism, called a culture of death. And you see just yesterday in London, those who love death brutally, gruesomely murdering others. And this has become so common. And there's a growing fear. I was just thinking, why in the world do the civil magistrate in that land not do their duty to protect the people? Indeed, why not in our land? It's all politicized and politically correct, and you can't say this and you can't say that. But I was thinking about, we refer to that as a culture of death, but what about abortion in our own land? What about abortion in our own land? Is that not a culture of death? Has ISIS killed 60 million little children in the womb where they should be protected and nurtured? Is it possible that God would raise up this force for evil to judge us as a nation for our own evil of butchering little ones in the womb? Is that not what church history, even the Old Testament, bears out? And if indeed we were serious, we should seek God in fast and in prayer over our national sins, our corporate sin, humbling ourselves, confessing ourselves. It's what we see Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, and so many other men doing over those kinds of things that they see in the land, beseeching God to have mercy, to change the hearts of His people. We also would humble ourselves before God, declaring ourselves to be unworthy of the judgment, or to be worthy of the judgment, and acknowledging the justice of God. Again, in Nehemiah 9, the same passage, however, you are just in all that has befallen us. Nehemiah says, he prays, for you have dealt faithfully, but we have done wickedly. We can take those very prayers up as the people in our own country and own them for ourselves, for our national sins. Humbling ourselves certainly then is seeking and pleading for grace for ourselves and for others. Frequently accompanied with weeping, Joel 2.17, let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar and let them say, spare thy people, O Lord. Psalm 35.13, I humble myself with fasting and my prayer return to my own bosom. So, in a time of fasting, we would confess our sins, we would humble ourselves before the Lord, declaring His judgments to be right. And we would seek and plead for grace for ourselves and others. And fourthly, we would humble ourselves that we would seek a renewal of the covenant with the living God with a wholehearted intent to forsake our former sins and live a godly life. Again, Nehemiah says, because of all this, we make a sure covenant. There's a returning to God. There's something to that as we gather for worship each week. We come in, we come in troubled by our sins, we've been in the world, we come before God, and we renew the covenant of sins. We confess our sins and we seek the Lord and we're reminded of His promises, that He's faithful to forgive us our sins. He feeds us with the Word and He seals His promises to us in the sacrament. renewing a covenant with Him. Those things are appropriate on a day of prayer and fasting. Well, I said secondly, we would look at some practical matters concerning. I imagine there's all kinds of questions running through your mind. What's the duration for a fast? I'm sure some of you know your scriptures well enough. You're thinking of, well, there's 40 days of fasting. Surely we're not going to do that. No. A duration of a fast is limited to 24-hour period. It's from evening to evening is the example. But we have extraordinary circumstances for extraordinary men in extraordinary times. Moses up on Mount Sinai, 40 days, 40 nights. Elijah also had an extended period of fasting, 40 days it was. The Lord Jesus Christ, we know He went into the wilderness before He began His ministry, right after He was anointed as the Messiah, 40 days, 40 nights. And Jehovah, the living God, preserved their lives in a supernatural way during those 40 days. We have no command to undertake and do a 40-day fast, and to presume to do so is superstition and a testing of God. Jesus did many things by virtue of the reality that He was God and man, and He is uniquely our Redeemer, but we are not permitted to imitate Him in all those things which He did. In 1 Chronicles 10-12, it speaks of a seven-day fast. Esther sent word out to the Jews that were in the capital city for a three-day fast. And in that case, it's understood that it was a period during which time nothing was eaten during the day. At the end of the day, when the sun set, they would refresh themselves. But the normal period of fasting is one day, from evening to evening, Leviticus 23, the giving of the law, but also in Isaiah 58, which we've been quoting from, which deals with that. Now you might ask, okay, a day fast, is everybody, like if the magistrate calls on the people under himself to a fast, or if the elders call the people to a fast, is everybody obliged to fast for the whole day? Won't some faint? What about those with health problems? What about the aged? Those are very legitimate questions. We have the answer from the word of God, Hosea 6.6, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. Fasting is a form of sacrifice. We're denying ourselves something. God desires mercy. So for some, fasting is not wise, especially if it would compromise their health. Not just make them hungry, but indeed compromise their health, because we're to keep the sixth commandment. This would apply to someone like a pregnant mother, or a nursing mother, or young children, or the elderly, or the sick, or infirm. Now Jesus himself called, Jesus called His disciples to Himself and He says, I have compassion on the multitude because they have now continued with Me three days and have had nothing to eat. They were following and dwelling on His teaching. He said, I did not want to send them away hungry lest they faint on the way. And then we know Jesus supernaturally fed them in a miraculous way. He took a few loaves and a few small fishes and fed a vast host. They get weak. The psalmist says, my knees are weak through fasting and my flesh is feeble from the lack of fatness, Psalm 109.24. And so, this practical considerations a day for those who are able-bodied to engage in the self-denial of food. Another thing I want to make a distinction about is between public and private fasting. A public fast occurs, and you find examples of all these in Scripture, it's when the government calls on the people due to a general need in the nation such as war, pestilence, famine, or an insect plague. I don't know my history well enough, but during the Dust Bowl days, it sure seems to me like it would have been very legitimate for the civil magistrate to call on the nation to seek God and petition Him. I do recollect that some local governments did do that. During times of war in the past, there's presidents have called on the nation to seek God in prayer and fasting. We have that in our national history. In such events, governments have the right to proclaim a fast in prayer days. The observance of days of fasting are commanded by God. The civil magistrate would then designate the time determined because of the extraordinary circumstances, but also sessions and presbyteries may designate a day of fasting for the church under their supervision, doing so due to an extraordinary need in the church, persecution. It just seems so obvious that if we are being persecuted, that we would have a day of fasting and prayer. But have we considered about our brothers and sisters around the world that are being persecuted? It would seem to be appropriate to have a day of prayer and fasting for them, for God to deliver them and to sustain them. Other examples of when the obsession or presbytery may call for fastened prayer is when there's been manifestations of false doctrine. Heresy seems to be taking hold. We've been dealing with some of those in the PCA, but I've never seen any overture arrive at General Assembly to call on a day of fastened prayer against this heresy or that heresy that the church might be dealing with, but that would be appropriate. One of the other occasions we've already read from Acts 14 when we're calling ministers or for the election of officers. Luke records, and so when they had appointed elders in every church, prayer and fasting, then they commended them to the Lord whom had believed. What we need to understand is that fasting is a divine command and ordinance, particularly in the matter of the civil magistrate, but we also can have private fasts. Close friends may agree to fast together on a day. You might say to your friend, I'm really troubled about something. I don't know what to do with this. I need the wisdom of God. I've been seeking. Will you join with me next Thursday? And on that day, fast and pray with me as we pray God to give His wisdom and to make it clear. Or maybe a couple would do that together. Maybe there's something that they need counsel on, a big decision looms, or maybe their relationship has been troubled of late, and so they would together agree upon a time of prayer and fasting that the Lord add His blessing. Or a father may call on his family for fasting and prayer because, again, of some big decision or some trouble within the midst of the family, or we as individuals as I mentioned earlier on, because of some sin or a need for wisdom that we would so afflict ourselves taking up our cross and asking for the Lord's blessing. Jesus has given us this spiritual discipline of fasting to help us be exercised in spiritual matters. Jesus Himself sacrificed Himself completely to the Father, even to the point of death, so that we may be more than conquerors over our sinful flesh. He has provided deliverance for us from sin. Sometimes we have difficult sins, and we need additional spiritual discipline for ourselves to tune us, as it were, to make us more aware, more in earnest about the matter with which we seek the Lord. You remember when Jesus came down from the Mount of Transfiguration, and the rest of the disciples besides Peter, James, and John were there. And there was a father with a child who had a demon, and they had been unsuccessful in casting it out. And Jesus deals with it, and then He rebukes them, telling them, this kind comes out only through prayer and fasting. The Lord teaches us, even as He's done, we often find the Gospels of Jesus going apart, praying for hours, denying Himself. Too often we tolerate for too long sin in ourselves, sin that Jesus has delivered us from. He died to save us from our sin. And if we will ask of Him and engage using the spiritual tools that He has given us to fight the spiritual battles, then indeed the blessings that He has secured for us on the cross that God might be pleased to bring us through that, to overcome that besetting sin. We need to be willing, as Christ has, to die to self that we might live for Him. So often we're so comfortable with the remnant of sin that is within us. We lose sight of the fact that sin destroys, sin kills, sin is a stealer. I recently heard of a woman, actually she had a large constrictor snake she kept as a pet. She'd had it for years and it was growing larger and larger. And she was talking to the pet shop owner. She said, yeah, of late my snake, it likes to cuddle with me. It's so wonderful. It gets into bed with me and it just wraps around me and I just feel so close to my snake and it's so warm. He says, madam, that snake is not letting you know how fond it is of you. It's sizing you up. It's comparing its body to your body size to decide if it's big enough to eat you now. Isn't sin like a snake? The problem is it doesn't have to be a big constrictor to take us, but too often we get comfortable with sin and too often and for too long we're unwilling to afflict ourselves as we would seek God to rescue us from sin. I'm speaking to myself too. I mean, I can't tell you that I'm free from all sins. Surely I'm not. But that we would use the spiritual discipline that the author and the perfecter of our faith has given us that we might overcome that indeed we would be free from it. Wilhelmus of Bronco says, it's sad, a sign of great decay in the church, that so little work is made of fasting, both in public as well as in secret. Therefore, all who wish to lead a life of tender godliness and desire to see good for Zion ought to stir themselves up in this duty. For as we've seen, God has commanded it. Jesus commends it. The church in past ages has practiced it and left us an example. There are dozens of references of fasts, both in the Old and New Testaments. Therefore, as obedient children of God and followers of Christ, let us learn to use this spiritual discipline. Christ's shepherds, your elders, have for our church appointed tomorrow is a day of fasting and prayer. And unless you are hindered by a physical condition, which we've talked about, then let us begin as sundown this evening through sunset tomorrow to humble ourselves and pray to God for wisdom and discernment as we prepare to vote on those men that God seems to have given us as candidates, that we would seek His will. and use this discipline to find His will as He would lead us forward. Amen? Let us pray. Lord God, these are hard things. They're perhaps even unfamiliar things with us. This fasting has fallen on hard times in our day as we indulge ourselves and pleasures are at every hand and we're very unaccustomed to denying ourselves anything. Lord, Help us to reflect on what we've heard, to be challenged and encouraged. And Lord, we do pray that as we engaged in this season of fasting and prayer that You would direct us as a congregation, that You would lead us forward so that we would know Your will and do it. Lord, that we might be a people who are willing to use this spiritual discipline of fasting in our lives more frequently. that we might put off sin and put on Christ, that we might work out our salvation with fear and trembling. For You indeed have promised that You are at work in us both to will and to do Your good pleasure. We thank You, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.