Our Scripture text this morning, as we prepare to go to God's Holy Word once again, is Mark 2, verses 18-22. So won't you turn with me, I'll give you a few moments to find it. Mark 2, 18-22. And God's Word says, Now John's disciples and the Pharisees' disciples were fasting. And people came and said to him, Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, Can the wedding guests 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 is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins. Let us pray. Our Lord God and Father, You come to us with words of wisdom, words of order, words of sense, and words that shed light onto the path down which we are to travel. Lord, Your Word is sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing joints from marrow, and by Your Word the thoughts of all of our hearts and their intents are laid bare. We thank You for meeting with us this day through Your Word, and thank You for sending us Your Spirit. We indeed ask that He be present. Lord, for the conversion of those who do not know You as this Word is preached, and for the further edification of those of us in this room who do know You, that we may grow in devotion and love, and steadfastness and perseverance as we seek to follow You and rejoice in Your ways. Be with us this day as we gather and as I preach. In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen. Many of you know that I am a member and a licentiate and a ruling elder at Covenant Presbyterian Church, Houston, Texas, and I'm here from that congregation this morning bringing you greetings. In that church, we have a large number of families. Many of them have small children, and one of my favorite children comes to mind this morning. Her name is Kimber. She's very artistic, very witty, and very silly at times, as all children can be. And I remember one day encountering Kimber. As I was going in for the church fellowship luncheon one day, she was hugging, she was on top of the railing, the handicap ramp, hugging it almost like some sort of a snail just glued to it. And I remember looking at her and I'm saying, Kimber, are you being silly? And she just giggled from ear to ear and just chuckled like crazy. And she just said, yes. Children often do odd and silly things, and it's an occasion for joking for us adults sometimes as we look in from without. Things that often don't seem to make sense or things that just seem a bit odd, an odd disconnect, acting like a snail on a ramp. And it's okay in that context to laugh. But in the adult world, particularly in the spiritual world, In the world of maturity, there are times, yes, when we can make modest but appropriate jokes. But in the spiritual world, that world of adult maturity, to do something that is out of touch with the spiritual season, when Jesus at times will call us either to celebration or to solemnity, To do something rejoicing in a time of seriousness and sobriety is spiritually dangerous. And to be mirthful and to be lazy and lackadaisical in a time of extreme sobriety is also dangerous. It's a matter of life and death when it comes to our salvation. If we are not ultimately in sync with the Savior who gives us the correct tenor with which to follow the seasons of the things that are spiritual. Our text is about that very thing this morning. It's about different seasons of the Christian life and how we are to behave, what is appropriate for one season and what is inappropriate for that season, ultimately with a view to the saving enlightenment that Christ Jesus gives our souls. And we have to be spiritual to understand, as Jesus says in this text, what is right in the appropriate season. And so what is our main point this morning? And that is that we who are spiritual and those who are carnal often misunderstand the spiritual season. And therefore, we should listen to Jesus so that our spiritual practice is right for the season. We who are spiritual and those who are carnal often misunderstand the spiritual season. And therefore we should listen to Jesus so that our spiritual practice is right for the season. We'll see this in two made-sum points. And the first one is that we who are spiritual and those who are carnal often misunderstand the spiritual season in verses 18 through 20. And the second main sub-point is that, therefore, we should listen to Jesus so that our spiritual practice is right for the season, in verses 21 through 22. So let's go back now to verse 18. It says, Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And the people came and said to him, Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, yet your disciples do not fast? Here we have two groups, behold us, before us, and a person asks a question on behalf of these two groups. One group is the Pharisees, and they are fasting. The other group is John's disciples, and they are fasting. The Pharisees are amongst those whom Jesus says are riddled with carnality. Many of them do not know the Savior. In so doing, they are more self-focused, and those who seek things that are spiritual, or think they're seeking spiritual things, but really aren't. And the other group are the spiritual, the disciples of John, who were looking for the Messiah to come, whose priorities are on that Messiah, and truly on the Word of God, and not on themselves. So, these two groups. different ends, different roots in their hearts, but practicing the same thing. And it seems to be at a disconnect from what Jesus' disciples are doing, eating and celebrating with the Savior. And so what is going on here? The man asked a very good question. And I'm sure we would ask the same thing if we were there, would we not? So John's disciples, those are the spiritual. Disciples of John, of course, it goes without saying, follow John's practices. John was in the wilderness proclaiming the Messiah who was to come. Every valley shall be lifted up, every mountain and hill be made low. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Looking for that Messiah, baptizing people with the baptism of repentance. that they might search their hearts, and that they might look toward the Messiah and find regeneration, and they might find renewed obedience to the Lord, and the baptism being a symbol of that, a baptism of repentance, a baptism to point toward the great King. As we sang this morning, O King, give your judgments. O God, your judgments give the King, rather. And this Messiah was to be the one who was to save Israel from its sins, the one who could clue people in to enlighten their hearts about those matters that only the Holy Spirit can bring, and the one who ultimately can give them salvation. And as they awaited this Messiah, as John awaited, he practiced a very observant, sober lifestyle. It says that he ate locust and wild honey. He was clothed in camel's hair. He wanted nothing to distract him from that Messiah to come, and in the view of so much carnality in Israel, and the view of so many at that time who had compromised obedience to God's law in favor of the practices of the Romans, John said he would have none of that. And he called the people to the purity of their devotion, believing in God, that it might be credited to them as righteousness by faith. and he urged his disciples to be just as vigilant in the same way, fasting, looking for their redemption. They probably fasted as was often the case in that time, and it is often the case today, both that they might wait on this Messiah and that they might draw near to God in repentance, so that their spiritual practices, they may be full of the Lord, to the utmost. Probably like Anna, who was the widow in the temple in Jerusalem in Luke chapter 2. You know, she said she was in the temple praying day and night, fasting, because she did not want to miss this Messiah. She knew that His time was probably drawing nigh. Those are the responses of those who are spiritual. That is why they draw near to God, that they might be alert to His coming, that they might enjoy His presence, that they might have fullness of Him and not fullness in their sins, that they might walk uprightly, and that they might be able to embrace that bridegroom like a bride waiting on her honeymoon. And the bridegroom is an appropriate image here, because that's what Jesus is. You know, John chapter 3, John says this. This is John the Apostle speaking about John the Baptist. He says, You yourselves bear me witness, in verse 28, that I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete. Ultimately, it's to draw near to the Lord to find repentance, but the chief end that the spiritual fast is that they may rejoice in this bridegroom, because that is what Jesus is. The Old Testament compares the coming Messiah to the bridegroom for those who long to hear His voice. And so therefore, they're excited, they're vigilant. The second are those who fast. We have people fasting for spiritual reasons. The second group are the carnal. the disciples of the Pharisees. There may have been some who truly loved the Lord, but we know from the Scriptures that the majority of them did not. They didn't fast for spiritual reasons. Jesus criticized them for fasting twice a week. And given the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee, or the publican and the Pharisee, the Pharisee said, I thank God I'm not like these other men. I fast twice a week. I give alms to the poor." And the publican beats his breast and said, God have mercy on me, a sinner. The Pharisees did it for show because they thought they were more spiritual. It's as if they had no inkling of awareness that they were fundamentally sinful in need of a Savior. Yes, they knew they had sins, but they had no knowledge that their hearts needed to be changed. And to some degree, they forgot even about their very own sins themselves, I should say. Jesus says in Luke 18.12 that the disciples of the Pharisees disfigure their faces to show that they're fasting. In other words, look how spiritual I am, they might say. Look at me. They might not say that, but that's what's deep down in their hearts. Jesus compared them to whitewashed tombs, to being filled with dead men's bones and filth. But outwardly they look pretty, but there's all this going on on the inside. All of this darkness. The Pharisees perhaps fasted also because they, as the Scriptures say, stumbled over the Messiah because they tried to be justified by works rather than to be justified by faith, as their ancestor Abraham rightly apprehended, thanks to God's grace opening his heart. They thought that they could earn God's favor by keeping the law. And really because their hearts were not focused on the Savior who alone can transform them, who alone loves them, who could change their hearts, believing in Him so that it might be credited to them as righteousness, they got their wires crossed. They thought to earn this Savior's love. They thought. And so doing, they were really more focused on themselves. I want to be saved, but I can earn it. They didn't really love the Lord. They were just more concerned about getting what they could want, because it's possible to be concerned about salvation, but not to really love the Lord, to be exalted in our own abilities and not in His. And that's what the Pharisees, sadly, were doing. And also, they were more on political ends as well. You know, if we pray, God might be like a vending machine here. We know that God has all power. Let's pray that He'll overthrow the Romans. We want our government back. The Sadducees and many others are more about power. And we even saw the high priest trying to rationalize the death of Jesus as better than one man die for the sins of the people, even though ultimately it had a prophetic element, did it not? So both of these people, the spiritual and the carnal, fast for different reasons. And Jesus makes an object lesson out of the intentions of both. And the man who asked Jesus asked wisely. And why are they fasting when Jesus' disciples aren't? The reality is that they are not aware of the spiritual season that they are truly in. John's disciples are still fasting, looking for that Messiah. The disciples of the Pharisees, well, we know that their selfish motives are in play. But the reality is that both groups do not see, to one degree or the other, that the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, is present with them. They didn't apprehend the full import of repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near in Mark chapter 1. They did not apprehend where Jesus says if I cast out demons and the sick are being healed and the kingdom of God surely is among you. And they did not recognize the bridegroom is here. And so they were not cued in that it's time to cue the music for celebration. And so what does Jesus say? He answers them by saying, can the wedding guests 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 is taken away from them and they will fast in that day. They fast because they're out of touch with the spiritual reality. Of course, we know that those who were spiritual, John and his disciples, knew that Jesus was the Messiah. He said, Behold the Lord of God who takes away the sins of the world, in John 1.29. We know that at one level, the spiritual disciples of John knew that Jesus was here. But something happened that dampened their awareness that the Messiah was coming, was here, and had arrived. And that is that John was thrown into prison. He was held there by Herod. And you know that even though John himself knew that Jesus was the Messiah, he said in Matthew chapter 11, 1 and 2, are you the one who is to come or shall we expect another? How could he be so confident? Behold the Lamb of God and are you the one who is to come? And Jesus has to remind him that yes, casting out demons, where great healings are coming on, this I am the Messiah. So Jesus sought to reassure him, and that is because often when we go through seasons of discouragement like John was, John wondered, everything is going well, I'm pointing to this Messiah, and why am I in prison? Sometimes when things don't go as we expect, we start doubting. We get like John, perhaps. We become a little unstable, double-minded. The double-minded man is unstable in all his ways, and John is sort of like Peter walking on the water. He knows that Jesus is the Messiah. He starts out, and then when he gets in jail, he starts sinking, as it were, and Jesus has to reach up and remind him of his little faith. Why did you doubt? That's what's at stake here. And so John is somewhat out of sync with reality. And of course, in prison, it may be hard to rejoice. And his disciples would have certainly been discouraged, would have doubted as well. If their master is doubting that Jesus is the Messiah, I think we should doubt too, they might say. But Jesus would remind them at one point in prison of who He is, that it's time to rejoice, and though be He in prison, He can rejoice, like Paul and Silas when they were in the jail. In the letter of Philippians, Paul was encouraging people in discouragement to rejoice because of the Holy Spirit within them. And so the spiritual can be out of touch with the season because of discouragement. They can be out of touch because they let unbelief dampen their awareness. And, of course, we see that the carnal were out of touch with what was going on because they, the Pharisees, were blinded. The God of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not. 2 Corinthians 3 says of them, those who make idols are like them. They become blind. Idols that cannot see or hear, that are mute. The carnal were ultimately blind. The disciples of John had a temporary blindness. The carnal could not celebrate because they were more about themselves than Christ. The spiritual once celebrated, but needed encouragement to celebrate again. And what is there to celebrate? Well, if Jesus says they're out of touch with the season, the idea is that they celebrate His very self. Jesus as the Messiah. The Song of Songs, the Song of Solomon, is about a great romance between a lover and his beloved. But it also points to the great love that we share looking for our Savior, waiting for our beloved to come and comfort our souls, waiting for Him to show us His love on a spiritual level, taking it to that metaphor, His assurance, His comfort, His strength, His tenderness. And when that Beloved opens up to the Beloved, to the lover in Psalm, Song of Songs, how great is the joy and the rapture in that section. In Isaiah 62.5 it says that God rejoices over Israel as a bridegroom, and it's a call after their Babylonian captivity to be comforted and to rejoice when He comes. He said in Isaiah 61.10, the Messiah is said to cover the people with a garment of salvation. much like one is covered with the garments in intimacy, as the bridegroom covers the bride. So we've got to keep that in mind, my friends, that they were out of touch with this very fundamental joy that we should have, and that's what's at stake here. Were they aware of this, that is the cause for rejoicing, that the bridegroom is here. And Jesus says, it's time for them not to fast, but he says, when the bridegroom is taken away, in those days they will fast. In other words, the disciples of John should be rejoicing now, and the Pharisees, if they were truly awake spiritually, out of their carnality, should rejoice now. But the day will come when They will fast, when Jesus' disciples will fast, like John's disciples and the Pharisees' disciples do. And the period when it says, when He is taken away, in that verse, is a quote of Isaiah 53. It talks about when Jesus is taken away at His crucifixion. And that day they will fast. And later in His resurrection, after His resurrection, in the church age that we are in now, we'll go through seasons of fasting. We'll fast in those days. But the key is, are you spiritually aware whether to rejoice and whether to fast? And we'll get into that momentarily. difficulty is that we often misunderstand too. If the disciples of John and disciples of the Pharisees got it wrong, we misunderstand. We don't do what's right for the season. Perhaps you're like the Pharisees. Perhaps you fast, but you're looking to God as if your salvation were by works, thinking that if I can just mortify myself enough, I can enter heaven. Perhaps you fast like Luther. You remember before Luther was converted, he strove to confess every little jot and tittle that he did. He saw the righteousness of God, but he did all of these things to try to earn God's favor, but inwardly he hated God. until his heart was transformed. We can fast for the wrong reasons, until he saw that he could not keep the law. He could not fast enough. Rather, to turn to the one who could fast enough, who loved him, and then to obey the one who would forgive him of his sins in response to that love. Not to fast to earn that love, to see God as a harsh taskmaster, to hate God, so to speak, because He's so harsh, but to say, yes, God is precise. God demands righteousness, but He knows we cannot keep it perfectly. He loves us. We ought to obey His law, yes, but He loves us that we might rejoice in Him, that we might be saved, that we might have His power, and that our response to fasting should be one of gratitude and devotion and vigilance towards Him. That's what it's about, a response to love. The carnal mistakenly fast because they stumble over of salvation as if it were by works. Perhaps people fast today like the Pharisees to show they're interested in their own power. There are churches out there that are people criticized for being more like social clubs. They engage in certain activities to go through the motions, perhaps to be esteemed in the eyes of others, perhaps to hang on to some measure of being a pillar in the community. People do all sorts of external things. We have to guard our own hearts. Are we truly in love with the Savior? Are we truly looking for Him as a bridegroom, or are we more about our own ends? Do we want salvation without wanting the Christ? We have to search our hearts. If that is you, you're in danger of the condemnation that awaits all that are carnal. If you fast, but it's possible to fast for the wrong reasons, and that very fasting be a coattail on which you go to hell, unless you fast. having been made new through trusting the Savior. And ultimately, we may not be aware of the spiritual season, fasting or celebrating when we could, not only because we are carnal, but the ultimate idea behind being carnal is that we don't know the joy of the Savior. We don't know the joy of the Bridegroom. The key is, I have to ask you, do you know this? You may not fast or celebrate in the right time. This refers to celebration. But do you know that the Lord is your chosen portion and your cup, that He holds your lot? Psalm 16 says, The lions have fallen for me in pleasant places, and indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel, and the night my heart also instructs me. I have set the Lord before me, because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure, for you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your Holy One see corruption. You make known to me the path of life. In Your presence there is fullness of joy, and at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." My friend, do you know that? Do you know the pleasures of the Lord in the seasons? Because in the church ages, I'll get into later, we're called to a mixture of fasting and celebration. I'll get into that in a minute. But in the times when we celebrate the Lord's presence, Has He appeared to you a balm for your soul? Has He appeared to you as one in whose courts it's better to spend there than a thousand days elsewhere? Has He comforted you by His Holy Spirit? Have you found joy in the midst of your trials? Have you known that despite whatever you face, that Bridegroom will be there for you? The Pharisees did not see this. And if you're in your carnality, I ask you to call upon the name of the Lord that you may be saved, that you can see His beauty, that you can see His tender desire to reach down from on high and take hold of you. For all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. You can be saved out of your carnality and you can find Him as the reason for your rejoicing, my friends. Call upon Him and He will do that. So, that much is being said. The carnal today, they don't know the joy of the bridegroom and they are blind. So what about those of us in this room who are spiritual? How can we be blind? How can we fail to be in sync with the season? Well, it happens in a variety of ways, one of which is much like, you know, John encountered, John the Baptist. You know, Jesus appeared to us in all radiance and joy as we were first awakened to salvation, as we trusted Him as our Savior and Lord. We celebrate with Him. We rejoice in Him through great seasons of life, spiritual deaths. Our joys are with Him. We love His law. It is our meditation day and night. But then the trials of life come, like they afflicted John, and we're in pain, and we forget how good the Lord is to us. And so, when it comes time in church, perhaps, to have a song of celebration, we feel like the psalmist in Psalm 77, perhaps. I'm not saying this is the right disposition. It's sinful. It's due to our unbelief. But it says, when I remember God, I moan. When I meditate, my spirit faints. It says, God holds His eyelids open. In other words, at times we forget the joy of the bridegroom because we sense the trials that He has brought into our lives and we think Him harsh. And so, we have a mistaken apprehension. And the correct apprehension is that God is using these trials to grow us, that we might walk closer to Him and see more of His joy in the trials. We're much like John and we forget. And the response is to remember the Lord's goodness, to remember the deeds of the Lord, His wondrous works, to meditate on that, to meditate on the joy of the bridegroom. Take the Song of Psalms and recognize that when God says, Oh come, my beloved one, come. That is what we're called to do. That's how the spiritual forget. We let our troubles come, and we groan, and we complain, rather than see, this bridegroom's going to take care of me. He's got me covered with his garment. He loves me. We miss that. We forget. We miss the forest for the trees, as it were. And the other reason that we are blind, I said the carnal are ultimately fully blind because the God of this world is blind to their mind, but the spiritual can have a partial measure of blindness due to idolatry. We can become spiritually sleepy. You know, in Revelation chapter 3, Christ counsels the church of Laodicea to wake up. that they don't realize they are cold and blind and wretched and naked. They don't realize that they are empty. They're going to church, they're going through the motions, but they're out of touch with the reason that they should celebrate. Or ultimately, in this case I should say, not celebration totally, but fasting, vigilance. They do not know to rend their hearts. Their hearts have a measure of hardness. They need to have their first love, their devotion, to be awakened to the spiritual realities around them. They need new discipline. They need repentance. They need new refreshment. We need that at times. Spiritually sleepy and lukewarm. Does that describe your heart this morning? Have you failed to be vigilant in perhaps a spiritual season of fasting and perhaps deep prayer? Have you failed to recognize that Jesus is your only comfort in life and death, that truth that He once showed to your soul, that in your time of celebration that He's worth celebrating? I'm often concerned today, as Pastor Carl prayed about the difficulties of abortion in this country and gender confusion, that the church has become too sleepy. We have a war raging around us, and how many of us are guilty? None of us in here has done what we ought. We need to pray more. We need to have Christ show us the spiritual realities around us. We need to help and witness to people getting abortions. We need to find ways to reach out to the lost more. But all with a view of His strength. It's Christ the Bridegroom who gives us the joy to do these things. There's the law of what we need to do, but there's the gospel of calling on His strength to strengthen us who are spiritual, who gives us the ability to do all things through Him who strengthens Him, and whose love and our soul shed abroad in our hearts gives us the hope to keep witnessing to the world that our carnal eyes would say it's falling apart, but spiritually it's not. Jesus wins. We've got to remember that. Jesus wins. And so, that's why we become sleepy. We become lukewarm. We become too sated by the comforts of this life. And we get too comfortable and miss the terror that's going on around us. And then we forget the hope of the Savior who can help us address the witness to this terror and who can save the world out of this terror. That's what the bridegroom does. So, if it follows that we misunderstand the spiritual season and we need Christ's help, that brings us to our second main point. So, if we misunderstand the spiritual season, we should listen to Jesus so that our spiritual practice is right for the season. That's our second main sub-point here. And the idea is that in looking to Jesus, He gives us clarity. So what does Jesus say? We've already read the part about why they are celebrating. But Jesus says this, "...the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day." Verse 21, "...no one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment." If he does, the patch tears away from it. The new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins. So, on one level it seems that if we should look to Jesus, as they did rightly, as this man did, to look for clarity, on one measure it seems that this is a confusing illustration Jesus gives. There's a lot of new and old, new wineskins, old wineskins. It seems kind of convoluted. What is going on here? I thought you said then that Jesus gives clarity. Well, He does. Let me explain. This is a metaphor for our spiritual practice being off for the season. And Jesus says that, listen to this illustration, and this illustration will give you clarity. In other words, it has to match. If you're in sync with me, if you're in sync with the spiritual realities of God's Word, what you do will match. And here's what's going on. The old garments and the old wineskins. On the one hand, you have that metaphor, and then you have new wine and new wineskins. So the old garments and the old wineskins represent the practice of the Pharisees and John the Baptist. It represents the fasting period, the waiting for the Messiah to come, the expectation. At least, that's the end of the people who practice spiritually. It's waiting for Him to come, keeping the lamps aloft, waiting like Anna and fasting. That's the old garment and the old wineskins. The new garments and the new wineskins are the celebration. That's the new celebratory garments that Jesus gives while the bridegroom is with Him. You put on a new robe to celebrate. You get new wine and new wineskins to celebrate His coming, His presence. You don't keep looking for Him to come when He's already here. You don't wear the old garment when Jesus is here. You need to put on the new. You don't drink the old wine or use the old wineskins when He is here. You need to get new wine and put it in new wineskins. The reason is that if your practice is out of sync, It's going to be like, if you try to celebrate on a morning garment that's rough hewn and camel's hair, and try to put this nice flamboyant cloth on it, it's not going to fit, is it? It's going to tear. Delicate celebratory cloth amidst camel's hair, you could imagine. Something old or something moth-eaten. It's going to tear. You can't put the new wine of celebration in the old wine that's been aging and used for mourning and looking ahead. That new wine is going to burst the old wineskins. In other words, your practice has to be right. It's an elaborate way of just saying what I said so simply. So that is what's at stake here. It has to match. And we've already seen that that's why Jesus is correcting them, so that everything is congruent. So it follows then, this is what's at stake. So how do we be aware? How do we know what the right season is? If I said we get it wrong, and sometimes we get it right, how do we be sure that we know the right season? Well, if you are carnal, You have to be given a new spiritual heart to keep in pace with the times. You have to know the bridegroom, as I said. You have to ask him. It says, you know, in Jeremiah 31, 33 to 34, in the last days, the law of God will be written on our hearts. It says of the coming of the Messiah in the book of Ezekiel 36, that hearts of stone will be replaced with the heart of flesh. These are metaphors and also spiritual realities of being awakened for salvation, of seeing the beauty of the Savior, of having, of being born again. And in being born again, we are united and given union with the Savior. who has borne us anew to the glorious hope that we are called to, as Ephesians chapter 1 says. And that being said, we're part of the body of Christ. He is the head, and the head directs the members of the body. And so as we read the Word of God, we are clued in to how we should practice once we are saved. And from a heart that seeks itself, that seeks its own carnal ends, we're given a spiritual heart that rejoices in the bridegroom. And therefore, we are clued in. the celebration of our salvation, and the vigilance and the fasting that often accompanies our sanctification. So, that being said, as a general observation, what season are we in today in the Church Age? Well, if we have to know the Savior to rejoice or to fast or write, it follows, as a general principle from the Scripture, that we are in the season today in the Church Age. Jesus is reigning from heaven, governing all. We're in a season today of awaiting the Lord's second coming. And we await His second coming with fasting and celebration. It's a mixture of both. And so how do I know that? Well, we celebrate the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper. We celebrate His Holy Spirit with us. The Bridegroom has risen from the dead and has ascended to heaven at the right hand of the Father, but He didn't leave us orphans, and so as we partake of the Lord's Supper, He is spiritually present with us. We celebrate Him, and we celebrate our kinship in Christ with one another. Jude chapter 1 verse 12 calls it a love feast. We celebrate our love for Christ, the bridegroom, and love for one another. That's a form of celebration. But the Lord's Supper is not just celebration. It shows an admixture of sobriety and meditation, reflecting on our sins. We read this morning, I didn't plan this, but it fits in the life of your church. We heedfully discern the Lord's body, the confession of faith said, meditate on His death and sufferings, stir ourselves up to a vigorous exercise in graces, judging themselves, sorrowing for sin, hungering and thirsting after Christ, feeding on Him by faith. Some people fast in preparation for the Lord's Supper. Yes, we celebrate that meal, and often in the early church there was an agape love fellowship where more food was served. But often people fast to be ready for this feast, that they may search their hearts, that Christ may examine them, and they may know if there be any wicked way within them. So the Lord's Supper is an admixture, and it shows us, as we saw in our confession, the current age in which we exist in the church age. That being said, we also go through seasons of rejoicing as we go through seasons of celebration and fasting. Paul says, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. There are times to celebrate the bridegroom. Lift up your heads, O gates, be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Excitement, fellowship, joy, that sort of thing. We care for each other's needs, and Paul says, make my joy complete, you know, by having one mind. All of these things. So there's a mixture of rejoicing and fasting. So the celebratory aspect is the Lord's Supper, but what other aspects of fasting can we elucidate this morning? Jesus says, when you fast. Therefore, we are to fast. One of those reasons for fasting is, although Jesus has come and has risen again, died and risen again, we seek his presence and strength to meet the temptations of the world. In other words, that we might have spiritual vigor. To go without food so that we might increase our intake of spiritual food, bodily food for the increase of spiritual food, is a way to draw near to the Lord. You know, when the disciples tried to cast out a demon, They were unable, Jesus says, this kind can only come out by prayer and fasting. Now, I'll submit to you that in this day and age, after the death of all of the apostles, we don't live in an age where we see just an abundance of demons being cast out on the street every day. But there's a general principle that in the day and age in which we live today, that if we neglect fasting, if we neglect prayer, that we will be spiritually weaker, if we don't sometimes go without food to spend more time with the Lord. It just makes logical sense that, you know, besetting sins, like the demons, besetting sins, we may have a hard time using the power of Christ, or relying on the power of Christ, I should say, to free ourselves from besetting sins, or to have Christ free us from those. We may struggle with the same old thing, the same old problem. And of course, we all need forgiveness daily in the struggles part of the Christian life. But I think we would achieve a measure of victory, a greater measure, should we spend more time fasting and feasting on the Lord's spiritual presence as we fast. To fast is to feast on His presence in many ways. And then also I think we would be more aware. I said that One of the reasons we fast today is because of the political climate of what's going on in our society and in our churches. All that I mentioned about abortion, all that I mentioned about gender confusion, all the lukewarmness in our church and in our own hearts, in our churches and in our own hearts, we need to fast. and then that'll give us greater vigor. There are also special seasons. I've mentioned general seasons. Special seasons, often fasting would occur as the congregation selected new ministers or elders. Often the elder candidates would fast. That would be going on. If there is great sin in the church, James says, to weep and mourn, to purify our hearts. All of this is a form of vigilance that is often accompanied with fasting, that the church might be purified and walk in greater holiness. So those are the reasons that we both in this age celebrate, feast, and then fast. One of the things that we need to keep in mind too, God's Word is our guide, our soul guide, for how we should practice spiritually in this season. But applying that Word, being alert to how God's Word would have us practice, requires spiritual discernment that is given to us by the Holy Spirit. One of the reasons we hear of spiritual may be lukewarm and passive in the midst of such great evil, is that we are not walking with the Lord as we ought. We are quenching the Spirit. We are not mortifying our sins with the help of the Savior. And so, that being said, we aren't spiritually alert to the fact that this should be a season of mourning, politically or otherwise, or of mourning the lukewarmness in the church. We have failed to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may discern the will of God, His good, pleasing, and perfect will." To discern where we really are as a church. To be awake. And ultimately, in this age, as I say in conclusion, the way ultimately to be right for the season is that God gives us spiritual light in Jesus, the present Lord of the New Covenant. and that our understanding can only be right insofar as we seek Him and His Word. The only way to do that, as I said, is to know Christ, to receive the good news of the gospel. You must be born again. Spiritual truths, 2 Corinthians 14 and 15 said, are spiritually discerned. You must know that you are about your own ends. For a heart that is not inclined to rejoice or to fast, for a heart that lets its own self, its own self-seeking, seek its cycles. You must instead recognize the sinfulness and brokenness of your heart that apart from Christ, Being devoted only to yourself and to your own ends will lead you to hell. It will lead you to alienation and brokenness in this life, and all kinds of misery, spiritual misery. But if you know Christ, if you confess these sins that I've mentioned, of being about your own ends, of being, my friends, dull, of being self-righteous, of being carnal. If you confess these things and turn to Christ, turn from your sins, turn to Christ by faith, trusting that His shed blood will wash your sins away and can soften your heart and give you a new heart to find something greater to rejoice in than yourself, to find one who loves you, to find one who melts your sins away. Trusting Him by faith, He will forgive you of your sins and you'll be made a new person. You will be, my friends, made partakers of the divine nature to be united with Christ, to know the joy of having Him as the head of the body, of being united with the church and celebrating His presence among you in the Lord's Supper and otherwise. And you will know, you will have holy conviction about when to fast as your heart is made new, as you mourn with the things that mourn Christ, as you are disturbed by the things that disturb Him, and as you, my friends, hold your lamps aloft And look to your Redeemer in His return, whose draw is nigh. You will know that. So believe the gospel. Believe the good news of Christ and His saving power. Know the love of the Bridegroom. And have Him fill you with joy unspeakable and be saved. Amen. We now go to our closing hymn, and that is Psalm 90B. And actually, before we sing that, I usually do a prayer of application. We'll do this real quick before we sing this psalm. So, Lord, hear our prayers this day. We've examined, O God, Your Word. We've examined its truthfulness, its power, O Lord, to change our hearts. May our hearts be changed. O Lord, enlighten those. Open the eyes and ears of the hearts of those that need to know You savingly. And for the rest of us, Lord, give us peace and strength. and the ability not to be lukewarm, not to be doubtful, but to be filled with boldness, so that whether we fast or celebrate, You are in us fully, and Your fullness is in us all in all. We pray these things in Jesus' name.