Please be seated. We're now going to turn in our Bibles to the New Testament reading and the reading for our sermon passage, the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6. And we're going to consider three verses this morning, 16, 17, and 18. Matthew 6, 16, 17, and 18. I was explaining to someone earlier that I had planned to be in the other passage dealing with what is our true treasure before Christmas. But Providence struck us a couple of weeks back and we had to cancel church. And now before Sunday, before Christmas, I'm probably the only preacher preaching on fasting. God is good. You've got something for us today. Let us hear now from our God Matthew 6, 16 through 18. Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you." That's part of the reading of God's holy and inspired Word, and may He add His blessing to it this morning. Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're entering upon the third part of this little mini-series upon the series and within a series on Matthew. This one being the practice of private piety. It's hard to say that. But this one's now dealing with fasting. Fasting. Why fast? Why do we even need to talk? Why do we even need to practice a fast? Well, needless to say, all of us in here practice a fast unless you have the habit of a midnight snack. We all practice a fast every night. In fact, when you wake up, whether you're having coffee and eggs, a grapefruit, just coffee. What did you just do? You just broke your fast. We call it breakfast. Now, with certain modern books, you know, out today, and even movies, there's people that even practice a second breakfast. But we all practice breakfast. We all break our fast. That's going to come up in a moment, breaking our fast. It's going to come up in a moment. And so as we consider our Lord's words here, this third practice of our private piety, let's bring up this topic of fasting. Jesus brings this topic up and now we consider the passage in this theme. Jesus continues his teaching on piety and now we consider, this is the key, the humbling practice of piety. The humbling practice of fasting. piety, the humbling practice of fasting. In order to explain these words from Jesus' teaching, consider these two groups of extremely opposite points of view, opposite practices. First is found in verse 16, the hypocrite's practice, the hypocrite's practice, and then 17 and 18, the Christian practice. So those are the two opposite views. Let's begin with verse 16. the Hippocrates practice. Now, before we get there, there is foundation we must rest, must understand, must see. The foundation is the prophets and the apostles. So, beginning with, we've already read Leviticus 16, 29, through the close of that chapter, which talked about humbling your souls. Now, when in the world is that? Continuing also Leviticus 23, 27 through 32, that's another part where it explains the Day of Atonement, a holy convocation where people all over the land of Israel were not called to go to Israel, but were called to humble their souls in their homes, in their places, not to work, and some other things. Continuing now with the prophets, Joel says, Joel chapter 2 verse 12, Yet even now declares the Lord, Return to me with all your heart and with fasting, weeping, and mourning. So repentance and fasting. And then you get into the part where, well, the people did not practice what God had told them to do. They did not practice their faith. They did not celebrate the Sabbath the way they were supposed to. In fact, they, in fact, brought idols into their worship. And so God punished them, put them into exile. And so we find history of the moments where they were in exile, where we find people fasting and praying. Nehemiah, for example, Nehemiah 1, 4, we heard, when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days. And I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven, Nehemiah 9.1. Now on the 24th day of this month, the sons of Israel assembled with fasting in sackcloth and with dirt upon them." So we find the first one is a personal, individual fast. Nehemiah as a person is fasting. And then in that second passage, a congregational fast. A congregational fast. Israel, the congregation, that word assembled is congregated. Israel congregated with fasting. Esther, we know Esther, the book that supposedly does not mention God, but yet it mentions her fasting. What is that? That's praying to God. That's what fasting is. But then you find the whole point of the book of Esther is to get to that celebration of Purim, which is what? Esther 9.31 says, the celebration of Purim, the instructions for their times of fasting and their lamentations. Purim was to be a time for fasting, to remember what God had done. So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and supplications with fasting sackcloth and ashes. And where we're going, Zechariah, Zechariah 8, 19, thus says the Lord of hosts, the fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, the fast of the tenth months will become joy, gladness, and cheerful feast of the house of Judah. So love, truth, and peace. As Zechariah grabs up his prophetic binoculars and sees way into the future, he says there's going to come a day where fasting will end, where we will break our fast and it'll be a feast of joy celebration. Joyful celebration. Now, fasting. We find a good definition for what fasting is, in fact, in the Psalms. I'm only going to read one. Psalm 35, verse 13. But as for me, When they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting. And my prayer kept returning to my bosom." Connecting the dots, the Day of Atonement, humble your soul. You find the prophet talking about fasting, the history, the church with fasting, and the psalmist says, I humbled my soul with fasting. That's Old Testament. Jesus is speaking of it in Matthew 6. Does he talk about it elsewhere? You bet. As he's coming down off the mountain of Transfiguration in Matthew 17, he sees some of his disciples and a father of a son who is paralytic. He's falling on the ground, trembling, shaking, almost drowning himself, almost catching himself on fire. And they're saying, we can't exercise this. We can't heal him. What are we to do? And Jesus says, you know, How long am I supposed to be with this foolish generation, this faithless generation? And then he explains to them, but this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. You find in the book of Acts, whenever there was a minister to be established for a missionary cause, like Paul and Barnabas, apostles going out, the apostles prayed and fasted. And whenever an elder was to be chosen for a congregation, the congregation did not just, well, who do we think would be good for the job? They prayed and they fasted. This is the practice of the church. Now, that's the foundation. That's the prophets and apostles, our foundation, built on the cornerstone of our Savior's words here, Jesus Christ, His words here. Now, this is Scripture. Let's get back. Verse 16. Jesus begins with these words in verse 16. Whenever you fast. That's right. Jesus begins this section, this third practice of piety, with the presupposition that we will fast. We will fast. Notice again, the Lord's words here are not speaking of probability or even command, but of a fact. When you fast. One could see embedded in this a command. I, however, don't see much of a command, more of a statement of reality. When you fast, it's going to happen. When you fast. You see, it's not a question of should the Christian fast or not. For as Jesus starts this third aspect of our piety, it is assumed that the Christian will fast. And as we read the Psalms and other places in the Old Testament, we notice that the practice is, in fact, for our humiliation, which is why we see Jesus Christ fasting in his humiliating life. Yet there seems to be coming out of the period of the exile of the church, which we saw with Daniel, Esther, Nehemiah, and Zechariah, that there became some steady practice during Israel's humiliation in exile, that they fasted and prayed regularly. And then so it would seem to suggest that when you get into the time of Palestine and Israel under the oppression of Rome that that same practice would be in place even this day as they're still under the oppression of a foreign dictator. And so we see them restraining this practice, restraining from food and for a time in order to pray. Let's consider who Jesus is speaking against. Noticing that they fast only for show. Verse 16, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Again, we notice that these hypocrites are fasting only for people to see their gaunt faces and looking off at how pious they are. Oh, look at those guys. This reminds me of some confusion years ago with some theological students. One gentleman was doing a complete and total fast. All he had was liquids. And he was doing it for a period of time, and some of the students were pretty nosy. You're not feeling well. You obviously are sick. What's wrong with you? He says, I'm fine. Let me be. Well, not really concerned for him, because the moment he said, I'm fine, let me be, they should have. They continued to cry after him for his health. And finally, he was trying to follow our Lord's example here. Don't let anybody know. Make sure you look fine. Make sure you look OK. He finally said, listen, I'm fasting. Would you please let me be? I'm fasting. And they said, man, you've really lost weight. Maybe we should do this, too. This, brothers and sisters, is an illustration to point out that even people today don't get fasting. They don't understand what fasting is about. Fast is done in private, not in public. They are to be seen as healthy, not as ill. And it's definitely not for dieting reasons, but for humiliation and prayer to humble your soul. Now, Jesus continues in verse 16, and we see that people who do it for appearance will receive a just reward. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. This is a simple fact that Jesus continues to impress upon our hearts, that if you do things for people to see you do them, then your reward will simply be with their applause, their praise, their admiration, and that is it. That's it. Nothing else. These false, pious hypocrites go around making up, you know, not washing themselves, not bathing, not putting makeup on, but so that people make them think, oh, they're really humble. Look at them. They must be doing something. They, how does Jesus put it, make sure that they neglect their appearance. They neglect their appearance, make themselves look more horrible than they really are. They walk around groaning and moaning with what they're calling hunger pains, which probably in reality the pain is from their digestion, from what they ate just the morning before. You see, it's not fasting. And their stomachs are full. And what Jesus is saying is their stomach is full with the wrath of God for their lie, for their hypocrisy. And now we ask ourselves, from Jesus' words here, we see Jesus first, he assumes that we will fast. Jesus then goes on into what we are not to look like, not to do when we are fasting. And then the question is raised for us Christians. Why do we not take fasting more seriously? Why do we not take fasting more seriously? Well, Pastor, you know. It's because we're Reformed. It's because we're Reformed. It's because we believe in celebration. We believe in the bounty of God's blessings of our daily bread. We believe that we must take part in the goodness of God's creation. And all of that is true. We do believe that, but we've lost something. We've lost something. with the practice of fasting. Other men who were Reformed have said this about fasting. Prayer holds the first rank among the duties of piety, but fasting is a doubtful operation and does not, like alms, belong to the class of those actions which God requires and approves. Fasting is to train us to abstinence, to subdue the lust of the flesh, to excite us to earnestness in prayer, and to testify of our repentance when we are affected by the view of the tribunal of God." John Calvin. Another good Reformed brother has said, fasting, and this is thinking in all the counsel of God, which we have read, fasting is the humbling of the soul. Let that therefore be your principal care. That was Matthew Henry. Fasting is the humbling of the soul. Let that be your principal care. Let's consider the Christian practice. Christian practice of fasting. 17 and 18. But you when you fast anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men but by your father who is in secret and your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. As we reread these verses we see these two realities. 17 shows us that fasting is not for show. It's not for show. And second fasting is just for the father in heaven. It's not for show, verse 17. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face. In the ancient world, water was scarce. In fact, the only people that had baths were those of noble class or of wealthy, that were wealthy. And so one did not bathe or shower daily. They simply washed their face with whatever they had. They washed their hands, their feet, and they would anoint their head with oil, some type of perfume. It would make them smell better. Because they obviously have not been bathing for days, months, you get the idea. But what Jesus is getting at here is for it would seem that, and he is suggesting the Christian to do the exact opposite of the hypocrite. Instead of making sure people see that you look awful, make sure that people see that you look healthy, you look fine. Put on makeup so that you don't look gaunt. Wash your faces, make it so that you are healthy and that you are feeling fine. This is dealing with putting on the appearance that all is well with the Christian and that is not a lie. For Christ is feeding your soul with his grace in fasting. You see, this is to show that all is well with the Christian. It is not so that the public can see how pious you are, but so that God can see how much you are humbling yourself in sanctification. You see, the fact of fasting is that one must One must be in public and therefore must put on an appearance that all is well. Must camouflage with makeup. And that is not lying but speaking the truth for all is well with the person. The catch is not found in verse 17 here. Verse 17 seems to teach us that when we're to fast in order to be seen by people, not to hear their praise of our glorious piety, but that we make sure that In our humbling, we're not exalting ourselves. We see this in order in verse 18, in fact, verse 18. Let's read that one again. This is just for the Father, so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Jesus here continues his pious application of fasting by pointing out the practice of fasting is only for the Father in heaven. Again, we're not to fast for men to see or to be noticed by men, which is why Jesus started with this in verse 17. We are to fast so that our Father in heaven, who is in secret, who cannot be seen, will see what is done when no one else can see. This again is talking of integrity. The greatest test of all, what you do in private, counts when nobody sees. And for our Father who sees what is done in secret will reward us. When we fast, we give up food and some kind of drink for the sake of humiliation, humility, and Jesus gives us God's will that for one day where we were humiliated, we will one day be exalted in his praise and in his glory. This is the focus of our piety, God's glory. In that glorious prayer of our Lord, he taught us last week that when we understand the teaching of our church, saying concerning God's will to be done on earth as it is done in heaven, we understand this, that your will be done on earth as it is heaven. That is, grant that we and all men renounce our own will, and without disputing obey your will, which alone is good, so that everyone may fulfill his office and calling as willingly and faithfully as the angels do in heaven. Now it focuses upon that part where it says, and we and all men renounce our will, and without dispute obey. your will." This speaks of submission to God's will. And this is what practicing fasting forces us to do. Obey God's will. Reject the flesh. Live by the Spirit and be fed by the Word of God. For man does not live by bread alone, but by the very Word of God. I want to close with this idea of feeding upon God's very Word. I'm going to make some connections here, so pay very close attention. First, feeding upon God's Word. This is to say, a complete digestion upon the Scriptures. Praying, meditating upon, and reading the very Word of God, which is seen in two areas of church life. The first is that whenever these doors are open, whether it is Bible study, Wednesday, Saturday, or even Sunday, the Christian will be there. Will not find a reason to miss. Because the Christian is hungry for God's Word. Hungry to hear the Word of God. Break your fast and attend worship. Break your fast and attend Bible study. The Christian is hungry. The second is in fact at this table. where we feed upon the visible Word of God, the sacrament, where we feed upon our Savior. We're hungry for that. It's coming up in January. Prepare your hearts for that. That's where we also are fed by the grace of God. Those are the two means of grace. Where we feed upon our Savior. We can know that we will not be malnourished nor go hungry with such a Savior because He knows what it is like to live in humiliation. They reminded these words of our creed from the councils of Nicaea and Constantinople. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end. See what it said of the great son of God, the only begotten, the second person of the Trinity, lived in glory from eternity past with all the beauties of heaven. And as Paul puts it, that we are to have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, humbled himself, taking on the form of a bondservant, being made in the likeness of men. That's what we celebrate on Christmas. Christ began a fast. And one day we will break that fast with him. You see, the entire life of Christ was a humiliating fast on our behalf. Jesus Christ added to himself the human nature, our human nature. He left his heavenly home on our behalf, suffered on our behalf, and fasted on our behalf so that we may be saved. Jesus proclaims that when we join in him in fasting, we join in him with a wonderful message of the gospel, which is humiliating, but eventually is exalting. When we break our fast with the great feast in the Lord, even Jesus today, to this day, is still waiting to take part in that supper he began a long time ago. He's waiting for the wedding feast that is to come where we all will break fast of this humiliating life and will join with Him in glory at the great day of our Lord, the wedding feast of Jesus Christ. This is something that we must hear before we celebrate Christmas. This is what he gave up. And as we long for his second coming, that's what we wait for. A better day to celebrate. A better day to come. Let us stand in Our great God, our Father, as you decreed from time past to send your son to live among us, sheep very much like pigs, not willing to give up anything. And so as he came and fed among the pigs, among the swine that we are, Lord God, we do thank you that in that humiliating life of our Savior Jesus Christ, the Son who left home, the prodigal, we thank you that we find forgiveness. We thank you that in His humiliation we are lifted up, that we are brought low and lifted up on the cross, that our sins are nailed there, no longer to be looked on upon again. a once-for-all sacrifice of the Son of God. But yet, even as we see the empty tomb, as we know that He went home and you waited, you ran out to meet Him, and that you are preparing a feast at this very moment. For when all your children come to you, may we not err to say, well, why are these people coming? But may we run to you as well. longing to break our fast with our Savior in glory. We wait for the day where He returns and brings all things new. As we are reminded of His first coming, may we be reminded of His second. And may we continue to learn and to pray as He has taught us how to pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.