The Christian life..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. As I said, I'm inviting you to open up your Bibles there to the Book of Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 6. And tonight, we are going to be addressing the topic of fasting, individual secret fasting as a spiritual discipline or as an aspect of the Christian life of the believer, of the saint.

So let's read together the passage of the Scripture, and then we will get into our Bibles. You should have received your outlined in which you have the scriptures and some of the points that we're going to be covering tonight, I hope. Matthew chapter 6, verse 16. This is the word of the Lord. And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces, that their fasting may be seen by others truly I say to you, they have received their reward.

But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting might not be seen by others, but by your father who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. These are the words of the Lord, and the Lord bless the time that we're going to spend together. As I said, brothers and sisters, we're going to be addressing the topic of fasting tonight, and this is a continuation of this year's Bible studies in the practical life of the Christian. Our hope and our desire is that we address these practical aspects of the individual life first, And then we move towards the life of the family, and then, as we have said now many times, by God's grace, we hope to end in the life of the Christian and the biblical church.

The foundation of the church and the foundation of the families, of course, rests upon the individual. So the reality in the heart of the individual is that which makes a family a biblical family. And the reality and the substance, what is in our hearts, is that which makes a church, or a Christian church, and indeed a biblical church. So it is of uttermost importance, all of this topic that we are addressing from the scriptures, as I said, and we have said many times, not only from here, but also in the pulpit, that every time that we hear the word, that we may do it, that we may do it diligently, that we may take heed of the things that we are hearing and the things that we're studying together, confronting ourselves and checking our hearts before the Lord, not seeing to ourselves only, but the Lord, before the Lord, so that we may desire always to come to the person of Jesus Christ and be made more like Him. So tonight we're going to be addressing the spiritual discipline of fasting.

We have spoken about spiritual disciplines such as Bible reading or Bible study of the life of the Christian in the Scriptures. And also, we have addressed the life of the Christian in prayer. When we think about those two spiritual disciplines compared with fasting, there's a difference between those two. And the difference is that fasting is something that is done against nature. Eating and drinking, which is what we're going to be addressing tonight, is something that is against nature.

We have been made by God to eat and to drink, and actually our life depends from eating and drinking. Well, on the other hand, communication, either written communication or verbal communication, or even just listening and understanding language or reading language, what is kind of like what falls into prayer and Scripture reading, that is somehow in alignment with our nature. That is easier to align with the things for which we have designed communication and language and speaking, communicating with one another, communicating with God, prayer, and scriptures, while this one, the one that we have here, this one is against nature. And hence, we are required to understand from a biblical point of view what scripture says about it so that if the scripture has called us to fast, that we will not only understand what it is, which is very simple to understand actually what it is, but rather that we will be moved by the Spirit to live a life not only of prayer and the Scriptures, but everything that the Scripture says that we ought to do. Because the Christian, by the Holy Spirit, is to come to the Scriptures and submit themselves to the sufficiency of what is written here.

So what we're going to be addressing tonight is individual secret fasting. And those two words are very important in that type of fasting, because there is a corporate fasting that is primarily spoken of in the Old Testament, in which the whole people of Israel, they will come and fast together as a nation. Of course, when there is a collective or community fasting, that is not going to be secret, right? Because people are going to know that they are fasting, and they will see that one another are actually fasting. What we are addressing here comes in alignment with a series of studies that we're doing in the individual life.

Hence, what we are going to be addressing primarily and particularly tonight is individual, that is one person, secret, that is that no one knows, fasting. That is a spiritual discipline of the believer as per the things that we have read in the instruction given by the Lord here in Matthew 6, verse 16 and onwards. Now, as I have tried to approach many of the topics, perhaps even in the last month or even in the last season, I'm not going to address so much what fasting is, because all of us have heard what fasting is, and perhaps we have fasted in the past. We know the definition or the general definition of what fasting is as a spiritual discipline. I think that all of us have been in Christian life and in church life for a period of time in which we know what fasting is.

But again, what I want to do is to show you the reason why we are called to fast, or the reason why we are supposed to fast according to what is contained in the Scripture, and I hope that if the Spirit of God helps us and guides us, and if He's with us, not only in this moment in which we're communicating and hearing these things, but when we live here, that then we will have a greater appreciation of the reason why we are called to fast, or that we're expected to fast, and that we will honor the Lord Jesus Christ from this spiritual discipline of fasting. So as you have it there in your outline, what we're going to be doing tonight is that we're going to be addressing, first of all, the reason why. Did I turn this on? Sorry. Yeah, so the first thing that we're going to be doing is addressing the reason why we are going to be fasting.

That is the heart. I've said to you that it's very difficult to hold things in our heads. Our heads are usually going to forget. We do not live our lives from the things that we have in our head. We live our lives from the things that we have in the heart that have become convictions.

And those things that have become convictions are the ones that move us, of course, through our minds to live our lives in a particular way. So in the Christian life, it's necessary and it's mandatory, not that only we understand superficially concepts and abstract ideas, but rather that we can come to an encounter, to the light of what Scripture says about that particular topic, not only with our head, but also with our heart. So that by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, He will move us in His power to live as He has written and given us in the Scripture for ultimately the glory of the One who loved us and gave Himself for us upon that cross, the One that is reigning in heaven and the One that is coming on a glorious day to take us to abide with Him eternally, our Lord Jesus Christ. So we are to understand the reason why. Once we understand that reason why, then I want to move to the method or the how.

How are we or how should we fast? Why should we fast? How should we fast? And then in the end, Very briefly and even I may just simply mix it with how we're going to speak about when we should fast so the practical aspect of the method and the timing of the fasting as you can see comes after we have Meditated upon together upon the reason and what Scripture says about fasting. There's not even a definition after, as you can see there in your outline, after we have addressed why and how, then is when I'm presenting to you a definition from what we have discussed of what fasting is.

We're not coming from the what, we're coming from the reason why, asking the Lord to speak to our hearts and to move us by His Holy Spirit, and perhaps, Lord, we will be able to grow in conformity to you. So, beloved of Christ, let's start with the first point, and that is, why are we supposed to fast? Why should Christians fast? Why should believers practice that which is called fasting? And as you can see there in your outline, I have given two answers to that question of why we should fast.

The reason of why we should fast is answered there in your outline with two answers. The first one, as is clearly stated there in the text, is that fasting, beloved of Christ, is not a command, but rather is an expectation. It's a divine expectation from the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, when you fast... He's not giving us an imperative that we ought to fast, but rather in the words of the Lord, we can see that there is a divine expectation that Christians will fast when you fast.

And then He gives us the directions on how we are supposed to do it. But beloved of Christ, meditate upon that when you fast. One thing is that I will have an expectation that you will do something, or that my family will do something, or that anyone will do something. One thing is that I person, I limited person will have an expectation that other person will do something. In the expectation, or when you say, when you go to your house, or when you go to school, do this and that, in that human expectation that someone will do something, there's this limitation that that something will not take place.

There is the possibility that that thing may not take place. But here we have the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God Himself, who knows all things, speaking of a divine expectation that because He's the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that is saying, when you fast, then we can conclude that Christians will indeed fast. It's not just left as an expectation that perhaps may happen or perhaps may not happen as when someone expects that another person will do something. But rather, this divine expectation speaks of what Christians indeed will do. The Lord says, when you fast, then that means that Christians will fast.

Those who, by grace through faith, have been united in the person of Jesus Christ, they will come appointing their pilgrims. in which they will fast. So then when the Lord Jesus Christ says, when you fast, then those words are not only for the people that were receiving those words and for Christians who do fast, but for every single Christian because the Lord knows what is actually going to take place. And the other thing, beloved, that I want you to think from this divine expectation That one thing is for us to do a particular thing as a response to a commandment that is given from the Lord. The Lord gives us commandments through the New Testament to do this and to do that prayer.

Prayer is an expectation, but it's also a commandment. Pray without ceasing. Pray with much supplication in the Holy Spirit. But when it comes to fasting, there's no clear commandment, but rather what the only evidence that we have is that it's an expectation of the Christian life. Now think about it.

The life of the son or the daughter in relation to his or her father is one thing when it's defined by obedience to the instructions and commandments that the father gives to the daughter or to the son. But it's a very different thing when the son or the daughter live their life based on the spiritual or the heart expectations that the father will have. That happens even in our relationship, human relationships. One thing is when our children have done something that is wrong against something that we have clearly given them an instruction not to do. And then when they break that instruction, they know that they deserve to be punished, or whatever discipline we might give them, they know that they have done it.

And hence, they deserve the punishment of the discipline. But it's another thing when they do something that disappoints the heart of the parent because it was not a commandment, but simply you expected that your son or your daughter will behave in a particular way and they behaved in a contrary and opposite way. Not breaking so much an instruction or a commandment, but rather something, doing something that is just not expected from them. I hope, beloved of Christ, very limited words, the ones that I have to explain, but I hope that you can see the depth of that, that the Lord expects that Christians will come to a point in which they will be moved by the presence of God in such a way that they will relinquish the things of their flesh. And then we'll come to the presence of the Lord and fast as a spiritual discipline that is not a commandment, but it's rather a divine expectation.

Think about the passage that I just put there in your outline. The instructions that the Apostle Paul gives in 1 Corinthians 7. in which he's speaking about marriage, and he's saying that it's good for husbands and wives, or for a man to have a wife, so that there will not be sexual immorality. This is 1 Corinthians 7, from verse 1 onwards. And then, there is an assumption from the Apostle, an assumption that moves the Apostle to concede something to the Christian marriage.

The assumption is that the husband and the Christian wife will be moved for their desire to pray and to fast, or to pray and to seek the Lord, that He gives them the concession to be separated in the intimacy for a particular period of time. But don't do it for long so that you will not burn in your passions. But the apostle has this assumption that the Christian marriages, the Christians may come to a point in which they decide that we are going to separate us from intimacy so that we will give ourselves for the presence, the secret presence of the Lord. There's no commandment that we have to do so. But there is a concession for us to do it with the assumption and the purpose that the heart of the husband and the wife, at a particular point, are going to be moved to such a point that you are going to decide to separate the intimacy so that you will give yourself, he says.

So that means, even implicitly, we can see that when this giving of self to the Lord in seeking Him in prayer and fasting can take place, there's this assumption, or the same assumption that the Apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 2, verse 2, also in the verse that I gave you there, in which the Apostle is speaking to Timothy, urges him, not to give himself, not to entangle himself with the things of this world. Because the one that entangles himself with the things of this world is unable to please the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the one who has enlisted that man to be a soldier of Christ. There is an expectation that because of the heart of the man of God will want to please the Lord, then the man of God will not entangle himself with the things of this life. Even though the things of life, there might be some things that are Natural and they're legitimate. I cannot pronounce the word.

How do you pronounce the word? Legitimate. There might be some things that are legitimate or natural that we have a right to do those things, but that we are not entangled ourselves with the things of the world so that we will please the one who has called us for this word, for this service unto the Lord Jesus Christ, Beloved. the Lord God who has saved us and then just listen to those words the Lord God who has saved us the Lord Jesus Christ says to your soul when you fast when you fast he's not giving you a commandment yet But he is speaking here about this divine expectation that there will be a time when you fast. There is a desire in the heart of God that Christians will fast because he says in his omniscience, when you fast.

Having said that, let me just simply ask this question and answer it. Because this is going to help us to see the reason why we are called, we should fast. Why would God expect of us to do something that is contrary to nature? I'm saying to you that fasting is a divine expectation of your soul. That God expects that you will fast.

Now, why would God call us to do something that is against nature? And not only against nature, but against the nature that He created. When we remember the story of creation in the garden in Genesis 1, 2 and 3, we see that food, drinking and eating take a so important part in the whole narrative of those three chapters. That God created the heavens and the earth and then God created humanity, Adam and Eve, and He placed them in a place where they will be able to find everything that they needed to eat and drink. God created humanity even before the fall with the natural God-given desire not only to eat and to drink, but also this is necessity and part of life.

Now, why then God would call us to do, or at least expect us to do, something that is contrary to nature? Why would he expect us to do something that seems to go against the initial design of eating and drinking? As you can see, beloved brothers and sisters there, I gave you in your outline different reasons. And I really hope that the Lord may help us just to speak to your hearts in the way that I desired and in the way that I hope the Lord desires to speak to our hearts so that we will understand why we are called, or expected at least, to do something that goes against our nature. Because, brothers and sisters, the difficulty of fasting is found in that it indeed goes against our nature.

It goes against our desires, the desires of our flesh. Again, as I've said in another time, prayer and perhaps scripture, they are more in alignment to the things that we can do as people, but also there is a sense in which you can derive a certain level of satisfaction or a certain level of external and open reward when you give yourself to study the scriptures and you know the scriptures so much. and then you speak about the Scriptures and people know that you know the Scriptures. There's a sense of human reward that sinful flesh desires so that people will be moved to give themselves to the Scriptures in the flesh so that they will receive that reward. And in the same sense, this sinful aspect of our flesh can move us in the aspect of prayer to do things in the flesh to derive a certain level of religiosity and approval before God just purely in the flesh.

Now, according to the text that we have here in Matthew chapter 6, there is a way in which we could fast that people can see and be hypocritical fasting just that people will see. But when you see it in the secret place, still we're going against the flesh. Yes, there are so many people around the world that can give themselves in their flesh to extend the periods of fasting. Even people who are unbelievers, just think about the Muslims who give themselves to fasting and to all of these things for extended periods of time. But Beloved of Christ, why would God call genuine believers and genuine Christians to fast?

Help us Lord. Point number one that you have there in your outline, Beloved of Christ. The reason why God will genuinely and of course righteously expect that we will fast. The reason why fasting is an expectation is because God has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness." That is, that He has given to us everything that is necessary so that we will live the life that He expects us to live.

Please follow my reasoning. Fasting is a divine expectation of the life of the Christian. But God himself has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, so that we will be able to do whatever he has commanded and expected us to do, including fasting. Fasting is not impossible because it goes against our flesh. Fasting is possible in the Spirit because God has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, and He is the one that has empowered us to do everything that is written and to live the life that He wills us to live according to what is written.

So from this very point, we see that fasting is not about us. Fasting is not about a self-strength or a self-assessment that you are able to go for a particular period of time without food or without drink. But fasting starts in the empowering of God given to His saints all things that pertain to life and godliness. Therefore, we can even conclude from now that no one is going to be able to fast according to what is written if the person is doing it in the flesh. Just us, there is not going to be power in our prayer if it's done in the flesh.

And just us, there is not going to be power in our meditations of the scriptures if it's done in the flesh. He has granted all things to us. So that means that even going against our flesh, going against our natural desire to eating and drinking, and the necessity of it, is empowered by the Lord to actually fulfill that expectation that comes from above. brothers and sisters, if He had empowered us, that would be enough. If only He had empowered us to do all of these things by His Holy Spirit, and if He had provided all things that pertain to life and godliness, that would be sufficient for us to engage in the spiritual discipline of fasting.

But there is something greater that God has done for us. And that's something greater that God has done to us, or for us. It's not only that he has empowered us with everything that is needed for life and godliness, but it's also, beloved of Christ, that he has revealed himself to us. You have it there in 2 Peter chapter 1. Go there to 2 Peter chapter 1 so you can see it with your eyes.

In that passage of the Scripture, beloved, in which he speaks, the Apostle writes, you remember, that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Arrive to that passage, please. Brothers and sisters, the Lord says that his divine power has granted to us All things, not some, but all things that pertain to life and godliness. Our life is empowered by Him. And part of our life, God expects that we fast.

I hope that you can see what I'm just trying to say there. But if only that empowering that He has given us of all things that pertain to life and Godliness would have been given only that, that would have been sufficient for us to go on our knees and praise the Lord who has given us life and empowered us. But He has done something greater than this. Because the giving of all of these things, according to what you have there in the text, is through the knowledge of Him who called us. And pay attention to the words that come after this.

The calling of the one who has empowered us. It is to his glory and what? You have it there. excellence, or by His glory and excellence. He has called us unto, or to, or by His glory and His excellence.

And the calling of God is for us to come to Him. That's why when you see how I wrote fasting, I think I wrote something like, are coming to God, or are coming to the Lord in fasting. Because when we are fasting, it's not that we are just doing something, we are coming to the Lord. And in the moment that the Lord saved us, He called us, and He did that through His glory and His virtue, or His excellence. That is, that when we were saved, beloved of Christ, dead in our trespasses, we were blind to the glory and to the excellence of God.

But once the Holy Gospel was preached to us and by the Holy Spirit illuminated to our hearts, The thing that took place was that we received the life of Christ in our hearts, we regenerated a given life, and we were able to behold the beauty of God as it is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ in the Gospel, so that we will turn in repentance from our dead works and we will believe in Him. People have debated throughout the ages if repentance is something that is necessary for salvation, as if repentance was a work that happens in the person ultimately. Repentance and faith is something that we do. Repentance and faith is something that we are called and commanded to do. But repentance and faith only happens and takes place because the life of Christ has come into our heart, has regenerated us, and now has naturally and spiritually moved us to that which is now normal for the one that is regenerated.

That is to respond to the gospel in repentance to the dead works and also in faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Is us the ones who do those works? Yes, but not ultimately. It is the life that God has given us, the ones that are moving us. Salvation happens when a person truly beholds the glory and the excellence of the Lord through the person of Jesus Christ.

The glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ and beloved of Christ. Coming to the Lord and fasting is not only possible, and it's not only that He expects us to do so because He has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, but beloved, we have not only in fasting, but in every spiritual discipline, the promise that we can come and behold the beauty of God in His presence. Beloved of Christ, if I could understand in your heads and in your hearts what beauty, how beauty is defined. Some of you may see flowers or mountains or colors or flavors or whatever, and you may attach this concept of beauty to it. If I only knew what is that in your brain so that you will understand what I'm trying to say, because it's the beauty of God, basically in His glory and in His excellence, the one that is supposed to drive us to come to Him, Not only in fasting, but in every single spiritual and discipline.

So that means that not only fasting, but prayer and scripture and everything. It is a supernatural drawing of the glory and the virtue and the excellence of God to the soul of a person that is cultivating or taking them captive because of who he is. If you are blind or ignorant to what I'm saying, Then you will never come to the person of God, to the person of Jesus Christ in God, in that sense. Because we will never be drawn just as the lost person is not naturally and spiritually drawn to Christ. Unless it is the father, the one that draws him to the Lord and to his son.

So brothers and sisters, the power of fasting is not found in the practice itself. It's found in the reason of why Christians are expected to fast. Why would God expect us to do something that is against this human nature? Because He has empowered us with a spiritual nature. We are partakers of the divine nature, the nature of God, the spiritual nature.

God dwells in us. We have been partakers of the divine nature in union with the person of Jesus Christ. And hence, we have been empowered with all things that pertain to life and godliness. and we can behold the beauty of this glorious God, His virtue, and everything that He is. And once a person has a glimpse of who Christ is, not only when they are saved, but continually, then it's when the things of the world start to lose value, even the things that we consider and that we think that we deserve, naturally and in a legitimate way.

That is the second answer that you had there, beloved of Christ. But there is another reason of why the Lord will call us to do something that is contrary to our nature. And that is, beloved, as you have it there in Psalm 149, if you go there. I don't know if you've read this scripture before. Psalm 149.

Brother Roach, if you can please read those verses, verse 149. Thank you, brother, brothers and sisters. Please, let's you simply just read that verse. The God of this universe, the God of this universe takes pleasure in His people. He beautifies the meek with salvation.

In the coming in worship of the saints, which is what Psalm 149 is speaking about. In the coming in worship of the saints, the children of Zion, lifting up their voices in prayers and so on. God takes pleasure or delight. the God of this universe who created the heavens and the earth and everything that is in them, the one that is not moved, the one that knows that which is going to take place, the one that governs everything that is going to take place, the one that is not surprised by anything that we do or anything that we will do, beloved of Christ. He takes pleasure not in the world.

He takes pleasure in His people, not when they are wicked and unrighteous and when they do things like Israel did and they forsook the Lord. But when they're coming before the Lord in worship, the God of this universe takes pleasure in His people. I do not know. What else can move us in our hearts, in our souls? Not only to fast, to be honest, but to do everything that the Scripture says and that the Lord has illuminated us and that has helped us to see according to what is written.

Why would the Lord expect that we do something that is contrary to nature? that we have been designed and we have been created to eat and to drink, to sustain our bodies and to live. Yet the Lord expects that Christians will do something that seems to be contrary to their nature. That is because the nature that the Christian now has is a better nature than the fallen nature. And now this nature allows us to receive all the divine power that comes from God and to have in us the Spirit of God that empowers us to do that which seems to be contrary to our nature.

To behold the beauty, the glory, the virtue, the excellence of God. Beloved, to know that as we do so, which is not us, but He that is working in us, that He takes pleasure in His people. And that He delights in the coming in worship of the saints. That it is that the heart of God is filled with joy with His people. This God that is self-sufficient.

That there is nothing that He needs from creatures. Than with these people that He has redeemed. He finds delight and He finds satisfaction. That is absolutely beloved, powerful. But it's not only that, beloved.

It's not only that. And you can see there in the next point that follows. And that is that the Lord, in the coming of the saints to him, in fasting or whatever other thing, the Lord is always expecting that they will do it from our heart of worship and not so much in the things that they do, which is clearly outlined there in Psalm 51. If you go there very quickly, this is a verse that perhaps you have read it many times. But let me just give you this exhortation from that passage.

Psalm 51. 15. This is the scene of David and his repentance. And then he says, O Lord, open my lips and my mouth. Verse 15.

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. O God, you will not despise.

He doesn't want our giving up of food. He doesn't want her to simply stop drinking and stop eating for a particular period of time. The Lord is pleased, it says there. He finds delight in the coming of the saints to him in worship. But when they're coming with a contrite heart, a broken spirit, that is, the heart, the one that is moving them, either for repentance or for whatever.

But we are always to come with a heart that is given to the Lord. He is not pleased with burnt offerings and sacrifices and with works, not only here unto repentance, but unto everything. Because everything that is done in the flesh is not pleasing to the Lord. He desires mercy. He desires righteousness in our heart.

He desires the heart of the person of Jesus Christ in us. Beloved of Christ, Christians are unable to fast. Even as we regenerate, you know, like save people, they are unable to fast, to come before the presence of the Lord. We don't have the ability to do it. It is the Lord, the One, that through His Holy Spirit, as is with everything else, it is the Lord with His Spirit, the One that guides us and leads us and conforms our hearts so that we will be doing it, not out of just a practice, but that we will be doing it with the heart.

Now, what is my urgency? I don't know if you sense my urgency, but what is my urgency in the things that I'm just saying tonight? Is that if you do not see that, your conscience is going to be pierced just for this week and perhaps you're going to fast for whatever fast you're going to fast in the next week. Probably two or just one week or some of you will not do it But if you don't see the substance of what I'm saying Then that effort is going to be done in the flesh, and then you're just simply going to forget I Do not want us to fast Really, I don't want us to engage in the practice of fasting. I want us to see what I'm trying to say here.

Because if we see that by the help of the Holy Spirit, fasting is going to be a byproduct of what we are seeing in the person of God that is going to come with many other practices of prayer and everything else. I'm really not speaking about fasting tonight. I'm speaking about the truths of the gospel that are found in the person of Jesus Christ. Yet there is an expectation that we will fast. There is an expectation that we will fast, and there is much blessing, beloved Christ, in coming to our Lord in fasting.

That's why the next point that I said there is, what is then the nature of our coming to the Lord in fasting? Well, what David said in Psalm 51, that is from the heart. That means that if we are coming before the Lord, we are departing from the things of the world when we're coming and satisfied with the presence of the Lord Himself. So that we can say like Paul, that we count everything as loss and rubbish for the excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything is counted as loss, even our natural and rightful..."

I'm going to say rightful because I cannot pronounce the other words. "...our rightful or natural desires, such as eating or drinking, that we count not some things..." He says in Philippians chapter 3, verse 8. Not some things, but all things are counted as lost, as damned, as ravaged, for the excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ."

I cannot move you to that. I cannot even move myself onto those things. It is only the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that can move us genuinely into that. So that means that the nature of our practice of fasting is one in which the Spirit has moved us to a point in which we are willing and able, because He has granted all things that pertain to life and godliness, and willing, because it's not our will, the will of our flesh, but the will of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, to count all things as lost, even the things that we think that we deserve and that we want to eat and drink, or whatever it is. Count those things as lost.

Why? Because when we have the presence and the excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we have what follows there, a Spirit-given desire to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved, remember this is not even a command. Because in the flesh we can derive satisfaction from fulfilling commands. people can derive satisfaction from just fulfilling commands.

You're to pray, and then they pray, and then they're satisfied. You're to go to church, or do not neglect the gathering of the saints, and then just, there can be certain level of satisfaction in the flesh just from ticking boxes, even if those boxes are according to what is written in the scripture. Simple. because he's not done with the heart. But this is an expectation, beloved of Christ.

If there was a... I think, you know, that just because it's contrary to nature. Imagine if he would have given us a clear command, you must fast every week. Something like this. Contrary to nature.

Imagine a practice that is contrary to nature when a person walking in the flesh. Thank you, Lord, that you have not done that. But you have just given us a divine expectation that this will be the life of the Christian, because this can only happen, beloved of Christ, this can only happen when we are driven by this glorious Holy Spirit that is moving us and taking us to abide in the Lord. And that is the nature of our coming. And now, I gave you another reason there, and if you can see it, this another reason is because the Father rewards, as is stated in the text.

But we will not understand the reward of the Lord if we do not answer that question that I asked there before we arrive to that point there. And that is that Christians, when they come to the presence of the Lord, beloved of Christ, they are expected to be satisfied in the presence of God. Christians, in their coming to the Lord, in their coming in fasting and in whatever other spiritual discipline, they are expected to be satisfied in the Lord. Satisfaction that is not an abstract concept to which I agree with my mind, but that experientially the Christian is meant to be satisfied in the presence of the Lord. Think about this.

God expects us to fast, which is contrary to our nature, because He has enabled us with everything that pertains to life and godliness so that we will see the beauty of God, His glory, and His excellence when we come to Him. He delights and He takes pleasure in the people that are living their lives according to the Spirit with a heart that is aligned. But when we arrive to the presence of God, it is not that we are blessing God in the fact that He's satisfied and delighted in ourselves. But the greatest blessing is received by the one that comes to the presence of the Lord. There's nothing that we can offer to the Lord, even if it's not according to what is written.

The Lord is self-sufficient. The one that receives the greatest blessing in abiding in the tabernacle, in abiding in the presence of the Lord, is the soul of the one who genuinely comes by the Holy Spirit that is drawing that person. So that person will be genuinely satisfied in the Lord. And then we will be able to understand what is the reward that God gives of those who seek Him in fasting. But as you can see there, I'm quoting or I'm pointing to a story that takes place in the book of Exodus.

So let's just go there because I want to speak to you about this question. Are we to be satisfied in the Lord? Are we to be satisfied in the presence of God? Exodus chapter 16. I'm so close to go away, like, I really want to go away from your outlines.

I'm just trying to respect what we have said. But I'm just, OK. Chapter 16. OK? The reason why I want to do that is because I'm not sure that you're following what I'm saying there.

And my mind cannot follow, continue, if you have this, yeah. Anyway, 16, please. Let's pay attention to what we have there in 16. You remember, let's actually just read the chapter from 16. Sorry, let's just read it just to make this point.

It says, they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the 15th day of the second month after they have departed from the land of Egypt. Second month, 15th day. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the people of Israel said to them, Oudah, we had died. by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full.

For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Oh, Lord. I'm just going to speak. I'm not going to read. Oh, Lord, you have saved us.

You have redeemed us. We were slaves there, but how we desired the food. that was there in Egypt, how we desired the drinks and all of this that was sustaining and keeping our bodies, how we desired that, how we desired the pleasure of our flesh over the freedom that we have, and not only the freedom, but your presence among us. We have seen you among us. We have seen your beauty, your power, your might, and opening the sea and taking us through it safely.

Yet we desire the food of our captivity. Our bodies, the power of our flesh is calling from inside of us and the scream of our flesh is greater than the testimony of your works. The scream and the yelling of our flesh is greater and more powerful than the testimony of the works that we have just seen in the last couple of months. Grumbling against this Lord. Then it says in verse 8, let's just jump to verse 9.

Then Moses said to Aaron, said to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling. And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. The glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord said to Moses, I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, saying to them, At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God."

Your body, your flesh, The one that is screaming from inside of you that you don't want to be with me, but that you want to be in Egypt, that you want to be there where you were before in slavery. The one that is just screaming and complaining about the things that I have given you and the things that I have done for you. That one is going to be satisfied. He is going to be filled to the brim. to fullness, completeness, to the point that you're even want to just put things away of so much that you have, you're going to be completely satisfied with the food and the things that you desire.

Now, let me just take that concept there because this word that is used there for feeling and satisfaction is the same word that then, spiritually speaking, the psalmist will use. Beloved of Christ, to speak of the state of the soul of the saint when they come to the presence of God. Come with me, please, to Psalm 17, 15. Wow, it's just taking too long. 1715, be with me, please.

It says, ask for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness. When I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness. speaking of the presence of God. Satisfaction with the likeness or with the presence of the face, which we cannot see, but we can enter into that presence of the Lord. Satisfaction in the likeness, in the presence of the Lord.

And then one says, yes, but that is speaking of a spiritual way and a spiritual abstract level of satisfaction. Beloved, come to Psalm 36, please. 36. You know, I have read these Psalms so many times. I don't know how many times, but many times.

Please, pay attention to these words. The satisfaction of the soul in 36 verse 5. Just pay attention to these words of God. It says in verse 5, Your steadfast love, O Lord, extend to the heavens. Your faithfulness to the clouds, everything that he is and he has done.

Your righteousness is like the mountain of God. Your judgments are like the great deep men and beast you save, O Lord. How precious is your steadfast love, O God. The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house and you give them drink from the river of your delight.

For with you is the fountain of life. In your light do we see light. Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you and your righteousness to the upright of heart. Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. There the evildoers lie fallen, they are thirst down, unable to rise."

Verse 8, "...they feast on the abundance of your house, your presence." That is the tabernacle of the Lord. "...and you give them drink from the river of your delights."

Wow, what a blasphemy it would be for me to say, that these things are not a reality for the one who indeed comes to the presence of the Lord. They are clearly written in Scripture. The presence of the Lord satisfies the soul to a point that the soul is and desires by the will of the Spirit to remain in the feet of the one who is altogether lovely. Go please quickly to Psalm 65, 4. Blessed is the one...

These are Christians, right? These are Christians. Blessed is the one you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts. No one who has not been sprinkled by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ can come near to the presence of God. That is salvation defined by Peter in 1 Peter 1, verses 1 and 2.

that we have set apart and sprinkled by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for obedience to the gospel. That is that Christians have been, by the virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ, able to come to the presence of God. And he says, we shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple, beloved of Christ. Forget about the verses that I have there in front of you. We will not go through it.

But let me just simply just take you to the last one. Come to 73. This summarizes the whole thing. Brother Jesus, would you help me just read in that place? 73, 25, and 26.

Beloved, whom have I in heaven but you? There is none upon the earth. There is nothing upon the earth that I desire besides you. My heart and my flesh faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Beloved of Christ, there is included food and drinks and everything else that our heart and our flesh desires.

Nothing on the earth Nothing only you in heaven that is what my soul desires The presence of the one who abides in heaven to the point that by the power of what he has done in me I'm enabled to come to his presence and to remain there not because I'm so good or so holy or such a good of a Christian but rather Because in the grace of the Lord his hand has hand has humbled us so much to the point in which we come to the acknowledgement that apart from his working in us We will never see these things even. Many of you might not even know what I'm talking about. Because when you arrive then to that place, beloved of Christ, it's Him, the one that is altogether lovely. All the things of the earth. are just simply despised, despised.

And then the strength of the heart, the strength of the flesh, which we strengthen with the things of this world, with exercise and food. I'm not saying that we should not do those things, right? You understand that. But God is the one that enables us, even in our flesh, when our flesh fails, when our heart fails, when we are weakened, when we see that we cannot even do it anymore, at whatever point in our lives, and that includes fasting, of course. He is the one that sustains us with His holy presence.

This is the glorious reward. Not a reward that I'm coming before you too fast to have a better car or to have this or to have that, but the glorious reward of the presence of God that once the presence of God is clearly manifested to a sinner, then the only consequence and result of that is that that sinner is going to be made more like the person of Jesus Christ. And that by a sinner becoming like the person of Jesus Christ, glory is brought to the feet of the Father. Glory is brought to the divine court, because that person is dying to self, and that person is being made alive in the likeness of the person of Jesus Christ. Fasting becomes a simple by-product of the desire of a person in being driven and taken by the beauty of God, as it is manifested by the Spirit of God, that we can say, Whom have I in heaven but Thee?

Right? Whom have I in heaven? Only you, O Lord. There is nothing upon this earth. You love it.

He has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, so that we will not read this in a romantic way in which we assent and we agree with this, but we know that it is not. He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, so that individual life of the Christian may be taken to this. It is the life of the Christian himself Now, beloved of Christ, it's very long, so I'm not going to continue through what we have there. Sorry. I tried to follow all the steps, but we are not going to finish there.

But let me just simply just address you from a little bit more freedom. Beloved, beloved, we have been given a glorious salvation. This is not religion at all. This is not religion at all. This is not that we practice this thing and we practice that thing.

And once we practice this thing, we obtain and receive another particular thing. Christianity is life and is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he said that Christians were supposed to look in a particular way, He meant that Christians will act and live in a particular way. The reason why we many times do not look and do not live in a particular way is not because the promise of God has failed in empowering us as we ought to, but rather because we have turned our eyes from the Lord Jesus Christ and we have turned many times to self and many times to religion. And self and religion is powerless.

Christianity cannot be lived in the power of the flesh. It can only be lived in the power of the Holy Spirit as is clearly given and portrayed to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is him, the only one that makes the presence of the Lord all together lovely and gives us the unnatural desire to remain there and to abide there even when we are called to do things that are contrary to our nature, eating, and drinking. Why? Because we are truly satisfied there in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because we are truly satisfied in God himself and in his presence. I love it. Definitely we are not. I'm not calling you to start just fasting. I'm not calling you to start doing a particular thing.

The call, as we always do, is always to come and be satisfied in the person of Jesus Christ, because He has given us a promise that He is the one that transforms our lives in everything. That's why fasting, when you see it through a scripture, is so uncertain and unstructured. You have people who fasted for a portion of the day, people that fasted for a long, a whole day, or three days, or seven days, 21 days, or 40 days, and their fasting just simply goes in different ways, and there's no instruction in which you say, what should I follow? How should I do it? Because the way that a Christian is supposed to fast is by being led by the Holy Spirit.

In the same way that we are to pray, in the same way that we are to follow the Scriptures, that we are to be loved, to be led by the Holy Spirit. And this glorious aspect of fasting, in which when you are fasting, beloved of Christ, your flesh is weakened to a point that you can be like the Apostle Paul in that passage that I shared with you there, in 2 Corinthians 12, from verse 1 to 10. That when I am weak, then I am strong. We are to be brought to that point because only when there's a little bit of strength in us, we consider ourselves sufficient and enough to keep pushing and doing things in our own way. But the Lord many times has brought us to the point in which we acknowledge that, oh Lord, I'm so weak.

That now in that point in which we acknowledge that we are weak, then is when we are strong. Because then the manifestation of the Lord shall be so clear that there is nothing that I have done that is from me or through me. That is the glorious thing about fasting done in the Spirit, because you are afflicting your flesh. In the Spirit, if you have understood what I said, you are now afflicting your flesh. Your flesh that needs the sustenance and the energy of food and drink, now is afflicted and is weakened.

But you're not doing it for a selfish, fleshly, purpose, but rather you are doing it because you have been driven by the desire to abide in the presence of the Lord so much that now you are strong in the workings of God in your life. And beloved, let me just say this, genuine biblical fasting, it is always begotten by a life of prayer in the Spirit. Always they come together. You will see fasting and prayer, the worship of the saints in Acts chapter 13, in sending Paul and Barnabas, all of the interactions of the disciples, prayer and fasting, fasting, genuine fasting is begotten in a life, a secret life of prayer in the Spirit. That is the perfect companion in which you come before the presence of the Lord with much prayer and supplication and then the Lord allows you to fast.

so that you will bring supplications before him with a Christ-exalting purpose, not to follow religion, not to tick a box, or not to do this or that, or not to try to be like someone else, but rather seeking the presence of the Lord. And in the place where the presence of the Lord is so clearly manifested through the scriptures and through the gospel and through Jesus Christ, the type of edification that our soul receives is the one that we need from each other. so that we will be indeed fasting, beloved of Christ. Not because we're following precepts of religion, but rather because our Savior said, when you fast. If you pay attention to the portion of the Scripture that we read, the commandment is not given so much in the thing that we are to do, that you fast.

But rather, he says, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites who do it in front of men. Do not be like the one who wants to satisfy others and the greater exaltation of selfishness, which is satisfying yourself. Because there's a point in which people, now they don't want to please others, but they are so much lovers of themselves that they have become the source of satisfaction. So that they are even willing to go against the opinion of men with the purpose of satisfying themselves. Everything that we do in the scripture is to satisfy God, the one who sees in secret, the one that sees our heart, because he's the one that rewards.

And not with material things, so things are passing away, but beloved of Christ. He blesses us with conformity to Christ, the removal of our practical unrighteousness, with the removal of self, the removal of your life so that Christ may be enthroned in your heart and that you may be like him more and more and more. And then prayer, fasting, any of these things just become byproduct of what is happening in your heart and not just simply a life of religion or doing particular things. May the Lord help us. not only to be drawn by Him and His beauty to individually fast, beloved of Christ, but also that as each one of us is drawn individually to fast before and to do all of these things, prayer and scripture and fasting, that we as a congregation can be speaking about corporate and collective fasting, which is not that we are just scheduling a fasting this time of the year or this or that, but that the burden of the Lord is so much upon us for the lost, for the sick, for the one that is falling from faith, for this or for that, that we are moved by the Spirit as we are to be done, as we are to be moved individually to pray, to intercede, to fast, not because we are a religious church, but because the Spirit of God is moving among us.

That's why the saints of all will say, pray until the Spirit has led you. Do until the Spirit has led you. Because prayer does not finish at 10 o'clock. Prayer is meant to finish at the point in which the Spirit has taken us. If He gives the grace for 5 minutes, it's 5 minutes.

If He gives the grace for 10 hours, then it's 10 hours. But it's what the Spirit of God is supposed to lead us. You see how that can take us to many dangers and problems of saying the Spirit of God told me and is moving me? That's why it's very important that it's through the Gospel in the person of Christ with abundance of the words of God in our hearts dwelling and moving us because the Spirit moves and operates through what has been revealed in the context of a church that is walking in that truth. I will say only those things.

Amen.