A Biblical Perspective on Eating, Dieting, and Gluttony (pt-2)

If you have not signed up for the New England Institute for Biblical Studies next class, Apologetics, starts in November. It would be a good time to sign up for that class, Apologetics. How do we defend the faith?

There are two different ways to do it. Evidences that demand a verdict. Kind of the Geisler Sproul, Josh McDowell approach, three godly men. It's a good orthodox system but there's another way to do it and it's called presuppositionalism where we presuppose that men are dead in trespasses and sins and are more geared towards Bible than rationale, more towards Bible than anything else.

And so we'll be teaching the differences between those systems and that will be coming up soon for New England Institute of Biblical Studies. And then lastly, if you haven't heard of the messages from the preach-a-thon online, they're online now and you can just type in bbc .org, get online and we have the men there who've preached and now we have an interesting thing, it's just for leadership at the moment, but we can get into the internet and find out which sermons were downloaded by number.

And at the top of the list in the last week out of all the sermons that we have online, hundreds of sermons, there was one sermon that was downloaded more than any other sermon, bar none. Got quiet here.

How to discipline your kids? No, I wish. No, it was the Gluttony series part one last week. That was the one that was downloaded the most. And so tonight let's look at part two of that. What does the Bible say about eating?

What does the Bible say about fasting? What does the Bible say about gluttony? How should Christians view food? And the Bible does address many of these things and I think it's very practical. And as I'll say from the get-go, my family has struggled with weight, I struggle with weight.

I will not say things today like if you're overweight, you're sinful, or because you could be underweight, you could be thin and have ideas about the God of thinness and the cult of self, you could have medical issues.

And so we want to find out what does the Bible say about this idea of eating foods and diets. I found this week, October 5th, from the Associate Press, Miami. Here's the story, quote, Alligators have clashed with pythons in the Everglades National Park.

But when a 6-foot gator tangled with a 13-foot python, the result wasn't pretty. The snake apparently tried to swallow the gator whole and then exploded. Scientists stumbled upon the gory remains last week.

And that harkens back to the day when I would sit at home on 9131 Tomahawk Boulevard in Omaha, Nebraska and my father would say, because I left food on my plate, he would say, Son, your eyes are too big for your stomach.

That's exactly what happens, overeating to the point of explosion. That is amazing. What does the Bible say about eating? What does the Bible say about dieting? What does the Bible say about the Clean Plate Club?

I was part of that club when I was growing up. In the old days, people would preach about the seven deadly sins. Roman Catholic device, but they would boil down the sins to seven sins that basically if you did one of those seven, it was easy for you to do a lot of the other ones.

And one of those sins was gluttony and it was preached often. I don't find many sermons these days about gluttony at all or eating or even if a Christian can look at dieting in a certain way. And I think it's an important topic and I therefore will preach.

I preached last Sunday, this Sunday and probably next as well. I was reading Dennis Olcom and he said, Eating, of course, is crucial in biblical narratives. Our first parents plunged the human race into sin by violating a prohibition against eating.

The Hebrews were given a sense of identity and a meal that signifies a defining moment in their history. What meal was that? The second Adam was victorious over temptation involving bread. Christians celebrate their life together in Christ around a family meal initiated by Jesus.

One that anticipates an eschatological banquet marking the consummation of history. Add to these all the stories many of us learned from the time when we were toddlers. Abraham and his three visitors, food.

Esau and his soup. Joseph and the famine. The prodigal son and his father's banquet. The feeding of the 5 ,000. Mary and Martha, the couple on the road to Emmaus and breakfast on the beach with the risen Lord.

There's a lot in the Bible to be said about food. I thought I was going to preach one week and now seeing all the data it's turned into the second week and probably third and knowing me, yes, maybe even the fourth.

Number four being the perfect number in the Bible. What does God say about this issue? I think people are in love with food. Certainly people in the secular world and maybe even some Christians as well.

There are food tasting fairs. There are magazines, books, restaurants, fine cuisine. I think in America we are obsessed by food and then we are obsessed by dieting as well. Now I looked for a definition of dieting, excuse me, for gluttony and I found this one.

Eating in excess. An immoderate consumption of food. Eating too much. Eating more than your body needs. We looked at some synonyms last week. Gourmandiser. Gourmet. The old word for gourmet. We looked at the one that I thought was funny but really I think boils it all down to one word.

Another synonym for the word glutton that starts with an H and ends with a G and has an O in the middle. Hog. That was actually from the dictionary. A thesaurus rather. Thomas Aquinas was quoting on gluttony.

He said, gluttony denotes not any desire of eating and drinking but an inordinate desire leaving the order of reason wherein the good of moral virtue consists. And when people excessively eat food we call that gluttony.

Let me just give you a quick review to catch us up. My outline really is not from a text. It's not expositional. It's just these are several truths about food. Truths from the Bible about gluttony. Truths about eating.

And so the first one was that weight is a huge issue in the United States. There are issues with our physical health because we are weighing too much. I even discovered this week Prader-Willi's Syndrome.

And what is that? Prader-Willi's Syndrome is that when patients literally eat themselves to death if not controlled. We have anorexia. We have bulimia. We have a whole host of eating disorders. And spiritually it's an issue as well.

Eating too much food. If the Bible says that gluttony is a sin, we have to be careful from Proverbs 23, Proverbs 28, Deuteronomy 21 with the Mosaic Law even for the Israelites. And we have to be careful that we are not obsessed with being thin.

Somehow here's the model. In the old days when you go to the museum and you see ladies, you'll see beauty in the eyes of the artist by seeing ladies that are what? In our particular culture, to use her words, plump.

And that was a sign of they had plenty and it was more beautiful. And then along comes a girl in the 1960s by the name of Twiggy. And now we have Kate Moss in our century where thin somehow is ideal. And everything is built towards that.

We want to be careful spiritually that we're not so vain that we get caught up in the God of thinness. Number two, there are code words for sins that we want to be careful of. That is to say, if the Bible calls overeating gluttony a sin, what should we call it?

I think we should call it sin. How about this one? This is Peter DeVries said this in a book called Comfort Me with Apples. I didn't write the book. Gluttony is an emotional escape, a sign something is eating us.

So we want to make sure if we are gluttonous that we say this was actually gluttony. And remember last week we had eating contest and they'll cheer people that eat over their need. Proverbs 28, 13, he who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find what?

Compassion. Like anything else, if we say it's not a sin, then there's no hope for us. But if we say, God, that is sin, then God grants compassion and mercy to those who struggle with any sin. And said we these days, everything's a disease.

Everything's a syndrome. Therefore, we're not to blame. And on and on it goes. Christianity Today article by Stanton Jones years ago said, quote, overpromotion of professional services in psychology has undermined the confidence of clergy and lay persons in their capacity to minister effectively in the name of Christ.

I've got a question for you. If you have problems with bulimia, anorexia, gluttony, or you've got a food problem, would you even think to call up the pastor of your church? Now, this particular church, you might not because you know I have the anti-gift of counseling.

So you wouldn't call me, but do you? One time I was criticized because they said, well, we would never go to Pastor Mike for counseling. I said, well, why? Well, because you're just going to tell us what the Bible says.

Well, every place else in the world is going to tell you something else. I'm not going to give you a Bible verse and say, call me in the morning. But I'm going to say, here's who you are in Christ. And here's what you have.

You have power over sin now. And you have power to say yes. And here's what the cross means in your life. And here's what the Bible says about your problem. And here's what the Bible says about the solution.

If people have anorexia and bulimia today, we ought not to send them down to the local shrink for one of the 400 different theories that they have. If it is a spiritual problem, and that's what we'll get at next week, is anorexia, is bulimia related to a spiritual problem, or is it just a disease, an emotional problem?

The Bible has the answers. We have been granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. And not just the pastor, but what about you? What if you get a phone call in the middle of the night?

I've just eaten my fill, and I've had to go purge it all out in the bathroom. I need help. Are you competent to counsel? If you're a Christian, could you help that person? Or do you need to say 1 -800-CALL-A-SHRINK?

Romans 15, verse 14 says,. And concerning you, my brethren, Paul, inspired by God, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able also to admonish or put sense into one another.

Christians Should View Food Differently Than Unbelievers

Next major point, number three, in review. Christians should look at dieting or eating differently than unbelievers. When it comes to eating, should we look at things differently than unbelievers? I think probably we should, and I think it's even shown by the way you go to a restaurant, and I hope you bow your head and pray at a restaurant.

And the others, they just eat. We realize that food is a gift from God, that God has provided that for us. Mark 7, verse 18, Contrary to most religions, need I say almost everyone except Christianity, food is not the problem when it comes to eating.

There's nothing in food that somehow is unclean, and there's nothing in food that can make us unclean. Remember Jesus in Mark 7? Jesus declared all foods what? Clean. And the issue was He declared all hearts unclean.

It's our heart. And so there's nothing wrong with any kind of food. If you want to eat dog, that's not going to make you unspiritual. You might not have many friends in your neighborhood, but there's nothing wrong with eating dog.

And you eat that dog cooked or full of teriyaki or anything else. What you eat, if you eat sea urchin or dog, it's not going to make you sinful, or you will not have sinned. 1 Timothy chapter 4, we learned last week that there are people even today who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.

For everything created by God, in the context here, marriage and food is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude, for it is sanctified by the means of the word of God and prayer.

Food is not bad, it's what our hearts do is bad. I could go on and on about this, but when the pastor runs out of things to say, he says, Beloved, there's many things I could still talk about, but we need, for time's sake, to go to the next point.

Uniquely Christian Diet Programs Are Largely Ludicrous

Fourth major point, uniquely Christian diet programs are largely ludicrous. Most of the time, if I hear something Christian, I think it's pretty weird and pretty whacked out. Here's a verse for those that overeat, and a particular Christian diet book said, this is the verse that you should pray so God protects you from eating.

Psalm 141, Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips. Now, does that have anything to do with food and eating? No. How about God help me not to overeat? It gets worse. In 1997, a radio program, Minnerth-Meyer Clinic, Christian psychologist, as if those two words could go together, that's another sermon, a lady called in and she said she had bulimia and she's been binging and purging for 18 years.

And she wanted a good Bible verse to help her stop binging and purging, and so the psychologist said, do you eat with your left hand or do you eat with your right hand? He told her, after she said she was right-handed, to memorize Isaiah 41, 13, and this is not a joke.

For I, the Lord your God, uphold your right hand, who says to you, do not fear, I will help you. He said, in this verse, God promises to hold back your hand whenever you want it to eat. Now, what is going on with that?

That is just as whacked out as you could possibly get. Phyllis Tickle, in a Bread of Life Cookbook for Body and Soul, said this, Jane, a striking 20-something graduate student, went to a church and heard a sermon on discipleship.

Listening to Jesus tell Peter to feed his sheep, I thought, how well am I going to feed any of my sheep if I don't feed myself? She recalls, he said feed his sheep. After all, he didn't say die at them.

I personally, if I want work done on my house, I do not go to the Christian Yellow Pages, because that fish sign that's on that thing just basically means here's a way to sucker Christians in to get bad product at a bad price for the name of Christ.

I never use Christian Yellow Pages. Maybe you've got something listed there, and afterwards I'll be busy talking to visitors if you advertise there. But Christian, if I have a heart surgery, I want the best heart surgeon, and I don't care if he's a Baha 'ist.

Is there such a thing as a Baha 'ist? What do you call him, Ajay? Followers of Baha 'i faith. You don't know? Okay, he's a Sikh. I don't know. Let's turn to Leviticus chapter 11 for a moment, and I want to see in Leviticus and show you a little bit about this whole topic we touched upon last week where people want to push us back to the Mosaic Law to eat what Moses commanded the Israelites to eat, and they do it, I think, to their hermeneutical shame, somehow putting Christians underneath the Mosaic Law.

And I want you to see specifically in Leviticus how it is set up for the Jews, and then we're going to Acts chapter 10 and see this whole sheet business about food so we can understand that food, according to even 1 Timothy chapter 4, it's not bad to eat certain kinds of food.

It's not bad to eat meat. It's not bad to eat pork. It's not bad to eat anything. If you want to be a vegetarian, that's up to you, but that has nothing to do with your spiritual walk. Leviticus chapter 11 is a whole chapter on food laws for Israel from Moses having nothing to do with the church.

Leviticus chapter 11 verse 44, I find it interesting, at the end of this chapter, look what he says. For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. Eat the right kinds of food, not for your health, not because you're going to live longer, not because you're going to get trigonosis if you don't, not for any of those reasons.

God is such a different God than every other God. You name every other God and God is just unique. He's set apart. He's different. He's holy. And so God is that way and He wants His people to be that way and so He says, and you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth.

For I am the Lord who brought you. Here's the context. Who did God bring up from Egypt? I brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God. And since I've done something great, there's the indicative, the statement of fact.

Therefore, I require you, the imperative, thus you shall be holy, for I am holy. This is the law regarding the animal and the bird and every living thing that moves in the waters and everything that swarms on the earth.

Why? Verse 47. To make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the edible creature and the creature which is not to be eaten. This whole idea of what did Jesus eat and jamming the Mosaic law down Christians' throats literally is theologically and hermeneutically wrong and I'll even prove it further.

Let's go to Acts chapter 10, please. And we'll see that somehow saying, well, Jesus followed all the Jewish dietary laws and didn't eat shellfish and didn't eat pork. Therefore, neither should we. Forgets 1 Timothy 4 that we talked about last week.

Forgets Mark chapter 7 that we talked about last week. Does not understand the difference between the church and Israel's relationship in Ephesians chapter 2 where those laws, the Mosaic laws, are done and fulfilled in Christ and it doesn't deal with Acts chapter 10.

I love Acts chapter 10 because it's one of those moments for Peter that turns his life upside down and there's more to just a food issue of clean and unclean. What's the other thing that Peter is being taught here by God?

There's no difference between unclean food and clean food and there's no difference between Jew and Gentile, right? So there's this double-edged sword meaning here. But there was a certain man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort.

And so centurions, what's the first four letters of that word? Cent, and so a cent is a what? It's a hundred, that's right. So there was a hundred of these men. He was a devout man and one who feared God with all his household and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually.

By the way, when you read in the Old Testament, excuse me, when you read in Acts, in this transitionary period, you have God-fearing people. Who were they? Christians? No, they weren't Christians. They were people who did not worship all the other gods but they believed that there was one God and not all these other gods.

So they were pagans of old and they've turned their back on paganism and they believe there's this one God. But they're not, fearing God does not make them a Christian. These are monotheistic unbelievers or if you want to try to parse this a little bit, they could be believers in the Old Covenant sense but we don't have to go there.

But one who feared God with all his household and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually. Verse 3, about the ninth hour of the day, what time was that? Starts at 6 a .m. so you add up to 9, 3 p .m.

He clearly saw a vision, an angel of God who had just come to him and said to him, Cornelius, just as plain as could be, it was distinct is what the word is, it was just plain. Clearly saw it. And fixing his gaze upon him and being much alarmed, he said, what is it, Lord?

And he said to him, your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God and now dispatch some men to Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter. He's staying at a tanner's house named Simon, whose house is by the sea.

I've walked right down, most likely in that area where they were. And when the angel who was speaking to him had departed, he summoned two of his servants and a devout soldier of those who were in constant attendance with him and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up to the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. He was becoming hungry and desiring to eat, but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance and he beheld the sky opened up and a certain object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground.

There were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. Clean and unclean in that sheet? Okay. And a voice said to him, arise, Peter, kill and eat.

And Peter said, say what? See, can't you see that in Greek right there? What? Kill and eat. Yeah, I'm hungry and all that, but how can I? There are Mosaic laws. There's Leviticus chapter 11. There's Deuteronomy chapter 14.

He's hungry. He's drowsy. He's in this trance and this large sheet comes down with all kinds of animals, clean and unclean and I wrote down in my notes, this doctrine is hard to swallow. It's Sunday night.

I have to keep you awake. But Peter said, by no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy or unclean. You've got to be kidding. I've tried to keep the Mosaic law. He is repulsed. Probably makes you want to throw up kind of thing.

You're going to have to eat that? It was a scandal. Kill and eat? There's a mixture of things. Some clean, some unclean. And again, a voice came to him a second time. And what God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.

Not talking about just dietary restrictions, which you can read in context and work through the whole issue of Acts. There's not only dietary issues that are becoming molded into one, but also Jew and Gentile.

Jew's clean and Gentile's unclean, as it were. And this happened three times and immediately the object was taken up into the sky. The object was taken up is literally in Greek, the object. That sheet called the object.

And while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision, which he had seen might be, behold the men who had been sent by Cornelius having asked directions from Simon's house appeared at the gate.

And then you know the rest of the story. He invited them and gave them lodging down in verse 23. And the next day he arose and went with them. Verse 28. You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him.

See the tie in with the Jew and Gentile. And yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean. Without rehashing 50 minutes of the sermon from last week, remember no matter what, we are not under some mosaic law to say we have to eat this kind of food, we can't eat that food.

If your conscience won't let you because you come out of a Judaistic background or some other kind of background, that's fine. But it's not a matter of what you eat or don't eat for the Christian when we diet or don't diet.

So much so, let's go to the next point. I think point number five, maybe six. Food is given to be enjoyed. Food should be seen, this is new information, as a gift from God. Did you know food is a gift from God?

Well, people abuse it, you say. Is it still a gift? How about this? Alcohol, this will be a whole new sermon to spin off to, alcohol is a gift from God and it is a sign of God blessing people. And do people abuse alcohol and beverages?

Yes. Sex in marriage is blessed by God and do people make wrong out of sex? Absolutely, but it's still what you have. Food is not bad just because it's abused. Sex is not bad just because it's abused and sleep is not bad just because it's abused and neither is alcohol.

And if you'll turn to the book of Ecclesiastes, let me show you this redounding theme that food is good. Food is a gift. Can you imagine how many taste buds you have on your tongue at one particular moment and how the taste buds and your tongue, sense of smell, sense of taste, can identify smells and eat things?

I was researching this week. To smell a rose, the brain analyzes over 300 odor molecules and the average person can discriminate between 4 ,000 and 10 ,000 different odor molecules and you just taste food and you think, that tastes so good.

Have you ever tasted something that was so good you just kind of rolled it around in your mouth for a while? You played the cow and you just kind of, that cud, it was over and over. I mean, let's not go too far, but you know what I mean.

Point being, if something tasted so good, you think, wow! And I always think this too. We had a great pie this afternoon over at Dallas' house and I was tasting that and I thought, what must have people thought back 2 ,000 years ago if they could have tasted that pie?

The sweetest thing they had was what? Honey and raisins or something. The sensory structures that God has given us are for what reason? So we might enjoy our food and then praise God. Take a look at Ecclesiastes.

It's absolutely great. Ecclesiastes 2, 24. There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of Satan, horrible food.

It's a gift from God. God, thank you. And look at verse 25. For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without him? Outside of God can you say, oh, this food is so good and oh, this drink that we have is so wonderful?

I could twist it around the other way. With God there should be eating and drinking and enjoyment. God, thank you for what you've given me to eat and to drink and to enjoy. Look down at verse 12 of chapter 3 and I want to show you the theme in Ecclesiastes about eating and drinking and it's the gift of God.

How many people have ever seen this movie? I hate to get off the side track but it makes a point. Soylent Green. Quite a few. I won't tell you what Soylent Green was but Soylent Green, you think I'm going to tell you now but I'm not.

Soylent Green is what people had to eat back in those days and it was kind of brown and it had one flavor. The closest I can imagine it to be when I was growing up, we had Tang because of the moon deal.

I remember in 1969 and Neil Armstrong and school and Tang and then we had some other kind of little bars. What were those bars called? I think they're called space bars. Space food. Anybody remember? Come on, Doug, for sure you've got to know.

We had a little space food and it was kind of hermetically sealed and you'd open it up and it was just this dingy brown kind of like mud and you would eat it and you'd think you were really cool that you were an astronaut kind of thing and drink in Tang all the time.

Just think, God could say like my dog. I just got this new dog about 10 days ago and I'm trying to get the dog on just a loving dog food instead of eating human food all the time. And every day that dog's food has kind of a few similarities.

It's the same taste. It's the same brand. It's the same color. It looks like Soylent Green and she just sits there and gobbles that whole thing up. God could just say, this is food. You see that brown thing on that tree over there?

That's what you get. Knock yourself out. You get my point. Look at this gift of God. This is why we pray before we eat for lots of reasons. This is one of them. Ecclesiastes 3 .12. I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime.

Moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor. It is the gift of God. Thank you God for those nachos. They taste great. Ecclesiastes 5 .18. You can see a common theme here. Ecclesiastes is not a pessimistic book at all when you see it rightly.

Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting. To eat and drink and enjoy oneself in all one's labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him. This is his reward.

Why is it so good? You are struggling all week and you come home and you have a nice meal with your family and you just kind of put your feet up on the chair and you just go, Good Lord, thank you. Just the nice little things in life.

Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, he has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor. This is the drudgery of God. And all the people shout out Amen.

No, it is the gift of God. Why? Because life is hard so it is nice to have something nice to eat. Don't believe me? Verse 20, For he will not often consider the years of his life because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart.

Cheers. Chapter 8, Just when you thought it was over, Ecclesiastes 8 .15, So I commended pleasure for there is nothing good for man under the sun except to eat and to drink and be merry. If eat and drink and be merry without God as your life, it is pessimistic.

But eat, drink and be merry with God, we can have great optimism and joy. And this will stand by him, Ecclesiastes 8 .15, in his toils throughout the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.

And then lastly, if you look at Ecclesiastes 9 .7, the final refrain that eating and drinking and work and a wife is a gift of God, it just should help us to enjoy all this. Go then, eat your bread in happiness, Ecclesiastes 9 .7, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works.

Let your clothes be white all the time and let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which he has given you under the sun. Life is short, life is hard, one day after another comes and God has given you a wife, God has given you children, God has given you food, and there is the text which he has given you under the sun.

This is your reward in life. Yes, we wait for an eternal reward, but on the earth, we are just saying, hey, God, you've given me that. And in your toil in which you have labored under the sun. God is not a cosmic killjoy.

James 1 .17 says, every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, including food. And I would challenge you sometime to just do a little study on taste buds and to see how intricately God has designed your tongue and your nose and how they're linked together to taste food to say, God, thank you for that.

The Jews used to pray before and after they ate. This is one of their prayers. Blessed thou art, Jehovah our God, king of the world who causes to come forth bread from the earth. Well, we have one last thing to cover and that is what I spoke of this morning.

What about fasting? Next week we'll have to get into dieting, we'll have to get into all the other issues and self-control, we'll have to get into exercise, I'll talk about next week and is that good for Christians?

But now let's talk about fasting. What about fasting? Let me just take kind of a show of hands. How many people, first of all, know what fasting is? Okay, what is fasting? Anyone? Abstaining from food?

Okay, good. How many people think Christians should fast today? It's okay, you can ask. How many people think that if Christians don't fast today that they're sinful? God says to do it, you don't do it, it's sinful.

So it's kind of an optional thing, I guess. You're supposed to, but if you don't, it's okay. How many people think if you don't fast you should be church disciplined out if you won't repent? Nobody? Got to keep the walls up high around here.

Fasting literally in the Greek, it means not to eat. And of course, sometimes it was partial, sometimes it was total. And fasting soon after the New Testament times started kind of growing like a snowball.

Lots of things added. For instance, Matthew chapter 17, but this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. Not in any of the oldest manuscripts. Mark chapter 9, and he said this cannot come out by anything but prayer and fasting.

Again, not in any of the best manuscripts. And the church began to establish mandated fasting periods. The Jews used to fast two days a week, Mondays and Thursdays, or Wednesdays and Fridays, and the church started doing it right away as well.

And my question is, is Luther right or wrong when he said, we do not therefore object to fasting itself, but to the fact that it is represented as a necessary duty and that specific days have been fixed for its performance.

Even in Luther's day in the mid 1500s, there were people who said you have to fast or else. And you'll know from my convictions really quickly that there is nothing in the New Testament that says a Christian has to fast.

Is it okay to fast if you want? Sure, but you're not sinning if you don't because there's no command to fast, and I want to prove that to you tonight. Let's go to Matthew chapter 6, because this is the first place where people go to try to prove fasting.

Again, if you want to fast, fine. By the way, if you have, probably getting ahead of myself, but let's just turn to Matthew chapter 6. If you meet somebody who's going through a huge trial, and their kids are in the hospital, or they have a death in the family, here's what you don't really need to do.

Run up to them and say, you haven't eaten all day, you must eat. Because there are times in your life when there's a huge trial, and you will see tonight that I believe almost every time we see a fasting in the New Testament, it's going to be because of a trial or testing.

There will be times where you're just not going to be thinking about food. Same thing in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, when a husband and wife need to be together on a regular basis physically, if able, and once in a while because of some huge test, that's just not on their mind because other things have taken over.