His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: Today on His Perfect Love, God's chosen fast.

Some people do a full fast where they only have water. Some people do a fast where they maybe abstain from some treats or desserts or things like that. The idea is the denying of the flesh is to not practice the hypocrisy of living one way and saying we believe one thing and then living contrary to that.

I thought, "What a wonderful message calling us out of hypocrisy, calling us out from playing the actors." Yes, he's talking to the church. He was talking to Israel, his chosen people. We know we have to deal with the outside world and unbelievers, but God is dealing with the believers, and he's coming back and he's saying we have to make our hearts, through the Lord Jesus Christ, righteous and holy because he's holy.

Guest (Male): In our society as we know it, there is a great emphasis on food. To give all that up for a time is almost unheard of. Today on His Perfect Love, we draw your attention to the spiritual discipline of fasting. Though it's rarely discussed or practiced in our day, it should be a part of the Christian life.

But how do we do it? Pastor Matt VanderVen opens Isaiah 58 today and points to the fast God has chosen. Let's see what we can take away from this and apply to our own lives.

Matt VanderVen: So as we go into this chapter here tonight, in Israel at the time, they were still practicing a fast. Even though they were certainly practicing idolatry and their sin and the different things that were going on in Judah, certainly before the Babylonian invasion that will occur in 605 BC, they were still going through the rituals or the routines or the things that they were doing. They were trying to be religious.

But in so doing, what God witnessing and seeing these things, they were so pleased that they were doing these things, but the heart was so far from the Lord that the Lord picks up on this fast that they're about to do. He says, "Hey, is this God's chosen fast, or is this a fast of man that man wants to do?" And what he was calling out was the hypocrisy of what was going on in the nation, what was going on in Judah.

It was God's desire that he would bring them back from that, that they would be faithful. He would remind them to stay faithful and that when they fasted, the fasting was supposed to be a denying of self, that they would take that to heart, not just in an outward action. Just like when we fast every year, we've done this for 11 years now where we've done a church fast, and it's been a beautiful time where we come together and the Lord reveals so many things to us.

It begins and we all do it in different ways. Some people do a full fast where they only have water. Some people do a fast where they maybe abstain from some treats or desserts or things like that. They try to—the idea is the denying of the flesh is to not practice the hypocrisy of living one way and saying we believe one thing and then living contrary to that.

I thought, "What a wonderful message calling us out of hypocrisy, calling us out from playing the actors." Yes, he's talking to the church. He was talking to Israel, his chosen people. We know we have to deal with the outside world and unbelievers, but God is dealing with the believers. He's coming back and he's saying we have to make our hearts, through the Lord Jesus Christ, righteous and holy because he's holy.

It's really beautiful. It's going to seem a little bit convicting here certainly for all of us, but know God's heart in this in Chapter 58. His heart isn't to embarrass or expose anybody. His heart is love and reconciliation, and he just so tenderly wants to bring everyone back into the right behavior of heart. He wants everybody to have the right heartitude.

In verse one, "Cry aloud, spare not. Lift up your voice like a trumpet. Tell my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinances of justice. They take delight in approaching God."

In other words, from all the outward appearance, these seem like very deep spiritual men and women that are very much interested in the Lord. They're seeking him, they open their Bibles, they're looking to read the Word of God. They're wanting to do these things. As a nation, they say that they want righteousness. They seek the ordinance of God to understand his commandments and statutes. He says, "Boy, it's like they're coming to me the way you would want your children to come to you that way."

But then he says here in verse three, "Why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls and you take no notice?" In fact, in the day of your fast, you find pleasure and exploit all of your labors.

So God stops here in verse three, and he asks a really important question. Really, it was Judah that was asking this question. The reason they're asking this question and God is presenting it in the first two verses is because they're living a double life. Do you know what I mean by that, acting one way or talking one way but living another?

They're living a double life and God is saying, "Judah, you're asking the questions upon God like, 'Lord, why are you not hearing me? Why are you not doing these things? Why is it looking like you're an absentee parent?'" He says, "But are you aware of what you're doing in the fact in the day of your fast, which is supposed to be all about self-denial and submission to God and surrender?"

He says, "You're taking it, Judah, and you're using it as a time for pleasure. It's all about the goodness and all you can—there's no denial of anything there. You're doing a fast, but you're really not doing the fast. It's sort of outwardly, but in the heart, you've not denied anything of the flesh."

So Judah is sort of asking this question, and God is coming back and saying, "Well, Judah, I can see your heart is far from me." He says, "Look at the exploit of all your labors. Why don't you, in a sense, repent and then we can have something to talk about?"

"Indeed your fast, you fast for strife and debate and to strike with the fist of wickedness," right, abusing people. "You will not fast as you do this day to make your voice heard on high. Is it a fast that I have chosen?" He's asking, "Your fast, but if you're going to do this, is it a fast that I have chosen?" God is saying, "Because out of your fast comes wickedness, strife. You see that?" Because we can't hide those things from God. We can't hide the motives from God. He knows exactly what we're doing and thinking.

"Is it a fast that I've chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush and to spread out a sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord?" No. You've fasted all right, but you know what you fasted from? You fasted from my Word. You fasted from me. That's what God's saying here. "You fasted from me."

"Is this not the fast that I have chosen, God's fast? To loose the bonds of wickedness?" That's what God intended fasting to do. God wanted to do beautiful work and this is what we do when we have a fast every year. We want to set captives free, the bonds of wickedness. To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free and that you break every yoke.

And God can break every yoke, can't he? He can.

"Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out? When you see the naked, that you cover him and not hide yourself from your own flesh, from your own family that has need? Then your light shall break forth like the morning. Your healing shall spring forth speedily and your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard."

See, the fast can be an important and effective time with God and it can produce a very beautiful blessing if done with the right heart. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. That's what's supposed to come with this. It's beautiful. "Then you shall call and the Lord will answer." He says, "There it is, the very thing you want, the one you're seeking." He says, "Then you will call or shall call and the Lord will answer. You shall cry and he will say, 'Here I am.'"

Are we as broken—I don't know what your favorite sandwich is, an Italian sub or sandwich, maybe a chicken parm or Philly cheesesteak. We're in Pennsylvania, excuse me. Maybe that's your favorite. If you can't have your favorite sandwich, oh man, you're hungry. Are you broken by that? You're upset. Are we as broken by our sin as we are the cravings that we have?

It's a heavy chapter, isn't it? But it's beautiful because it's not God browbeating his people. He's just trying to make them aware that you're trying to seek God but you're going and looking in all the wrong places and you're wondering why you're coming up empty.

I find that a very loving God that responds to that and says, "No, it's not that I don't love you, you're just not seeking after me," rather than just ignoring you. God's not ignoring Judah. He's trying to help Judah. He's trying to speak to their hearts that they would turn and to really show them how wonderful God's fast can really be. God's chosen fast can be beautiful.

"If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness and your darkness shall be as the noonday." He says you will bring light to what is dark today.

"The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in drought and strengthen your bones. You shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail." Doesn't that sound wonderful? What's he talking about there? He's talking about a refreshment. It goes almost akin to Psalms 1 where he also talks about a tree and different Proverbs and Psalms and you talk about the tree that's planted close to the water that can feed upon the water and is constantly being refreshed and renewed.

And he's saying that our souls are much like the same. Our souls need that fresh filling, that fresh renewing from the living water of Jesus Christ. But if we're going to all the wrong places—if we're hitting up the bars, going to the clubs, going to the computer, the internet, and all the different things we shouldn't be looking at—he says, "No, you're going to come away famished. But if you come to the living water, you're going to have this beautiful fresh filling of your soul."

Because he says, "And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail." God is promising. I want to encourage us, test the Lord in this. Test the Lord in verse 11 because he's telling you, go ahead, try approaching him this way. Try seeking after him in this same capacity and see that you don't come away refreshed and renewed, as it says in other parts of Scripture, riding on eagle's wings.

"Those from among you shall build the old waste places. You shall raise up the foundations of many generations and you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of the Streets to Dwell In." He says, "You can be the agent of change." Jesus is saying he'll use anyone of you that are willing to stand in the gap and say, "Here I am, Lord, use me."

And again, it bleeds in such a beautiful way with the heart that it begins with the Lord just crying after him. That's all he ever wanted his people to do is to seek after him and not just outwardly, but more importantly, where no one can see, in the inward parts.

Every one of us in this room, we can keep a lot of thoughts to ourselves that even our wives or husbands don't know, even our best friend doesn't know. We can keep these things in our head because of insecurities, fears, anxieties, all kinds of things that we never say another word to another person because we think, "Well, what will they think of me? Or what will people say?"

And God is saying, "I can see all of your thoughts. I can see your heart. And I'm not pushing you away. I want to bring you closer." That's a good father. I mean, what more could we want than a God that's saying, "You know what? I don't want to push you away because you're broken. I want to bring you close. I want to keep you close. I want to keep you where I can freshen you and fill you, encourage you. And not only that, but we can rebuild this whole city."

He says we could take the waste places and the things that have been just destroyed and God, through foundations, can build it up new again and it can be wonderful. He says, "And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of the Streets to Dwell In."

But now he comes back and he deals directly with the sin specifically. The Jews were not under this decree and they weren't following the one thing that was given to them very clearly and distinctly in the Mosaic law. What was the sign that was given to them by Moses specifically to the Jewish people, the Israelites? No other people; he's never given it to any other people. It was actually one of the Ten Commandments and he spoke it specifically. It's not tied to the vertical, the horizontal, the way we think of some of the moral law and some of the ceremonial practice.

But it's interesting. He says, "If you turn away your foot from the—" what? "Shabbat, the Sabbath." Everybody here knows that God didn't need a day off. God never sleeps nor slumbers. He says that in the scripture. So it wasn't for him. Who was the Shabbat for, or the Sabbath? That's right, I heard somebody say it was for us.

And what was that time for us supposed to be about? Undivided time with him. Nothing else vying at us. Not work, not homework, not all these other things that come at us. No, it was supposed to be just a day where we rested with the Lord in beautiful worship and really had beautiful fellowship with him.

And look what he—is this not a tender God? Listen to where he's coming from on this matter. If you really get into God's heart on this matter, he's like a hurt papa. How many of you have kids here? I'm curious. How many, raise a hand? How many of you have kids? Our children can do things sometimes not on purpose, but when they can turn and pull away, that hurts the heart deeply for a parent. Right, wrong, indifferent, it hurts the heart deeply.

The Lord loves his children. He wants to be in constant fellowship with them. He's a good, as he's saying, Abba Father. He's a good father. And what's happening here is his children that he specifically took a day that was just to be together—I'm Italian, you know. When I grew up, Sundays, we came together as a family and we ate together. We still do it to this day, but we have pasta, maybe meatballs or bolognese. You make food and you come together around the table and you eat. Now we've gotten where we eat all over the house, but the point is as the house kids grow and the whole thing changes.

But some of you can remember, maybe you grew up like that too where there was a day that your family would get together and it was special and you guys would come over and you'd visit and you'd be with the family and it was all about fellowship. Sure, it was about Nana's pasta, right, or bolognese. We love it. But what was it really? It was about the fellowship. Maybe see Mom, maybe see Dad, maybe see grandparents, children, everybody together. This was very common at one time, very common.

And especially in New York and the city, Bronx, or Lisa and families from upstate—I mean, this is what a large groups of people did. Jersey, I know. And it was supposed to be this time of fellowship, this time of family. And I mean, we do it in a simple way, but what God was trying to do is have this big beautiful time of fellowship for the whole tribe of Judah, the whole tribes of Israel. He wanted to gather all the kids around the table, if I can proverbially say it that way. He wanted to gather them all around the table and he wanted to enjoy them and them enjoy him.

The one thing that he says, "I give you a sign that you have been given and no other people but you that I am your God." And he specifically says, "I give it as a sign to you." And look what it says in verse 13. "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, the Shabbat, from doing your pleasure on my holy day—" what did he say? "From doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable and you shall honor him, not doing your own ways nor finding your own pleasures nor speaking your own words."

What's he trying to talk about here? He says worshipping on your terms. You're worshipping on your terms. "Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father." If you would keep the Sabbath, if you would enjoy the company, this is what I would do.

But if you don't, he's being very clear as well. If you wouldn't speak your own words, you would experience such a delight in the Lord. You would ride on the high hills of the earth and feed with your heritage Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.

You know, my mother used to say something. She'd say, "Did I stutter?" Did anybody's mothers say that or is it just my five-foot-something Italian mother? "Did I stutter?" It meant, "I said it, there it is." This is what the Lord is doing. He says the mouth of the Lord has spoken. It's akin to saying "Thus saith the Lord." God is telling them, "Look, test me on these things. This is a promise. If you seek me with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, will you not experience that beauty that I've always intended for you?"

But if you continually walk contrary, why are you surprised? I've told you. Why are you surprised? Again, he's talking to Judah. He's talking to his chosen people. These are not people that are atheists. These are not people that are agnostic that wonder, "Is there a God?" These are the people of his pasture, the people of his pasture, his chosen people that he's literally pleading and appealing to, "Please."

What is he really saying, parents? Like we would say, "Come home. Come home. You don't have to vie out there. It's hard, it's crazy, it's no, come home." And I don't mean physically. Spiritually, come home. Talking about the prodigals.

Guest (Male): Pastor Matt VanderVen has been in Isaiah 58 talking about fasting today on His Perfect Love. He'll be right back. You can hear this study from Pastor Matt VanderVen again when you visit hisperfectlove.org. Catch up on what you may have missed in Isaiah at hisperfectlove.org. Look for us on oneplace.com and most podcast platforms.

The Calvary Chapel Harrisburg mobile app is another great way to listen to Pastor Matt's messages shortly after they're delivered. We can help you get started when you visit hisperfectlove.org. His Perfect Love is listener-supported. It's listeners just like you that help us bring the truths of God's Word to the radio every day. Together we can reach people with the love and truth of God. You can make a donation at hisperfectlove.org.

You know, Pastor Matt would love to hear from you. Tell us the station you listen to and how you're helped by this ministry. Email us there at the website, hisperfectlove.org. We want to invite you to join us for a service at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Sunday morning services begin at 8:30 and 10:30. We have a midweek service too, Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. We're located at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. Go to ccharrisburg.org for more information.

We do have some time left, so let's peek into Isaiah 59 for a minute or two.

Matt VanderVen: Look at Chapter 59 with me here. "Behold, the Lord's hand—" now whenever you see that in the Scripture, especially in the Hebrew, it always denotes arm. Specifically when he's talking about his arm, it's always talking about power. So if you're in the Hebrew and you ever see that and it's talking about the Lord's hand, you can make a note he's always—almost always—talking about specifically power.

"Behold, the Lord's hand, or power, is it not shortened that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear?" I don't think it's due to any God's doing. I don't think anything that's happening right now specifically from those that are rejecting Jesus or rejecting the truth has anything to do with God's doing. It's not God's hand of power where he's not doing that. It's not that God can't save; he can. It's not that he's made an ear so heavy that somebody can't hear.

He says, "No, I'm going to tell you where all this comes from." He says, "This is real love. Real love is to tell you what you need to hear, even though it might cut a little deep." because that's real love.

But—it's a conjunction. It's a reason. You can circle it. He's telling you the reason, the reason. "But your iniquities have separated you from your God."

He says it's your sin and your unwillingness to choose God over your sin. He says that's the heart of the matter. Every time we choose sin over God, not only is that idolatry, but it's heartbreaking. I mean, do we recognize that that's what we're doing? We're breaking hearts, his heart.

How do you feel when somebody breaks your heart? Because I know we pay more attention when it's about us, right? A little tongue-in-cheek there. But am I right? When it's about us, how does it feel when somebody breaks our hearts? It messes us up, right? It hurts deeply. We can hurt God that way too.

Guest (Male): We'll talk more about real love and our tendency to sin and break God's heart tomorrow on His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt. See you then. His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.