Alright, now the Lord here in
Matthew chapter 6 and verse 16, He begins here with, moreover,
when ye fast. Now let's talk about a fast just
for a moment. There was a particular time of
fasting in God's law under the Old Covenant, particularly on
the Day of Atonement. The only fasting day that the
Lord required in the law. Now, at the time that the Lord
Jesus is delivering this to those who hear him speak, the brethren,
they were yet under that law. They were yet observing the fast
days required by law. But Christ being the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes, there are not
now in our day any days that are required for us to fast. Now, let's talk about the purpose
of a fast. We know, most people know what
a fast is. A fast is quite literally abstaining
from food and drink, earthly food and drink. Sometimes your
physician might require you to fast before tests or before surgery,
something of that nature. That's fasting for medical reasons. That's not what our Lord is speaking
of here. When we are sick, we don't have
any appetite. When we get really sick, your
body doesn't crave the food it normally craves. You just can't
make yourself eat sometimes when you're truly bodily, physically
sick. We're turned from every desire
of things that we would naturally crave. Well, a spiritual fast
holds much the same significance. The day of fasting was a deeply
personal matter for a believer. It signified soul sorrow, a sickness
of soul, repentance from the appetites of sinful flesh. Sometimes
you've been afflicted. You've been convicted in your
heart by sin. Or some going through trial and
you weren't hungry for food. You weren't really physical food.
You wanted God. You wanted the bread from heaven.
And that's what's signified in a true fast, a true spiritual
fast. It's turning from the appetites
of the flesh to God. And that's what was signified
on the Day of Atonement. On the Day of Atonement, the
brethren, the true believers born of God that came there on
the Day of Atonement, even under the Old Covenant. They did without
food. They did without water. And it
was a signification of them turning from this world, from the flesh,
from everything that we desire, naturally speaking. And all eyes
were on that high priest. All eyes were on that lamb. All
eyes were on that blood as he went in to the holiest of holies
to make atonement. That's the type, that's the picture
of what a true spiritual fast is. It's turning from this world
to Christ. It's doing without everything
in this world and turning to Him. Now, are we required to
fast in our day? We're not required by law to
literally abstain from food and drink in our day. In fact, those
who fasted in Israel under the Old Covenant because it was merely
required by law, that being the only reason they did it, they
didn't fast either, even though they might have went all day
without food and water. And then they abused it. They began to have more fasts
and called for more fasts and fasts on the second and fifth
day of the week and began to really abuse what the fast was
about. It became a show in religion,
as we're prone to do. But by His grace, when God afflicts
the soul in a loving correction and He turns us from the bread
of sinful appetites, gives us an earnest desire for the spiritual
manna, for Christ Jesus, the true bread, these are seasons
when sometimes no earthly food will do. They are seasons when
no earthly food will do. Now, notice here what our Lord
says. When ye fast, be not as the hypocrites
of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they
may appear unto men to fast. But look down at verse 17. But
thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face,
that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy father
which is in secret. Now, not unto men, but unto thy
father which is in secret. Our Lord is teaching us, we've
seen this clearly, that the believer worships God from the heart. It's a true spiritual heart worship. And that's what we've been concentrating
on in three areas. He's shown us this in almsgiving,
in prayer, and in fasting. Let's just review for a minute.
Matthew 6, 1. I want you to catch this. He says there, take heed
that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise you have no reward
of your Father which is in heaven. Connect that word, your Father
which is in secret, with your Father which is in heaven. Then
look down at verse 4. That thine alms may be in secret,
and thy Father which seeth in secret. He sees the heart. He looks on the heart. He knows
the heart. Then look down at verse 5. When
thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites, for they
love to pray standing in public places that they may be seen
of men. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when
thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret. See that? He's in secret. He's
in heaven. He's in secret. He seeth in secret. He's telling us to go into a
secret place. This is a spiritual matter. Our
God is spirit and He's telling us this is a spiritual matter.
And then He says here in verse 16, men who are hypocrites disfigure
their faces that they may appear to fast. Verse 18, He says, but
thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy father which is
in secret. There He is, He says it again.
and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."
Now, turn over to Isaiah 58. This is probably the best contrast
between a true fast and a hypocritical fast. And here the Lord gives
us the meaning of a fast and what it meant all along. Now,
he says in verse 1, Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice
like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the
house of Jacob their sins. Now here's their transgression
and their sins. They seek me daily, and they like to know my ways. as a nation that did righteousness,
as if they were righteous, and as if they had not forsaken the
ordinance of their God. Notice this singular word, the
ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinances
of justice, but they've forsaken the ordinance of God. Where does
all the law of God end? In Christ. The ordinance of God
is to believe on Him whom God has sent. They didn't seek, they
turned from the ordinance of God and went after the ordinances
of God. All the other matters that pointed
was to shut us up to Him. And it says here, they ask of me the ordinances
of justice, they take delight in approaching to God. And here
was their complaint. Wherefore have we fasted, say
they, and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our
soul, and thou takest no knowledge? They're talking to God, he says. Now listen, the Lord told us
that the Father sees in secret, didn't He? He says He looks on
the heart, He sees in secret. And here the complaint of the
hypocrite is, you don't see us. You don't take any knowledge
of us. Men see us. Everybody around us acknowledge
it and see what we're doing. Why don't God acknowledge it?
Why don't He see us? They didn't need a reward from
the Father because they had obtained what they were seeking. Men saw
it. They were seeking the applause
of men. They got it. That's exactly what the Lord
says next. Look. Behold, in the day of your fast,
you find pleasure in your fast. You really find pleasure in your
fast. And you're exacting all your
labors. Instead of sorrow over their
sin, they took pleasure in fasting. In the actual abstaining from
food and drink. They expected, or they exacted,
they kept track of all that they personally did in afflicting
their soul. Because their labor, this labor
of doing this was their wealth. This was wealth, this was their
riches. And they exacted, they forced
every one of their servants to fast. And this too was their
reward. Remember when Paul told the Galatians,
they glory in your flesh. They don't do what God's commanded
them to do. And then they tell you to do
it because they want the glory in your flesh. That's what our
Lord said. Instead of turning from the polluted
bread, the polluted water of this fleshly shell, they took
pleasure in it. Instead of proclaiming liberty,
they gloried in what they constrained their servants to do. to pay
up, and they complained that the Lord hadn't taken any knowledge
of all this. The Lord promises He'll never
take knowledge of such a vain show. He won't. Look at verse
4. Behold, ye fast for strife and
debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. That fast
for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness
sums up what all our religious endeavors are when they're done
to be seen of men. We want to do them so that we
can strive against others that don't do them and debate with
others that don't do them and smite with the fist of wickedness
and force others that don't do them because we do them. That's
what it all amounts to. You shall not fast as you do
this day to make your voice to be heard on high. If our voice
is heard on high by men in anything we do in worship, you can be
sure God's not going to hear it. That's what our Lord's teaching
us. If we make our voice to be heard
on high, God on high won't hear us. Now look at verse 5. Is it such a fast that I have
chosen? a day for a man to afflict his
soul? To bow down his head as a bulrush
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this
a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord?" Is it a day? Is it that what it is? Is it
a day that one day when the sinner separates from fleshly appetites,
is that what a fast is? Is it a practice? Is it a religious
exercise whereby men say you bow down, you get this long look
on your face and make sure everybody knows how sinful you are? Face
long like you could eat oats out of a well bucket? That's
not a fast. That's not what it is. A true
fast is not one day, it's not one time, it's not a visible
act of religion, it's a perpetual separation, a mourning that we
are seeing, that we esteem far too highly the things that the
flesh esteems. That's what a true fast is. The
Lord called them to, in another place, He said, I called you
to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding
with sackcloth. That's what the fast was about.
That's a sign of repentance, is what it is. You remember in
Matthew, in the Beatitudes, when we first started, it said, Blessed
are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. He said,
I called you to mourn over your sin. and therein you'll be comforted."
The believer that turns from himself does it because he's
mourning over his sin. And when he turns from himself
to God, that's where he finds his comfort. But he said, instead
of that, what I beheld is joy and gladness and slaying oxen
and killing sheep and eating flesh and drinking wine. In other
words, he said, this day that I've called to be a fast for
you is a feast for you. You're feasting, not fasting. You're taking pleasure in all
these labors. And that's not a fast. Now, true
fast. Look at verse 6. Is not this
the fast I've chosen? God's fast is that which God
works in the heart. It's a fast worked by the Holy
Spirit when He makes us to mourn our sin. He turns us to Christ
our bread. Now watch this, verse 6. It's
not this the fast that I've chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness,
to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, that
ye break every yoke. You know where you're going to
have to look first to find out what a true fast is? To Christ. See what He did. When he went
up and was tempted 40 days and 40 nights of the devil, it says
he didn't eat the whole time. He was there in prayer, mourning
the sin of his people, casting himself upon God the Father,
and he didn't have any appetite for fleshly food whatsoever. And more so than that, Satan
couldn't turn him to those things that the flesh loves. When he
went to the Garden of Gethsemane, he wasn't going there to... He
was separating himself from everything else, casting himself on God.
Throughout his life, we find him separating himself, casting
all his care on the Father as the Holy One, as the Faithful
One, as the Righteous Servant of God. He loosed the yoke of
Satan's wickedness from off of us. by His sacrifice. When He regenerated us and gave
us faith to see Christ, He made us to see that He was made flesh,
that He might deliver His brethren who were flesh, that He might
destroy the power of the devil and take away the fear of death.
And He did it by destroying sin. He broke the yoke. He was victorious
over the grave. He removed the heavy burdens,
the laws demands upon us. He removed the heavy burdens
of the chains of our vain imagination by purging the inward man. He
removed the chains of will works that we were under, that we esteemed
highly, that we were in bondage to. We were oppressed and He
let us go free. Free grace did it. free works
accomplished by Christ and not by us, freely performed on our
behalf. And it was given to us freely,
freely. The light and easy yoke of Christ
given to us freely. And whoever Christ frees, whoever
He liberates, whoever He takes out from this chain of oppression,
He's free indeed. And then, this love constrains
every believer to deal with others the same way. And that's what
the Lord says, this is the fast I called for, not for putting
burdens on people, not for using it to put a burden on people,
but to declare through this fast how that I've loosed the bands
of wickedness, how I've taken off the heavy yoke, how I've
removed the oppression. And in our blind delusion, we
take the the things God gives us and use it in just a manner
God purposed for it not to be used. Declare the opposite of
what God is declaring through the fast. Again he says, is not
this the fast that I have chosen? Look at verse 7. Is it not to
deal thy bread to the hungry, that thou bring the poor that
are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that
thou cover him, that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
You see, look at the opposite of these things. We don't want
to deal our bread to the hungry. We don't want to bring the poor
to our house. When we see somebody that's naked,
we don't want to cover him. When we see our own flesh and
blood, sinners like we are, by nature, we turned ourselves from
them and went the other way. He said, fast from that. Do without
that bread and that water. turn from all that. The true
fast is he who was rich for our sakes became poor that we through
his poverty might be made rich. How did he do that? By separating
himself from everything that would be pleasing to him. That
to come to where we are from glory to do this in the midst
of a sin-cursed people and a sin-cursed earth. We were starved and He
fed us the bread from heaven. We were poor and He made us of
the household of God, brought us to His house, made us heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ. We were naked and He covered
us in His righteousness. He drew us in His loving kindness
to call out on Him in mercy. And when He drew us to call out
on Him in mercy and we called out, Lord have mercy on me, I'm
a sinner. Did He hide Himself from us?
Did He turn from us and go the other way? No. You know why? Because those that He calls to
cry out to Him for mercy are bone of His bone and flesh of
His flesh, and He won't hide Himself from His own flesh. In
all this amazing love and this grace, He makes every believer
willing. He makes the believer ready.
He makes the believer to do the same for the poor, starved, naked,
homeless, helpless, sinful flesh that we are. To loose the bands
of wickedness and to give the bread to the hungry. He gives
you a heart to do that spiritually and physically. Spiritually and
temporally. See the connection here. I want
you to catch this between almsgiving and prayer and fasting. In Matthew
6, the Lord went from almsgiving to prayer to fasting. Who's the
almsgiver? He is. Who's the one who makes
intercession for His people? He is. Who's the one who's separate
from sinners, higher than this deluded sinfulness of depraved
men? Who is it? He is. And what did
He do by giving us alms, giving to us poor desperate sinners?
What did He do by making intercession to us? What did He do by separating
Himself on our behalf? He gave us this bread, He brought
us into union with our God, and He made us separate from what
we were in the flesh and all those sinful fleshly appetites
that we had. By Christ's almsgiving to us. He makes us almsgivers. By His
intercession for us, He makes us praying people. What is it
to be prayerful? Forgiving others as He's forgiven
us. To be in union with Him. How
much emphasis did He put on that when He talked about prayer?
Forgive others as your Father has forgiven you. And experiencing
this grace, He gives you a distaste for what you once craved, and
what you once sought was bread and water, didn't he? And he
separates you from it, and that's a true fast. That's a true fast. And when He's turning you again
in His love and correction, and He's chasting you, and He's bringing
you into this sorrow of repentance, and you're repenting from what
you are in yourself, from esteeming those things that are polluted
bread, and He's turning you to Himself, He says, don't make
a big show of it. Don't go around of a sad countenance
like the hypocrite does. Disfigure your faces. Get up,
get dressed, put your clothes on, and go about your business
just like you would any other time. That's what he says. When you
fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they
disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast.
Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. This thing of sin
is so deceiving, brethren. We can start talking about all
our mourning and all our sorrow and all those things, and thank
God will forgive us because we go around talking about it. It's
deceiving. But what does he say do? But
thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, wash thy face, that
thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is
in secret. And thy Father which seeth in
secret, who knows your heart, who knows your desire, that you're
hungering and thirsting after Him." After you've read these
things about what our Lord's teaching us through Matthew 5
and 6, go back and read those Beatitudes. The sinner hungers
and thirsts after righteousness. He'll be fed. He mourns his sin. He'll be comforted. He's separated
from those things that he once craved and he's fed, he's comforted. God knows your heart. Men don't
have to know it. God knows it. God knows it. He which seeth in secret shall
reward thee openly. All right.