Thank you. Turn with me, if you
would, to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. We are right in the middle of
what many people refer to as the Sermon on the Mount. And
in this message, our Lord is dealing with many different things. In chapter six, specifically,
it's chapters five, six, and seven. And in chapter six, he
deals with almsgiving, and he deals with praying, and he deals
with forgiving. And now we're gonna look at what
he has to say about fasting. All right, so I wanna encourage
us to ask the Lord to reveal this to us. I pray the Lord will
truly, truly reveal this to us. Matthew 6, verse 16, he said,
moreover, 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. 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. And thy father which seeth in
secret shall reward thee openly. The scripture talks about fasting
a lot. It talks about it a lot. Fasting
is not eating anything for a certain period of time. And in some cases,
not drinking anything for a certain period of time. Fasting is an emptiness. That's what fasting is. Fasting
is a feeling of emptiness. And it's a denial. It is a conscious
denial. It's a conscious decision. to deny what would satisfy and
feed and nourish the flesh. Now, are we reading between the
spiritual lines yet? Fasting is an emptying out. It's a denial of what would gratify
and what would be satisfying to and what would be pleasing
to this flesh, what the flesh is craving, what would feed the
flesh. It's a willing acknowledgement
of lack. Lack in me. It is not catering
to my flesh. It's a denial of self. It's a no. It's a denial of self. And the Lord said, if that denial
of self gratification, if that emptiness brings sorrow to you,
that feeling of emptiness, if it brings sorrow to you, He said,
don't put a sad countenance on your face. which is what we do,
that's what the flesh wants to do. It wants to put a sad, I
want everybody to know, if I'm feeling this way, then I want
everybody to know. He said, don't do that so that
we can, on purpose, don't disfigure your face, he said. Don't put
a sad countenance on your face so that people will look at us
and notice that we're sad and feel sorry for us. Our Lord said
don't do that. He said that's still an effort
to bring gratification to the flesh. Like it's a last ditch
effort to gratify the flesh. God's people know when it comes
to our standing before God, There cannot be any gratification of
the flesh. None whatsoever. God's people
want it that way. They want it to be that way.
They deny their flesh. They deny themselves. So our
Lord said, you bring your sorrow and you bring your lack and you
bring your emptiness to God alone. And he said, before men, before
each other, brush your hair, wash your face, and put a smile
on. So no attention will be openly
brought to you. And he said, if you do that,
your heavenly father, which sees what's going on inside of you
secretly, he will fill all of your emptiness. He will openly
provide for all your lack. Now, as one man used to say,
this is bifocal. The scriptures are bifocal. This
has a spiritual application. And this has a physical application,
it has both. I do wanna tell you that neither
application, we're talking about a spiritual application here
or a physical one, neither application has anything to do with whether
or not we eat food. Nothing to do with that. Refraining
from food is not a religious practice. Not eating food does not make
us holier. Some people believe that it does,
you know. It doesn't make us closer to God. The issues of life are not out
of the stomach. They're out of the heart. They
are out of the heart. And in both the spiritual application
and the physical application, They are both referring to matters
of the heart before God and before men. Now, let me prove that to
you, all right? Turn with me to Luke chapter
18. Luke 18, look with me at verse
nine. Our Lord spake this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. He said, two men went up into
the temple to pray. The one, a Pharisee, that's a
religious person. That's a religious leader of
the Jews. And the other, a publican, that is a sinful man. Verse 11
says, the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God,
I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican." Now watch verse
12. He said, I fast twice in the
week. He said, I don't extort anybody,
not unjust, I'm not an adulterer. I fast twice in the week. He said, I give tithes of all
that I possess, not just my money, my corn, my whatever. Verse 13, and the publican, standing
afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven,
but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. The Lord said in verse 14, I
tell you, this man, the publican, went down to his house justified
rather than the other. For everyone that exalteth himself
shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. The Pharisee said, I fast twice
in the week. I take two days out of the week
and I don't eat any food. And the Lord said, you are exalting
yourself in that. Even in that rejection of food,
you are glorifying your flesh in that. As though what you're
doing accounts for something with God. He said it doesn't,
and you are not gonna be justified in what you're doing. That Pharisee
fasted with his stomach, but here was his problem. He was
not fasting with his heart. He never truly felt an emptiness
before God. That Pharisee, we can read it,
he didn't feel empty at all. never felt his lack before God. He may have denied his stomach
some food, but his heart never denied himself. But verse 13
says, the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much
as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast saying,
God be merciful to me, a sinner. That publican was fasting. He was fasting, spiritually fasting
before God. And not just two times a week,
every moment of every day. Fasting, fasting. The Lord said
in verse 14, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified
rather than the other, for everyone that exalteth himself shall be
abased, and he that humbleth himself. And I want to emphasize
those two words. Humbleth himself. shall be exalted. Whoever denies himself, rejects
himself. Big difference in rejecting food
and rejecting self. Big difference in rejecting anything.
You know, people say, well, that's never touched my lips. Well,
that's fine. But what we need to be doing
is not rejecting items. We need to be rejecting self.
denying self. The Lord said, that man is gonna
receive the blessing. That man is gonna be justified.
Now, spiritually speaking, we are nothing but empty before
God. We're empty. Our flesh is nothing
but sin. There is nothing in us that has
the ability to sustain us or nourish us unto eternal life,
nothing. Our only hope is that Christ
will sustain us, sustain us in His blood. You know, we are sustained
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our only hope is that
Christ will nourish us with His body, with His Word, with His
Spirit, with His life. And that eternal blessing from
God is only made known to us through our rejection, our absolute
rejection and denial of ourselves. We deny our works, we deny our
will, we deny our way. We deny it. Our absolute denial
of ourselves and our complete and total clinging to Christ
alone, His way alone, that way of the Lord Jesus Christ. That
blessing is openly made known when a man or a woman realizes
his emptiness is emptied of himself, emptied
of herself and filled with the fullness of Christ. Turn with
me, if you would, to Mark chapter eight. Mark 8 verse 34, it says, And
when He had called the people unto Him, with His disciples
also, He said unto them, Whosoever will come after Me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever
shall lose his life for my sake in the gospels, the same shall
save it. For what shall it profit a man
if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what
shall a man give in exchange for his soul? So the spiritual
application of fasting is being willingly empty before God. Willingly, God's people are,
God's people are fasters in the heart. Willingly, consciously
denying self before God. All right, and now the physical
application of fasting is the exact same thing before men. Spiritually, it's before God.
Physically, it's before men. It's a willing emptiness before
men. It is a denial of self before
men. And I'm gonna tell you, it is
beautiful. It is a beautiful, characteristic that God gives
to His people. It is a lovely, lovely thing. Our Lord was the great example
of this. Look with me if you would at
Luke chapter four. Luke four, verse one, it says, And Jesus, being full of the
Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into
the wilderness, being 40 days tempted of the devil. And in
those days he did eat nothing." Matthew's account says he fasted.
And when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil
said unto him, if thou be the Son of God, command this stone
that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him saying,
it is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word of God. And the devil taking him up into
an high mountain showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world
in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him,
all this power will I give thee in the glory of them, for that
is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will give it. "'If thou therefore
wilt worship me, all shall be thine.' And Jesus answered and
said unto him, "'Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written,
"'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, "'and him only shalt
thou serve.' And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on
a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, "'If thou be the
Son of God, cast thyself down from hence, For it is written,
he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee. And in
their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash
thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said unto
him, it is written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And
when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from
him for a season. The tempter, the adversary. said
to him, he said, it's within my power to give you earthly,
worldly satisfaction, riches, and glory. And we all really
ought to think about that. You know, people say, I have
people tell me this all the time. How you doing? How y'all doing?
Oh, blessed. We're so blessed. How are your
kids doing? Oh, they're so blessed. Their business is booming, the
money is flowing, everything. Our adversary said, and he said
this and God put it in His Word because God did give him this. He said, it has been given to
me to dole out riches and to dole out worldly glory and worldly
fame and all those things. Let's make sure that we keep
a straight eye on what truly is the blessing of the Lord.
I'm gonna tell you what it is. It's fasting. That has to be
given too. But honestly, honestly, let's
keep a single eye on what is good and right for us. But that
tempter said, if you'll fall down and worship me, he said,
I'll give you all that. All you have to do is just bow
down to me and I'll give it to you. And our Lord would not do
it as a man. Now this was God, but this was
man. You know, he was tempted with
things we could never resist, but he would not do it. He did
not do it. He denied himself before men. He denied the satisfactions of
this world. He could have had anything. He
denied the riches of this world. He denied the glories of this
life. There's nothing wrong with riches
as long as it doesn't cost us the gospel and doesn't cost us
Christ. If we got to move to another place where the gospel
is not, it's not worth it. And our Lord willingly took on
this earth, He took the empty place, the lacking place among
the people. Amazingly, He humbled Himself. And he told us in Matthew chapter
five, he said, that's the key to happiness in this life. He
said, that's the blessed state. I'm telling you, that's the blessed
state that meek, lowly, poor in spirit humility. When sorrow
is overwhelming us. The key to healing and happiness,
and this is so, this is it. If we wanna lay hold of it, if
we wanna get it, this is it. When sorrow or any type of depression
or any type of whatever takes hold of us, the key to healing
and happiness is a denying of self. A denying of self and a
crying out to God. I want to show you one more verse
and then I want to close by reading you something, all right? Look
with me at Matthew 17. Matthew 17, the disciples here
tried, they tried very hard, but they could not cure a man's
lunatic son. So the man brought his son to
the Lord. And Matthew 17, verse 18 says, and Jesus rebuked the
devil, and he departed out of him, and the child was cured
from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus
apart and said, why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said
unto them, because of your unbelief. He said, it's because you were
not looking to me. For verily I say unto you, if
you have faith, and faith is looking to Christ, waiting on
Christ, trusting in Christ. That's what faith is. If you
have faith as the grain of a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain,
remove hence to yonder place. How do you do that in faith?
This is what you do. You say, Lord, if you want to remove the
mountain, you'll remove the mountain when you're good and ready to
remove the mountain. And if you don't, You won't, and it won't
be, but it's not in my hands. It's totally in your hands. I
can do nothing of myself, nothing. That's faith. But he said, you'll
say to this mountain, remove hence to yonder place and it
shall be removed and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Watch verse 21. How be it this kind goeth not
out, but by prayer and fasting. He said, that's what it takes.
He said, you could not do it because you were looking to yourselves
and not to me. And that's what we do. That's
what we do. That's what we do. You were looking
to your own ability, your own work, your own glory and gratification
in it. And he said, you weren't looking
to me. He said, healing only comes from prayer and fasting. True healing within. I mean true help, true happiness. I'm gonna tell you, I know, I
know trials are gonna come for the rest of my days on this earth.
I may have one more day. I may have 365 times 50, I don't
know. Trials are going to come. Sorrows
are going to come. Depressions are going to be there.
They are going to be there. But healing will come and happiness
can be there in sorrow. Happiness can be there in trial. Happiness can be there. In depression,
happiness can be there. If I will just deny myself and
cry out to my Lord, if He'll give me the ability to do that. I mean, not with lip service,
I mean truly deny myself and ask myself this question, who
am I? And then say, who is He? Happiness will come. Healing
will come. It will come. I want to close
this with something here. I believe this will emphasize
what this is talking about. This true healing and true happiness
from denying ourselves for Christ's sake. That's why we do it. We
deny ourselves for Christ's sake, and it's because He denied Himself
for our sake. He did it first, and that's our
motivation. But a man named Bill Britton
wrote something here, and I don't know who this man is, and I don't
know when he wrote it. I don't know if it's new or a
couple of hundred years old, I don't know. But his article
is called Dying to Self, and that's just another way of saying
denying self. All right, this is what he said,
and this is so good. I saw this years ago. I bet you I've been
holding onto this for 10 years at least. I stuck it in my Bible.
It's just been sitting in my Bible for 10 years. When you are forgotten, have
you ever felt forgotten? Well, all attention used to be
on me, but it's not anymore. When you are forgotten, or neglected,
or purposely set at naught, and you don't sting and hurt with
the insult or oversight, but your heart is happy, counting
it worthy to suffer for Christ, that is dying to self." When
you're dead to yourself, you don't feel the sting, you don't
feel the When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are
crossed, your opinions ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise
in your heart or even defend yourself, but take it all in
patient, loving silence, that is dying to self. When you lovingly
and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any unpunctuality,
or any annoyance, when you can stand face to face with waste,
folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility, and endure it
as the Lord Jesus endured it, that is dying to self. When you
are content with any food, any offering, any raiment, any climate,
any society, any solitude, or any interruption by the will
of God, that is dying to self. When you never care to refer
to yourself in conversation. Man, I'd love to learn that one
one of these days. or itch after commendation. When you can truly love to be
unknown, that is dying to self. When you can see your brother
prosper, listen to this one. when you can see your brother
prosper and have his needs met and can honestly rejoice with
him in spirit and feel no envy nor question God while your own
needs are far greater and in desperate circumstance. That
is dying to self. When you can receive correction
and reproof from one of less stature than yourself, and can
humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion
or resentment rising up within your heart, that is dying to
self." He said, are you dead yet? In these last days, the Spirit
would bring us to the cross. In these last days, the Spirit
of God, thank God, will in love and kindness bring us to the
cross. He said, let a man deny himself,
take up his cross. And then he quoted, that I may
know him being made conformable unto his death. That is dying
to self. Our Lord said, If we will be
this way, not just outwardly, but inwardly, before God and
men, He said, and this is so, He said, the Father which seeth
these secret things will fill us with so much more than we
lack. If He fills us with Christ, we
will be filled with the fullness of all things. So here's where
I'll leave us. May the Lord teach us the importance
of having a fasted heart, and may He give us one. May He teach
us the importance of having one, and may He give us one. All right,
you're dismissed.