Now let's look at Matthew chapter
6 verse 16 The Lord has been talking about these what we see
as duties of devotion worship The issue of charitable giving
he talked about that the issue of prayer And now he comes to
the issue of fasting and it says in verse 16. He says moreover
when you fast and be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces
that they may appear unto men to fast. He said, Verily I say
unto you, they have their reward. So again, obviously what he's
forbidding here is fasting to be seen of men. Now you know
what fasting is. Fasting is giving up food and
drink for a purpose. And we kid about fasting, you
know. We look at somebody who's overweight and say, well, they
need to, excuse me, they need to fast. But fasting was never
described in scripture as a means of losing weight. That's not
what it's for. Fasting has never been described
in scripture as a means of detoxing the human body. You know, they
talk about going on a juice fast a day to detox your body. Well,
that's okay. I mean, and you know, if you
want to fast to lose weight, that's okay, but it has nothing
to do with what the Bible calls fasting. Fasting in the Bible
was giving up food and drink to focus attention on spiritual
matters in prayer and meditation. That's what it was for. And mainly
what it was is an act of self-denial. And it was meant to be a physical
reminder to the children of God that we are totally, totally
dependent upon God to give us what we need. And of course,
there is a spiritual application. We think about people who, for
example, let's put it this way. In the Bible, we see a lot of
the fasting that's going on does not empty people, makes them
full, full of self-righteousness. But a real fast in the Bible
and in the New Testament for the church today, it's all voluntary.
There is no command for us to fast. In fact, in the Old Testament,
the Jews were only commanded to fast on one day of the year,
and that was on the Day of Atonement, when the children of Israel were
to afflict themselves and fast in token of mourning over sin.
and as an act of repentance. And you'll find that in the book
of Leviticus chapter 23. And that's the only commandment
in the Bible that's ever given for men and women to fast. So
believers in the New Testament, it's totally voluntary. All right? And if you want to fast, fast. If you don't, don't. But if you
do fast, then don't tell me about it. That's basically what the
Bible says. And don't act like you're doing
it because you want people to see that you're fasting. Don't
walk in here and say, I'm on a fast. Because I'm going to
say, big deal. Well, goody for you. Because
that's what it is. Look at what he says here. He
says, don't do it like the hypocrites. You know what he means. What's
a hypocritical fast? Well, that's a fast to be seen
of men. He's talked about that in charitable giving. Don't do
that to be seen of men. Prayer, he says, don't do that
to be seen of men, and fasting. And in each case, he says, do
it in secret. In other words, we have to make
an effort not to let people see us, because these issues of charitable
giving, these issues of prayer and fasting, are between you
and God. Somebody said, well, when I go
into a restaurant, I want people to see me pray because I want
them to know that I'm a Christian. That's not what prayer is for.
That's not why God give us the privilege and the blessing of
prayer. He gave it as a personal communication from us to him
and a means of blessing us. It's not to be seen of men. And
understand now, to be seen of men can include Somebody who
says, well, I think this is part of my witness. It's not. Your witness is the gospel. Telling
sinners the truth about how God saves sinners through the righteousness
of Christ by his grace. That's our witness. That's the
gospel witness. Now, we don't want our character
and conduct to hinder our witness, obviously. But we've got to understand
that when men see us bow our heads, unbelievers do not know
what a Christian is. Unbelievers bow their heads. False religion, they bow their
heads. They meditate. They fast. All of these things,
they give to charity. It's not Christian because it's
not in Christ and it's not motivated by faith in Christ and love for
Christ and his people. So understand that. But now look
at Luke chapter 18. This shows you why Christ addressed
this issue in the Sermon on the Mount. because
especially the Pharisees, you remember again now, he's correcting
the errors of the Pharisees when looking at and observing the
law. And look at Luke 18 in verse nine. Now you're familiar with
this parable, the Pharisee and the publican. And listen to what
he says here in verse nine. He spoke this parable unto certain
which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, And they
despised others. Now the Pharisees made fasting
a part of the righteousness that they would use to appear before
God. Say, God, see what I do. And
look what he says in verse 10. Two men went up into the temple
to pray. There's prayer. The one a Pharisee,
the other a publican. The one is a highly respected,
sincere, moral, religious man. And the other one was a notorious
sinner, a publican. So you get the picture here now.
One, the Pharisee is one that everybody in that culture and
in that area would say that person is a child of God, that person
is saved, that person is pleasing God. The other one, the publican,
is one that everybody in that culture would say is a scoundrel. All right, so there's your context
now. And so he says in verse 11, the
Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. And notice the
first words that comes out of the Pharisee's mouth now. God,
I thank thee. Now whatever he's going to say,
he's thanking God for it. But he says that I'm not as other
men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publica.
And the first thing he says, look at it, verse 12, I fast
twice in the week. Now the Pharisees taught that
you should fast once a week. But this fellow's saying I do
even more than that. All right? I fast. And then he says, I give
tithes of all that I possess. That's charitable giving. See?
So here he is praying. Here he is giving, praying, and
fasting. Now what's the problem? He's
a hypocrite. Now why is he a hypocrite? He's
thanking God. He's not saying I did this on
my own. He's not saying this is all of me. He's saying that
this is what God has enabled me to do. to make myself righteous
enough to be accepted with God, and it includes prayer and giving
and fasting. You see that? Well, go back to
Matthew 6 now. So he says, don't do that. And
he said, these hypocrites, they disfigure their face. You know,
you can look at their countenance. You know something's going on
here. He said that they may appear
to fast unto men. And then verily, he said, they
have their reward. Well, what's their reward? Well,
they want to be seen of men. They want men to approve of them.
They want men to look at them and say righteous. And that's
what they get. That's their reward. But here's
the key. Now, he said it in every case.
He said they don't have any reward from God. No reward from God. Now we know that God's reward
is the reward of grace that he gives to his people earned for
them by Christ and his righteousness, not what we earn by what we do. So when we pray, when we give
charitably, if we choose to fast, we're not earning God's favor
and blessings by that. But look at what he does say,
look at verse 17, he says, But thou, when thou fastest. Now
a lot of commentators will say, well, see, it doesn't say there
if you fast, it says when, so that means we have to do it.
No, it's voluntary. There's no command, like I told
you. Now you look that up, read your
Bible. Back in the Old Testament, there
was one command for one day, and that was the Day of Atonement.
But there is no commandment. But if you choose to do this
in a religious way, for spiritual purposes, when you do it, anoint
thine head and wash thy face. Don't appear. Don't put on that
appearance. That lets people know, this is
what I'm doing. I want you to see what I'm doing.
No, don't do that. And what he's saying in verse
17 is clean yourself up. And look like you're not fasting.
And smile. Instead of just shrugging your
face, you know. Oh, I'm fasting. Fasting, you
know, people's traditions, you know. You know, people like giving
up something for Lent. That's not what fasting is about.
And it's not a group thing, you know. Well, let's all get together
and fast. Or let's all get together. No,
that's not what it is. And then look at verse 18, he
says, anoint thine head and wash thy face, that thou appear not
unto men to fast. Now, is that clear? So that you
don't appear, you know. You may be fasting today, I don't
know, but I'm glad I don't know. And you don't want me to know.
And he says, but unto thy father, which is in secret. See, this
is a personal thing between the father and his children. And
again, I understand that fasting, in a spiritual way, is denying
self, admitting of our sins, and acknowledging that we have
no hope of salvation, but through Christ, who is the water of my
life, and Christ, who is the bread of my life, you see. That's what fasting's all about.
That's what it ultimately is meant to do. It's just like prayer. Prayer is an act of worship.
Prayer is an act of faith. Prayer is an act of submission
to God. So, I mean, we reason in our
minds, well, you know, he already said, he said, God knows, you
know, God says, let your petitions, your desires be known. And he
says, well, he already knows what we need before we even say
it. Well, we reason and rationalize in our sinful human logic. Well,
why pray then? And he says, God says to do it. because God gets glory from His
children admitting and acknowledging their condition as sinners saved
by grace, totally dependent upon the Father through the Son. That
glorifies Him. It's kind of like, you've heard
the story about the man and the woman who got married. And after
they got married, they went home, and he looked at her and he said,
now, honey, I love you, and if I ever change my mind, I'll let
you know. In other words, he didn't want to keep saying, I
love you. But don't you ladies, don't you
love to hear your husband say every now and then, I love you?
I know we husbands, we like to hear our wives say that to us. I love you. And I know it's true. But it just, we just love hearing,
and the Lord's the same way in that sense, you know, it glorifies
him. We worship him, we're continual
worshipers. And if we choose to fast, that's
what that is. It's an act of worship, it's
an act of a child of God saying, Lord, I have nothing to recommend
myself unto you. I am totally dependent upon you
for all things. So he says, do it in secret.
We'll look on verse 18, that thou appear not to men to fast,
but unto thy father, which is in secret, and thy father, which
seeth in secret. Do you know what that means?
That means God's the only one who sees it. Shall reward thee openly. Now, what is the open reward?
Well, it's the reward of grace that God gives to all his children
through Christ. And it's open because I can tell
you about it right here. It's right here in plain view.
It's not a, you know, fasting and prayer and the almsgiving,
you know, that's done in secret. But the declaration of God to
his children is not in secret. I'm a sinner saved by grace. I'm righteous in God's sight.
I declare that openly. I don't do that in secret because
that's the testimony of the gospel. How can I say I'm righteous?
How in the world can I, you all know me, how can I say I'm righteous
in God's sight? He knows me better than you do.
It's because of his grace in Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ
washes me clean from all my sins. I have no hope of being cleansed
in any other way. I have no hope of being righteous
in any other way. And that's declared openly. That's
the reward. And with that comes all the inheritance
of grace, all the blessings of salvation. That's the open reward. Let me give you something. I
want you to turn to Luke chapter 5. Let me show you some things
about fasting here in the Bible. Look at Luke chapter 5. Now, one of the things that this
fasting in a spiritual way would testify of to us in our own hearts
is that we empty ourselves, that's the fasting, but we're full in
Christ. where the Bible says, like I've
got listed here in your lesson, Colossians 2, 9 through 10, it
says, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
and you are complete in him. See, that's what fasting spiritually
would bring to our minds for ourselves. All right? But let
me give you some things to think about here. And I'm not spiritualizing
scripture here because the Lord himself makes this statement.
But look at Luke chapter 5. Look at verse 27. It says, after these things,
now what he's talking about there is how the Lord healed a man
who was sick of palsy. It says in verse 27 of Luke 5,
after these things he went forth and saw a publican. Now there's
an old publican comes up again. You know he's talking about here,
named Levi, it's Matthew. And he says, sitting at the receipt
of custom, for he said unto him, follow me. And he, that is the
publican, left all rows up and followed him. And Levi made him
a great feast in his own house. Now why do you make a feast?
Because you're rejoicing, you're happy. And there was a great
company of publicans. My goodness, what a crowd. And of others that sat down with,
Verse 30, but their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his
disciples. Don't you love those murmurs?
Murmur, murmur, murmur. Saying, why do you eat and drink
with publicans and sinners? Why do you associate with such
people? And Jesus answering and said unto them, they that are
holy, not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. This is the kind
of folks he came to save. The ones who are full of self-righteousness,
they don't need salvation. Well, you know as well as I do,
that by nature, we're all full of self-righteousness, aren't
we, in one way or another. It's going to rear its head one
way or another, okay? It's just like the old drunk
said, you know, he said, I may not be perfect, but he said,
I'm not as bad as some people. My dad was telling me about a
guy who told him one thing. He said, I know I've done some
bad things, but I haven't done anything worthy of going to hell.
Well, what does the Bible teach us? It teaches us that if God
were to give any of us what we deserve or what we've earned,
it'd be eternal damnation. And that's me right now. How
about you? But we all, you know, we look
down on others and look up to some for some odd reason, you
know. And I'm talking about, I'm not
talking about society and how we operate with each other. I'm
talking about in relationship with God. It's like the disciples
said about the rich young man, if he's not saved, who can be? Christ told him, he said, well,
it's impossible with men, but it's only possible with God.
And that way is the way of grace through Christ. Well, look here
in verse 33, Luke 5. They said unto him, why do the
disciples of John fast often and make prayers? And likewise
the disciples of the Pharisees. But thine eat and drink. You're
all out here having a feast. And he said unto them, can you
make the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom
is with them? But the days will come when the
bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they
fast in those days." Now, what is he talking about here? Well,
who is the bridegroom? That's Christ, the husband of
his people, the church. And as I've told you, fasting
is an act of self-denial that indicates our great need of something. And so even sorrow, of want,
of mourning. And it was a physical act showing
that there's something much, much more important than water
and bread, a greater need of spiritual water and spiritual
bread, which is Christ, who meets all of our needs, all of our
spiritual needs. Because in Christ, we're forgiven
of all of our sins. In Christ, we're justified fully
through his righteousness imputed. And think about it, what we have
in Christ cannot diminish, it cannot be corrupted, and it cannot
be taken away. Cannot be taken away. God will
not revoke it. God will never look down at one
of his children and say, well, you shouldn't have done that,
and for that, I'm gonna take away my blessings. of salvation. He won't do that. But what will
he do? Well, in Luke 5, 34 and 35 there,
he said that can you make the children of the bridegroom, bride
chamber fast while the bridegroom is with him. He uses, what he's
talking about is his physical presence with the disciples at
that time. The Messiah is, think about it,
the Messiah is there. the long-awaited, anticipated
Messiah. He's there. Now, every Jew would
have told you and will tell you today that they're waiting for
the Messiah to get here. And they might live in anticipation
of that. Well, here he is. He came into
his own, and what happened? John 1 at 11. His own received
him not. Here he is. And the fact of what
he's talking about, when he came to this earth, he came under
much opposition, you know that. The king of the land tried to
wipe out all the firstborn, you know all of that. They had to
flee to Egypt. So here he is, he comes to earth,
and then when he began his public ministry, he started immediately
telling them things that were ultra-offensive to them. Now that's not what they wanted.
They're like people in most churches today. They don't want a preacher
who'll tell you what you need to hear. They want somebody who'll
tell them what they want to hear. They wanted the Messiah to come,
as people say, on a white horse, bearing a sword against their
enemies, who would pat them on the back and say, well done,
fellas. You've kept it in order until I got here. And now you're
going to be lieutenants in my kingdom because of what you've
done. That's what people want today,
really. People today talking about the birth of Christ and
most people they want to really keep him as a baby in a manger
because they can do with him what they want. But he's the
sovereign Lord of the universe, isn't he? The Bible says he does
as he wills in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth and none can stop his hand or even question what
do you think you're doing? That's what Daniel means there
in Daniel 4, 34 and 35. And people don't like that. That's
against our autonomy. That's against our free will-ism.
You mean God's in control? Well, here's the Messiah. And
he's with them. And he's saying, why should they
fast? I'm here. They're enjoying this. This is not a time for sorrow.
But the time's coming when he would have to suffer. and bleed
and die and go away. Wouldn't be long. And he said,
then they'll have sorrow. And they did. You remember that.
Read about it in John and, well, all through the Gospels. They
did sorrow. You remember in their human weaknesses,
and we all have them, they said, don't go. And he kept telling
them, he said, I have to do it. This is why I came to this earth,
to go. If I don't go away, he said, there'll be no comforter,
there'll be no Holy Spirit, there'll be no life. If Christ didn't
go away, there'd be no righteousness. But they still sorrowed, didn't
they? That's human weakness. That's
all I can tell you. And he said they would sorrow,
but it wouldn't be long before they'd see him again in resurrection
glory. Isn't that right? And then they would rejoice again. Think about us here. You know,
we're left here in this present sinful state. And, you know, I mean, they always,
you know, you remember that song that says, count your blessings
and all that? Well, that's a good thing to do. We need to live
in the light of our blessings by the grace of God in Christ.
But if you think about it, And some of us older folks, we know
by experience, there's a lot of sorrow in this world, isn't
there? We live in the sorrow and in
the anticipation of the Lord's return. There are times, you
know, we feel like we could go on here forever, but they don't
last very long, and then we'll be hanging our head and say,
boy, I just wish the Lord would come back. Come on back. Well, He's coming. But you know,
right now, Right now, He's with us. In His resurrection glory,
He lives within our hearts. The song says, well, that's true.
He does so by His Spirit and His Word. How do I know that
Christ lives in me? By His Spirit through His Word. I believe His Word. There's a
lot of people who say, well, Christ lives in them, but it's
not according to His Word. They deny His Word. Well, God's
children don't do that. We feast upon His Word. So let
me talk to you just a few minutes about the gospel fast. What is
it? Do you know we're fasting right
now? Did you know that? You say, well, I just ate breakfast,
I'm full. No, it's not that kind of fast.
Every time the gospel is preached, what do we do? We deny ourselves
and we feast upon the fullness of Christ. That's a gospel fast. Now, I want to turn to Isaiah
58. I want to give you just a read-through on this, on some of this, to
show you. Now, you know, we ought to have
two concerns when it comes to these issues of fasting and prayer,
almsgiving, all of that. And our first concern ought to
be a right relationship with God. That's our first concern. How can I, a sinner, attain a
right relationship with God? And what does the Bible say?
Not but one way. By His grace, through the righteousness of
His Son. Isn't that right? I mean, it's the only way that
a sinner like me and you can have a right relationship with
God. Salvation based on His grace, based on the righteousness of
God's Son. Well, that's what we're doing when we preach the
gospel. Our next concern ought to be our relationship with each
other. Loving one another. I'm doing
a series on Christian love, going through 1 John 3 and 4. In other
words, our concern ought to have a right relationship, not only
have a right relationship with God, but a right relationship
with our fellow man, especially our brethren in Christ. And that's
the godly love that Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians 13, that
John wrote about in 1 John 3. And here's what this portion
here in Isaiah talks about. Religious observances, no matter
what form they take, whether it's fasting, prayer, almsgiving,
Baptism, you can put anything in that category. Religious observances
will neither make you right with God nor with your brethren. They won't do it. Religious observances,
no matter how moral, no matter how often, no matter how sincere,
will never hide or atone for unbelief. Coming to God based
on anything other than the imputed righteousness of Christ. Think
about the Pharisee. I thank God I'm not like other men, blah,
blah, blah. Religious observances, no matter how moral or sincere,
will never atone for an unfaithful and unloving heart. And that's
towards our brethren. We'll look here in Isaiah 58,
verse one. He says, cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice
like a trumpet and show 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 forsook
not the ordinance of their God, they ask of me the ordinance
of justice, they take delight in approaching to God." Now this
is their viewpoint. Okay? And here's what they say,
look at verse 3. Wherefore, or why have we fasted,
say they, and thou seest not? Why have we fasted before God
and God doesn't recognize it? They don't feel like they're
getting what they deserve. That's what that means. Wherefore have
we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? You don't
take notice of it. Behold, in the day of your fast
you find pleasure in exact all your labors. In other words,
You take pleasure in these things, the people do, and he says, Behold,
you fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of
wickedness. You shall not fast as you do
this day to make your voice to be heard on high, since to be
seen of men. Is it such a fast that I have
chosen? Is this the fast that God has commanded? A day for
a man to afflict his soul, is it 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 unto the Lord?" Is that what
you think that you're supposed to do? All this religious rigmarole,
all this. He says, verse 6, is not this
the fast that I've chosen? All right, to loose the bands
of the wicked. of wickedness, to undo the heavy
burdens, to let the oppressed go free, so that you break every
oath. Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou
bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest
the naked, that thou shalt cover him, cover him, and that thou
hide not thyself from thine own flesh." You see, what they were
doing is they were doing a religious duty, thinking that it would
cover up all of this unbelief and unconcern. It won't work,
he says. And you can take each one of
those, say, read that whole chapter. You can take each one of those
concerns that God brought, and you can put a spiritual application. Now that's not spiritualizing
scripture, but look, every time I preach the gospel, you know
what I'm doing? I'm feeding the hungry. Every time I preach the gospel,
I'm clothing the naked. In other words, I'm preaching
Christ's righteousness. which is imputed us. Now that
doesn't relieve my responsibility to take care of the other needs
of my brethren if I have opportunity, and there is a need, you see,
but that's a gospel fast. And each one, to set the captives
free, that's what we do when we preach the gospel, isn't it?
Set the captives free. The Lord spoke of that when he
stood in his hometown synagogue and talked about the fulfillment
of the scriptures in Isaiah, all right? That's the gospel
fast, all right.