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  FORGIVENESS AND FASTING
  by Duane Troyer
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Summary: This sermon delves into the importance of fasting, prayer, and
almsgiving in secret, highlighting the need to humble ourselves and
foster a relationship with God. It emphasizes the significance of
forgiveness, conditional upon how we forgive others, and the impact of
fasting on our spiritual growth and humility. The message stresses the
need to release demands, show mercy, and care for those in need through
fasting and self-restraint.

Topics: "Fasting and Prayer", "Forgiveness and Humility"
Scripture References: Matthew 6:16, Matthew 6:14, Isaiah 58:6, 2 Peter 1:9

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into the importance of fasting, prayer, and
almsgiving in secret, highlighting the need to humble ourselves and
foster a relationship with God. It emphasizes the significance of
forgiveness, conditional upon how we forgive others, and the impact of
fasting on our spiritual growth and humility. The message stresses the
need to release demands, show mercy, and care for those in need through
fasting and self-restraint.

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CONTENT
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Greetings in Jesus' name. And, uh, yeah, I just want to welcome
everybody, and I'm thankful to be gathered with you. I'd like to repeat
the first two lines of that opening song we sang this morning.

I was just really blessed by them. Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways, Reclothe us in our rightful mind, In purer
lives thy service find, In deeper reverence praise. In simple trust,
like theirs who heard, Beside the Syrian sea, The gracious calling of
the Lord, Let us, like them, without a word, Rise up and follow thee.

Just some real nice poetry and some really good thoughts there. So,
today, I'd like to go into the next few verses of the Sermon on the
Mount, and continue through that. And we're still in this portion of the
Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus has these several things that he wants
us to do in secret.

He wants us to do them, but there's a right way to do them and a wrong
way to do them. And he tells us how not to do it, and he tells us how to
do it. And that's in almsgiving and prayer and fasting.

So let's stand and we'll read these verses, 14 to 18, is the verses I'm
mostly going to look at today. And we'll pray and get started. For if
you forgive others for their transgressions, your Heavenly Father will
also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your
transgressions. Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the
hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be
noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly, I say to you, they have
their reward in full.

But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that
your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in
secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, great is your name, holy is your name,
and we thank you for all you've done for us.

For sending the Lord Jesus Christ to conquer the kingdom of darkness and
bring us into the kingdom of light. And we pray, Lord, that you would
help us to keep our eyes on you and walk in the light and have the blood
of your Son cleanse us from sin. We pray that you would forgive us our
debts as we forgive those who are indebted to us.

And that you don't lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil. We
believe that yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.

So I know these verses 14 and 15 belong more to the portion that Jesus
talked about prayer, which is the subject we talked about last time. But
because I, for the sake of time and the amount of time we spent talking
about prayer, I wanted to spend a little more time on the subject of
forgiveness. And when Jesus got done teaching us how not to pray and
then how to pray, he reiterates one subject out of the thing that he
taught us to pray, and that's on the subject of forgiveness.

He ends telling his people there how to pray and then he says, For if
you forgive others for their transgressions, your Heavenly Father will
also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father
will not forgive your transgressions. Now, perhaps he repeats this thing
because it's doubly important from everything else in the prayer, or
perhaps he foreknew that in the process of time people will come up with
a false teaching about how God's forgiveness works.

I remember the first time... I didn't grow up being indoctrinated with
the Protestant gospel, although it was infiltrating into our circles and
being latched onto as something like new light. And I'm not even saying
there wasn't some fresh air in dark corners. But some of the doctrines
that go with the theology in the gospel, or the theology that came out
of the Reformation, especially from Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, these guys,
didn't quite... I wasn't indoctrinated in them.

I remember the first time when I was street preaching, it might have
been one of the very first times I ever went street preaching, someone
who had a Protestant understanding of salvation asked me if I believe
that when we're saved, we are forgiven of all our past, present, and
future sins. And when he said that, it kind of sent me reeling. I had
never heard that term before.

And the idea that when we're saved, when we become a child of God, that
we're forgiven for our future sins was just very foreign to me. I
thought, like, either I've totally missed out on something in Scripture,
or then this is just not a thought in there. And in today's passage
here, I think we see clearly that forgiveness is conditional.

It's conditional upon what we do. Jesus even drives this point home
further in Matthew 18, when he gives this parable, and he says, the
kingdom of God is comparable to a king who decides he's going to settle
his accounts with his servants. And there's a servant that comes to him
and owes him 10,000 talents.

And the king says, sell him, or sell his wife, and sell his children and
what he has, and make him pay. And this servant falls down on his face,
and he says, please be patient with me. And I will do what I can to pay
this, even though this amount that he owed was unpayable.

No man could make this in his lifetime. I don't know how he racked up
this debt. Of course, this is a parable.

But he falls on his face, and he pleads for mercy. And the Lord is
compassionate, and he says, I will show mercy to you. I'll forgive you
this debt.

You don't owe anything anymore. And so now this same servant goes out,
and he finds one of his fellow servants, a guy that he works alongside
in the field with, or whatever. And this servant owes him 100 denarii,
which is a very small amount of money.

And he says, pay up. It says he choked him. Apparently he got him by the
neck, and he said, you pay me.

You pay me this 100 denarii. And the man falls on the ground, and says,
please be patient with me, and I'll repay it. But this man wasn't
patient, and he wasn't merciful.

And he said, no, I need my money now. And they sent him into jail so
that he could pay this. And when this word came back through the fellow
servants to the master, to the king, he was really, really upset.

And he called this servant to him again. And he said, did I not forgive
you your debt and show you mercy simply because you fell down in front
of me and pled? Should you not have shown mercy to your fellow man as
well? And in his anger, he said, take this man and send him to the
torturers until he has paid everything that he owes. I just think it's
really clear by this passage we're looking at today and that parable
that God forgives us according to the way that we forgive our fellow
man.

And if this parable is accurate, even the sins that the Lord has
forgiven for us, if in the future we refuse to forgive our brothers,
that sin will be piled on us again. So what does forgiveness mean? This
is actually something that I've wrestled with over the years. Maybe
especially over the last five or ten years.

It is so clear scripturally that this is such an important thing that we
get right. And there's been a time or two or three or four maybe in my
life that I've been accused by people of not forgiving. And I try not to
take any accusation against me lightly, but this one especially is
heavy.

What if they're right? What if like in so many cases this person can see
me better than I can see myself? And what if I haven't forgiven? This is
a fearful thing. No one wants to come before the judgment seat and not
have their sins forgiven. And if I have not forgiven my fellow man, then
that's the outcome.

If I have not forgiven, if I pray this prayer that the Lord gave here on
the Sermon on the Mount and I have not forgiven my brother, and I say,
Father, forgive me or forgive us our debts as we forgive those who sin
against us and we're asking the Lord not to forgive us. If we pray the
similar prayer that's in Luke where he says, forgive us our sins for we
also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. If I pray that prayer and
I've not forgiven my brother, then I'm lying.

And either way is a fearful way to come before judgment. It's as Cyprian
wrote that there will remain no grounds for excuse on the day of
judgment when you will be judged according to your own sentence. So in
my wrestlings through what is forgiveness and how do I know if I've
forgiven, there's been two things in particular that I feel like have
helped my understanding.

One is that forgiveness and reconciliation are two different things. And
though they are related, they're not the same thing. It takes two
willing people to reconcile.

There must always be forgiveness for there to be reconciliation, but
there does not always have to be reconciliation for us to forgive.
Forgiveness is something we must as an individual do whether or not the
person has repented of their sin, whether or not the person wants to
reconcile without respect of persons. It's something we must do.

In fact, in this prayer in Luke's account, which is very similar to the
prayer here in the Sermon on the Mount, he says, for we forgive everyone
who is indebted to us. It's a present tense. He's not saying we forgive
everyone who has sinned against us or has been in debt to us.

We forgive everyone who is indebted to us. The second thing that has
helped me in understanding what forgiveness means or looks like is just
in thinking about how God's forgiveness to us looks. The Lord forgave
people their sins who never even asked for it.

The Lord forgave people while they were sinning to Him. Now, it didn't
mean that those people who He said, your sins are forgiven, or the
people who while He was hanging there on the cross were hurling all
kinds of accusations to Him or participating in the crucifixion that He
said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.

It doesn't mean that these people were His children now or His
disciples. It doesn't mean that they ever became that. To become a
disciple or a child of the Lord, we have to enter into a covenant with
the Lord which takes something on our part.

It takes a willingness of us and it is conditional upon our faith and
our deeds. And yet, the Lord was able to forgive people regardless of
whether they were willing to enter into that covenant or not. To forgive
is to release.

To forgive is to leave or to let go. So, if we are to forgive those who
sin against us, it means we are to release them of what they owe us. And
it helps us to understand this and the scripture writers even use this
where they equate sin and debt together.

So, it's a little easier for us to see this if, let's say, Brother Max
owes me $1,000. He either took it from me or he borrowed it from me and
said he'd pay it back in a year and the year comes up and I say,
Brother, you owe me $1,000. And either he makes an excuse or he can't
pay or one way or another, he doesn't come up with the $1,000.

If I do not forgive him, it means I demand that $1,000 some way. But if
I forgive him, it means I let go of it. I let go of the demand and he
owes me nothing.

In my heart and in reality, I am not demanding him to pay my $1,000
back. I've forgiven the debt. Most of the time, the transgressions
against us are not about money.

Someone has attacked our character. Someone has lied about us. Someone
has a false accusation against us.

Someone is undermining our efforts. Someone is not being honest in how
they deal with us. Unforgiveness is when the offended one lays down a
demand for a price from the offender.

He collars him. Usually it's not physically, but verbally, mentally,
emotionally, whatever. He seizes this person and he demands something
and he holds on to this.

Remember that passage in Matthew 18? That servant went out and it says
he choked him. He apparently took him by the neck and he choked him and
he wouldn't let go of that. Forgiveness is to release that grip.

Forgiveness is to release the right to retaliate. It's to release the
right to demand justice from the person who wronged you. Interestingly,
and I just found this out yesterday as I was studying about this, if I
used my tools correctly, the word forgiveness simply means to leave.

It might have a broader definition, but what I found really interesting,
at least according to Strong's, is that the word forgiveness comes from
a Greek word, aphiame, he, something like that, aphiame, aphiame. And
according to Strong's, that word, that word aphiame, translates 52 times
into leave, 47 times into forgive, 14 times into suffer, 8 times into
let, 6 times into forsook, and a few other things. So I think the word
forgive, we have a lot of spiritual meaning attached to it.

I'm not saying there's no spiritual meaning attached, but I think it has
a way more practical meaning than we often think. So think about this.
In 1 John, or in John 4, where we have the account with the Samaritan
woman, Jesus meets her there, and then it says, she left her water pot
and went into the city.

That word left is aphiame. Now what if we translated that and said she
forgave her water pot and went to the city? Wouldn't we all kind of be
like, or Peter, in Mark 1, where it says Peter and Andrew forsook their
nets to follow the Lord. We wouldn't think it sounds right if it says
they forgave their nets.

It just doesn't seem right. Same way in John 10, the hireling who sees
the wolf, aphiame, the flock. He leaves the flock.

Again, he didn't forgive the flock. So I guess the point is, this word
forgive, in the original language that it gets used, was a word that
people understood that meant leave, to let go, or to forsake, to release
the grip of. Can we let go of demanding a payment from our fellow man?
If we can't, it's only right, it's only just, it's only reasonable that
God would say, if you don't release your grip from your brother, I will
not release my grip from you.

If you don't stop demanding this payment from your brother, I will not
stop demanding payment from you. That's what he means when he says, if
you do not forgive your brother from your heart, your father will not
forgive you. This message rings through the whole New Testament.

James, in chapter 2, verse 13 says, for judgment will be merciless to
the one who has shown no mercy, and mercy triumphs over judgment.
Colossians 3, verse 13 says, bearing with one another and forgiving each
other, whoever has a complaint against another, just as the Lord forgave
you, so also should you. Ephesians 4, verse 32 says, and be you kind one
to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, as God, for Christ's
sake, forgave you.

And if God the Father, for Christ's sake, is willing to forgive us,
surely, for the Lord's sake, we should be forgiving others. Forgiveness
doesn't mean living in denial of the other person's sin. Forgiveness
doesn't mean that we ignore the pain that we suffer.

Forgiveness doesn't mean that we sweep something under the carpet so
that we don't have to see it anymore. Forgiveness doesn't mean
forgetting something in the sense that we usually think forgetting.
There are those passages that talk about how God will remember our sins
no more.

Or the Prophet Zechariah says something like, let not one remember in
his heart any wrong of his brother. But I don't think the meaning that
they're bringing out there is like he has no knowledge of it. I think
he's saying he will not remember or hold on to the demands that he has
for us.

Think about Joseph. He had forgiven his brothers who had dealt so
deceitfully and so evilly with him. But he had forgiven them.

But it doesn't mean that he didn't remember what happened. When they
came to him and pled for him to be merciful to us, it wasn't like he
didn't have any knowledge of what happened, but he saw it in a different
perspective. He said, look, I belong to God.

These things that you did to me, you all meant evil to me, but God meant
it good to me. He had a totally different perspective of it. And he
looked at it from a different light.

If we belong to God, we can see that all things work together for good
and that he does everything perfectly and for the purpose of making us
better men. And none of us become a better man by seizing our brother
and demanding from him what he owes us. We become better men by letting
go from our hearts.

And so, when we look at this passage that Jesus gave on how to pray and
then emphasizes this one point at the end, we should pray without
ceasing. And in our prayers, we should be releasing others. Here in this
central part of the Sermon on the Mount, when he teaches about prayer,
he reemphasizes this and it rings through all the Gospels.

In Mark 11, 25, he says, whenever you stand praying, listen, whenever
you stand praying, it sounds like whenever you pray, every time you
pray, whenever you stand praying, forgive. And then it says, if you have
anything against anyone, he's saying forgive. And then he says why? So
that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your
transgressions.

And I hope we can start seeing that forgiveness is not necessarily an
event. It's a life to be lived out. It is a life of letting go of the
demands, the rights to retaliate from anybody about anything, either
what they have done or what they are doing.

So let's be forgiving people. And let's move on to this next portion
about fasting. He says whenever, in verse 16 in Matthew 6, he says
whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for
they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when
they are fasting.

Truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you
fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not
be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father
who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Perhaps this is one of
the most neglected teachings of our Lord.

Fasting, like prayer and almsgiving in this portion, this section of the
New Testament, of the Sermon on the Mount, is not a new teaching. It's
not some, it's not Jesus taking something from the old and laying a new
command beside it. He's taking something that was already practiced and
he's saying, be careful, beware, be cautious how you do this.

There's a way to do it that's wrong and there's a way to do it that's
right. We can see that he expects that his people will fast and that he
doesn't say, if you fast, he says, when you fast. Just like he says,
when you pray.

He says, when you fast. He expects the people that are going to be that
are going to be the new family of God in the new kingdom of God under a
new king, under a new reign, he expects those people will be fasting
people. Why? Why is fasting important? Why did he expect this? But
before we look at some of the why's, let's first look at what.

What does it mean to fast? So the chief meaning, that it's not the only
meaning and it's maybe not even the, I think it is the primary meaning,
is to abstain from food. It's maybe not the primary purpose but it's
primary meaning here is to abstain from food. At least that's what I'll
be talking about here the first part of this.

We'll look at some other things later about fasting. Fasting is not
unique to Christianity or Judaism. Nearly all religions that believe in
a spiritual realm believe in fasting.

Muslims do it. Hindus do it. Buddhists do it.

The Native Americans here in this land who had their gods, sun gods,
stars, whatever they all worshipped, they fasted. They had like this, at
least the Delaware tribe had this practice. I don't know if every
individual did it but it was common for people, for young men when they
became an adolescent or somewhere kind of before they became considered
a man they went on what they called a vision quest.

And they fasted, and they fasted, and they fasted until they had some
breakthrough where they broke through and got some, what they considered
a spiritual revelation and called a vision quest. And it's really common
and I think part of the reason is is that Christian or no Christian,
anybody who has any decent sense of spirituality realizes that there's a
battle between the flesh and the spirit. Galatians 5 talks about this
where it says, For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and
the desires of the spirit are against the flesh for the two are opposed
to each other.

The desires of our flesh are opposed to the desires of the spirit. Isn't
that right? Isn't that why little children who are basically given to
the, or are all about the, about what suits their flesh, you know, if
they're hungry they scream. And they don't care if they hurt their
mother getting it.

And they don't, they just, the flesh, the flesh has demands or desires
and once we realize it, like it's not right to hurt people. It's not
right to just scream and demand things from people. We realize that
there's an opposition here between the spirit and the flesh.

So many, if not most, or religions know and have realized that you can
tap into and harness spiritual powers by denying the desires of the
flesh. That doesn't mean that it was, that it will always be of the
spirit of God. It still takes the discerning of every spirit.

Think about the fact that Jesus fasted for 40 days and whose was the
first voice he heard? It was Satan. And I have this, I have this feeling
that lots of people who would have encountered what Jesus encountered
there with the devil would have thought they had an encounter with God.
But Jesus rightly discerned and soundly withstood the devil and then the
angels came and ministered to him.

Not all fasting pleases God. Jeremiah 14 says, in Jeremiah 14, God says,
the people love to wander and have not restrained their feet. And then
it goes on to say, and when they fast, I will not hear them.

So here God seems to be saying something like, our feet should also be
brought into subjection. In other words, our going and our doing needs
to be brought into subjection to the Lord. Or else this bringing the
belly into subjection is not of much profit.

Here, in today's passage, God expresses his displeasure about the people
that fast in order to be noticed by men. And so he says, don't do like
that. Don't put on this gloomy face and neglect your appearance and make
it obvious that you're really suffering.

He says those are actors in plays. When the people applaud them like,
oh, here's a holy man who's denying himself and fasting, that's their
reward. That satisfying feeling you get of being approved of men, that's
it.

That's what they have. He says, don't do that. Jesus is recognizing and
we read through the scriptures and we can see that not all fasting is
pleasing to God.

But the misuse or the abuse of something does not justify the no use.
And so Jesus goes on to say, but when you fast, this is how you should
do it. Anoint your head and wash your face.

And I think, I think he is probably expressing that as something that
people would have commonly did. I think maybe it would be, maybe some of
you get up every morning and anoint your head and wash your face. But
maybe more commonly I would say something like, when you fast, get up,
comb your hair, put on decently clean clothes and don't walk around with
a long face.

So that, you know, people suspect that you are fasting. Fasting is a
good thing and God desires to reward us for it. Fasting can change
things.

It can change us. Not only can it change us, fasting can change the
course of a whole city or a whole nation. Think about Nineveh.

It was on a course to be destroyed within 40 days. And the people fasted
with a very, very serious fast. And the course of that whole city
changed and it was spared.

This is, if you could, if you could think of like, I don't know how God
thinks exactly. But if you could think of like, God working things out,
having plans and stuff like that and His plan is that within 40 days
this city is going under. And then He sees this fasting and He just
totally changes His mind.

The whole course of that city, the whole destination of that city is
different. It changes, it can change the course of whole nations. When
Queen Esther was Queen and there was a sentence put out that could not
be reversed, that all the Jews in the kingdom, whatever that kingdom
was, were to be killed.

And the Jews fasted and they cried out and they fasted to the Lord. And
Queen Esther fasted and her maids fasted. And the whole plot for that
nation was reversed.

Fasting can change the mind of God. Think about that. Fasting can change
the mind of God.

There was this wicked King Ahab who was wicked above all other kings up
to his point at least. And God had something destined for him. And he
humbled himself and he fasted and God changed his mind.

He said, see how my servant, or I don't know if he calls him servant or
not, see how Ahab humbled himself? I'm going to change what my plan was.
This thing that I planned, it's not going to happen in his days because
he humbled himself and fasted. Fasting is an appropriate way to begin
any work of ministry.

The ministry of Jesus was preceded with fasting. The church and
Pentecost was preceded with fasting. The ordination of elders was
preceded with fasting.

While the church was praying and fasting, the Spirit spoke to them and
said, separate Paul and Barnabas out for me to go do ministry work. And
then before they even sent them out, they fasted again. When Paul was
giving that list in 2 Corinthians, where he's defending his apostleship,
where he says all these things, he says like, you know, five times have
I been beaten, forty stripes save one.

I've been beaten with rods. I've been stoned. I've been in shipwrecks.

I've been in peril in the waters. I've been in peril on the land. I've
been in peril with my own countrymen.

I've been in peril with the heathens. And then he goes on to say that,
he says, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger, in
thirst, in fastings often, in cold, and in nakedness. Who thinks they're
ready to travel with Paul? We are all so pampered.

We live in a pampered society that is geared toward bringing immediate
gratification to the desires of the flesh. And those desires are war
against the Spirit of God. We think we understand the spiritual things
that Paul talks of.

But perhaps we should live a life that he lived before we make such
claims. Fasting goes with mourning. In Matthew 9, verses 14 and 15 says,
Then the disciples of John came to him asking, Why do we and the
Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them,
The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn, as long as the bridegroom
is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is
taken away from them, and then they will fast.

I think that is probably pretty clear to all of us. In case the children
don't understand that what Jesus is, the disciples of John are saying,
Why doesn't Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, why are
these guys not fasting? All John's disciples are fasting, and the
Pharisees are fasting. Why are they not fasting? And Jesus says, Well,
you know, it would be kind of like saying, Well, is the time of the
wedding, is that the time to fast? When the bridegroom is right there
with them? No, that's the time to celebrate or feast, or whatever.

But the time will come when the bridegroom will not be with them, and
he's talking about himself, and then they will fast. The time will come
when Jesus will not physically, personally be right there with them, and
Peter and James and Andrew and all those will be fasting. Remember that
in this same sermon, Jesus said, Blessed are those who mourn.

He himself was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. There's this
little note in the martyr's mirror that says Peter, after Jesus left,
after Jesus ascended, it says that some accounts say that Peter wept
every day the rest of his life. It says that he wept every time he heard
a rooster crow, because it reminded him of what he did.

And someone once asked Peter, Why do you weep so much? And he said, I
long so much for my Lord. The scriptures say, He that is cheerful, let
him sing, and he that is sorrowful, let him pray. I fear too often when
we're cheerful, we try to pray.

And when we're sorrowful, we want music. There's nothing wrong. It's a
good thing.

It's a virtuous thing to weep at the state of things. To weep and to
mourn at the condition of the world, at the condition of our own sins
and the imperfections among us. There's nothing wrong with rejoicing.

We should rejoice. We're commanded to rejoice. There's much to rejoice
about when we think about the Lord.

And yet, there's much to mourn about. There's much to weep about. But
that's not appealing.

It's why the weeping people, the people who do mourn at the condition of
things, those groups get small, small. It's why fervent prayer meetings
with praying and fasting become smaller and smaller. It's possibly why
Jesus, though at one time in His ministry He had this huge following, it
became smaller and smaller and smaller.

And when He finally went there in the garden where He was weeping, drops
of blood, sweating drops of blood, He was all alone. They had all
forsaken Him. There's this... Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote this piece of
poetry that I've always really liked.

I'll just read it. It's not super long. It says, Laugh and the world
laughs with you.

Weep and you'll weep alone for the sad old earth must borrow her mirth
but has troubles enough of its own. Sing and the hills will answer.
Sigh, it is lost on the air.

The echo bounds to a joyful sound but is lost to the voice in care.
Rejoice and men will seek you. Grieve and they turn and go.

They want full measure of all your pleasure but they do not need your
woe. Be glad and your friends are many. Be sad and you lose them all.

There are none to decline your nectared wine but alone you must drink
life's gall. Feast and your halls are crowded fast and the world goes
by. Succeed and give and it helps you live but no man can help you die.

There is room in the halls of pleasure for a large and lordly train but
one by one we must all file on through the narrow aisles of pain. Ella
Wheeler Wilcox wrote that. I don't know when she lived but I'm pretty
sure she doesn't live anymore.

Fasting is one of the ways we are to deny our flesh. Fasting is hard.
Our bellies cry out.

Our stomachs are wonderful servants but they're terrible masters. Paul
wrote there in Philippians he said, For many walk of whom I have told
you often and now tell you weeping that they are enemies of the cross
whose end is destruction whose God is their belly whose glory is in
their shame who mind earthly things. Tertullian says something like if
you give in to the belly's desires it affects those organs closest to
it.

He's talking about how it affects the heart. There's a spiritual
drowsiness and poverty that comes over us when we cater to the desires
of the flesh. In Proverbs 23 and 21 it says Do not join those who drink
too much wine or gorge themselves on meat for drunkards and gluttons
become poor and drowsiness closes them with rags.

One of the blessings of fasting is that it's humbling. I... I can't give
you a long list of testimonies of like fasting and having this super
great spiritual breakthrough. I'm not saying that I haven't seen
something like that but I just... sometimes it's just plain hard.

Sometimes it even tends to make us grumpy and dull. But I think that
should only show us how much some of our joy and brightness comes from
being well fed. When we fast we're weak and we're dependent.

Paul recognized this when he said Paul recognized something something
good about that though when he said when I am weak then I am strong.
I've noticed that when I fast I'm not as aggressive. I feel far less
like arguing or disputing with somebody.

I feel far less when I'm fasting like insisting upon my rights. I feel
more dependent. I don't feel as much like I'm on top of things and I'm
in the driver's seat.

And that's a good thing for our spirit. That's a good thing for us. It's
humbling.

In fact, I think that that's one of the main purposes for fasting is to
humble ourselves. Not the only one but maybe one of the main ones. God's
instructions to his people and I want you to get this God's instructions
to his people are not I will humble you.

His instructions to his people are humble yourselves. It's something for
us to do. In James 4.10 it says humble yourselves in the sight of the
Lord and he will lift you up.

In 1 Peter 5.6 he says humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God
that he may exalt you in due time. Jesus said God whoever exalts himself
will be abased and he that humbles himself shall be exalted. God will do
the lifting up.

God will do the exalting. He will do the rewarding. We are to do the
humbling.

James says God resists the proud and he gives grace to the humble. And
one way not the only way but one way we can humble ourselves is to fast.
And it's kind of ironic that in this passage today here on the Sermon on
the Mount Jesus is addressing the fact that people are using this thing
called fasting to be proud.

People are doing this thing called fasting and they want they want
honor, they want glory they want to be proud about it, they want to be
noticed. Jesus said they have their reward in full. Some of the evidence
that fasting is one way to humble ourselves is in Psalms 35.13 where
David said I humbled my soul with fasting.

Ahab fasted and God said see how he humbled himself. When Ezra came to
that river of Ahava there in chapter 8 verse 23 of Ezra he proclaimed a
fast that we might humble ourselves before God, he says. I said earlier
that fasting is not not only or necessarily always abstaining from food.

To think I should say it's not merely, like it's not well it is not
only, there are other ways to fast. I mean people go on a fast of other
things, fast from something else other than food. Usually when the
scripture talks about it that's what it's talking about, but what I mean
mostly what I want to drive home is it's not merely abstaining from
food.

If we think that we can tap into or harness this power of God that is
available by simply abstaining from food it's kind of like having a
glass without water and trying to quench our thirst. There's a really
really really important thing missing. And so I think we talked earlier
about how the spirit and the flesh are opposed to each other, the
desires of it are opposed to each other, but one thing I think we often
forget or don't think about enough is that the will of the Lord is for
the spirit and the flesh to for the flesh to become in subjection to the
spirit and for the two to dwell in one vessel.

Not the desires of the flesh necessarily but that the flesh becomes in
the full subjection of the spirit and the two are together and they work
harmoniously with each other. In other words, our belly and our feet and
our hands, we do the things of the spirit with that. And that reality
has been perfected in the Lord Jesus Christ who became flesh and dwelt
here among us and he was exactly perfectly, he did exactly what a
spiritual man does in every situation.

And we are to be like him. So anyway, concerning this other part,
ingredient that needs to be fasting that is kind of like the water in
the glass. Let me, there's a beautiful passage in Isaiah 58.

I may just read the whole chapter, it's mostly about fasting anyway. He
says, cry aloud with strength and spare not. Lift up your voice like a
trumpet and declare to my people their sins and to the house of Jacob
their lawlessness.

They seek me day by day and desire to know my ways as a people who did
righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God. They now
ask me about righteous judgment and desire to draw near to God saying,
why have we fasted but you did not see it? Why have we humbled our souls
but you did not know it? Because in the days of your fasts you seek your
own wills and mistreat those under your authority. If you fast for
condemnation and quarrels and strike a humble man with your fist why do
you fast to me as you do today? So your voice may be heard in crying I
did not choose this fast and such a day for a man to humble his soul nor
if you should bow your neck like a ring and spread sackcloth and ashes
under yourself.

Could you thus call such a fast acceptable? I did not choose such a
fast, says the Lord. Rather, loose every bond of wrongdoing. Untie the
knots of violent dealings.

Cancel the debts of the oppressed and tear apart every unjust contract.
Break your bread for the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your
house. If you see a naked man, clothe him nor shall you disregard your
offspring in your own household.

Then your light shall break forth as the morning and your healing shall
spring forth quickly. Your righteousness shall go before you and the
glory of God shall cover you. Then you shall cry out and God will hear
you.

While you are still speaking, he will say behold I am here. If you take
away your fetters and the pointing of your fingers and the word of
grumbling and if you give your bread to the hungry for your soul. If you
give bread to the hungry from your soul and satisfy the humble soul then
your light shall rise up in the darkness and your darkness shall be as
midday.

God shall be with you continually and you shall be satisfied as your
soul desires. Your bones shall be enriched and you shall be like a well-
watered garden and like a spring of water that does not fail. Your bones
will arise and be enriched like a green plant and they shall inherit
generations of generations.

Your ancient deserts shall be built and your ancient foundations shall
be from generation to generation. You shall be called builders of walls
and will rest on the paths within them. If you turn away your foot from
work because of the sabbath so as not to do your desires on the holy day
and if you shall call the sabbath joyful holy to your God and not take
away your foot for work nor speak a word in wrath from your mouth then
you shall trust in the Lord and he will bring you to the good things of
the land and feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father for the
mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.

We see in this passage something very similar, something harmonizing to
the first part of this message. This is part of fasting is letting go
forgiving those who you would who you could otherwise demand something
from them. Break every yoke, undo the burdens, take compassion on the
poor and the oppressed.

That's the real thing that's supposed to be happening when we fast. The
spiritual thing that's supposed to be happening. The early church fasted
often and regularly sometimes with quite prescribed fasts and sometimes
very informal.

According as people were able sometimes with no food or sometimes just
with very plain food. Here's a quote from Hermas. He says on the day on
which you fast you should taste nothing but bread and water then having
calculated the cost of the food that you would have otherwise eaten that
day you should give that sum to a widow or an orphan or some other
person in need.

There's other writings that indicate that sometimes when they had a need
among them they fasted for several days to make up that money that they
didn't use on food so they could meet that need. Hermas writes other
things that really harmonize with that passage in Isaiah 58. He says in
one place offer to God a fasting of the following kind.

Do no evil in your life and serve the Lord with a pure heart. Keep his
commandments walk in his teachings and let no evil desire arise in your
heart and believe in God. Do these things.

Fear him and abstain from every evil thing. If you do so you will live
to God and if you do these things you will keep a great fast. One that
is acceptable before God.

And down through the ages great things have happened by small amounts of
people who fasted and prayed. Someone once described the Waldensians and
among other things that he described them and it was an enemy of them.
It was somebody that would have called the Waldensians heretics and in
his description of them one of the things he noticed is that their
cheeks are pale with fasting.

It was apparently a very common thing. Our cheeks don't get pale from
fasting once a month. So this concludes this portion.

Kind of its own separate portion here of Jesus' sermon where he's
addressing these things specifically almsgiving and praying and fasting
that we should do in secret. Remember not all secrets are bad. Some
secrets are bad but not all secrets are bad.

And when we have this secret praying fasting and almsgiving life we are
fostering a relationship with God and that is the God of the universe
who can repay according to all the everything he has in store. If we can
do it and patiently wait on that he will reward us in due time. You know
when we were children, when I was growing up we were children I grew up
on a 40 acre little farm that was maybe nearly half wooded and we
children had hideouts.

In the woods tucked away behind the multiple roses and the dangling
grapevines we had this secret spot. And it was only known to a select
secret few people and there we kept our treasures or did our secret
things and I just within the garden of our hearts we all have it we all
have hideouts and the question is is that hideout a place where we do
good secrets and keep good secrets or bad secrets? It's the difference
whether we are fostering a relationship with God or with the devil and
there is an eternity of difference between the two. May the Lord add His
blessing.

You can open it up for comments, corrections. Yeah, thank you for
sharing, both of you. Maybe I'll expose my ignorance about words but
this idea that discouragement is just a part of life I agree that it is
but I would equate it with like and this is where I need some correction
perhaps, but I equate it with like greed and anger and lust and envy and
selfishness I think maybe the right description would have been like
sorrow and death and our dashed hopes and hard times and accidents these
are the things that humble us that are not bad in themselves, I kind of
class discouragement as an area of we shouldn't stay in anger, we
shouldn't stay in lust, but it happens something that we sometimes are
greedy and it's not where we belong we envy and we're selfish but we
can't stay there and none of these are taboo they're something that we
should be serious about and it's not uncommon Anyways I may be totally
wrong on my definitions on those things but it's kind of how it came out
of my mind Yeah, all the Jesus teachings these are very simple and so
profound so complete I just marvel at how for some reason Jesus seemed
to have his words just seemed different than any other words any other
man's writings when people questioned him he would answer in such a way
just a simple, solid sure, accurate way that no man could withstand him
in words but he wasn't like a lot of words anyways I just appreciate
that and and the courage that Dwayne gave us I thought of other things
that we can humble ourselves in in our day we have I think Dwayne
mentioned this as well we're pampered and have a lot of ease and dandy's
and air conditioners and cars and phones and these are also things that
we could say we'd do without them for a month and save a lot of money
there's many ways we can discipline ourselves in these ways I think food
is this one thing that has prevailed ever since man was created so man
could fast ever since there's been man this is something that has been
good for everybody it's not exclusive of time it's as good for us as it
was for the people in the past it crosses all those barriers of time and
different things but in our day I would I don't know what happens when
we I think, just my idea but I think we by degrees go down when we when
we give in to these selfish things that this country not just this
country but the time we're in this world as a general there's places
they don't have it like we do though they have a hard time they are
hungry and they are they don't have the necessities of life I assume
that it's true I haven't been I have personally not seen that in my my
travels there's even the idea that in these cities there's hungry people
that we have and there's food all over the place that I just it's
difficult to understand I had a thought I thought but I forgot it so
thank you and may the Lord continue to draw us and help us into that
eternal so that we're prepared for the eternal life thank you brother
Duane and the lesson was excellent for the person next to me for Brad
for Sarah it was better it hit home you convicted me very good brother
man doesn't live by bread alone and we shouldn't be selfish fast too
fasting for me and this fast for other people thanks brother Duane you
said it I definitely am convicted of a sin that I even though I control
my weight I could maybe I shouldn't have criticized brother Micah and
brother Darren who get up at 3 o'clock in the morning and have that
little extra food or you when you have an extra piece of cake but it's
it's something the spirit is willing but our flesh is weak and Jesus was
tempted with that in the wilderness right I mean in the desert and I
agree with you Walter and you said that too and may the lord give us
courage to encourage give us that courage to fast more and for some of
the young people people who haven't fasted before maybe just one meal at
a time sometime you can work your way into it and I mean that's just if
you're willing to do that and then you can fast for your spiritual
strength and thanks brother Dwayne I needed it no excuses I mean my wife
says I don't want you to fast that much you're going to get your knees
and back in shape because I was doing it that's no excuse Sarah I'm
depending on God and if I die I'm going to fast praise the lord, the
lord be magnified yeah first thing is I got to confess I'm really bad at
fasting and I really appreciate this message I need to hear it yeah
because I know I've shared with some before that I really believe it's
not a coincidence that fasting is such a big deal throughout the
writings of history as brother Dwayne pointed out many religions it's
something that started very early and then just permeated in all the
different directions of all the different cultures as they kind of broke
off the you know Muslims you know from Ishmael and from Abraham and the
Jews from Isaac and Jacob anyway yeah just spreading throughout the
world I just don't think it's a coincidence that the first sin had to do
with food and then fasting is what God calls us to do and and yeah I
find it interesting that like in Greek the word that is most often used
figuratively to mean humbling or humility or something like that
literally has to do with low and I was kind of thinking brother Dwayne
said I mean I definitely agree that fasting is a major way of humbling
ourselves as scripture shows but at the same time I don't think it's
coincidence that the lowest part of our body is our feet and so Jesus
shows us like going down to the lowest parts of the body of our brothers
and washing our feet as we'll do praise God tonight with each other that
yeah a word that all over the Bible is used figuratively to refer to
humility is the word that means low or you know like I said so I think
yeah those two together I think are really good and then the three as
Isaiah 58 I was thinking the same passage and Dwayne read it where you
see this idea of a fasting that the shepherd of Hermas would say to
elaborate on the little segment that Dwayne read would say it was the
angel of repentance apparently in this writing that was saying it's a
fast that where all you do is just abstain and kind of exercise you know
self restraint and food doesn't do anything really to please God and
it's the way the writing reads but if you want to please God it goes
right to Isaiah 58 it's like don't just stop eating the food but take
the money that you actually are saving from not eating and give it to
somebody in need and so I wonder many of you are probably aware of this
writing but the earliest apology that we have is dated about 125 it's
the apology of Aristides he's standing before the king get to chapter 15
it says but the Christians O king he's explaining about the Christians
Christians O king while they went about and made search have found the
truth for as we learn from their writings they have come nearer to truth
and genuine knowledge than the rest of the nations for they know and
trust in God the creator of heaven and earth and in whom and from whom
are all things and to whom there is no other God as companion from whom
they received commandments which they engraved upon their minds and
observed in hope and expectation of the world which is to come wherefore
they do not commit adultery nor fornication nor bear false witness nor
embezzle what is held in pledge nor covet what is not theirs you could
translate also as do not lust what is not theirs they honor their father
and mother they show kindness to those near to them and whenever they
are judges they judge rightly and uprightly and fairly they do not
worship idols made in the image of man and whatsoever they do not want
others to do to them they do not do to them as well and of the food
which is consecrated to idols they do not eat for they are pure and
their oppressors they appease or they comfort literally I guess and make
them their friends they do good to their enemies and their women oh king
are pure as virgins and their daughters are modest and their men keep
themselves from every unlawful union from all uncleanness in the hope of
a recompense a payback to come in the world to come further if one of
them now here's the point I really wanted to bring forward further if
one of them one or if one or other of them have bondsmen and bondswomen
or I guess slaves servants or children through love towards them oh wow
this isn't the part yet sorry sorry sorry I'm getting there anyway
persuade them to become Christians and when they have done so they call
them brethren without distinction they do not worship strange gods and
they do and they go their way in all modesty and cheerfulness falsehood
or lying is not found among them and they love one another and from
widows they do not turn away their esteem and they deliver the orphan
from him who treats him harshly and he who has gives to him who does not
have without boasting and when they see a stranger they take him into
their homes and they rejoice over him as a brother for they do not call
them brethren after the flesh but brethren after the spirit and in God
and when this is the part right here and whenever one of them among them
one of their poor passes from this world sorry this is not the part yet
either whenever one of their poor passes from this world you know dies
each one of them according to their ability gives heed to him and
carefully sees to his burial and if they hear that one of their number
is imprisoned or afflicted on account of the name of their Messiah or
their Christ all of them anxiously minister to his necessity to his need
and if it is possible to redeem him they set him free and if there is
among them any poor this is the part sorry so if there is any among them
that is poor and needy if they have no spare food to give them they fast
two or three days in order to supply to the need that is needed among
them they observe the precepts of their Messiah with much care and live
righteously justly and soberly as the Lord their God commanded them
every morning every hour they give thanks and praise to God for his
loving kindness towards them and for their food and for their drink they
offer thanksgiving to him and if any righteous man among them passes
from the world they rejoice and offer thanks to God and they escort his
body as if he were setting out from one place to another nearby and when
a child has been born to one of them they give thanks to God and more
over if it happened to die in childhood they give thanks to God the more
as for one who has passed through the world without sins and further if
they see that anyone of them dies in ungodliness or in his sins for him
they grieve bitterly and sorrow as for one who goes to meet his doom so
I just wanted to share that yeah I just think that's really impactful
that if they didn't have anything to share with their brother they would
fast two or three days it's very convicting yeah to provide for them
provide for their needs yeah brother Dwayne yeah the first thing you
were talking about with the forgiveness or the release you had a bunch
of thoughts going through my head I definitely think that was great what
you were saying about the Greek and everything um yeah I guess one thing
I would point out I think it's useful to know I don't know why every
translation does it this way I think they kind of translate this way
just because the theology kind of overrides the the desire to put it
down what the text actually says literally when it says about the
Pharisees how they you know kind of putting on a show with their fasting
it says that they have their reward it actually means they abstain from
their reward apeko means to abstain echo means to have apeko means to
abstain so they're kind of foregoing their reward maybe they translate
that way because maybe they don't believe that you actually get a reward
for for being quiet and having this secret relationship with God and and
you know doing good things without people knowing um but let's see what
was the other thought that I had oh I was going to point out yeah as far
as the past sins there's the passage uh uh let's see I showed it let's
see what was that 1st or 2nd Peter that I showed you I don't remember I
think it was 2nd Peter um yeah 2nd Peter chapter 1 right 2nd Peter
chapter 1 says uh you know about the whole progression of adieu faith
virtue to virtue knowledge non self control and it goes on and on until
it eventually gets to you know brotherly affection and um you know and
to that love and it says whoever has these things whoever doesn't have
these things has forgotten that he's been forgiven of his past sins or
cleansed actually literally cleansed of his past sins um kind of goes
together with what you were saying it's not past present future there's
one other passage I can't remember where it is that also talks about it
being past sins um but yeah there isn't anything in scripture that even
implies the idea of future sins certainly the early church saw that at
repentance and baptism yeah you had like Paul Acts 22 verse 16 and it
says to Paul or to Saul you know what are you waiting for and get up be
baptized washing your sins away calling on his name and then post
baptismal sins had to do with how you lived if you obeyed the teachings
of Jesus and and and were turned away from sin and did good that God
would hear your prayers and you could give subsequent forgiveness but
that's the way the early church saw it and I can definitely see that
testimony in the new testament the idea that God just forgives you no
matter what um I just I just don't really see that in the scripture so

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/s_R9kMYNOD4.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/duane-troyer/forgiveness-and-fasting/
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