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028 - Upon our Lords Sermon on the Mount Discourse VII · Sermons on Several Occasions, First Series

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Speaker 1: Section twenty seven of Sermons on Several Occasions First Series.
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Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Matthew James Gray Sermons
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Speaker 1: on Several Occasions, First Series by John Wesley, Sermon twenty
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Speaker 1: seven upon Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount Discourse seven. Moreover,
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Speaker 1: when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a
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Speaker 1: sad countenance, For they disfigure their faces, that they may
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Speaker 1: appear unto men to fast. Verily, I say unto you,
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Speaker 1: they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint
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Speaker 1: thine head and wash thy face, that thou appear not
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Speaker 1: unto men to fast, but unto thy Father, which is
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Speaker 1: in secret, And thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall
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Speaker 1: reward thee openly. Matthew six sixteen eighteen. It has been
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Speaker 1: the endeavor of Satan from the beginning of the world
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Speaker 1: to put asunder what God hath joined together, to separate
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Speaker 1: inward from outward religion, to set one of these at
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Speaker 1: variance with the other. And herein he has met with
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Speaker 1: no small success among those who are ignorant of his devices.
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Speaker 1: Many in all ages, having a zeal for God but
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Speaker 1: not according to knowledge, have been strictly attached to the
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Speaker 1: righteousness of the law the performance of outward duties, but
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Speaker 1: in the meantime wholly regardless of inward righteousness, the righteousness
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Speaker 1: which is of God by faith, and many have run
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Speaker 1: into the opposite extreme, disregarding all outward duties, perhaps even
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Speaker 1: speaking evil of the law, and judging the law so
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Speaker 1: far as it enjoins the performance of them. It is
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Speaker 1: by this very device of Satan that faith and works
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Speaker 1: have been so often set at variance with each other,
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Speaker 1: and many who had a real zeal for God have
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Speaker 1: for a time fallen into the snare. On either hand,
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Speaker 1: some have magnified faith to the utter exclusion of good works,
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Speaker 1: not only from being the cause of our justification, for
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Speaker 1: we know that man is justified freely by the redemption
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Speaker 1: which is in Jesus, but from being the necessary fruit
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Speaker 1: of it, yea, from having any place in the religion
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Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ. Others, eager to avoid this dangerous mistake,
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Speaker 1: have run as much too far the contrary, where and
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Speaker 1: either maintain that good works were the cause at least
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Speaker 1: the previous condition of justification, or spoken of them as
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Speaker 1: if they were all in all the whole religion of
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. In the same manner have the end and
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Speaker 1: the means of religion been set at variance with each other.
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Speaker 1: Some well meaning men have seemed to place all religion
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Speaker 1: in attending the prayers of the church, in receiving the
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Speaker 1: Lord's Supper, in hearing sermons and reading books of piety, neglecting,
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Speaker 1: meantime the end of all these, the love of God
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Speaker 1: and their neighbor. And this very thing has confirmed others
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Speaker 1: in the neglect, if not contempt, of the ordinances of God,
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Speaker 1: so wretchedly abused to undermine and overthrow the very end
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Speaker 1: they were designed to establish. But of all the means
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Speaker 1: of grace, there is scarce any concerning which men have
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Speaker 1: run into greater extremes than that of which our Lord
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Speaker 1: speaks in the above mentioned words, I mean religious fasting.
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Speaker 1: How have some exalted this beyond all scripture and reason,
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Speaker 1: and others utterly disregarded it as it were, revenging themselves
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Speaker 1: by undervaluing as much as the former had overvalued it.
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Speaker 1: Those have spoken of it as if it were all
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Speaker 1: in all, if not the end itself, yet infallibly connected
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Speaker 1: with it, these as if it were just nothing, as
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Speaker 1: if it were a fruitless labor which had no relation
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Speaker 1: at all. There too, whereas it is certain the truth
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Speaker 1: lies between them both, it is not all, nor yet
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Speaker 1: is it nothing. It is not the end, but it
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Speaker 1: is a precious means thereto, a means which God himself
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Speaker 1: has ordained, and in which therefore, when it is duly used,
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Speaker 1: he will surely give us his blessing. In order to
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Speaker 1: set this in the clearest light, I shall endeavor to show,
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Speaker 1: first what is the nature of fasting, and what the
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Speaker 1: several sorts and degrees thereof. Second, what are the reasons, grounds,
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Speaker 1: and ends of it. Thirdly, how we may answer the
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Speaker 1: most plausible objections against it? And fourthly, in what manner
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Speaker 1: it should be performed. I shall endeavor to show, first
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Speaker 1: what is the nature of fasting, and what the several
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Speaker 1: sorts and degrees thereof. As to the nature of all,
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Speaker 1: the inspired writers, both in the Old Testament and the
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Speaker 1: New take the word to fast in one single sense,
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Speaker 1: for not to eat, to abstain from food. This is
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Speaker 1: so clear that it would be labor lost to quote
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Speaker 1: the words of David, Nehemiah, Isaiah and the prophets which followed,
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Speaker 1: or of our Lord and his apostles, all agreeing in
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Speaker 1: this that to fast is not to eat for a
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Speaker 1: time prescribed to this. Other circumstances were usually joined by
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Speaker 1: them of old, which had no necessary connection with it,
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Speaker 1: Such were the neglect of their apparel, the laying aside
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Speaker 1: those ornaments which they were accustomed to wear, the putting
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Speaker 1: on mourning, the stirring ashes upon their head, or wearing
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Speaker 1: sackcloth next their skin. But we find little mention made
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Speaker 1: in the New Testament of any of these indifferent circumstances,
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Speaker 1: nor does it appear that any stress was laid upon
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Speaker 1: them by the Christians of the purer ages. However, some
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Speaker 1: penitence might voluntarily use them as outward signs of inward humiliation.
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Speaker 1: Much less did the apostles or the Christians contemporary with
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Speaker 1: them beat or tear their own flesh. Such discipline as
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Speaker 1: this was not unbecoming the priests or worshipers of Bile.
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Speaker 1: The gods of the Heathens were but devils, and it
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Speaker 1: was doubtless acceptable to their devil God when his priests
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Speaker 1: in One Kings eighteen twenty eight, cried aloud and cut
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Speaker 1: themselves after their manner, till the blood gushed out upon them.
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Speaker 1: But it cannot be pleasing to him nor become his followers,
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Speaker 1: who came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them.
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Speaker 1: As to the degrees or measures of fasting, we have
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Speaker 1: instances of some who have fasted several days together. So Moses,
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Speaker 1: Elijah and our blessed Lord, being endued with supernatural strength
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Speaker 1: for that purpose, are accorded to have fasted without intermission
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Speaker 1: forty days and forty knights. But the time of fasting,
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Speaker 1: more freequently mentioned it scripture is one day from morning
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Speaker 1: till evening. Ness was the fast commonly observed among the
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Speaker 1: ancient Christians. But beside these they had also their half
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Speaker 1: fasts semija junior, as Totullian styles them, on the fourth
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Speaker 1: and sixth days of the week Wednesday and Friday throughout
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Speaker 1: the year, on which they took no sustenance till three
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Speaker 1: in the afternoon, the time when they returned from the
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Speaker 1: public service. Nearly related to this is what our church
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Speaker 1: seems peculiarly to mean by the term abstinence, which may
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Speaker 1: be used when we cannot fast entirely by reason of
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Speaker 1: sickness or bodily weakness. This is the easing, little, the abstaining,
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Speaker 1: and part the taking a smaller quantity of food than usual.
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Speaker 1: I do not remember any scriptural instance of this, but
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Speaker 1: neither can I condemn it, for the scripture does not.
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Speaker 1: It may have its use and receive a blessing from God.
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Speaker 1: The lowest of fasting, if it can be called by
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Speaker 1: that name, is the abstaining from pleasant food. Of this
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Speaker 1: we have several instances in scripture, besides that of Daniel
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Speaker 1: and his brethren, who, from a peculiar consideration, namely that
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Speaker 1: they might not defile themselves with the portion of the
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Speaker 1: king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank a
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Speaker 1: daily provision of which the King had appointed for them,
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Speaker 1: requested and obtained of the Prince of the Eunuch's pulse
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Speaker 1: to eat and water to drink. Daniel one ate, perhaps
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Speaker 1: from a mistaken imitation of this, might spring the very
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Speaker 1: ancient custom of abstaining from flesh and wine during such
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Speaker 1: times as were set apart for fasting and abstinence, if
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Speaker 1: it did not rather arise from a supposition that these
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Speaker 1: were the most pleasant food and a belief that it
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Speaker 1: was proper to use what was least pleasing at those
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Speaker 1: times of solemn approach to God. In the Jewish Church,
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Speaker 1: there were some stated fasts, such was the fast of
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Speaker 1: the seventh month, appointed by God himself to be observed
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Speaker 1: by all Israel under the severest penalty. The Lord spake
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Speaker 1: unto Moses, saying, on the tenth day of this month,
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Speaker 1: there shall be a day of atonement, and year shall
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Speaker 1: afflict your souls to make an atonement for you before
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Speaker 1: the Lord your God. For whatsoever soul it be that
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Speaker 1: shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall
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Speaker 1: be cut off from among his people Leviticus twenty three,
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Speaker 1: twenty six. In after ages, several other stated fasts were
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Speaker 1: added to these. So mention is made by the prophet
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Speaker 1: Zachariah of the fast not only of the seventh, but
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Speaker 1: also of the fourth, of the fifth, and of the
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Speaker 1: tenth month Zachariah eight nineteen. In the ancient Christian Church
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Speaker 1: there were likewise stated fasts, and those both annual and weekly.
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Speaker 1: Of the former sort was that before Easter, observed by
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Speaker 1: some for eight and forty hours by others, for an
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Speaker 1: entire week by many for or two weeks, taking no
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Speaker 1: sustenance till the evening of each day of the latter.
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Speaker 1: Those of the fourth and sixth days of the week
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Speaker 1: observed as epiphanius rites, remarking it as an undeniable fact
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Speaker 1: in hole te ulcomunoi in the whole habitable earth, at
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Speaker 1: least in every place where any Christians made their abode.
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Speaker 1: The annual fasts in our Church are the forty days
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Speaker 1: of Lent, the Ember days at the four seasons, the
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Speaker 1: rogation days, and the vigils or eves of several solemn festivals,
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Speaker 1: the weekly all fridays in the year except Christmas Day.
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Speaker 1: But beside those which were fixed in every nation fearing God,
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Speaker 1: there have always been occasional fasts appointed from time to
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Speaker 1: time as the particular circumstances and occasions of each required.
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Speaker 1: So when the children of Moab and the children of
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Speaker 1: Amon came against Jehoshaphat to battle, Jehoshaphat set himself to
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Speaker 1: seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah
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Speaker 1: Second Chronicles, twenty verses one to three. And so in
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Speaker 1: the fifth year of Jehoikim, the son of Josiah, in
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Speaker 1: the ninth month, when they were afraid of the King
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Speaker 1: of Babylon. The princes of Judah proclaimed fast before the
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Speaker 1: Lord to all the people of Jerusalem Jeremiah thirty six nine.
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Speaker 1: And in like manner, particular persons who take heed unto
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Speaker 1: their ways, and desire to walk humbly and closely with God,
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Speaker 1: will find frequent occasion for private sessions of thus afflicting
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Speaker 1: their souls before their Father, which is in secret. And
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Speaker 1: it is to this kind of fasting that the directions
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Speaker 1: here given do chiefly and primarily refer. I proceed to show,
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Speaker 1: in the second place, what are the grounds, the reasons
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Speaker 1: and ends of fasting. And first, men who are under
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Speaker 1: strong emotions of mind, who are affected with any vehement passion,
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Speaker 1: such as sorrow or fear, are often swallowed up therein,
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Speaker 1: and even forget to eat their bread. At such seasons.
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Speaker 1: They have little regard for food, not even what is
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Speaker 1: needful to sustain nature, much less for any delicacy or variety,
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Speaker 1: being taken up with quite different thoughts. Thus, when Paul said,
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Speaker 1: I am sore distressed, for the Philistines make war against me,
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Speaker 1: and God is departed from me, it is recorded he
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Speaker 1: had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the
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Speaker 1: night on Samuel twenty eighth, fifteen twenty. Thus, those who
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Speaker 1: were in the ship with Saint Paul, when no small
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Speaker 1: tempest lay upon them, and all hope that they should
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Speaker 1: be saved was taken away, continued fasting, having taken nothing,
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Speaker 1: no regular meal, for fourteen days together Acts twenty seven
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Speaker 1: thirty three. And thus David and all the men that
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Speaker 1: were with him, when they heard that the people were
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Speaker 1: fled from the battle, and that many of the people
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Speaker 1: were fallen and dead, and Saul and Jonathan, his son,
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Speaker 1: were dead, also mourned and wept and fasted until even
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Speaker 1: for Saul and Jonathan, and for the house of Israel
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Speaker 1: two Samuel one twelve Nay, many times they whose minds
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Speaker 1: are deeply engaged are impatient of any interruption, and even
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Speaker 1: loathe their needful food, as diverting their thoughts from what
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Speaker 1: they desire should engross their whole attention. Even a Saul,
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Speaker 1: when on the occasion mentioned before, he had fallen all
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Speaker 1: along upon the earth and there was no strength in him,
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Speaker 1: yet said I will not eat till his servants, together
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Speaker 1: with the women, compelled him. Here, then is the natural
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Speaker 1: ground of fasting one who was under deep affliction overwhelmed
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Speaker 1: with solorrow for sin and a strong apprehension of the
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Speaker 1: wrath of God, would without any rule, without knowing or
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Speaker 1: considering whether it were a command of God or not,
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Speaker 1: forget to eat his bread, abstain not only from pleasant
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Speaker 1: but even from needful food, like Saint Paul, who, after
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Speaker 1: he was led into Damascus, that was three days without sight,
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Speaker 1: and did neither eat nor drink Acts nine nine YEA.
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Speaker 1: When the storm rose high, when a horrible dread overwhelmed
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Speaker 1: one who had been without God in the world, his
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Speaker 1: soul would loathe all manner of meat. It would be
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Speaker 1: unpleasing and irksome to him. He would be impatient of
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Speaker 1: anything that should interrupt his ceaseless cry, Lord save or
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Speaker 1: I perish. How strongly is this expressed by our Church
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Speaker 1: in the first part of the Homily on Fasting. When
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Speaker 1: men feel in themselves the heavy burden of sin, see
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Speaker 1: damnation to be the reward of it, and behold with
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Speaker 1: the eye of their heart the horror of hell, they tremble,
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Speaker 1: they quake, and are inwardly touched with sorrowfulness of heart,
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Speaker 1: and cannot but accuse themselves and open their grief unto
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Speaker 1: Almighty God and call unto Him for mercy, this being
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Speaker 1: done seriously. Their mind is so occupied, taken up partly
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Speaker 1: with sorrow and heaviness, partly with an earnest desire to
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Speaker 1: be delivered from this danger of hell and damnation, that
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Speaker 1: all desire of meat and drink is laid apart, and
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Speaker 1: loathsomeness or loathing of all worldly things and pleasure cometh
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Speaker 1: in place, so that nothing then liketh the more than
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Speaker 1: to weep, to lament, to mourn, and both with words
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Speaker 1: and behavior of body, to show themselves weary of life.
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Speaker 1: Another reason or ground of fasting is this, many of
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Speaker 1: those who now fear God God are deeply sensible how
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Speaker 1: often they have sinned against Him by the abuse of
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Speaker 1: these lawful things. They know how much they have sinned
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Speaker 1: by excess of food, How long they have transgressed the
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Speaker 1: holy law of God with regard to temperance, if not
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Speaker 1: sobriety too, How they have indulged their sensual appetites, perhaps
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Speaker 1: to the impairing even their bodily health, certainly to the
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Speaker 1: no small hurt of their soul. For hereby they continually
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Speaker 1: fared and increased that sprightly follow that aeriness of mind,
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Speaker 1: that levity of temper, that gay an attention to things
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Speaker 1: of the deepest concern, that giddiness and carelessness of spirit,
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Speaker 1: which were no other than drunkenness of soul, which stupefied
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Speaker 1: all their noblest faculties, no less than excess of wine
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Speaker 1: or strong drink. To remove. Therefore the effect they remove,
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Speaker 1: the cause they keep at a distance from all excess.
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Speaker 1: They abstain as far as possible from why had well
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Speaker 1: nigh plunge them in everlasting perdition. They often wholly refrain,
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Speaker 1: always take care to be sparing and temperate in all things.
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Speaker 1: They likewise well remember how fullness of bread increased not
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Speaker 1: only carelessness and levity of spirit, but also foolish and
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Speaker 1: unholy desires. Yea unclean and vile affections. And this experience
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Speaker 1: puts beyond all doubt even a genteel regular sensuality is
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Speaker 1: continually sensualizing the soul and sinking it into a level
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Speaker 1: with the beasts that perish. It cannot be expressed what
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Speaker 1: an effect variety and delicacy of food have on the
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Speaker 1: mind as well as the body, making it just ripe
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Speaker 1: for every pleasure of sense. As soon as opportunities shall invite. Therefore,
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Speaker 1: on this ground also every wise man will refrain his
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Speaker 1: soul and keep it low. Will wean it more and
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Speaker 1: more from all those indulgences of the inferior appetites, which
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Speaker 1: naturally tend to chain it down to earth, and to
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Speaker 1: pollute as well as debase it. Here is another perpetual
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Speaker 1: reason for fasting, to remove the food of lust and sensuality,
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Speaker 1: to withdraw the incentives of foolish and hurtful desires, of
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Speaker 1: vain and vile affections. Perhaps we need not altogether omit,
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Speaker 1: although I know not if we should do well to
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Speaker 1: lay any great stress upon it. Another reason for fasting,
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Speaker 1: which some good men have largely insisted on, namely, the
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Speaker 1: punishing themselves for having abused the good gifts of God
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Speaker 1: by sometimes wholly refraining from them, thus exercising a kind
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Speaker 1: of wholly revenge upon themselves for their past folly and ingratitude,
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Speaker 1: in turning the things which should have been for their
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Speaker 1: health into an occasion for failing. Thus, suppose David to
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Speaker 1: have an eye to this when he said I wept
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Speaker 1: and chastened, or punished my soul with fasting and sent poor.
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Speaker 1: When he mentions what revenge godly sorrow occasioned in the Corinthians.
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Speaker 1: A fifth, and more weighty reason for fasting is that
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Speaker 1: it is an help to prayer, particularly when we set
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Speaker 1: apart larger portions of time for private prayer. Then especially
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Speaker 1: it is that God is often pleased to lift up
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Speaker 1: the souls of his servants above all the things of earth,
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Speaker 1: and sometimes to wrap them up, as it were, into
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Speaker 1: the third heavens. And it is chiefly as it is
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Speaker 1: and help to prayer, that it has so frequently been
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Speaker 1: found a means in the hand of God of confirming
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Speaker 1: and increasing not one virtue, not chastity only, as some
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Speaker 1: have idly imagined, without any ground either from scripture, reason
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Speaker 1: or experience, but also seriousness of spirit, earnestness, sensibility and
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Speaker 1: tenderness of content, deadness to the world, and consequently the
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Speaker 1: love of God and every holy and heavenly affection. Not
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Speaker 1: that there is any natural or necessary connection between fasting
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Speaker 1: and the blessings God conveys thereby. But he will have mercy.
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Speaker 1: As he will have mercy, He will convey whatsoever seemeth
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Speaker 1: him good by whatsoever means he is pleased to appoint,
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Speaker 1: and he hath in all ages appointed this to be
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Speaker 1: a means of averting his wrath and obtaining whatever blessings we,
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Speaker 1: from time to time stand in need of. How powerful
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Speaker 1: a means this is to avert the wrath of God,
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Speaker 1: we may learn from the remarkable instance of Ahab. There
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Speaker 1: was none like him who did sell himself wholly, give
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Speaker 1: himself up like a slave brought with money to work wickedness.
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Speaker 1: Yet when he rent his clothes and put sacloth upon
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Speaker 1: his flesh, and fasted and went softly, the words of
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Speaker 1: the Lord came to Elijah, saying, seest thou, how Ahab
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Speaker 1: humbleth himself before me. Because he humbleth himself before me,
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Speaker 1: I will not bring thee evil in his days. It
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Speaker 1: was for this end to avert the wrath of God
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Speaker 1: that Daniel sought God with fasting and sackloth and ashes.
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Speaker 1: This appears from the whole tenor of his prayer, particularly
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Speaker 1: from the solemn conclusion of it. O Lord, according to
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Speaker 1: all thy righteousness or mercies, let thy anger be turn'd
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Speaker 1: away from thy holy mountain. Hear the prayer of thy servant,
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Speaker 1: and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that
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Speaker 1: is desolate. O Lord, here O Lord, forgive o, Lord,
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Speaker 1: hearken and do for thine own sake Daniel nine three
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Speaker 1: and sixteen. But it is not only from the people
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Speaker 1: of God that we learn when his anger is moved,
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Speaker 1: to seek him by fasting and prayer. But even from
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Speaker 1: the Heathens. When Jonah had declared yet forty days and
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Speaker 1: Nineveh shall be overthrown, the people of Ninemah proclaimed, are
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Speaker 1: fast and put on sacloth, from the greatest of them
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Speaker 1: unto the least. For the king of Nineveh arose from
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Speaker 1: his throne and laid his robe from him, and covered
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Speaker 1: him with sacloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused
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Speaker 1: it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh that neither
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Speaker 1: man nor beast heard, nor flock taste anything, let them
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Speaker 1: not feed nor drink water, Not that the beast had
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Speaker 1: sinned or could repent, but that by their example man
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Speaker 1: might be admonished, considering that for his sin the anger
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Speaker 1: of God was hanging over all creatures. Who can tell
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Speaker 1: if God will turn and repent and turn away from
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Speaker 1: his fierce anger, that we perish not. And their labor
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Speaker 1: was not in vain. The fierce anger of God was
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Speaker 1: turned away from them. God saw their works the fruits
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Speaker 1: of that repentance and faith which he had wrought in
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Speaker 1: them by his prophet. And God repented of the evil
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Speaker 1: that he had said he would do unto them, and
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Speaker 1: he did it not John three, verse four. And it
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Speaker 1: is a means not only of turning away the wrath
23:13
Speaker 1: of God, but also of attaining whatever blessings we stand
23:16
Speaker 1: in need of. So when the other tribes were smitten
23:19
Speaker 1: before the Benjamin nights, all the children of Israel went
23:23
Speaker 1: up into the House of God and wept and fasted
23:26
Speaker 1: that day until even and then the Lord said, go
23:29
Speaker 1: up again, for tomorrow I will deliver them into Thine hand.
23:34
Speaker 1: Judges twenty, verse twenty six. So Samuel gathered all Israel
23:39
Speaker 1: together when they were in bondage to the Philistines, and
23:41
Speaker 1: they fasted on that day before the Lord. And when
23:45
Speaker 1: the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel, the Lord
23:49
Speaker 1: thundered upon them with a great thunder and discomfited them,
23:54
Speaker 1: and they were smitten before Israel one Samuel seven, verse six.
24:00
Speaker 1: Ezra I proclaimed a fast at the river Ahava, that
24:03
Speaker 1: we might afflict ourselves before our God to seek of
24:07
Speaker 1: him a right way for us and for our little ones,
24:11
Speaker 1: and he was entreated of us Ezra eight verse twenty one.
24:17
Speaker 1: So near Mayah, I fasted and prayed before the God
24:21
Speaker 1: of Heaven, and said, prosper, I pray thee thy servant
24:24
Speaker 1: this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of
24:26
Speaker 1: this man. And God granted him mercy in the sight
24:29
Speaker 1: of the King near Mayah one, verses four to eleven.
24:34
Speaker 1: In like manner, the apostles always joined fasting with prayer
24:38
Speaker 1: when they desired the blessing of God on any important undertaking.
24:41
Speaker 1: Thus we read in Acts thirteen they were in the
24:44
Speaker 1: church that was at Antioch, certain prophets and teachers, as
24:49
Speaker 1: they ministered to the Lord and fasted, doubtless for direction
24:52
Speaker 1: in this very affair, the Holy Ghost said, separate me
24:56
Speaker 1: Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
25:00
Speaker 1: When they had a second time fasted and prayed and
25:03
Speaker 1: laid their hands on them, they sent them away Acts thirteen,
25:07
Speaker 1: verse thirteen. Thus also Paul and Barnabas themselves, as we
25:11
Speaker 1: read in the following chapter, when they returned again to
25:15
Speaker 1: Lystra Aconium and Antioch, conforming the souls of the disciples,
25:20
Speaker 1: and when they had ordained them elders in their every church,
25:24
Speaker 1: and had prayed with fasting commended them to the Lord.
25:28
Speaker 1: Acts fourteen, verse twenty three. YEA, that blessings are to
25:32
Speaker 1: be obtained in the use of this means, which are
25:35
Speaker 1: no otherwise attainable. Our Lord expressly declares in his answer
25:38
Speaker 1: to his disciples, asking why could not we cast him out?
25:43
Speaker 1: Jesus said, unto them, because of your own belief. For
25:46
Speaker 1: verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as
25:48
Speaker 1: a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove,
25:53
Speaker 1: hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing
25:56
Speaker 1: shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind of devil
26:00
Speaker 1: goeth out not by prayer and fasting matt seventeen, verse nineteen.
26:08
Speaker 1: These being the appointed means of attaining that faith, whereby
26:11
Speaker 1: the very devils a subject unto you, these were the
26:15
Speaker 1: appointed means. For it was not merely by the light
26:19
Speaker 1: of reason or of natural conscience, as it is called,
26:22
Speaker 1: that the people of God have been in all ages
26:24
Speaker 1: directed to use fasting as a means to these ends.
26:27
Speaker 1: But they have been from time to time taught it
26:30
Speaker 1: by God himself, by clear and open revelations of his
26:34
Speaker 1: will such is that remarkable one by the prophet Jol. Therefore,
26:39
Speaker 1: saith the Lord turn you to me with all your heart,
26:43
Speaker 1: and with fasting, and with weeping and with mourning. Who
26:47
Speaker 1: knoweth if he will return and repent and leave the
26:49
Speaker 1: blessing behind him? Blow the trumpet in zion, sanct fire, fast,
26:55
Speaker 1: call a solemn assembly. Then will the Lord be jealous
26:59
Speaker 1: over him land and will pity his people. Yea, I
27:03
Speaker 1: will send you corn and wine and oil. I will
27:06
Speaker 1: no more make you a reproach among the heathen Joel two,
27:11
Speaker 1: verse twelve. Nor are they only temporal blessings which God
27:16
Speaker 1: directs his people to expect in the use of these means.
27:20
Speaker 1: For at the same time that He promised to those
27:23
Speaker 1: who should seek him with fasting and weeping and mourning,
27:26
Speaker 1: I will restore you the years which locust hath eaten,
27:30
Speaker 1: the canker worm, and the caterpillar and the palmer worm.
27:33
Speaker 1: My great army, he subjoins. So shall ye eat and
27:37
Speaker 1: be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God.
27:41
Speaker 1: Ye shall also know that I am in the midst
27:43
Speaker 1: of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God.
27:47
Speaker 1: And then immediately follows the great Gospel promise, I will
27:51
Speaker 1: pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons
27:55
Speaker 1: and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams,
28:00
Speaker 1: and your young men shall see visions. And also upon
28:04
Speaker 1: the sermonts and upon the handmaids. In those days I
28:07
Speaker 1: will pour out my spirit Joel two verses twenty eight
28:13
Speaker 1: to twenty nine. Now, whatsoever reasons there were to quicken
28:18
Speaker 1: those of old in the zealous and constant discharge of
28:21
Speaker 1: this duty, they are of equal force still to quicken us.
28:25
Speaker 1: But above all these we have a peculiar reason for
28:28
Speaker 1: being in fastings, often, namely the command of him by
28:32
Speaker 1: whose name we are called. He does not, indeed, in
28:37
Speaker 1: this place, expressly enjoy either fasting, giving of arms, or prayer.
28:42
Speaker 1: But his directions how to fast, to give arms, and
28:45
Speaker 1: to pray are of the same force with such injunctions.
28:49
Speaker 1: For the commanding us to do anything thus is an
28:51
Speaker 1: unquestionable command to do that thing, seeing it is impossible
28:55
Speaker 1: to perform it. Thus if it be not performed at all. Consequently,
29:00
Speaker 1: the saying give alms, pray, fast in such a manner
29:03
Speaker 1: is a clear command to perform all those duties, as
29:07
Speaker 1: well as to perform them in that manner which shall
29:10
Speaker 1: in no wise lose its reward. And this is still
29:14
Speaker 1: far the motive and encouragement to the performance of this duty,
29:18
Speaker 1: even the promise which our Lord has graciously annexed to
29:21
Speaker 1: the due discharge of it, Thy Father, which seeth in secret,
29:24
Speaker 1: shall reward thee openly. Such are the plain grounds, reasons
29:30
Speaker 1: and ends of fasting, such our encouragement to persevere therein,
29:35
Speaker 1: notwithstanding abundance of egibjections which men wiser than their Lord
29:40
Speaker 1: have been continually raising against it. The most plausible of
29:44
Speaker 1: these I come now to consider. And first, it has
29:48
Speaker 1: been frequently said that a Christian fast from sin and
29:51
Speaker 1: not from food. This is what God requires at his hands.
29:55
Speaker 1: Now so he does, but he requires the other also.
29:59
Speaker 1: Therefore this ought to be done, and that not left
30:03
Speaker 1: undone few your argument in its full dimensions, and you
30:06
Speaker 1: will easily judge the strength of it. If a Christian
30:09
Speaker 1: ought to abstain from sin, then he ought not to
30:11
Speaker 1: abstain from food. But a Christian ought to abstain from sin,
30:15
Speaker 1: therefore he ought not to abstain from food. That a
30:19
Speaker 1: Christian ought to abstain from sin is most true. But
30:23
Speaker 1: now does it follow from hence that he ought not
30:25
Speaker 1: to abstain from food, Let him do both the one
30:30
Speaker 1: and the other. Let him, by the grace of God,
30:33
Speaker 1: always abstain from sin, and let him often abstain from food,
30:36
Speaker 1: for such reasons and ends, as experience and scripture plainly
30:40
Speaker 1: show to be answered thereby. But it is not better,
30:45
Speaker 1: as it has secondly been objected, to abstain from pride
30:49
Speaker 1: and vanity, from foolish and hurtful desires, from peevishness and
30:54
Speaker 1: anger and discontent, then from food. Well our question it is.
30:58
Speaker 1: But here again need to remind you of our Lord's words.
31:02
Speaker 1: These things ought ye to have done, and not to
31:05
Speaker 1: leave the other undone. And indeed the latter is only
31:08
Speaker 1: in order to the former. It is a means to
31:10
Speaker 1: that great end. We abstain from food with this view that,
31:15
Speaker 1: by the grace of God conveyed into our souls, through
31:18
Speaker 1: this outward means, in conjunction with all the other channels
31:22
Speaker 1: of His grace which He hath appointed, we may be
31:25
Speaker 1: enabled to abstain from every passion and temper which is
31:29
Speaker 1: not pleasing in His sight. We refrain from the one that,
31:33
Speaker 1: being endued with power from on high we may be
31:36
Speaker 1: able to refrain from the other. So that your argument
31:39
Speaker 1: proves just the contrary to what you designed. It proves
31:42
Speaker 1: that we ought to fast, For if we ought to
31:45
Speaker 1: abstain from evil tempers and desires, then we ought thus
31:49
Speaker 1: to abstain from food. Since these little instances of self
31:52
Speaker 1: denial are the ways God hath chose wherein to bestow
31:56
Speaker 1: that great salvation. But we do not find it. So,
32:01
Speaker 1: in fact, this is a third objection. We have fasted
32:04
Speaker 1: much and often, by what did it avail? We were
32:07
Speaker 1: not a wik better. We found no blessing therein. Nay,
32:10
Speaker 1: we have founded a hindrance rather than a help. Instead
32:13
Speaker 1: of preventing anger, for instance, or fretfulness, it has been
32:17
Speaker 1: a means of increasing them to such a height that
32:19
Speaker 1: we could neither bear ourselves nor others. Now this may
32:23
Speaker 1: very possibly be the case. It is possible either to
32:26
Speaker 1: fast or pray in such a manner as to make
32:29
Speaker 1: you much worse than before, more unhappy, and more unholy.
32:33
Speaker 1: Yet the fault does not lie in the means itself,
32:35
Speaker 1: but in the manner of using it. Use it still,
32:38
Speaker 1: but use it in a different manner. Do what God commands,
32:41
Speaker 1: as he commands it, and then doubtless his promise shall
32:44
Speaker 1: not fail. His blessings shall be withheld no longer. But
32:48
Speaker 1: when thou fastest in secret, he that seeth in secret
32:52
Speaker 1: shall reward thee openly. But it is not mere superstition,
32:57
Speaker 1: So it has been fourthly objected. Imagine that God regards
33:01
Speaker 1: such little things as these. If you say it is,
33:04
Speaker 1: you condemn all the generations of God's children. But will
33:07
Speaker 1: you say these were all weak superstitious men? Can you
33:11
Speaker 1: be so hearty as to affirm this? Both that Moses
33:15
Speaker 1: and Joshua of Samuel, and David of Jehosaphat, Ezra Nehemiah,
33:20
Speaker 1: and all the prophets Yea of are greater than all
33:23
Speaker 1: the son of God himself. It is certain both our
33:26
Speaker 1: Master and all these his servants did imagine that fasting
33:30
Speaker 1: is not a little thing, and that he who is
33:32
Speaker 1: higher than the highest doth regard it. Of the same
33:36
Speaker 1: judgment is his plain. Were all his apostles, after they
33:40
Speaker 1: were filled with the Holy Ghost and with wisdom, when
33:44
Speaker 1: they had the unction of the Holy One teaching them
33:46
Speaker 1: all things, they still approved themselves the ministers of God
33:50
Speaker 1: by fastings as well as by the armor of righteousness
33:54
Speaker 1: on the right hand and on the left. After the
33:56
Speaker 1: bridegroom was taken from them, then did they fast in
34:00
Speaker 1: those days, Nor would they attempt anything as we have
34:04
Speaker 1: seen above wherein the glory of God was nearly concerned,
34:08
Speaker 1: such as the sending forth laborers into the harvest, without
34:11
Speaker 1: solemn fasting, as well as prayer. But if fasting be
34:16
Speaker 1: indeed of so great importance and attended with such a blessing,
34:20
Speaker 1: is it not best, say some fifthly, to fast always,
34:24
Speaker 1: not to do it now and then, but to keep
34:26
Speaker 1: a continual fast, To use as much abstinence at all
34:30
Speaker 1: times as our bodily strength will bear. Let none be
34:34
Speaker 1: discouraged from doing this by all means. Use as little
34:37
Speaker 1: and plain food, exercise as much self denial herein at
34:42
Speaker 1: all times as your bodily strength will bear. And this
34:45
Speaker 1: may conduce, by the blessing of God, to several of
34:48
Speaker 1: the great ends above mentioned. It may be a considerable help,
34:52
Speaker 1: not only to chastity, but also to heavenly mindedness, to
34:56
Speaker 1: the weaning your affections from things below and setting them
34:59
Speaker 1: on things above. But this is not fasting scripture fasting.
35:04
Speaker 1: It is never termed. So in all the Bible, It,
35:07
Speaker 1: in some measure answers some of the ends thereof. But
35:11
Speaker 1: still it is another thing. Practice it by all means,
35:14
Speaker 1: but not so as thereby to set aside a command
35:17
Speaker 1: of God and an instituted means of averting His judgments
35:21
Speaker 1: and obtaining the blessings of His children. Use continually, then,
35:26
Speaker 1: as much abstinence as you please, which taken thus is
35:30
Speaker 1: no other than Christian temperance. But this need not at
35:34
Speaker 1: all interfere with your observing solemn times of fasting and prayer.
35:39
Speaker 1: For instance, your habitual abstinence or temperance would not prevent
35:44
Speaker 1: your fasting in secret. If you were suddenly overwhelmed with
35:48
Speaker 1: huge sorrow and remorse, and with horrible fear and dismay,
35:52
Speaker 1: such a situation of mind would almost constrain you to fast.
35:56
Speaker 1: You would loathe your daily food. You would scare, yes
36:00
Speaker 1: endure even to take such supplies as were needful for
36:03
Speaker 1: the body, till God lifted you up out of the
36:06
Speaker 1: horrible pit and set your feet upon a rock and
36:09
Speaker 1: ordered your goings. The same would be the case if
36:12
Speaker 1: you were in agony of desire, vehemently wrestling with God
36:16
Speaker 1: for his blessing, you would need none to instruct you
36:19
Speaker 1: not to eat bread till you had obtained the request
36:21
Speaker 1: of your lips. Again, had you been at Ninevah when
36:26
Speaker 1: it was proclaimed throughout the city, let neither man, nor beast, herd,
36:29
Speaker 1: nor flock taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water,
36:33
Speaker 1: but let them cry mightily unto God. Would your continual
36:37
Speaker 1: fast have been any reason for not bearing part in
36:40
Speaker 1: that general humiliation? Doubtless it would not. You would have
36:44
Speaker 1: been as much concerned as any other not to taste
36:47
Speaker 1: food on that day. No more would abstinence or the
36:51
Speaker 1: observing of a continual fast have excused any of the
36:55
Speaker 1: children of Israel from fasting on the tenth day of
36:58
Speaker 1: the seventh month. That shell not be afflicted, shall not
37:02
Speaker 1: fast in that day, he shall be cut off from
37:05
Speaker 1: among his people. Lastly, had you been with the Brethren
37:10
Speaker 1: in Antioch at the time when they fasted and prayed
37:13
Speaker 1: before the sending forth of Barnabas and Saul, can you
37:17
Speaker 1: possibly imagine that your temperance or abstinence would have been
37:20
Speaker 1: a sufficient cause for not joining wherein Without doubt, if
37:26
Speaker 1: you had not, you would soon have been cut off
37:28
Speaker 1: from the Christian community. You would have deservedly been cast
37:32
Speaker 1: out from among them as bringing confusion into the Church
37:37
Speaker 1: of God. I am in the last place to show
37:41
Speaker 1: in what manner we are to fast, that it may
37:44
Speaker 1: be an acceptable service unto the Lord. And first let
37:48
Speaker 1: it be done unto God, with our eye singuly fixed
37:52
Speaker 1: on him. Let our intention herein be this and this alone,
37:57
Speaker 1: to glorify our Father, which is in Heaven. To express
38:00
Speaker 1: our sorrow and shame for our manifold transgressions of His
38:03
Speaker 1: Holy law. To wait for an increase of purifying grace,
38:07
Speaker 1: drawing our affections to things above, to add seriousness and
38:11
Speaker 1: earnestness to our prayers, to avert the wrath of God,
38:15
Speaker 1: and to obtain all the great and precious promises which
38:18
Speaker 1: He hath made to us in Jesus Christ. That us
38:22
Speaker 1: beware of mocking God, of turning our fast as well
38:25
Speaker 1: as our prayers, into an abomination unto the Lord, by
38:28
Speaker 1: the mixture of any temporal view, particularly by seeking the
38:32
Speaker 1: praise of men. Against this, Our blessed Lord more peculiarly
38:37
Speaker 1: guards us in the words of the text. Moreover, when
38:40
Speaker 1: ye fast, be ye not as the hypocrites, such were
38:44
Speaker 1: too many who were called the people of God, of
38:47
Speaker 1: a sad countenance, sour affectedly sad, putting their looks into
38:52
Speaker 1: a peculiar form. For they disfigured their faces not only
38:56
Speaker 1: by unnatural distortions, but also by covering them with dust
39:00
Speaker 1: and ashes, that they may appear unto men to fast.
39:03
Speaker 1: This is their chief, if not only design. Verily, I
39:07
Speaker 1: say unto you, they have their reward, even the admiration
39:11
Speaker 1: and praise of men. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint
39:15
Speaker 1: thy head and wash thy face, do as thou art
39:18
Speaker 1: accustomed to do it any other times, that thou appear
39:22
Speaker 1: not unto men to fast. Let this be no part
39:26
Speaker 1: of thy intention. If they know it without any desire
39:30
Speaker 1: of thine, it matters not thou art neither the better
39:34
Speaker 1: nor the worse. But unto Thy Father, which is in secret,
39:37
Speaker 1: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
39:43
Speaker 1: But if we desire this reward, let us beware secondly,
39:47
Speaker 1: of fancying we merit anything of God by our fasting.
39:51
Speaker 1: We cannot be too much warned of this, inasmuch as
39:54
Speaker 1: a desire to establish our own righteousness, to procure salvation
39:58
Speaker 1: of debt and not of grace, is so deeply rooted
40:01
Speaker 1: in all our hearts. Fasting is only a way which
40:05
Speaker 1: God hath ordained, wherein we wait for his unmerited mercy.
40:09
Speaker 1: And we're in without any desert of ours. He hath
40:13
Speaker 1: promised freely to give us his blessing. Not that we
40:16
Speaker 1: are to imagine the performing the bare outward act will
40:19
Speaker 1: receive any blessing from God. Is it such a fast
40:22
Speaker 1: that I have chosen, saith the Lord? A day for
40:24
Speaker 1: a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow
40:27
Speaker 1: down his head as a bulrush? And to spread sackcloth
40:30
Speaker 1: and ashes under him? Are these outward acts, however, strictly performed,
40:35
Speaker 1: all that is meant by a man's afflicting his soul?
40:38
Speaker 1: Wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day
40:42
Speaker 1: to the Lord? No? Surely, if it be a mere
40:45
Speaker 1: external service, it is all but lost labor. Such a
40:49
Speaker 1: performance may possibly affect the body, but as to the soul,
40:53
Speaker 1: it profiteth nothing. YEA, the body may sometimes be afflicted
40:57
Speaker 1: too much so as to be un fit for the
41:00
Speaker 1: works of our calling. This also we are diligently to
41:04
Speaker 1: guard against, for we ought to preserve our health as
41:07
Speaker 1: a good gift of God. Therefore, care is to be
41:10
Speaker 1: taken whenever we fast, to proportion the fast to our strength.
41:16
Speaker 1: For we may not offer God murder for sacrifice, or
41:20
Speaker 1: destroy our bodies to help our souls. But as these
41:24
Speaker 1: solemn seasons, we may, even in great weakness of body,
41:29
Speaker 1: avoid that other extreme for which God condemns those who
41:33
Speaker 1: have old expostulated with Him for not accepting their fasts.
41:37
Speaker 1: Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not
41:41
Speaker 1: behold in the day of your fast you find pleasure,
41:43
Speaker 1: saith the Lord. If we cannot wholly abstain from food,
41:46
Speaker 1: we may at least abstain from pleasant food, and then
41:50
Speaker 1: we shall not seek His face in vain. But let
41:53
Speaker 1: us take care to afflict our souls as well as
41:55
Speaker 1: our bodies, that every season, either of public or private fast,
42:00
Speaker 1: be a season of exercising all those holy affections which
42:04
Speaker 1: are implied in a broken and contrite heart. Let it
42:08
Speaker 1: be a season of devout mourning of godly sorrow for sin,
42:13
Speaker 1: such a sorrow as that of the Corinthians, concerning which
42:16
Speaker 1: the Apostle saith, I rejoice not that ye were made sorry,
42:21
Speaker 1: but that ye sorrowed to repentance, for ye were made
42:25
Speaker 1: sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage
42:29
Speaker 1: by us in nothing for godly sorrow. Hekata theion lipe
42:36
Speaker 1: the sorrow which is according to God, which is a
42:39
Speaker 1: precious gift of His Spirit, lifting the soul to God
42:42
Speaker 1: from whom it flows. Worketh repentance to salvation, not to
42:47
Speaker 1: be repented of yea. And let our sorrowing, after a
42:52
Speaker 1: godly sort work in us the same inward and outward repentance,
42:57
Speaker 1: the same entire change of heart renew after the image
43:01
Speaker 1: of God in righteousness and true holiness, and the same
43:06
Speaker 1: change of life till we are holy as He is
43:09
Speaker 1: holy in all manner of conversation. Let it work in
43:13
Speaker 1: us the same carefulness to be found in Him without
43:16
Speaker 1: spot and blameless, the same clearing of ourselves by our
43:20
Speaker 1: lives rather than words, by our staining from all appearance
43:25
Speaker 1: of evil, the same indignation, vehement abhorrence of every sin,
43:29
Speaker 1: the same fear of our own deceitful hearts, the same
43:33
Speaker 1: desire to be in all things conformed to the holy
43:36
Speaker 1: insectible will of God, the same zeal for whatever may
43:41
Speaker 1: be a means of His glory and of our growth
43:44
Speaker 1: in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the
43:48
Speaker 1: same revenge against Satan and all his works, against all filthiness,
43:52
Speaker 1: both of flesh and spirit two Corinthians seven, verse nine.
43:59
Speaker 1: And with basting, let us always join fervent prayer, pouring
44:05
Speaker 1: out our whole souls before God, confessing our sins with
44:09
Speaker 1: all their aggravations, humbling ourselves under his mighty hand, laying
44:14
Speaker 1: open before him all our wants, all our guiltiness and helplessness.
44:19
Speaker 1: This is a season for enlarging our prayers, both in
44:23
Speaker 1: behalf of ourselves and our brethren. Let us now bewail
44:28
Speaker 1: the sins of our people, and cry aloud for the
44:31
Speaker 1: city of our God, that the Lord may build up
44:33
Speaker 1: Zion and cause his face to shine on her desolations.
44:37
Speaker 1: Thus we may observe the men of God in ancient
44:40
Speaker 1: times always join prayer and fasting together. Thus the apostles
44:45
Speaker 1: in all the instances sighted above, and thus our Lord
44:49
Speaker 1: joins them in the discoss before us. It remains only
44:53
Speaker 1: in order to our observing such a fast as is
44:56
Speaker 1: acceptable to the Lord, that we had alms thereto works
45:00
Speaker 1: of mercy after our power, both to the bodies and
45:03
Speaker 1: souls of men, with such sacrifice, as also God is
45:07
Speaker 1: well pleased. Thus the Angel declares to Cornelius, fasting and
45:12
Speaker 1: praying in his house, thy prayers and thine arms. I
45:16
Speaker 1: come up from a memorial before God acts ten verse four.
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Speaker 1: And this God himself expressly and largely declares, is not
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Speaker 1: this the fast that I have chosen to loose the
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Speaker 1: bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let
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Speaker 1: the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
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Speaker 1: Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry,
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Speaker 1: and that thou bring the poor that are cast out
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Speaker 1: to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou
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Speaker 1: cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thy
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Speaker 1: own own flesh, then shall thy light break forth as
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Speaker 1: the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily, and
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Speaker 1: thy righteousness shall go before thee. Though glory of the
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Speaker 1: Lord shall be thy reward. Then shalt thou call, and
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Speaker 1: the Lord shall answer. Thou shalt cry, and he shall say,
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Speaker 1: here I am. If when thou fastest, thou draw art
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Speaker 1: thy soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul,
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Speaker 1: then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness
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Speaker 1: be as the noon day. And the Lord shall guide
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Speaker 1: thee continually and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make
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Speaker 1: fat thy bones. And thou shalt be like a watered garden,
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Speaker 1: and like a spring of water whose waters fail not
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Speaker 1: Isaiah fifty eight, verse six, end of section twenty seven
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Speaker 1: of Sermons on several occasions, First series,