Matthew 17:20,21

THE REASON OF FAILURE

‘Because of your unbelief.’

Matthew 17:20

Remember those words of Jesus, which, were they only obeyed, would put an end to our misery and discord, ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.’

I. Why we fail.—We do not seek that first, and therefore we fail. The explanation is as simple as it is sad. We cannot be happier and better ourselves, much less can we make others so, unless the heart is influenced, for with the heart men believe unto righteousness.

II.‘Because of your unbelief.’—Had these disciples been not faithless but believing, so oft evoking their Lord’s sorrowful rebuke, ‘O ye of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?’—had they prayed more frequently and earnestly; had they shown more of that self-denial which He taught and set before them, distrusted themselves and humbled themselves instead of disputing which should be the greatest, they would have cast out that evil spirit. But he perceived, and prevailed over their want of faith. He said, ‘Jesus I know, but who are ye that utter His name, but do not believe in its power?’ We, too, are tempted to forget the Omnipresent God, to be of the world, worldly, and to set our affections upon the things of the earth, so to lose the power, the only true power over ourselves and others, which we have in exact proportion to our faith, our prayers, our self-denial; for they are inseparable, these three, trinity in unity.

III. The remedy.—It is impossible to believe in our heavenly Father and not to go to Him always as children, to rejoice in His love, to thank Him for His gifts, to be protected in danger, taught in ignorance, be relieved in pain, and to be forgiven when we have done wrong.

(a) True prayer. God has not only given us a voice to pray with, but a mind with which to think about our prayers, and capacities and means and time and money with which we may fulfil them. True prayer is prayer in action. Duty is prayer, and work is worship.

(b) Fasting. What is meant by ‘fasting’? God tells us what true fasting means. ‘Is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness?’

—Dean Hole.

Illustration

‘The Church of England, while she commends and commands the scriptural discipline of fasting, makes no severe definitions and lays down no rigid rule, for many and righteous reasons: because no rules could be applicable to all, the young, the old, the weak, the poor; because if it were compulsory, it would become a mere form or evasion, as, for example, a fast from flesh meat might be only a feast on other dainties; because a fast kept ostentatiously, in direct disobedience to the Lord’s warning that we appear not unto men to fast, would only be a feast of pride, the pride which “apes humility”; because under the Gospel in the liberty where-with Christ has made us free we fast by the love of virtue and the choice of our own rather than by the coercion of any law; because the best form of abstinence is to be temperate in all things; and because bodily fasting is but a part of that self-denial which Christianity teaches, and which has a far more definite and comprehensive scope.’