Spiritual Leanness

Turn please the book of 2nd Samuel. 2nd Samuel in chapter 13. I think what I've been thinking about will tie in somewhat quite well with what William has brought before us with the threshing floors.

I would like to say that I'm going to try to develop the wine presses but I might just mention them. Be a nice combination. 2nd Samuel in chapter 13 and I have just to want to read the question here and draw it out of its context and leave it with us today as we consider verse 4. And he said unto him, why art thou, being the king's son, lean from day to day? Why art thou, being the king's son, lean from day to day? Dried out, skinny, weak, and lean.

I don't want to develop the context but I want to make the application of the idea of being lean today. Turn with me to the book of Psalms. Psalm 106.

Trying to break in a new Bible? Please bear with me. Everything is not where it's supposed to be. Psalm 106.

What do you brethren do with old Bibles? How do you handle an old Bible? You can't burn them. Seems wrong. I wondered about burying them but I don't know about that either.

You could put little headstones. You could have King James over here and you could have Darby over there. You could make a whole cemetery out of old Bibles.

Psalm 106. Verse number 15. Well, verse number 13.

They soon forget his works. They waited not for his counsel but they lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert and he gave them the request, their request, and sent leanness into their soul. They envied Moses also in the camp and Aaron the saint of the Lord and so on.

He gave them their request and sent leanness into their soul. And finally the book of Isaiah, please, in chapter 25. Again here we're going to take the application and bring it right down into the room today.

Isaiah in chapter 25. We'll read at verse 6. And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the leaves or dregs, of fat things covered with marrow, and that's the idea of smooth, of wines on the leaves well refined. The Lord will bless to us the reading of his precious word.

Just reading through Samuel and coming through the instance here that we read of in chapter 13, this question is one of those questions that just jumps off the page at you sometimes. Here's a man and he's coming to another man and his comment is this. Why thou being a son of the king are you lean day to day? Now maybe you Christians here are extraordinary Christians and there's never been a day in your life when you've been lean toward the Lord.

And you've always been full of fat on the inside. No I'm not talking about the physical. But what we're looking at here is that which is speaking of the of the internal excellencies.

Because you remember when you come through the scriptures and you're dealing with the fat of the offerings, it was something that was very precious to God. They take the fat and all the fat in the peace offering in Leviticus 3, it was all of it was for the Lord. And they would be careful as they would take that animal and they would they would they would be careful to get the fat of above the liver and around the internal organs and they would do their due diligence to get that and it was all for the Lord.

It was a sweet savor unto him and it reminded God of the person of his son and the things that only he could appreciate about him. Those hidden things of the of the on the inside of the Lord Jesus. And when it comes to the health of a believer, when it comes to spiritual health, brethren, leanness is not a fad.

Leanness is is not good. A leanness are those times when you feel just dry and crusty on the inside, maybe even so much so that that just a touch would shatter you. It caused you to go off, it would cause you to break, it would cause something that you wouldn't want to happen.

The idea of being fat and spiritually healthy, I think of I think of the animals that would would be led by the the green pastures and those that would be led by the still waters. How is it that these cattle, they they they become mature, they come they become fat and they become profitable? It's when they dwell where God has placed them and when God brings an animal to the green pastures and that animal is staying there and feeding in the green pastures and if they're there by the still waters and they're resting there by the still waters, you brethren have experienced physically when you eat well and you rest, you gain. When you eat well, when you're feeding and you're resting, you're not worrying, you're not that animal that is that is leaving the green pastures and searching of greener pastures on the other side of the fence, searching from something else and just not just curious but anxious.

And one thing that causes leanness in a Christian soul is when they're anxious and when they're nervous and they're not feeding. But the question is this, why are we lean today? Children of the King, why are God's people, now I'm only applying it to myself, I don't know what's going on inside of you, but history has taught us this, that we're all the same and if you're enjoying the Lord to the maximum potential today, very wonderful, but chances are you're not enjoying Him today like you did in a day gone by. And if you're not enjoying the Lord today as you were in a day gone by, whose fault is that? Where is that coming from? Answer the question today, why are we lean in our souls? Well, it's because we're, lots of reasons really.

A little further in our context here, the man is asking Ammon, he says, I love, I love. Why are you lean in your souls being a child of the King? And he says, I love. And here it was a woman.

But when we come to Psalm 106, we find this, that He gave them their request. They lusted after other things, they had desire for other things, and that was where their heart was. And God gave them their request and sent leanness into their soul.

And so I'm learning this about myself today, that when I am lean inside, could I put it this way, when a Christian is lean inside, there's really nothing for God to enjoy. If the fat was all for God, and that which spoke to God of the excellencies of His Son, and the fragrance of His Son, and the beauties of His Son, when a Christian is lean, there's not much Christ-likeness in there. And that's what God is looking for.

That is why God has saved us. That is why God has provided a table. We're there at the King's table, and yet we're lean.

No Christ-likeness in us. Why are we lean being children of the King? Why are we lean? Different reasons why people are lean. We're lusting after other things, so on.

Our hearts are in other places. He loved. We love the world.

We don't want to admit it, but we do. And when we're dried up in our soul, we can look there first. For if any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

And this world that is seeking to conform us, and then divide us, not only as nations, and in ideologies, but to divide assemblies, and to divide thinking even among Christians. And we get taken up with the things of time and sense, and we love those things. And we're lean in our soul.

There's a spiritual dryness. There's a neglect of spiritual duty. You want to know what leanness is, just neglect what God has asked you to do.

And you'll soon find yourself shriveled up. Neglect what God has commanded you to do. Neglect what God has asked us to do.

Be disobedient, in other words, and we'll find out really quick how dry we are. Be indifferent to the things of God. Be indifferent to that which is right and that which is wrong.

Just go with the wind, wherever the wind takes us, wherever the current of the times are taking us, and we'll find ourselves soon dried up, even at the king's table. Be unthankful. Be unthankful.

That's really Israel, wasn't it? They were unthankful for the blessings of God. They were unthankful for the presence of God. They were thankful, unthankful for the provision of God, and they wanted something else.

They shriveled up like a leaf in the fall. Why are we lean, being children of the king? Unprayerful. Stop praying.

You'll find yourself lean at the king's table. Why are we lean? Be discontent. Godliness with contentment is great gain, but to think of the times in our life where we're discontent, and God gives us our desires, and leanness comes into our soul.

Spiritual leanness never gets to the point for the believer of spiritual death. We've been given everlasting life, and we cannot lose it, but can we waste it? Can we waste it? And so you've got some ideas here of the leanness that comes in. How is it that a child of the king, having understood the threshing floors, having found in there the place where the grain is, the grain is cleaned, and the grain is made ready to be consumed, to be taken home, to be prepared? And when you think about the grain that the Christian has, you remember, if you think about the seed, if you feast for just a moment on the seed, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the corn of wheat that came to fall into the ground and die, and bring forth much fruit, and if you meditated and you feasted upon the seed, you would grow, just on the seed.

But then you take that seed, and you see it germinate, and you see it come out as a root out of a dry ground, a tender plant. And then you can feast upon that tender plant, and you can see the Lord Jesus and the dry ground of earth. No life, nothing for God, nothing to bring pleasure to God, and there he comes, and he grows up before him as a tender plant.

That idea, tender plant, is an exotic, something that's not natural to that environment. There's hearty plants, and then there's half-hearty plants, and then there's the exotic plant, and you've got the Lord Jesus, the sinless one in a sin-filled world, absolutely unique and all for God. And you can take it a little farther in your meditation, and you can think of the Lord Jesus not as the seed that fell into the ground, and not as the shoot that came up, but you can think of him as the flower, maybe the lily of the valley.

But then you can think about the flower, and I think of the nectar, and I can think about the honey that is produced by the bee that is coming now from the sweetness of the flower, and you can feed yourself on the flower. The Lord Jesus Christ. You can take it a little further, and you can take it to the fruit, and you can follow the Lord Jesus all the way from the seed that fell into the ground to the man who hung upon the tree, and the fruit there that was for God, and the beauties of the Lord Jesus, and the perfection of his of his life at the king's table, brethren.

A child of God at the king's table, a son positionally of the king at the king's table, and here we are, and we're lean, and we're lean, and because we're lean, we have no power, and because we're lean, we have no strength. And why are we lean? As we sit at the king's table. And Isaiah, we read together that in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all the people a feast.

A feast. Now, I like a feast just as much as anyone else likes a feast, but this feast has been prepared by the Lord. Feast prepared by the Lord.

What's at this table? He shall make all people a feast of fat things. Now, fat, as you follow that word through the Old Testament, most of the time it's translated oil. Oil.

And you know that oil in the Scriptures is a picture of the Spirit of God, and you'll know that oil also had to come from the oil press, whether it was the olive press or or whatever press it was that they had to extract this oil from whatever they were extracting it from. There had to be extreme pressure. There had to be there had to be labor involved, and so the Lord now is going to feed his people of the things that are produced from the wine from the oil press.

Well, there's a place called Gethsemane. Now, when was the last time that we've had at the place called Gethsemane? The oil press. And there we see the great weight and the great pressure and the great anticipation of the Lord Jesus and the things that he was thinking about.

Thinking about the sufferings and the agony and the weight of sin at the cross. Thinking of what it would be to be forsaken of God. Thinking what it would be like again for the devil to come and to tempt him again.

And as you listen to the scoffers and the mockers and the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees and the malefactors and the soldiers, if you're the Son of God, if you're the King of Israel, if you're the Christ, it sounds an awful lot like the beginning of his ministry in the wilderness, doesn't it? Prove yourself! There we are, feasting on the things that come from the oil press. Feasting on the things that the Spirit of God reveals to us, the things of Christ, the beauties of our Lord Jesus. What else is at the table? You come through your scripture and you study out spiritual food, it's a very delicious study.

No pun intended. But you'll come and you'll find that there's bread there. You'll find that there's, come to the book of the Revelation and what are we going to be eating? We're going to be eating of the hidden manna.

Things of the Lord Jesus Christ that have not yet been revealed. But there's the living bread and there's the bread that is that is at the table. There is the milk that is at the table.

Milk and honey without money and without price. There's the lamb at the table. Why are we dry, brethren? Why are we lean? When we can feast upon the milk of the Word of God.

When we can feast upon the beauties and the sweetness of the Lord Jesus Christ as we as we might liken it to honey. When we can feed on the protein and on the on the meat of the lamb. The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

And you've enjoyed it in your own soul time and time and time again and yet the table is still full of it. The Lord's table is not diminished as much as people can eat. It is an all-you-can-eat buffet.

And literally a Christian can choose, what do I want to appreciate about Christ today? And they can open the Word of God and they can feast upon Him there. But we're lean. I don't know if you can feel it in your soul but I can feel it in mine.

And sometimes I'm wondering, and this is why this was this was just for me, why is it that way? And some of you, brother, know that if you're busy in trying to help people in the gospel and in the ministry and in the email and in the correspondence and all the things that you just feel like you're wore out. But that doesn't cause leanness. Where does it come from? And sometimes it is that you're maybe you're so busy in your service that you do need to take time out and rest a while.

There's nothing wrong with that, brethren. Sometimes we feel guilty if we're not busy. Not just speaking to the Lord's servants, I'm speaking to all of us here.

Take some time and rest a while. Because what happens to me, and I can't speak for my other brethren, but my food turns into fast food. And there's not time to meditate and chew it.

And to bring it up again and chew it up again. And other things come in, maybe legitimate things. But it brings leanness.

What else is there at the table? You've got the protein and you've got the bread and you've got the milk. You've got the spiritual water that came from Christ. Christ is the rock.

But our text talks about the wine. The wine. Feast of wines on the Lees.

A feast of wines. Plural, wines. There are things that we take in from the Word of God at the table of God that give us strength.

But there's a whole nother part of the table that give us joy. That give us joy. And wine in the Scriptures speaks to us of joy.

And here there's a feast of food, of things from the oil, the rich things. A feast of rich things on the Lord's table. A feast of joyous things at the Lord's table.

God's people. Sometimes we lose our joy. When was the last time you got, I want to say pure joy? Maybe it didn't make you laugh.

That's not necessarily joy. But something that was provided by God that just absolutely thrilled your soul. And not something that gave you power and strength for the day.

But something that brought you into the Lord's very presence that this is the Lord. This is the Lord's doing. This is the Lord's power.

This is the Lord's blessing. This is the Lord's goodness. I'm looking at an audience and I'm not sure you've had that lately.

Has it become like for you perhaps like it is for me? Maybe it's a more of a rare thing than we want to admit. So much in this world to bring us down. So much in this world to steal our joy.

So much in this world to deal with. You're overseeing brethren. And all that you have to deal with and all the things and the responsibilities of your own life and your own soul.

And to watch over the flock of God and the dangers that are lurking out there that young Christians don't know about. And traps out there that older ones are falling into. And the realities that are taking place in the assembly in the spiritual world.

And the wait is great. At the Lord's table there is an abundance of food. And there's an abundance of joy.

Let me speak to the preachers here for a moment. How many of us are living in the joy as we deal with people? Al Smirkin, he knows what I'm getting at. If it weren't for people, this world would be a nice place.

But when you're visiting and things aren't going so good, sometimes it's easy to lose our joy. The question still is there. My time is gone.

Why are we lean being sons of the King? So much at the table. There's a multitude of wines and we can think of the miracles that the Lord has done as he brought water from the rock and that rock followed them. We can think of the still waters and the miracle really of a still place and a quiet place where we can enjoy the joy of the Lord.

And we can think of the blood as we think of the death of the Lord Jesus and the blood that was shed and we appreciate the joy that we find in the redemption that we have. We can think of the wine press. I was thinking of the wine press and the man there bare feet jumping on the grapes, all the work that went into it, how it would stain his skin, it would have stained his clothes, it would have stained everything.

And I was picturing that man as he was taking that liquid then and he was putting it and straining it and he would put it, he would put it in the wine skins and the labor that was there. And then the old wine is best, right? And the patience that was involved in it. But here it is the wine that is on the lees.

Honestly I'm not sure what the interpretation of that is but I was thinking of this. Sometimes you look at the dregs or maybe the things that didn't get filtered out and it reminds you of the process. Some people get disgusted by things like that.

I was thinking there of the man who made the wine, he picked the grapes and he put the grapes in, he carried them to the wine press and he stomped it out and he bottled it and there's a little bit of the dregs there. Oh, I remember picking that grape. I remember carrying that grape.

I remember crushing that grape. Maybe just a little reminder of the labor in it all. And then to enjoy the joy of the labor that he put into it.

So those are just a few things at the Lord's table and I know as you think about it, the Lord will take your thoughts and take you into places that will give you strength. And you will feed on the person of Christ and you will enjoy what he has done and what he has wrought at the place called Calvary. And then you go down the table a little bit further after having enjoyed who he is and what he is and what he has done, you'll move your way down the table if you will and you'll be there and what he is doing now.

And as you're feeding on him at the Lord's table and what he is doing now for the believer as he's the intercessor, as he is the high priest, as he is the advocate in heaven. And it'll thrill your soul and it'll strengthen you there and there'll be fatness that'll start to come. And the more that we appreciate him as we're feasting on him in every aspect and the fat begins to come and it changes us into Christ-likeness and something amazing takes place, God can now see in us a conformity to his Son.

Because after all, we're thinking of what he's doing now and then we'll feast on thinking of what he's going to do in the future and all eternity is going to be spent at the Lord's table where there is no leanness. No leanness there. Why are we lean? Being sons of the King.