Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Psalm 106, and reading for
our text, verse 15. Verse 15. And he gave them their
request, but sent leanness into their soul. Psalm 106, verse
15. In this psalm, the psalmist rehearses
the history of the children of Israel, especially as they were
going through the wilderness, but also in the promised land. And he gives a reason in our
text as for a state and condition of their soul. And we may say
as well that this is as much a word to us as it was to them. It is good for us to realize that
there are often reasons, we might say always reasons, for the condition
of our souls. Sometimes we can mistake them,
Sometimes we can make excuses for them, and even make it to
be a positive thing. There are those that will say,
well, we are a poor thing, and our poor prayers, and our poor
spiritual life, and we cannot commune with the people of God.
And they almost make it a badge of honor, as if that was a title
to be one of the people of God, and they might perhaps take one
of the hems for an afflicted Lord of thine, and excuse a condition
of soul that is really a lean, dead, worldly state of soul as
if it was a good thing. But dear friends, if we know
what it is to be having a soul that is satisfied with the goodness
of the Lord, to be blessed with the fat things of the Gospel,
then to feel our leanness, we will want to know why is this
so? Now we know many of the Lord's
dear children are called to pass through a path of tribulation. It is not chastening, it is the
Lord making them feel and know what they really are by nature. And they have no strength and
might and nothing. in and of themselves, but there
are other times that the Lord's dealings with us are in chastening,
and to miss that, to overlook that, and to continue on as if
the Lord had not a message to us in the state and condition
of our soul is to miss the message of the text here and the surrounding
verses. We read, he gave them their request. They were wanting things which
God had not willed them to have, things for their flesh, things
to please them, things that would satisfy their fleshly lusts and
fleshly desires. things that were not spiritual
things, things that the world had, the Gentiles had, things
that they had had when they were in Egypt. You might say the people
of God, before they were converted, before they knew the Lord, and
now they know the Lord, and yet now they're looking back, and
they're wanting those things again. The Lord gives them to
them, but then he gives them also leanness. in their souls,
sent leanness in their souls. And so this morning I want to
look at this word, look at what it is firstly to have leanness
of soul, and then the reasons for it that's given here, and
then thirdly learning from the text. In bringing a word like
this, we have no desire to cast down the poor of the flock and
those that are low, those that are feeling, to be so impoverished
as soul, but to look narrowly into our path, into our lives. Is there a reason? Is there a
cause? And is it the cause that is set
before us here because Israel will not be the last to walk
through this path when the Lord deals in chastening in this way. Now I want then to look at this
word firstly from the leanness of soul. What is actually set
forth here? Now the first thing I would say
in this regard This is not speaking about a dead soul. This is not speaking about one
that is dead in trespasses and sins, one that does not know
the Lord and does not have a living soul. The Lord could not send
leanness into a soul that was a dead soul, that has yet had
not been quickened into life. Because that soul does not know
anything spiritual at all. They are not alive spiritual.
They are only worldly, carnal, and dead. If you went, and in
a most solemn thing, if you went to many going about their pleasures
today, and you would ask them about their solitude, what? What? and they wouldn't know what you're
talking about, even a soul, then what about the pleasures of the
soul? What about the joys of the soul? The fatness of the soul? What about the food for the soul? And they'd look at you as if
you were a madman. And we're not just talking about
those that make no profession of religion. That can be also
for those that do. Many years ago, one of the vicars
of this town, very ill, having treatment for cancer, not able
to minister to his flock. And I asked him, as we met at
the school gate when the children were young, and I said to him,
are you going to the church then? Oh no, he said, I'm off work. He said, they'd make me work
again if I went there. I said, well, where do you go
to get food for your soul? And he looked at me utterly blank. What are you talking about? And
then he said, well, he said, I go to a surrounding parish
just to get ideas for when I go back to work, what to use in
my sermons. And he had no idea about a living
soul that needs food, that needs bread, that lives before the
Lord. We can have an outward religion,
but our soul be dead. And if we are quickened into
life, that soul, it needs food. Naturally, when we are alive
naturally, if we do not have food, then we'll get thin, and
eventually we'll die. We need sustenance, and if we
don't have that, we perish. And so it is with the soul. where
we have a living soul, where the Lord has passed by us and
did us live, where he's given us grace, where he's opened our
ear, where he's given us spiritual life, that life needs feeding. It needs nourishing, it needs
care, it needs growth. And if it does not get these
things, then it will go lean. We think when Pharaoh had the
dream that was to foretell the coming of the great famine in
Egypt. And it was told by, well, two
different ways. Firstly, there was the cattle
that arose that were full, fat, flesh, healthy cattle. And then there arose those that
were very lean, those that were very thin. And they ate up the
fat cattle. And after they had done that,
You could not see that they profited at all, they were still lean,
they were still thin. And it was pointing to the effects
of that famine. It would be seven years of great
plenty, but after that, seven years of great dearth. No growing, no prospering, no
fruitfulness, nothing to fatten the people of the land. and we
then can have seasons like that as well, fat and flourishing
spiritually, but then leanness, leanness of soul. You know, John,
when he writes in his epistles, he desires that the one that
he writes to might be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. What a thing! For some people, that would be
to wish them dead, wouldn't it? If they were to be naturally
as well as their soul, they wouldn't be very well at all, they'd be
very ill. There is a link between the two,
you might say. A picture between the two. And
if you and I have that great blessing of eternal life, then
it is our privilege and our blessing to not only have life, but as
our Lord says in John 10, to have it more abundantly. And that should be our desire,
not just have like the church in the Revelation, a name to
live and yet be dead. We think of how the church was
portrayed and set forth in Revelation 3, And verse 17, the Laodicean
church, that is neither cold nor hot, a lukewarm church. And it was said of them, because
thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing,
and knoweth not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor
and blind and naked. This was the condition of that
soul, the soul of that church, the people of that church. But
they weren't to despair, they were given counsel to seek that
which was right and that which was prosper their soul and strengthen
their soul. And he says at the end, as many
as I love, I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and repent. And that really is what our text
here is. The children of Israel, were
being chastened and the Lord had, in a judgmental way, given
them leanness of soul. So the leanness of soul, what
is it then? Spiritually very low. Our thoughts are worldly thoughts,
carnal thoughts, not spiritual thoughts. Our meditation on the
things of God stalls and we cannot get above the word on the page. We don't have any comfort in
spiritual things. We don't have joy in spiritual
things. Remember when David had committed
adultery and murder in his beautiful prayer in Psalm 51 of Repentance
and godly sorrow. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation. That had been taken away. That
was gone because of the condition and way that he had gone. No spiritual fruit. We think
of the fruit of the Spirit, especially as set forth in Galatians. Galatians chapter 5 and verse
22. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
They that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections
and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. For this people here They had
lusted after worldly fleshly things, nor crucified the flesh. And so they were then walking
in a carnal way, a worldly way, an ungodly way. Another symptom
of that leanness of soul is little help from the Word of God. Little
food. Remember the Lord said to Peter,
when they are converted, Strengthen thy brethren. The word was to
be a strength. The ministry was to be a strength.
When the Lord met with Peter, after he was restored, his threefold
charge, feed my sheep, feed my lambs. The people of God were
to be fed. Now, of course, we may say a
people could grow lean if they have a ministry that does not
feed the souls of the people of God. And you can have that.
No, a ministry just of anecdotes, a ministry that is just a social
gospel, a ministry with Christ not in it. The Lord said, except
that ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man,
ye have no life in you. You have a ministry that treats
of many religious things, but the food that a soul needs is
Christ. And a Christless sermon will
never profit the people of God, they won't. feed upon that, a
spiritual soul. You know, preaching as well.
In one sense, it's easy to preach a providential sermon. It's easy
to preach about many doctrines, many things, but to come to Christ,
to come to His sacrifice, His death, what He means to a sinner,
what He is to the people of God, that is not an easy thing to
preach. because one needs to be spiritual
to be able to do it and to listen to a sermon like that as well.
It will be dry to those that are spiritually dead. They won't
see anything to attract them or to satisfy a natural heart. But a spiritual soul, it will. But a soul that is lean, a soul
that is lean, it won't relish. the things of God, it won't relish
that flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that bread from
heaven. Our Lord says in John 6, the
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. It is a blessed thing to be given
spiritual life and to be given that hunger and thirst after
righteousness, the blessing upon those that do that But a lean
soul, they are in a sickly state. They are even in the path, and
in Psalm 106, where, 107 rather, it speaks of those that abhor
or manner meat. Then the very meat, the very
blessing that was to be of good for their soul, they're not wanting
that. You know, if you have a person,
you think all they need is a good meal, but they resist that meal,
and you think the very thing that would heal you, you don't
want, and especially with a lean soul, when they have no relish,
no desire, no appetite, no longing for the Word, prayer is a task,
it's a burden, reading of the Word, they skim over it and don't
profit from it, The services of the house have just come and
gone, and there's nothing for their soul. They feel so empty
and carnal and dead and worldly, and yet it seems to be a vicious
circle, because the very food, the very thing that they need
to be strengthened, they don't want. They have no appetite for
it. They are a lean soul. They don't have fellowship with
the Lord. Enjoy those sweet times of communion
with the Lord and with the Lord's people. They sit beside them.
They might strike up a spiritual conversation with us, but we
can't return it. We have nothing to say. No blessings
of the Lord. No exercise of soul. We are empty
at all. Sometimes we know what that is.
to try and speak to people on the things of God. And you cannot. There's no communion. There's
nothing that they can bring forth. There's nothing that they know.
They look at you as if you're speaking a strange language.
But sometimes that can be us. We feel lean. We feel shut out. We feel separated from the people
of God. A lean soul with a worldly frame. How we are exhorted to walk in
the Spirit. He shall not fulfill the deeds
of the flesh. Our text says, He gave them their
request, but sent leanness into their soul. And so we need to
really examine ourselves. What condition is our soul? Is our soul in a healthy, flourishing,
Condition? Is it life in the things of God? Prayer is a joy, the companionship
of the people of God. We speak often one to another.
Under the sound of the truth, we drink in the Word. Our heart
burns within us like the two in the way to Emmaus. We have
those meditations upon the Word. Thy words were found, I did eat
them, they were to the joy and rejoicing of my soul. To really
be able to say to the psalmist, my meditation shall be of him,
and it is sweet. I lay awake, he says, in the
night watches. I prevent the dawning of the
morning that I might meditate upon thy word. Filled with full
of the fatness of the Lord, ranging up and down throughout the word,
one text after another, coming to mind, feeding upon it, the
Lord opening up, the scriptures and the spices flow forth, and
the sweet savour of Christ and the joy of the Lord fills our
hearts and our faith to look beyond the grave and to have
that hope beyond the grave, an interest in Christ, an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, reserved in heaven for us and believe
in, long for it and look for it. What a contrast there is
between a lean soul and a soul full of the favour of the Lord
and the fatness of the Lord and the blessing of the Lord. These
things are not just in the mind, it affects the heart, affects
the whole person. What a difference there is when
When we are sick, when we are unwell and we cannot do things,
we cannot do what we do when we are healthy. And so it is
a contrast in a spiritual way as well. We might think that there are
many things that will make us to have a full and flat soul. While all the time there are
those things that are sapping away our strength and taking
away our strength. We may come into the house of
God and we may hear the word and think, surely this shall
help us. But when we go out of the house
of God, there are those things that are taking away our strength. Remember the children of Israel.
They serve the Lord, but also serve their idols at the same
time. And we can be like that as well. even in a natural sense. We can
be on one hand eating healthy meals, but on the other hand,
by what we do, by perhaps way of exercise or other things,
we're negating every benefit and every help that we've received
through nourishment. So we have the condition that
is here given a reason for it, and I want to look at this reason. We've said at the beginning,
not all chastening, not all leanness is chastening. But when we think
of chastening, in Hebrews 12, the benefit is that those that
are exercised thereby, And so when we are in a lean state of
soul, don't just make that a badge of being a Christian. Don't make
excuses for it. Don't just say, well, this is
a day of small things. The spirit is often withdrawn,
and I think many of the Lord's people are like this. Sometimes
we say things like this, and it's in some measure, it is true,
But if we're going to shelter under that and make excuses,
we're virtually saying to the Lord, Lord, I'm resigned to this. I'm happy to just stay like I
am. And we're also saying, in effect,
there's not a reason, and I don't bother. I'm not going to even
look into the reason. But our text shows that there
is a reason, and we should. Look and look carefully and honestly
with our soul. What is the reason? Is the Lord
speaking to us in this way? Now, you might say, well, there's
two things here. There is a reasons and we're
going to go through. But in the moment, there's four reasons
in the two verses that are preceding our text. But in one sense, those reasons,
those things that are done, are reason for the Lord judgmentally
bringing leanness into the soul. Now, it's hard to separate the
two in a way, but our text is very clear. It is not just because
He gave them their request and because they were walking in
the way that they were, It just happened that leanness came into
their soul. Yes, it had a great effect and
a great reason for that, but this is sent, a judicial being
sent. We might have a thief and they're
stealing things from stores, they get caught. They don't go
immediately to jail. Because they were stealing things,
they end up in jail. There's a step between that.
They're caught, they go before the judge and the judge pronounces
them guilty and he sends them to jail. And it's in this way
the children of Israel were walking in a specific way. The Lord saw
which way they were walking and he sent leanness into their soul. We like to think, well, we can
walk careless and do what we like in our lives and it won't
affect us, we'll still be a healthy Christian, we'll still pray at
the prayer meeting, we'll still join the services, we'll still
preach. But the Lord says, no, you're one of my children, I'm
not going to let you get away with that. I'm going to send
leanness into your soul. And you know, maybe remember
this, this is a way that the Lord can only chasten his own
children We said at the beginning, a dead
soul doesn't even know they're alive. The Lord can't even send
a leanness. If this is a pain to you, a sorrow
to you, a grief to you, something that you've grown under is not
a mark of being not a child of God. It is only the living that
know what it is when the Lord takes away a fatness and takes
away what they once had. and replaces that with emptiness. And again, I would say, don't
make that a badge of honour. Don't make that to be satisfied. Well, I am a child of God, I'm
chastened, I'm corrected. Is it a joy to be like that?
Can you really like to be like that? So empty like that? Neither are those that are dead
in our assemblies and they hear the description of God's children
and the things that they have. And they like to think, whoa,
this describes me. I can come in here as a child
of God. But the very fact that they can
rest in that easy and be not unhappy with that is a mark against
them. It's a mark against us. You think
of a child. Child has been corrected. And
they might have the rod and smack them. They look at their parents
and say, that didn't hurt. You shut them in the room. They
say, don't worry about that. I'll just play with my toys in
the room. And everything that is done,
it doesn't hurt. It doesn't smite them. They don't want to change.
What a solemn thing if, in effect, we're saying to the Lord, the
condition of my soul that I am in, I'm happy to remain and stay
in that all my days. But a soul that is not happy
with it, they are, look, Lord, why? What is it? What is it that I've done wrong?
Why? Why is this state of soul, especially if we've known something
very, very different to that? And so the first reason why that
is given in our text here, God has sent it. God has sent it. that should lead us straight
back to God, should lead us to Him first. Instead of thinking, well, I
must put this right, do that right, very often we lean to
a way of works as if we are going to restore our soul. Very often
we neglect the very things for which the Lord is chastening
us for. So take it first to the Lord. Take it to Him that has sent
it. to the Lord in prayer. You say, but it's prayer, I feel
my leanness. Yes, but take it to the Lord
in prayer and tell him your leanness. Tell him how you feel. Tell him
what you're layering under, what you miss. Tell him your state
and your condition. You say he already knows. Yes,
he does. But he also loves to hear his
people. He wants to hear their voice.
And these things that He's sent to them, doesn't it give us something
to pray about? Something to bring Him, to Him?
Something to tell Him of? Something for Him to do for us?
Something that He is bidding us to pay attention to, this
very thing? You say, oh, I'll pay attention
to all sorts of other things instead of this thing. Oh, I'll
pray for persecuted Christians and for the church and for other
people. No. The Lord has given you this
thing, this leanness in your soul. This is your matter before
the Lord. This is to take before the Lord. He has sent it. And really, you
know, only the Lord can change it. Only the Lord can send prosperity
and blessing and fatness of soul. I remember that. We have not
had it in our own power to change this state of our soul, but the
Lord can. If the Lord has sent it, you
know, Job in his great afflictions with his friends, he said, it
is the Lord that casteth down, not man. You are miserable comforters,
my friend, but it is not you that's cast me down, it's the
Lord. Do you think of all what Satan did? Did Job turn around
and say, look what Satan has done to me? No, he says the Lord
gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of
the Lord. We think of David numbering Israel.
We have two accounts. One, that Satan stood up against
Israel. The other, the Lord moved David
to number Israel because of Israel's sins. But when David was convinced
of the sin of numbering Israel, he doesn't blame it on the Lord.
He doesn't blame it on Satan. He says, I have sinned. And at
the end of that, the Lord showed him where the temple was to be
built. A blessing, isn't it? And so
with here, we look to the Lord who has sent this, and we inquire
into it why. Why has this come? What purpose? So there are four reasons that
are given in the two verses that precede our text. We read first
that they forgot his works. God had brought the children
of Israel out of Egypt. He's shown mighty works in Egypt. He'd shown mighty works of the
Red Sea, he divided the Red Sea, he brought them safely through,
he destroyed their enemies, afterwards that he gave them the bitter
waters made sweet, and they'd done all of these things, and
yet they, they forgot his works. Is that something that we have
done? At those times in their lives,
we say, this is the Lord's doing. He's marvellous in our eyes. God has always determined that
what he does for his people does not end up being forgotten. When he brought them out of Egypt,
he gave them the Passover. When they're children, you ask,
what meaneth this ordinance? He should tell them that the
Lord slew all the firstborn. But when we sheltered beneath
the blood, he brought us out. He saved our firstborn alive
and brought us out with a high hand out of Egypt. It was an
ordinance of remembrance to provoke a remembrance of the works of
the Lord. You think of the going through
Jordan, the other side. Stones were to be set up, 12
stones in the middle of Jordan Twelve on the other side of Jordan,
why, said the children, what meaneth these stones? And it
was provoked them to say what had been done, God's works. He's a God of providence. He's
a God of grace. He is a God that does for his
people. His works as recorded in the
word at Calvary, his works in the church of God, his works
in our lives, telling to the generation to come the wonderful
works of God. So how do we stand with that?
Are we forgetting His works? To go back and remember how the
Lord began with us and what He did with us in providence and
in grace. Thou shalt remember all the way
the Lord thy God hath led thee These forty years in the wilderness
to try thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart,
whether thou wouldst serve the Lord or no. May we examine ourselves, is
this a reason why the Lord has brought leanness into our songs? Because we have forgotten his
works. May we go from this place today
and go over what the Lord has done for us. remember all the
way and not forget his works. But secondly, we read that they
waited not for his counsel. With the children of Israel,
they were lusting, they wanted the manna, they did not wait
for the Lord's counsel, they demanded that he give them flesh
to eat. When they came to the promised
land, the spies that were sent out. They did not wait for the
Lord's counsel. They gave counsel. No, the Lord
was not able to bring them into that land. So the Lord sent them
40 years back into the wilderness. When they did go into the promised
land, we have the Gibeonites coming to them. And they took
their victuals and asked not counsel at the law. Gevionites
made out they came from very far off, came from a far off
land, had mouldy bread, shoes had worn out, no water in their
bottles. And the Israelites, they looked
at all that, deceived by it, didn't realise that they lived
only about three days' journey away. They took of their victuals
and did not ask counsel of the Lord. They made a covenant agreement
with them. The Lord honoured it. They could
not destroy them. They remained servants to the
children of Israel. But are we like that? Do we look
at things and think, that's easy, we don't need to ask the Lord's
advice on that. We don't need his counsel on
that. We can make the decision. You look at this providence.
You look at this thing and that thing, just like the children
of Israel are looking at the victuals. We'll make the decision
based on that. But we are not God. God sees
things we don't see. God knows what we don't know. You know, when David wanted to
build the temple of the Lord, Nathan says, go, do all that
is in thine heart. Did he ask counsel of the Lord?
He's a servant of the Lord. He might have thought, well,
that's a good thing. That's a right thing. But then
he had to go back to David with the Lord's true message. Thou
shalt not build the temple, thy son shall build it. Thou has
shed much blood. The Lord's counsel was quite
different, wasn't it? And so we can be the same. May
we wait for the Lord. Wait for His counsel. Wait for
His direction. Thou shalt hear a word behind
thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it. When we turn to
the right hand, we return to the left. The Lord has ways to
shepherd His people. As a solemn thing as in this
case, they were left to not only not wait, but take things into
their own hands, They're really demanded of the Lord. You give
us this. You give us this thing. We might
be like that as well. Give me this prosperity. Give
me a full church. Give me a nice car. Give me a
nice house. Give me this and that. We feel
we want these things or we need these things. And sometimes the
Lord leaves it in our power to actually do it and make steps.
and do it, and then when it's done, yes we had that thing,
but we got leanness in our soul. I remember the thing that the
children of Israel were doing, and this is the third point in
verse 13, verse 14, but lusted exceedingly what they were doing. They were saying when they're
in that wilderness, we remember the leeks, the melons, the cucumbers. We remember all the things that
were in Egypt. How many of us know what our
old nature will do? It will think back to days when
we were unconverted. And our old nature will lust
after those things and even think, oh, I wish I didn't have the
restraint of being under the hand of the Lord. I'd just like
to indulge that sin, or that sin, or that way. All nature's
like that, you know. It always remains the same. It
doesn't like fetters. We can be, it is like the mad
Gadarene. They tried to hold him down,
they tried to fetter him, but he'd just break through them
all. No man could tame him. And all nature is just like that. The word of the Lord is, if ye
through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall
live. But here is a people that rather
than not mortifying it, have sought to indulge it and go after
that way. The Lord was so certain ye cannot
serve God and mammon. But we try, and we try to our
cost. We try and have a spiritual life,
but also the things of the world, and the things that our flesh
likes, we want as well. Don't pray for that, because
we still want that. Don't pray against that besetting
sin, because we still want to indulge that sin, we still want
to look at that, we still want to walk in those ways, we still
want to enjoy those things. The Lord says, no, I'll send
leanness into your soul. Yeah, you can have those things,
you can indulge them, but on my part, I'm sending leanness
into your soul. You might say, well, as a direct
result of indulging the things of the flesh is another reason
why we are leaner soul. But here we told the Lord is
doing it in a judgmental way. Dear friend, watch what we lust
and desire after and long after Is it the flesh wanting to be
indulged and wanting the things of this world? Because if it
is, here in the Lord's kindness and love to his dear people,
he will send leanness into your soul. Then is it where a choice
you say to you what you want? Do you want the world and the
things of it or do you want me? Do you want heaven or hell? Do
you want to enjoy the things of God? Or do you want to enjoy
the things of the world? You cannot have them both. You
cannot walk in them both. I'm not going to give you a rich,
fat soul while you're indulging all the things of the world.
No, it's not so. And we are told here that this
is one of the reasons, one of the things that they were doing,
lusting exceedingly in the wilderness. The fourth thing is this, that
they tempted God. They tempted God. And we are
told of that in the rehearsing of it in Psalm 78 and verse 20. From verse 19, they spake against
God. Verse 18, they tempted God in
their heart by asking meat for their lust. You know, they spake
against God. They said, can God furnish a
table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock. that
the waters gushed out, the streams overflowed. Can He give bread
also? Can He provide flesh for His
people? Now, they're tempting us like
Satan. If they'll be the Son of God, command these stones
that they might be made bread. Prove it so. Another thing that
they tempted was saying, is the Lord among us or no? Have you
ever thought of that as being a temptation, a slight to the
Lord? After all what He's done for
us, after all His counsel, His goodness, His mercies, and so
many tokens for good, and we get to a stage where we say,
is the Lord amongst us? Is He our God? The children of
Israel did that, and yet they had abundant evidence that He
was. Don't ever again think that that's
a badge of humility and a badge of honour. to doubt, to disbelieve. That is Satan's work, to cause
the people of God to doubt, to disbelieve him and disbelieve
his work and to side with the world and side with Satan. No. And one great, of course,
evidence of being the Lord is that the Lord does chasten and
does correct. Hear ye the rod and who hath
appointed it. So there are four things here.
The Lord identifies for us, forgetting of his works, waiting not for
God's counsel, lusting exceedingly after worldly, sensual, temporal
things, and tempting God. And for these things, He gave
them their requests, gave them what they sought. We might think,
well, the Lord must be for us. He's given us what we want. Jonah
might have said, well, the Lord has given me a ship that's going
well away from Nineveh. And he's given me the fare. He's
given me these things I need. But was it right? Was it the
right way? No, no. The Lord can send things that
we might look at, the Lord's given me this, but it's not good
for our soul, not good for us. And so then he sends leanness
into the soul. Well I want to look then thirdly,
learning from the text, learning from this that is before us. The first thing is this, it's
a form of chastening of the Lord. We might think, well, the chastening
of the Lord is just things like sickness, car accident, things
going wrong. But here is very clearly set
forth a form of chastening, and it is for His children that know
what it is to have the fullness and fatness and blessing of the
Lord. He has sent leanness. We're to learn from it that we
do not despair. This is given for good, is given
as chastening, is given for a child of God. And also do not not care. Do not just accept it and think,
well, there's nothing I can do. Remember, wherever the Lord chastens,
the same with the child naturally, the whole idea is restoring and
bringing back. So don't ever think, well, there's
nothing I can do. I'm so far off and so barren
and so dead and so cold. It's a hopeless case. No, it's
not. Especially if the Lord has made
you feel it, made you groan under it. It is a hopeless case if
you say, well, what must be, must be. That's my case. Or it's the Lord's fault. He's
withholding his spirit, it's his fault. Yes, he's sent leanness,
but that's not as a fault of his, it's his good and kindness
for the soul. May we rightly discern the Lord's
intentions. I know the thoughts I think toward
you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected
end. A child left to his self bringeth
his mother to show him the Lord doesn't leave his people. to
themselves. He appoints the rod, he sends
it. So then, let's think of those
four points again. Let's retrace our steps. Bunyan
portrays his Christian, walking in the way, going in Bypath Meadow,
going in ways, and when they were convinced that they were
wrong, they had to retrace their steps, they had to undo what
they had done. So what about the first one?
His works. What a profitable way in restoring
the fatness of the soul to rehearse before ourselves and maybe before
our loved ones the works of the Lord. Go over what He has done. Remember what He has done. Again,
there is a danger here. Some would say, well, I'm going
to look what the Lord has done. Oh yes, I am a child of God.
Then it's all right. It doesn't matter my being in
this low state and condition. That's a solemn thing if we can
do that. Just living on past experiences and past tokens and
not wanting a present walk with the Lord. Enjoyment with the
Lord. It should be our desire as the
Lord's people to live closely with the Lord and enjoyment with
Him and with His dear people, to be a fat and flourishing soul. So let us remember His works. Let us also wait for His counsel. Maybe there's need that the brakes
be put on, that we look to the Lord and ask for the Lord's counsel,
ask what the Lord would have us to do. It may come as a surprise
to us that we haven't asked Him. We've just gone on in the way
and haven't asked. The Lord knows how much we've
asked of Him in the many things that respect us, in personally,
in the Church of God, in our families. Do we ask? Very easy to be busy. Solemn
lesson I had years ago. Three services in front of me.
Busy trying to search the scriptures, find a text, prepare. I got angry
with the Lord. Went before the Lord, Lord thou
has put me into the ministry. Thou has given me three services
before me and you haven't given me a text. And I was angry with
the Lord. And he just dropped into my heart.
Just as a man was speaking, thou hast not asked. And it was true. I hope I never forget that lesson. But always come before the Lord
first. I think I've got it on my screen
at home. Never do anything without asking
the Lord first in prayer. Seek Him first. Ask His counsel. And especially when we think
the matter is so cut and dry, we don't need to ask. That is
a time we should really ask for his counsel and wait for his
counsel as well. Remember, King Saul, he forced
himself, he offered the sacrifice, and then just as he'd offered
the sacrifice, along came Samuel. What has thou done? Thou art
a king, thou should not be offering a sacrifice. Easy for us to do the same. Want
the Lord to put his rubber stamp on what we're doing and yet not
have asked him. But what about the third point,
the lusting? Godliness with contentment is
great gain. Having food and raiment, let
us therewith be content. How often we can want more than
what the Lord has been pleased to give us. May we desire more. the blessing of the Lord that
maketh rich and addeth no sorrow within, to have the Lord's presence
and that sweet communion with Him and His dear people. But what about the last one,
tempting Him? Do we tempt God? In what we say
especially, are we really the Lord? Is He among us? The Lord
help us to believe and to trust and to lean upon the Lord. The
Lord said at one time to his people, when they were saying
the same thing, can a woman forget her sucking child? Yea, they
may forget, yet I will not forget thee. I have graven thee upon
the palms of my hands, thy walls are ever before me. Another time
he challenged them, he said, you show me the documents of
divorcement. the writing of divorcement. Have
I really put you away? You show me that. You know, it's
a predominant sin of Israel and the people of God as well to
doubt what he has done, to cast away what he has done. Cast not
away thy confidence, which hath great recompense and reward.
Despise not the day of small things. He which hath begun a
good work in you will perform it under the day of Jesus Christ. He is the same yesterday and
today and forever. He does not change, we change. So let us not lay to his charge
that he has changed or he will not follow through with the blessings
and what he has given us. May we learn from this word.
May we hear the Lord speaking to us through it and be encouraged
And the end result be that the Lord gives us that fatness of
soul, closeness with him, the blessing of the Lord. We have
been able to trace it to hearing his word here this morning. He
gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul. The Lord add his blessing. Amen.