Good morning. Let's find our
seats. I want to ask you to open your
bulletin and notice on the bottom left hand column that there's
an announcement. If you'll look at it, it'll help
you remember a little bit better. Two weeks from today, we'll have
lunch together. in the fellowship hall, so just
bring a covered dish and we'll enjoy that time together on the
first Sunday of March. Just to quote again that passage
that we looked at the first hour from John chapter 5 verse 39,
search the scriptures. Search the scriptures. That's
what we're going to do. That's what we try to do by God's grace. It's what we do. And the Lord
rebuked those self-righteous Pharisees because he said to
them, you think that you have eternal life by your knowledge
of the Bible, but you miss the meaning of the Bible. For these
are they which testify of me. May the Lord be pleased to reveal
Christ to our hearts by his word and the power of his spirit as
we worship together. Back of your bulletin, there's
a hymn. Tom's going to come and lead us in the hymn on the back
of the bulletin. ? Approach my soul the mercy seat
? ? Where God will hear our prayer ? ? There humbly fall before
his feet ? ? For none can perish there ? ? Thy promise is my only
plea ? ? With this I venture nigh ? ? Thou callest burdened
souls to thee ? ? And such, O Lord, am I ? ? O wondrous love to bleed
and die ? To bear the cross and shame, that guilty sinner such
as I might plead thy gracious name. The hearing ear, the seeing
eye, the contrite heart bestow and bless us with thy precious
word that we in grace may grow. Please be seated. Good morning, brothers and sisters,
for our call to worship today, if you turn with me to Isaiah
chapter 55. Isaiah chapter 55. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye,
buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfies not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto
me. Herein your soul shall live.
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for
a witness to the people, a leader and a commander to the people.
Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations
that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord
thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified
thee. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake
his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him
turn unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. And to our
God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the
rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not
thither, but wandereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth in
bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Our most heavenly Father, we
thank you again this day, Lord, the mercy that you showed to
us poor, hopeless, helpless sinners. We thank you, Lord, for allowing
the mercy to allow your candle to be lit here all these years.
Lord, we'd be so bold as to ask that you let your candle stick
about here many, many more years to come. We thank you for your
word that we heard this morning. We'd ask you to cause it to go
forth with power and grace and pierce our hearts, Lord. We'd
ask you to be with our brothers as he brings forth this second
message, Lord. Cause it also be effectual to
us. We'd ask you to be with our sick and infirm, the ones among
us, Lord, to struggle and have hard times. Show mercy, give
us the grace we so desperately need, Lord, but have no right
to ask for. We thank you for all these things through thy
most holy and perfect name. Amen. Where did I select? Number two,
is it, Joy? Number two in our Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book,
number two. Let's all stand together. Lord, we come before thee now. At thy feet we humbly bow. O do not our suit disdain. Shall we seek thee, Lord, in
vain? Lord, on Thee our souls depend,
In compassion now descend. Fill our hearts with Thy rich
grace, Tune our lips to sing Thy praise. In thine own appointed
way, now we seek thee, here we stay. Lord, we know not how to
go till the blessing thou bestow. Send the message from thy word
that may joy and peace afford. Let thy spirit now impart Christ's
salvation to each heart. Please be seated. Will you turn with me in your
Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 19. 2 Samuel chapter 19. Every time I've preached from
the story of Mephibosheth, you have said to me, I love that
story. I've heard that from several
of you over the years. I love the story. We love the
story of Mephibosheth because we can identify with it. Mephibosheth
is a type of God's children, every one of them. We see in this story what it
means to be saved by sovereign grace. We see in this story what
it means to be a sinner in need of salvation. We see in the passage
that we're going to look at this morning what it means to be restored
in fellowship with the God that we love. Mephibosheth's story
is our story. And I pray this morning that
the Lord will make it each of our stories. Just to give you
a little background, David, King David, when he was
in hiding from King Saul, had a
special relationship with Saul's son named Jonathan. And Jonathan
believed that David was going to become king of Israel because
God had declared it through the prophet Samuel. And Jonathan
believed what God had said. Jonathan, knowing that that was
going to be the end, made a covenant with David. They were young men. This was before David was made
king, before Saul had died. And in that covenant, David agreed
to spare the lives of Jonathan's children. Jonathan knew he would die. He
knew Saul would die. And David gladly entered in to
that covenant with his dear friend, Jonathan. Jonathan's now dead, Saul's dead,
David has assumed the throne as God had purposed and prophesied. And David now asked his servant
Ziba, is there anyone left from the household of Saul that I
might show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Is there any descendants
from Jonathan that I can be merciful toward?" And David looking back
to this covenant promise that he had made to Jonathan. And
Ziba said, yes, Jonathan had a son, has a son. His name is
Mephibosheth. He's in the city of Lodabar,
hiding out. Now Lodabar means a land of no
bread. So Mephibosheth, knowing that
the king could rightfully eliminate any descendants from Saul because
they would have been a threat to his throne, Mephibosheth was
hiding out. But he was hiding in a place
where there was no bread. It's a spiritual picture. It's a spiritual picture of this
Mephibosheth. God has the right to kill us. He has the sovereign right to
cast us from his presence for all eternity. And he'd be right
in doing so. And in our attempt to hide from
that judgment, we find ourselves in Lodabar. We find ourselves
in a land that cannot sustain our souls eternally. And David said to Ziba, go fetch
him, go get him and bring him to me. And Ziba went to Lodabar
and got Mephibosheth and brought him to David. Mephibosheth certain
that this would be the end of his life, that David would exercise
his right in removing Mephibosheth from the face of the earth. And
when David saw Mephibosheth, Just the opposite was true. David
looked at Mephibosheth and he saw the likeness of his dear
friend Jonathan in Jonathan's son. And he said to him, Mephibosheth,
oh, Mephibosheth. Now, part of the story I left
out was that Mephibosheth was crippled. He couldn't walk, he
couldn't stand. He had to be carried everywhere
he went. He was crippled in both of his feet as a result of the
fall. And here again, we see a picture of ourselves. As a
result of the fall in the garden by our father Adam, we are unable
to stand in the presence of a holy God. We are unable to walk as
God would have us to walk. We're crippled in both our feet. We are by nature hanging out
in a place where there is no bread and we're in need of the
King to fetch us, to come get us by His free and sovereign
grace based on a covenant promise that He made with His Father
before time ever was. You see, God the Father and God
the Son, God the Father elected a particular people before Adam
was ever made in eternity past. God the Son entered into a covenant
relationship, an eternal covenant, a covenant of grace. Not that
there was ever a time when this covenant started. It's an infinite,
eternal covenant. And he agreed, the Son agreed
to redeem those whom the Father had elected. God the Holy Spirit
entered into that covenant relationship and promised to make those whom
the father elected and whom the son redeemed, promised to make
them willing, promised to give them faith and to give them a
new birth, a spiritual birth, that they might come and believe
on Christ and be made right with God. That's the story of Mephibosheth. When David saw Mephibosheth,
he saw the likeness of his friend, Jonathan. When God Almighty sees
us crippled as a result of our fall, hanging out where we can
never sustain our immortal souls, he sees the likeness of his son. And he says, as David said, oh,
Mephibosheth, Mephibosheth. And Mephibosheth's response to
David was, why would the king have anything to do with such
a dead dog as I? I stand in the presence of the
king as a dog deserving of death. Why would you show mercy upon
me? And that's the response. That's the response of all of
God's Mephibosheth's. You'll never hear one of God's
elect talk like the religionist and the self-righteous. They'll
never hear them say, it's not fair that God would choose a
particular people. It's not fair that Christ would
die only for a particular people. God owes salvation to everyone. You'll never hear a Mephibosheth
say that. Mephibosheth always say, what would the king have
to do with such a dead dog as I? Why would you have mercy on
anyone? And most especially, why would
you show mercy toward me? David said to Mephibosheth, come,
sit at my table. Hide those crippled feet under
my tablecloth and eat of the King's food the rest of your
life. And that's what God Almighty
says to every one of his Mephibosheth, come, sit at my table. I'm gonna feed you with the bread
of life. I'm gonna take you from Lodabar, a place where there
is no bread to Bethlehem, the house of bread. And I'm going
to feed you on the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm going to sustain your
soul with my Son. And we sit gladly at the table.
And we rejoice at the grace that God has shown toward us. Now
that's the beginning of Mephibosheth's story. But then something happens. David's son, Absalom. He initiates a coup against his
father, David. He leads a rebellion and he forces
David off his throne and David has to go into exile. While Joab
puts down, Joab is David's commander. Joab puts down the rebellion
and Absalom now is dead and David comes back. And David resumes
his rightful place back on the throne in Jerusalem. When David exiled Jerusalem,
Mephibosheth didn't go with him. Mephibosheth stayed back in Jerusalem. And when David comes back and
he's reunited with Mephibosheth He says to Mephibosheth, Mephibosheth,
after all the kindness that I showed towards you, why didn't you go
with me? And here's where the story picks
up. 2 Samuel chapter 19, and we'll begin reading at verse
24. And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the
king and had neither dressed his feet nor trimmed his beard
nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the
day he came again in peace. Now this is biblical language
for one who is in mourning. Mephibosheth is mourning the
fact that King David has been exiled from Jerusalem. The Bible doesn't tell us how
long this was, it seems like it was only a matter of months.
But Mephibosheth didn't trim his beard, didn't trim his nails,
didn't wash his clothes, didn't bathe the whole time that David
was gone. David comes back and he sees
Mephibosheth. In verse 25, and it came to pass
when he was come to Jerusalem to meet the king, that the king
said unto him, wherefore wentest not thou with me, Mephibosheth? And he answered, my Lord, O king,
my servant, he's talking about Ziba now, Ziba was the servant
of Saul, and now he's the servant of Mephibosheth, the grandson
of King Saul. And Ziba's responsibility was
to take care of this man who was crippled. My servant deceived me, for thy
servant said, now thy servant, Mephibosheth's talking about
himself, saying, Ziba deceived me, for I said to him, saddle
me and ask that I might go with the king, that I might ride thereon and
go to the king because thy servant is lame. In verse 27, but he
slandered me. Ziba told Mephibosheth, I will
go saddle you an ass that we might go with King David. And
Ziba left and went with the king by himself and told King David
that Mephibosheth stayed behind because he was siding with the
rebellion. He was siding with Absalom. Verse 27, and he, Ziba, has slandered
me unto my Lord the King, but my Lord the King is as an angel
of God, do therefore what is good in thine eyes. David thought
that Mephibosheth had been unfaithful to him and Mephibosheth had been
deceived. But Mephibosheth, believing that
he would be faithful to the covenant promise that he had made to his
father, Jonathan. And Mephibosheth believing that
David loved Mephibosheth like he loved Jonathan. Doesn't try
to defend himself to David, he just tells him the truth and
then he says to him, you do whatever seems right. Well, there's faith. Do whatever seems right. Verse 28, now Mephibosheth's
going to tell David why he's taking such a position. For all
of my father's house were but dead men before my Lord the King,
yet didst thou not set thy servant among them that did eat at thine
own table? What right therefore have I to
cry any more unto the King? You should have killed me when
you brought me from Lodabar. You sat me at your table. I've
spent the last years of my life in the presence of the King,
receiving mercy and grace from the King. How could I possibly
ask for anything more? I can't demand anything else
from you. You've already given me so much
more than I could ever ask for. And certainly so much more than
I could ever deserve. "'I'm at thy mercy.' And the king said unto him, "'Why
speakest thou any more of thy matter? "'I have said, Thou and
Ziba divide the land.'" Now when Ziba followed David and left
Mephibosheth back and told David that Mephibosheth had sided with
Absalom, David made a decision right then and said, give everything
that was belonged to Mephibosheth, give it to Ziba. Take it all
from Mephibosheth, give it to Ziba. And now David, not sure
what all the details of this story are, says to Mephibosheth,
you and Ziba divide it up equally. I don't wanna hear more about
it. And Mephibosheth said unto the
king, yea, let him take all. For as much
as my Lord the King has come again in peace unto his own house." What a glorious picture of faith,
repentance, mourning. You see, this is every believer's
story. In that, first of all, we mourn
over our sin. Verse 25 is a picture of mourning. David and Mephibosheth were separated. The Bible is very clear. What
is it that separates us from God? What is it? It's only one thing. Only one
thing. It's our sin. The only thing
that separates us from God is sin. That sin has to be dealt
with. That sin has to be put away.
God's eyes are too pure to look upon iniquity. God cannot have
fellowship with one who is a sinner. He has to make him righteous, he has to
put away that sin. And the process of that is this
spirit of mourning. What is it that, what is mourning? Is mourning not grieving over
the loss of something? Can't grieve over the loss of
something you never had. When the Lord first reveals to
us our sin, he first reveals Christ before he reveals to us
our sin. The Lord doesn't use the law
as a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. The Lord doesn't,
he doesn't use the law to show us what sinners we are in order
for us to realize our need for a Savior, He reveals the Savior
and in doing so, causes us to see that there's nothing in us
like Him. You see, we can't see ourselves
as a sinner until we see Him. He has to reveal His glory to
us before we're ever going to say, what would the King have
to do with such a dead dog as I we have to be made to know
who he is. That's why Paul said, I determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's why the Lord Jesus said,
and I, if I be lifted up will draw all men to me. When God
reveals the glory of Christ, we come to one very clear conclusion
about ourselves. Everything about us, apart from
Him, is sin. So the grieving of our sin, and
from then on, from then on, as a believer, the absence of what has been
lost causes us to grieve, just as Mephibosheth grieved over
the loss of David. And he says at the end of this
story, he says, let him have it all, the King's back. I'm
just interested in being back in fellowship with the King.
That's my need, that's my desire. You can't grieve over the loss
of something you never had. We grieve over the loss of a
loved one because we had a very special relationship with that
person. But this very day in which you
and I sit here and stand here, 150,000 people in this world
will die. 150,000 people will die today
and every day. You don't grieve over their loss.
You don't know them. You can only grieve over the
loss of that which you once had. Mephibosheth is grieving over
the loss of his fellowship with the king because he knew what
it was to sit at the table of the king and eat of his fare.
And the scripture says that if we've, tasted of the heavenly
gift and we've been partakers of the Holy Ghost. That this
experience, this knowledge that God has given to us in Christ
is what causes us. Our sin grieves us because it
is our sin that separates us from Him. Let me show you that. Turn with me to Zechariah. Zechariah. Next to the last chapter in the
Old Testament, chapter 12. Zechariah chapter 12. Verse 10. I will pour upon the house of
David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace
and supplication. God has to pour out his spirit
before we see our need for grace. We will spend our whole lives
working our way to heaven thinking that there's something that we
can do to satisfy the demands of God's law and to establish
a righteousness before God. Ignorant of the righteousness
of God we will go about trying to establish our own righteousness
and we'll die in our sins. The Lord has to pour out a spirit
of grace unmerited favor for by grace are you saved through
faith not of yourself it's a gift of God not of our works lest
any man should boast there's no boasting before God we can't
boast before God we can't say well I made a decision or I did
this or I didn't do that if God doesn't pour out a spirit of
grace And of supplication, what is supplication? God, you're
gonna have to supply for me what I can't supply for myself. You're
gonna have to supply for me the forgiveness of my sin. You're
gonna have to supply for me justice before thee. You're gonna have
to put away my sin. You're gonna have to supply for
me a righteousness. I can't supply any of these things. Lord, you have to give me the
spirit of grace and the spirit of supplication. He does this only for the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. And when he does, Look at the
next phrase in verse 10. And they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth
for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one
that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall
there be a great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of
Hadan Rimon in the Valley of Megiddo. Turn with me to Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61. This is the passage of Scripture
that the Lord Jesus read in the synagogue in Nazareth and declared
His public ministry. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me. The anointing of God, he's the Christ, the anointed one. Because the Lord hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek, he has sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the
opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all that mourn. Mephibosheth is my story. Mephibosheth
is your story because God enables us to see that it's our sin that
has separated us from our God. And he gives to us a spirit of
grace and supplication and causes us to mourn after Christ as one
mourneth after his own son. This is When the Lord began the
Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five, he began with,
blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall inherit the kingdom
of God. Now the Lord's not saying, if
you can find out a way to get poor in spirit, then you'll be
blessed with the kingdom of God. The Lord's saying, to be poor
in spirit is the blessing. It's a work of grace, it's the
spirit of grace and supplication that's poured out on the house
of Jerusalem. And the result of that is to
inherit the kingdom of God. And then the second one is, blessed
are they that mourn. Not they shall be comforted,
not you'll be blessed with comfort if you can find out a way to
be mourned. No, the blessing is the spirit of mourning. Mephibosheth
is picturing for every child of God the spirit of grace and
supplication, the spirit of mourning that takes place when they are
separated by their sin from their king. Verse three, to appoint unto
them that morn in Zion to give them beauty for ashes. This morning
is not something that we remain in. It's a confession to God. It's... It's the spirit of grace that
tells the Lord all the truth. What does Ziba, Mephibosheth,
say to David? Ziba deceived me. I was deceived by him. What is the See, Zeibach admits
to David what the problem was, of Mephibosheth, excuse me. Why do we sin? Satan is called a deceiver. The very first time that we find
sin in the Bible, was it not that Eve was deceived? Was it not that he told Eve,
God does not want you to eat of the fruit of the knowledge
of good and evil because he knows that in the day in which you eat of
it, your eyes will be opened and you'll be like God? Do we not pursue
sin because of the father of lies? There's another title for
Satan, he's the father of lies. Oh, if you do this, it'll make
you happy. When in fact, it only puts us
into bondage. Turn with me to Romans chapter
six. Sin, and you know this brethren,
it promises what it cannot deliver. It promises happiness, it promises
success, it promises advancement, it promises all sorts of things. Satan is called an angel of light,
but in fact in him is nothing but darkness. He's called a minister
of righteousness, but in fact in him is nothing but unrighteousness,
sin. He's called a false apostle,
a messenger from God, but in fact He has no word from God
whatsoever. Everything he brings to us is
a lie. It's a lie. And apart from the grace of God,
we will believe the lie. Mephibosheth believed Ziba. He
said, go saddle me an ass. Mephibosheth sat there and waited
for Ziba to come back. He believed Ziba. deceived him
and Mephibosheth is now admitting to the king, I've been deceived,
I've been deceived, I believed something that wasn't true. I
thought that what I was being promised was going to give me
happiness and freedom but in fact all it's done is separated
me from the king, all it's done is brought sadness and sorrow
and darkness into my life. And the evidence of grace is
when a man or a woman is brought to that place, that place. And I will pour on the house
of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and of supplication. Only the
spirit of grace will cause Mephibosheth to come before the king and say,
I've been deceived. I've been deceived, I was wrong. You have your Bibles open to
Romans chapter 6, verse 16. to whom you yield yourselves
servants to obey. His servants are ye to whom you
obey, whether of sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness. But God be thanked that you were
servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine which was delivered unto you. Being then made free
from sin, you became the servants of righteousness." Now, mark
it down. Because I know, I know this from
the authority of God's word. This passage of scripture we
just read. Every single person in this world, every single person
in this room is either a servant to sin or a servant to God. Oh, I'm free, I can do what I
want. Well, as long as you're free to do what you want, you
need to know that what you want is in bondage to your nature,
which is nothing but fallen and sinful. And you're just going
to be following the desires of your flesh and you're going to
be a slave to sin. Go back with me to our text. This is what the Bible calls
godly sorrow. What's the difference between
the pains of conscience that an unbeliever suffers when they
sin and the spirit of grace and supplication that come to the
believer's heart when he sins? and it has to do with what he
is grieving the loss of. Mephibosheth is mourning. He
hadn't cut his hair, he hadn't washed his clothes, he hadn't
cleaned, he's mourning. What is he mourning? He's mourning the loss of the
king. Mourning is what we do when we
grieve over the loss of something. Now, Pharaoh, when God sent fire
and hail from heaven, Pharaoh went to Moses and said, I have
sinned. I've sinned. And he even goes
on to say, the Lord God, your God is righteous. I and my people
are wicked. Make it stop. Pharaoh didn't have any interest
in knowing Moses' God. He just wanted the judgment of
God to stop. And as soon as it stopped, Pharaoh
said to Moses, I'll let your people go if you'll make God
stop these things. As soon as it stopped, Pharaoh
went right back. And God sent another plague.
And Pharaoh came back to Moses again after the locust. And he
said to Moses, Pharaoh said to Moses, ask the Lord to forgive
me for I have sinned. What was Pharaoh grieving the
loss of? He was grieving the loss of his
crops, he was grieving the loss of his nation, he was grieving
the loss of his position and power. To mourn is to grieve the loss
of something. and godly sorrow is different
from human sorrow because human sorrow only mourns the loss of
temporal things. Saul said to David, I've sinned
and he said that twice. but it was only because Saul
was being threatened of losing his position of power. And in contrast to that, we have
Psalm 51. Turn with me there. This is the spirit that must
come by the Holy Spirit to the heart. This is the spirit of
grace and the spirit of supplication. Yes, sin brings with it consequences,
all sin. All sin brings with it results
that we must suffer in this world. But godly sorrow is grieving
over the loss of my fellowship with the king. It's my sin that
separated me from him. And David, finally, after trying
to hide his sin for a year, Nathan comes to David and says, David,
thou art the man. And David writes Psalm 51. And
he says, have mercy upon me, O God. I'm not worthy of your
mercy. Have mercy upon me. This is what
Mephibosheth said. The king had mercy on me. What
more could I ask him? The king is like an angel from
God. Let him do whatever he thinks is right. I'm not in a position
to ask you for anything. I'm a mercy beggar. I don't have
claims on God. I can't present anything to God
to force the hand of God. I'm completely in his hands.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness. Now I've
told you this before, that word loving kindness in the Old Testament,
the Old Testament doesn't have the word grace very many times.
That word is found mostly in the New Testament, but the word
loving kindness is the Old Testament Hebrew word for grace. According
to your grace. Lord, you're gonna have to have
grace upon me if you're gonna have mercy upon me. According unto the multitude
of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly
from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge
my transgression. My sin is ever before me against
thee, and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear
when thou judgest. Behold, I was shaped in iniquity,
and sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth
in the inward parts, and in the hidden parts thou shalt make
me in an old wisdom. Purge me with hyssop and I shall
be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones
which thou hath broken might rejoice. Hide thy face from my
sin, blot out my iniquity, create in me a clean heart, renew within
me a right spirit. Return unto me. the joy of thy
salvation. What a difference. Most of the sorrow that we, all
the sorrow we experience naturally is just sorrow of getting caught
or sorrow for the circumstances that that bad behavior brought
into our lives. But godly sorrow is different. Mourning is grieving over the
loss of something. Everybody has experienced some
level of mourning, but godly mourning is what Mephibosheth
here is experiencing. The loss of the king. Lord, I
just need to be back at the king's table. That's all I need. If I could just sit at the king's
table again and hide these crippled feet under his table and feast
on the king's fare the rest of my life, well, that's my need. And that is the spirit of grace.
That's a spirit of supplication that can only come from God.
And that's the difference between Pharaoh and Saul admitting that
they had sinned because their sin had threatened the loss of
their kingdom. And when the spirit of grace
and supplication is poured out upon the house of Jerusalem and
they mourn after him who mourneth after as one who mourneth after
his own son. My sin has come between me and
God. and I need to be restored with
him. And until he restores my fellowship
with him, all I can do is mourn. And they that mourn shall be
comforted, and their mourning shall be turned to rejoicing. Mephibosheth is brought back
into the king's presence. And the end of the story is,
I just need you, David. I just need the son of David.
I just need Christ. And I trust that whatever else
I might need in this world, he'll provide it to me. You know what
Mephibosheth said to David? I'm not in a position to ask
you for anything. You saved me when you should have killed me.
I've experienced sitting at your table. I just want to get back
into fellowship with you and I'll give everything to Ziba. I'll trust you to provide for
me what you think I need. All right, let's pray. Our Heavenly
Father, make Mephibosheth's story our
story. Lord, give us a grieving that can only come from you. and turn that sorrow into rejoicing,
gladness, fellowship. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. 233 in the hardback temple,
let's stand together. Just three verses. Just three verses, we won't sing
the fourth verse. ? Depth of mercy can there be ?
? Mercy still reserved for me ? ? Can my God his wrath forbear
? ? Me the chief of sinners spare ? I have long withstood his grace,
long provoked him to his face, would not hearken to his calls,
grieved him by a thousand falls. Now incline me to repent. Let me now my sins lament. Now my foul revolt deplore. Weep, believe, and sin no more.