You don't have to look this up,
I just want to read a few verses from Psalm 46. God is our refuge
and strength, a very present help in trouble. We come to worship him because
we're in trouble. We're in trouble with this world. We're in trouble
with our sin. Therefore, will not we fear? Though the earth be removed and
though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though
the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains
shake with the swelling thereof, there is a river. The streams
whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the
tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, and
she shall not be moved." What a promise. I hope we can
experience that this morning. Let's stand together. Brother
Tom's going to come and lead us in the hymn on the back of
your bulletin. Approach, my soul, the throne
of grace in every time of need. There's mercy for the needy one
who Jesus' name shall plead. Though I'm a weak and sinful
wretch, I will approach the throne. I'll lean upon Christ's mighty
arm and bleed His blood alone. The blood, the precious blood
of Christ has opened up the way by which I can draw near to God
and to my Father pray. Though Satan tempts my heart
to sin, I'll call upon my God. And if I fall, He'll lift me
up and cleanse me in the blood. The way is open, God will hear
my groans and cries of grief. Nothing can keep me from His
throne but my own unbelief. O Lord, my unbelief remove, and
turn my heart by grace. Compel me to approach the throne,
and there spread out my case. Please be seated. Pray the Lord will bless the
reading of His Word. If you would turn with me please
to the Gospel of John, Chapter 3. Well then, John 3 is the most quoted
and well-known verse of all the Bible. And as Paul Harvey would
say, I want to see the rest of the story this morning. We're
going to start at John 17. The Lord has commanded every
human being to come unto him. He says, come unto me that you
might have eternal life. And the spirit and the bride
say, come. And he has told us in his word
that if we are heavy laden and weary, come unto him and he will
give us rest. The Lord also told us in John
5 where the problem lies. He tells us, you and I will not
come. We won't come. God's commanded
it, and you and I in our rebellion refuse to come to Christ. And I want us to read here why
we refuse to come. For God sent not His Son into
the world to condemn the world. He didn't need to come into the
world to condemn us. We were already guilty. but that the
world through him might be saved. He that believeth on Christ is
not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And here's the condemnation against
us, that light, that's Christ, is coming to the world And men,
you and I, we love darkness rather than the light. Because, why
do we love the darkness? Because our deeds are evil. Do you believe that about yourself?
Your deeds are evil? For everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light. And the reason
we don't come to Christ, lest our deeds should be reproved. We don't come to Christ not because
of our sin, but because of our good deeds that we do. All the
things we think we do that are pleasing to God. And we will
not come to him because he's going to tell us our good deeds
are filthy rags. And that's why not a soul will
come. I've been thinking, if God commanded
us to come and we all refuse to come, what hope is there?
I pray you'll bear with me. It's the hope Paul had, it's
the hope every believer has, and the hope I have. There was a time I wouldn't come. I sat where the gospel was preached,
but I didn't believe it. I knew some truths, but I didn't
know the truth. I was as lost as could be. Lord, as I got married and had
children, I guess the Lord put it well, I need some relationship
with God. So, like many of you, we bounced
around from church to church to church. Ended up at a fundamentalist
church. After a while, I knew I couldn't
stay because more and more law was all I ever heard. And I thought,
well, now out of courtesy, I'm going to go tell them that we
will not be coming back. So I went in to see the leader
of the church and I say that kindly. I tell him, we won't
be back. I've been convicted that salvation
is all of the Lord. And that if I'm to be saved,
Christ is going to have to do everything to save me. And the
decision about whether I be saved or not is in his hands and not
mine. I never will forget this man
was, quote, a preacher for Fortison. He looked at me with a scowl
on his face and he said to me, Michael, you don't believe in
that election stuff, do you? Well, I didn't even know what
election meant. Like I said, I was lost could be, but I seen
he didn't like it, so I answered him. Absolutely, I believe it. I didn't want anybody calling
me wondering why I was leaving. I believed with all my heart.
And I got up and walked out. This is the testimony of every
believer. There came a day. His day. When the Lord was pleased according
to His timing and His good providence, He sent a gospel preacher across
my path. And he declared Christ unto me. And he told me that Christ had
commanded me to come to him. And that my righteousness was
filthy rags. Only this was a different day.
The only reason anyone ever comes to Christ, God had to make me
willing by his power. Not by my deeds or desires, but
by His power to come to Christ. And He gave me the faith to believe
on Christ and come to Him. And guess what He told me? All
your righteousness is filthy racks. If you're a believer, you know
what I'm talking about, don't you? Only this was a different
day. Because it was a different me.
And all you could say was, truth Lord, you've told the truth about
me. I have no righteousness. I need
forgiveness of sin. I need Christ. And I can tell you on the word
of God, if you ever come to Christ like that, he's never turned
anyone away. Here's my prayer for us this
morning. God has sent a gospel preacher
our way this morning. He will declare by the Lord's
power Christ unto us. And he will command everybody
in this room to come to him and him alone. And my prayer for
all of us here is, Lord, would you by your power make us willing
this morning to come to Christ. every one of us. Because if you
don't, we'll never come. We'll remain lost and perish.
I pray he'll do that for us this morning. Thank you for your time. Let's stand together, sing hymn
number 352, number 352, Jesus, lover of my soul. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the
tempest still is high. Hide me, O my Savior, hide, Till
the storm of life is past. Safe into the haven guide, O
receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on Thee. Leave, ah, leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring, Cover my defenseless head With
the shadow of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
More than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
Heal the sick and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am. Thou art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, Make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, the fountain
art, freely let me take of thee. Spring thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Please be seated. It is a great blessing for us
to be able to have Aaron Greenleaf and his dear wife Jamie here
with us this morning. They came in last night and spent
the night with us last night. We had a wonderful fellowship
together and we'll be leaving right after services this morning
to go to Sarasota and Aaron will be preaching over there. So Lord
enables you to pray about services in Sarasota night. We covered
those prayers. Um, Aaron's gonna come now and
bring the message that the Lord's given him for us this morning.
So, Aaron, please come. Morning, everybody. Uh, for me
and Jamie, thank you all for having us down. We really enjoyed
being here. Enjoy being with you all again.
Thank you so much to our host and hostess, very gracious to
us. If you would, turn to 2 Samuel, chapter 9. I bring with me this morning well
wishes, thoughts, and prayers from everybody in Lexington.
I want you to know we still think of you even when the weather
is pretty in Kentucky. 2 Samuel, chapter 9. I think this
is a probably familiar story to everybody. This is the story
of David and Mephibosheth. when David reaches out and he
goes and he fetches Mephibosheth. We're going to read this story
here in a minute. I wanted to share with you kind of what I
was thinking when I first read this. A couple months ago when
I sat down and I read this story, and the first thing I thought
of was one of the things I love to hear. I love to sit with another
believer and I love to hear the story of how the Lord called
them out. Because for each of us, for every individual believer,
that story is very different. They have a unique story. Greg
was kind enough to tell me his story last night. Everything
the Lord put him through to draw him out, to bring him to himself.
You listen to every believer, that story is different. Each
one of you have a different story. And you think about it, sometimes
the Lord calls out a man when he's very young. Maybe he's a
teenager. He calls out a young man. Sometimes
he waits. He waits for a member of the
elect until they get very old. Maybe a man's on his deathbed. He waits
until then to call that man out, call him to himself. Some of
the elect spend years and years in false religion, hearing of
a false god, false doctrines, until one day the Lord just crosses
their path with the gospel, calls them to himself. Some of us,
we were born in a gospel church, never heard anything about the
truth. Some of us spend years and years listening to the gospel,
sitting in a gospel church, sitting in a pew, listening to it, but
not really hearing it, just listening, until one day, on the Lord's
appointed day, he reaches out with a gospel message, and he
just turns the lights on. Some of us, we stumble in, maybe
unassumingly, plop down, not expecting to hear a word, and
through that one message, the Lord just turns the lights on.
Everybody's got a different story. The story of how the Lord called
us out is unique. But the story of our salvation, who accomplished
it? why he accomplished it and how
he accomplished it. For every believer, that story is the exact
same. And I think this story is being told here. So I want
to read this story. We're going to read the whole
chapter. We're going to go through it. Then I'm just going to go verse by verse, and
we're going to tell the story of every believer's salvation
from beginning to end. 2 Samuel 9, pick up in verse
1. And David said, is there yet
any that is left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness
for Jonathan's sake? And there was of the house of
Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they had called
him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba? And
he said, Thy servant is he. And the king said, Is there not
yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness
of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king,
Jonathan hath yet a son who is lame on his feet. And the king
said unto him, Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king,
Behold, he is in the house of Macub, the son of Amuel in Lodabar. Then King David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Makir, the son of Amul from Lodabar.
Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul,
was come unto David, he fell on his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth,
and he answered, Behold thy servant. And David said unto him, Fear
not, for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's
sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father,
and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. And he bowed
himself and said, What is thy servant? Thou shouldst look upon
such a dead dog as I am. Then the king called to Ziba,
Saul's servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master's
son all that pertain to Saul and all his house. Thou therefore
and thy sons and thy servants shall till the land for him,
and thou shalt bring in the fruits that thy master's son may have
food to eat. But Mephibosheth, thy master's son, shall eat bread
always at my table. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and
twenty servants. Then said Ziba unto the king,
according to all my lord the king hath commanded his servant,
so shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the
king, he shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons. And
Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micah, and all
that dwelt in the house of Ziba were servants unto Mephibosheth.
So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he did eat continually at
the king's table, and was lame on both his feet. Now, if you're
a believer, that story just speaks to you. I could probably just
get down. It just speaks to you. I'm going to give you the back
story to this here. So Saul, the former king of Israel, God's
former anointed king, he is dead. His son, Jonathan, is dead. And now David, he sits on the
throne of Israel, and he is the mightiest king. He is the mightiest
man on the face of the earth right now. Scriptures say the
fear of David fell over all nations. He is the mightiest king on the
face of the earth. Now, this is how it worked back in the
day. You had a king. He sat on his throne. And it was expected
that the kingship would go through the bloodline. So the man sat
on the throne. It was expected that his heir
would sit on the throne after him, and his heir after him, and so
on and so forth. It went through the bloodline. But every once
in a while, a new family would come over. And they would take
over the line of the throne. And they would put their patriarch
on the throne. And it was expected that his bloodline would then take
over. And that's what we have here. The Lord removed Saul,
and he put David on the throne. Now, a very dangerous place to
find yourself, very dangerous place, is being an heir of the
former king, a son of the former king. Because what was expected
at this time, what was common, is the new king would come in
and he would wipe out all the heirs of the old king. He would
slaughter every one of them because they were seen as threats to
the new king's rule. And the sons of Saul, Mephibosheth,
in all Saul's house, they had every reason to expect that that's
exactly what David was going to do. One David, David's soldiers
were going to darken their door, and they were coming with the
edge of the sword, just cut them all down. That's what they could
expect. But go back to verse 1, and let's
read David's inquiry. And David said, is there yet
any that is left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness
for Jonathan's sake? Now, I told you before, we're
going to tell the story of every believer's salvation from beginning to end,
and every story has to have a beginning. And I can't help but notice that
the story of my salvation, it begins the same way this story
begins. It begins with a sovereign king sitting on his mighty throne,
purposing to show mercy to a select group of people. The House of
Saul. Picture of God's elect. If you're
a believer, that's how the story of your salvation begins. With
a sovereign king, he has a will, he has the power to make his
will come to pass, and it always does. A sovereign king sitting
on his throne, purposing to show mercy to whom he will show mercy. If you're a believer, that's
how the story of your salvation begins. What does the world teach? What
would false religion say about the beginnings of salvation?
False religion would tell you that salvation begins when a
man makes a choice for Jesus, when he accepts the Lord Jesus
Christ as his savior, when he allows the Lord to be his king.
That's the language that's used. False religion would tell you
that salvation begins when a man makes a choice for God. To tell
you the truth, I don't care what men say. I care what the scriptures
say. If you would, turn to John chapter
15 and look at verse 16. This was the plainest scripture
I could find concerning this point. John 15, look at verse 16. This
is the Lord talking to his disciples. The Lord starts and he says,
ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that
you should go and bring forth fruit. and that your fruit should
remain. And whatsoever you shall ask
of the Father in my name, he may give it you." You have not
chosen me, but I have chosen you. What plainer language could
possibly be used? Now, in reference to this, in
reference to the Lord being the decision maker, the one who makes
the choice, I have two questions for you. Concerning this story,
here's the first question. Were there any members of Saul's
house in this story who were seeking David and seeking David's
mercy. Not one. Was there anyone who
saw sons pounding on the throne room door? David, be merciful
to me. David, be merciful to me. Do you read that anywhere?
No. No, they were running from David.
They were hiding from him. And that's our natural case.
Fleeing from God. Fully expecting his wrath, his
enemies, by nature. Michael hit it right on the head.
By nature, we don't seek him. He seeks us. And if the Lord
puts it in your heart for you to seek Him, it's because He's
already sought you out. That's the truth concerning you
and me. Second question. Prior to making this decree,
David makes this decree that he will show mercy. Does he inquire
about the fitness of Saul's house to receive mercy? Did David look
at any one of his servants and say, tell me about the sons of
Saul? Tell me about them. Are they good folks? They take
good care of their families? They read the Bible. They go
to church. They pay their tithes. They're involved in the community.
Did David make any inquiry about Saul's descendants and their
fitness to receive mercy? Not a one. David showed mercy
for one reason, and it was for Jonathan's sake. You guys know
where I'm going with this. Why would the Lord show mercy
to a sinner like me, a sinner like you? It's for one reason.
I'm going to quote you the scripture. It's Ephesians 4.32. says, and
be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. That's why we're
forgiven. It's all for Christ's sake. Now,
talking about that, something happened between David and Jonathan
that David would purpose to show mercy to his house. Let's find
out what happened. If you would, turn over to 1 Samuel 20. While you're turning there, I'll
give you the back story here. So Saul, the former king of Israel,
he had taken David into his inner circle from a very young age.
And the scriptures say that David behaved himself wisely, and he
was mighty in battle, and he was loved by all the people.
At some point, David grew to more fame and more popularity
than Saul had, and Saul hated him for this. He was very jealous
of him, and he set out to kill him. But Saul's son, Jonathan,
he loved David very much. The scriptures say that David
and Jonathan, their hearts were knit together. They had a very
special relationship. Let's read what happened between David and
Jonathan concerning this thing. 1 Samuel 20, look at verse 12. And Jonathan said unto David,
O Lord God of Israel, when I have sounded my father about tomorrow
any time, or the third day, and behold, if there be good toward
David, and I then send not unto thee, and shew it thee, the Lord
do so, and much more to Jonathan. But if it please my father to
do the evil, then I will show it thee, and send thee away,
that thou mayest go in peace. And the Lord be with thee, as
he hath been with my father." Now let's stop there. So here's
what Jonathan says. He says, I'm going to go to my
father, I'm going to feel him out. And if he's not angry with you anymore,
if he's gotten over it all, I'm going to let you know so you
can come back and you can be with us, you can be in peace. But if he's still
angry, if he still intends to kill you, I'm going to tell you
that too. And you're going to be able to flee, you're going to be able to get
away. Now pick up in verse 14. And thou shalt not only while
yet I live show me the kindness of the Lord that I die not, but
also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house forever.
No, not when the Lord hath cut off the enemies of David, everyone
from the face of the earth. Now don't miss this. So Jonathan
made a covenant with the house of David saying, let the Lord
even required at the hand of David's enemies. David purposed
to be merciful to the house of Jonathan, Jonathan's descendants,
because he had entered into a covenant with Jonathan, a covenant. Now,
this is simple. What's the type here? This is
the covenant of grace. This is the eternal covenant.
It's the everlasting covenant, the covenant that never had a
beginning and it never had an end. This is where the father
looked at the son. He said, those that I've chosen
in you, those ones that are a part of your body, I'm going to look
to you for everything I require of them. Everything I require
of them. I'm going to hold you accountable for it. They won't
be held accountable at all. You'll be held accountable for
everything. You're going to come. You're going to live for them.
You're going to die for them. You're going to suffer for them.
And you're going to bring them back to me without a scratch
on them. You know what the son said? I will. They struck hands. An eternal
handshake. an everlasting handshake that's
without beginning and without end. I'll tell you what, as soon
as they struck hands, the eternal security of everyone in the elect
was accomplished. The covenant of grace. And I'll
tell you folks, that's my only hope. Lord Jesus Christ, he is
not only a member of that covenant, he is the covenant. He is the
manifestation of that covenant. He is the covenant keeper. And
on Judgment Day, this is all my hope, this is it. On Judgment
Day, when I stand there and my name is called, I'm not going
to say a word. My only hope is that the Lord Jesus Christ is
going to turn to the Father and He's going to show Him His hands.
He's going to show Him His side. And the Father looks and He says,
I'm happy with that one. I'm happy with that one. He's
in that covenant. I'm happy with that one. No fault
with Him whatsoever. The covenant of grace. and he's
the fulfillment of that covenant. Now, if you would, go back to
our text. Look at verse 2 of 2 Samuel 9. We're introduced
to the sole descendant of Saul's house, Mephibosheth. 2 Samuel 9, verse 2, And there
was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when
they had called him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou
Ziba? And he said, Thy servant is he. And the king said, Is
there not yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness
of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king,
Jonathan hath yet a son which is lame on his feet. And the
king said unto him, Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king,
Behold, he is in the house of Makir, the son of Ammiel, in
Lodabar. Now, Mephibosheth is a type of
the believer. And we get some information about
him. And the first thing I want to discuss is his name. Mephibosheth
means, amongst other things, a shameful thing. A shameful
thing. Now, what possessed Jonathan
to name his son a shameful thing? I do not know, but I'm very thankful
for it because we learn a lot from it. Now, a shameful thing. What is the source or the reason
for shame? It's guilt, is it not? And what's
the reason for guilt? It's sin. It's sin. Mephibosheth,
he's a shameful thing. He's a guilty thing. He is a
sinful thing. He sounds exactly like you and
me. We get his name. We also get
some more information about him. We find out that he has an ailment,
that he's lame. He's crippled. He cannot walk.
And the circumstances surrounding how he received this ailment
are very interesting. If you would, turn to 2 Samuel 4, verse
4. 2 Samuel 4 and the fourth verse.
And Jonathan Saul's son had a son that was lame on his feet. He
was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan unto
Jezreel. Now, we'll stop for a minute.
Those tidings were that Saul and Jonathan were dead. They
came back to the people, and I believe it was the Philistines
that said that Saul and Jonathan are dead, and everyone was afraid
that the warring armies were going to come in and just wipe
them out, wipe them out. So pick a breeding. And his nurse took
him up and fled. And it came to pass as she made
haste to flee that he fell, and he became lame. and his name
was Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth was lame through
a fall. Now this is very simple, very
easy. What kind of fall do we think of? This is where we fell
on Adam. Back in the garden, the Lord
created Adam upright and innocent, not holy, but upright and innocent. An upright and innocent man was
placed in this garden and was given one commandment to keep.
One commandment, you can eat all the fruit of all the trees
of this garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. The day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. An upright
man with one commandment to keep, and he breaks it. He falls, and
he loses that upright and innocent nature, and he takes on a sinful,
evil, wretched, fallen nature. And he has passed that down to
every descendant after him, down to me, down to you, down to your
children, to your grandchildren. Every man born in this world
has inherited that sinful, wretched, evil nature in Adam. Now, that's
the truth. That's the teaching of Scripture.
But I would be doing you a disservice if I stopped there. My pastor
always brings this out. Anytime he's dealing with Adam,
he's dealing with the garden. He brings this point out, and it's a blessing
to me, and I'm going to bring it out to you. For a moment, I want you to forget
about Adam. I want you to forget for a moment
that you've inherited an evil, sinful nature based on what your
federal head has done. Forget about him. I would ask
you simply this, how have you done on your own? Answer this, just be honest with
yourself for a moment. I'm going to be honest with myself.
Have you ever kept one of God's holy laws one time in your heart? I never have. And in and of myself,
I never will. How can you stack up against
holiness? I don't even know what words to use to describe that
word. It's just other. How can you stack up against
it? You cannot stand. I cannot stand. We are sinners
in Adam, no doubt. And when he was in the garden,
we were too. We were in Adam. When he ate that fruit, we ate
that fruit. We are sinners of our own accord as well. The circumstances
we find ourselves in, it's what we have earned for ourselves.
It is all our fault. Can you believe that? That's
the truth. Mephibosheth, he's a shameful
thing, he's a fallen thing, and he's lame. Now this word lame,
when it's used in the scripture, what it oftentimes speaks of
is inability. Because Mephibosheth was crippled, he was lame, there
were things he could not do. And I thought of three of them.
The first thing was, he was unable to provide for himself. Everything
he needed to live, he could not provide. He couldn't till a garden.
Couldn't work the fields. Couldn't grow crops. He couldn't
raise animals. He couldn't build a house for himself. He couldn't
chop firewood. All these things that were necessary to live,
he could not do. He was lame. He was unable. And I find myself in that same
boat. Everything the Father requires of me, I can't come up with.
The synatone. Making up for everything I've
done and everything I've said and all the evil imaginations
that have crossed my heart, I can't make up for those things. I can't
provide something that the Father would deem good. This isn't a
time when I can't come up with a real righteousness before the
law. I've never kept the law, not one time, in and of myself.
I'm unable to provide those things I need to stand before the Father
in and of myself. I'm lame. I'm unable. Second thing he couldn't do,
he was unable to get to David. Michael, that was, after you
got done speaking, I was like, there's no reason for me to get
up. That was one of the best things I've ever heard in my entire life.
I'm going to talk about this for a second. He was unable to
get to David. Think about this for a moment.
What if David would have wrote a letter addressed to Mephibosheth,
said, listen, we'd love to have you up here in Jerusalem, love
to have you, and I intend to bless you with all kinds of blessings. I'm going to give you all this
stuff, and I'm going to provide for you. And he put it in an
envelope, and he gave it to a runner. And the runner goes down to Lodabar,
and he knocks on Mephibosheth's door, and he hands him the letter.
And he opens it up and says, king wants to see you. He's going
to give you all this. He's going to provide all these
things for you. All you have to do is get to the king. And
the servant turns around and walks away. Would that have done
Mephibosheth any good whatsoever? He's crippled, he's lame, and
he can't get to David. Folks, an invitation will do
me no good. Will do me absolutely no good. I can't get to God,
and I cannot come to Christ. By nature, I am unable. Michael's
right. We can't because we won't. But
also, we lack the spiritual ability. I can't believe. I lack the ability
in and of myself to believe. I can't muster faith in and of
myself. I'm unable. I lack the ability.
I need the same thing Mephibosheth got. What did David do for him? He said, go and fetch him. He
went down to where Mephibosheth was at, and that's where I need
him to come get me at, in all my sin, in all my depravity,
in all my unbelief, in all my lack of faith. I need him to
come to me where I'm at and come fetch me and take me back to
where he's at. That's what I have to have. That's
what I need. If it's left up to me to get
to David, I'll never come. But he has to come get me. And
that's where I'm at. He couldn't provide for himself.
He couldn't get to David. And he was unable to do anything
for David. And that's contrary to what we see nowadays. If you
see a powerful man And let's say he wants to do something
nice for lack of a better term, a lesser individual. It's always
because that lesser individual can do something for him. He
can use him in some way. He can do something with him.
He's going to be kind to him so he can use him. That's what
we normally see. But Mephibosheth couldn't do
anything for David. He was crippled. There was nothing he could do
for David. David had to do everything for Mephibosheth. In false religion,
they are constantly talking about what they're doing for Jesus.
what they're doing for God. A believer, you know this, salvation
is not what we do for him. It's what he does for us. That's
Mephibosheth. He couldn't provide for himself,
and he couldn't get to David, and he couldn't do anything for
David. And if you notice where Mephibosheth is at, he's in this
land called Lodabar. Me and Greg were talking about
this last night. Lodabar means a house with no bread and a land
with no pasture. Now think about that for a minute.
It's not that deep. You think about it. If there's
no pasture, there's no food for the animals, no land for them
to be on, no animals can be there. A house with no bread. There's
no food. What can't you have? There's
no life. There's no life. A land of no life. And that sums
us up just perfectly. Dwelling in a land of no life.
Dead in trespasses and sins. And you guys have heard this
example time and time again, but I'm going to give it to you again. Say
a dead man is here right now. Yell at him. Say, listen to me.
He can't hear a word you're going to say. Yell at him all day long.
He's dead. Go up there. Say, walk. Kick him in the ribs.
Tell him to walk. He can't walk. He's dead. Whisper
in his ear and tell him to believe. He's dead. He lacks the ability. He has to be given spiritual
life. Mephibosheth, a type of the believer, type of us, Now,
if you would, turn back to our text, 2 Samuel 9, look at verse
5, and let's see what David did for this man. Now, there's a word there that
jumped off the page at me, and you all know which one it is.
It's fetched. Fetched. That's a really interesting word.
It's a country word. We'd use that in Kentucky. We go fetch stuff
from time to time. Looking at this word and seeing
what it means, it means to take. Very simply, it just means to
reach out and take. And I love to think about that.
I love to think about the Lord just reaching out and taking
me and doing it with no respect for my thoughts or my opinions
or my will. He just acts. And I, it's irresistible,
absolutely irresistible. The thing that's being taken,
me, I have no power to resist His will, nor do I want to. I
want to just reach out and take me. I love it that way, to take. Now, there's a couple different
ways I thought about this in which we've been fetched. A couple
different ways, and I'll see if I can bring this out to you.
First, if you would, turn to Ephesians 1, verse 3. I thought about this concept
of being eternally fetched or eternally taken. Ephesians 1, pick up in verse
3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. Now, a question. Where were we,
according to the scripture, when we were chosen? We were in Christ. And that before the foundation
of the world. Now, a question to you. Did the Lord Jesus Christ
ever have a beginning? Is He ever going to have an end?
No, He's eternal. And we have always been in an
eternal union with Him. We have always been in Him. What
does that mean to me? What does that mean to you? That
means that everywhere He's been, I've been. And where he's at
right now, that's where I'm at too. An eternal union with the
Lord Jesus Christ. So that means when he came to
this world, and when he kept the law, every jot and every
tittle, and he honored his father in all things, you and I were
in him. That righteousness, he worked
out, that really is our righteousness because we were in him. He worked it out, and it really
is ours. And when he went to the cross,
when he took on my sin, and your sin, the sin of every member
of the elect, and he became that sin, and he bled and he died
and he suffered for our sin, we were in him. We really did
die. We really were punished in him. And when he was resurrected,
signifying that full satisfaction had been made with the Father,
when he said, it is finished, it truly is finished, we were
brought back to the dead in him. an eternal union with the Lord
Jesus Christ. Justification is real. Fetched. Always been fetched. And everlasting being fetched.
Also, we're fetched in our experience. And that's through the call of
irresistible, invincible grace. At some point in a member of
the elect's life, the Lord sends his spirit into a man's heart.
And this spirit in the beginning, this is a very unsuspecting thing.
It's a withering spirit. It's where it exposes the man
who he really is. and who Christ really is. You see really that
you are nothing but a sinner. There's nothing you can bring
to the table. And you see the Lord in all his glory and you
just melt. You just wither before him. And that's the spirit that
draws you to himself. Fetched eternally, but fetched
in our experience. Now, an interesting way this
word is used, the root word here for fetched, oftentimes in the
scripture it's talking, saying to take. And oftentimes it's
referring to a man taking a wife. It's actually talking about marriage.
There's actually a time in the scripture where that word for fetch is
just directly translated married. And so what's the point? Turn
to Ephesians 5.25 and look at the commandment of marriage. Ephesians 5.25 says, husbands,
love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church. Now, this
is a very simple point, and everybody knows this, but I want to bring
it out again. Right now, this morning, if you are looking to
the Lord Jesus Christ alone as your only hope of acceptance
with the Father, do you know that you have all the love that
the Father could possibly bestow? It is all bestowed upon you in
Christ. That's the truth. Now, I know
that's a simple point. Somebody says, everybody knows
that, but why would you bring that up? For this reason. By nature, I am
a warrior. I worry about everything. I'm
always waiting for the other shoe to fall. I'm always waiting for
what's around the corner next. I have no idea, but that's the
way I'm built. But if I have all the love the Father could
possibly have to offer, and what a horrible way of saying that.
There's no bounds to the love He could offer. It's just an
endless amount of love. That same love with which He
loves the Lord Jesus Christ, He loves every member of the
elect. What could we possibly worry
about? I mean, what could we possibly fear? Bert, would you
do any of your children any harm? I guess sometimes you might.
The Father's not going to do any of us any harm. He loves
us. And everything that happens, that's just His will come to
pass. And we rest. Everything comes about. We know
the purpose of it. It's for His glory and for our
good. He's perfecting us. We're being
grown up. Perfecting us in Christ. But
the commandment doesn't stop there. If you look back at Ephesians
5.25, it says, Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also
loved the church and gave himself for it. See, that love, that
cost him something. It cost him something. And this
is the fetching I am most thankful for. This is the fetching that
took place on that cross. On that cross, a purchase was
made. A purchase. It was a purchase of blood. You
walk into a store, you see something there that says it costs $5.
You grab that item, you hand them $5, you own it. It's yours. What do you do? You take it with
you. And you do whatever it is you want with it because you
purchased it. No one can take that from you. You own it. And
that was the purchase of blood. And he owns me. And he owns you.
If you're a believer. With that purchase of blood.
And what does that mean to me? That means that he takes me with
him. And right now, he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
enjoying all the favor, the friendship, and the communion that you could
possibly have with the Father. He's enjoying it right now. And
right now, we are with him, enjoying those same things. When we get
to glory, we're going to find one thing out, that we have always
been there. Always been there. All right. Go back to our text
in 2 Samuel 9, and look at verse 6. Let's see what happens when
the Lord fetches a sinner. Now when Mephibosheth, the son
of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell
on his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth?
And he answered, Behold, thy servant. Now can you imagine
the fear Mephibosheth must have felt when he was brought into
David's court? He's probably in the middle of
the throne room somewhere along there. He's either laying down or he's sitting
because he can't stand. And there in front of him is
David on this beautiful high throne, the mightiest man on
the face of the earth. And he's in this throne room
that's encrusted with gold and all these beautiful jewels and
everything is large and imposing. and majestic, and there's David's
advisors on one side, and then these armor-clad soldiers on
the other. Large men, large swords, everything's
very imposing. The fear Mephibosheth must have
felt, really for two reasons. He knew two things. First thing
he knew was he was in the hands of a sovereign king who could
do with him as he saw fit. He was in the hands of a sovereign.
Mephibosheth had no delusions of free will. The only will that was going
to be done in that throne room was David's will. That's the
first thing he knew. And here's the second thing he
knew. He knew that his house, the house of Saul, had made themselves
the enemy of David. I want you to note the order
I said that in. They had made themselves the enemy of David.
David never made himself Saul's enemy. If you read the scriptures,
David was always very careful not to raise a hand to Saul.
He had great respect for Saul because he knew that Saul, during
that time, was God's anointed king. He says, I won't raise
a hand to God's anointed. He had great respect for him.
Saul constantly made himself David's enemies. And that's what
Mephibosheth knew. He and his house had made himself
the enemies of God. Now, let me ask you this. When
you first found out who the Lord really is, when he really revealed
himself to you, is this not where you found yourself? Face down
before a sovereign, knowing that he's the one who's in control.
And you knew your house, the house of Adam, you had made yourselves
the enemy of God. And you are face down before
this sovereign king, and you are wondering, what in the world
is he going to do with me? Now, I would notice Mephibosheth's
response. And the first thing I would notice
about it is what he did not say. Mephibosheth did not come in
and say, well, Dave, what I think I'm going to do is I'm going
to allow you to show me some mercy. I'm going to accept your kindness.
And if you'll just bend down here, because I can't stand up,
if you'll just bend down here, I'm going to put this crown on
your head, and I'm going to allow you to be my king. anything foolish like that come
out of the process with no I'll tell you what if he would've
I have no doubt that he would've got about two words out before
one of the soldiers would come over there with the edge of the
sword and just hacked into pieces. This was David, this was the
sovereign king of Israel, this was the mightiest man on the
face of the earth and he would not be talked to like that. But
that wasn't his response. Mephibosheth's response was simple,
it was worship. It says he fell on his face and
he did reverence and that is the response of the believer,
a member of the elect, being whisked in the courts of the
holy God and standing before him. You fall on your face and
you do reverence. There's no argument to be made.
There's no argument. You're not blaming your father
Adam. You're not blaming the sovereignty of God. And you know,
you know this, if he's not pleased to show me mercy, I am just getting
exactly what I deserve. Is that the truth? Look at David's response. Look
back at 2 Samuel 9 verse 7. And David said unto him, Fear
not, for I will surely, surely show thee kindness for Jonathan
thy father's sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy
father, and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. David
said, Fear not. Now I had listened recently to
Henry Mahan preach a message on this. And he said something
here that it almost knocked me down off my feet when I heard
it. I'm just going to quote it to you. So just listen to it.
This is Henry Mahan's statement. He said, the Lord will never
say fear not to those who fear not. It is only those who fear
to whom he says fear not. Now I would ask this, have you
and I ever experienced the fear of God? I want to ask that question
this morning. What is it, though? What is the
fear of God? Well, it has something to do with this. It says the
fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. You don't know anything
until you fear God. But what is it? What is it really
to fear God? It's actually pretty simple. The fear of God is simple.
It is a reverent fear. It's an awe-inspired fear. It's
a respectful fear, where you see him in all his wonderful
attributes, in his wonderful character, and you just melt.
You just melt. And you're afraid. You're afraid
to look anywhere but Christ alone for your hope of salvation. That's
what you're afraid to do. I can't look at myself. I'm afraid
to look at myself because I can't bring anything to the table.
My best work is sheer iniquity. There's nothing I can come up
with by nature that God could accept. I'm afraid to look there.
There's no hope there. I'm afraid to look at my experiences.
You want to know why? Because I don't know if any of
them are real. People say, well, I had a religious experience
years ago. I made a profession of faith. Maybe you did, maybe
you didn't, but what about today? My feelings. I can't trust my
feelings. One day I'm up. One day I listen
to the gospel and my heart burns inside of me and I feel like
the Lord's just speaking to me. And there's some days that I've
listened to messages and everyone around me is rejoicing and enjoying
it and it's falling on deaf ears with me. I can't trust who I
am, my merits. I can't trust my experiences,
my feelings. All I've got right now, I'm afraid to do anything
but just look to Christ right now. Not looking at yesterday's
faith, not planning on doing it tomorrow. Right now, just
keep my eyes on Him. I'm afraid to look anywhere else because
there's no hope anywhere else. That's the fear of God. And I pray the
fear of God will descend upon all of us. For this reason, it's
because of what David says here. He says, fear not, I will surely
show you mercy. Surely show you mercy, not perhaps,
not maybe, not if I feel like it. He says, I will surely, for
everyone who's afraid, for everyone who is facedown, afraid, afraid
to look anywhere but to Christ alone, you have this sure promise.
I will surely show you mercy. That's definite. That's definite. And I need mercy. And notice
what David says here. He says he pledges to restore
Mephibosheth. It's the same thing that's been pledged to us. Everything
we lost in Adam, the Lord's pledged to restore it to us. But actually
it's so much more, so much better than Adam ever had it. Adam was
created upright and innocent, but he wasn't holy. He wasn't
holy because holiness never changes. There's no change to it. It's
always the same. And Adam changed, didn't he?
He fell. He proved he could change because he fell. And that was
at his own hand. But every believer, and right
now, right now, every believer has been conformed to the image
of Jesus Christ. We are holy in him, and that state is unchangeable. Now, I know the fear of falling
away is there. I know it is. I know we're constantly worried.
Tomorrow, am I going to lose interest? Am I going to get swept
away with a false doctrine? If it doesn't fear anybody else
here, I'm fearful of it. But there's no reason to have
that fear. Every believer in Christ is holy,
and that is an unchangeable state, never going to fall away, eternally
preserved. Now, if you want to look back
at our text, look at verse 8. This is Mephibosheth's statement
concerning himself. And he bowed himself and said,
what is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon such a dead
dog as I am? Now, perhaps someone here today,
perhaps, will find out for the first time that the Lord has
purposed to show them mercy. Perhaps it will happen to somebody
here today. And if you do, this is going
to be the thought that's going to linger on your heart and your
mind, and it will be for the rest of your life, to the day you die.
Why me? Why me? Why would you show mercy?
Of all these people, why would you show mercy to a dead dog
like me? Look at everything I've done,
look at everything I've thought, everything I've said, look at
all the evil imaginations that have crossed my heart. Why would
you be merciful to me? But here's the best part of this,
and I cannot stress this enough. He does not look for reason in
me to show mercy. And if he did, he would not find
one. He looks to Christ. And he looks at that covenant.
And in him he finds all the reason he needs to show mercy to a dead
dog like me. Now if you would, look at verse
9 of our text. David wasn't just merciful, he
was very gracious. Then the king called to Ziba,
Saul's servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master's
son all that pertain to Saul and to all his house. Thou therefore
and thy sons and thy servants shall till the land for him,
and thou shalt bring in the fruits that thy master's son may have
food to eat. But Mephibosheth, thy master's son, shall eat bread
always at my table." Now look how David provided for Mephibosheth. We talked about before, Mephibosheth
couldn't provide for himself. But David provided everything
for him. That's the same thing Lord Jesus Christ does for him.
That sin atonement we can't come up with? Provided. Real righteousness
before the law? Provided. Real holiness, making
us fit for fellowship and friendship with God himself? Freely provided.
And here's the best part of this. There was nothing left for Mephibosheth
to do. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't
provide anything. But there was nothing for him
to provide. All he had to do was enjoy the free blessings
that were given to him by the king. I'm thankful for the Lord's
grace, because it's absolutely free. Now, if you would, look at verse
11. Lord, give Mephibosheth a new identity. Then said Zibon to
the king, according to all that my lord the king hath commanded
his servant, so shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said
the king, he shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons. Phibosheth became a son. Turn
to Romans 8 and look at verse 14. Romans 8 verse 14, For as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit
of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Now, believer, make no
mistake. You have a new identity and you
have a new family. You are the children of God himself. You
have been adopted. Adopted. Now, I love when the
scripture talks about adoption because the parallels between
physical adoption in this world and the gospel are so great.
And I'll just bring out a few of them. First one, in adoption
on this world, who chooses who? Do the parents choose the children
or do the children choose the parents? I say the parents choose
the children. It's no different with our Lord.
Divine election is absolutely true. In adoption, who needs
who? That child has been neglected,
left alone by their parents. They need somebody to provide
for them, to take care of them, and to love them. That child
desperately needs those parents. I have a coworker who adopted
some twin girls from China recently. Well, it's not recently. It was
actually years ago, but he recently told me the story. And he told me the
whole story of the adoption process, and he flew over to China. He
had never seen these girls before. He flew over to China, and he
adopted them, and he brought them back home. And what stuck
with me about the story was that he told me at the end of it,
he goes, to do all that, he goes, it cost me right around $20,000
to $25,000. To some people, I guess, by my
standard, that's a lot of money. And I think just by anybody's
standard, that's a lot of money. $20,000 to $25,000 to go get
a couple of twin girls that they had never met before and never
seen. It came to him at a very large cost. Adoption is very
costly. I'm going to give you a story
real quick, and I want you to think about something. And this
will be the story of our adoption. And especially you parents, I
think you'll enter into this. Let's say for a moment that you
have a son, and you love him with all your heart, and he loves
you with all his heart, and he is always obedient to you in
everything. Everything you've ever commanded
him to do, he does it, does it right on the spot, and he's happy
to do it. Always obedient. He loves you to death, and you
love him to death. This is your birth son. And you find this
other child. This child has been abandoned
by his parents. And he is a very unruly child. He's very disobedient. And he absolutely hates you.
And he shakes his fist in your face every chance he gets. And
every opportunity he gets, he tries to run away. And you think,
I might want to adopt that kid. So you go to the adoption company.
You say, OK, you see that kid there? I want to adopt him. Adoption
company says, you want that disobedient one. You want that hell raiser. But he's always trying to run
away from you. I mean, he's cursing your name right now. You want
him? He said, I want that one. I said,
OK. You want him, you can have him.
But it's going to cost you. What I need you to do is you
take your birth son, the son you love, the one who loves you
so dearly, you take him out back. And what I want you to do is
you just start punching him in the face until you can't tell
what he looks like anymore. That one you love, your birth
son, I want you to raise up his shirt. Here's his whip. I want
you just to whip him until his back is bloody and blue. You
see that pole out there? Here's his nails and his hammer.
You go nail him hand and feet to that pole. Here's a spear.
Shove this in his side and I want you to just step back and you
just watch the blood flow. When he's dead and it's finished. you can have that unruly one. But not until. That's the cost of our adoption. Sometimes I think I'm starting
to understand the person and the character and the love of
God. And I think about that sacrifice. I don't know anything about it. All right. Let's see how that
story ends. 2 Samuel 9, verse 12. And Mephibosheth had a young
son whose name was Micah. And all that dwelt in the house
of Ziba were servants unto Mephibosheth. So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem,
for he did eat continually at the king's table. Don't miss
this. And was lame on both his feet. Now, if I would have written
this story, that's not how I would have ended it. I would have said,
and David's doctors went over to Mephibosheth, and they worked
on him, and he was healed. And he walked, and he worked,
and he was profitable unto David for the rest of his life. That's
how I would have ended the story. But thank the Lord, I did not
write this story. Because if that's how it ended,
I would have no hope. Mephibosheth, he tells my story from beginning
to end. I'm a dead dog. But I'm also a son of the king.
And I enjoy all the blessings of sonship. But you know what? I'm still lame on both my feet. I am just as incapable of keeping
the ball as I have ever been. The imaginations of my natural
heart are only evil, and that continually. That hasn't changed.
My sins are ever before me. Now I want you to know something.
If you are trusting Christ alone as your only hope of salvation,
you can answer that question right now if you are or aren't.
Not Christ and. Not Christ and something or Christ
minus something. If you are looking to him alone
as your only hope of salvation, and I'm not asking you how well
you can see him. I'm asking the direction you're
looking. If you're looking to him alone, you know you are absolutely
and utterly righteous right now. In the sight of God himself,
he who sees things as they really are. That's the truth. But I'm going to ask you all
this. Anybody here feel righteous? Anybody here have an experience
of righteousness? I don't. I don't. I don't think any believer does.
We know our righteousness in Him by faith, but here's my experience,
folks. I'm a sinner. And nothing more. How do you
marry those two points? How is it my experience that I am nothing
but sin, but in Christ right now I am absolutely righteous?
Two men. Two men. The old man and the new man.
The new man. He's there, I know, because I
believe. I do. I trust Christ alone. I do. He's
there. He's real. He's alive. But that old man's
there, too. And I know him better than the new man, to be quite
honest. He's still there, and he's the old man. He's still
wretched, and he's still sinful, and he's still dead. but the
new man's there too. That's the only way you could
possibly understand those two concepts, the new nature. All
right. I'm going to ask you all a few
questions in conclusion. Are there any Mephibosheths here
this morning? Is anybody here a shameful thing,
a guilty thing, a sinful thing? Anybody here lame? I'm talking
about just absolutely void of any type of spiritual ability
in and of yourself, just crippled. You can't provide for yourself,
you can't get to David, and you can't do anything for David.
Is there anybody here who is face down before a sovereign
God, trembling in fear, wondering what in the world is he going
to do with me? If there is anyone here who I've
just described who's in that same spot, I got good news. It's
good news. He looks at you and he says,
fear not. See, the king has purposed to be merciful to the remnant
of the house of Adam, and it's all for Christ's sake. And now
every Mephibosheth is a son. He's a son. And you eat continually
at your master's table, and that table, it covers your lame feet. You walk into David's throne
room, you saw everybody eating around that table. You looked at Mephibosheth,
you would have never known he was lame. He's sitting by that
table, and that table covered his lame feet. You'd never known
it. So what's left? You just keep your eyes on the
king, and you give thanks for all the free blessings he's given
you. I'll stop there. Let's stand together. More secure is no one ever Than
the loved ones of the Savior, Not yon star on high abiding,
Nor the bird in home nest hiding. God his own doth tend and nourish,
In his holy courts they flourish, Like a father kind he spares
them, In his loving arms he bears them. Neither life nor death
can ever from the Lord his children sever, for his love and deep
compassion comforts them in tribulation. Little flock, to joy then yield
thee, Jacob's God will ever shield thee. Rest secure with this defender,
at his will all foes surrender. What he takes or what he gives
us shows a father's love so precious. We may trust his purpose wholly,
tis his children's welfare solely. Aaron, thank you. Thank the Lord. I tried to make
any comments at all about that message. It would not be right.
Amen. Let's pray. Merciful Heavenly Father, thank
you for allowing us, calling us, causing us to be here this
morning. Thank you for your sweet Holy
Spirit. Thank you for the clarity and the power of thy word. Thank
you for what we've heard. We pray Lord that you would cause
us to remember these words. To identify with our brother
Mephibosheth. And to worship our King. For
it's in his name we pray. Amen. All right.