Good morning, brethren. Let's
turn in our Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 9. Thursday night we saw at the
end of the message how that when Jonathan heard of David, their
hearts were knit together. And that made me think about
this passage, they made a covenant with each other. Jonathan and
David made a covenant with each other. Jonathan said to David,
this is in another passage, let me just read it to you. He said,
thou shall not cut off thy kindness from my house forever. He knew
David was going to the throne, he knew David was the king and
would be ascending to the throne, promised to help David, to do
for David, and he asked David to make this promise. He said,
thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house forever. No, not
when the Lord hath cut off the enemies of David, every one from
the face of the earth. Now, 16 years pass. 16 years pass from the day they
entered that covenant, and David has ascended to the throne. He's
the king. He's the king. God and the Lamb
are in the throne. And before this world was made,
God the Father and God the Son entered into an everlasting covenant,
just like Jonathan and David did. Christ promised to redeem
his people, honor God's law, and establish the glory of God
for his people. And the Father promised to save
all those that Christ redeemed. Now Saul's dead at this point.
And Jonathan's dead. They're both gone. And usually
the new king, when he came to the throne, he showed no kindness
to the former king, especially if that king was his enemy. And
Saul was his enemy. And so David had cut off the
sons of Saul. He had killed the sons of Saul. God will not spare one sinner. His justice demands he not spare
one sinner. And he won't. He owes no man
anything due to our rebellion, none at all. But when David became
the king, this was the first thing David did. Right here,
2 Samuel 9 verse 1. David said, is there yet any
that's left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness,
mercy 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 to 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 that's what we see here in
this remembering Jonathan and for Jonathan's sake showing mercy
to Jonathan's house. We see in that the kindness,
the mercy of God is what we're looking at. And Ziba said to
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 to the king,
behold, he's in the house of Maker, the son of Emil in Lodibar. Then King David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Maker, the son of Emil from Lodibar. Now, in David's showing mercy
here for Jonathan's sake, we have a beautiful picture of God
showing mercy to sinners for the sake of Christ his son. Beautiful picture of God's mercy
for Christ's sake. Now, first of all, God is sovereign
to work his will. It says there, David said, he's
ascended to the throne. He didn't have to do this. David
said, is there any left of the house of Saul that I may show
him kindness for Jonathan's sake? David desired to be merciful.
He willed to be merciful, to show kindness to somebody in
the house of Saul. Now Saul was his enemy. Saul
was his enemy. We fell in at him and we became
God's enemy. In our flesh, in our self, when
we fell, we became his enemy. So this one that's in that house,
he's related to Saul. And you would think that would
be David's enemy. And after the flesh he was, but
there was a covenant in it too. And David would show mercy for
Jonathan's sake. God's merciful to whomsoever
he will. He chose who he would be merciful
for. They're called vessels of mercy, which are afore, before
the world was made, they were prepared unto glory. Just like
Jonathan and David entered this covenant 16 years before this,
God in eternity entered covenant with His Son and He would show
mercy to whom He will. And it's for the sake of Christ. He shows mercy to lame sinners.
It's for the sake of Christ because He entered covenant with Christ. Now, God said this. He said, In the last days, saith
the Lord, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. I'm
gonna come and reveal this covenant to them. I'll put my covenant
in their inward parts. I'll write it in their hearts.
And I will be their God and they shall be my people. He said,
David said, he's made with me. He knew about this covenant.
God had come and the spirit of God had written this on his heart.
And David said, he made with me an everlasting covenant. Ordered in all things. That means
he didn't leave anything in my hands. Ordered in all things
and sure, And this is all my salvation. This is all my desire. This is all my hope. This is
it, Christ saving by covenant grace. That's all my hope. Christ
Jesus fulfilled all the work given him to do. He did everything
necessary to make this covenant sure for his people and make
God just to show mercy to his people. He came and fulfilled
all righteousness. He came and honored the law because
we couldn't do it. And he came and brought in a
righteousness for his people. And he is that righteousness.
He paid the wages we owed. And for his sake, God shows mercy
to all Christ's sons. Jonathan, he had a son. And David's going to show him
mercy for Jonathan's sake. And as Christ has many sons,
he bringeth many sons to glory, and for his sake God will show
mercy. Now here's a description of the sinner that God's going
to show mercy to. Here's a description, verse 3.
The king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul that
I may show the kindness of God unto him? Ziba said to the king,
Jonathan hath yet a son. He's lame on his feet. He's lame
on his feet. The king said, where is he? Ziba
said to the king, behold, he's in the house of Maker, the son
of Emel. He's in Lodebar. Now that's a
description of every sinner that God saves by grace for Christ's
sake. He said he's lame on his feet.
He's lame on his feet. How did he become lame on his
feet? When he was a little fella, some
bad news came David had killed Saul, and he had killed all Saul's
sons, and the nurse took up this young child, took him up in her
arms, and she took off running with him, and guess what happened? She had a fall. And through that
fall, this one became lame. All his life, he couldn't walk.
Lame on his feet. Everybody God's gonna show mercy
to became lame through the fall. In Adam, we fell. In Adam, we
fell. And we didn't just become lame
on our feet, we became totally, thoroughly ruined, dead in sin,
guilty under the law. Isaiah said, from the sole of
the foot. Oh, we're lame on our feet. From
the sole of the foot, but it reaches all the way to the head.
There's no soundness in it. That's my flesh and your flesh.
That's what we are by nature. No soundness in it. wounds and
bruises and putrefying sores, had been closed up, had been
bound up, had been mollified with the balm of Gilead. Now
he said he's in the house of maker. That word maker means
sold, sold. We've sold under sin. Our sin
nature and everything we are as we come into this world, we're
sold under sin. Our sin separated us from God.
Paul said, we know the law spiritual. It requires perfection in the
heart. It requires a perfect fidelity to God in thought, word,
and deed from a pure heart, from a pure nature. Paul said, but
I'm carnal, sold under sin. We couldn't free ourselves from
sin. We were in prison. We couldn't walk out of that
prison. We couldn't pay. The sentence. The sentence was death. We had
to pay death. The death sentence had to be
executed on us. And Christ is our only one. He
came and took the place of his people and bore the death penalty
for his people so that he could free us from that prison justly.
He's in Lodebar. That means place of no pasture.
It was a dry land. No pasture. Just a dry place. That's this world. And that's
our flesh. That's what we are, and that's
what everybody is in this world, and that's what this cursed earth
is. It's a dry place. There's no life in it. You just
think about that. Christ is the life. There was
no life for anybody in this world after we fell into sin. There
was no life. This was a place of no pasture. And then Christ
came. The life came. The shepherds. bring us into his green pasture.
His name was Mephibosheth. That means shameful thing, shameful
thing. Every sinner that doesn't have
Christ, every sinner that's outside of Christ, every sinner that's
standing before God's holy law in themselves is a shameful thing. And every sinner that's in Christ
Apart from Christ. If we were not in Christ, if
we were not robed in Christ, just in ourselves, we're still
just a shameful thing. Our flesh is just a shameful
thing. But here's the good news. Our Lord Jesus Christ bore the
shame. He bore the shame. He bore the
sin. And he put it away before God's
holy law. He's the author and finisher
of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross despising what? The shame. the shame. And he sat down now at God's
right hand in the throne of God. Now not only could Mephibosheth
not bring himself to David, he couldn't bring himself to David.
But here's the thing, he couldn't bring anything to David. Even when he came to David he
had nothing to bring to David. He's lame. He's not going to
be able to add anything productive to David's kingdom. Not at all.
And brethren, you and I are not giving anything to God. God's
self-sufficient. He's the solitary God. His glory
is His own, and when He saves us, it's for our sake. We're
not adding anything to Him. God's saved by free grace. He's
saved by abundant mercy. And then look at this next thing.
It's fetching grace that brings us to him. He said there in verse
five, then King David sent and fetched him out of the house
of Maker, the son of Emel from Lodibar. We're saved by fetching
grace. David said, go fetch him. Go
bring him to me. The sinner doesn't seek God.
Mephibosheth wasn't seeking David. He was hiding from David, because
as far as Mephibosheth knew, he was an enemy to David, because
he was of Saul's house. God comes seeking the sinner.
God knows where his sheep are. Christ said, I know my sheep.
I know my sheep. I know who they are. I know where
they are. David said, if I make my bed in hell, he's there. If
I go to the uttermost parts of the earth, he's there. He knows
where his people are. They're never out of his sight. He knows where they are. And
David sent Ziba, and just like he sent Ziba, God sends the Holy
Spirit. Sends his word, sends his gospel. God said, I'm found of them that
sought me not. I'm found of them that did not
seek me. And he fetched him out. He fetched
him out. God finds us and he brings us
out of the world out of our death, out of our grave, out of our
sin, into his house, into his son. No man can come to me, Christ
said, except the father which has sent me draw him. And God
says, go fetch him. The psalmist said, blessed is
the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee,
that he may dwell in thy courts, That's what Mephibosheth, he's
being brought to dwell in the king's court. And when God calls
us, he's bringing us to dwell in the king's court. We'll be
satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. But what about, what happens
when you meet the king? And you understand, brethren,
these things we're looking at here, this does never stop. This
is the Lord's doing. The psalmist said, turn me, Lord,
and I'll be turned. When you gonna be turned? When
he fetches you and turns you. When he draws you, when he causes
you to come to him. That's beginning and end. He
keeps drawing us, drawing us, drawing us to whom coming. We
never stop coming to him, because he never stops drawing us to
him. So what happens when you meet the king? Look here in verse
six. Now when Mephibosheth, the son
of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was coming to David, He fell
on his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth,
shame, shame. And he answered, behold
thy servant. Mephibosheth was of the house
of Saul. He was David's enemy and he knew
he was David's enemy. Now you just imagine. You're
down in this dry land, and you're down there, and you're lame on
your feet, and you know there's nothing you can bring to the
king. What in the world is the king calling me for? He's going
to kill me. He's already killed Saul. He's
already killed all his sons, and here I am, one of Saul's
grandchildren, and he's fixing to kill me. That's what he's
about to do. He's calling me to his throne, and he's going
to slay me. Can you imagine how fearful he
was? Fearful, about to die. He didn't say, well, I think
I'll go to the king and let him show me mercy. He didn't say, I'm going to go
to the king. I'm going to bargain with him. I'm going to show him
some good things I've done and how I can help him out and be
an asset to his kingdom. And he came there trembling. He came
there fearful. He knew what he was. He knew
he was an enemy to the king. And he fell on his face. He came
there and he saw that king and all his majesty and all his honor
and he fell on his face and he reverenced the king. Where did he have his eyes? He was looking at the dust. He was looking at the dust. He
had his eyes down looking at the dust, giving reverence to
the King. You remember the Pharisee, he
was proud, he was standing, he was praying with himself. What
was he doing? He was looking around at others. So that he could say, look how
sinful that one is. Lord, I'm so much better than
him. I deserve your favor. I'm so
much better than him. His eyes were on others. But that publican, where was
his eyes? He would not even lift his eyes
up to heaven. He couldn't look on anybody else.
You know why? He was looking at the dust. He
was looking down at that dust and realizing, that's what I
am. I'm dust. That's where we got to be brought. The devil's spirit is here the
gospel looking at everybody else. Because when you're looking at
everybody else, you can't examine yourself. The Spirit of God makes you hear
the word, it's saying, you're the man. It makes each of us
hear, I'm the one. And when he works in the heart,
he brings your eyes from all others down to see what you are,
dust. Dust. cried out to God as he smote
upon his breast. This was real. This was in his
heart. This was a broken heart, a broken
heart, broken by a sight of holy, holy, holy God. And he smote
upon his breast and said, Lord, oh Lord, please have mercy on
me, the sinner. That's where What's the trouble
for? What's the trial for? What's
it for? It's for each one of God's children. What's He doing
through it? It's for each of His children.
It's for you and you and you and you. What's it for? He's
bringing you, fetching you to His throne to bring you to look
down at the dust that you are and say, Lord, have mercy on
me. It's never for one person. It's
for each of His children. That's what he's doing for. Ephibosheth saw this majestic
king and he saw himself as just worthless and he threw himself
on the mercy of the king. That's it. That's what God's going to have
his child do. All our days is constantly bethrowing
ourselves on the mercy of the King. God be merciful to me, the sinner. And look at this, look at this. Oh boy, you just, you know that
when you've sinned against God and He's shown you your sin,
And He's shown you what you are, and He brings you to Him with
your face in the dust, throwing yourself on His mercy, knowing
He'd be just. He doesn't have to show you mercy. It's His will. But for Jonathan's
sake, for Christ's sake, look at what Mephibosheth heard, verse
7. And David said to Him, fear not. Don't you know that word came
out of Mephibosheth? Fear not. Fear not. That's what God says when he
brings us to the dust to beg mercy. Fear not. Why? For I will
surely, I'll surely, because you're in a surety, I will surely
show thee kindness. I'll surely show thee kindness.
Mercy. for Jonathan's sake, and will
restore thee all the land of Saul thy father, and thou shall
eat bread at my table continually. For the sake of Christ our surety,
God says, I will surely show thee mercy. When he brings you
to him, Having fulfilled the everlasting covenant in his blood,
Christ said, this is the New Testament in my blood. It's written
in my blood. That means it can't be blotted
out. It's sure and certain in Christ our surety. And for his
sake, God says, I guarantee you, I assure you, I'll show you mercy,
mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy. That's what he says to his child.
I'll do it for Christ's sake. He's already bore the fierce
indignation of God's wrath. He bore everything that we had
to fear. He bore it. And God says, now
you fear not. I'm just and I'll surely do it. My justice demands it. Oh, and
God not only says that, He says, I'll restore thee all that Adam
thy father lost and more. You know, in the year of Jubilee,
poor man in the land had all his possessions returned to him.
When they blew that jubilee trumpet, that's the picture of the gospel.
When you hear the gospel and Christ draws you to him and he
says, fear not, and God says, I will, for Christ's sake, forgive
you, all that you lost is restored to you. There was none to deliver. There was none that says, restore.
We were robbed. We were spoiled. We couldn't
restore. Christ said, they that hate me
without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head. They
that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are
mighty. Then I restored that which I took not away. We have this sinful fleshly thought
of, well, I didn't take it away. I'm not giving that man anything.
The Lord said, I didn't rob him. But I'm going to come and be
robbed for their sake so I can restore what I didn't take away. And the law of God demanded this
too. Those that were robbed, they had to be restored double. Not just what they were robbed
of, more than what they were robbed of. Our Lord has restored
us far more than we lost in Adam. We can't fall now. We can't ever
fall away now. We've established a law eternally
in eternal righteousness. And no charge will ever be laid
against us because Christ fulfilled it eternally. It's eternal redemption. That's why he says, comfort my
people. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem.
Speak to my people and cry to her that her warfare is accomplished.
Her iniquities pardoned, she's received of the Lord's hand double
for all her sin. And Christ says to us what David
said, right here. David told Mephibosheth, not
only do you have reason not to fear, not only am I going to
show you mercy for Jonathan's sake, not only am I restoring
to you all the land of your father, and more than that, He says,
thou shall eat bread at my table continually. You read down there
at the end, it says, as one of the king's sons. Oh, look here now. Our Lord said
to his apostles, I appoint unto you a kingdom as my father hath
appointed unto me. Christ is the heir of all things. And we're joint heirs with him.
And he said, I'm appointing unto you a kingdom, as my father appointed
unto me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom,
partaking of Christ the bread for all eternity. See the amazement of the child
of God here. You think that's going to strike
you with some appreciation and some gratitude, verse 8. He bowed himself and he said,
what is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon such a dead
dog as I am? That's the spirit. That's the
spirit God will not despise right there. That's it. Don't you wish
you could just be, have that spirit all the time? We get so
proud and we get so puffed up and we just accomplished a little
something. And it's all of God's hand. And
next thing you know, we got our chest poked out and we think
we're somebody. Oh, to have the spirit to be
constantly knowing, I'm just a dead dog. I'm just a dead dog. God hates pride. It's that broken
and contrite heart he doesn't despise. And it keeps getting
better. Look at this now. Then the king
called Zaba. He told him, I've given Mephibosheth
everything. I've given him everything. In
verse 10, thou therefore and thy sons and thy servants shall
till the land for him. And thou shall bring in the fruits
that thy master's son may have food to eat. Verse 11 at the
second part, it says, As for Mephibosheth, said the king,
he shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons. Verse 13
says, and so Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he did eat
continually at the king's table and was lame on both his feet.
When God's called his child, this is what God promises you.
He promises you he has provided all things for you. The works
are finished. It's all done. Mephibosheth could
not do anything to provide for himself. He's lame. And the Lord
teaches us, brethren, Everything's been provided for us. He has
a host of angels to hedge us about and protect us. He makes
your enemies to serve you. He makes everything to serve
his child in this world to provide for it. To keep constantly, continually
reminding us, I've provided everything for you. I've done everything
for you and my son. I have fully made perfect provision
for you. And that's what he keeps doing.
We're right now, brethren, this is not something we're waiting
on down the road. Right now, we're sitting at the king's table.
We're at the king's table, feasting as his sons at the king's table. Oh, it's going to get better
and better and better and better. It's going to be wonderful in
that day. But we're there. We're at the king's table. We receive more than we lost
in Adam. Eternal life. We have peace with
God. We have an incorruptible inheritance
that fades not away. He provided us with all we need
and keeps providing us with all we need. We're given the highest
possible honor and dignity that one can be given. Mephibosheth
is at his table as one of the king's sons. That's the highest
honor you could have. That's the honor he's given you
and I who believe on it. If you came in and you saw Mephibosheth
at that table, he was lame, he said, the rest of his day. But
if you came in and you saw Mephibosheth sitting at the king's table,
would you know he was lame? Nope. Why? Because the king's
table covered his lameness. His lameness was under the table.
It was under the table. And brethren, you he's called
to him and made you to rest in Christ. All our lameness is under
the blood of Christ. And God sees it no more. It's
out of sight. It's out of sight. Why did he
do all this? For the sake of another. For the sake of another. Not
for our sakes. For the sake of Christ the Lord.
What does that make you want to do? Carl said, be kind one
to another. Dave said, I want to show him
kindness. Be kind one to another. Tender hearted. Tender hearted. Tender hearted. Not hard heart,
tender hearted. Forgiving one another. What's
the motive? even as God, for Christ's sake,
has forgiven you. I'll show kindness for Jonathan's
sake, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Let's
stand together, brethren. Lord, thank you for your Mercy
to these dead dogs that we are. Thank you that you fetched us
to your house, fetched us to your throne, and made us to behold
these tender mercies you've just showered us with abundantly for
Christ's sake. Thank you for Christ. Thank you
that the covenant shared is fulfilled. Lord, thank you for mercy. Forgive
us, Lord, when we've not forgiven. Forgive us for being hard-hearted
instead of tender-hearted. Lord, we ask you, we don't demand
it, we just beg of you, please be merciful to us for Christ's
sake. Teach us to forgive and teach
us to be tender-hearted. Make us continually to be lame,
dead dogs in our own sight. Make us continually see Christ
and be moved and stirred in our hearts. to love and forgive and
be tender for his sake. It's only for his sake that you've
been merciful to us. We thank you. We praise you. Lord, thank you for our Christ
Jesus, our King, our Redeemer, our surety. It's in his precious
name we ask it. Amen.