Now, this is King David speaking
with Jonathan. Jonathan's father Saul was wanting
to kill David. And Jonathan and David make a
covenant. They make a promise to one another. 1 Samuel 20 verse 11. Jonathan
said unto David, Come, let us go out into the field. And they
went out, both of them, into the field. And Jonathan said
unto David, O Lord God of Israel, when I have sounded my father
about tomorrow, talk to his father about what his plans were, any
time or the third day, and behold, if there be good toward David,
and I then send not unto thee and show it thee, the Lord do
so and much more to Jonathan. He's making a covenant here before
God with David. But if it please my father to
do the evil, then I will show. He says that I will send thee
away and thou mayest go in peace and the Lord be with thee as
he hath been with my father. And thou shalt not only, while
yet I live, show me the kindness of the Lord, that I die not. This is Jonathan speaking. He
said, I'm gonna deliver you, David. And he said, and you not
only show me kindness, that I die not, but also, verse 15, 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. So Jonathan made a covenant with
the house of David, saying, let the Lord even require it at the
hand of David's enemies. And Jonathan caused David to
swear again because he loved him. For he loved him as he loved
his own soul. Now, let's turn over to 2 Samuel
chapter 9. 2 Samuel chapter 9. Now David has ascended to the
throne. He's the king now in Israel. And David asked a question. 2 Samuel 9 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? Now this is the first thing
that we see. The grace that comes to a sinner
and saves the sinner effectually is the grace of God shown to
sinners for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. For the sake of
the Lord Jesus Christ. David here is a type of God the
Father and Jonathan is a picture of Christ in many ways right
here. And God the Father seeks to show
mercy for the sake of His Son, the sake of the Lord Jesus. Christ
made a covenant promise with God the Father in eternity before
the world began to come and to honor Him and to glorify Him
and to save His people from all their sins. And the Father entered
in covenant to call them out, call them to His throne of grace,
to Christ Jesus the Lord for for the Lord's sake. And so we
see here, David said, is there yet any that's left of the house
of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Look over
at Ephesians chapter 4. I want you to place here Ephesians
chapter 4. The Lord Jesus came and He fulfilled
everything that He promised to the Father. He didn't This is the character of God's
at stake here. The holiness of God. God entrusting
the salvation of His people into the hands of His Son. Just as
that covenant was made between David and Jonathan. And Christ
came and fulfilled all He promised the Father, magnified the Father,
magnified the Word of God. The Lord Jesus paid the wages
of sin, which are death. He justified all those for whom
He died, cleared them completely. And now, God is just for Christ's
sake, because of the sake of Christ, and for His sake, He's
just to show mercy to all of Christ's sons, all of the sons
of God. Look at Ephesians 4 in verse,
let's begin in verse 31. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from among
you with all malice. Paul is speaking to those believers
in the church at Ephesus. And he said, And be ye kind one
to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for
Christ's sake hath forgiven you. That's what That's what David
did there. We see grace coming for the sake
of another. For the sake of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's why the grace comes. Grace
is free. Grace is free. Alright, now let's
go back. 2 Samuel 9 verse 2. And let's see a description of
those sinners for whom Christ died who were saved by this grace. 2 Samuel 9 verse 2. And there
was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba, 2 Samuel
9, 2. 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? You see, that's what we're talking
about, the kindness of God. I might show the kindness of
God unto him. And Ziba said unto the king,
Jonathan hath yet a son. Jonathan has a son, which is
lame on his feet. And the king said unto him, where
is he? And Zabba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house
of Maker, the son of Amiel in Nodibar. Now we have some indications
here, some descriptions of the sinner that God saves by that
grace for the sake of Christ, the kindness that God shows. This man was lame on his feet.
He was lame on his feet. He became lame on his feet when
he was fleeing. When he was a child, his nurse
was fleeing for fear, fleeing away from the king for fear and
fail and he was injured. That's what happened to us. We
went away from God, from the sole of the foot, from the head,
even to the head, there's no soundness in it. From the foot
to the head, no sound. We're lame on our feet. How lame,
we can't come to God. How lame, we don't know God.
How lame, we can't enter into who He is. How lame are we? Dead, dead in trespasses and
sin. He's in the house of Maker and
this means sold under sin. Sold. Sold. That's what we were,
sold under sin. Romans 7.14 says, we know that
the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. That's what you and I are, born
into this world. He was in Lodibar. That means
a place of no pasture, no cattle, no place for food, no place to
find water and bread. That's what this world is. This
world is a place of no pasture. This world's going to give you
no lasting food, no lasting bread. It's just not. It's not going
to. This is a place of no pasture. And his name, this man's name
was Mephibosheth. It means shameful, shameful thing. That's what his name means. Now
we, you and I, every one of us sitting here right now, this
is for certain, every one of us sitting here. We can all lay
claim to this name. This is what we are, the shameful
thing in ourselves. This is what we are. Sin is the
shameful thing. Whenever the Scriptures tell
us to look to Christ Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,
despising the shame, this is what He despised. He despised
the shame that He was made on behalf of His people to put away
our sin. This is what had to happen in
order for God to remain just and justify a sinner. This man's
case, his case and his condition is the case of every sinner born
in Adam. This is our case. This is our situation. This is
where we are, lame in sin, fleeing from God, a shameful thing in
a place of no pasture. Can you say that about yourself?
Can you say that? That's me. That is me. Most of
us don't think that about ourselves, but that's us. That's us. Our
iniquity separated us from God, and He wouldn't hear us. Now,
let's see how then. We got a God now that is going
to be gracious to those He gave to His Son. He's going to be
gracious to them because Christ has justified them. And yet we
got these sinners who are absolutely lame on their feet. Shameful
things in themselves. They can't come to Him. How then
is God going to get them to Christ? How is He going to get them to
come and bow down and enter into this good news that God has accomplished
for them in His Son? How is that going to happen?
Look at 2 Samuel 9.5. 2 Samuel 9.5. Then King David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Maker, the son of Amiel from Lodibar. He sent and fetched him. This
is what God's going to do for every sinner he has that he put
in Christ, that Christ has redeemed. He's going to send for him. He's
going to send, like David sent Ziba. God's going to send forth
the Spirit of God. He's going to send forth in all
his providential dealings to make that man come and have his
path crossed with the gospel that Christ sends. He's going
to have him crossed with the gospel. Look up the gospel of
truth. Look it up. Just go home and
get your concordance and look up the gospel of truth. and see how many times you find
out the importance of the gospel of truth. The gospel of truth.
The gospel is good news. Only the gospel is good news.
A false gospel is not good news. If it leaves something in the
hands of Mephibosheth, this won't be good news at all. He can't
get to David. He's lame. David didn't, as Brother
Jack Shanks said, David didn't send him a pair of crutches and
say, now see if you can make it up here to me. That's not
what he did. Not what he did at all. He sent
and fetched him out. Look at John, I'm sorry, let's
look at Psalm 65. Psalm 65. He's bringing this
man into the king's court. Into the king's court. And He's
bringing them in to Him. That's what God does for us.
He's bringing His children to Him. Look at Psalm 65 verse 4. Blessed, happy is the man whom
thou choosest, whom God chooses, and causes to approach unto thee,
that he may dwell in thy courts. That's when we're going to be
satisfied with God. So when we're going to be satisfied with His
gospel, when we're going to be satisfied with His bread, when
we're going to be satisfied with His Son, but it's not going to
be until then. It won't be until then. If we
brought ourselves, we won't be satisfied. We won't have peace.
We won't have rest. If we try to bring ourselves
somehow, we'll still be lame on our feet, trying to do something
you can't do, trying to crawl where you can't crawl, trying
to get into a place you can't get into. Then, he who may dwell
in that court, we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house,
even of thy holy temple." That's when the Lord said, no man can
come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him. And I'll raise him up. I'll raise
him up. That's how this man was sought. That's what he was sent for and
fetched out of that place. Alright, now we've seen the grace
of God. It's for Christ's sake. It's
for the sake of his son that God does this work. The second
thing we've seen here is God sends this good news to his child
and he sends forth the Spirit of God and regenerates that child
and gives him life and gives him ears and eyes and a heart
of faith to know what God's done for him and causes him to approach
unto him, fetches him out of his sin and rebellion where he
is and his deadness and brings him to him. Now, we've seen what
a sinner he is. We've seen how dead a sinner
he is. Now let's see the joy. when a sinner is brought like
this to meet the king, to meet God who has done all this freely
on his behalf. Let's see the joy. He said that
we'll be satisfied with the goodness of his house and we'll be blessed,
we'll be happy, we'll be rejoicing then. Let's see, let's see it.
Verse 6. Now when Mephibosheth the son
of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, That's what
we are. Saul was wicked. Saul was wicked. We're the son of Saul. We fell in Adam and we fell into
wickedness in him. But thanks be to God's grace,
we're the sons of Christ, sons of Jonathan. Alright, now, he
was coming to David. He fell on his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth?
And he answered, Behold thy servant. Whenever this grace comes and
a sinner is brought like this to the king, that's what he's
going to do. He's going to fall on his face. You ever notice
in the scripture, you see that over and over in the scriptures? Whenever this word comes to somebody
that's not a child of God's grace and they hear it, they fall down
backwards. Whenever it's somebody that God's chosen and put in
Christ to redeem, they fall down on their face. They fall on their
face before Him. It's a difference between it
coming in grace and it coming in judgment. It's a difference
between it coming in grace and giving a new heart and it coming
and hardening the hardness of that heart that's already there.
Now, He fell on His face and He did reverence the King. He
answered, Behold thy servant. What else was he going to answer?
What else is he going to answer? I mean, the king's done everything
for him. The king did all for him. What else is he going to
answer? Oh, I'm your servant. But look at that good news given
to this man. Verse 7, and David said unto
him, Fear not. Don't fear. He was afraid. When God first calls you, it's
going to cause some fear. It's the beginning of wisdom.
It's going to cause you to tremble. This is God we're talking about. We haven't presented to you any
cunningly devised fables. We're talking about God of heaven
and earth here. And David said, Fear not, for
I will surely show thee kindness Oh look at this, he says it again,
for Jonathan thy father's sake. I'm doing this, I'm doing this
for not your first father's sake, I'm doing this for the last father's
sake, for Jonathan's sake. That's what this mercy comes
for Christ's sake, the last down. He says, and I'll restore thee
all the land of Saul thy father, and thou shalt eat bread at my
table continually. Now here's the first thing he
told him, fear not. Oh, you can imagine the fear
this man had. He's brought to the king. I mean, you think about
it. If you were called to meet the
President of the United States, you'd have some... I mean, that's
an awesome thing. Well, here he's brought before
the king. This is what's going to happen.
We're brought before the King, Jesus, King, our Christ and our
King. We're going to be made to bow,
but He says to us, fear not. That's what He says to those
that come to Him, fear not. And then He said this, look,
in verse 7, I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan's
sake. You see, this is a sure showing of kindness. If it's
in Christ and it's for Christ's sake, it's by the grace of God,
it's going to be sure. This is something you can count
on that's certain and sure. This is sure. Absolutely sure.
The blood of Christ demands it for God to remain holy. The blood
of Christ remains it. His blood ensures the kindness
of God to those who sin Christ put away. He says then thirdly,
look what he said to him. He said, I will restore thee
all the land of Saul, our Father. You know what happens whenever
we're called by His grace? We come to the Father and He
makes us to see that in Christ and for the sake of Christ, He
restores to us everything that we lost in Adam. Everything we
lost in Adam. We lost everything in it. We
lost communion with God in Adam. He restores that to us. He restores
it to us, recreated after the image of God, born after the
image of God, born again, born anew by the incorruptible seed
of God, the very essential word, Christ in you. And look, he says,
this is the fourth thing he says to him, Thou shalt eat bread
at my table continually. Continually. I'm going to feed
you Christ the bread forever. You know when David said he made
this everlasting covenant with me and ordered in all things
ensured And he said, this is what I know. This is all my salvation. This has been, David's talking
about from the first hour that he made me to know he had called
me all the way to the last, David said, this has been all my salvation.
And Nick Davis said, I've never seen his seed begging bread. Never seen the righteous forsaken,
never seen his seed begging bread. I've seen, and we read in the
scripture, of some poor times among the Lord's people, where
there was some physical bread that was lacking. But God always
provided bread enough for His people. But He always provides
bread. This bread of Christ Jesus. He will never take Christ from
His people. We're going to have Christ in
this good news. Alright now, look at the amazement
of this child. Look at the amazement of a child
of God. Verse 8. And he bowed himself,
Lefebusheth did, and he said, What is thy servant? that thou
shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am." You know, y'all know I wasn't
really excited about getting Peanut. I wasn't really in favor
of getting Peanut. And one, I never thought I'd
have a little Froot Froot dog. And two, I never have had a dog
in the house. So somebody said, when you have
a dog in a house, you live in a dog house. And I've never had
one in the house. But I think I've enjoyed him
more than everybody else has. And you know what makes it easy
to love him? He comes and he lays on my feet. when I'm sitting during the day
and I'm working, he'll come and get right under my desk right
there and literally lay on my feet right there. It feels pretty
good in the cold of winter for him to lay on my feet. And he
just watches my every move. If I go upstairs, he follows
me upstairs. If I come back downstairs, he
follows me back downstairs. He's just watching. If I sit,
if I eat, he sits by my side there and just sits down and
looks at me, hoping I'll drop him a crumb, because I've let
this secret out. I'm the only one in the house
that's dropping crumbs to him. But this is what happens. It's
easy to love a faithful dog. That's what God makes His people.
That's what God makes brethren. Faithful dogs. Faithful dogs.
Well, it keeps getting better. Look at verse 9. 2 Samuel 9. 9. Then the king called to Ziba,
Saul's servant, and he said unto him, I've given unto thy master's
son, to Mephibosheth, all that pertain to Saul into all his
house. Gave him all and restored it
all to him. 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." What we see a picture
here of is the Holy Spirit and all the angels given that God
has charge over. and all the sons that are brethren
of His children. And even those who are servants,
who don't know, maybe they don't know the King, but they're still
serving Him, even though they don't know they're serving Him.
But all of them, all of them are sent forth for this one reason,
for that child of God's grace. To do what for Him? To till the
land for Him. and to bring in fruits for him
that he may have food to eat, to do everything for the child
of grace. You know, everything in this
world is working. God's working it together on
purpose for the good of those that He's called by His grace
for Christ's sake and given this amazing new life in their heart
and made them to become faithful to God. He's doing this for those
that believe on Him and trust Him. All on purpose, working
everything together for their good. He says then, let me see
where I'm at here, verse 10. He says, now Ziba, look down
into verse 10. Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. He had a lot at his beck and
call, and that's what God has at his call to help for his people. Then said Ziba unto the king,
according to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servants,
so shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the
king, he shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons. Look
at that. He's gonna 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. They're all his servants. Well, look at this last verse,
verse 13. So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem,
for he did eat continually at the king's table and was lame
on both his feet. If you entered that room, let's
go over to Ephesians, Ephesians, I'm sorry, Romans 3, Romans 3. If you entered that room and
you looked at Mephibosheth, he's sitting there at the king's table.
You know, that's what the Lord said. He said, My people, He
told His disciples, you're going to eat at My table in My kingdom. That's the picture we have of
David here, Christ our King. You're going to eat at My table
in My kingdom and I'm going to serve you. I'm going to serve
you. Well, if you came in and you
saw this man lame on his feet, would you be able to tell while
he's sitting there at that King's table that he's lame on his feet?
You couldn't see his feet. They're under the table. They're
under the king's table. You can't see them. Oh, he's
lame. He's still lame. It's still there.
He's still lame. But his lameness is covered over.
What's that a picture of? Look here in Romans chapter 3. Justification from sin. Romans
3.24. being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Look
at Romans 8 chapter 1. Romans 8 1. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Look over
at Romans 8 verse 39. This is what it is. Justification
from sin No condemnation, inseparable love. Look at this, Romans 8.39. Nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You notice how all
this is in Christ Jesus our Lord? All of this is in Him? Look at
Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. And look at verse 13, Ephesians
2.13. Why did He call him? He said,
for Jonathan's sake. Look here, now in Christ Jesus,
ye who were sometimes far off, are made nigh by the blood of
Christ, by what He's done. Can you imagine the joy that
Mephibosheth had? Can you imagine that joy that
he had? He just found out, this man just
found out that everything is provided for him. Everything
that is done. It's His. The King has announced
His good news to Him. Everything is for Him at the
King's order. Everything. Can you imagine the
joy you'd have this morning if God sent forth the Holy Spirit
and said, is there any more of the house of Christ that I might
show kindness to them, the kindness of God for Christ's sake? And
he said, yeah, there's one. There's one. And the Spirit of
God came and said, fetched you and brought you and told you
all this news. Imagine the joy. Imagine the
thrill and the delight you'd have with God knowing what he's
done for you. You wouldn't be an enemy of God
anymore. You'd be a friend. You'd be reconciled. I hope that's
what he'll do. You know what it makes a person
do? It makes us say, Lord, what is it that you've shown your
servant such grace for just a dead dog like I am? We just sit amazed
all our day, eating at his table, all for Jonathan's sake, for
the sake of Christ. Amen.