2 Samuel chapter 9. I guess I'll entitle this. I imagine
this title has been used before by me or others, but it's always
a good one. Fetching Grace. Fetching Grace. As a matter of fact, the first
time I heard that title was Jack Shanks preached this message.
And I was quite young. I imagine I was about the age
of Audrey when I heard this message preached. So still a good message
and a good title, Fetching Grace. Here the Scripture says, And
David said, And David said, Is there yet any that is left of
the house of Saul that I might 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 might 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 Micar, the son of Amiel in Lodibar. And the king sent, and here it
is, fetched him. fetched him out of the house
of Micah our son of Amul from Lodibar. 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 to Mephibosheth,
Mephibosheth, and he said, Behold thy servant. David said unto
him, Fear not, 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. Now at this particular time David
had now conquered all of his enemies. David was at rest. You can see this back in chapter
7 and verse 1. It came to pass when the king
sat in his house that the Lord had given him rest round about
from all his enemies in the whole of chapter eight is david again
pushing the boundaries of his kingdom and he is conquered all
of his enemies and inverse uh... fifteen it says and david rain
overall israel and david executed judgment and justice to all His
people. So here's the situation. David
had conquered all of his foes. David's house was now at rest.
David had been given by the Lord to execute judgment and justice
unto all Israel. He reigned over all his kingdom. You remember he had already brought
back the Ark of the Covenant. He had established the worship
of God in that place. Defeated all of his foes, and
there he was sitting upon his throne. And all of a sudden,
now, he remembered something. He remembered that he had made
a covenant with Jonathan. The Son of Saul. That covenant
is written for us in 1 Samuel chapter 20 and verse 14. I'll
read it for you. Jonathan's making this covenant
with David. He said, Thou shalt not only
yet while I live show me 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, every
one of them from the face of the earth, So Jonathan made a
covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the Lord 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 his
own soul. Jonathan made a covenant with
David. He knew that David was God's man. He knew that his father
Saul would not reign. He knew that David would sit
upon the throne of Israel. God had decreed it. God had determined
it. Jonathan believed it. And Jonathan
said, We need to make a covenant that while I'm living, you should
show me kindness, not only this, but after my death. You should
show my son's kindness. Not just any kindness. Now, this
was not just a how-do-you-do kindness. This was a kindness
of the Lord. He said, You need to show my
house the mercy of the Lord. He made him swear by this, the
kindness of the Lord. And this here is the fulfillment.
Our text is the fulfillment of that covenant that David swore
with Jonathan. Verse 1, And David said, Is there
yet any left of the house of Saul, that I might show him kindness? Listen, for Jonathan's sake.
For Jonathan's sake, this kindness of David to the house of Saul
was not heard of by natural kings. The kings of the earth would
always destroy those who reigned before them. They would destroy
all of their lines so that their throne would not be contested. So this kind of mercy was not
known among the kingdoms of the earth. But David, for the sake of his
friend whom he loved, for the covenant that he made, he asked
this question, Is there anyone left? Is there anyone that I
might show kindness of the house of Saul? And this Saul had a
servant named Ziba. And he tells of one of Jonathan's
sons, he says in verse 3, And the king said, they called Ziba,
he said, Ziba, is there anybody left? And he said this, Ziba
said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, but he's lame
on his feet. You get that? He's got a son,
but he ain't going to do you no good. He can't serve you. He's lame on his feet. What would
you need him for? I'll serve you. You don't need
him. He's useless to you. And this man, we know his name,
Mephibosheth. And you know that name has a
meaning. It has a dual meaning. It is
the dispeller of shame. In other words, one who rejects
shame. But it also means shameful thing.
It means both of them. One who despises shame and one
who is himself shame. A shameful thing. He was the son of Jonathan. And
when he was small, this is how he became lame on his feet. You
remember that nurse had taken him when they heard of his father,
Jonathan, and his grandfather Saul were killed. That nurse
carried him up in her arms, and as she ran, what? She fell. She fell. And he became lame
on his feet from that fall. And then he became the dweller.
He dwelt in this place called Lodabar. The Scripture here says
he was... Look at that. Verse 4, "...Behold, he is in
the house of Micah..." And I hope you'll see this in a minute.
That means salesman. His name means salesman. "...in the house
of Amiel..." That's God's people. "...in Lodabar, house of no bread."
The people of God were sold into a house of no bread. Isn't God's
Word amazing? Isn't God's Word amazing? And
so David sent, and because of this, David sent to fetch him.
He sent out these men to fetch him in this house, and David
learned that he was, that Jonathan had a son, told his servant to
go out and bring him. Go get him, that I might show
him kindness. Now listen, this kindness was
not known to Mephibosheth, was it? Now consider this, David
sent his men to fetch him. Mephibosheth had no idea it was
for kindness. And so these men rode up to his
house, they went into his home, they grabbed him, they took him,
they fetched him. You imagine the fear in this
man's eyes. You imagine the fear that this
man felt being grabbed by these men, having no clue what the
king would require of him. Surely it was death. Surely he
thought death had come to him. But what could he do? He was
lame on his feet. He had nowhere to go, nowhere
to run. And in verse 6 it says, Now Mephibosheth,
the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was coming to David,
and he fell on his face. Now, that's just stating the
obvious, isn't it? A man who can't walk, what else
is he going to do but fall on his face? Couldn't run, couldn't
hide. He fell on his face. They just
dropped him. He fell flat down. But what else
could a man like this do? He fell down and said to his,
David said, Mephibosheth? And he said, Behold thy slave,
thy slave, thy servant. Now notice this man's name was
Dispeller of Shame. He was one that scoffed at shame.
Now before the king, before the king, he was lame
and useless and unable to run and hide from his shame. What did he do? What could he
do but fall down and behold thy slave? I'm sure this man thought
that he was as a lamb before the slaughter now. He was as
a lamb before the slaughter. I'm sure he feared the fear of
death when it was in his heart. And by right, David had every
right to kill him. Every right by law to kill this
man. But that wasn't the purpose of
his fetching, was it? It was not to kill him. David
said unto him in verse 7, Fear not, for surely I will show thee
kindness for Jonathan's sake. Not for Mephibosheth's sake,
but for Jonathan's sake. That covenant that he made with
Jonathan before this man was born. He made that covenant. That he would show kindness and
restore all his father's lands. And not only so, but he would
sit at the king's table as one of his sons. all the surprise in all of my
favorite share at this time he thought it was good for day that
he was fetched but it wasn't it was for kindness it was for
kindness and he bowed himself and said what is that servant
that thou should look upon a dead dog as I am Now, in the remainder
of this chapter, I didn't take time to read it, but it says,
he tells Ziba, he said, you're going to go out there and you're
going to take his... I'm giving him all his daddy's lands. And
what you're going to do, Ziba, is your sons and you, you're
going to go out there and you're going to till that ground, and
you're going to make it fruitful, and it's going to multiply, and
you're going to do good work for him, and that's his land,
and that's his fruit. But listen, he ain't going to
eat any of it. He's going to eat my table. I'm gonna have you do all that
work out there for him and His his lands gonna prosper, but
he's not gonna eat it. He's gonna eat at my table And
you know what at the end of this and Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem
and did eat continually at the king's table Verse 13 and he
was lame on his feet now. That's the history of it That's
the history of it, but there's a greater picture than this.
What a wonderful story that is. What a wonderful history that
is. But there's a greater history. There's a greater meaning for
this story. This kindness of David to this man Mephibosheth
is nothing more or less than a picture of the grace of God
toward every elect sinner. This is nothing but a picture
of God's grace toward His people. This is given to us to show that
all who are saved are saved by a covenant of grace and love,
and not by merit, not by works, but by grace. This shows the
great kindness of the King of God, the great and glorious goodness
of God. And what does this do for man?
It abases man. It shows man as he really is. Mephibosheth in this story is
you and me. David, no doubt, is our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now this, first, I want us to
see, first of all, there's four things here that I want us to
see. But the first thing that we should recognize about this
is the conquest of Christ. The conquest of Christ. David
picturing our Lord Jesus Christ. Now see that David had conquered
all of his enemies, established the worship of God. Before he
fetches Mephibosheth, he must first do away with his enemies. He must have set peace round
about His kingdom, and He must have established the worship
of God before Mephibosheth was brought in. That was part of
the covenant. Remember, that's what Jonathan
said. He said, When you've destroyed all your enemies, then you show
kindness. Well, even so, Jesus Christ,
by His death, has conquered all the enemies of God. See, my friend,
that Jesus Christ, the mighty King, is sitting on His throne,
and all power is given to Him, and He has rest all around His
kingdom. His kingdom is at perfect peace. I know you don't see it. You
look around in these fleshly eyes and it looks like chaos.
Friends, everything is at perfect peace. Everything is moving directly
in order, directly in time, according to the sovereign hand of Him
who sits on the throne right now, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is because God has set
Him on the throne because He has glorified the Father. He
has finished the work of salvation for all that God gave Him. Now
David was a despot. You know what that is? That is
a sovereign ruler. He could do anything that he
wanted to do without question. That's what a despot is. It is
a sovereign. We know very little of this.
We think we have president, he has power, but that's not a sovereign,
that's not a despot. These men were despots. And this is a picture, my friend,
that the one who rules right now in heaven is a despot. He has absolute power, absolute
control over everything. Jesus Christ is the great despot,
the King of kings, the Lord of lords. And as David's kingdom,
you remember, David's kingdom had borders. David's kingdom
had walls. David's kingdom had these defenses
and set up borders around. Listen, Jesus' kingdom has no
borders. He rules everything, everything.
His dominion, there is no bounds to His dominion. He rules over
all things. in john seventeen before he was
about to be crucified our lord said this father the hours glorified
for this purpose that that's on may glorify the as now it's
given him power over all flesh for this purpose that he should
give eternal life to as many as now My friend make no mistake all
things are in the hands of Christ. I want you to if God be pleased
to show us this we could find great comfort and find great
peace in there. All things are in the hands of
Christ. Every thing is in his hand. The scripture says he worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. This is the
King. This is the One who is ruling. You know, some people are waiting
for Jesus to rule. No, He's ruling right now. We're
not waiting for Him to rule. He has already conquered His
enemies. He has already put down dominions
and principalities and powers. He is already now ruling over
them as the King. Believers, don't be cast down. Don't be discouraged. When you're
in trouble, don't be discouraged. Let us not be discouraged. Let
not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Don't be discouraged. And what
is He doing? That's a question, isn't it?
What is He doing? I don't see what He's doing. He doesn't leave
it to our imagination. He says this, "...all power is
given to Me for this purpose, that He should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given Him." You take one thing over
here, take another thing over here, and you don't see how in
the world these things are working together. But I know this. I
may not see how, but I know what they're working for. Somehow
they're going to work together to bring a man to preach the
gospel to someone who's lost. And he's going to preach the
gospel, and they're going to be saved. They're going to be
saved. That's what God is doing. He's
working all things for this purpose, to save His people from their
sin. Just as David had determined
in his heart then to show mercy, even so God has determined to
show mercy. This One who has all power, this
is what He's doing. He's determined to show mercy.
He's determined to do it, to give all that the Father had
given Him life. God purposed to show mercy, not
just arbitrarily, not without a cause, not without a reason. In other words, God is going
to show mercy not for the sake of the people who receive mercy.
He's going to show mercy for the sake of Christ. That's what
this picture here is. Remember, David's going to show
mercy to Mephibosheth not because of Mephibosheth. He's going to
show mercy to Mephibosheth because of Jonathan. And listen, God's
going to show mercy to His people because of Christ. That's why
God's going to show mercy. Because of a covenant that God
made with Himself in the Trinity of His persons. Paul in Hebrews
chapter 13, he calls that an everlasting covenant. You know
why? It was made and everlasting. It was from eternity. Kindness
of God was determined in eternity between the father the son and
the spirit So the scripture tells us he was as a lamb slain when?
When was he as a lamb slain from before the foundation of the
world? This was determined that he would be show mercy and kindness See he was always set up to be
the Savior and Redeemer And to accomplish salvation for his
people In our text, you see the house
of Saul here. He said, I'm going to show mercy
to the house of Saul. He says, Is there anybody of
the house of Saul that I might show mercy for Jonathan's sake? This picture of Saul is a picture
of Adam's race. That's who Saul pictures. It's
a picture of Adam's fallen race. Saul was a man anointed of God
to be king over Israel. But you remember, he disobeyed
God, and his kingdom was taken from him. What a picture of Adam
that was. Adam was set to be king over
all the creation. God set him up to be the only
king of everything. And what? He disobeyed God and
his kingdom was ruined. His reign came to an end. He
fell. He fell. Thus causing the depravity of
man to cover us with sin and shame. We were all born fallen
creatures. We were born under the condemnation
of God. Just as David had the right then
to dispose of the house of Saul, so God in justice had the right
to dispose of all of us. When Adam sinned, God could have
said, it's over, and cast us all into hell. He could have
done that by right, but God willing, to show mercy, to display the
character of His grace, the glory and praise of His grace. He didn't
do that. He made a covenant. And in His
long-suffering mercy, we were not consumed. Now then, let us
see this secondly, the characteristic of Mephibosheth, because Mephibosheth,
Saul may represent all of, may represent Adam, but Mephibosheth
is a representation of all God's elect. He's a picture of all
of us. And there are three things to
consider about this man Mephibosheth. First of all, consider his condition. Consider his condition. He was
what? Lame on his feet. Second of all,
consider his name. First of all, he was a scoffer
at shame or a shameful thing. He was a scoffer at shame and
then a shameful thing. The third thing is consider his
location. Where would he live? He lived
in Lodibar, a house of no bread. This is a good picture of every
one of us because by nature, first of all, we're all lame
on our feet. We are all paralyzed on our feet. What does this mean? I like the
picture of it. You have the nurse who hears
of the fall of the kingdom of Saul. She takes up that baby
in her arms and she rushes out the door. And as she's rushing
with the baby in her arms, she falls. And he's lame. What did our Father do when he
sinned? He fled from God. And as that baby was in her arms,
even so were we in the arms of Adam as he ran. And by a fall,
we all were made lame on our feet. Is the picture not vivid
enough for you? Is this not wonderful pictures
that God displays these things? We were all made lame by a fall,
just like Mephibosheth was. We were sinners by nature, running
to hell as though it were heaven, and running from heaven as though
it were hell. Now friends, I can identify with
this man, can't you? Lame on my feet. What does this
mean? It means this, you could not
come to God. Jesus said no man can come unto
me. Why? He's lame on his feet. He's incapable of coming to God
except the Father which has sent me fetch him. Mephibosheth never
would have come to David had David not fetched him. He could
not come to David. He was lame. The only way he
could come to David was David fetch him. And the only way we
could come to God is God, by grace, coming and fetching us.
We were lame on our feet. The second thing is our name.
The name is dispeller or scoffer of shame. I'll tell you this,
Amphibisheth, by this name, we could imagine that he was a man
that despised the reign of David. Imagine him there, lame on his
feet, cursing David all this time. Isn't that what we did
before God fetched us? We were dispellers of shame.
We were scoffing. We were scoffers. Scoffers. We said, are we born
of fornication? We were like those Pharisees.
We're not born of fornication. I'm not so bad. I'm better than
this person. That's how we judged. If we were
going to heaven or not, we would start looking around trying to
be better than somebody else. We thought we were better than
somebody else. Surely God would. We had some goodness that God
must take. That's how we thought we were scoffers. Scoffers in
pride. We were vile against our God
and against His shame. But one day, David remembered
his covenant and sent to fetch Mephibosheth, and Mephibosheth
then was not a scoffer. Mephibosheth was going to learn
something about himself, that he was not a scoffer of shame,
but he was shame itself. He was a shameful thing. Isn't that what we really are?
Isn't it a shame that you don't love God as you should? Isn't it a shame that we are
not as faithful as we should be? It's a shame that men do not
praise God and honor their Creator. What a shame! We're shameful
things! This account of fetching Mephibosheth
is the account of God's fetching grace of all sinners. And so God, having conquered
His enemies, having established the worship and honor of God
through The death of Christ. God now tells His servant, the
Holy Spirit, to go out and fetch the objects of His mercy. And
notice the act of mercy did not become because of Mephibosheth. It was because of Jonathan. And so it is that if the Holy
Spirit ever fetches you or fetches me, it will be because of Jesus
Christ. God will fetch us, not because
of us. He will fetch us in spite of
us. He will fetch us, for Christ's sake, for the honor and glory
of His free and sovereign grace that brings us to Himself. And
the third thing about Mephibosheth that we can see about ourselves
is his location. He was in the house of Micar. I told you it means salesman.
Salesman. Amiel means God's people, and
Lodabar means house of no bread. What a picture, were we not all
sold under sin. Who? All of God's people. All
of God's people were sold under sin. And where is our location? In Lodibar, the house of no bread. Pastureless is what it means.
This is the result of sin. Sin, my friend, promises joy
and peace, but it delivers nothing. This world is nothing but vanity.
It is a house of no bread. The more sin promises, the less
it delivers. Have you found that to be true?
It's like that prodigal son out there in the middle of the hog
pen. You remember he was not able to eat what the hogs ate. He ate the husks, the corn husks. Those corn husks, they'll fill
your belly, but they have no nutrient whatsoever. Isn't that
what sin is? It fills your belly, but it has
no nutrients for life. It cannot give life. We were
eating the husks and starving to death. We were feeding on
sin, expecting to fill our desires and soothe our conscience, but
it never happened. Why? We were in Lodabar, a house
of no bread. And I tell you, there's a lot
of people eating on husks today. The husk of outright rebellion
and open sin. A lot of people feeding on that. But there's a lot more people
today feeding on the husk of religion. Works religion. Feeding and never having life. Ever learning but never coming
to the knowledge of the truth. And so then the third thing is
fetching grace. We see God's conquest in Christ. We see He's conquered all, that
He's having a covenant of grace to show kindness. Then we see
Mephibosheth as a picture of all of God's elect. Lame on our
feet. Lame on our feet. Shameful thing. Scoffers of shame. And shameful things. And then
we're in the house of no bread, no hope. But one day, God sent
and fetched us. Fetching grace. fetching grace
of God. One day the king sent his servants
to get Mephibosheth from Lodibar. Verse 5, Then the king sent and
fetched Mephibosheth out of the house of Micah our son of Amul
from Lodibar. One day you and I were living
in sin, feeding on the husks of our sin, and God sent someone
to preach the gospel to us. God sent someone to preach the
Word and the Spirit of God opened our eyes. We began to see and
truth concerning our name, our location, our condition. We saw that God's law, first
of all, in power, took hold of our hearts and brought us before
the King. I like that song, Against the
God that ruled the sky, I fought with hand uplifted high. despised
the mention of his grace, too proud to seek a hiding place,
enwrapped in thick Egyptian night and fond of darkness more than
light. Madly I ran the sinful race without a hiding place. Thus the eternal counsel ran.
Almighty love fetched that man, arrested that man. Indignant justice stood in view,
to Sinai's fiery mount I flew. Mountain cried. This place, this
is no hiding place. I saw that I was deserving of
death, that I had broken the law of God, and God was just
to kill me. If a man comes to God in any
other way but lame on his feet, he's not ever come to God. This
man, Bephibosheth, came lame on his feet, and he fell down. Why? He could not stand up. If a man comes to God standing,
he's not been fetched. He's not been fetched. A man
standing on his works, death is his lot, but all who come
fetched fall on their face for mercy. When a man comes face to face
with God, the only place he'll be is on His face. Have you ever
been on your face before God? Have you ever been brought there,
fetched there? We that have come to God recognize
it was not by will or by power, it's because He brought us. And
when he fetches a sinner, that sinner will bow down and say
this, Behold, I slave. What does Isaiah say? Behold,
I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips in
the midst of a people of unclean lips. But notice this, when God fetches
a man, I'm glad he doesn't leave us in this condition, but gives
us a word. Gives us a word, and this is
his word, verse 7. And David said unto him this,
Fear not, fear not. And he gives him three reasons
why he should not fear. First of all, he said this, fear
not because of this, I will surely, certainly, definitely show you
kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake. That's a reason you shouldn't
fear. If God fetches you, that's a
reason you shouldn't fear. I'm going to show you kindness
definitely, certainly. The second thing is I'm going
to restore all your father's lands. Thirdly, you shall eat
bread at my table. Those are three things he mentions
here. Now he says, Fear not, Mephibosheth, I'll show you kindness
for Jonathan's sake. Sinner, never look within to
find a reason for God's mercy. You won't find it. If you ever come to God looking
in yourself, you won't find a reason for Him to show kindness. Never
look at your works, your deeds, to manifest God's favor, for
it will not be found. Look and see the kindness of
God towards sinners is only found in Christ. It is only by Him
we are accepted of God. All our works and praise and
thanksgiving will never be accepted outside of Christ. You must come
by Christ. Believer, let us then rejoice
in this, that God will show us kindness for Christ's sake. That's
good news. If God ever said, I'm going to
show you kindness for your sake, you've got a problem. Because
you can't keep that. You can't keep meriting that
kindness. But Christ has already merited
all the kindness that you need. All the merit that you need is
in Christ. Now then notice the kindnesses of God here that to
those that are fetched he says this I will restore all the land
of thy father Saul now consider this all that Adam lost Christ
restored everything go to Psalm 69 go
to Psalm 69 read it Psalm 69 These are the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ as He hung upon the tree. He said, This saved
me, O God, for the waters are come into my soul. I sink deep
in the mire where there is no standing. I am come into deep
waters where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying. My throat is dried. Mine eyes
fail while I wait for my God. 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. This is the Lord
Jesus Christ as He suffered for our sins in His own body, as
He suffered the wrath of God for our sins. He sunk in the
deep mire of God's justice and He could find no standing. Why? Because God hath made Him to
be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. He sunk into death and hell As an offering for sin, to do
what? Look at this last part. Then,
what'd he do? Then I restored what I did not
take away. I restored that which I took
not away. When our Father sinned, He lost
everything. Our inheritance were ruined.
Christ says, I'm going to restore what I didn't take away. Adam
took it away. But I'm going to restore it.
What did he lose? He lost the image of God. And
what Adam had? He had the image of God. He was
made in the image of God, but that image was so marred. And
now, look at it. Look at this old nature. Does
it look anything like God? That's why God doesn't save,
doesn't tinker with the old man, that old nature. He's got to
give us a whole new one. It's ruined. The image is ruined.
It's marred beyond repair. And so what does God do? He creates
in every believer a new heart in the image of God. Paul says
we are created after God in true holiness. And so John says it
does not yet appear what we shall be. But when He shall appear,
we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him in it. The second
thing, Adam lost his ability. Didn't he? He lost the ability
to come to God. What does God give everyone He
fetches? He gives us the grace to believe. He gives us grace. No man can
come unto Me except what? The Father. Fetch Him. Draw Him. Bring Him. And so as
I come to Christ, who's really doing the coming? It's God bringing
me. It's God drawing me. It's God
keeping me. It's God causing me to come,
something that is impossible for the natural man to do. Adam
lost paradise, didn't he? He lost paradise. Look at this
world. Is it paradise? Nope. No paradise here. This
is Lodabar. That's where I'm being fetched
from. Thank God I'm being fetched from it. Paradise. That's what Christ restored.
He told that thief on the cross what? Today thou shalt be with
me in paradise. In paradise. Friends, there's
a new heaven and a new earth that's going to be without sin.
God is going to bring in this old thing that we see now is
nothing like God is going to make it to be. Paradise was lost. Christ restored it. And sure
enough, soon this world is going to be here without sin, without
grief, without sorrow, without death. without trouble. Peter said, Our inheritance is
incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away, reserved in
heaven for you. And notice the kindness of the
king. He said this, Also you shall
eat at my table all the days of your life. Verse 7b. Believers
see that this matter of feasting at the king's table is our privilege.
Now I want you to know this right now. What are you doing? What
are you doing right here? Don't you know you're sitting
at the king's table? Don't you know this is divine food? The
blood and righteousness of Christ is our daily bread. And I can't, I just, I point
this out to you. There's so much more here, but
there's just, it's just so wonderful. When he told Ziba, he said, Ziba,
I gave, I gave him all that property. All his father's property is
his. It's his. But He ain't going to work it.
You're going to go out and work it. You're going to be His servant.
You're going to go out there and work those fields, you and
your sons, and you're going to bring forth all that food and
that crop, and it's going to be a beautiful harvest. It's
His fruit. It's His harvest. But He's not going to eat any
of it. He's going to sit at my table and eat my food. Now, believer
in Christ, you and I have the righteousness of God in us. That new man is as holy as Christ
is. And so then, what we do, everything
we do in the service of God is good fruit. It's fruit under
God. Jesus said, If a man abide in
me, he shall bring forth, what? Much fruit. But that fruit is
not for you and me. That fruit is unto God. We don't eat of our own fruit,
do we? No. Goodness, no. We solely sit at the King's table
and eat the blood and the righteousness of Christ. Daily we sit at His
table. That's what we're doing here.
We should daily Indulge ourself in the study and worship of God.
I pray that God would teach us this. That he would cause us
to daily rejoice in feasting at his table. And what is the
response of Mephibosheth? It's this. He bowed himself and
said, What is thy servant that thou shouldst look upon a dead
dog as I, listen, am? Paul said, O wretched man that
I Now a dog ain't worth much. You can't plow with a dog. You may get a little cuddling
out of him. But usually he's just there eating up your food
and messing up your house. He's just a dog. Now how much more useless
is a dead dog? Because that's what we really
are. Everyone's been fetched and understands this. We're a
dead dog. Have you been fetched? Have you been fetched? I think
this is important to notice. Look at that last part. Look
at that last part in this chapter, last verse. And Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem,
and did eat continually at the king's house, and was healed. Is that what it says? Miraculously,
he could walk and skip and jump and run and do service for his
master. Nope. What does it say? He was still
laying on his feet. I'm still laying on my feet. But I don't need to run and jump.
I don't need to serve. All I need to do is sit as a
king's son and eat. My, I've been fetched. Fetching
grace. Have you been fetched? Good news. Christ the King's
conquered it all. Christ the King's made a covenant
for us. Christ the King's sent and fetched us. Christ the King
exposed who we are. Christ the King bids us to fear
not. All is restored. When all the days of your life
that friend is fetching grace Pray God bless it. Let's stand
be dismissed and pray for