I think most of us know that
Brother Gabe, our pastor, is preaching tonight in Danville,
Kentucky for Brother Don Fortner. So we'll remember him. Turn,
if you will, to 2 Samuel chapter 9, the portion of scripture that
Brother Roy read. 2 Samuel 9. And we're going to
look at one of the great and wonderful historical events that's
recorded in the Old Testament. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
pictured here. How he saved sinners is pictured
here. Who God saves is pictured here. And why God saves whom he saves
is clearly pictured here. And pay close attention because
even the names important here. And I know some of them are hard
to pronounce and I'm not sure sometimes what the pronunciation
is. You look them up and you find out there's two or three
ways to say them. So look at verse 1 though and we see, 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 Hold
this place, you can mark chapter 9 of 2 Samuel because we're going
to keep coming back there, but turn back a little bit to 1 Samuel
18. You notice that word kindness.
We read in verse 1 of chapter 9 and the kindness of God, which
is all the mercy and grace of God. Just like David was saying
here, I'm going to do this for Jonathan's sake. So all the kindness
that he intended to show to the posterity of the house of Jonathan
was for Jonathan's sake. Don't we understand that any
kindness to us, any grace and mercy is for only one reason,
and that's for Christ's sake. God shows us kindness. He shows
us mercy and grace because of his son. And that's a clear picture
here. The Father and the Son made a
covenant to save a people. The Father decreed the covenant
and the Son fulfilled the covenant. You see here in 1 Samuel 18,
verse 3, we read, Then Jonathan and David made a covenant. For
what reason? Because Jonathan loved David
as his own soul. That's pretty strong. We don't
tend much to love anybody like we love ourselves, do we? Honestly. But this is a divine covenant.
And turn a page or two over to 1 Samuel chapter 20. Jonathan's
father Saul was determined to kill David. And David we know
was the true anointed king. He was to be the king of Israel.
And Saul was He was chosen by the people. David was chosen
by God the Father. And therefore, he's the rightful
king. And just as men who would be king determined to kill the
Lord Jesus Christ, who was the true and rightful king, then
Saul was determined to kill David so that he could stay king. All
right. And here's the terms of the covenant.
You see 1 Samuel 20, verse 15. But also thou shalt not cut off,
this is Jonathan speaking to David, shall not cut off thy
kindness from my house forever. Know not when the Lord hath cut
off the enemies of David, every one from the face of the earth,
that includes Saul and all his posterity. So Jonathan made a
covenant with the house of David saying, let the Lord even required
at the hand of David's enemies. And Jonathan caused David to
swear again because he loved him. That's the motive. He loved
him. For he loved him as he loved his own soul. God the Father
and God the Son love each other. Why? They're the same soul. That's
the picture here. All right. Turn back to 2 Samuel
9 and this word kindness. It's not just pity and mercy,
but it's more than that. It's favor. It's great favor. And the great covenant of God
the Father and God the Son is this, the Father will show kindness
on all of the brethren of Christ. Why? For Christ's sake. God will
have pity and mercy and show them favor. Is that not what
God does for his people in the Lord Jesus Christ? Look at verse
two here. 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, Are you Ziba? And Ziba
said, Thy servant is he. Now, you notice that Ziba claims
to be a servant of the king. But that's just like lots of
religious folks who in this day and time claim to be preachers
of God, preachers of the gospel. children of the king. It's one
thing to claim it. It's another to be it. To be
it. And this Ziba here, he said,
yeah, I'm your servant. And this would later, it would
later, if you read all through this, you'll find out Ziba betrayed
Mephibosheth. He betrayed David. He was all
in it for himself. And that's us by nature too.
We're all in it for ourselves. Hold this and turn to John 16. How much treachery is carried
out every day in the name of some God? This guy in Africa
named Boko Haram just kidnaps children, kills people. just
right and left, this ISIS thing, all these Islamists, all the
murder and the killing and the warfare, it's all done what?
In the name of their God. So, it's not unusual here that
Ziba's gonna say, yeah, I'm a servant of the king, I'm your servant,
when in fact, he's all in it for himself. And time will reveal
that all these fellows, no matter who they claim to be, are not
the servants of God. John 16, look at verse 2. And
they shall put you out of the synagogue, yea, the time cometh
that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God's service.
And these things will they do unto you for this reason, they
have not known the Father nor me. And you know what that word
known right there means? They don't love me. Christ said they
don't love me and they don't love my Father. And this is Ziba
here, a picture. He doesn't love him. He doesn't
love David. He doesn't love Mephibosheth. He loves himself. And that's
us by nature. And it's interesting that Ziba's
name, he claims to be a faithful servant, but you know what his
name means? Statue. And you know what you
can say about a statue? It may be well constructed. It
may be really good looking. It may be beautiful. It may be
this, it may be that, it may be the other. But I tell you
something, it doesn't have. It has no life. has no life at all. And those who do things in the
name of God that are contrary to God, they have no life. Christ
has not come to them, has not entered in. Ziba looks like a
man, but he had no spiritual life.
There's no life in him. He's just like all of us by nature.
dead in trespasses and sin. We have no spiritual life. And
we'll make a pretense of doing what the king or his master decrees
so long as it's in Ziba's best interest. Now look at verse 3.
And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul
that I may show the kindness of God unto him? That word kindness
is still the same. David's saying, I want a descendant
of Jonathan that I may show him grace and mercy. And God's going
to hunt down every descendant of the Lord Jesus Christ. For
what reason? Show him kindness. He's going
to give him grace and mercy. And Ziba answered in verse 3,
said to the king, Jonathan has a son which is lame on his feet. Now this is an interesting comment
what he says, what Ziba says. He's got some information and
some facts about this boy, but no real love for him. And what
I mean by that is notice that not one time in these next verses
you will never hear from the lips of Ziba this one thing. You know what it is? He will
never say his name. He never says Mephibosheth. Simple
reason for that. You know why? He not only doesn't
really know Him, He doesn't love Him. He doesn't care a thing
about Him in this world. And men say all kinds of things
about the Lord Jesus Christ or this man named Jesus. They don't
really know Him. They don't know who He is. It
has to be revealed to us. And Ziba never, ever... He's the rightful master of Ziba. David just made him so. He doesn't want to say his name. If you read all this, the more
Ziba learns of and sees Mephibosheth, the more he despises him and
lies about him. Ziba is all men by nature. And notice this, that Ziba, what's
the, when somebody asks you about, you know, somebody that you know,
is the first thing you, I mean, I'm grateful. that if somebody
asked you about me, I'd be grateful if you didn't say, yeah, he's
a fat old man. That'd be accurate. It would
be accurate. I'd sort of be grateful if you'd
say, you know, he's going bald and he's mean as a snake. I mean,
if you knew my heart, you'd know that's accurate. He does things
beyond me. Do you know what he does? I'm glad that's not the first
thing out of your mouth. You know the first thing out
of Ziba's mouth about Mephibosheth? He said, he's lame. He's a cripple. You think about
all the things he might have said. This is the grandson of
a king. He's the son of Jonathan, whom
David loves. In Ziba's first word, his name's, I can't think
of his name, but he's a cripple. He's just a useless cripple.
You know, that reveals a great deal. You know, you hear people say
this about our Lord. Think about this a minute. They
say, He has no hands but your hands. He has no feet but your
feet. You know what they're saying?
He's a cripple. He's a cripple. Thank God He became a cripple.
You know when? When he let them nail his feet
to the cross at Calvary, when they nailed his hands to the
cross, he became a helpless cripple. Why? So we wouldn't have to be
eternally crippled, spiritual cripples. So, you know, Adam
and all of us in him, we got lame. We got lame. When Adam fell, we fell. You
know how Mephibosheth got lame? How he became a cripple? He had
a nurse that was caring for him. He was about five years old,
is what the old writers say. And David's men had turned the
tide and Saul was coming down. I don't know if he was actually
dead yet or not, but David's men were coming. And Mephibosheth's
nurse heard about it. She grabbed him up and ran down
the stairs. And you know what happened? She
dropped him. She dropped him. He became a cripple from a fall. Does that sound familiar to you?
Adam, Adam, how did he get in the condition he did? He fell
from grace, didn't he? He fell. So you see the picture
here. Adam and all of us in him got
lame when Adam fled from the decree of God in the Garden of
Eden. And our Lord Jesus Christ became lame at Calvary, taking
the place of all who confessed that they need him in order to
ever stand, to stand before God, dress In a righteousness not
their own, but in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll
tell you this, if we don't see ourselves as lame, we'll never
see ourselves upheld by the precious arms of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now look at verse four. And the king said unto him, well,
where is this boy? Where is he? And Ziba said unto
the king, Behold, he is in the house of Matre, the son of Amiel
in Lodibar. Now Ziba mentions three more
names here, but still not Mephibosheth, does he? He hasn't said that
name yet. And you know, this is about 20 years after, 20 something
years after the covenant that Jonathan and David made. And
we'll, we'll see that later because Jonathan is old enough right
now that he's already got a son. Okay. As we'll read much later
in the chapter. So, uh, this is some years after
the actual covenant was made. You say, boy, that took David
a while, didn't it? What took him so long to get
to this? He promised Jonathan he'd show him mercy and grace.
He'd show him kindness. What took so long? Now, if you
read all the old writers about this, and that's a good thing
sometimes to read these men what they, because they studied and
took the time to do these things. Some of them said, well, David
was busy, you know, conquering his enemies and fighting wars
and consolidating the kingdom and all this. Got a lot better
answer than that for you. That answer is this. David got
around to this when he saw fit to get around to it. He showed
kindness when he saw fit to show kindness. And do you know what
we know about the Lord Jesus Christ, about God? This picture
is him, which says he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy
when he chooses to show mercy. Let's not give up on our children
and grandchildren. Let's not give up. It just may
not be time. It may not be the time. Let's
pray for him and ask the Lord to reveal himself to him. But
God does things in his own timetable. Remember, he sees the end right
here from where we are now as he has from the beginning because
he planned it all. And he'll show mercy on whom
he will when he chooses. But notice that Mephibosheth
is living in Lodabar. And what that means, these names
are important, it means without pasture or the land of no bread.
You know what that means? Who's the bread of life? The
Lord Jesus Christ. Mephibosheth is down here in
a place where there's no Christ. There's no gospel, no nothing.
That says a lot about where we ought to choose to live. It's
important where we live. We want to be near the gospel.
And that's the same place God finds all of us. Jesus Christ
being the bread of life, the living bread. And notice that
Mephibosheth is in the house of nature. And that word, if
you look it up, that name means sold. He's living in a place
where everybody there has been sold. Well, you know what that
is? That's us. We're all sold into
sin. When Adam ate, he sold us out. Now, we're not resistant
to it. We pick up the sin readily and
sell ourselves out. But there is some good news here. You know what that is? Nature
is also the son of Amiel. And you know what Amiel means?
The people of God. Here's the blessing of Mephibosheth
and of us in all these names. He and us are lame on our feet
from a fall. We live in a land of no bread.
Sold out to sin, but thanks being to God, he has chosen to put
us among the people of God. You know, there's folks that,
you know, if we start to look at ourselves and this little
group here and what's going on and everything else, we may find
a lot of things. We're ashamed of ourselves, our
sin. We admit that we're spiritual
cripples. We're ashamed of our sin and
admit that in Adam we were sold into sin. And, you know, I don't
much care if people think this is the land of no bread. I don't
care what they think about that. I don't care that some folks,
it's amazing. If you mention Kingsport in some
places, you know the first thing they say? That place stinks.
It smells bad. They got that, what kind of factory
is that they got down there? It smells bad. I don't care that
they think that. I don't care at all because you
know what I know this is? This is the land of God's people.
He's chosen this place for the people of God and he sent a prophet. He sent a man to tell us about
it. What a blessing. I don't care if they call it
Lodabar. You know what it is to us? It's the land of the people
of God. What a blessing to be put here,
to be led here. I thank God he's put us in the
house of the people of God. Now, what did Mephibosheth find
out here? As the fellow said, you know,
since I haven't heard any bad news since I heard the good news.
Well, Mephibosheth is about to hear the good news. But look
what happens to him before he actually hears that. Look at
verse five. Then King David sent and he fetched him out of the
house of nature, the son of Amiel from Lodibar. He fetched him. That's a big word. And it means
you can look it up. It means a lot of things. I mean,
fetching grace. Henry's got a great message called
fetching grace. I recommend you look it up. Let's
do it. It's great. The thing about this, we have
to realize that the way this went down was David said, there's
a man down in Lodabar, told him where he was, house of nature
in Amiel, go get him. Now, what do you suppose happened
then when this king on the throne said, go get that boy? I don't
know who put together the guards and the troops and the horses
and whatever it was they needed or thought they would need, but
they headed for Lodibar. And I'm sure word came ahead,
the king's moving this way. The king's coming this way. What
do you suppose that this crippled boy thought? He's found me out. You realize
how many all these years have gone by? My suspicion is that
Mephibosheth's down there and he thinks, I'm safe. I got away
from all the carnage. The number of people who were
killed in the overthrow of Saul and his house was unbelievable. And it was brutal. They killed
almost all of them. You're going to find out there's
a few they didn't kill. I'm sure Mephibosheth's down there. I'm
okay. I'm okay. And that's what most
of this world thinks about the wrath of God. They think, I'm
okay. I'm okay. It's not coming near me. And
then one day, the door bursts open and in come these men, mighty
men of war. And they reached down and pick
up this boy. They might've said, get up, stand
up, come with me. What's he going to do? He just
lays there. Why? He's a cripple. He can't get
up. And they grab him and take him.
I don't know if they got a chair. They strap him on. I don't know
what they do. I don't know what their orders
were except fetch him, get him. And that's what they did. They
went after that boy and they brought him. I'll tell you what,
if God ever says to His Holy Spirit, go get that boy. You
know what he's going to do? He's going to come. He's going
to come get you. And I am certain that Mephibosheth sat there when
the door burst open and a fear came up in his heart. They found
me out. The king has found me out. He now knows who I am, what I
am, what I've done, whose child I am. He thinks he's in terrible
trouble and he's terrified, I'm sure. And all the way back to
the king's palace, He's in fear, abject fear of
what's gonna happen to him now. Well, look at verse six. Then King David, I'm sorry, verse
six, now when Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul,
was come unto David, he fell on his face and did reverence.
You know why? He was terrified. He was full
of fear. He came in that room. Now he's
at the palace, and whatever fear he had, it's now got to be over
the top. Here's mighty men standing down
each wall with spears and swords and shields and all this grand
place, this palace. And they bring him in and set
him down in the floor. His fear is even worse. He fell
on his face and did reverence, and David said, the first word
he said to him was Mephibosheth. Boy, everything's confirmed to
this boy. He's like, he knows who I am. He knows my name. Does anybody
deceive themselves thinking that God doesn't know who and what
we are? He knows every one of us by name. He knows everything we've ever
done, every thought we've ever had. And Mephibosheth is there
laying in the floor. He's just sitting on the floor.
It says he does reverence. That means he's on his face. I tell you, if we ever see God
in all His glory revealed by the Holy Spirit, we'll get on
our face, won't we? We'll bow. We'll bow. And look at the last
part of verse 6. 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.
And Mephibosheth answered and said, Behold thy servant. I'm sure his voice quaked. He
may have said it too loud. He said, I'm your servant. I'm
your servant. And here's something that is so beautiful and wonderful. The first thing he says to this
boy is Mephibosheth. Fills him with terror and fear.
And then look at the next thing David says to him. Verse 7. And
David said unto him, Fear not. Fear not. The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom, isn't it? He's going to put that reverential
fear in our hearts But you know what, our God is so good to us,
the first thing he does after he calls us by name and lets
us know he's calling, he says, fear not. Fear not. You don't
have to be afraid. If you're one of my children,
you don't have to be afraid. For I will surely show thee kindness
for Jonathan thy father's sake, and will restore thee all the
lands of Saul thy father, and thou shalt eat bread at my table
continually. I wish we could enter into this
ragged cripple who's carried in, lame on his feet, is in the
middle of the floor, he's terrified, and David says, fear not. I'm
going to give you everything that Saul had for Jonathan's
sake. Now, that's pretty amazing. What did, let me ask you this,
what did Mephibosheth have coming? Had Jonathan lived, you know
what he would have got? everything Jonathan had. And
here's a nice picture. If Adam had never fallen, never
sinned, you know what you and I would have gotten? The Garden. You read about it and it sounds
like a nice place, doesn't it? But what is the Garden of Eden?
When you turn over to Revelation and see what we have in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the first thing David says
is, you know, you're not going to get what Jonathan had. You'll
get what Saul had. He had the kingdom. He had the
whole kingdom in Christ. We have it all. We got everything
that's in God, his mercy, his goodness, his grace, everything. For Mephibosheth, the bad news
was he'd been found out. You know what the good news was?
He'd been found. You see that? The bad news is,
oh, he knows who I am. The good news is, he'd give me
everything. He'd been found by a king who only intended to only
do him good. Why? For the sake of Jonathan. And God does us that same thing
in Christ. Our sin is found out, yet we're
shown that we're found in Christ where there's kindness, mercy,
and grace. Notice the guarantee that came
with this. David said, do you see that word,
surely? I will surely show thee kindness. Aren't we glad? Let me tell you,
you know what they're saying in other places, so-called churches
and things? You know what they're saying
today? They're saying, God wants to save you if you'll let him. And then they go into that, no
hands but your hands. We've dealt with that already.
But then you know what they're saying? They're saying this,
what if David had said to Jonathan, I mean to Mephibosheth, you know,
I'm probably going to do you good. I'm most likely going to
be kind to you. If nobody objects, I'll do you
good. I'll tell you what he certainly
did not say to him. He did not say, I'm going to
give you all the lands, all the belongings of Saul, But every
year you got to plow the first row. You got to take the first
step. Oh, there's no good news in that
from a fish. Is there? Why? He can't take
the first step. He's a cripple. He's lame on
his feet. If his, if his salvation, his
redemption is dependent on what he does, he's a goner. And so
are we. But that's not what we're counting
on, is it? We're counting on what the Lord Jesus Christ did
when He walked this earth, what He accomplished and what He did. He's still a cripple. And David
said, Mephibosheth, you surely shall have kindness. Here's the
guarantee, the word of the King. Thou shalt eat bread at my table
continually. And look at verse 8. And Mephibosheth bowed himself
and said, what is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon
such a dead dog as I am? You know, turn over to 1st John
3, hold 2nd Samuel, but turn over to 1st John 3. If God ever shows us who he is
and what he's done for us, We will have the same response that
Mephibosheth had. Mephibosheth said, he got this
great news and he said, who am I? Who am I? I'm just a servant. He said, who am I? What is my
house? But we'll do what he did. We'll
bow and knowing full well the answer to who and what we are,
Do you know what he called himself? He said, who am I that you should
have mercy on a dead dog? And notice, this is not a dog.
This is not some cute little puppy that came in. It's not
Alfie. It's not your pet dog or whatever, which you think
quite highly of. This is a dead dog. We're talking about a maggot
filled, middle of the road, broke leg, broke back, tongue hanging out, eyeballs
bulging, blood running out the mouth, dead dog. Nobody wants
that to come home with them, do they? And we can't imagine
picking that one up out of the road and taking it home with
us. Well, that's how the Lord Jesus Christ finds us. We're
just a bunch of dead dogs. And yet he has mercy on us. And
Mephibosheth sees himself in that situation. He said, you
have every right to take me and throw me in the dumpster, to
be rid of me forever, burn me up, put me in a place where I
won't smell bad anymore. That's not David's plan, is it?
That's not kindness. No, he's going to show him kindness.
He's going to take care of the stink of the dead dog on him,
and then he's going to make him a prince, a son. David did for
Mephibosheth the very same thing that Jesus Christ has done for
us. He's taken a bunch of vile dead dogs and made us fit to
sit at the king's table. The abundance of the king's mercy
is unfathomable to this poor crippled young man. And Mephibosheth,
have you noticed how hard that name is to say? I'll explain
that in a minute to you. Lacey asked me what I was going
to speak on, and I should have said what I was going to speak
on the Lord Jesus Christ as he's pictured in Mephibosheth. But
I said on Mephibosheth, she said, Mephibosheth. Grownups have a hard time with
it too, honey. And I'll tell you why in just a minute. But
the abundance of the king's mercy is unfathomable to this poor
boy. Mephibosheth would have been happy to just be left alive. Don't you know that? After he's
been brought into this place, he'd have been happy just, he's
going to let me live? He's going to let me stay alive? And David said, no, a whole lot
more than that. You get everything Saul used to have. And you know,
It's amazing grace that God saves sinners, but we also receive
the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. We can't even imagine. Mephibosheth, I'm sure he was
five years old when his granddaddy died. He had no recollection
of living in those fine palaces and all that sort of thing. He
had no idea what was awaiting him. Well, Mephibosheth went
from being a dead dog to a prince. And that's what happens when
God saves a sinner. We go from being a dead dog to a prince
of the God of glory to the king. And folks, the best is yet to
come. You think this sounds good? You think Mephibosheth, that
sounded good to him? He hadn't entered into it yet.
He had not eaten one meal at the king's table yet. And the
same with us. Look at 1 John 3 verse 1. Behold
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth
us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know
that when our Lord shall appear, we shall be like him, for we
shall see him as he is. When he comes back, We're going
to finally find out what all this means, all this blessing
in him. Now, look at, let me read the
rest of this chapter to you. Verse 9, it says, 2 Samuel 9.
Then the king called to Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to 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 shall
bring in the fruits that thy master's son may have food to
eat. But Mephibosheth, the master's
son, shall eat bread all way at my table. Now Ziba had 15
sons and 20 servants. Ziba said 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. 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. One thing I
want us to notice, do we ever get fretful about what's ahead,
about, oh, business isn't very good, or I'm having a hard time
with this relationship? Yeah, we got all kind of problems,
don't we? I mean, if it's not us, it's
our children, our grandchildren, our parents, or somebody. Always
some kind of trouble. You know what we just read? The
king has appointed to a helpless crippled boy a man with 15 sons
and all these servants, what have you, and you know what their
purpose is? Take care of that boy. You know, we look around
here, you know what the purpose of Eastman is? Take care of some
of his children. The purpose of the car place
is to take care of some of his people. The only reason all the
Education in the world existed as Roy, so you get your PhD and
it'd be useful to you. The only reason that people need
what you're selling is because God put them there to be your
servants. That's pretty amazing, isn't
it? That, you know, you're working for somebody now and you think,
man, this is a tough job and I, you know, he's your servant. You're not his. Now we act like
a servant, don't we? And we're honest, we work hard,
we do these things, but the whole thing is for the benefit of God's
people. That's why it even exists. But
did you notice the phrase, eat bread at my table? Four times
that's in there. And it says one time in verse
10, eat at my table always. Now that's better, it's not always,
Always better than always. You know what always is? That
means as long as my table's there, you can eat at it. Okay? Always
means I don't care whether you're up, down, high, low, whatever
you are, forever, you're eating at my table. And that's our case. Sometimes we think we've gone
over the hill, but we're always at his table. He's going to give
us the bread we need always, always. Notice it says, continually. That means without ceasing, without
stopping. And by the way, the bread is,
isn't it amazing how close we are to it? Isn't it amazing how
often it's spread here? Always, continually. And that's
the blessing of God. And here's the real significance
of this. At the king's table, where Mephibosheth
was, you know what that looked like? Now David had a big household,
lots of sons and daughters or whatever, but at this time not
so many yet. But it was a long table and it
was low, low to the ground is what the table was. And they
would come up and recline at the table to where their legs
were under the table or parallel to it. Anybody who approached
them, you know what they saw? They saw this much of you. When
they came and beheld the king, they would bow and all this.
And they look down up at the table and they look down here
and here's a fella whose name is Mephibosheth. And you know
what he looks like to them? More importantly, you know what
he doesn't look like? He doesn't look like a cripple. Nobody could
see his legs. Nobody knew. When he was at the
king's table, which was always and continually, he was not a
cripple. The Lord Jesus Christ does not
look on us as cripples because we're sitting at his table. And
we're whole in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're whole, as perfect
as we'll ever be without sin and in a perfect righteousness.
Now I want us to see one more thing quickly. Turn to 2 Samuel
21. The name of Phibosheth is not
only unusual and unique, It is so unusual that in almost
40 years of hearing the gospel, I did not realize in the Bible
there are two Mephibosheth. Maybe you knew this. I didn't
know it. But when I found it out, I thought, what's that all
about? And I started reading about it. And I never realized
there were two of them. But Saul, Jonathan's dad, had
a concubine named Rizpah. and she had two sons by Saul,
one of which was named Mephibosheth. Now, this Mephibosheth is only
mentioned this one time in the scriptures. He would have been
Jonathan's half-brother, and it appears that Mephibosheth
that we're reading about was named for this uncle whom Jonathan
obviously loved or cared about enough. I mean, you're not going
to name a child for your brother Chris if you don't think much
of him, if he's a scallywag and vice versa. We name our children
for those we admire, do we not? Those we love. And this uncle
is a Mephibosheth. Now, here's the significance
of this. Look at 2 Samuel 21 verse 1. Then there was a famine
in the land of David three years year after year. And David inquired
of the Lord, and the Lord answered, It is for Saul and for his bloody
house, because he slew the Gibeonites. And the king called the Gibeonites
and said to them, Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel,
but of the remnant of the Amorites. They were Hivites. And the children
of Israel had sworn unto them, and Saul sought to slay them
in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah. It took some
reading to find out what all that meant. Let me summarize
it for you. Big famine came. You ever have hard times? Just
something tough, hard. You know, sometimes it's not
our, it has nothing to do with us and our fault. As in when
Joe, he didn't do anything to bring this on himself, did he?
No. Okay. Turned out to be in his
best interest in the long run, but he didn't do anything. But
folks, I tell you, if we're having a hard time with something, we
need to ask the Lord, is this something I'm doing I'll not
be doing? Is this, is there something here I'm not seeing? Well, to
ask it, ask what David did. David sought the Lord and you
know what? The Lord told him. He said, what
I'm upset about, what all of Israel is suffering about is
that when my servant Joshua came out of the Egypt and crossed
the Jordan, First thing to do was kill this King Ai and they
took down Jericho and they were just marching through killing
everybody as they were instructed to do. And you know what the
Gibeonites did? They heard about all this and
they said, man, we're in trouble. And they dressed up some guys
and sent them to Joshua and said, we're from a far country, we'll
be your servants if you just won't kill us all. And Joshua
and the men of Israel thought, well, that's, you know, why should
we not have mercy? So they entered a covenant with
the Gibeonites saying, we'll show you mercy, but you'll service. And these fellows cut wood and
did all these things as the servants of the people of Israel. And
they were still here all this time later. And you know what
Saul did when he got to be king? He decided to exterminate them.
He set about killing every Gibeonite he could find. Well, the Lord
didn't take kindly to his covenant being broken and therefore he
sent this famine. So David now has asked them and
they've, they've saying, we, this is what happened. We had
a covenant and, and Saul broke it. So look what David did in
verse three. Wherefore David said unto the
Gibeonites, what shall I do for you? And wherefore shall I make
the atonement? That word sound familiar? There's
got to be atonement for sin. There's got to be bloodshed for
sin. That you may bless the inheritance of the Lord. And the giving night
said unto him, We will have no silver or gold of Saul, nor of
his house. Neither for us shalt thou kill
any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say,
that will I do for you. The Gibeonites said was, there's
no amount of gold or silver. You think God would accept a
money sacrifice for the death of his son? No amount of riches
could do that, could it? No. They said, and we won't have,
I don't want you killing all these innocent Israelites who
had nothing to do with this. What we want is we want blood
of Saul. And David said, you tell me what
you want, that's what I'll do. Here's what they said in verse
five. And the answer to the king, the man that was consumed us,
the man that consumed us, that's Saul, and the devised against
us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the
coast of Israel, let seven men of his sons be delivered unto
us. And we will hang them up unto
the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, whom the Lord did choose. And the
king David said, I'll give them to you. He said, I'm going to
give you these seven sons. All right. Now, you say, what
happened next? Look down at verse 8. But the
king took the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Ai, whom she
bare unto Saul, and their names are what? Harmoni and Mephibosheth. Here's the other Mephibosheth
mentioned just this one time. He's among the seven. and the
five sons of Michael, the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up
for Adriel, the son of Barzilla, the holothite. And he delivered
them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill
before the Lord. And they fell all seven together
and were put to death in the days of the harvest, in the first
days, in the beginning of the barley harvest." First thing
to tell you is that once this sacrifice was made, the harvest
was okay. It came back that quick. Tell
you, when the Lord Jesus Christ was sacrificed at Calvary, you
and I were made whole. The people of God were made whole
again. It was all right now. The blood had been shed as an
atonement for the broken covenant. But here's the verse that will bless
you. Go back. I skipped over verse
7. You see what it says? There were
seven sons. Well, it turns out, actually, there was eight. 8 grandsons of Saul that were still
alive. And King David spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan,
the son of Saul. Because of the Lord's oath that
was between them. Between David and Jonathan, the
son of Saul. Do we see what happened here?
Is this picture clear? There was two Mephibosheths.
There was one who came in time first And turn over, if you will,
I want you to turn over to the last scripture, 1 Corinthians
15. 1 Corinthians 15. There was a Mephibosheth
that came first. He was Jonathan's brother. And
then there was another Mephibosheth that came. And what happened
was that when it came time for this sacrifice, blood atonement,
the first Mephibosheth died so the second Mephibosheth could
live. Do we see that? Does that have
a familiar ring to it? There was a first Adam in time
in the garden and there was a second Adam. He's really the first Adam.
Do we see that? Jesus Christ was Adam from the
foundation of the world, a sacrifice for his people. And what happened
was that And it made it sound like here that they took these
seven guys and hung them by the neck. But if you search this
all the way back, you know what they did to them? They took them
up on this hill and crucified them. What a picture here. God took his son up on a hill
and crucified him as the second Adam or the first Adam in time. Do we see that? What a picture. All of this way back there in
the New Testament, the gospel was the same. It takes a blood
atonement as a sacrifice for the sin of God's people. And
God provided the sacrifice. Look here in 1 Corinthians 15
verse 22. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ all be made alive. Everybody who was in Adam died
spiritually, and everybody who's in Christ live spiritually and
then verse 45 and so it is written the first
man Adam was made a living soul God breathed life into him and
the last Adam was made a quickening spirit we have life in the Lord
Jesus Christ how be it that was not first which is spiritual
but that which is natural and afterward that which is spiritual
the first man is of the earth earthy the second man is the
Lord from heaven. He's our sacrifice. The gospel
never changes. It absolutely never changes.
It's the same. It was the same in Genesis. It's
the same in Revelation. And it's the same in this book,
1 and 2 Samuel. It's all right there. And I had
a thing running around the back of my head. We're not going to
have a closing hymn, but let me read you a hymn we know so
well and see if it doesn't go with this. Hark the herald angels
sing, glory to the newborn king. Peace on earth and mercy mild.
God and sinners are reconciled. How is that? Through a sacrifice
and a substitute. Joyful, all ye nations rise. Join the triumph of the skies.
With angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem.
Christ by highest heaven adored. Christ the everlasting Lord.
Late in time, behold him come. Offspring of the virgin's womb.
You see, he was the first Adam from the foundation of the world,
but he came in time to do what he was determined to do. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead
see. Hail the incarnate deity. Pleased
as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. Come, desire of
nations, come. Fix in us thy humble home. Rise
the woman's conquering seed. Bruise in us the serpent's head.
Adam's likeness now effaced, stamp thine image in its place. Second Adam from above, reinstate
us in thy love. All right, let's stand together
and we'll be dismissed.