2 Samuel chapter 9. 2 Samuel chapter 9. We're going
to look at a very familiar passage of scripture this morning. This
is the story of David and Mephibosheth. David and Mephibosheth. Most
of you probably know this story pretty well. I'll let you get there. I'll
talk to you a little bit before we start. When I was reading this passage
of scripture, this is the thought that came to my mind. I enjoy
very much sitting down with other believers, especially ones I
don't know very well, and saying, hey, tell me your story. Tell
me a story about how the Lord called you out. Because for most
of us, that story is very different. And you think about it, sometimes
the Lord, He may wait a man's entire life before He calls him
out. A man may toil in false religion or idolatry or something
like that almost all of his life until he's an old man. And then
the Lord crosses His path with the Gospel. And He turns the
lights on. And He saves that man. Some men
He saves from a very young age. Young kids. Young teenagers. Things like that. The Lord just
turns the lights on. Just like that. Some men, they
spend years and years in false religion, out in a different
state, and the Lord has to uproot them and bring him to the sound
of the gospel and put them in a local church. Some of us, born
in a gospel church, heard the truth, never heard anything but
the truth. The stories of the Lord calling us out, they're
all very different. But for every believer, the story
of our salvation. Who accomplished it? how he accomplished
it, why he accomplished it. For every believer, that story
is the exact same. Now, what we're going to do is
we're going to look at the story of David and Mephibosheth this
morning, and we're going to tell the story of every believer's
salvation. We're going to tell it from beginning to end, to
where it begins, to where it ends, to how we experience it, all
the way along. If you want to know if the Lord's
ever done anything for you, I challenge you, does your story match up
with this man, Mephibosheth? Let's look at it. 2 Samuel, Chapter
9. We'll begin, I'm going to read verses 1 through 13, so
we'll set the backdrop. And David said, is there yet
any that is left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness
for Jonathan's sake? And there was in 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? He said,
thy servant is he. And the king said, is there not
yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness
of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king,
Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet. And the
king said unto him, where is he? And Ziba said unto the king,
behold, he's in the house of Makir, the son of Amul in Lodabar. Then king David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Makir, the son of Amul from Lodabar.
Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul,
was come unto David, he fell on his face and did reverence. David said, Mephibosheth, They
answered, Behold thy servant. And David said unto him, Fear
not, for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's
sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father,
and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. And he bowed
himself and said, What is thy servant? Thou shouldst look upon
such a dead dog as I am. Then the king called to Ziba,
Saul's servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master's
son all that pertain to Saul and all his house. Thou, therefore,
and thy sons and thy servants shall till the land for him,
and thou shalt bring in the fruits, that thy master's son may have
food to eat. But Mephibosheth, thy master's son, shall eat bread
always at my table. Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. Then said Ziba unto the king,
according to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant,
so shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the
king, he shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons. 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. The story of
David and Mephibosheth. Now, let me give you the historical
backdrop here. Saul, the people's king, when
the Lord has disavowed, he is dead. His son, Jonathan, is dead. And right now, David sits on
the throne of Israel. And David is the singular most
powerful man on the face of the earth. Scriptures record that
the fear of David fell over every nation. He is the most powerful
man on the face of the earth. Now, during these times you had
a kingship, right? And the kingship ran through
a family line. So a family's patriarch, he was the king. He
sat on that throne and it was expected that his son, his firstborn
son, would be the rightful heir after him. And then his son would
be the heir after him and so on and so forth and it would
go through the family line. But every once in a while, just like
in this case, a new family would come along and they would take
over the throne. And so they would put their patriarch
on the throne and it was expected that it would go through his
bloodline. Now, a very dangerous spot to find yourself is being
a male descendant of the former king. In this case, a son of
Saul. Because you were seen as a threat
to the new king's rule. And it was always expected that
the new king would come in and he would wipe out all the male
descendants of that old king. All of his house would just be
wiped out. And the sons of Saul here, they had every reason to
believe that David was going to knock on their door and some
soldiers were going to come piling in and they were going to hack
them to bits. That's exactly what they could expect. But look
back at verse 1. What does David say? What is
his inquiry once he's sitting on this throne? 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. That's unexpected. Completely and utterly unexpected.
Now every story has to have a beginning. And I can't help but notice that
how this story begins is how the story of every believer's
salvation begins. It begins with a sovereign king,
David, the picture of God the Father, sitting on his mighty
throne, purposing to show mercy to an undeserving people. The
house of Saul, the picture of us, the picture of the elect.
That's how this story begins and that's how the story of every
believer's salvation begins with a sovereign king purposing to
show mercy. Now, the flip side of that. What
does the world say about the beginnings of salvation? What
does false religion teach about the beginnings of salvation?
False religion would say that salvation begins when a man accepts
Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. When he allows the Lord
to save him. when he allows him to be his
personal king. That word allow. That word accept. Look for that in the Bible. That's
what false religion says. It says that salvation begins
when a man makes a choice for God. Let me ask this. What do the scriptures teach?
Because, to be quite honest, my opinion doesn't matter. Any
other man's opinion doesn't matter. What matters is what it says
in this book. Let me give you the scripture.
Turn to John 15 and look at verse 16. John 15 and look at verse 16.
This is the Lord speaking to His disciples. And notice just
the first couple words. Ye have not chosen Me, but I
have chosen you, and ordained you that you should go and bring
forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever
you shall ask of the Father in My name He may give it you. You have not chosen Me, But I
have chosen you. Folks, what plain language could
possibly be used? Let me give you something to
think about. In reference to this story, let me pose a few
hypotheticals. In this story, were there any members of Saul's
house that were seeking mercy from David? Is it recorded anywhere
in this story that there's members of Saul's house and they're beating
on the throne room door? David, David, be merciful to
me. Is that listed here anywhere?
No. The descendants of Saul aren't
seeking David. They're running from him. They are hiding from
him. They are expecting his wrath.
Just like Adam, when he fell, when he ate that fruit. Adam
walked out. He was hiding. He hid from the Lord. Because
he knew he was a shameful thing. And that's our natural case.
Fleeing from the Lord. Hiding from Him. Expecting His
wrath. His enemies, by nature. By nature,
we do not choose Him. He chooses us. sovereignly and
according to his will and according to his grace. Another question
here. Prior to making this decree that
he was going to be merciful to these people, did David inquire
about the fitness of Saul's house to receive the mercy? Did David
look at one of his servants and say, okay, these descendants
of Saul, tell me about them. Are they good folks? I go to
work every day. I take good care of the families.
Surely they're religious, right? I read the Bible. Does David
make any inquiry about the fitness of these people to receive mercy
whatsoever? No. No, the fitness of Saul's
house to receive mercy had nothing to do with David's purpose. But
why did David show mercy to the house of Saul? It was for whose
sake? It was for Jonathan's sake. All
because of someone else. He purposed to show mercy to
a group of people because of someone else, because for Jonathan's
sake. And why would the Lord be merciful
to wicked and evil men and women like you and me? Let me give
you the scripture, and I'll just read it to you. Ephesians 4,
32 says, And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven
you because of another. That's why we're forgiven. Now
what happened in relation to David purposing to show this
mercy? What happened between David and
Jonathan that would cause this to be? Turn if you would to 1
Samuel 20. 1 Samuel 20. And I'll give you the quick back
story here. So Saul, the former king of Israel, he had taken
David into his inner circle. And the scriptures record that
David had behaved himself wisely. And he was mighty in battle and
he was loved by all the people. And at some point, David grows
to a greater level of fame and popularity than Saul. And Saul
says, I'm not going to have this. I'm not going to have this. And
Saul sets out to kill David. But Saul's son, Jonathan, he
loved David very much. And something happened between
David and Jonathan that led up to David showing this mercy.
Let's read about it here. 1 Samuel 20 and look at verse
12. And Jonathan said unto David,
O Lord God of Israel, when I have sounded my father about tomorrow
any time, or the third day, and behold, if there be good toward
David, and I then send not unto thee, and shew it thee, the Lord
do so, and much more to Jonathan. But if it please my father to
do thee evil, then I will show it thee, and send thee away,
that thou mayest go in peace, and the Lord be with thee, as
he hath been with my father." So we'll stop there for a second.
What Jonathan is saying is, listen, I'm going to go to my father,
and I'm going to find out what's going on. And if he's not mad at you
anymore, if he's no longer purposed to kill you, I'll let you know
so you can come back, and you can come back to the inner circle.
But if he does plan to kill you, if he means you harm, I'll let
you know that, and you can flee. And here's what Jonathan asks.
Go back to reading. And thou shalt not only, while
yet I live, show me the kindness of the Lord, that I die not,
but also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house forever.
No, not when the Lord hath cut off the enemies of David, everyone
from the face of the earth. So Jonathan made a covenant with
the house of David, saying, let the Lord even require it at the
hand of David's enemies. Why did David purpose to show
mercy? He had engaged in a covenant with Jonathan. And folks, we
don't have to look too hard and too deep to find out what the
scriptures are pointing to here. This is talking about the covenant
of grace. Before the foundation of the world, the covenant that
was entered into between the Father and the Son. This is where
the Father tasked the Lord Jesus Christ with the safe return of
all the elect back to glory. And the Lord Jesus Christ, as
a volunteer and with his full consent, said, I will. He said,
I will be surety for them at my hand shalt thou require of
them. If I don't bring them back to you and set them before you,
you let me bear the blame forever. This is the covenant of grace. Now, go back to your text, 2
Samuel 9, and pick up in verse 2. We're introduced to the sole
descendant of Saul's house, Mephibosheth. And there was in the house of
Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they had called him
unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba? And he said, Thy
servant is he. And the king said, Is there not
yet any of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness
of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king,
Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet. And the
king said unto him, Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king,
Behold, he is in the house of Makir, the son of Amul, in Lodabar. Mephibosheth. He's a type of
a believer. What information do we get about
him? Well, first we have his name, Mephibosheth. You know
what that means? It means a shameful thing. That's what his name means,
a shameful thing. I would ask, what's the source
of shame? What is it? It's guilt, right? And what's the source of guilt?
It's sin. It's sin. Mephibosheth, he's
a sinful thing, he's a guilty thing, he's a shameful thing.
He sounds exactly like you and me. Exactly like you and me. Another thing we find out about
him is that he has an ailment. He's lame. That means he's crippled.
He can't walk. He's lame on both feet. He can't
walk at all. And the story of how he gets
this ailment is actually very telling. It's very interesting.
Turn if you would real quick to 2 Samuel 4. 2 Samuel 4, I'm picking up on the
4th verse. And Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son that was lame
on his feet. He was 5 years old when the tidings
came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel. And those tidings
were that Saul and Jonathan are dead. They came back to the camp
and they told the people, Saul and Jonathan, they're king, they're
dead, they've been wiped out. And so everyone expects that
this warring army is going to come through and just hack them
all to pieces. Go back to reading. And his nurse took him up and
fled and it came to pass as she made haste to flee that he, what? He fell. And he became lame and
his name was Mephibosheth. Now once again we don't have
to look very hard, very deep to find out what the Holy Spirit
is pointing to here. How did Mephibosheth end up being lame?
It was through a fall. A fall. Just like our father
Adam, he is made upright and innocent. And the Lord puts him
in the garden and says, you can eat of all the fruit of all the
trees of this garden except for this one tree, the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. In the day you eat thereof, you
shall surely die. And what does Adam do? He disobeys
God, he eats that fruit, and he falls. And everyone he gave
birth to, leading up to you and me, and Macy Greenleaf right
there, is a fallen creature. Born in this world, dead in trespasses
and sins, and we're just like Mephibosheth, we are spiritually
lame. Spiritually crippled. Now lame,
what does that mean? It means he can't walk. He is
crippled. He is paralyzed. And there's
some things we can learn from that. Think of Mishvivishep in
this light. There are many things he can't
do. So because he's crippled, he can't work. He can't provide
for himself. Those things he needs to live,
he cannot provide. He can't go out and build a house.
He can't work the fields. He can't raise cattle. He can't
herb sheep. All those things, drawing water
from a well, all those things he needs to live, he cannot do. He's lame. He's unable. And through
our spiritual lameness, we are unable. We are unable to muster
a good work. unable to provide for ourselves
those things we need to live. The righteousness before the
law. Real holiness that we can stand before the Father. Those
things we must have to live. We cannot provide for ourselves.
No more than Mephibosheth could provide for himself. It's another
thing he couldn't do. Mephibosheth couldn't get to
David. And I would ask, what if David said, you know what?
I'm interested in showing mercy to Mephibosheth. And he looks
at one of his runners and he says, you go down there and you
deliver him an invitation. And so the servant goes down
there and he knocks on Mephibosheth's door. Mephibosheth opens the
door and he says, listen, the king would love to see you. He'd love
to have you in his kingdom. He'd love to bless you. Here's
your invitation. I'll see you later. And he turns
around and he walks out. What good is that going to do
Mephibosheth? It's not going to do him any good. He's crippled.
He's lame. He can't get to David. And that's us by nature, folks. Spiritually crippled. We cannot
muster faith. We cannot believe. I tell you,
when the Lord first starts dealing with you, that's the first thing
you find is that you can't believe. You can't trust Christ. And you
are all alone and you've hit the wall. And that's when the
Lord starts dealing with the man right there. When he finds
that. Mephibosheth, he can't provide for himself. He can't
get to David. And he can't do anything for David. He's useless
to David. He can't work for him. He can't
do anything for him. In this world of false religion,
they are always talking about what? What they are doing for
Jesus. We're out here working. We're
out here doing. We're doing this. We're doing that. But every believer
will tell you salvation is not what we do for him. Salvation
is what the Lord freely and sovereignly does for us. That's me and you
folks. Just Mephibosheth. Lame. We can't
provide for ourself. We can't get to David. David
has to send a strong runner down there and grab us and throw us
over his shoulder and bring us to the greater David. And we
can't do anything for David. We're just a trophy of his power
and his grace. You fit that description? That's
me to a tee. Right there, I'm a Mephibosheth.
We get some information about Mephibosheth, where he's living.
He's living in this land called Lodabar. That's an interesting
word. It actually means a house of
no bread or a land of no pasture. When you go to a land that doesn't
have any pasture land for the animals, and a land that's got no bread
in the houses, what else aren't you going to find there? You
can't go find any life. There's no food. There's no life. That's very telling. Mephibosheth,
lame on both his feet. Aaron, lame on both his feet.
And we're born in this world the exact same way, in Elodabor,
a place where there's no life. Now look at verse 5 of your text,
2 Samuel chapter 9. Now what word jumps off the page
to you there? It's fetched. It's fetched. It always is, right? That's a
good word. It's a good country word. I looked that word up in
the concordance and it means exactly what you would think
it means. It means to take. to take. And I love to think about
that. I love to think about the Lord just reaching out and taking
me. And doing it with absolutely no respect to my opinion, or
my will, or anything about me. He's the Sovereign. He just reaches
out and He takes me. And I'm thankful He is that way.
And looking at this word, there's a couple different ways in which
we've been fetched. We'll see if you all can follow along here.
Turn to Ephesians 1 and look at verse 3. There's a very real
sense in which we have been eternally fetched. Ephesians 1 and pick up in verse
3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. Where were we when
we were chosen in divine election? Well, according to right here
in this, we were chosen in Christ. Now I would ask this question,
did the Lord Jesus Christ ever have a beginning? Is He ever
going to have an end? No, He's absolutely eternal.
You know what that means? That means, believer, you are eternal.
You've never begun, and you never had an end, because you have
always been eternally united to the Lord Jesus Christ. As
long as He has been, so are you part of that same body. We have
been eternally fetched. Before the foundations of the
world, before this thing we call time, we have always been a part
of Him. There is a sense in which we
are fetched in our own experience, and that is through the call
of irresistible, invincible grace. We talked about that this morning.
At the Lord's appointed time, in the life of one of the elect,
he sends his word. He sends the gospel to that man.
He sends the spirit in that man's heart. And it's a call from death
unto life. That man is dead. He's dead in
trespasses and sins, and he issues that call of the gospel. And
it's irresistible and it's invincible, just like Lazarus. He was dead,
and he was issued a call, and he was alive. No fighting, no
prerequisites, no conditions. It just is what it is. A sovereign
God purposing to raise a dead man and doing exactly what he
purposed to do. That call of, I'm so thankful
that grace is irresistible and invincible. Because if it could
be resisted, we would resist it. But we can't. No more than
Lazarus could resist being brought back to life. Lazarus, come forth. A dead man came back to life,
and he came forth. It had nothing to do with him.
Now, we can look at this, we can use an example and say, well,
a good illustration would be a man picking up his cork keys
off the kitchen table, right? The man has all the power, and
the cork keys are an adamant object. They don't have any power.
He just reaches by and he fetches them. And that example's okay.
That's okay. But we're actually leaving something
out. I told you before this word, fetched, it means to take. But
if you look where it's used in the scripture, many times where
it's used, it's in reference to a man taking a wife. And the
root word here, it's actually just directly translated married
a few times in the scripture. So somebody says, what are you
getting at? What's your point here? If you really want to give the illustration
about how the Lord fetches us, you can look at the picture of
marriage. Especially, and you don't have to turn there, I'll
read it to you. Ephesians 5.25. It says, Husbands,
love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church. Now man
just reaches out and grabs his car keys off the kitchen table.
He doesn't love those car keys, but when the Lord Takes fetches
one of the elect it is for one reasons because he loves him
in Christ the very love of God When a man takes a wife, what
does he do? He says, I'm accepting responsibility for her. I'm going
to provide for her. I'm going to take care of her.
I'm going to give myself for her. And that's the end of this
scripture. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved
the church and gave himself for it. And folks, that's the fetching
that I am most thankful for. It's when He fetched us on that
cross. And like I said in Sunday school
this morning, that's all I've got. Folks, this is it. This
is all I can hang my hat on. This is all I've got in this
world. That Jesus Christ died in my
stead. That truly, my sins were made
His, that He bore them in His body, and the wrath He suffered
was the wrath that Aaron deserved. And it was poured down upon Christ,
and He bled and died, and He put them away. And when he said,
it is finished, he purchased us. He purchased us and he owns
us. And as a rightful owner, he takes
us with us. And where is he right now? Seated
at the right hand of the Father in glory, sharing full communion,
full fellowship. All the love that God has to
offer right there, right next to Him, sitting in His right
hand. And folks, He purchased us, He bought us, and we are
in Him. And we have that same fellowship and love of the Father
right now in Christ. I tell you what, any believer,
you'd ask him, Lord, fetch me. Come down the loading bar to
this crippled man and come fetch me. That's a cry of my heart. Go back to your text. Second
Samuel 9, look at verse 6. What happens when the Lord fetches
a sinner? How do we experience this? Now, when Mephibosheth,
the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David,
he fell on his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth.
And he answered, Behold thy servant. Can you imagine the fear Mephibosheth
must have felt? as he was in the presence of
David. There he is, this poverty-stricken, crippled individual. And he can't
even stand before David. He's either laying there or sitting
in a chair. And there he is in this throne room. And how beautiful
David's throne room must have been. Just beautiful things,
pieces of furniture and everything large and overbearing and inlaid
with gold and just beautiful. And there's the most powerful
man on the face of the earth. The man that everyone else on
the face of the earth is afraid of right now. is standing before
you, and he's seated on his throne. And there he is, this poverty-stricken
individual, and David had all his soldiers around him, his
mighty men, these men who'd slaughtered thousands and thousands, these
great mighty men, and everything is so imposing. And there he
lays, or he sits, whatever Mephibosheth is doing, and he's wondering,
what in the world is this man going to do with me? See, Mephibosheth
knew that he was in the hands of a sovereign. He wasn't laboring
under any delusion of a free will at this time. He knew he
was in David's hands and David could do with him whatever he
saw fit and it was right whatever David did. David was the king.
David was the sovereign. And there's something else Mephibosheth
knew here. He knew that his house, the house of Saul, they had made
themselves David's enemy. Pay attention to how I said that,
because I chose those words carefully. If you'll look through the scriptures,
David never made himself Saul's enemy. David knew that Saul was
God's anointed, and he said, I won't lift a hand against God's
anointed. Saul, in his house, constantly made himself David's
enemy. Now, when you first figured out, when it was revealed to
you, who the Lord is, did you not find yourself in this same
boat? In his hand, he can do with you
as he saw fit. And that fear fell over you.
I've got no choice in this thing. I've got no say in this thing.
I've got no leg to stand on. I'm in the hands of a holy, sovereign
one who can do with me as he sees fit. And then this fear
washes over you. I've made myself his enemy. My
carnal mind is at enmity against God. You ever been there? When
the Lord first reveals himself to a sinner, that's exactly where
you find yourself in the hands of a sovereign, knowing that
whatever he does with you, it's right, it's just, and it's fair
because of who he is. Now what is Mephibosheth's response
to David? Did Mephibosheth say, all right,
Dave, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to allow you to
take care of me. I'm going to show up here and
I'm going to allow you to give me a room in your castle here
and I'm going to allow you to provide for me and feed me and things
like that. And if you'll come on down here
and bow down here, I'll put the camp crown on your head and I'll
crown you my king. The food chef say anything foolish
like that? I dare say if he did, one of David's soldiers would
have come up and probably hacked him to bits with the edge of
his sword. This was King David and you weren't going to talk
to him like that. He deserves respect. But think about the
cry of false religion. Allow. Accept. We don't allow the Lord to do
anything. We don't accept Him for anything.
He's the King. and we fall down before him the
same way Mephibosheth did. What did he do? He fell before
him and he did reverence. He worshipped him. And here's
worship, folks. You find yourself in the hands
of a sovereign and you've got no excuses and you've got no
one to blame. You can't blame Adam. A man can't look back and
be like, well, listen, Adam fell. He ate that fruit in that garden.
I wasn't there. That wasn't my problem. I'm born
dead in trespasses and sins. This isn't fair. No, that was
us. We were in Adam. That's Aaron
who ate that fruit. Joel ate that fruit. We disobeyed
God. That was us. You can't blame
the sovereignty of God. He says, well, Lord, you're in
charge. You're the first cause behind everything. It must be
your fault that I'm a sinner. No. No one to blame. No arguments to be made. You
simply bow before Him, knowing that if He is not pleased to
show mercy, I am simply getting exactly what I deserve. Have
you ever found yourself in that boat? Now let's hear David's response.
Look at section Samuel 9 verse 7. And David said unto him, Fear
not, for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's
sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father,
and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. David said,
Fear not. Now Henry Mahan said this, it
was either a book he read or when he was preaching on this
same topic, he said this and I really liked it. He said, The
Lord will never say fear not to a man who fears not. He only
says fear not to a man who fears. That's a good statement. Do I
fear God? Do you fear God? What is the
fear of God? This is the fear of God. You
are afraid to look anywhere but Jesus Christ and His finished
work alone. That's the fear of God. I can't
look to any of my works. They're no good. They're dead
works, filthy rags. I can't look to my feelings or
experience. I don't know if they're real. I don't. I've got one place
I can look and I am deathly afraid to look anywhere else because
I don't get any hope anywhere else. The only place I look and I find
comfort and I find hope and I find rest is that man hanging on that
cross. Bleeding and dying for me and
putting away my sin and having risen again. That's where I find
my hope. And I fear to look anywhere else
but that. But notice what David says. David says, I'll surely
show you mercy. Not maybe, not perhaps if I'm
feeling like it. This is a blessed promise for
any man who's afraid, any man who's afraid to look anywhere
but Christ alone. He says, I will surely show you
mercy. But understand this, folks. If
any man truly does ever cry out for mercy, it is for one reason. It's because that man has already
softly been shown mercy. before he ever knew he even needed
it. And David says, I'll restore him. And this is the same thing
the Lord Jesus Christ pledges to us. Everything we've lost
in Adam will be restored to, but so much more. Adam was upright
and he was innocent, but he wasn't holy because holiness can't change.
And Adam could change, and he showed that because he did in
fact change. He fell. But in Christ, we have a greater existence
than Adam could have ever understood. We are holy in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that is an unchangeable state. How preserved are the
elect? How preserved is Jesus Christ?
That's how preserved we are. Look at verse 8, 2 Samuel chapter
9. Let's look at Mephibosheth's statement concerning himself.
And he bowed himself and said, what is thy servant that thou
shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am? Now perhaps someone here this
morning, it will be revealed to you for the first time that
the Lord has purpose to be merciful to you. And I pray he would do
that. If there's a sinner here this morning, I pray he would
reveal himself to that man. He would be merciful to that
man. He would reveal unto that man that he's been pleased to
be merciful to him. And if that happens, here's going
to be the cry of your heart. Here's going to be the lingering
question on your head and on your heart. It's going to be
this. Why me? Why me? Why would you have mercy
on such a dead dog as I am? Look at everything I've done.
Look at everything I've said. Look at all the evil imaginations
that cross my heart. Why would you be merciful to
a dead dog like me? Every believer feels that way.
But here's the beautiful part, folks. He doesn't look for a
reason in me and you to show mercy. He wouldn't find one if
he did. He looks to one person for a
reason to show mercy. Who is that person we talked
about earlier? Jesus Christ. He does it. David did it for
Jonathan's sake. And the Father does it, and He does it all for
Christ's sake. He doesn't need a reason in me and you. He wouldn't
find one if He did. He does it for His Son's sake.
And in Him, when His Son shows Him those nail prints in His
hands and in His feet, and that hole in His side, the Father
says, I'm pleased. I'm appeased. I'm happy with
Him. That's all the Father needs to
see, to be happy with you and me. Now look at verse 9 and 10. David
wasn't just merciful, he was very, very gracious. Look how
David provided for Mephibosheth. We talked about Mephibosheth
before. He can't provide for himself. But everything Mephibosheth
needed, David freely provided for him. And this is the same
thing the Lord Jesus Christ does for every one of his people at
sin atonement. The payment for our sins provided. Real righteousness before the
law. I'm talking about a real righteousness. It really is mine. Through my union with the Lord
Jesus Christ, when He walked the paths of righteousness, I
was in Him, and every member of the elect was in Him, and
we walked those paths right along with Him. That is my righteousness,
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's real. Freely and utterly
provided. Real holiness, making us fit
for fellowship with God Himself, provided. Freely and utterly
provided. What was left for Mephibosheth
to do? Nothing. He couldn't do anything
and nothing was expected of him. There was nothing left to do.
All Mephibosheth had to do was enjoy the free blessings that
were given to him by the King. Have you ever experienced that
rest? That peace of looking to Christ
alone? Nothing left to do. Everything has been freely provided.
Just rest. Look at verse 11 of your text.
Mephibosheth is given a new identity. Then said Ziba unto the king,
according to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant,
so shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the
king, he shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons. Mephibosheth became David's son. Let me give you a scripture here.
Turn if you would to Romans 8 and look at verse 14. Romans 8 and pick up in verse
14, talking about sonship. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the
spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba Father. And understand this believer,
in Christ you have a new identity and you have a new family. You
are the very sons and daughters of God himself. You have been
adopted. Now, I have a co-worker. And he went and he adopted twin
girls from China. And I was talking to him about
it one day. He's kind of a private guy and he opened up to me about,
you know, what was going on. And he was telling me about this
adoption. One thing that I thought was very interesting, he said,
Aaron, you should never understand the cost. He goes, it's just so expensive. I think he spent upwards of $20,000
per child to bring these girls back to the U.S. His adoption,
him adopting those girls, it came to the parent at a great
cost. at a great cost. Adoption is
very, very expensive. It comes to the parent at a great
cost. I want to pose a scenario to
you. Let's say you found a child that you want to adopt. And here's
the thing about this kid, he's a very disobedient child. And
he absolutely hates you. And every time you go to bring
him over to your house, he always runs away. And every time you
try to discipline him, he shakes his fist in your face. And he
absolutely and utterly hates you. You want to adopt that child. But then you have your birth
child. A son. A son you love with all your
heart. And he loves you with all your heart. With all his
heart. And he is always obedient to you. Everything you tell him
to do, that's the only thing he does. That's the only thing
he lives for, is to do your will. And he loves you with all his
heart. Never disobeyed you in any single
way. And you go to the adoption agency.
And you say, alright, adoption agency, here's what I want to
do. I want to adopt that kid over there. And they say, you
want that one. That hellraiser over there. That
one that's always running away from you. The one that's, he's
shaking his fist in your face right now. You want to adopt
that one. You say, yeah, I want to adopt that one. I say, okay, you can
have him, but he's very expensive. He's going to come to you at
a great cost. I see you have a son there, the son you love
so much. Here's what I need you to do.
Take him. I want you to start whipping him with this whip on
his back until he's bloody and he's bruised. After that, I want
you to take him. You're going to turn around.
I want you to start punching him in the face. until his visage
is marred and you can't tell who he is anymore. After that, spit on him a little
bit. Make fun of him. Then I want you to take him,
you see that pole over there? Take these nails, I want you to nail
him, hand and feet, to that pole. The son of your love, the one
you love so much, the one who loves you so much. Here's a spear,
shove this spear in his side. Kill him. And when it's finished,
You can adopt that other one. But not until. I'm looking at
a lot of parents right now. Any of you make that deal? That's the cost of your adoption. A man had to die. And I was a
man's son. And we're the adopted child.
Sometimes I think I'm beginning to understand the character and
the love of God. And I think of that scenario.
I don't understand love like that. All right. Look at verses 12 and
13 of 2 Samuel chapter 9. Let's wrap it up. 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 don't miss
this last part, and was lame on both his feet. Now if I were writing this story,
that's not how I would end it. I would have wrote when David
and the doctors came out and they healed Mephibosheth and he walked and
he worked and he was profitable to David for the rest of his
days. That's how I would have ended this story. Thank the Lord
I did not write this story. Because if that's how Mephibosheth
ends, there's no hope for me. Because you know what? I'm still
lame on both my feet. Now my story lines up just perfectly
with this man. I'm a dead dog. Just a dead dog. But I'm a son of the king, and
I eat continually at his table. But here's the thing, I'm still
lame on both my feet. I am just as incapable of keeping the law
as I have ever been. All the imaginations of the thoughts
in my heart are still only evil, and that continually. And my
sins are ever before me. Now understand this. If any man here right now, man
or woman right now, is looking to Christ alone as his only hope
of salvation, not looking anywhere else but to Christ alone, I want
you to know this. You are absolutely and utterly
righteous right now with the very righteousness of Jesus Christ. Right now, in this world, that
is your case. In the eyes of the Father, the
one who sees things as they really are. Now let me ask, who here
feels righteous? Who here has an experience of
righteousness? I don't. No believer does. We know our righteousness in
Him by faith, but my experience is a dead dog sinner who is laying
on both his feet. But there's rejoicing. We're
not in Lodibor anymore, that land of no bread, no pasture,
no life. We're sitting at the king's table
and by him we're fed and by him we live. And that table, I want
you to think about this for a second. David's having a royal banquet
and everyone's seated around the table. And you got David
and all his mighty men and his counselors and his family, they're
all sitting around the table and there's Mephibosheth. And
you're looking at everybody. Mephibosheth's lame on his feet. What can anybody tell? David's table covered his feet. And that's what the Lord does
for us. He covers our lame feet. How can we understand this? The
two natures. That old man, he's still here.
And he is still dead, and he is still wicked, and he is still
evil. And all the imaginations of the thoughts of his heart
are still only evil and that continually. And I know him real
well because he's been with me longer. But there's a new man
there. There's a new heart. There's
a new spirit, something that was not there. And it's the very
spirit of God. And if you believe the gospel,
you're looking to Christ alone, you have a new man. I'm going to wrap it up. Are
any of my famous chefs here this morning? Anybody here a shameful thing? Can't provide for yourself those
things you need to live? You can't get to David? You can't
do anything for David? Just a shameful thing? Anybody here unable to muster
that which is spiritual? Anybody here face down before a sovereign
king, trembling in fear, wondering what in the world is he going
to do with me? I'll tell you what, if that's
who you are and if that's where you're at, I have good news for you. The
king says fear not. You see, the king has purposed
to be merciful to the remnant of the house of Adam. And it's
for Christ's sake. And now, every Mephibosheth,
everyone who can't provide for themselves, and everyone who
can't get to David, and everyone who's lame, they're a son. And they enjoy all the blessings
of sonship. And just like David provided
everything for Mephibosheth, everything is freely provided
for us in Christ. Now, what is left to do? Rest,
Believer. Be at peace and give thanks to
the King. I'm going to stop there.