How about returning in your Bibles to 2 Samuel 9? 2 Samuel 9. Now this morning, our study in
the Scriptures and our message will be having to do with this
fellow with this hard-to-pronounce name called Mephibosheth. Sometimes I just say Mr. Pibb,
you know, Mr. Pibb, I don't know, but I about
got used to Mephibosheth. And another title you could give
this chapter is Fetching Grace. Fetching Grace. Now if you've
ever had a dog as a pet, you know what fetch is. This means to lay hold on something that you have fetched. And in
this case, it is fetching grace. And that is the only thing that
can do sinners any good. And if there's anybody here this
morning that's not a sinner, you're in the wrong place. We hold to this fact that every son and daughter of
Adam are born sinners. I mean from
our birth. And the only way that we can
have that removed is through the grace of God in our Lord
Jesus Christ. And he sins and fetches us, just
like David in this chapter sins and fetches Mephibosheth. We'll get to the details here
in just a moment. Now let's read the verses that
comprise this ninth chapter of 2 Samuel. Let us pray. Lord, as we come to this beautiful passage of Scripture
in our Bibles, and this glorious, glorious theme
that is so remarkable in this place. Speaking of the power of your
grace and spirit to apprehend sinners and bring them to the
feet of your Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Lord, in this place today, is
there not one of your lost sheep here And could not this very
day be the day of their conversion? Oh, we pray that it be so. We state plainly that we cannot
save people. We cannot even save ourselves. But oh, that's a different matter
when we talk about this triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So Lord, if you would see fit
to put your blessing on the words from your Word that we shall
use in this message attempt to describe what is taking place
in this chapter and what it means in regard to your grace and mercy
in Christ. We pray for your presence and
for your power and beg for your blessing. And we do so in the
name and to the honor and glory of our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen. Alright, let's take the chapter.
My particular Bible describes it as a heading, David and Mephibosheth. Now, David is king. in Israel. Saul is dead. David has every
right to take everything that Saul and his family ever owned
and lay claim to it. He could if he thought one of
the members of that family still living would try to take his
throne. It was considered proper procedure
to just go out and kill that person. But that's not the case
now. See, Mephibosheth, his father,
was David's best friend. Best friend. And David, now that his throne
is secure, has asked people that were there for years before,
If there were any of Saul's descendants left? And this person tells him
about this one fellow named Mephibosheth. Let's read about him. And David
said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul that
I may show him kindness? Now watch this. For Jonathan's
sake. For Jonathan's sake. Jonathan
was David's best friend. And they covenanted with each
other, and they were just tight. And there was of the house of
Saul a servant whose name was Ziba, And when they had called
him unto David, the king said to him, Are you Ziba? And he
said, Your 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 has yet a son which is lame or crippled on both feet. And the king said unto him, Where
is he? And Ziba said to the king, Behold,
he is in the house of Matre, the son of Amiel in Lodabar. Then King David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Matre, the son of Amiel from Lodabar.
Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul,
was come to David, He fell on his face and did reverence, expecting to be killed, not believing
that he would be honored and exalted. And David said, Mephibosheth? And he answered, Behold your
servant. And David said unto him, Fear
not, for I will surely show you kindness For Jonathan, your father's
sake. And I'll restore you all the
land of Saul, your grandfather, and you shall eat bread at my
table continually." And this is the verse out of this whole
chapter, verse 8. And Mephibosheth bowed himself
and said, What is your servant that you should look upon such
a dead dog as I am? Now, I'll tell you a secret.
How you can find where the gospel is preached. If you run into
people that describe themselves the way Mephibosheth described
himself. A dead dog, sinner such as I
am. Then the king called Ziba, Saul's
servant, and said unto him, I have given unto your master's son
all that pertain to Saul and to all his house. You therefore
and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him,
and you shall Bring in the fruits that your master's son may have
food to eat. But Mephibosheth, your 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 has commanded his servant,
so shall your 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 laying
on both his feet." Now, let's see if we can spend
our remaining time in regard to this matter of what is prominently
on display before us in this chapter of Scripture. God's grace
is what kind of grace? Fetching grace. Fetching grace. Preachers invent all kinds of
stupid expressions to say that God can't save you unless you
let Him, unless you do something for Him, unless you do this,
that or the other. These are all lies. They are
not true. This man was not asked if he
wanted to come to Jerusalem. David said, go bring him. And
bring him they did. And he was still fearful of his
life until finally convinced that David meant him no harm
and was a means of great blessing to him. So let's take this subject
of fetching grace. Fetching grace. Now we're going to relate it
to 2 Samuel 9 and to Mephibosheth. But we are also going, secondly,
to look at it in a different light in regard to ourselves. So looking at it through the
eyes of 2 Samuel 9, who took the initiative? Mephibosheth
or David? Who takes the initiative with
God's grace in Christ? God does, of course. Of course. If He waited for us, He could
wait forever. This book says that He speaks
and it's already done. My Lord, He doesn't even have
to speak it. He just simply wills it. And
it is. Let's turn for just a moment,
hang on to 2 Samuel 9, and let's turn to the book of Ephesians
for just a second. And if you don't want to turn, it
won't bother me a bit. If it does, I'll get over it.
But I want to take some statements now out of Ephesians and look
at it through the light of 2 Samuel 9. The first verse I want you
to see is in chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2. Ephesians, yes. Chapter 2, verse 1. And you has he, that is God,
quickened, that word means simply to make alive, you has God quickened,
Paul is writing to whom? The believers in the church of
Ephesus, in the city of Ephesus. You has God made alive, who were
dead in trespasses and sins. Now understand this. The only
people that God saves are dead in trespasses and sins until
He saves them. There is no exception to that.
None whatsoever. The second verse in Ephesians
is chapter 4. In verse 18, Ephesians 4.18, having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. Now,
this is not physical blindness. This is spiritual blindness. Having the understanding darkened,
we do not understand this book or any part of it until God opens
our eyes and gives us the mind and heart to see, the willingness
to believe. All of these are gifts of God.
Alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is
in them because of the blindness of their heart. Who being past
feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work
all uncleanness with greediness. That's you and me to a tee. That's how we all start in this
world. And there's a pretty sizable
number of people when this universe is no more, this globe is no
more. There's a tremendous number of
people who have at one time or the other populated this earth.
And that people are the people that God gave to Christ in old
eternity as his people, his sheep, his church, and his bride. And
every last single one of them must be found in Christ before
this world shall ever end. I see no other reason for it
continuing, because man gets worse and worse, and wickedness
gets worse and worse, and killings get worse and worse. But I'm
not in charge of that department, and neither are you. But I'll
tell you one thing for sure. I've said this too many times,
but I've got to say it one more. Whatever happens in this world
today, anywhere on this globe, you just write it down. This
is God's will. If it ain't His will, it ain't
going to happen. There's a statement in Psalm
68, I think it's verse 19, the wrath of man shall praise
you, talking to God, and the remainder of wrath, whatever
wrath God does not use for His own purpose, the remainder of
wrath cannot take place. It says, the remainder shall
you restrain. So even though this world has
gone totally crazy, let's not let it drive us crazy. This is
exactly how it's supposed to be right now. Second question, who was the object of David's
quest? You remember this statement out
of Psalms, blessed is the man whom God chooses and causes to
approach unto himself. Now if that's not what David
did to Mephibosheth, I don't know anything. Sure it is. He sent a man down there to get
him and the guy brought him. And I'm sure he tried to resist. He did not wish to come. He did
not wish to die. But alas, it was not for him
to die. It was for him to live like he
never dreamed he could live. So this object of David's quest
is indeed an honorable one. But I hesitate to say that the
example of David compared to the example of Christ, you know,
they're way off. No human being could properly
exemplify who Christ is and what He does, what He is, His character,
His offices, His work. Heaven's demarcatory. Thirdly,
what does Mephibosheth mean? If you will turn to Matthew,
if you didn't go back to the Old Testament yet, Matthew chapter
9, Matthew 9, verses 10 through
13. In verse 9 of Matthew 9, Matthew tells us in verse 9, his name, he was
a He was a collector of taxes for
the Jews. He was a publican. And he was sitting at the receipt
of custom. All of this is in verse 9. And
our Lord simply said to him, two words, follow me. And he arose and followed him. Now listen to me. If he calls
you or me, that's exactly what we're going to do. His call is always effectual. It is all powerful. It honors
the triune God. Now, beginning in verse 10, this
is why I brought you to this chapter. I just happened to glance
at verse 9. I said, well, I need to say a
little bit about that maybe, but you might disagree with that. Now, Matthew is not going to
mention himself again. But this dinner that our Lord
attends, that begins in verse 10, is at Matthew's house. But Matthew
ain't going to tell you. But if you go to Mark or Luke,
they'll tell you it's Matthew's house. But Matthew's not going
to tell you. That has something to do with
the humility of believers. If you ask them if they're humble,
they're going to say no. You follow me? Alright, let's
go. Verse 10. And it came to pass,
as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners
came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees
saw it, they were appalled. They said to his disciples, why
does your master eat with publicans and sinners? Well, just between me and you,
he'd have to leave this earth to find anybody else but sinners,
publicans and sinners. But these characters that are
complaining, they do not think themselves sinners. But Pharisees are sinners of
the deepest dying. and the worst to be found. You
know why, don't you? Because they're praising themselves,
they worship themselves, they brag on themselves. And we can
take you to another parable that would show the very same thing. Verse 12, But when Jesus heard
that, He said unto them, They that behold need not a physician,
a doctor, but they that are sick. But go you and learn what that
means. What what means? This statement. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I'm not come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. And those are the only people
that you'll find in heaven. People who lived on this earth
and were sinners, many of them just like Paul the Apostle, the
chief of sinners. You might even come to think
of yourself as the chief of sinners. Came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. My, my, my. Now let's go to the gospel of
John. Chapter 6. So, what was Mephibosheth? He was said to be lame, and he
was called a cripple. Let's see now, concerning ourselves,
how we are described in this sixth chapter of the Gospel of
John. We'll just take some select verses. The first two are John 6, 44
and 45. No man can come to me except
the Father who has sent me draw him. And if you want plenty of examples
of that, just read the formal part of this chapter. After the
feeding of the 5,000, these people looked high and low to find the
Lord Jesus. But they weren't looking for
grace. They weren't looking for salvation. What were they looking
for? A free meal ticket for the rest
of their life. And our Lord begins to talk to
them in regard to the need of the soul. So in these verses,
44 and 45, no man can come to me except the Father which has
sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught
of God. Every man therefore that has
heard and has learned of the Father comes unto me. Now jump over in this same chapter
to verse 65. Now, by this point in John chapter
6, a great many people have left off following our Lord Jesus. Verse 65, And He said, Therefore
said I unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it were
given unto him of My Father. From that, The word time is italicized
and should not be in this verse 66. From that, that is what has just
transpired in the words of our Lord Jesus, from that many of
His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. And it's the
same today, wherever you go. With this gospel that gives God
all the glory, and gives the sinner none whatsoever. It ain't
popular, I can tell you that. And I've had plenty of experience
on both sides of the fence. Now this is a geography question,
so you should be able to answer it pretty readily. When we found
Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 9, where was he? The name of the place was Lodibar.
That means place of no pasture. I forget some of the others.
But the important thing is this. Mephibosheth was as far away
from David as he could possibly get. He went to the backside
of nowhere in order to escape David's eye. He just knew David
was going to kill him. And what was the motive for David's
action? to lavish this man and receive
him at his own table as though he was one of his sons. What
was David's motive? It says plainly in verses 1 and
7, it is for Jonathan's sake. This boy's daddy's sake. And when we bring it over to
the gospel, on what basis? Are you and I to be received?
How can this be? How on earth can this be? What is God's motive for saving
sinners? It is for Christ's sake. Christ's sake. That's a glorious thought indeed. Indeed, indeed. Now, you're familiar from our
reading what David did. But if you're still in the New
Testament, I'll ask you to do one more, well, two verses all
in the same chapter, Romans chapter 9. Now let's try to put in our mind's eye what it
is that we're talking about. This is not a history lesson.
This is a gospel lesson. What are we to gain from 2 Samuel
9 in helping us to understand How God saves sinners? Maybe these verses will be some
assistance. Romans 9, verse 15. For he, that's God, says to Moses, I will have mercy, on whom I
will have mercy, And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
wills, nor of him that runs, but everything depends on God
that shows mercy. You see that? There are no physical
requirements to bring salvation to ourselves. This is the blessed, precious
work of the triune God. Jump down to verse 18. Romans 9, 18. Therefore has He
mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will. He hardens. God has mercy on whom He will
have mercy. And whom he will, he hardens. Now, one more reminder. If God does it, it has to be right. There are no exceptions. If he
does it, it has to be right. Now, if you'll tie this in to
last Sunday when we were talking about salvation as well, I hope
this will help somewhat. Fetching grace. Fetching grace. Alright, let's take our song
books. Though my book says 48, it's
really 480.