The Yuma Sutter Grace Church
would like to invite you to listen to a sermon by Pastor Don Fortner
of Danville, Kentucky. For information about how to
obtain a copy of this sermon, please visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. And now, here is Pastor Don Fortner. Grace is God's kindness toward
us, and it is exceedingly great. Justice gives every man exactly
what he deserves. Justice never considers circumstance,
age, or condition. Justice never considers extenuating
things. Justice gives every man exactly
that which is his due. It shows no favor, it gives no
mercy. But grace, grace is the free
favor of God toward us in Christ. It is unmerited, unwarranted,
and unexpected. Grace is purely a matter of charity. That's all it is. As a matter
of fact, the word charity comes from the word that is commonly
translated grace. It is purely a matter of charity
exercised sovereignly and spontaneously, arising purely from the heart
of God. God's grace and mercy toward
us has nothing to do with what we are or what we do. It is altogether
God's sovereign act arising spontaneously from his heart. It is attracted
by nothing in us. but repelled by everything about
us. Divine grace is God's free favor,
bestowing all the gifts of His kindness, mercy, and love upon
lost sinners for Christ's sake. It is not just shown to those
who have no merit. Grace is shown to those who have
much demerit. It is not merely bestowed upon
the ill-deserving. Grace is bestowed freely upon
the hell-deserving. If ever we grasp the gospel,
if ever we understand the teaching of this book with regard to God's
free, sovereign grace in Jesus Christ, then all notion of merit
will vanish from our hearts. We will be made to understand
that the creature has absolutely no merit before God Almighty.
None whatsoever. We deserve nothing from God but
His wrath. Let me make that as personal
as I possibly can. If I could sit down beside each one of you,
put my arms around your shoulders, and look you square in the eyes,
I want you to hear me just like I was talking to you like that.
You deserve nothing from God but eternal damnation. Do you
understand that? You have no merit before God
Almighty. You have no worth before God
Almighty, except as the objects of His just wrath. That's true
of you, and that's true of me. We are justified, listen now,
freely by His grace. By grace are you saved. Salvation
is the work only of God's free grace in Jesus Christ. The Scripture
tells us that as plainly and as repeatedly as it possibly
can throughout the Old Testament as well as the New. Now, there's
an old saying, one picture's worth a thousand words. Well,
let me give you one picture. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 21 and
verse 7. David has killed the last sons
of Saul's house. Remember, Saul did not honor
the treaty made between Israel and the Gibeonites, and now because
of Saul's treason against the Gibeonites, God requires David
to give to the Gibeonites that which they required. They said,
we'll have seven sons of Saul. Give us his seven sons, we'll
hang them up, and that'll put an end to the matter. And so
David takes Saul's last seven sons, except one. And he was
the eighth. He was the one son who didn't
count. He was the one son nobody looked at. He was the one son
nobody cared for. He takes all of Saul's sons except
Mephibosheth and hangs them up to die as a matter of divine
justice. The slaughter of Saul's sons
was justice. The slaughter of Saul's sons
was exactly what was due to Saul's house as a matter of right, justice,
and truth. Now look at the text. 2 Samuel
21, verse 7, But the king spared Mephibosheth, but God, who is
rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, by
grace he has saved us through Jesus Christ the Lord. The king
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. Now who was this Prince Mephibosheth? He is Jonathan's last surviving
son, the last living survivor of Saul's royal house. When the
news reached the palace that Saul and Jonathan both were slain
on the battlefield of Gilboa, Mephibosheth's nurse picked him
up, he was just a boy five years old, and she fled for refuge
to get out of the way, for she knew of certainty that the house
of Saul was fallen, and Saul's sons, in the customary manner,
would surely be slain. And so she fled with the baby,
seeking to save his life. But as she did, in her panic,
the baby fell. And when he fell, he crippled
both his feet. And he was, from that day on, lame on both his
feet. Now turn back with me, if you
will, to the passage we read earlier in 2 Samuel chapter 9.
When you open this passage of Scripture, 16 years had now passed
since David and Jonathan had made their covenant together.
You can read about that covenant in chapter 21. 1 Samuel, or chapter
20, rather, of 1 Samuel, I think it is, along about verses 14
through 17 or 18. Jonathan knew that God had given
the kingdom to David, and he knew that in order for God to
give the kingdom to David, he had to die. He understood that.
Jonathan understood that he was going to be killed one way or
another, and he was perfectly content, because he loved David.
But he took David aside and he said, now David, swear to me,
swear to me, that you will be merciful, gracious, and kind
to my sons after I'm dead. Swear to me that you'll not destroy
my house. And David said, I do. And the
love between Jonathan and David, we're told in scripture, was
greater than the love of a man and a woman one for another.
Jonathan loved David as his own soul, and David loved Jonathan
as his own soul. And then a second time, Jonathan
called David out into the field when he understood that the kingdom
was about to be taken from the house of Saul. He said, now David,
we made a covenant. Swear again to me. Swear to me
that you will not destroy my family. And so David now seeks
an opportunity to fulfill his covenant responsibilities to
his beloved companion, Jonathan. And he sent for Mephibosheth,
brought him to the king's palace. I read this text of scripture,
and I think to myself, if I had been Mephibosheth, and I'd been
in hiding all these years, And suddenly I found out the king
found out where I was. I suspect if I could figure out
any way to do so, I'd crawl into a hole and try to hide some more.
That's exactly what happened when I found out God had found
me. When I found out God's eye was
upon me. Mephibosheth must have trembled,
terrified. He must have been horrified.
The king has found me and says for me to come to the palace.
Now that wasn't an invitation. This man was king, and I've got
to go to the palace. Whatever he does to me, he's
the king. I've got to go to the palace. And then I think to myself,
what a blessed surprise this man found. When he fell down
before David and said, behold, thy servant, here I am. I'm in
your hands. You're the king. I'm your servant.
You can do whatever you want to. And David saw the fear and
trembling on his face. He said, fear not. Don't be afraid. I'm not brought you here to destroy
you. I brought you here to be merciful to you, to fulfill the
kindness of God to you, for Jonathan's sake. Now follow along with me
as I show you how this story sets forth the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Behind the noble kindness of
David toward Mephibosheth, the gospel of God's marvelous grace
towards us shines forth most beautifully. When the poor crippled
son of Jonathan was brought from Lodibar to Jerusalem and made
to sit at the king's table, you will see as we go through this
story that words could never begin to express this man's gratitude. And when a slave to sin and Satan
is set free from the curse of God's law and set free in righteousness
to serve Jesus Christ the Lord, made to be an heir of God and
joint heir with Jesus Christ, made to sit at the king's table
as one of the king's sons, Eternity itself will be insufficient to
express the gratitude that is due to his name from our unworthy
hearts. David's kindness then to Jonathan
or to Mephibosheth for Jonathan's sake is a beautiful clear picture
of God's loving kindness and tender mercies to sinners for
Christ's sake. Let me show you as we go along.
I'll call your attention to four or five things. First, Mephibosheth
shows us God's grace and mercy by displaying his condition.
Mephibosheth was in a very miserable condition when the king sought
him out. He was altogether unworthy of
David's attention, his regard, or his favor. But David freely
showed kindness to Mephibosheth for Jonathan's sake. It didn't
have a thing to do with Mephibosheth. David didn't even know who Mephibosheth
was until he brought him into his palace. He wasn't even aware
of Mephibosheth's existence until he brought him into his palace.
So his kindness toward this man had absolutely nothing to do
with this man himself. It was altogether for the sake
of another, for Jonathan's sake. And so it is that God Almighty
shows grace and mercy to us, not because of us, but because
of Christ Jesus, His Son, for Christ's sake. And His condition,
Mephibosheth's condition, is a pretty good representation
of our condition by nature. His name, Mephibosheth, means
shameful. Shameful. He's given another
name in the book of 2 Chronicles, Meribale. That is, it is a quarreler
of shame. Mephibosheth means shameful and
a shameful thing he was. He was poor, destitute, helpless. Well indeed, may all the sons
and daughters of Adam wear the name Mephibosheth. That's your
name. That's your name. That's your
name. That's my name. Mephibosheth. Shameful things
we are. This is what the scripture says.
We are all as an unclean thing. That doesn't mean we've got some
smudges and fingerprints on us. I went out and shined my shoes
earlier this morning. I came back in the house after
taking a shower and had some black polish on my finger. That's
not what it's talking about. That's not what it's talking
about. That's talking about utterly filthy, an unclean thing. As one who has not only fallen
into an open sewer, one who has reveled in the open sewer and
comes out for others and other folks who never smelled a sewer
before, they look at it and utter disgust. Bobby Estes, that's
what you are before God Almighty by nature. Me too. Me too. An unclean thing. Listen
to this. From the sole of the foot, even
to the crown of the head, there's no soundness in us but wounds
and bruises and putrefying, oozing sores. Man at his best estate. A man when he's got in his finest
three-piece suit and comes to church on Sunday morning with
a Bible tucked under his arm, man at his best estate is altogether Man, it's just a puff of wind,
a shameful thing. Like the leper, we have an incurable
disease. Like the harlot, we are defiled. Your name and mine is Mephibosheth,
a shameful thing. In heart, in will, in word, indeed,
shameful. Mephibosheth was not only shameful,
he was the king's enemy. This man was one of Saul's sons,
a natural enemy to David. Hiding from David. Now David
wasn't his enemy, but he was David's enemy. This man was one
who well represents all of God's elect in this world. By nature,
we are the sons of Adam, and all the sons of Adam are the
enemies of God. The scripture says the carnal
mind is enmity against God. Now that doesn't mean that the
carnal mind has some objection to God. That's not it at all.
It means the carnal mind, the carnal heart, Every thought,
every aspect of your reason, every aspect of your soul, every
aspect of your being despises God Almighty. Man hates God. That's our nature. Now, I don't
mean by that that men hate their notions of God. They like their
little rabbit's foot gods. They like their little totem
pole gods. They like their little peanut gods. They can use whatever
they want to. They like their ideas and notions about God because
they make their gods like themselves, kindly, puny, and sickly. Man
thinks he can take his God and do with him what he will. And
so he loves that idea of God. But man by nature despises the
fact that God Almighty sits on the lofty throne of heaven and
you're in His hands. And He either save you or damn
you. It's all together up to Him. Man despises the fact that
God is perfectly righteous and demands perfect righteousness.
He is perfectly holy and demands perfect holiness. Man by nature
then is God's enemy. And we were like Nephibosheth,
hiding from God when He saved us. But God never was, never
is, and never shall be the enemy of His people. I get letters
from folks who try to get things sorted out theologically, and
they think about God's immutability. But the Scripture says we're
children of wrath, even as others. The Scripture says we were enemies
to God, just like everybody else. The Scripture says. We were in
our works children of wrath, even as others, and in our minds
enemies to God Almighty. The problem was not with God,
the problem was with us. And we lived in this world from
our youth, going forth from our mother's womb, speaking lies
with a fish of square in God's nose. But God never was angry
with his people. God never was looking on His
children as the objects of His wrath. You see, in salvation,
God does not... He does not cease to be wrath. He takes away the curse of His
wrath. God in His grace and mercy always
looked upon His children as the objects of His love and favor
and grace, for He looks on us in Christ from the foundation
of the world, that Lamb slain before the world began. Just
as God looks on us in mercy and grace, having reconciled us when
we were yet enemies by the death of His Son, now He beseeches
lost, lame, languishing sinners to be reconciled to Him. He sent
me here today to preach the gospel of His grace to you. And as He
does, this is what He says. He says, I stretched out my hand
and I called to you. Imagine what God condescends
to stretch out the arms of mercy to guilty, doomed, damned sinners
and calls us, be reconciled to God. Quit fighting against God,
you're going to lose. Quit your warfare against God,
you can't possibly win. Be reconciled to God. You see,
the problem with unbelief is not that men and women Do not,
just simply do not believe that Jesus came, or that Jesus is
the Son of God, or that Jesus died at Calvary. The problem
is that you hate God, and you live with your fist square in
His face. Now whenever you, whenever you reconcile to God, you take
your fist out of His face, and you bow before Him and say, Behold,
my servant. Mephibosheth, this man became
lame through a fall. Look in verse 3 here of 2 Samuel
9. You can read of the actual event itself in 2 Samuel 4, verse
4. But here we're told, The king
said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may
show him the kindness of God unto him? And Ziba said unto
the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet. Now that's a pretty good picture
of us. God created man upright, but
we failed. And when we fell in our father
Adam, we became lame spiritually, altogether helpless spiritually.
That's the reason our Savior says, no man can come unto me. I know folks like to latch on
to the text where he says, ye will not come to me that ye might
have life. And that's true. You won't do
it. You won't do it. But the problem is not just with
your will. The problem with your will is
in your ability. No man can come to me, because
you're lame spiritually. You don't have the ability to
decide for Jesus. You don't have the ability to
decide to come to Christ. You don't have the ability to
lift yourself from the gates of hell to the gates of glory.
No man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me
draw him. O preacher, you keep Preaching like that you make
us think that we're just shut up to God's mercy and the salvation
is altogether up to Him. It has nothing to do with our
will, our decision, our works. You heard exactly what I said.
Either God Almighty will come your way and call you by His
grace or He'll pass you by and it's totally up to Him. Totally
up to Him. And Mephibosheth was in a far,
far country. Look at verse 4. The king said
to Ziba, where is it? And Ziba said to the king, behold,
he's in the house of Maker, the son of Amiel in Lodibar. Now Thibaut was a long way off
from the king, far away from Jerusalem. He was down in Lodibar. There was no prophet down there,
no preacher down there. He was far off from the place
of blessing, far off from the place of sacrifice, far off from
the place of worship, far off from God, down in the house of
Maker. The word maker means sold. We've
sold ourselves to Satan. I remember as a boy, the old
movies, horror flicks would come on and talk about me and making
a deal with the devil. We made a deal with the devil
a long time ago. We sold our souls to the devil,
sold our souls in bondage to sin, in our father Adam, and
every day we lived in rebellion to God. You who are without faith
in Christ, you're not in a position of indifference. You sat here
this morning for whatever reason, but you sat here this morning
deliberately choosing to continue a path of rebellion and hatred
against God Almighty, selling yourself willingly into bondage. A loaded bar, it means the place
of no bread. No bread. You remember that prodigal? He wasted his substance in riotous
living, and he went and joined himself to a citizen of that
country. Dr. Gill said he joined himself to a self-righteous legalist
preacher. And he said, you want to go back to your father's house,
you can work your way back into his good graces, come feed my hogs. And
he went and fed the man's hogs, and he would fain have filled
his belly with the husk that the swine did eat. But there's
no possibility of that happening. When will you learn? When will
you learn? Lodibar, no bread is written
across the fields of this world. All of them. All of them. Rex Bartley, there is no satisfaction
for our souls in this world. That lady there, oh, I love that
girl. And she loves me. But one of
these days, that's going to cause a lot of dissatisfaction. for
one of us or the other. One of these days. Because we're
going to have to part with one another. That little girl over
in Lexington? Oh, I love that girl. But there's
no satisfaction for my soul there. That's just temporary. That grandbaby
we're expecting? I expect we'll go about as crazy
as everybody else does when they get grandchildren. But there's
no satisfaction. No satisfaction. There's no satisfaction
for your immortal soul in this world. Will you ever learn that?
If not in husband, or wife, or son, or daughter, or grandchildren,
certainly not in all the money you can put in the bank, all
the houses you can build, and all the property you can amass.
No satisfaction. As long as you seek for it in
this world, you'll never find it. God setteth the solitary
in families. He bringeth out those that are
bound with chains. But the rebellious dwell in a
dry, That's what God said in Psalm
16. Dry land. You, you who live in your rebellion
against God and you, you seek satisfaction in your pleasures
and in your lust and in your ambitions and, and you, you,
I'm gonna make something of myself in this world. I'll, I'll show
everybody. You live in a dry land. Ain't nothing to drink.
Ain't nothing to eat. I used to use ink. I wouldn't
if it wasn't for snooty folks who didn't like it. There's no
satisfaction here. No satisfaction. Secondly, Mephibosheth
shows us God's grace in his calling. He was called by the king. Look
at verse 5. Then king David sent and fetched
him. Fetched him out of the house
of Mekah, the son of Amiel from Lodibar. David sought Mephibosheth
and fetched Mephibosheth. He didn't ask him if he would
pretty please like to come. He fetched him. And when God
the Holy Spirit comes to lost, ruined, doomed, damned sinners,
the only way they ever come to Christ is Him to fetch them. Thank God for His fetching grace.
He sends His Spirit to seek and find His people who have strayed
far away from Him, and He always finds them. He always brings
them home. He says, follow me, and they
follow Him. He says, come, and they come. Mephibosheth came
to David in reverent submission. In verse 6, he fell on his face
and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth,
and he answered, Behold thy servant. This man came in to David, and
he knew his only hope was that David would be merciful. And
what he did is he just, he threw himself at David's feet. And
when David spoke, he said, I'm yours. I'm yours, you can do
with me what you will. And David broke his silence by
saying, Mephibosheth, fear not, I will surely show thee kindness.
I wonder if you can do that now. Will you? Oh, will you now cast
yourself at the feet of King Jesus as his servant in the hands
of this great King? I promise you, if you will, if
you will, it's because he's fetched you to himself. And he'll receive
you just like David received Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth was
received in all his deformity, just like he was, without any
improvement, without any change. David received this poor cripple,
and the Lord God receives sinners in Christ as poor cripples with
no change, with no corrections, with nothing that they do to
mend their ways, just as I am without one plea. But that thy
blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee, O
Lamb of God, I come. This man, Mephibosheth, was received
altogether for the sake of somebody else. for Jonathan's sake. And God receives us all together
for Christ's sake. All together because of His covenant
with Christ Jesus, our Lord and our Redeemer. On the basis of
who Christ is and what Christ has done. Because of His righteousness,
His obedience, His death, the merit of His person and His work.
Jesus Christ is that by which we, or Him by whom we draw near
unto God. He is that way by which we come
to God. When Mephibosheth came to David,
It was there that he learned to have a proper estimate of
himself. In verse 8 we read, he bowed himself and said, What
is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as
I am? We see Mephibosheth in his change,
showing us a picture of God's grace as well. I'll just give
you the highlights, but listen. When Mephibosheth came to David,
he got more. than he had lost in his father
Saul and his house. He didn't just get back Saul's
possessions and Saul's property. He was made to sit as one of
the king's sons at the king's table. And in Christ Jesus, he
says, I restored that which I took not away. He gives us life eternal
here and heavenly glory hereafter. This man, Mephibosheth, came
to David and he sat under the king's table. With all his deformity,
he's still a lame, crippled man, crippled on both his feet. But
sitting under the king's table, all his deformity was out of
sight. Are you listening? Coming to
Christ by faith, taking our place at the king's table. Oh, what
a privilege. We're still vile sinners, long
as we live in this world. For Merle, his blood, his righteousness,
covers all our sin, all our deformity, from the eyes of our God. Now,
sinner, come to Christ. Come ye weary, heavy laden, lost
and burned by the fall. If you tarry till you're better,
you'll never come at all. God help you to come, for Christ's
sake. Amen. You have just heard a sermon
by Pastor Don Fortner of Danville, Kentucky. For a copy of this
message, please visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. This is Pastor Rick Warta of
the Yuba-Sutter Grace Church. Each Sunday we meet at 11 a.m. in the Yuba County Library located
on the corner of 2nd and C Street in downtown Marysville. We pray
that God would be pleased to make himself known to you in
the gospel of his son.