Morning Go ahead and start If
you would please just read the scripture first 2nd Samuel chapter
9 2nd Samuel chapter 9 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 of the house of
Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they had called
him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba? And
he said, Thy servant is he. And the king said, Is there not
yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness
of God unto him? And Zabba 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 Zabba said unto the king,
behold, he is in the house of Mekar, the son of Amiel in Lodabar. Then King David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Mekar, the son of Amiel 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. And David said, Mephibosheth?
And he 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 that thou shouldest look
upon such a dead dog as I am? Then the king called Jezebel,
Saul's servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master's
son all that pertain to Saul and all to his house. Thou therefore
and thy sons and thy servants shall till the land for him.
And I shall 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, where he did eat continually
at the king's table, and was lame on both his feet." Let's
ask the Lord to bless his word this morning. Our great God, our Heavenly Father,
Lord, Do thank you, Lord, for bringing us here this morning
to hear from thee. We pray, Lord, that you would
speak, that you would use your men mightily, that you would
use your word, Lord, to call out, call out your sheep, Lord. Praise thy, thy word goeth forth,
Lord. That we're just servants, Lord,
and Lord, just use us, Lord, To glorify thy son, help us to
glorify him, Lord. And call after your sheep. Lord, we give you all thanks
and all glory, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for the rain,
for sustaining us, Lord. Pray, Lord, for those that can't
be here, Lord. Whatever the reason, pray that you would be with them
in a special way. Give them the means to hear your
word. We thank you for the means, Lord. We pray for our pastor,
Lord, you return him home safely. Give him good message down there,
good fellowship with the brethren there in North Carolina. And we pray that you return them
home safely. Pray, Lord, now that you would
open your word unto us, Lord, give us something to hear, Lord.
In Christ's name, amen. This is a very familiar story
here. It's one of my favorites, so
I kind of just use my liberty, I guess, to say, to
pick something I really wanted to deal with. I always like this
story. There's no, probably not a more
clear, there's a lot of clearer stories in here, but of God coming
down to save helpless sinners. You know, it's like I said, I've
probably heard this several times, and there's nothing wrong with
hearing something over and over again. And I got a friend, Gabe,
he has a saying, I don't know if it's his saying, but instead
of old and fresh, instead of new and stale, The world's out
there trying to get gimmicks and stuff to bring people in.
We're just looking at something we've seen maybe several times
and just hoping to get something more out of it and be refreshed
again, make it fresh to us. So it's old, but it's fresh to
us. We're going to get started. Verse 1, David says, Is there
anything left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness
for Jonathan's sake? God's King. The people who chose
a king for themselves, and they had chosen, as people do, wrongly,
Saul. Saul had a son. And let's look
at 1 Samuel 18 real quick, just do a little bit of, just go back
for a minute and look at 1 Samuel 18, and talk about this covenant
that he made. And verses one through, start
with verse one. And this is after David had slain
Goliath. And it came to pass when he had
made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan
was knit with the soul of David. And Jonathan loved him as his
own soul. And Saul took him that day and would let him go no more
home to his father's house. And Jonathan and David made a
covenant. because he loved him as his own soul. He loved him
just like it was him, like he was a part of his own self. And 1 Samuel 20, it's a couple
pages over, speaks of this covenant again. Start with verse 11. And Jonathan said unto David,
come and let us go out into the field. And they went out both of them
into the field, and Jonathan said unto David, O Lord God of
Israel, when I have sounded my father about tomorrow any time
with the third day, 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 the evil and I will show it to you and send you away, that
thou mayest go in peace and the Lord be with thee as he hath
been with my father. 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.
Know not when the Lord hath cut off the enemies of David, every
one from the face of the earth. So Jonathan made a covenant with
the house of David saying that the Lord even required at the
hand of David's enemies And Jonathan calls David to swear again, because
he loved him. For he loved him as he loved
his own soul. So this represents, David represents
the father, the king. He's the king, and he represents
the father. And what the king says, the king,
we don't live in those days anymore, but when the king said something,
the decree went out, and people followed it. Like I said, he
represents the father. Look at Psalm 115 with me. I'm
trying to get you to turn to too many, but of so many I had
wrote down, so I'll turn to a few here. Psalm 115, verse 1. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, where is now their God?
But our God is in the heaven. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. That's our God, that's the king. David represents him
in the story. He is sovereign in providence. Our king, our lord is sovereign
in providence. Isaiah 45 says... Isaiah 45... I am the Lord and there is none
else. There is no God beside me. I girded thee that thou hast
not known me. That they may know from the rising
of the sun and from the west that there is none beside me.
I am the Lord and there is none else. I form the light and create
darkness. I make peace and create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things." God is the first cause of all
things. He decreed. He decreed. It's back in the
text where it says, Verse 3, the king said, is there any yet
of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God unto
him? So when he asked, and he set forth to decree, he wanted
to show kindness unto someone of the house of Saul. And he purposed this to show kindness. Kindness is mercy. He wanted
to show mercy unto someone of the house of Saul for Jonathan's
sake. for Christ's sake. Everything
we do is for Christ's sake. So, isn't it? Our Lord, he is sovereign. Like
I said, he is sovereign in all things. When the king speaks,
he makes the decree, it goes out. Nothing is going to stop
our Lord. But, that I may show thee kindness
Mercy, like I said, kindness is mercy. David was a man of
mercy. The house of Saul were David's
enemies. So Mephibosheth was actually David's enemy. We represent,
Mephibosheth represents us. We are lame like he is, lame
on our feet. We can do nothing unless the
Lord brings us up. And he comes and finds us. But
he was enemies. He didn't serve any mercy. Back
in those days, when a new king took over, usually the whole
house was eradicated. They came and slew all the men
of the house and all the other kings and anybody of Saul's family
would have been wiped out. So let's go ahead and look on
down through here. Back at verse three, the king
said, Is there not 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 Maker, the son of Amiel and Lerdabar. Now Lerdabar is a The name of
Lodibar is a house of no bread, or a place of no pasture. He wasn't looking for David. He was probably hiding from David,
but if he knew the customs of the day, that they were going
to come after him. But he wasn't looking for David. That's the
way the Lord finds us. We're not looking for him. We're enemies of God. We're going
about just doing our own thing, and he comes and finds us. And
we're lame. And lame means inadequate, weak,
inadequate. We're lame on our feet. We can't
do anything without him. Can't do anything without him.
But how did it become lame? How did Mephibosheth become lame
physically here? Let's look at that. That's at
2 Samuel 4. It's a few pages back, 2 Samuel 4. In verse 4, And Jonathan Saul's son had a
son that was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the
tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel. And his nurse
took him up and fled. And it came to pass, as she made
haste to flee, that he fell and became lame. And his name was
Mephibosheth. So it was actually by a fall
of another person. And isn't that, we're in our
state because of the fall of Adam. Adam fell, and we are his
sons. And he fell. And the scripture
says, Psalm 33 says, that, like I said, that she tried to help
him, but she stumbled and fell. There is no king saved by the
multitude of the host. A mighty man is not delivered
by much strength. A horse is a vain thing for safety, neither
shall he deliver any by his great strength. And so anything we put our faith
in is vain, unless it's the Lord Jesus Christ. But this is our
condition from Adam. Like I said, Adam, our father,
he fell in the garden. I do want to turn here, because
we're going to be in this chapter a little bit, but it's Romans
5. There's several places. Let's speak of this fall. We need to see how far and how
low we are. Romans 5. I guess you can hold your thumb
there in Romans, because there's a few other scriptures from this
book. I'm going to turn to Romans 5. Look at verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. Let's get down to verse 17. For by one man's offense, death
reigned by one. Much more, they which received
an abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall
reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so
by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men
unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Now speaking of our Lord, right
there, Adam fell and Christ came. brought us up. Go back to the text, and like
I said, you can hold your thumb there, or just hold your place
there, and Romans will come back to that a couple more times.
Look at verse 5 here, back in our text. And King David sent and fetched
him. That's word fetched. It means he laid hold of him.
He came there, he got him, and he brought him back. He had to lay hold on him. Brought
him back is an old word that we don't use a whole lot anymore,
but it means to come back, to lay hold on him, to bring him
back to where he needs to be, to where he's going to find mercy.
The king's purpose is to show mercy to his enemy. fellowship,
so shaking his boots. He thinks, you know, he has no
idea. The only thing he probably can
think is that he's going to be dealt with by David. See, like I said, he wasn't looking
for David. He was the king's enemy. And so he was probably
hiding. Hiding in a lodebar where there's no pasture, no bread.
So he needs to be brought somewhere. If he's a sheep, he needs to
be brought where there is bread, where there is pasture. So Christ
comes down and meets us where we are, but he doesn't leave
us there. Like Mephibosheth, we're fetched,
we're brought to Christ, we're brought to him. He lays his hands
on us, he brings us from a land of no bread or no pasture and
brings us into green fields. You know, mercy is either sovereign
or it's not mercy. If it's owed or earned or deserved,
it's not mercy. We're only here because the Father
loved Christ the Son, that covenant before the foundation of the
world. But until we're just like Mephibosheth, we're enemies.
We're unlovely. God's mercy is for Christ's sake.
No. Back in the Romans, we're I said
to hold your place there, verse 5, I mean chapter 5 again. Chapter 5, verse 6. When we were without strength
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely four
righteous men will one die. Yet a pared venture, for a good
man some would even dare to die. A God commanded his love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through him. For when we were enemies, we
were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. Much more than
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." So like when
we were enemies, we were like Mephibosheth. We were destined
for, thought we were destined to be slaughtered with the other.
Like I said, he was part of the enemies. He was in the family
of Saul. So he probably was thinking that
David was coming here to kill him, but David was coming to
show him mercy. But we fear the king, you know,
we fear the king. Like I said, he came where we
were though. But I love all the scriptures where it says, fear
not, because our Lord speaks kindly to us. Look at Romans 3, just a couple
pages over. I might have already read this. No, I didn't read this. Now we know that what things
whoever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall be no flesh justified in his sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Verse 22. Even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon
all, them that believe, for there is no difference for all have
seen and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. When
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood and
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, to the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness, that he might be just and a justifier of him
which believeth in Jesus. He justifies. He has justified
us. He sent his Holy Spirit to fetch
us, to call us and make us willing
to come to him. Psalm 113, he says it better
than I can. People shall be willing in the
day of thy power. The Lord makes us willing. Like I said, he was
fearing. Galatians 1, let's look at that. I'll just turn real quick. Verse
15 says, When it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace. He called
us. He does the calling. He does the fetching. He does
the bringing. Let's go on down back in our
text here. Let's read verse 5 again. Then
King David sent and fetched him out of the house of Macher, son
of Amiel from Lodomar. And one of Mephibosheth's son
of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was coming to David. He fell
on his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth,
and he answered, Behold, thy servant. And David said unto
him, Fear not. Fear not. Like I said, Mephibosheth
was afraid. And David was two words. Hopefully he cured that fear
right there. Fear not. He doesn't want to show, he doesn't
want to He didn't fetch him to destroy him, he fetched him to
show him mercy. He said, fear not, I will surely
show thee kindness, mercy 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 keep on reading, let's read
on down through here, verse 8. And he bowed down, and Mephibosheth
bowed himself and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldst
look upon such a dead dog as I am? Like I said, we're dead without Christ. We're
dead. We're like dead, stinking flesh.
There's nothing that smells worse than that, is dead, rotting flesh. And that's what we are, until
the Lord washes us in that blood. It was dead flesh. And we just,
you know, we sure as hell knew this. We knew he was a dead man
walking. We felt he was. He said, I will surely show thee
kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake. And that's back to that
covenant that was made before the foundation of the world,
like the covenant that Jonathan and David made. He was going
to show mercy to Saul's house. For God the Father entered into
an everlasting covenant of mercy with the Lord Jesus Christ, giving
him a people out of Adam's race, and making Christ the surety
and redeemer of those people. Let's turn to John 6 real quick.
John chapter 6. There are several things in the book of
John that I want to look at. Look at him. I said nothing sheds better light
on God's Word than God's Word, so we'll look at his Word here. John 6, look at verse 37. Verse 37, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which
he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the sun, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up
at the last day. The Jews then murmured at him,
because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father
and mother we know? How is it then that he saith,
I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to
me except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will
raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets
that they shall all be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me." He said he was brought to him,
and we won't come unless we are brought. But the Father and the
Son made this covenant. Look at chapter 10 in the same
book, John chapter 10, and verse 24. Then came the Jews
round about him and said unto him, How long dost thou make
us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered
them I told you and you believe not the works that I do in my
father's name they bear witness to me. But you believe not because
you are not on my sheep as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice
and I know them and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My father which gave them me is greater than
all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand.
I and my father are one. This covenant between Christ
and His Father. That they made for the foundation
of the world to bring His sheep home. To bring His sheep to Him. Because He loved Christ for Christ's
sake. And look at chapter 17. Real quick. Hopefully I won't have too many
more. Chapter 17, verse 1. These words begged Jesus and
lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has
come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. And skip down to verse 9. I pray
for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou
hast given me, for they are thine." He's speaking of his Father here.
They are thine. The covenant they made for the
foundation of the world. I'll go back to our text real
quick. We can read verse 13 here. So I'm going to skip down. Well,
let's go ahead. I'll read through 9 after verse
9 there. The king called his eye upon
Saul's servant and said unto him, I have given unto thy master's
son all that pertain to Saul and to all this 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 sons may have
food to eat. The Mephibosheth, thy master's
son, shall eat bread always at my table. Now Ziba had fifteen
sons and twenty 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.
Verse 13, so Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, and he did continually
eat at the king's table. So David here, he fulfilled every
promise to Mephibosheth. God will fulfill every promise
to his elect. He's not slack concerning his
promise. We all shall be made like Christ. We shall enjoy his
presence forever. Romans 8, real quick. Verses 33 here. Romans 8, verse
33. It says, Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of
God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? for tribulation or distress,
persecution or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword, as is written.
For thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted
as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God. which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord. So David fulfilled his promise to Mephibosheth. He fulfilled his covenant with
Jonathan and kept his promises. But it says there at the end,
back in our text, I'll just stay right here, he said he was still
lame on his feet. So, he was continuing at the
king's table with his name on his feet. We are still, when
he brings us to know Christ, we're still going to fall backwards. We're still going to sin. We're
still going to have trials. And we're still going to drive these. Someone
wrote, I listened to a couple of messages by men more able
than me to try to get some glean a little bit off of them, you
know. And we'll still be dragging these old legs around till that
day when he takes us home. But we're sitting at the table,
you know. We're here, we're hearing the
word. We need to be out of Lodiborough. We need to be in a place where
there is pasture, where there is bread. But we're still going
to drag these legs, the results of Adam's fall. But it's still
not the end of the story. Even after we set up the table,
you still have some trials to go through. And I'm just going
to look at one of these. It's just a few chapters away. 2 Samuel 16. So I lied to you. I told you we were going to be
staying there. But just a couple of pages over
here. Chapter 16, 2 Samuel here. His
loyal, Mephibosheth's loyalty was tested. This is after Absalom. That's David's son. And David
was on the run from him for a while. And just read chapter 16, starting
with verse 1. A few verses here. The first
four verses. And when David was a little past
the top of the hill, behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth
met him with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred
loaves of bread, and a hundred bunches of raisins, and a hundred
of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine. And the king said unto
Ziba, What meanest thou by these? And Ziba said, The asses be for
the king's household to ride on, and the bread and summer
fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine that such as be
faint in the wilderness may drink. And the king said, And where
is thy master's son? And Zabba said unto the king,
Behold, he abideth at Jerusalem. For he said, Today shall the
house of Israel store me the kingdom of my father. Then said
the king to Zabba, Behold, I know all that pertaineth unto Meshuvasheth. And Zabba said, I humbly beseech
thee that I may find grace in thy sight, my lord, O king. Zabba
was lying on him. He was lying on Meshuvasheth.
So, Mephibosheth wanted to be where his king was. Let's look
at that. Just a couple more chapters over. Chapter 19. Chapter 19 is the second Samuel
and it's verse 24. Mephibosheth, the son of Saul,
came down to meet the king and had neither dressed his feet,
nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes from the day the
king departed. until the day he came again in peace. And it
came to pass when he was come to Jerusalem to meet the king,
that the king said unto him, Wherefore, when is not thou with
me, Mephibosheth? And Mephibosheth answered, My
lord, O king, my servant deceived me. For thy servant said, I will
settle me an ass, that I may ride thereon and go to the king,
because thy servant is lame. And he hath slandered thy servant
unto the Lord the King. But my Lord the King is as an
angel of God. Do therefore what is good in
thine eyes. For of all my father's house
were but dead men before my Lord the King. Yet didst thou set
thy servant among them that it eateth thine own table? What
right therefore have I yet to cry any more unto the King? And
the King said unto him, Why speakest thou any more of thy matters?
I have said, Thou and Zabba divide the land. And Mephibosheth said
unto the king, Yea, let him take it all. He told David that Zabba
could have the land. He didn't want the land. He wanted his king. Forasmuch
as my lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house.
So he was tried even after he was set at the king's table,
he was tried again. And we will be too. until uh
we're taken out of out of here and get met with him so i hope
that was a blessing and uh thank y'all