Open up to Ephesians chapter
two. Let's start reading here just
a little bit in chapter one. Ephesians, blessed book. In verse
three of chapter one, Paul says, blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings and 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, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will. And then over here in chapter
2, verse 1, if you're a believer, you can put your name in that.
And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins,
wherein time past you walked according to the course of this
world. according to the prince of the power of the iron, the
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among
whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ, By grace are you saved, and hath raised us up
together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches
of his grace and his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. which God hath before ordained
that we should walk into. Wherefore, remember that ye being
in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcised,
by that which is called circumcision in the flesh made by hands. But
at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ
Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood
of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath
made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us, having abolished the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in the ordinances, for to make himself of twain
one new man, so making peace, and that he might reconcile both
unto God, in one body by the cross, having slain enmity thereby
or in himself, and came and preached peace to you which were afar
off, and to them that were not. For through him we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore you are
no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens, with the
saints and and of the household of God, and are built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the buildings fitly
framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in
whom ye also are built together for the inhabitation of God in
the Holy Spirit. Let us pray. One of the things
I enjoy more than just about anything. I like talking to other
believers. And one thing I want to hear
is their story. And here's what I mean by that. I love to hear
the story about how the Lord called somebody out. They're
beautiful. And oftentimes for Believers are different. And
you think about it, so sometimes, maybe a man grows up in a gospel
church, like I did. He's never heard anything but the truth,
but he sits there for a long time, been hearing the same thing
every week, until one day, the Lord turns the lights on, and
he calls them out. And then you've got somebody who sat under false
religion for years and years and years, hearing of a false
God, false doctrines, and then one day the Lord crosses that
man's path with the gospel. and he turns the lights on and
he calls that man out. And some men are called out young, maybe
a teenager, maybe a young man. Some men, the Lord waits until
he's a man, he's an old man on his deathbed. These stories,
that's the point I'm getting to, these stories about how the
Lord calls us out, they're oftentimes very different, they're very
interesting. But the story of our salvation, who accomplished
it, how it was accomplished, when it was accomplished, for
every believer, that story is the exact same every single time. And I love this passage of Scripture
because to me, I see very clearly, probably more clearly than anywhere
else in the Scripture, how God saves a sinner. I see very clearly
who He is. And from this passage of Scripture,
I see very clearly who I am as well in this man with the ship.
So let's read this. If you would pick up in verse
1 of 2 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 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. 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. 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 to
Ziba, Saul's servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy
master's son all that pertain to Saul and to all his house.
Thou therefore and thy sons and thy servants shall till the land
for him, and thou 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 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.
So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he did eat continually at
the king's table, and was laying on his feet. Now, let me give
you a little background on this. At this point in history, Saul,
the former king of Israel, is dead. His son, Jonathan, is dead. And now David sits on the throne
of Israel, and David is the most powerful and most feared man
on the face of the planet right now. The fear of David fell over
every nation. Now, here's how these things
work. During this time, there was a king, right? A man, a patriarch. He sat on the throne, and it
was expected that his son after him would take over the throne.
His son after him would take over the throne. But every once
in a while, a new king would take over that throne. He would
get the old king out, and then his son would take over, and
so on and so forth. A very dangerous spot to find yourself in was
being a male descendant of the former king, because those male
descendants were seen as a threat to the new king's rule. And the
sons of Saul, the descendants of Saul, had every reason to
believe that David was going to come, beat down their door,
and slay them with the edge of the sword. That's what they could
expect. But what does David have to say? Look back at verse 1.
And David said, is there yet any that is left of the house
of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Now, every
story must have a beginning. And I can't help but notice that
the story of this man's salvation, Mephibosheth, it begins the same
way the story of my salvation begins and the story of every
believer's salvation begins. It begins with a sovereign and
mighty king sitting on his throne, purposing to show mercy to an
undeserving people, David. the sovereign king, the picture
of God the Father. He sits on his mighty throne,
purposing to show mercy to the descendants of Saul, the picture
of every member of the elect. Now, what would the world say
about the beginnings of salvation? How would the world say that
salvation begins? The world would say this, they would say that
salvation begins when a man makes a choice for Jesus. They would
say salvation begins when a man allows Jesus Christ to be his
savior. They would say salvation begins when a man allows Jesus
Christ to be his king. Is that a fair assessment? It
is. The world would say that salvation begins when a man makes
a choice for God. What did the scripture say? I'll
give you the scripture right here. John 15, 16, the Lord speaking
to his disciples, you 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 to you. You have
not chosen me, but I have chosen you. Folks, what plainer language
could possibly be used? Few things to know on here. In
this story, were there any members of Saul's house that were seeking
mercy from David? We just read it. Is it recorded
anywhere in here that there's any members of Saul's house beating
on the throne room door saying, David, be merciful to me. David,
be merciful to me. Anybody? No. The descendants
of Saul weren't seeking mercy from David. They were running
from David. They were hiding from David. They were expecting
David's wrath. And that's us by nature. We will not seek God
by nature. We will simply run from Him and
we will hide from Him. And we will expect His wrath
and we will hate Him. But we will not choose Him by nature.
And we will not seek Him by nature. I'll give you another one. Prior
to making this decree, David inquired about the worthiness
about Saul's house to receive mercy. Anywhere in the story
does David look at one of his servants and say, the descendants
of Saul, tell me about these folks. Are they good people?
Do they read the Bible often? They go to church, right, at
least three times a week. They take care of their families.
They work hard. Is any inquiry like that made at all? David
does not inquire about the worthiness of Saul's house to receive mercy.
David purposed to show mercy For one reason, it was because
of somebody else. It was because of Jonathan. Why
does the Lord purpose to show mercy to undeserving sinners
like you and me? I'll read it to you. Ephesians 4.32, and be ye kind
one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. That's why the
Father purposes to show mercy to undeserving sinners like you
and me. It's for Christ's sake. Now, what happened between David
and Jonathan that David was willing to show this mercy? What's the
story? Turn to 1 Samuel 20. Look at verse 12. 1 Samuel 20, verse 12. Here's the
backstory on this. Saul, the former king of Israel,
he had brought David into his inner circle. And the scriptures
say that David behaved himself wisely, and he was mighty in
battle, and he was loved by all the people. But at some point,
David grew to more fame and popularity than Saul. Saul said, I'm not
going to have that, and he set out to kill David. That was his
purpose. But Saul's son, Jonathan, he loved David very much. Now
something happened here. Take a look. Pick up in 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
said 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." What Jonathan is saying here
is this. He's saying, I'm going to go to my Father, and if he's
still mad at you, and he still plans to kill you, I will come
back and I'll tell you that, and you can flee, and you can
escape with your life. But if he's not mad, if he's gotten
over it, and he doesn't purpose to kill you anymore, I'll let
you know that as well, and you can come back to the inner circle.
Pick up reading verse 14. 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, 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? It was because of a covenant, a covenant between Him and Jonathan.
What's that the type of? We don't have to look too hard,
do we? This is the covenant of grace, the covenant made between
the Father and the Son that happened before the world ever began.
This is where the Father passed the Lord Jesus Christ with the
safe return of all the elect back to Him safe and sound. He
said, I'm going to hold you accountable. I'm going to hold you accountable
for each and every one. You're going to bring them back
to me and deliver them back to me without a scratch on them.
And the Lord Jesus Christ said, I will. They entered into a covenant,
and that's why God showed mercy. Because they entered into a covenant,
and the Lord Jesus Christ honored that covenant on the cross. That's
why mercy is shown, for no other reason. Now, look over at 2 Samuel
9, back in your text, and look at verse 2. We're introduced
to the sole descendant of Saul's house, Mephibosheth. And there
was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. 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 Machir, the son of Amul in Lodabar. Mephibosheth is a type of the
believer, and we get some information about him up front. The first
thing we get is his name. You know what his name means? It
means a shameful thing. That's what Mephibosheth means.
It means a shameful thing. What's the source of shame? It's
guilt. What's the source of guilt? 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. We get some more
information about him. We find out that he has a particular
ailment. He's lame. It speaks of being crippled,
being unable. But how he becomes lame is of
some interest. I want you to take a look at
this. Look at 2 Samuel 4, verse 4. 2 Samuel 4, verse 4. How did
Mephibosheth become lame? And Jonathan, Saul's son, had
a son that was lame on his feet. He was five years old when the
tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel. Those tidings
were that Saul and Jonathan were dead. That's what they were telling
the people. And his nurse took him up and fled. It came to pass,
as she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.
We don't have to look too deep at that either to find out what
it's talking about. How was Mephibosheth lame? How was he unable? He was
lame through a fall. What happened in the garden?
Adam was created upright. Adam was created innocent. He
was given one command. Do not eat of the fruit of this
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the day you eat
thereof you shall surely die. Adam disobeyed God and he died.
He died spiritually and he passed that fallen evil nature down
to every descendant after him. right through Mephibosheth down
to this guy right here and down to his son sitting right there.
That's the truth of the matter. And because of that fall, we're
lame too. Now what does lame mean? What
does that speak of? That speaks of inability. Because of Mephibosheth's
fallen state, there are things he couldn't do. I'll name a few
of them. Here's the first one. He couldn't
provide for himself. This man was crippled. He couldn't go
out and build a house. He couldn't go out and till a
garden. He couldn't hunt. He couldn't do anything. Those
things he needed to live, he could not provide for himself.
He was lame, and that's you and me by nature. We're lame coming
into this world. and those things God demands
of us, we cannot provide. What we need to live, we cannot
provide. We cannot provide righteousness.
We can't make an atonement for our sins. We cannot meet the
standard of holiness. It is absolutely out of our reach
because we're laying through this fall. He was unable to provide
for himself. He was unable to get to David.
Let me pose this to you. What if David sent a runner down
to Lodibor to Mephibosheth's house? And the runner comes in
with a letter. It's an invitation. And Mephibosheth opens the letter
and it says, listen, Mephibosheth, I'd love to see you. I'd love
to be able to take care of you and give you some things. So
if you'd like to swing by my castle, I'd love to take care
of you. You just have to get there. And the servant turns
around and he walks out the door. Is that going to do Mephibosheth
any good whatsoever? Is an invitation going to do a lame man any good
whatsoever? No, he's lame. He can't get to
David. What does David have to do? He has to go fetch him. He's
got to go down where Mephibosheth is at. And I need a God that
will come get me where I'm at. If it's up to me, if all this
is is an invitation, I need you to invoke your free will. I need
you to do this, I need you to do that. This is just an invitation,
this gospel message. It will do me no good because
I'm lame and I can't get to God. But if you'll come get me and
come fetch me where I'm at, that's the God I need. He was unable
to provide for himself, he was unable to get to David, and he
couldn't do anything for David. Not a thing. David had to do
everything for Mephibosheth. And this world is constantly
talking about what they're doing for God. We know salvation is
not what we do for Him. Salvation is what He does for
us. Mephibosheth, he's a lame man.
And I noticed where he was at. He was in this land called Lodabar.
Lodabar, you know what that means? It means a land without pasture
and a house with no bread. This is right there on the surface
too. If you go to a land that doesn't have any pasture land,
and a house that doesn't have any bread, what else aren't you
not going to find there? You're not going to find anything
alive, that's for sure. No life. Mephibosheth, he's a
shameful thing, he's lame, and he's dead. Just the way you and
I are born in this world, dead in trespasses and sins. Folks,
that is the natural man summed up in one man, in one story.
Now, look back at your text at verse 5. Let's see what David
did for this man that was lame. Then King David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Makir, the son of Amiel, from Lodabar."
Now, I looked up that word, fetched, in the concordance, and it seems
to be self-explanatory, right? But I wanted to see if there
was a different kind of meaning I couldn't see. And it very,
just right on the surface there, it means to take. That's all
it means, is to take. But I've thought about that.
I love to think about the Lord just reaching out and taking
a man. Just taking him with no respect to his thoughts or his
opinions or his will. He just reaches out and he takes
him because he has the power to and he wills to. And I love
thinking about that. Concerning this thing of being
fetched or being taken, I think there's a few different ways
we can look at this. And first thing I thought of, we are eternally
fetched. Eternally fetched or eternally
taken. I'll show you what I mean. Turn to Ephesians 1 and look
at verse 3. 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. When
were we chosen? Where were we chosen? In Christ.
And that before the foundations of the world were ever built.
Has the Lord Jesus Christ ever had a beginning? Is He ever going
to have an end? No, He's eternal. You know what that means? We're
eternal too. We have always been in this eternal union with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Let's take that a step further.
You know what that means? That means everywhere He's been, I've
been. That means when He worked out
that perfect righteousness, I was in Him, right along with Him.
And that righteousness He worked out, that really is mine. That
means when He went to the cross, I was in Him. He bore my sins
in His body on that tree, and He really did put away my sins.
That means right now as he's seated at the right hand of his
father enjoying all the affection, all the love, all the everything
God has to offer, he enjoys it right there. That means right
now we're in him and we're right there enjoying the same things
right now in him. We've been eternally fetched.
We have always been in this eternal union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's a sense in which we're fetched in our experience, and
this is through the call of irresistible, invincible grace. At the Lord's
appointed time, He sends the Spirit, the Spirit of God, into
a man's heart. And in the beginning, any believer
will tell you, this is a withering spirit. This spirit blows on
us like a ravaging fire, and it tears us down, and it burns
up all our false refuges, and it doesn't leave us anywhere
to look for Christ alone. We're fetched in our experience
through a call. Now, we can look at this through
a simple example of, let's say, let's say there's some car keys
sitting on that table right there, and I just walk by, and I grab
them, right? The car keys, they can't resist
my will. I have all the power, and I reach
by, and I grab the car keys, and I go, right? I fetch them.
You could look at it that way, but it's actually incomplete.
There's something missing in that illustration, and I'll show
you what it is. Turn to Ephesians 5 and look at verse 25. I told you I was looking at that
word fetched. It means to take. I couldn't get over this though,
the more I looked at it. The way the word is oftentimes used,
it's in reference to a man taking a wife. And I couldn't get over
that. And I'm gonna use the example of marriage here to talk about
what happens when the Lord actually fetches a sinner. Look at Ephesians
5 verse 25. This is the commandment of marriage.
Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church. A man fetches some car keys off
the table. He doesn't love those car keys. But when the Lord Jesus
Christ fetches a man, it's because he loves him. That man is fetched
because he has the very love of God. But that love for us
cost him something, didn't it? Keep on reading. Husbands, love
your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself
for it. And this is the fetching that
I am most thankful for. This is when he fetched us on
the cross. This is where he really did bear our sins in his body
on that tree and suffer the punishment that was reserved for us. And
when he bled and died, there was a purchase that was made.
It was a purchase of blood. And we truly were fetched. We
became his possession because he bought us. And as our rightful
owner, he takes us with us wherever he goes. Like I said before,
right now he's seated at the right hand of the Father. And
that's where we rightfully are, in Him, because of that purchase. Fetched eternally, fetched in
our experience, fetched out of love, and fetched across. Now
look at verse 6 in your text. What happens when the Lord fetches
a sinner? Verse 6, 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. Now can you imagine
the fear Mephibosheth must have felt when he was brought into
David's court. Imagine being in a throne room, some sort of
large room, and there it is, the mighty King David sitting
on his throne. And there's Mephibosheth. He's in the middle of the floor
there. He's either sitting or he's laying there. He can't stand
because he's laying, and he's sitting there before David. And
everything's encrusted in gold, and everything is very lavish,
and David is surrounded by these large soldiers with covered in
armor and swords and spears and things of that nature. And there
he lays, this weak, impotent, unable man. And here's what he's
got on his mind, no doubt. He knows that his house, the
house of Saul, they had made themselves the enemy of David. I chose those words carefully
because David never made himself Saul's enemy. Saul always made
himself David's enemy and Mephibosheth knew that. And there he was trembling
before this sovereign king. He knew he was in the hands of
the sovereign king David and David could do whatever he wanted
to with him. He could kill him or he could
spare him and David could do whatever he wanted. Now, when
the Lord first fetched you, when he first revealed to you who
he was, is this not your experience? You were brought before a sovereign
king. You knew that you were in his
hands. You knew that he could do with you as he saw fit. And
you knew your house, the house of Adam. You had made yourself
the enemy of God. Is that not your experience?
Now, how did Mephibosheth respond to David? Did he say, well, Dave,
what I'm going to do is I'm going to allow you to show me some
mercy here in this scenario. If you would, come on down here
and bend down. I'm going to put the crown on
your head. I'm going to allow you to be my king. Does Mephibosheth
say anything stupid like that? No, he doesn't. And if he would
have, I can almost guarantee one of David's soldiers would
have probably slew him with the edge of the sword before he got the first
couple words out. David was the king. You wouldn't
talk to David like that. But I would point out, that's
exactly what false religion says nowadays. Just allow him to be
your king. Just tell him you'll accept his
mercy. But Mephibosheth doesn't say
anything silly like that. What does he do? Scripture says,
he fell on his face and he did reverence. He worshipped. Now I found this interesting.
Mephibosheth at this point did not know David's intention. He
didn't know if David was going to be merciful or if David was
going to put him to death. He had no idea what David's intentions
were. All he knew was that David was the king and David was in
control and he was in David's hands and David could do with
him whatever it is he wanted. Here's my point here. You will
only worship a sovereign. And before the issue of salvation
is ever considered, this issue of worship will be settled. God
will be worshipped. All right, go to 2 Samuel 9 and
look at verse 7, and let's look at David's response. 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. This is
a Henry Mahan-ism, and I've borrowed it, and I like it. Henry said
this, he said, the Lord never says fear not to a man who fears
not. He only says fear not to those
who fear. Now I ask, do you and I fear
God? What does that mean? What does
it mean to fear God? It's simple. It means you are
afraid to look anywhere but Christ alone. You're afraid to look
at your works. You know they're filthy rags.
They're no good. You're afraid to look at your experiences and
your feelings. You can't trust them. You don't know if they're
real. Deathly afraid to look anywhere but Christ alone. That's
the fear of God. Notice what else he said to him.
He said, I will surely show you mercy. Not maybe, not perhaps
I will show you mercy. No, he says, I will surely show
you mercy. To everyone who is afraid, to
everyone who is trembling before this king, to everyone who's
afraid to look anywhere but Christ alone, he says, fear not. I will
surely show you mercy. That's good news, especially
to a man who needs mercy. And he also pledged to restore
David. He pledged to restore him everything that he had lost.
And this is the Lord's pledge to us. He'll restore to us everything
we lost in Adam, but so much more. Adam was upright. Adam
was innocent, but he wasn't holy, because holiness can't change.
And Adam changed. He fell. But what we have in
Christ is true holiness. That is a state that can never
change, a state that was better than Adam could have ever dreamed
of. Now look at verse 8 of your text. 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? Perhaps someone here tonight
will find out that the Lord has purpose to be merciful to you.
If that would be his will, I pray he would do that. If there is
someone here who doesn't know that yet, the Lord has purpose
to show you mercy. If that happens, though, and
I think everyone will agree with me, this will be the first question
on your mind. Why me? Why would you show mercy
to a dead dog like me? Look at everything I've done
and look at everything I've said. Look at all the evil imaginations
that cross my heart. Why would you show mercy to me?
But we already talked about it. He doesn't look for a reason
in me to show mercy. He looks to his son, Jesus Christ. And that's where the believer
looks to. We looked at him for the purpose or the reason to
show mercy. Everyone's turned in. Everybody's
looking to Christ. But the Father's not looking
to me to find a reason to show mercy. Look at verses 9 and 10. David wasn't just merciful, he
was very gracious. 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 shall bring in the
fruits that thy master's son may have food to eat. But Mephibosheth,
thy master's son, shall eat bread all the way at my table. Now
Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. Look at how David provided for
Mephibosheth. He commanded that everything would be provided
for him. Mephibosheth was lame. He couldn't
provide for himself. But this was the best part. Nothing
was expected of him. He wasn't expected to bring anything
to the table. He wasn't expected to come up with everything. David
purposed to provide everything from Mephibosheth. And this is
the same thing for us in salvation. Everything is freely provided
for us. The sin atonement is provided. Real righteousness
before the law is provided. Real holiness making us fit for
friendship with God himself is provided. And nothing is expected
from us. Just rest. Just peace. Look at
this. Look at 2 Samuel 9 verse 11.
Bephishep 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 a son. Look at Romans 8, look at verse
14. Romans 8, pick up in verse 14.
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 you have received the spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Believer, understand
this. This is the same for you. In
Christ, you have a new identity and you have a new family. You
are the sons and daughters of God himself. You are sons by
birth and daughters by birth, the new birth. the birth of the
Holy Spirit, but you're also sons and daughters of adoption. Now, I had an interesting interaction
that I like to bring out when I'm talking about this passage
of Scripture because I think it explains a few things somewhat
clearly. I had a co-worker, and he was
adopting twin girls from China. And he never talked about it
a lot. He had these girls for a while, never talked about it
a lot. And then one day we had a chance to talk, and he was
telling me about it. He was telling me this story about how he went
over and got these girls. And what struck me about the
whole thing was how much it cost him to go get those girls. I
didn't know that adoption was so incredibly costly to the parent,
but he was talking about it. He said, yeah, because it was
actually a relatively cheap adoption, but it cost him upwards of $20,000.
Now, for some people, that's a drop in the bucket. For me,
that's a lot of money. $20,000 is a lot of money. My
point is it came to the parent at a great cost to adopt those
children. I'm going to pose a hypothetical
to you. Let's say, for the sake of argument,
you find a child you want to adopt. And this child, he hates
you. He spits in your face every chance
he gets. Every time you tell him to do
something, he shakes his fist in your face. And he is always
trying to run away. That's this kid that you want
to adopt. You have another son, though. He's your son by birth.
And He loves you with all His heart. And you love Him with
all your heart. And He is obedient unto you in
all things at all times. He has never disobeyed you once.
And He has always done exactly what you've asked Him to do.
So the whole family goes to the adoption company. You say, I
want to adopt that one over there. Adoption company says, you want
that one, the one who's shaking his fist in your face, the one
who's running away, the one that hates you, you want that one.
I want that one. Say, OK, you can have him. It's
going to come to you at a cost. I see you have your birth son
here. What I want you to do is take him out back, take this
whip, and I want you to start whipping his back with that whip.
Once you get done with that, what I want you to do is take
him and just start punching him. in the face as hard as you can
until you can't tell what he looks like anymore. As soon as
you get done with that, let some people spit on him and mock him
for a while. After that, you see that pole there? Take him.
Here's some nails. Here's a hammer. Nail him hand
to feet to that pole. Here's a spear. Shove that spear
in his side. And when he's dead, when it's
finished, you can have that other one, but not until. Would any
of you make that deal? Sometimes I think I'm starting
to understand the character of God and his love for sinners.
I consider the fact that a man gave his son for the life of
somebody like me, and I find out I don't know anything. It
is the love and the character of God, and that is the cost
of your adoption. All right. Look at verse 12. Let's see how the story ends.
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." Here's what
I thought of when I read that. If I were writing this story,
that is not how I would have ended the story. If I were writing
it, it would have sounded something like this. And David's doctors
came down, and they healed Mephibosheth, and he walked and worked, and
he was profitable unto David for the rest of his days. That's
how it would have ended if I would have wrote it. But thank God
I didn't write this story. Because if that's how the story
ends, it's taken away all my hope. See, my story, the story
of my salvation, the story of who I am, the story of who my
God is, it lines right up here with this man in the fifth shift.
I'm a dead dog. Dead dog sinner. But I'm also
a son of the king. And I eat continually at my master's
table. And I enjoy all the blessings of sonship. But you know what's
the truth concerning me? I'm still lame on my feet. I
am still as unable to keep the law as I have ever been in and
of myself. My sins are still ever before
me. Now, I want you to understand
something. If right now you're looking to Jesus Christ alone,
He is your only hope of salvation. I am persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. I've
got no other hope. I need no other hope. He's it.
I want you to know that you are absolutely and utterly righteous
right now. You couldn't get any more righteous
because you're in Christ. As righteous as Jesus Christ
is right now, that's how righteous you are right now. But I want
to ask a question. Does anybody here feel righteous? Does anybody here have an experience
of righteousness? I don't. And I don't suspect
any other believer does. We know our righteousness in
Him by faith. But this is my experience. I'm a sinner. I'm
a, I'm a fifth chef and nothing more. How could you possibly
understand that? The two natures. The war of the two natures. There's
a new man in here. There's a holy man. There's a
man who believes God. That's the evidence of it. But
the old man is still there. And he is still lame. But we're
not dwelling in Lodabar anymore, that land of no life, no bread,
no pasture land. We're dwelling at the king's
table, and by him we're fed, and by him we exist. And that
table covers our lame feet. If you think about the moles
sitting around having dinner in that throne room, the fibber
chef sits at that table, a man who's not lame sits at the table.
Can you tell any difference between them? His master's table covered
his lame feet. Any Mephibosheps here? Anybody
here a shameful thing? Anybody here lame? Unable? Unable
to do that which would be pleasing to God? Anybody here face down?
Trembling before a sovereign? Wondering what in the world is
he going to do with me? I tell you what, if you're in that boat,
The king says, fear not. He's purposed to show mercy to
the remnant of the house of Adam. And it's all for Christ's sake.
And now every Mephibosheth, every man who's shameful, every man
who's lame, every man who was living in Lodabar, they're now
sons. And we enjoy all the blessings of sonship. And there is nothing
left to do. Everything's been provided. And
just give thanks to your king.