If you would open your Bibles back to 2 Samuel 9. The story of David and Mephibosheth is definitely one of my favorites. I like this story so much that it's tempting every time I find out I need to preach that I might go back to this subject, to this story, and preach it.

And this evening, I want us to get three things, and I pray that the Lord would make us to see these three things through this story. The first is that the true and living God the God of heaven and earth, the God of this Bible, is the sovereign king who sits on the throne in glory. Secondly, is that that same sovereign God entered into a covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ, giving him a chosen people out of the seed of Adam that the Lord might be their surety. their intercessor for them in salvation. And thirdly, that we are fallen, helpless, lame sinners who are completely at the mercy of this sovereign king.

I want us to get those three things. Each one of those are so important, but we have to get all three. If we miss any of those, then the whole thing is totally different. And that can be illustrated in this story. In this story, David is God the Father, Jonathan is the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, and Mephibosheth is us. And if we don't have these three things, then the whole story falls apart.

If in this story, if David is not the sovereign king, then he does not have the authority or the ability to do what he did for Mephibosheth. And it calls into question this entire covenant. Who can make a promise? Who can enter into a covenant in a position that you don't have the authority to do it? If one of my children comes up to you and says, my dad's going to do something, without my authority or my permission, then those are just hollow words that mean nothing. And thirdly, if we do not realize that Mephibosheth, or us, are fallen helpless sinners who are at the mercy of the king, what ends up happening? What if Mephibosheth had come to David? Or what if Mephibosheth had done some great things?

Then it calls into question, who gets the glory in all this? But if we see this story and we understand it, the only thing that can come at the end is to realize that all the glory goes to David and Jonathan in this. The whole thing, all of it. So I just want to take a few minutes. We can just go through the story and I want to emphasize those three things as we see this.

A little background of this, Saul was the people's king. He had been rejected of God for disobedience and for rebellion. David was a man after God's own heart. He reigned over Israel. And these two things are very different. We are from the family, Mephibosheth is from the family of Saul, the rebellious one, the disobedient one. While David is the one after God's own heart, he reigns over Israel at this point.

And one of David's first acts as king was to inquire of the house of Saul, is there yet any left of Jonathan's house that I might show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? The first thing in verse three that I want to look at says this, And the king said, And the king said, where the word of the king is, there's power, there's authority, and there's sovereignty.

There's no council, there's no conference, there's no bargaining, there's nothing. When the king says something, everyone listens to his words, and that's what happens. Period. The king speaks from his sovereign throne and what he decrees shall be done. When David said these words, what he was getting ready to say, everyone in his presence, everyone under his command, everyone under his rule, all were going to do exactly what needed to be done for his word to be fulfilled.

Our God is infinitely sovereign over all of his creation. He created us. He's sovereign over us. He reigns in total authority in heaven and in earth. Our God is sovereign in providence. There may be a second or third cause to something, but God is always the first cause of everything. Our God is sovereign in salvation.

It says in the scriptures, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. There are so many stories throughout the Old Testament that tell us these things, that emphasize this. What about Nebuchadnezzar, one of the most powerful kings in the world over all those days?

And he was told, he was literally said, One day, because of this dream you had, you were going to say in your heart, or out loud, look what I've done. And the moment you do that, you are going to fall, you're going to become a beast, you're going to eat grass, feathers are going to grow on your body, all of that, if you say this. Can you imagine if someone told you that, how scared you would be to say that?

Yet what did he do? He woke up one day and said, look at all the things I have done. And in that moment, God humbled him. And through that, Nebuchadnezzar came to himself and what did he say? He said, there's only one God. God in heaven, the true and living God. He is the one on the throne. What about Jonah? The Lord said, go to Nineveh. And Jonah got on a boat and said, I don't think I want to go to Nineveh.

Now, if we sat here for an hour and all of us wrote down every single thought of how we would reconcile that situation, we had the authority in any way, would anyone have possibly thought to themselves, you know, let's have a whale swallow him. That's how we'll solve this. But no, that's the perfect way to do it. The whale spit him out, and Jonah said, I gotta go to Nineveh.

Our God is sovereign in all things, in His providence, in His salvation, in all of it. He's the one. It says in verse 3, And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul that I might show him the kindness of God unto him? I might show the kindness of God to him. Kindness here is mercy, that I might show mercy to him. David the king was a merciful man. The house of Saul was David's enemy and deserved no mercy, no pity, but found it in his heart to show him some. Our God is a holy, righteous, and just God, but he is also merciful. He delights to show mercy. That word delight, I think the only time I usually use that word is around Thanksgiving every year when it's time for us to get together. And my sister sends out in a group text to all of us, what would you like for Thanksgiving?

What desserts do you want? And the first thing that comes to my head is I want to have caramel delight. And she always responds and says, don't worry, that's always on there. I know that's what you want. Every time I think of that dessert, it puts a smile on my face. I get so excited about it. That word delight is hard to put together with the Lord Jesus Christ thinking of showing mercy to his children. He delights in it. He takes joy in it. He's just so excited. He delights to show mercy.

Adam's race, our race, is a fallen, rebellious race, and we deserve no mercy. God is not indebted to sinners, but he has determined to show mercy to some. The language of religion normally is merit, reward, service, but the language of true redemption is simply mercy. I obtained mercy. Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner."

You tell that story all the time of that guilty man standing before a judge, and the judge says, anyone have anything else to say before I sentence him? And the father in the crowd saying, is there any place for mercy? And the judge saying, he doesn't deserve mercy, to which the father says, I know if he deserved it, it wouldn't be mercy. Verse 3, 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. Before we find out Mephibosheth's name, before we find out where he is, before we find out what he's been doing, before we find out anything else, we find out he's lame. He can't do anything on his own. Turn back a couple pages to 2 Samuel 4. 2 Samuel 4 verse 4 tells us what happens to Mephibosheth. 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, 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."

This is us. Before our name can ever be mentioned, before anything can be said about us, twice they tell us he's lame. Our name is irrelevant. We're sinners. That's who we are. That's all that can be seen of us. If everything about us was laid out on the table, no one would even ponder our name, anything other than, look at how awful that person is.

Look at how helpless they are. When it comes to salvation, when it comes to their status, they've got no hope. They've got nothing to rest on. That person can't come up with one thing to say that would give them any merit for anything. The word lame through a fall not only describes Mephibosheth but it is our condition since the fall of our father Adam. All our faculties were affected by this fall and in our flesh dwelleth no good thing.

Turn with me to Romans chapter 3. Romans 3. Start in verse 9 of Romans chapter 3. Remember, this is all of our faculties, everything about us. We're affected by the fall and on our flesh dwells no good thing. Romans 3 verse 9. What then? Are we better than they? No, and no wise. For we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.

As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. This is just a list of more and more ways to say how awful we are. Pick it up,

13. If it hadn't been enough, their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of ash is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace have they not known? There was no fear of God before their eyes.

Now we know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. That's who we are. That's how lame we are. That's how helpless we are. Stay there in Romans 3. I'll come right back to there. It says over in our text, and Jonathan Saul's son had a son that was, I'm sorry, I'm reading the wrong one. And the king said unto him, where is he? Ziba said unto the king, behold, he is in the house of Maker, the son of Amiel in Lodabar.

The king David sent and fetched him out of the house of Maker. This word fetched, I love it. It's not a word that we, it's not a word that I almost ever hear apart from this story about fetching him. The king David purposed to show mercy to someone in Saul's house. When he heard that Jonathan had a crippled son, David sent his servant to where Mephibosheth was and fetched him. The servant called and brought him to David. David said, fetch him. And what happened? He was fetched. He was gotten.

The Lord of glory is love and love must be expressed. The Lord of glory and his sovereign mercy determined to show mercy to a fallen race. He set his love and affection on lame sinners and sent his only begotten son into the world to be our savior. Christ came where we were, became what we are, and by his obedience and death honored the law, satisfied justice, and enabled God to be just and justifier of all who believe.

And right where you are in Romans 3, let's pick up right back where we were in verse 19. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and that all the world may become guilty before God. Verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be 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, 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 sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

Christ came where we were, became what we are, and by his obedience and death, honored the law, satisfied justice, and enabled God to be just and justifier, to be both. He then sent His Holy Spirit to fetch us, to call us, to make us willing to come to Him. Listen to these scriptures. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace, the people shall be willing in the day of His power. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.

He did these things. And when he came, when Mephibosheth was fetched and brought before David, what did David tell him? Fear not. Mephibosheth fell before him. He was afraid in the presence of the king. Understandably so. He was of the house of the king's enemy. Therefore, he fell on his face before the king and did reverence. But David said, you have no cause to be afraid. I will show you kindness. Let me see if I can illustrate this. Kids, I want you to put yourself in this situation. One day you are at school, okay?

And you're in the hallway with someone else, with a friend of yours. And your friend does something they shouldn't do. And they say, come on, do this. Well, you think back in your head, I remember my mom or dad saying to me, don't do anything you shouldn't do. And if you do it, I'm going to punish you. I'm going to give you a serious punishment, but you do it anyway." Then your friend does it again, and all of a sudden, around the corner, the janitor walks up.

And he looks at you and he says, I saw what you did. And you get a little bit of the, you know, and you start saying things, and he says, but I'm not going to tell anybody. You promise you won't do it again? And of course, without even batting an eye or even thinking about it, he goes, no, no, no, I won't do it again. I won't do it again. Irrelevant if you're going to do it again. You just want to get out of the situation. No, no, no, I won't do anything.

So then you start walking back to class. And in that moment, your friend looks at you and he says, whew, that was a close one. I thought we were in trouble. And right when you open the door to your classroom, your teacher is standing there. And your teacher looks at you and says, why were you talking to the janitor? That looked like you guys were talking about something.

And your friend says, oh, nothing, nothing, nothing. It was nothing. We talk all the time. Nothing, nothing. And you just sit there looking at your friend, looking at the teacher. Is this going to work? And your teacher says, OK, OK. Well, you guys go sit down. And you go sit down. And your friend's next to you.

And all you can think about is, how in the world did I get away with this? How in the world did this happen? But as time goes by, the rest of the day, you slowly forget about all that's happened. And you have a good day. And when the day's over, School ends, and whether you're getting in the car for your parents to drive you home, you ride the bus and walk in the door, however it is. But the moment that you see your mother or father, they say to you, how was your day? Which at this point, you just say, it was good. It was a good day. Good day.

And the next word that comes out of their mouth is, I know what you did at school today. To which your countenance and your thoughts totally change in that moment. Everything is going through your head. How does she know? Is she talking about what I did? Is it something else? How can I get out of this? Should I tell the truth? Should I lie? What should I do? All these things going through your head.

At this moment, it does not matter that someone else did it first. It doesn't matter that you were tricked into doing it. It doesn't matter if you knew if it was right or wrong. It doesn't matter that the other person did it more. It doesn't matter that the person who saw you do it didn't tell anyone else. It doesn't matter that when your teacher came to you and you thought you were in trouble but then got your way out of it. It doesn't matter that the rest of the day you forgot about it. Nothing matters other than in this moment you are currently standing before the person who has all the authority on whether or not you get punished. Why do I say all of this?

This is the situation Mephibosheth was in. He had a long journey back from when he was fetched. And you know, the entire trip is all he could think about is what's going to happen to me. He might have had someone with him who said, it's going to be OK. He might have been promised something. But the whole trip, none of it mattered because he knew there was only one person who had the authority to do something. And there will be a day where all of us will stand before the King, a holy sovereign King. And in that moment, nothing that has built up to this moment will matter. You will be standing there guilty as someone who knows that I have done the things that have been declared from what we've read, that this is deserving of death. And you might think, what is my excuse in this moment? Should I stand on the fact someone else did worse than me? Someone else did more than me? I was innocent? I didn't mean to do it? Someone else didn't punish me? All these other events, none of it matter.

That person, the king, is the only one who can look at us and say, fear not. And if they don't say that, then we are going to have condemnation. We are going to have death. Now how can a just king say, fear not? Because the rest of that line is fear not, your sins have been forgiven. How can this just king say that? He can say it because there has been one who has paid the sin debt.

Mephibosheth stood before the king fearing his death, not being sure at why the king would say fear not. But the next line says, I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan's sake. In that moment, Mephibosheth had to have his heart just leap and think that my dad did this for me.

I thought all this time, my whole life, Since I was five years old, and I fell, and my dad and grandfather were dead, my whole life is all I've thought is one day judgment is coming for me. I can't hide forever. They're going to find me. I can't run away.

And in that moment, that whole time, I had nothing to fear because my father, Jonathan, had stood in my place. He had said to the king, the one with the authority, Have mercy on him. That is our only hope standing before a holy God, before a sovereign king, that this covenant that was made by the Lord Jesus Christ in God and glory, that we were chosen and our place was taken, that our sins were forgiven and we got his righteousness. Before the foundation of the world, God the Father entered into an everlasting covenant of mercy with the Lord Jesus Christ, giving him a people out of Adam's race, making Christ the surety and redeemer of these people.

You're in Romans. Turn to Romans 8. If you're not still there, you can turn back to it. Romans 8. Let me read you two scriptures first. In 2 Thessalonians 2 it says, 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13 says, But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief on the truth. Mephibosheth did not realize that he had nothing to worry about his whole life. His father had made a covenant. His father had done something to preserve him. Let me read you another one out of Colossians.

In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. all things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have preeminence." All of this is for Christ's sake.

David said, fear not. In Romans 8, where you are, look at verse 35. Romans 8.35, and this is our last scripture to read. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted 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, all of those things, nothing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

This covenant between David and Jonathan, this took place in a field, just the two of them. Jonathan asked David to go out into the field with him, and he asked him there in the field, just the two of them. No one was scribing what was happening. There was not a contract on paper. There was not anything. There was no witnesses.

But Jonathan just said to David, have mercy upon my family, have mercy upon them. A covenant between these two. When they first came together, the scriptures say that their souls were knit together. God the Father and God the Son made a covenant for their sheep. The two of them did this, and once that covenant was done, long ago, It was for sure to happen.

We just read all that. Not principalities, not powers, not this, not that, not this, not time, not any, none of that. And separate us because of that covenant. It was a perfect covenant. One that we put all our rest, all our hope upon that covenant. And lastly, at the end of that chapter, it says that Mephibosheth did eat continually at the king's table. David fulfilled every promise to Mephibosheth, as God will fulfill every promise to His elect in Christ. For none shall ever perish, but shall all be made like Christ and enjoy His presence forever. When David told Mephibosheth to fear not, I'm sure the first thing he thought of was, I'm not going to die?

This is not the end for me? And I'm sure he was so happy about that. He had no clue of how wonderful this fear not truly was. This was not a fear not, I'm not going to kill you. This was a fear not, you are going to become an heir to the throne. You get everything that my son gets, everything that he did. You get that.

Every single day of Mephibosheth's life, it just seemed like it couldn't get better. The promise from the king was that you will continually eat at the king's table all the days, all the days. May we please realize from this story, our God is a sovereign king. A covenant that he made with the Lord Jesus Christ, an everlasting covenant, is the only hope of salvation for any sinner.

And that we're all just Mephibosheth. All that Mephibosheth did, the only things we know about, the only actions we know about Mephibosheth was that he was born into a rebellious family, he fell, he ran, and he hid. That's all we know about him. There's no redeeming qualities in any way, shape, or form about Mephibosheth, and that's us. God in heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, get 100% of the glory in salvation. If he says to us, fear not, it's all because of him. All right, hope that's a blessing.