All right, brethren, let's turn in our Bibles to 2 Samuel 16. 2 Samuel 16. I am not much for giving long introductions, and this one's gonna be even shorter than usual. David is king of Judah, and he is a type of our Lord Jesus. He illustrates very much the Lord. We see Christ in David and that's because when the Lord sovereign God rules everything and he worked everything that was happening in David's life and put David right where he was and he blessed David with his spirit so that David would be a type of the Lord Jesus. And David even knew that when he gave him the Psalms, when the Lord gave him the Psalms and things that David wrote, he knew it was concerning Christ. You can read on the Day of Pentecost, Day of Pentecost, and he declares that David saw the Lord and he believed the Lord. He was saved by grace like us, but the Lord sovereignly worked everything we're gonna look at here to give us a picture of Christ. Now, there's three things I want to show you. I want to show you the heart of works. And by that, I mean the heart of a man who's trying to come. Number two, I want to show you in David the heart of faith.

And by that, I mean the perfect faith that was in our Lord Jesus. David was a sinner, so he had sin mixed with his faith. And he did what he did by God's grace and God's power. But our Lord Jesus was perfectly faithful without sin. And we're gonna see an illustration of that faith in David, when we look at Christ, when we look at David.

And then at the end, this is what got me looking at these passages to begin with. We're gonna see the heart of grace. And by that, I mean the heart that the Lord creates anew in his child. and we're gonna see that in Mephibosheth. All right, let's begin here with the heart of works. This is the heart of works. This is the heart of a man who tries to come to God by his works.

Verse one, 2 Samuel 16, one. Let me give you just a little bit of backstory here. David's son Absalom is trying to take the throne from David, and so David has left Judah, he's leaving Jerusalem, and he's fleeing in exile for his life. And that's the setting here. And so as he does this, here's what takes place.

It says here, when David was a little past the top of the hill, behold, Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, met him. This was the man that David said, he shall serve Mephibosheth. He tilled the ground, he tilled the land, he brought everything and served Mephibosheth. That was what David gave him to do, this man Ziba.

And he comes to David with a couple of asses saddled and upon them 200 loaves of bread and 100 bunches of raisins and 100 of summer fruits and a bottle of wine. And the king said unto Ziba, Ziba, what meanest thou by these? And Zabba 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? Where's Mephibosheth? And Zabba said unto the king, behold, he abideth at Jerusalem, for he said, today shall the house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father. You remember Mephibosheth was Saul's son, his grandson. He was Jonathan's son, but he's saying Israel, the house of Israel is gonna give me the kingdom of my father today. That's what he was saying.

And then said the king to Ziba, behold, thine are all that pertaineth unto Mephibosheth. He gave everything he'd given to Mephibosheth to Ziba and said, it's all yours. And Ziba said, I humbly beseech thee that I may find grace in thy sight, my lord, O king. Ziba came to David with these offerings with fruit in order to obtain David's favor.

That's what he came with. This is what every unregenerate, self-made religious man is trying to do. He's trying to come to God by his own works, by the fruit that he thinks he has produced, that he thinks God will be pleased with. And he's attempting to win God's favor, to win his acceptance.

Ziba here. pretends like he's humble, but really he's not humble. He's proud. He's a proud sinner like everybody is by nature. He pretends he's submitting to David. He's not in submission to the king. The man who pretends he's humble and he's looking to what he does, his church attendance, his Bible reading, his praying, his baptism, being good to his neighbor, all the things he's looking to, and in his heart, he thinks this is why God accepts him. He's not submit, he's not submitted, he's not humble, he's not looking to the Lord alone. And when he speaks of grace, everybody that is preaching works and claiming to believe works, they all say we're saved by grace.

Everybody says that, but that's not grace. Grace and works cannot coexist. That's what Paul meant in Romans 11. He said, if it's of grace, it's no more of works. Otherwise, grace is not grace. And if it's works, it's no more grace. Otherwise, works are not works. That means grace and works don't mix. You cannot come to God partly by grace and partly by works. You can't. You have to come by grace only. and that's sovereignly given by God to whomsoever he will.

He told Moses, Romans 9, 15, Paul quotes God when he spoke to Moses. God said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Do you need mercy? I need mercy. I have to be saved by God's grace and God's mercy. There's no other way. I can't come to God by my works. I'm a sinner. I'm sinning right now. When I'm preaching to you, I'm sinning right now. I am. And any good that we do, we're sinning while we do it. It's mixed with us because we have a sin nature. I'm speaking of a believer. You still have an old sin nature. We never get past needing to be saved by grace. We need grace continually.

So when Ziba comes here with these fruits and he's offering all these gifts, and he's speaking of, I want to find grace in the eyes of the king, if whatever David does for him won't be grace, he earned that by bringing him all these gifts. You can't earn grace from God. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That means Noah didn't do a thing. God, from his eye, looked on Noah and gave him grace. Chose him and chose to save him. And that's how God saves everybody. It's by his grace alone. By his grace alone.

Ziba lied to the king. He lied to David. And in doing so, he was betraying Mephibosheth as he lied to the king. He told the king that Mephibosheth said he's gonna get the kingdom restored to him now. And that was a lie, we're gonna see that was a lie.

And the sinner who's trusting in his works, while he outwardly may look like he's in a church building, he's singing hymns, he's bowing his head when they pray, he's hearing the gospel or hearing a message preached and he's looking into the word of God, they speak of grace, they speak of faith, they speak of a lot of the same terms we speak of, but while he's looking to himself and trusting in his works, he's lying to God and he's lying to himself and he hates Christ and he hates the Lord's people.

I'm talking about sweet as sugar. I'm talking about what we would term a good person. But that heart, that is the natural heart, has not been made new by God. He hasn't given a new spirit in regeneration. Every sinner by nature hates God. It's what our nature is. Let me show you that, Romans 8. Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Look here in Romans chapter 8 and verse 7. The carnal mind, that's all of us by nature, the carnal mind, is enmity against God. Enmity is hatred. And you see there, it doesn't say the carnal mind is at enmity or has some hatred. It is enmity. The carnal mind is nothing but hatred toward God.

It's not subject to the law of God, can't submit to God, can't submit to any of his word, neither indeed can be. That's what every man is by nature. And the sad thing is, is the man who's in this state, maybe he's very religious, but the man who's in this state does not know that he's the sinner. And the reason he doesn't is because that very carnal heart has deceived him and he thinks he's righteous.

Listen to Jeremiah 17, nine. Listen to this very carefully. The heart, this is talking about the natural sin nature that we're born with, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked Who can know it? That's a rhetorical question. It means nobody can. The natural man can't know his own heart. The Lord has to intervene by grace and give us a new heart and give us faith before we ever know we are the sinner. Before we can hear the law declare us guilty.

That's what it was given for. But get this now, don't miss this. And I always wanna say this because you and me that's been saved by grace, we have no room to boast in anything because that same sin nature is in us. That's what we were by nature and that same sin nature is yet in us. When Christ takes up his dwelling in us in spirit, he creates a new man that's entirely of his making. It's holy because Christ's presence sanctified us.

But that old center, that old nature we have, is what it always was, and it's deceitful. Truth is, we have a Ziba in us, and we have a Mephibosheth in us. We're gonna see him in just a moment. But David here, he was only a man, so he was tricked by Ziba. He was tricked. And David took all the inheritance that he had given to Mephibosheth and he gave it to Ziba.

Here's the good news for God's people. When the Lord calls you, gives you faith and makes you see Christ as your righteousness and your holiness, your wisdom, your redemption, and it's all of God's grace. When he calls you, scripture says the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

He never takes back what he gives. The fact is, everything God gives us is a gift. The carnal, the temporal, and the spiritual. Everything's a gift of God. And there's one possession that God gives us that'll never be taken from us, and that one is Christ. And he's the one thing needful. He's the only one. Relationships, there'll be no husbands and wives in glory. Christ is the one thing we'll never be taken from us. You need him above all else.

But no sinner deceives God. No sinner. David was tricked. He was deceived by Ziba's good works. But God is not. God looks on the heart and he knows the heart. So there's a sinner. There's the heart of works. Now let's look at the heart of faith. And what we're looking at here is Christ's perfect faith. his perfect faithfulness as he served God in place of his people. All right?

Verse one says, when David was a little past the top of the hill, this hill is the Mount of Olives. David's at the Mount of Olives. That's where our Savior went into Gethsemane, the Garden of Gethsemane. That's where he was, right here where David is now. David is a picture of Christ right here. That's where our Savior was on his way to the cross. What had happened here?

David's chief of staff, Ahithophel, his close friend, had betrayed David. He had betrayed David. He was trying to put Absalom, another king, on the throne. Just like Judas, the close companion of our Lord, betrayed him. for personal gain, trying to put another king on the throne, the king of self. That's what had happened to David, just like Judas betrayed our Savior. Hithophel's plan failed, and he went out and hung himself. Same thing Judas did. His plan failed, and he hung himself.

You see how the Lord worked all this to picture our Savior, to foreshadow our Savior, The man who was trying to take David's throne was Absalom, David's own son. His own son betrayed him and was trying to take his throne. Everybody, every man and woman, child in this world, fleshly speaking, is a child of God. I'm not talking about grace, I'm just talking about he created us. And everything we have physically, The air we breathe, the clothes you wear, the things we have that he created is all from him. And yet by nature we betray him. Everybody Christ saves rejected him first. We betrayed him first. And that's what he brings us to see. I'm just trying to show you that David here is a really good picture of Christ.

Now David is leaving Jerusalem along with the men that are closest to him. And another scripture says he crossed over the brook Kidron to get to where he is right here. That brook was a sewer ditch. That's where the sewer ran. And he crossed over that brook. Our Lord Jesus Christ, it says, crossed the brook Kidron when he went into Gethsemane. What's that sewer ditch picture?

The scripture says, He hath made Him sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Christ Jesus, the spotless, perfect, holy, innocent Son of God, is the Lamb of God. He came down to be the Lamb. He came down to go to that cross and die, that He might give His people life. But God's got to be just justified in doing it. He's got to be just to show us mercy. God said the soul that sinneth must die, and we all died. Everybody God saves died in Adam. And so for the Lord to be merciful to us, he has to do it in a way that is just. That's the whole purpose of the cross. That's the number one thing that's been shown on the cross. You can read it in Romans 3, declaring the righteousness of God, how that God is just and the justifier of everyone that believes on the Lord Jesus.

David ascended that Mount of Olives in deep agony and sorrow. He went over that brook, our Lord went over that brook into Gethsemane. and he was in agony, soul agony, spiritual agony, and his sweat, as it were, was great drops of blood falling to the ground. And it says here, as David ascended, Shimei, this man Shimei came out. And look at verse five.

It says there, this man Shimei came forth out of the house of Saul the enemy, and he came forth and cursed as he came. He cast stones at David and at all the servants of King David. And all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. And it says, and thus said Shimei when he cursed, come out, come out, thou bloody man and thou man of Belial. The Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned. And the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son. Behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man.

Our Savior suffered more than this, far more than this. But this makes you think of our Savior right here. That angry mob cursed him and they spit upon him. They called him cursed of God. They said God's given him what he deserves. But far worse than what David's going through and what that angry mob did, the Lord Jesus was bearing the sin of his people. And therefore, God made him a curse.

He made him bear the just Judgment that all his people deserve Christ was on that cross and just like David had all his men with him Christ had all his people in him and he's on that cross and he's bearing the just wrath of God With all the sin of all his people on him and God Gave him that second death that all his people would have had to bear That's how our Savior made it so that God is righteous to show his people mercy. He justified his people. He put away all the sin of his people. He honored God's law perfectly by his perfect faithfulness in doing it. And now here's where I want you to see Christ's heart of perfect faith.

Whenever this man was doing this, Abishai, one of David's men, said, let me go over there and take his head off. Let me take his head off. And David, verse 10, David said, let him curse. He said, the Lord hath said unto him, curse David. Who shall then say, wherefore hast thou done so? Now that's, the Lord's working in David right here to give him the faith to do this. But our Savior did this, David had sin mixed with this. David and his old man wanted to go over there and take his head off, just like you would have.

But Christ Jesus, in perfect faithfulness, he said, not my will, Father, but thy will be done. And he went to that cross with no thought in his innermost heart of sin whatsoever, no sin at all. As he's bearing the wrath and justice of God, as they're smiting him with a fist, as they're plugging out the hair of his beard, and he's bearing this forsaking of God, He never once had any sin of his own. That's perfect faith.

You know, look here at verse 11. David said to Bishi, he said, behold, my son, which came forth out of my bowels, seeks my life. How much more now may this Benjamite do it? Let him alone, let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him. You know, Our Lord Jesus knew that everything that was happening to him is what God determined before to be done. David said, God sent this man to do this. And our Lord knew these men mean it for evil. They're doing what their will is to do in nailing him to that truth. But he knew my father sent them to do this. And he submitted to the father. and he looked only to the Father, and he put away all the sin of his people, and it's his perfect faith. He began it, and he lived a whole life of faith to the end. That's why he's the beginning and the end of our faith.

He's the author and finisher of our faith. In other words, God's not looking to your faith. Don't you be looking to your faith. Faith given by God looks only to Christ and lays hold on Christ. And that's who the father looks to, is his son, who is the perfect righteousness of his people.

We're made righteous by one man's obedience and it's not mine and it's not yours or any other man, it's Christ. We're made righteous by his obedience. We're made perfect faithful servants of God by Christ's perfect faithful service to God on behalf of his people.

That's what we see in day. Go over to Romans 6 and I'll show you this. Romans 6. I'll show you what Christ accomplished by what he did. And this is the good news of the gospel right here. Romans 6. This is what he Christ died under the judgment of God, and when he did, all his elect died under the justice of God. And when he sends you the gospel and gives you a new heart and gives you faith to look to him, this is what he makes you know. Romans 6, 6, knowing this, that our old man, what we are as we came forth into this world, our old man is crucified with him. that the body of sin might be destroyed. That means that the body of sin is destroyed. Everybody Christ represented, our body of sin was destroyed on that cross under the justice of God, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. You see that word freed? That means he that is dead is justified from sin. You take a man that goes to the electric chair, the law says he has to die. When he's died, the law has nothing else to say to him.

All the gods elect died in Christ so that the law of God that once condemned us has nothing to say to us now. It says we're righteous, bears witness we're righteous in Christ only. All right, look here now. Now if we'll be dead with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more.

Death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Now here's what God makes you know. God says, now you impute, you reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, not by what you did, but what Jesus Christ our Lord did. See, everything's due to Christ alone. We're dead in Christ, justified before the law, and by his perfect faithfulness, God's people are righteous before the law.

And that's why He says here, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Now get this, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. This is not a recommendation, this is not a suggestion, this is what shall never be for anybody born of the Lord, and here's why.

Christ alone, he bore that judgment, he settled it, we're righteous before God, and when it says sin will not have dominion over you, it means this first, God will never charge his elect with sin, never. There's nothing we can do that make God charge us and condemn us. First thing, before the law, we were dead to the law. We died in Christ. Number two, it means this, with the Christ's life in us, in our new man, he will never let our old man have dominion over us so that we ever turn away and become apostate and reject Christ and leave him and his gospel. He won't allow that to happen.

You're gonna sin, yes, but he's not gonna, he's gonna deliver you. and he's gonna make you know he delivered you so that you never stop looking to him. You know you need him always. And it means this, because he died to sin once, death has no more dominion over him, and because his people died and we arose in him, death has no more dominion over us. Sin is the cause of all of that, and it will not ever have dominion over you again. You're not gonna stop believing Christ, you're not gonna die, because Christ is the righteousness and the holiness, the life of his people, and it's all by Christ alone. And that's what Paul goes on to say in Romans 7. He says, your sin nature, it's Christ that's gonna keep delivering you from it. In Romans 8, he says, and because Christ died, there's no more condemnation to them that are born of him.

It's the spirit that's gonna make you mortify your flesh. It's the spirit that's gonna make you pray. It's the spirit, and you're gonna be more than conquerors through Christ that loved you. And you'll never, ever, ever be separated from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus.

That's where he loves his people. He said, I'll meet with you over the mercy seat. Christ is the propitiation. He's the mercy seat. He meets his people in Christ, and he'll never, we've been made one with God in Christ, and it'll never be severed. That's due to Christ's perfect faith.

Now, I'm gonna be very brief right here. I'm gonna skip a lot of my message, but I want you to see the heart of grace. We saw the heart of works in Ziba. We saw the heart of faith in Christ. Now I want you to see the heart of grace that Christ creates in his child. I was gonna look at Shimei, and I'll just be brief here, and you can go home and read it again. Shimei is the first one that comes to David. This is the one that cursed him.

He comes to David begging mercy and he asks David not to impute sin to him. And David said, he said, and don't remember my sin. David said, I'm not, you're not going to die. The Lord's gonna bring his child down. It says, see me, I went down to meet David.

You're gonna go down to meet Christ, and he's gonna make you, you're gonna come begging mercy. You're not gonna come with your fruits now. You're gonna come begging mercy. David's coming, he's ascended to the throne. Christ has gone to the throne. He's the king, and he sends this gospel, and he makes you know you got nothing to come to God with. and you're gonna come begging mercy.

And Shimei said, I'm the sinner, I sin. You're gonna come to God that way. And this is what Christ will say. He said he swore to Shimei, you won't die. He'll enter covenant with you and make you know, due to Christ, you're not gonna die. You live forever. And God won't remember your sin. God only imputes what is real, what's true, what a man is. And because Christ put our sin away, God will not impute sin to his people.

Now, here's where I want to focus. You remember Mephibosheth? David had entered a covenant with Jonathan, and Jonathan did some works for David to help David, and he promised Jonathan, I'll have mercy on your house when I'm king. God the Father and Christ entered a covenant, and God the Father promised to show his people mercy when Christ had come forth and justified them. and gone to his throne. And so he said, is there any left of the house of Saul that I might show him mercy for Jonathan's sake? And that's what God, God is showing his people mercy for the sake of Christ Jesus, for his sake. They said, yeah, there's one.

His name is Mephibosheth. He's lame on his feet due to a fall. He can't walk. That's all God's elect. We're lame due to a fall. We all fell in Adam, and we have no way of coming to God of ourselves. They said he's in the house of maker. That word means sold. We were sold under sin, Paul said. He said he's the son of Emile. That means my kinsman is God. Christ is God, and he's the kinsman redeemer who redeemed all his people. He said he's in Lodabar. That means the place of no pasture, no bread. We had no pasture, we were sheep by God's grace, by his election of grace, but we had no pasture and we had no life, no bread. And Christ made us lie down in him and rest in him and Christ our bread.

David heard that, David said, go fetch him. And they brought Mephibosheth to David. And David showed him mercy. And David said, everything, all the inheritance is yours, Mephibosheth. And he said, he's gonna sit at my table. Christ said, all my people are gonna sit at my table in my kingdom. And Christ said, I'm gonna come forth and serve them. He sits all his people at his table.

And when he was sitting, when Mephibosheth was sitting at the king's table, you couldn't see his crippled feet. Our lameness is completely healed by Christ and it don't exist before God. When David comes back, Mephibosheth goes to meet him. 2 Samuel 19. Look here real quick. Samuel goes to meet him. I mean, Mephibosheth goes to meet him. And he tells David, he says, Ziba tricked you. Ziba slandered me. He said, I didn't do that. And he didn't. He did not do what Ziba said he did.

And he said in verse 26, he said, my Lord, O King, my servant, Talmud, Zabba, he deceived me, Mephibosheth said, for thy servant said, I'll saddle me in Asterdam, I may ride there on and go to the king. Zabba went and saddled this donkey for Mephibosheth, he said, but he left Mephibosheth and he went to David himself. And because thy servant's lame, Mephibosheth said, I couldn't come to you. And he slandered thy servant unto my lord the king. This is 2 Samuel 19, 27. Are y'all with me? I'm trying to go fast, because I don't want to keep you longer. But 2 Samuel 19, verse 27.

And he slandered thy servant unto my lord the king. But my lord the king, listen now, here's the heart of grace. This is how God's child feels about Christ, our king. He said, my lord the king is an angel of God. He's as an angel of God. And he said, do therefore what is good in thine eyes. Isn't that what we saw that Christ did when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane? Lord, not my will, but your will. The heart he gives his child is, Father, you do what your will is. Christ Jesus, my King, you do what your will is. Do what seems good to you. And it says, for all my father's house were but dead men before my lord the king. Yet didst thou set thy servant among them that did eat at thine own table. What right therefore have I yet to cry any more unto the king?

When Christ gives you his spirit. This was the spirit in our Redeemer. And when he gives you his spirit, it makes you see how sovereign he is and how holy and righteous and how perfectly he's your salvation. You say, Lord, after everything you've done for me, all the grace you've done for me, I don't have any right to murmur and complain.

I don't have any right to, I'll just leave it to you. That's what Mephibosheth is saying. I'm leaving it in your hand. And we leave it in Christ's hand. Lord, whatever you do will be right. I know you're gonna do right. And look at this now, verse 29.

I don't think, I'm not sure David did this, I think he was testing Mephibosheth, because at this point, he don't know who's betrayed him. He heard Mephibosheth, but I think he said this, but didn't really do it. But I want you to focus what Mephibosheth said in answer to this. But David said to him, verse 29, and the king said unto him, why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said thou and Ziba will divide the land. Now, commentaries point out this was not right by David. He shouldn't have taken that inheritance.

He should have took it from Zion, given it all back to Mephesheth, you know, and all that. That's what we feel like because of us and the way we are. We got that old sin nature with us still. Here's what the heart of grace said. The man that was in that situation, here's what he said. Verse 30, Mephibosheth said unto the king, yea, let him take it all. Give him all the land.

Give it all to him. For as much as my lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house. When Christ is our king and our savior, you say, let the carnal man have all the carnal blessings he want. Let him have it all. He can take it all. I want Christ. He's the only one I want. He's all, and if I have him, I have all. He's my peace. And if I'm his house, and he dwells in me, and I dwell in him, he's all, and I have all I want.

I don't want anything else. Paul said, everything that was gained to me, I counted all loss for Christ. The excellency of the knowledge of Christ I count it dung. I don't want it. I don't want what this world has to give. I want him. I want to be found in him with his righteousness only.

And that's the heart of grace. Here's what I, here's what you've seen. Don't come to God with your works. Don't come trying to bring him your fruit. God's pleased with his son. Come, come begging mercy. Come beg in mercy. May he give you the heart of faith in our Savior to know he is the author and finisher. He's the righteousness and the holiness we have to have. And may he give you the heart to be like Mephibosheth, to say the world can have all the carnal things.

I just want Christ. That's all I want. All this talk, men are talking about rewards in heaven. I got one reward I want in heaven. That's my redeemer. I want him. And that's so everybody he's given a heart of grace. We want Christ. Tell me what else could you have that would be any better? Is there anything else that would be better than having Christ?

I want him. I want to know of him. I want to know him like he knows me. And so that's what the heart of grace want. Let him have it all. I want Christ. All right, brethren. I tell you what got me looking on this was when Matthew said, it said he left all and he rose up, followed Christ. That's what grace makes you do. Let them have it all. I want him. That's it. All right, brother Adam.