Our scripture reading and our
text for today is the ninth chapter of 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel chapter 9, and there are
13 verses, and that's where we'll spend our time this morning. Now before I start to read, We
need to be reminded of some things having to do with the Word of
God, especially with the Old Testament Scriptures. What is the purpose of the Bible? All 66 books. It is to set before us the precious
Lord Jesus Christ, God and man in one person. When we read the
Old Testament, we are to be constantly looking for Christ. Somebody complained about Robert
Hawker. This was back in the 1800s. They
said he found Christ in places where Christ isn't. And there
ain't no place in your Bible where Christ isn't. I may not
see it. I may not understand it. But
that doesn't mean he isn't there. I don't think you can find him
in too many places. But what about the history of
the Old Testament? forget it. It is His story. It is the history of Christ in
the Scriptures that is so absolutely vital. And our insistence on this week
after week after week is because the The professing religions
of our day, including Baptist and Methodist and Presbyterian
and any other one you want to name, have forgotten, if they
ever knew, who Christ is. And you can hear anything under
the sun except Him. And if Christ is not preached,
there has been no preaching. God will not use falsehoods and
lies to accomplish a work of grace in the hearts of His children. It simply doesn't happen. Some people admire the geography
of the scriptures. Let us cast our eyes constantly
on Christ, the Maker of all things. Some wish to discuss philosophical
matters. Well, here's a matter for your
philosophical searching. What think you of Christ? You can read a thousand philosophy
books, but you won't find that statement. And yet, that is where
it is. You can find plenty of religion
in the Old Testament, false as well as true. But let us never leave the central
issue in all true religion, Christ is our life. He's our life. Some people like to talk about
the Holy Land. There ain't no such place. And if we go there thinking to
somehow increase our understanding of God and our appreciation for
the Bible, we are totally misled. You'll be in worse shape spiritually
when you come back than you were before you left. This world has learned to make
money on the stupidity of religious people who spend gobs of money
to go over there and look at this and they tell you that this
is where Jesus was buried and this is where he was crucified
and this is where he was born. This stuff is just junk. It has no reality to it. The
God of the Bible cannot be known in such a fashion as that. It's
in this book that God has purposed to reveal himself in Christ,
and it's imperative that we take our stand on these things because
we live right smack dab in the middle of idolatry that is called
Christianity. All right, so in order to prosper
from the reading of 2 Samuel chapter 9, We have to understand
that in the Old Testament, most especially, there are types of
Christ. There are word pictures of Christ,
word portraits of Christ. So we've got to listen carefully
as we go through this chapter. And here's what you have to remember.
David is the king. He represents God the Father. And that's God. upon His throne. Mephibosheth represents the sinner. He represents us. Did you know
that God only saves sinners? He doesn't save good people.
If you can find a genuinely good person, they don't need to be
saved. There's only been one to ever walk this earth, and
that's our Lord Jesus Himself. And He came to save. Jonathan,
who is deceased by the time we get to 2 Samuel 9, Jonathan is
a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. David made a covenant with Jonathan
when they were both much younger. And that covenant is represented
as the covenant of grace between God the Father and God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit. And this servant in the chapter
by the name of Ziba is, representatively speaking, he refers to the Holy
Spirit of God. All right? We come to chapter
9 and 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? 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, are you Ziba? And he
said, your servant is he. And the king said, is there not
yet or still any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness
of God unto him? And Zippa said unto the king,
Jonathan has yet a son who is lame on his feet. And the king
said unto him, where is he? And Zippa said unto the king,
He is in the house of Matre the son of Amiel in Lodabar. Then King David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Matre the son of Amiel from Lodabar. Therefore, we title this chapter
Fetching Grace. Fetching Grace. We've heard all
about people finding God. What we lack in our day is God
finding men. You will never find Him until
He finds you. He found me standing behind a
Baptist pulpit. I ought to know a little bit
about it. Verse 6, Now when Mephibosheth,
the son of Jonathan, the son or grandson of Saul, was come
unto David. Look what happened. Now listen
carefully and look at these words. He fell on his face and did reverence. That's what we do toward God. And David said, Mephibosheth? And he answered, Behold your
servant. And David said unto him, Fear
not. For I'll surely show you kindness
for Jonathan your father's sake. And God shows kindness to sinners
now because of the Lord Jesus Christ. For Christ's sake. That's all that moves God is
for Christ's sake. And I'll restore unto you all
the land of Saul your grandfather and you shall eat bread at my
table continually. Look what Mephibosheth does now. He bowed himself and said, what
is your servant that you should look upon such a dead dog as
I am? You ever heard of a dead dog
sinner? That's what every man is by nature.
But we're not willing to own up to it. until the grace of
God has worked a miracle in our soul. Then the king called to Ziba,
Saul's servant, and said unto him, I have given unto your master's
son all that pertains to Saul and to all his house. You therefore
and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and
bring in the fruits that your master's son may have food to
eat. But Mephibosheth, your master's
son, shall eat bread always at my table. Now Ziba had 15 sons
and 20 servants. Then said Ziba unto the king,
to David, according to all that my lord the king has commanded
his servant, So shall your 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 he was
still lame on both feet. I'm going to try to put an emphasis
and speak to the subject of nine things in this chapter that hopefully
will capture its true meaning and application
to us. Understanding things in a physical aspect is not what we're about when
we come to this book. God's message to his people is
a spiritual message. The gospel, in order to be saving,
must be spiritually understood. So we're not trying to go back
and resurrect all the history about kings and servants and
this and that and the other. These things represent divine,
eternal, and spiritual things. And this is what we must grasp
if we are to understand what this chapter is about. We're
all like Mephibosheth. We're not only lame on both feet.
We're spiritually dead before God. We don't like who God is
and what God requires of us. And when it comes to being saved,
we do not want to be saved simply and only by what God does and
now has done. It's already done. It's in the
past tense. We want to add Our little contribution
makes us feel better about ourselves. Yeah, but it spoils the whole
thing. There's no salvation left. If it's 99% complete and we drop
in the 1%, we're God. We're our own gods. We won't
let God save us the other way. Then we'll perish if we don't.
God saves sinners from the beginning of time to the end of time only
one way, and that's in and through and by His precious Son, the
Lord Jesus. Now, we have to understand that
in order to understand this book, no matter if it's Old Testament
or New Testament. Here's the first issue. Now what
was the title? You haven't forgotten. Fetching
Grace. Now if you've ever had a dog,
the first thing you teach him is to fetch. God's grace is fetching grace. How's David going to get Mephibosheth
to Jerusalem? He's going to fetch him. And
that's how God comes to us. His grace is fetching grace. This is vital. So the question
is, point number one, do you want me to number them or just
act like they're not there and just keep talking? Some of them
are in a hurry to go. They want me to keep on. I understood
you, Tommy. Yes, I have been known to start
counting and then start all over, right? Yeah. Here's the first
issue, number one. In 2 Samuel 9, who took the initiative? Was it Mephibosheth or was it
David? Is it the sinner or is it God? That ain't hard to figure out,
is it? How about turning to Genesis
chapter 3 and then a verse in chapter 2? Now, my Bible is falling apart in
that part of my Bible, and so I have to be very careful. Genesis chapter 3. In verse 8, Adam and Eve have eaten the forbidden
fruit, and God promised that in the
day that they ate thereof, they would die. And yet, here they
are very much alive. How can we understand that? We
understand it by understanding that The moment they took of
that tree, that fruit, whatever kind it was, it's immaterial,
they died spiritually instantaneously. Didn't have to wait. And the
reason we know this, Adam's the smartest man ever to live on
the face of God's earth. And he went from being a genius
to being utterly stupid. They tried to cover themselves
by sowing fig leaves together and hiding behind trees. And
the God of the Bible, the God of creation, the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ is coming in that garden to fellowship
with Adam and Eve. And He already knows. He knew
before He made them. What would take place? This ain't
nothing new. God cannot be surprised. He never
is, never has been, and never will be. He comes seeking Adam
and Eve, not the other way around. They're hiding. Look at verse
8, chapter 3 of Genesis. And they heard the voice of the
Lord God." Now, have you ever seen a voice walking? They heard the voice of the Lord
God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden. But back in chapter 2, this time
in verse 17. But of the tree of the knowledge,
Genesis 2, 17, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, you shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat thereof
you shall surely die. And they did. And from that time
until this, And from that time to the end of time, all human
beings born on this planet called Earth are born just like Adam,
spiritually dead. We did not inherit this from
Eve. It came from Adam. Adam is the federal head and
representative. And if God is to set his people
free through another federal head and representative, namely
the last Adam and the second man, the Lord Jesus Christ, then
he has to declare us guilty in a federal head and representative
because God's justice is so exceedingly exact that he cannot waver, not
one little iota, no matter how much he loves his people. Therefore,
justice must be satisfied, infinite justice completely satisfied,
enabling God, as it's fondly called in the New Testament,
enabling God to be just, righteous, holy, and still justify the ungodly. And those are the only persons
that God justifies, people who have found out that they're ungodly,
ungodly. I mean, He doesn't save the godly
mainly because there ain't none. He saves the ungodly. Second, I got these in Roman
numerals too. You might enjoy that part of
it. Who was the object of David's
quest? Now David and Jonathan, Jonathan
was Saul's son. They were bosom buddies. They
were friends. And they made a covenant with
each other. And Jonathan died. And David is looking
for ways to express his fond memories of his dear friend,
Jonathan. So he inquires as to whether
there are any descendants of Saul or Jonathan that are left. And he discovers that there is. Before I get to that, I want
you to turn to another scripture, Isaiah chapter 64 Isaiah 64 and verse 6. Isaiah
is full of gospel truth. Chapter 64, verse 6, But we are all as an unclean
thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. That word
is literally menstrual claws. Our righteousness utterly stinks. And we all do fade as a leaf. And our iniquities, like the
wind, have taken us away." Chapter 65 and verse 1. Here you learn where Paul got
some statements he made in the book of Romans chapter 10. Isaiah
65 1, I am sought of them that ask not after me. Now what does that mean? It means
that God seeks us first. And then as a result of that,
we seek Him. If He waits for us to seek Him
first, we won't ever do it. We'd rather perish. I am found of them that sought
me not. I said, behold me, behold me,
unto a nation that was not called by my name." Now also in the
book of Isaiah, and I'm getting to my next point, if you go back
to chapter 1 in the book of Isaiah, if you didn't turn it loose,
I'm sorry if you did. If I was smarter, like you, I
could keep all this stuff in my head and, you know, not lose
it. But it doesn't work that way
for me. Isaiah chapter 1, verses 2 and 6. Hear, O heavens. Chapter 1 of
Isaiah, verse 2. Hear, O heaven, and give ear,
O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought
up children, and they have rebelled against me." Verse 6, what part of us is bad? From
the sole of the foot to the top of the head. Every faculty of our being is
fallen and spiritually dead. There's no soundness in it but
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. These wounds have not
been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
There's only one cure, and that's the blood and righteousness of
the Son of God. One more scripture on this third
point. What does Mephibosheth mean? What's the name mean? It means
a shameful thing. And that's our name. That's what this chapter, 2 Samuel
9, is telling us about ourselves. All right, let's go to Matthew
chapter 9. And I really want you to look
at this. If you're copping out on me and not turning, make one
exception for this one, will you? I mean, I understand how
difficult it is to turn, especially for old people like me and those
like Edward that are older than me. Matthew, what was the chapter? 13? All right. No, it was chapter 9. You all
misled me. Gosh. Matthew chapter 9. We're going to start at verse
10, 11, 12, and 13. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat
at meat, I think meat there includes other things. In the house, behold,
many publicans who were despised by the Pharisees particularly
because they were tax collectors for the Romans. Behold, many
publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. Isn't that strange? The Jesus I grew up with wouldn't
have hobnobbed with sinners. And when the Pharisees saw this,
they said unto his disciples, why does your master eat with
publicans and sinners? Have you ever thought of this?
If he didn't eat with sinners, he wouldn't eat with anybody. Verse 12, but when Jesus heard
that, He said unto them, starting right here with the word after
them, starting with the word they and
all the way through verse 13, if I could burn these words into
our minds and hearts, I would certainly like to do so. But
I can't. All I could do is burn it on
you physically and that wouldn't do you a bit of good. They that behold need not a physician,
a doctor, but they that are sick. And then he says to everyone
within earshot, but go you and especially to these Pharisees,
go you and learn what that means. Only sinners need the doctor. Only sinners need the Savior. Here's what he says, I will have mercy and not sacrifice,
for I'm not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." What about the righteous? There
aren't any. Take the whole human race, every
generation that's ever lived, and they're all sinners. We didn't wait a thousand years
for Adam to fall. He fell in the garden before
there was another person other than Eve. No offspring at all. And if you trace his sons, his
oldest one was Cain and he killed his brother Abel. I think that's
still a sin, isn't it? But that ain't our problem. That's
not everybody's problem. We'd kill God. That's what it's all about. All right, we move on. If you're
still in the New Testament, I'd like for you to go to John chapter
6. Now, twice in that ninth chapter
of 2 Samuel, we're told that Mephibosheth was lame on his
feet and then I think it's the last verse or next to the last
verse that he's crippled in both legs. And that's a picture of
ourselves. David could have sent Mephibosheth
a message. He said, I'd like for you to
come to Jerusalem. I want you to have dinner with
me. He could have sent him a pair of crutches and said, if you
can get here, just come right on. Or he might have concocted something
like we have today and give him the Jerusalem road to salvation
and let him come to God. No, no, no. We are unable and unwilling to
come to God. If he weren't so exact, if he
weren't so whole, and righteous. Maybe we could learn to get along
with him, but that's not to be. It's not to be. God makes us
holy in Christ. The blood and righteousness of
Christ is what enables us to communicate and fellowship with
God. So, Lefebbrecheth was lame physically,
And we are lame in every sense of the word spiritually. Now,
did I give you the scripture, John chapter 6? If I did, I'm
not there yet, but I'm almost there. John chapter 6. Oh gosh, y'all already there, aren't
you Bill? Verses 44 and 45. I could read ten other verses
in this one chapter to this same end, but this ought to be sufficient. Our Lord is having a conversation with the Jews, particularly
the Pharisees, and they're not They don't like what they're
hearing coming from his lips. And so they start telling him,
you know, that they're Abraham's children and this, that, and
the other. And then he begins to talk about himself, that they
have to eat his flesh and drink his blood, or they have no life
of God in them. And they have only one level
to understand what he says, and that's the physical. And he's
not on the physical level. He's talking about spiritual
food, the food of the soul. So in verses 44 and 45 of John
chapter 6, these words, no man can. It does not say no man may. There's a difference between
can and may. Can has to do with ability. May
has to do with permission. So don't confuse the issue. It's our sin that has crippled
us and killed us spiritually. We have no capacity, no way whatsoever
in ourselves to come to God. No man can come to me except
The Father who has sent me, draw him, and I'll raise him up at
the last day." David drew Mephibosheth, and we call it fetching grace.
And God saves sinners, how? By fetching grace. Look at verse
45, it is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught
of God. Every man therefore that has
heard and has learned of the Father does what? He comes to
Christ. Just like Mephibosheth came to
David. We come to Christ. We don't come
to the front of the church. We don't come to the baptistry.
We don't come to the Lord's table. We come to Christ. And where
do we do this without moving a single muscle in our heart,
in our soul? Number five, and we're running
out of time. Let me just make this one brief.
You'll find it in verses 1 and 7 in 2 Samuel 9, What was the motive behind David's
actions regarding Mephibosheth? It's three simple little words,
for Jonathan's sake. David did what he did for Jonathan's
sake. Why does God do what he does
in regard to the souls of men for Christ's sake? That's it. That's it. Number seven. What did David do? Well, you
know pretty much what he did in terms of our chapter in the
Old Testament. So let's look at just a few scriptures
to be reminded of what he did. I'm going to flip over there
and read you a statement in 2 Samuel 9 in verse 5. Then King David
sent and fetched him out of the house of Matre, the son of Ammiel,
from Lodabar." Lodabar means a place of no pasture. Let me read you a simple statement
out of the Gospel of Luke. If you don't want to turn, I'll
go ahead and start reading. Make it easier, okay? In chapter 14 of the Gospel of
Luke, verses 18, 19, and 23, the prodigal son says, I'll arise
and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I've sinned
against heaven and against you. Well, what possessed this young
man to come back to his father's house? God fetched him. And I'm no more worthy to be called
your son. Make me as one of your hired
servants." The father said, kill the fatted calf, put a ring on
his hand, put a robe on this boy, and put some shoes on his
feet. There's joy in the presence of
God when a sinner is indeed brought to faith in Christ. All right,
I'm turning to Luke chapter 19 just for one single verse because
it is so, what's the word? It is so out
of date in our day to believe that such a thing is even in
the Bible. We read the Bible with one eye
closed and sometimes both of them closed. We want it to say
what we want it to say, not what it says. Luke chapter 19, verse 10. Luke 19, verse 10. This is the
comment following the saving of Zacchaeus, who was up the
sycamore tree. And the explanation for this
man's conversion and for that matter for all others is found
in the 10th verse of Luke chapter 19, where the Son of Man, who
is also the Son of God, is come to do what? To seek. That is, to find. to seek and
to save that which was lost." Lost. Now what does lost mean? It means lost. Now I want you to turn to Romans
chapter 9 and I want to read to you two verses. in that chapter. I thought I had it marked, but
I'll have to look it up the hard way. So I'm there. Are you there? All right. The first verse I want to read
has to do with grace. What is grace? Look at verse 15. For God said to Moses in Exodus
chapter 3 at the burning bush, God said to Moses, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy. You mean God's not obligated
to save me? No siree, not one single bit. And I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. Now jump down to verse 18. Therefore has He, God, mercy on whom He will have mercy. Now
watch the rest of that sentence. And whom God will. Now listen. He hardens. He did that with Pharaoh in Egypt,
didn't He? Yes, He did. Right there in verse 17 in this
chapter, it says the very same thing about Pharaoh. For the
Scripture said unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have
I raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that
My name might be declared throughout all the earth. Who hardened Pharaoh's
heart? God did. Either He did or this
book is not truthful, one or the other. And we know that this
is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Now
the question of all questions for you and for me is simply
this. Is my name Mephibosheth, a shameful
thing. God saves shameful things. Have we abandoned any thoughts
about having a righteousness of our own? We don't have any. We never have
had any righteousness of our own. The only righteousness a
person can have that comes from ourselves is self-righteousness. And that is no righteousness
at all. Okay.