I never get tired of thinking
about, reading about, hearing about, preaching about God's
saving grace. Like Noah of old, I've found
grace in the eyes of the Lord, the grace of God that brings
salvation, brought salvation to me a little more than 44 years
ago. By day and by night, for 44 sweet
years, I have found His grace astonishing, and I have found
His grace sufficient. And unto me, whom less than the
least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach among
the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Turn with me,
if you will, to 2 Samuel chapter 21. My subject tonight is Mephibosheth,
a picture of grace. I have tried numerous times to
preach to you about David's kindness to Mephibosheth as it portrays
God's saving grace in Christ Jesus. And when I came in the
office this morning and started reading, my mind immediately
was drawn, I believe, of God's Spirit to this passage again
and to this subject. And I've been working on the
message. I believe God's given me one.
David had killed all of Saul's sons, all of them. He had killed
them all. by divine command as an act of
divine strict justice. But here in 2 Samuel 21, verse
7, we read, but the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan,
the son of Saul, because of the Lord's oath that was between
them, between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul. All the sons
of Saul were slain, but the king spared Mephibosheth. What a marvelous picture we have
here of God's saving grace. But who was this Prince Mephibosheth? Turn back, if you will, to 2
Samuel 9. 2 Samuel 9. Mephibosheth was Jonathan's son. He was the last living survivor
of Saul's royal house. When the news that Saul and his
sons had been slain on the battlefield of Geboa reached the royal palace,
Mephibosheth was just five years old. And when the news reached
the palace, his nurse picked up this little five-year-old
boy to flee and take him into hiding, but when she did, She
tripped and fell, and she fell on the boy and crushed his feet. And Mephibosheth was lame from
that day until the end of his days on both his feet because
of what had happened. Now back here in 2 Samuel chapter
9, David is now established as the king. God had managed in
his providence all things needful to bring to pass his purpose
And David is seated as king, rightful king, the one whom God
chose, the one God ordained, and seated on his throne as a
type of our Lord Jesus, giving him power and dominion in all
the realm of Israel and of Judah. He's seated there, and now he's
determined to fulfill a promise they made long before he was
seated as king. A covenant promise. You can read
about it in 1 Samuel 20. David and Jonathan, Saul's son,
were the closest of friends. Jonathan loved David, and David
loved Jonathan. We read that Jonathan loved David
as his own soul. And Jonathan knew that David
was God's anointed. He knew that David was the man
appointed and anointed of God to be king in Israel. And he
knew that in order for David to be the king, he had to die. He understood that, but he wanted
it that way. And when he understood that his
father's anger and hatred of David could not be assuaged,
Jonathan made a covenant with David and made David swear to
him that he would show kindness to his household forever. And David entered into a covenant
with Jonathan. And now the time has come for
David to fulfill his covenant promise. So he sought out the
house of Mephibosheth. He said, is there not one left
of the house of Jonathan, that is? And this man, Ziba, who was
a servant in Jonathan's house, he said, yep, he's got one boy. He's named Mephibosheth. So David
sent and fetched Mephibosheth and brought him to the palace. I can just picture Mephibosheth
as he's being carried to David's palace. He's fully aware that
he's the son, the grandson of David's arch enemy. He's fully aware that David has
killed all of his uncles and that David has announced the
slaughter of his uncles by the hand of God and the justice of
God. And Mephibosheth, surely, as
Ziba comes to get him, is terrified. He's just terrified. Terrified,
shaking, trembling as he's brought before David. He expected to
be slain, I'm sure. What a blessed surprise he felt. So it was with my own soul. I
won't say so it is with all. So it was with my own soul. When
first awakened to a sense of my sin and of God's being, I
was terrified. When God began, in a way that
I had some sense of it, speaking to my heart, I was terrified,
knowing that I deserved, like all the sons of Adam, to perish
in his wrath. But oh, how sweet his grace when
he made himself known and his purposes known in the revelation
of the Lord Jesus. Now follow along here in this
ninth chapter as I show you the picture of God's grace in David's
treatment of Mephibosheth. I'll call your attention to four
things. First, Mephibosheth's condition, then his call, then
his communion, and then his covenant. First, his condition. Mephibosheth
was in a very, very poor, miserable, wretched state when the king
sought him out. He was altogether unworthy of
David's attention, let alone of David's favor. But David freely
shows kindness and mercy to him. And so it is with all God's elect. We deserve nothing. from our God, except wrath and
punishment. Nothing but judgment, nothing
but condemnation. You who hear my voice, hear me
well, you deserve God's just wrath. If you should go to hell,
if I should go to hell, on the basis of what we personally merit,
we have gotten exactly what we deserve. It's only right that
God should cast the wicked off forever and that God should punish
sin forever. Let us not dare murmur against
God because he cast men into hell, even if it's mother or
daddy or brother or sister or husband or wife or son or daughter. I didn't say don't feel. Oh,
no. How my heart aches when I know
folks have perished under the wrath of God. How my heart aches
for you who are perishing under the wrath of God and must forever
be damned unless God has mercy on you. But I will not call into
question God's rightness, God's justice, and God's goodness. The judge of all the earth must,
shall, and always does do right. We don't deserve his mercy. But God is gracious to sinners
who fully deserve his wrath. The name Mephibosheth. is a good
name for you and a good name for me it means shameful he was
a shameful man in a shameful state well may the sons of Adam
be called Mephibosheth shameful things from the soul of the foot
unto the crown of the head. There is no soundness in us,
the prophet says, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. Man, at his best estate, is altogether
vanity. Like the leper, we are all as
an unclean thing. Like the harlot, we are all defiled. Your name is Mephibosheth, a
shameful thing in heart, Indeed, in thought, in practice, and
mine too. Not only was he shameful, Mephibosheth,
as I said, was the king's enemy. And that's the state in which
all men are born. Not just the state, the condition. Every son of Adam is a rebel
against God, born with the heart of enmity against God, who goes
astray as soon as he is bored speaking lies. The carnal mind,
that is the carnal heart, and every aspect of the carnal state
of man, his heart, his mind, his emotions, his thoughts, the
carnal mind is enmity against God. Not at enmity against God. but enmity against God. That means that you who are without
the grace of God live and are nothing but hatred of God. All men by nature are God-hating
rebels. The reason we preach the gospel
demanding surrender to Christ is because rebels must surrender. We don't try to slip up on folks'
blind side and get them to make a profession of faith. We don't
try to coddle folks into the kingdom of God. We preach the
gospel of God's free grace and demand that you bow to Jesus
Christ the Savior as He's revealed in this book. It's either bow
or be burned forever under the wrath of God. Bow or be crushed
forever under divine judgment. Because man, by nature, hates
God. Hates everything about God. Hates His Word. Hates the gospel
of His grace. Hates His character. Hates His
righteousness. Hates His sovereignty. Hates
the fact that God is God. Now, all men love religion. And
all men love their little ideas about God and what they think
God ought to be. And they love what people tell
them God is. But all men hate God. That's the reason they won't
bow. until you are bowed by the hand of God. The natural mind
is enmity against God. In a place of hiding, all men
take refuge, seeking refuge from God, seeking a refuge that will
soothe their consciences and keep them from being found out
by God, hiding like Adam and Eve under fig leaves that they'd
made. And yet, though we are born God-hating
rebels under the wrath of God. I mean by that under a sense
of God's wrath. Like all the sons of Adam, children
of wrath by nature, wrathful children under a sense of condemnation,
though that certainly is true. God is not now, was not yesterday,
will not be tomorrow, and has never been the enemy of his people. Never. Never. You see, we carry
on a warfare against God that's altogether one-sided. God's elect
have always been the object of His favor, accepted and beloved
from eternity, redeemed by the Lamb from the foundation of the
world. And we were made to be reconciled to God just by the
death of His Son when we were enemies against God. Christ Jesus,
by His blood, by His atonement, put away our sins. In that sacrifice,
you read about the Manoah Saul. That sacrifice, the angel of
the Lord did wondrously accept it before God as our sacrifice. Turn to Romans chapter 5, let
me show you. I want you to see and see clearly that this matter
of the believer, when we are reconciled to God, it's all together
on our part. The reconciliation was accomplished
for us justly for us when Christ offered Himself as our substitute.
Romans chapter 5, look at verse 5. Hope maketh not ashamed, because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us. For when we were yet enemies,
or yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure
for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth
his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Much more then, much more then,
since Christ died for us, when we were God-hating sinners. Much
more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through him. Now watch this. For if when we
were enemies, we were reconciled. When we were enemies, we weren't
reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Much more, being
reconciled, we shall be saved by His grace. Since when we were
enemies, God reconciled us to Christ Jesus. Now, since God
has called us by His grace and reconciled our hearts to Him,
caused us to bow to Him, caused us to be in agreement with Him,
we should be saved by His grace. Look at 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Samuel,
2 Corinthians chapter 5. This is the word of reconciliation
God sent us to preach. Verse 19, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world, that is the world of his elect, his elect
scattered through all the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word, the
message of reconciliation. We come preaching the gospel
not declaring to men that they may be reconciled to God, not
declaring to men they may be brought back to God, not declaring
to men they may be redeemed, but rather proclaiming reconciliation
accomplished by the sacrifice of God's Son, demanding simply
that sinners surrender and bow to the Redeemer. This word of
reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's name, be ye reconciled to God. Oh, be reconciled to God. Quit your warfare with God. You're going to lose. You're going to lose. Either
by His grace conquering you, or His justice conquering you,
but lose you will. It's a warfare you cannot win.
So be reconciled to God. Kiss the Son. Kiss the Son. I read this morning, I think
it's in chapter 20 or 21 of 2 Samuel, you remember how Shemai came
out cussing David? He came out cussing David. Absalom
had run David out of Jerusalem and Shemai came out cussing him.
Abishai said, let me go over and take his head off his shoulders.
And David said, leave him alone. He couldn't cuss me if God hadn't
said cuss David. And he threw stones at him and
called him everything on this earth except a king and a white
man. And he cast dust in the air and he blasphemed and mocked
David. And David said, perhaps the Lord
will requite me good this day for his cursing. And then when
David came back, After Absalom was dead and David came back
to Jerusalem, one of the first ones to meet him was Shammai.
He came running to David, and he bowed down. He said, Oh, my
Lord King, impute not iniquity to me. You know I'm a sinner. You know what I've done. And
some of David's friends said, kill him. David said, Oh, no. God's been merciful. And King
David shall be merciful. Shemai shall live, regardless
of what he's done. Shemai comes to be reconciled
to David, bowing to David, kissing the scepter of the king he once
despised and found mercy. Now I make this promise to you.
I make this promise to you as God's ambassador. I make this
promise to you from God's Word. You bow to Christ. You surrender
to the King. You kiss the King's scepter.
Acknowledge Christ's right to be Lord. You be reconciled to
God, believing on God's Son. And the Lord God Almighty has
been reconciled to you forever. He has put away your sin. by the sacrifice of his own son.
God is ever beseeching lost, lame, languishing sinners to
be reconciled to him. Back in 2 Samuel, Mephibosheth
was lame through a fall. 2 Samuel 9 verse 3, 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 has yet a son. Jonathan's got one boy, which
is lame on his feet. As I told you, Mephibosheth's
nurse fell on him, dropped him and fell. Mephibosheth was lame
from that day on. And so it is with us. Lame. So lame that no man can come
to me, the Savior said. except the Father which hath
sent me draw him. God created man upright, but
we became helpless cripples through the fall of our father Adam.
Utterly destitute of ability. Ignorant without God. Crippled. Helpless. Lame. So lame that
the possibility of us The possibility of us moving toward God, the
possibility of us coming to Christ is utterly gone. How can any
man be saved? The disciples said, who then
shall be saved? And our Lord Jesus said, with men, it's impossible. You can't save yourself. With
men, it's impossible. You can't save somebody else.
With men, it's impossible. You can't save your son or your
daughter, your husband or wife, your mother, your daddy, your
neighbor, anybody else. With men, it's impossible. But
with God, all things are possible. Nobody walking topside of God's
earth is beyond the reach of omnipotent mercy. With God, all
things are possible. Mephibosheth was not only lame,
but he's far away. Look at verse 4. Far away from
David in a far-off country, the king said unto him, said unto
Ziba, Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king,
Behold, he is in the house of Baker, the son of Abiel in Lodebar. He was far off from the king,
far off from Jerusalem, the place of blessing, the place of peace,
the place of worship. He was in a place called Mecca,
means sold, down in Lodibar, a place where there's no bread.
And that's the condition of all men by nature. We sold ourselves
under sin. And we live in this far-off wilderness
where there's no bread. The prodigal learned by painful
experience that when the self-righteous, legalistic, fair-saint preacher
said, you come feed my hogs and I'll take care of you. You can
work your way back to your father's good favor. And he would fain
have filled his belly, not on the corn, The corn help you, but the husk. And a man can't live on husk.
The husk that the swine did eat, but no man gave unto him. Nothing. Learn daily, O my soul,
there is no bread for my soul in this world. Nothing in this
world that can satisfy the needs of my soul and the needs of my
heart. Nothing. Everything here is vanity. Nothing can satisfy the needs
of my soul and the needs of my heart. Nothing can satisfy an
immortal man that is just temporary. Nothing. Look at verses 4 and
5. Mephibosheth was called by the
king. The king said unto Ziba, Where
is he? And Ziba said unto the king,
Behold, he is in the house of Makar, the son of Amiel, in Lodibar. Then the king sent, I love this
word, and fetched him. Fetched him. Fetched him out
of the house of Makar, the son of Amiel, from Lodibar. I've told you the story before,
but it'll bear repetition, and I like to tell it. Don't want
to ever forget it. Most of you folks are old enough to remember
when folks didn't buy anything on credit. You wanted something,
you'd go put it on layaway if you couldn't afford to buy it.
When I was selling shoes in Western Salem this 1969, I was selling
shoes, and folks would come in and buy a pair of shoes. They'd
have the new styles come out in the fall, new ones in the
spring, new ones in the summer, and they'd come in and find a
pair of shoes they wanted, and they'd lay them away. They'd
put $2 down on a $20 pair of shoes and come in every week
or two, whatever they agreed to, and pay $1 or $2 a week until
they got the shoes paid for. And then we'd give the shoes
to them. But when we'd give them to them, we gave them what they
had purchased. They were theirs. But they paid
on it a little bit at a time. I never will forget an old, tall
black lady. I say old. Now remember, I was
18, 19 years old at the time. She might not have been before
him, but she looked pretty old to me then. And she was tall
and skinny. And I started to take down her
name, and I asked her for her name, and she said, Grace Grabs. I said, do what? She said, Grace
Grabs. And I said, ma'am, I don't have
any idea whether you know it or not, but that's just what
Grace does. She said, sure do, honey. That's what grace does. God in
sovereign mercy grabs the sinner and brings him to himself as
David sent and fetched Mephibosheth. God gave commandment before the
world was made to the heavens and the earth and the sea. to
the fowl of the air, and the beast of the field, and the creeping
thing on the earth, and the fish beneath the sea, to man, and
to devils, and to angels, to light, and to darkness, to day,
and to night, to all things in creation, and says, Bring my
sons from afar. And at the appointed time of
His mercy, God sends His Spirit, as David sent Ziba in sovereign
mercy, fetch the chosen redeemed sinner to himself. And he comes
to the sinner by irresistible force. When it came to that, you couldn't
resist. Resisted up until then. No difficulty. Because you're resisting what
you hear me preach. You're resisting the power of
my persuasiveness. That ain't much. You're resisting
the power of mom and daddy's influence. Well, that's nothing.
That's nothing. Ah, but when God comes calling,
you can't resist. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. Thy people, the book
says, shall be willing in the day of thy power. The Lord God
came to Abram in Ur of the Chaldees and said, come to me. And Abraham
came. He came to Moses on the back
side of the desert and called him to himself. And Moses took
off his feet, took off his shoes from his feet and worshipped
God. He came to Zacchaeus and said, Zacchaeus, today I must
abide at thy house. He explained this too as the
son of Abraham. And Zacchaeus took him home with
him that day. He met a man named Saul of Tarsus, who just a while
before stood receiving the garments that men cast off while they
stole God's servant Stephen, as he heard Stephen saying, I
see Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And at the appointed time of
mercy, he met him on the Damascus road and revealed himself to
him in irresistible And Saul came to the Savior, whom he despised
a moment before. Mephibosheth came before the
king. Now watch how it comes, verse
6. And when Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul,
was come to David, he fell on his face and did reverence. And
David said, Mephibosheth, and he answered. I've been telling
you now, you've got to bow to the King. Behold thy servant, thy servant. When he first came to David,
he came with reverence, fear, and trembling. He didn't know
what David would do. And David broke his fear. He
spoke peaceably to Mephibosheth. He said, Mephibosheth, fear not,
for I will surely Show thee kindness. How would you obtain mercy? Only
as you throw yourself at the feet of the King, Christ Jesus. The thimble shaft then was received
in all his deformity. There he was. I'm filling in
the blank spaces. Ziba must have gone down. And
picking the fibble-chef up, this fellow who'd been in hiding all
this time, down in Maker in Lodibar, I can just picture him, ragging,
dirty, helpless. Just helpless, crippled, twisted,
mangled feet. And he picks him up, takes him
to the palace, as ruthlessly as he could possibly get by with
it, because he had no regard for David or for Mephibosheth.
And here's Mephibosheth sitting here in front of the king in
this royal, spacious, rich, marvelously adorned palace. Just as I am without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me, And that thou bidst me come
to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. And look at verse 7. You know
why David received him? You know why David embraced him?
David said unto him, Fear not, for I will surely show thee kindness,
because I love somebody else. Because there's somebody else
in whom I delight. Because there's somebody else
with whom you are intimately connected, with whom I've made
a covenant for Jonathan, thy father's sake. And so it is that
God Almighty receives sinners because of somebody else, because
of one in whom he delights, with whom we are intimately connected
by covenant union made by God himself, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. David received Mephibosheth for
Jonathan's sake. Even as God, for Christ's sake,
Paul says, hath forgiven you. And when Mephibosheth came to
David, for the first time in his life, he had a proper understanding
and esteem of himself. For the first time in his life.
Look at verse 8. And he bowed himself and said, What is thy
servant that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am? I'll tell you when you'll find
out what you are is when you come to Christ, when you believe
on the Son of God. When God makes Christ known to
you, you won't be proud of yourself. You won't be inclined to think
highly of yourself. A dog's an unclean animal. The
dead thing, any dead carcass, by law, was unclean. And Mephibosheth
said, I'm a dead dog. I'm unclean by birth and I'm
unclean by practice. I'm unfit for God because of
my fall in my father Adam, and I'm unfit for God because I'm
nothing but sin. And yet the Lord God graciously
receives such as we are. Look at verses 9 and 10. Let
me hurry. Mephibosheth was reconciled to
King David by the king's own mercy. Then the king called to
Ziba, Saul's servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy
master's son all that pertained to all his house." I've given
him everything Saul had, everything. I've not kept back anything.
Thou therefore and thy sons and thy servants, you, Ziba, you,
your sons and your servants, shall till the land for him. You know what that fellow down
the road's doing out there working his garden tonight? Got no interest
in hearing God, His Word. Out there plowing the fields.
Come Sunday morning, drive down the road, you'll see him digging
up fields, wiping sweat. No interest in worshipping God.
Come Sunday night, here right beside the place where you can
hear the gospel of God's grace, no interest in worshipping God.
Killing the ground, making money, getting it all together. You
know why? Why, they're tending the ground
for me. And you know what they're going to do with it? Just as
I need it, they're going to bring it over here and put it on my
table. Let's see if that's what it says. And thou shalt bring
the fruits that thy master's son may have food to eat. What do you mean, Brother Dodd?
I mean God Almighty uses everything and everybody all the time for
the benefit of his elect. But Mephibosheth thy master's
son shall eat bread all the way at my table. David restored Mephibosheth
and made him as one of the king's sons. He got more in David than
he lost in Saul. And so it is with us in Christ
Jesus. Now watch this. Here's Mephibosheth. and he sits under the table or
sits at the table with his feet under the table so that his mangled, twisted, crippled,
dirty feet are out of sight all the time as he sits at the king's
table. So it is that you and I have
our sin not just covered and out of sight, our sin put away
And we're made righteous in Christ Jesus. Next, we see Mephibosheth
was granted perpetual fellowship and communion with the king.
And we, as God's children in this world, have the privilege
and the joy of dwelling always with our God. He keeps us as
the apple of His eye. He encamps around about us. is for us our shield and our
defense. He is for us our rock and our
mighty tower and our refuge. He is the Lord at hand, always
at hand. We walk in his company, speak
to him freely, live upon his riches and live under his protection,
always kept as the apple of his eye, because of the grace he
had received. Mephibosheth loved David above
everything. Turn over to chapter 19. I've
got to show you this now. I'll be quick. Chapter 19, 2
Samuel. Absalom took over. David fled for his life. Absalom
mocked his father. Finally, Absalom's dead. David's
returning. Verse 24, 2 Samuel 19. Mephibosheth
the son of Saul came down to meet the king and had neither
dressed his feet nor trimmed his beard nor washed his clothes
from the day that the king departed until the day he came again in
peace. Mephibosheth loved the king and
it came to pass when he was come to Jerusalem to meet the king
that the king said to him Wherefore wentest not thou with me, Mephibosheth? Why didn't you go with me? And
he answered, My lord, O king, my servant deceived
me. For thy servant said, I will
saddle me, and ask that I may ride thereon, and go to the king,
because thy servant is lame. And he, that is Ziba, he hath
slandered thy servant unto my lord the king. Ziba told David,
said Mephibosheth thought he was going to be king now. But
my lord the king is as an angel of God. Do therefore what is
good in thine eyes. I'm yours, you do with me what
you want to. It'd be alright with me. For all of 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?"
I wouldn't dare ask for anything more than I've experienced already. And the King said unto him, Why
speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said, Thou and
Ziba divide the land. And Mephibosheth said unto the
king, Let Ziba have it all. You see that? Yea, let him have
all, forasmuch as my lord the king is come again in peace unto
his own house. David, you're here. What else
could I want? Gives I but everything. I don't
need the fields or the corn. I've got you. Oh, Lord Jesus. Thou, oh Christ, art all I need. That's all. Nothing else. Nothing
else. Don't envy the wicked in their
prosperity. This is all that God. This is
all that God. And when they leave here, they
leave it. This manatee, this puff of wind. We who are gods
have Christ. Now, look back at verse 7 in
chapter 21. I'll wrap up where I started. All of this was done for Mephibosheth
because of a covenant made long, long, long before he was ever
born. The king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son
of Saul, because of the Lord's oath that was between them, between
David and Jonathan, the son of Saul. I live today, and if you do,
you live today in communion with Christ, sitting at the banqueting
table of His grace, fed sumptuously all the time, cared for marvelously
all the time, protected wondrously all the time, always under His
watchful eye. Always surrounded by His grace. Always kept by His angels. Because
of a covenant God made with His Son for the world. And so it shall be tomorrow. And so it shall be forever. Thank God for covenant grace
given to us in Christ Jesus. a Redeemer. Oh, may He make you
a partaker of that grace, for Christ's sake. Amen.