Second Samuel chapter 9, verses
1 through 9. We have begun a series of messages
that will cross the landscape between doctrine and practice
over the next several weeks and couple of months, as is my intention
with this particular subject. And at the foundation of it,
we are considering that fundamental truth concerning God's nature
and character, which we have begun to look at last week called
the glory of God. The glory of God. I was thinking
about this after the message last week. I received so many
positive responses from it as I desired. We just don't want to miss terms
and concepts in scripture by allowing them to become so vague
or so transcendent or so aloof that we really can't grasp a
tangible definition or concept behind them. I want us not to
miss the tangible elements of God's glory as they relate to
us. I don't want us to fall prey
to religious mantra. I don't want us to fall prey
to religious talk. I want us to realize that the
word of God is God's logic, it's God's reason, it's God's rationale,
it's God's propositional truth, it's God's self-disclosure and
revelation of himself, which means because God is a rational
creature, then we can understand him rationally. And so terms
that are very common to us in religious vernacular can escape
their substance and significance if we simply allow them to fall
within sort of a Christian mantra, the glory of God, the glory of
God, the glory of God. I don't want that to happen.
And we talked about the glory of God last week in terms of
two aspects of God's glory, God's essential glory, that aspect
of God's glory that depicts everything that God is. God is glorious. When you think about God, you're
thinking about glory. Everything about God is glorious. Every aspect of God that's been
revealed to us is glorious. You know what else is glorious
about God? Those things that he has not
revealed to us. The Bible tells us in the book
of Proverbs, I think it's chapter 25, verse 2, it is the glory
of God to conceal a matter. It's God's glory to hide stuff.
let alone show us things. So we aren't trying to understand
God's glory from the standpoint of comprehending it, but apprehending
it. God sharing with us things about
himself that are essential to our right thinking and right
conduct. And so what I shared with you
last week was There's an aspect of God's glory that you and I,
right now, in these limited bodies, in these finite minds, in this
weak and feeble constitution called the flesh, cannot enter
into. There's an aspect of God's glory,
if we saw it, it would disintegrate us immediately. God is glorious
and he uses the metaphor of light and fire to represent the pureness
of his essence, the impeccableness of his being. And with that metaphor,
he's teaching you and I that we can't approach it. The Bible
tells us that no man has seen God at any time. The Bible says
no man can see God. The Bible says only Christ dwells
in that light which no man can approach unto. We are now talking
about God's essential glory. Now my confidence is because
God made you in His image. You actually can identify what
I'm talking about even though you can't fully grasp it. I'm
not talking to animals. We'll talk about that day here
down the line. When Brother Mephibosheth said that he was a dead dog,
he was speaking metaphorically. I'm not talking to animals. I'm
talking to human beings created in the image of God. And do you
know God gave us minds to think on His glory? And so we talked
about the necessity of us as people of God being called to
virtue and glory of recognizing that the glory of God is the
ultimate aim for which He saved us. And the glory of God has
to be something that is on our mind 24-7. The glory of God is
that concept of God's perfections that's gonna help us make right
decisions down the line. The New Testament is replete
with the terminology of the glory of God. And I'll remind you once
again on a very practical level, how the apostle put it in first
Corinthians 10 31, whatever you do in word or indeed do it all to
the glory of God. That means with reference to
every decision we make, every thought we're thinking, every
plan and scheme and agenda of our life, which we are free to
do. We are free to do those things, consider those things, weigh
those things out, determine what we're going to do only in light
of this. Does it glorify God? And when the child of God is
walking with that maxim, with that axiom as a rule of life,
you're going to find that it's going to be real difficult for
you to make major mistakes in your life. Because you have a
plumb line now, you have parameters now that's going to safeguard
you from foolish decision making. Am I making some sense? So we
talked about the glory of God with regards to that back in
the book of Exodus chapter 33 and 34, where Moses asked the
Lord to show him his glory. And what we come to understand
was Moses really wanted to get into God's essential glory. And
God said, no, you can't see my glory in that way and live. But
I will show you my redeeming glory. And so we made a distinction
last week between God's essential glory and God's redeeming glory.
And God's redeeming glory is that aspect and manifestation
of God's nature and character which God allows humanity to
see, and more particularly His people, by which and through
which glory God saves His people. In other words, God's redeeming
glory is designed to save us. Now, since that is the case and
we saw that in the text as it was unfolded to us in a very
practical way, as we move on into this next consideration,
here's what I want to set forth before you. It's God's redeeming
glory that you want to become fully and completely acquainted
with God's redeeming glory. That aspect of glory that God
used to save you want to become completely acquainted with that.
So let's understand some things about God's redeeming glory by
staying here and going back to Exodus 34, because I want you
to see a few things. Now you can follow me in your
outline as well, and this will help you also. I want to make
sure that we get these fundamentals down before we draw some lessons
from our text in front of us. In the book of Exodus chapter
34, verse five, Exodus 33, let's start there,
Exodus 33, verse 19, and then Exodus 34, verse five and six,
I wanna share a couple of what we call in our text, prominent
aspects of God's redeeming glory that you and I need to be aware
of, conscious of, and actually operating out of in order to
enjoy our relationship with God and to be fruitful and prosperous
in our life. Exodus 33, verse 18, Moses made
the request he said I beseech you show me your what glory verse
19 And he said and I will make all my what pass before you Who
wouldn't want God to make all his goodness pass before you? Who wouldn't want that? Now notice
the disposition of God. I want you to grasp this because
some of you are going to need this to make your way through
this dark world and The nature of God, when He has smiled upon
you, is to show you His goodness. Now stop thinking carnally. I
already see these clouds of carnal thoughts. You are thinking God
doing something for you. That's not what it's talking
about. What it's talking about is God revealing His nature. His goodness is personal. It
has to do with all of his attributes so that you might know God. Remember
what Moses's desire was to get to know God better? That's what
I'm talking about. The reason we want to comprehend
and apprehend God's glory is so that we can know him better.
God says, I'm going to show you all of my goodness. I'm gonna
show you everything about God is good, right? I'm gonna show
you all my goodness. Now watch what he says here,
because this is gonna help us grasp and identify and mark out
what God's redeeming glory is. He says, and I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before you. Do you see that? It's God's goodness
to proclaim his name. That's what Jesus said in John
chapter 17, verse six. Father, to those that you have
given me, I have manifested your name. Now watch what he says. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. And I will show mercy on whom
I will show mercy. Don't miss it. Here's the goodness
of God and his redeeming purpose for you and me. To be gracious
and to be merciful. To be gracious and to be merciful. Park it right there, you theologues. The prominent predisposition,
that cheap characteristic of God manifested in His redeeming
glory to us is to be understood as His grace and His mercy. You can go home now. Listen to me. If you do know
God in the truth of the gospel, you know him to be a God of grace
and a God of mercy. See, the people that know God
know this. This is the experience of grace for the people of God.
God has been to us gracious and he has been merciful. Isn't that
right? And what God just told Moses, because remember now Moses,
Moses had a job that he knew was impossible, leading a million
point eight people into the land of Canaan. And they were all
rebels, stiff necked sinners. And he realized he couldn't do
it by himself. And he had to get God's assurance
that God was with him. And God told him, this is how
you will know my ways. Because Moses is saying, Father,
I need to know your ways. When you know somebody, you know
their ways, right? You know what I like to eat,
don't you? You know what I don't like to eat. When you know somebody's
ways, you know something about them. And what Moses wanted to
know was how would God be a month from now when these silly religious
folk break out in another idolatrous act of rebellion? Are you hearing
me? Would God just open up the ground,
swallow them all up, and just start with Moses? That's what
he said. Moses, I'll wipe them out. Me and you will start all
over again. So God, Moses was saying, I need to know how you
act. Now, child of God, if you know, having walked with Christ
for many years, how he acts, you can be confident that the
way God acted 20 years ago is the way he'll act today. And
the way he's acting today, he'll be acting 20 years from now because
our God doesn't change. He's immutable, right? His ways
are consistent. And this is how we can trust
him. But we've got to know his ways. So what he just revealed
to Moses, which I want you to get is, the predominant character
flowing from God's redeeming glory is that he is gracious
and that he is merciful. Now you have your answer as to
why God doesn't smack people down when they act a fool. And
you've been wondering, why God not taking him out? He's been
acting like that for the last 30 years. And when you finish
asking that question, ask this question, how come he didn't
take me out with him? Because God is gracious and God
is merciful. Are you guys hearing me? God
is gracious and God is merciful. Now we're getting ready to explain
that because that has been prostituted in this religious age right along
with the love of God and other things too. But I want you to
grab this now. God is gracious and God is merciful. Now you brothers can take your
shoes off and relax and you sisters can loosen your girl because
that's the way God is to his people. Otherwise we would be
walking in fear and trepidation every day over against this holy
and righteous God who deserves to punish us because of our sin
But because of his nature we can rest Isn't that what God
has called us to? He says I will make my presence
to go with you and I will give you rest How do you rest in the
midst of a consuming fire unless he tells you that he is by nature
gracious? Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? I just want to press that home so that you don't make
a caricature or neglect to recognize God's nature and actions toward
you and those like you who don't deserve it. Well, the reason
why God acts this way is because this is who he is in his redeeming
glory. And by the way, that's what he
wants to flow from us to others as well. That's a piece of application.
Be gracious, be merciful. So now let's develop this because
this is critically important. As we are contemplating God's
graciousness and mercy, look with me over at verse 6 of chapter
34. Because what he told Moses he was going to do, he did. And
I want you to see it over in verses 5 and 6 again before we
move on. And the Lord descended in a cloud,
and he stood with Moses there, and he proclaimed the name of
the Lord, and the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed
the Lord, that's Jehovah. the Lord God, that's Jehovah
Almighty, Elohim, merciful and gracious and long-suffering and
abundant in goodness and truth. Do you see it? keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin, and
will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation,
which means, listen to me, saints, as we develop this, when God
is gracious and God is merciful, that does not mean he won't punish
sin or else the cross means nothing. What he's saying right here is
that he will be gracious and he will be merciful for a long
time before he visits iniquity. Has that been the case for you?
See what I'm getting at? He will be merciful and he will
be gracious for a long time, but he won't always let folk
get away with sin, because he's a just God. And so we have grasped
now that aspect of God's redeeming glory for which you and I can
breathe. Now, I want you to do this in
your own time to augment this truth. Go through the Bible and
look up everywhere mercy and grace is mentioned. You will
find if you just start with the Psalms, King David knew something
about God's grace and God's mercy. David constantly talked about
the mercy of God in the Psalms. He constantly, he constantly
extolled God for his mercy, called men to his mercy, declared God's
mercy. And you know what he said about
God's mercy? He said the whole earth is full of God's mercy.
You know what else David said concerning God's mercy? He says
your mercies are over all your works Somehow David was given
insight into the character of God's redeeming glory in his
handiwork called creation Now if you can if you can receive
that that'll help you live your life in a lot less of an anxious
state to be able to interpret this world with all of this mess
going on and still see God's mercy in it. That means you're
thinking God's thoughts after him. That means you understand
what God is doing. You recognize that God has acted
in a way in his mercy that has allowed us to live on his planet
all this time. Acting a fool. Got it. Got it. David said it in the
Psalms, thy mercies, thy mercies are everlasting. I think it's
one of the Psalms. He said, all give thanks unto the Lord for
his loving kindness endures forever and ever and ever and ever and
ever. I can tell you when you are at
your wits end and when you are really hurting and when you have
fallen into the depths of your sin, what I'm talking about will
be rich to you. when you are in the depth of
the pit and the only thing you can hope for is the mercy of
God and the Spirit of God reminds you that God's mercies never
exhaust, they never empty, they never dry up. Then you can hope
in the midst of a dry well. Are you hearing me? This is very
important. That's the reason I'm riding
it now because we're getting ready to move on from it. But I want you
to understand and the people of God, the people of God must
be men and women who understand the mercy and grace of God. That
is the essence of our message. Now, mercy and grace appear to
be in the Bible almost synonymous terms. They are not the same
Hebrew words, nor are they the same Greek words, and so there
are nuances. They are two sides of the same
coin, and they result ultimately in the same end, that is salvation. Wherever you see the mercy of
God and the grace of God coupled together, you can be sure salvation
is to follow. So we read in Psalm 119 verse
41, David said, let thy mercies, O Lord, come unto me also, even
your salvation according to your word. Paul took this up in the
book of Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4 when he said, But God who is
rich in what? Mercy, wherewith he loved us,
even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ. Now here comes grace, for by
grace are you saved. And Paul does that a lot through
the New Testament. Mercy, grace, mercy, grace, mercy, grace. What is God doing today? He's
being merciful. What is God doing? He's restoring
grace. Are you guys hearing me? He's
being merciful. He's restoring grace. Now let's
talk about the nuances. Mercy is slightly different than
grace. Mercy is the negative act of
God towards the object of his favor. And what I mean by that
is when God acts in mercy, God does not do something. When God acts in mercy, God defers. He withholds. He restrains. That's mercy. When God is acting
in mercy, God is acting opposite of what he should act in that
case, which is just. When God has been merciful, God
is deferring what he should do and doing something else. And
this is where grace comes in because grace is the positive
act of God. God in his grace does something
for us that he didn't have to do, that from our vantage point,
he shouldn't have done. But he did it anyway. Are you
hearing what I'm saying? Now, to build this case, I want
to use just a case scenario in the New Testament. Go with me
in your Bible to the Gospel of Luke. I want you to see this.
In the Gospel of Luke, it talks about this, where we are dealing
with a very, very prominent parable called the parable of the Good
Samaritan. You guys know that parable? The parable of the Good
Samaritan, just in Luke. In the Gospel of Luke, I want
to just share a couple of points there to help us see this. Now,
what I just noted was that when God acts in mercy, he does not
do something. But when God acts in grace, he
does do something. And we will see both of those
here. In the gospel of Luke, where the Lord is teaching some
major lessons about what it means to be a neighbor to somebody,
because that was the question that came to him by this proud
Pharisee. The Lord Jesus gave the parable
about a man who had come from Jerusalem down to Jericho. Isn't
that what the text said? and he fell among thieves. He fell among thieves and the
thieves almost killed him. The language there is he was
half dead. Now watch this. What our Lord
said was, there was a Levite and a priest who came by and
when they saw him, they went the other way. Now that was neither
mercy nor grace. That's what we call religion.
Powerless religion. Personal religion. Caring about
yourself religion. And Jesus was actually dealing
with the Pharisees and the Sadducees at this point. And then he said
there was a Samaritan that came along. Remember that? Just to
help you that Samaritan is not you. Now there was a Samaritan that
came along and the Samaritan operated in both of these fears. He first executed mercy. He first executed mercy. What do you mean, Pastor? He
did not do what those other two men did. He did not pass this
man by. He could have, but he was merciful. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
He could have, but he was merciful. You and I could sit back and
we could surmise that this fella came down from Jerusalem, he
passed through Jericho. Now he knew Jericho was full of thieves
and crooks and because he passed through that road, he probably
was a thief and a crook himself. So he probably deserved what
he got. So we're talking justice now, aren't we? You don't think
like that. We're talking justice now. But
remember, God does not predominantly act in justice. Because if he
were acting in justice, he'd let all of us go. And so the
good Samaritan came by and what the text tells us he did not
do. He did not pass him by. I want you to see a verse 32.
Are you there? I'm sorry, verse 33, but a certain Samaritan as
he journey came where he was. Do you see that? And he saw him
and he had what compassion on him. That's what our Lord is
talking about. Look over verse 37. Understand
that our Lord is addressing the, illustration of mercy and Jesus
said to the ruler he that show the ruler responded to Jesus
question then who was neighbor unto the one who fell among thieves
verse 37 he that showed mercy on him then Jesus said unto him
go and do likewise show mercy in what way he didn't pass him
by he didn't pass him by he didn't leave him alone you've done that
and I've done that that's why I'm saying you're not the Good
Samaritan I know you think you do good, but most of the time
you pass everybody by. I do. I do. Don't you tell the truth. You
leave this stuff to somebody else. You need to stop thinking
you're all that because you're not. You just are not. Let's get real. We do things
when it's convenient for us. We do things when there is a
benefit. We do things with the aim of
reciprocity. We don't just do things and get
ourselves in trouble because we're being merciful. A merciful
disposition is not natural to you and me. How many times have
you drove by that man or that woman on the freeway? all alone,
struggling to fix that tire, and then you just pray for him.
I had to help you. Because you know, we think we're
the good Samaritan. You're just not. You're just not. Is it true? I think the
devil will start stopping and helping people. Yeah, right.
We'll see. We'll see. I guarantee you, if
you've got an appointment that you need to be at, you're not
going to abandon your appointment to help him. You might call 911,
but you're not gonna do it. Cause you and I are not the good
Samaritan. The parable is not about a philanthropic disposition
on the part of our fellow man. This is not socialism. This is
why I really don't like this construct called socialism because
it's filled with so much hypocrisy. Be good, be nice, be kind, but
understand you are not all that. You are very selfish human being
and you do things for an end that meets your goal. You are
seeking glory out of what you do. That's how we do it. And
whenever we do something to seek glory, it is not true mercy. It is not true compassion. Are
you hearing me? And it's not true grace. Even
if in what you do, you want those people to give you thanks. It's
not grace. It's merit. I'm getting ready
to deal with that. There's only one person who has been very
compassionate, merciful and gracious. And that is the good Samaritan,
Jesus Christ. Are you hearing me? Christ alone
has done for us what we could not do and didn't require of
us what he should require of us because he's merciful and
he's gracious. Now to be gracious is to act
positively towards someone. Now watch the grace of God. As
he providentially came by this man, grace look at verse 33 again
he came where he was see it that's a positive act in grace he came
where he was and when he saw him in grace he had compassion
on him and he went to him and he bound up his wounds and he
poured in oil and wine and he set him on his own beast and
brought him to an end and he took care of him. That's the
grace of God in Christ to undeserving hell bound sinners dead and trespasses
and sins. Do you see that? That's what
God did for me. That's what God did for you.
If you've discovered the grace of God, he came to you. He looked
on you. He had compassion on you. He
poured in the oil of his spirit, the wine of his grace. And by
his power, he took you to his hand and he took care of you. And he's taking care of us now.
Isn't that good? That's just the truth. Now that's
what grace is, ladies and gentlemen. That's what grace is. And that's
what we're getting about to see in our text now. So I wanted
you to understand the distinction. Now let's go on back and let's
do some work. Cause now we've been talking about grace and
mercy. the distinction between the two in relationship to this
dominant attribute that characteristic that is seen in God's redeeming
glory. And now I want us to see in our
text something more specific about God's redeeming glory in
the area of God's grace, because that's what I'm dealing with
right now. I'm talking to you today about the grace of God. The title of our message is the
glory of his sovereign grace. You guys see that? Now, some
of you understand what that means. A lot of you don't. The glory
of his sovereign grace. Whenever God acts is glorious.
The account before us is a glorious illustration of God's sovereign
grace. If you're saved, you and I are
objects of his what? Grace. We're objects of his mercy. We're That's what he's getting ready
to be stolen right here. In the area of God's redeeming
glory, grace is a concept that you must know. Grace is a concept that you must
know. No Christian is fit for telling
anybody anything about God who doesn't know about the grace
of God. Flowing from God's redeeming
glory, First and foremost is His grace and His mercy. His grace and His mercy. Now His grace and His mercy are
seen in an account that's before us that's quite remarkable. I just want to share a few things
about this and I hope God begins to help you to see what we are
dealing with here. We are dealing with a God of
grace and mercy to a man who did not deserve it. Does that
sound like you? Now, if you have your outline, we're going to
deal with this contextually. In our context, 2 Samuel 9, verses
1-13, we are dealing with a conflict. And we are dealing with a warfare.
That's the historical narrative. A conflict is where there are
people who are at odds with one another. You know, like husbands
and wives. A warfare is when tribes or nations
are at war with one another. And the historical context here
is a warfare between the house of Saul and the house of David. We are actually in the midst
of a heated campaign where King David has taken the throne, but
his chief adversary in the kingdom is still the house of King Saul. That's the context in which this
battle is taking place. in the which we are about to
see something glorious about how God saved. So in order for
you to see this, I want you to back up to chapter 3, verse 1,
2 Samuel 3, verse 1, so that you can understand what I'm saying.
I want you to see this now. We'll come back here in a moment.
2 Samuel 3, 1. Are we there? Now listen to the
language, saints. Now, there was long war between
the house of Saul and the house of David. Got it? Now there was
long war between the house of Saul and the house of David.
Go back to your text. We'll come back here a little
later on. That's our content. And if you were reading your
Bible and you read Samuel, second Samuel chapter one, all the way
through chapter nine, what you would find out is David and his
men are fighting and there are some horrific battles going on.
And you know, in this age, this politically incorrect age of
wars, and you know, we don't like to fight wars. That's part
of human nature. That's part of human nature.
Wars are a part of human nature. Because men by nature is sinful,
and men by nature is vicious, without wars to subdue men and
bring them into check, the whole world go mad. Wars will be here,
as Jesus said, until Jesus come. We shall have wars and rumors
of wars until the end of the world. We can cry peace all we
want to, but without Christ, there is no peace in the world.
And that's because God has left man to his natural character. And that is hostile and vile
and vicious. He's turned his pruning hooks
to sword. He's turned his, what's the other
one? His plowshare into spears. What he should have been used
for cultivating the land, he's stabbing his brother. That's what you get on the job.
Am I telling the truth? And that's what's going on in
our text But there are greater lesson here for those of you
who know the gospel you understand that earthly things point to
spiritual things You understand that the Old Testament is pointing
to the reality of the new We understand that we are dealing
with spiritual realities here And what we've got going on in
our context is the battle between the flesh and the spirit We got
the battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man.
We got a battle going on here between Adam one represented
in Saul and Adam to the last Adam represented in Jesus Christ.
What we've got in our text here is the battle between those who
are true believers. who are spiritual in nature,
seated in heavenly places, trying to think God's thoughts after
him, over against worldlings who love this world, who despise
God, and they are at war with God and are at war with God's
people. Is that the truth? That's what
we are dealing with here. Now, this is quite remarkable
because in the midst of this warfare, guess what David is
doing? He's saving sinners. and in the
midst of this spiritual warfare that's going on in our world,
guess what our Lord Jesus, who is the greater David doing? Saving
sinners. He's being what he said he would
be in his redeeming glory, gracious and merciful. You guys got that? So in the midst of this conflict,
in the midst of this conflict, there are some wonderful things
going on in our chapter, which brings us to our second point.
Look at point number two in your outline. This is critical for
you, a covenant between two for the benefit of another a covenant
between two for the benefit of another isn't it strange how
second samuel opens up it opens up this way verse nine uh chapter
nine verse one and david said is there yet any that is left
of the house of saul that i may show him kindness for jonathan's
sake now here's saul's children, his nieces, his nephews, his
cousins, his brothers are fighting David's house fiercely. And yet David in the midst of
this conflict is saying, is there anybody in Saul's house left
in the midst of this battle with whom I may show kindness? Why
is he doing that? Because of a covenant. Now hear
me. There was a covenant made between
two parties before that which is taking place took place. And
in that covenant, David promised to Jonathan to do Jonathan's
house good all the days of his life. Now that covenant, ladies
and gentlemen, is the covenant of grace, the everlasting covenant,
the gospel. That's the message we preach.
that God in Christ has made a covenant wherein God has been pleased
to do for certain people like you and me what he didn't have
to do and on the basis of a relationship with somebody else. Are you guys
hearing me? This is quite remarkable. We
talked about this in our theology class as we are addressing the
subject of Christology. Whenever you think about the
gospel, don't start with time, start with eternity. The gospel
started in eternity past. It started before the world began.
It started in the mind and decree and purpose of God. It started
among the triune God and their own glorious council as they
determined to create a world through which they would get
glory to themselves in the salvation of sinners who would fall into
sin and plunge themselves into ruin. And God would be pleased
through his redeeming glory to have a people to the praise of
the glory of his grace for all eternity. That's the reason for
which this world was made. Is that true? Now let me say
it one more time for those of you who don't understand the
gospel. The gospel does not start with man. It starts with God. The gospel does not start in
time. It starts in eternity. The gospel
doesn't start with your decision. It starts with God's purpose.
The gospel does not start with men. It starts with God. Are
you guys hearing me? And so here's David in a position
of real prominence, because if you were to go back to the third
chapter, you would find that though there was war between
David's house and Saul's house, the text tells us that David
waxed stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger. Isn't
that what it said? Now what that's speaking to,
ladies and gentlemen, The success of the gospel as it goes into
all the world So that men and women all over the world come
to hear about the crown rights of Jesus Christ whom God has
made Lord of all Are you hearing me? For the last 2,000 years
Jesus Christ has been being preached around the world He told his
disciples go ye into all the world and do what preach the
gospel. I The gospel is in every place in the world right now.
There are men and women in every tribe, nation, kindred, and tongue
who are calling upon the Lord. Some lesser, some more. The gospel
is triumphant, isn't it? Christ still sits his Lord and
he's calling people to himself from glory by his spirit through
the ministry of the word. We're about to see that. Now,
why does God save a sinner? He doesn't save a sinner because
of something in the center. He saves a sinner because of
a covenant he made with his son, Jesus Christ. This is where you
find the phrase, listen to me, for Christ's sake. Got it? Why are you saved? For
Christ's sake. Why did God look on you? For
Christ's sake. Why did God draw you to himself? For Christ's
sake, why are you going to glory? For Christ's sake. Do you see
what the text said? For Jonathan's sake, for Jonathan's
sake, for Jonathan's sake. That's a characteristic of grace
that you and I must understood. There were two parties who operated
in agreement. Go with me to first Samuel chapter
20. I want you to see it for yourself. First Samuel 20, before
we move on. Now what I'm doing, saints, is
I'm talking to you about an aspect of God's grace. that you must
know. I'm talking to you about an aspect
of God's grace that you must know. You must not be free to
tell people that you know about the grace of God. And then you
begin to define God's grace contrary to what the Bible teaches. So
here we go, we are in the 20th chapter of 1 Samuel, and I'm
gonna be reading verses 14 through verse 18. And you'll see that
in this context, David and Jonathan have come to a crucial point.
Here's where they've come to. David and Jonathan love each
other like brothers. Is that true? It's just fascinating
when you read the story. Fascinating, fascinating how
God can knit two people's heart together. The precariousness
that is the backdrop to this love is that David is the arch
enemy of Jonathan's father. Jonathan's father hates David. You guys got that? Jonathan's
father is the king. Jonathan has right to the crown
for Jonathan to love whom his father hates. sets Jonathan up
to be at odds with his father. I'm talking gospel right now.
Are you hearing me? For Jonathan to have this kind
of love for David puts Jonathan at odds with David. So Jonathan
knows that because he's given over, Jonathan has given it all
up. David, you, you the man, you the man, David. He stripped
himself of his armor. He stripped himself of his privileges.
He told David, I know God's revealed it to me that you're going to
be the man on the throne. But now when you get on the throne,
this is what I want from you since you love me. Listen to
verse 14. This is Jonathan speaking to
David. Oh, let me start back at verse
eight, verse 13. The Lord do so much more to Jonathan. This is David speaking. But if
it please my father, this is Jonathan, I'm sorry. The Lord
do so much and much more to Jonathan. But if it please my father to
do the evil, David, then I will show it thee and send thee away
that thou mayest go in peace and The lord be with you as he
was before with my father and you shall not only while yet
I live show me the kindness Of the lord that I die not he's
already told Jonathan that when he takes the throne, he won't
kill jonathan. You guys got that Verse 15, but also thou shalt
not cut off thy uh, my kindred thy kindred from my house forever
Do you see that? thou should not cut off my kindred
from my house forever. No, not when the Lord had cut
off the enemies of David, everyone from the face of the earth. So
Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David saying, let
the Lord even require it at the hand of David's enemies. And
Jonathan calls David to swear again because he loved him for
he loved him as he loved his own soul. Isn't that interesting? Isn't that wonderful? You can
go back to our text. That's the context for which
David is now prompted to say, is there anybody in Jonathan's
house that I may do him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Listen very
carefully. Jonathan died for his love for David. Got it? Jonathan died along with
his father for his love for David, but his death ensured the life
of his children. And that's precisely how it was
between the father and the son. See, we are dealing with this
everlasting covenant and we are dealing with that element in
the covenant where the son says, father, I love them who by nature
you hate. I love them who by nature are
your enemies. You see, I don't know if you
know it, but by nature, God has to hate us because he can't countenance
sin. And there's nothing in you and
I by nature that's lovely. And we are born enemies of God. Oh, not me. Yes, you. You come
out of the womb, sticking your fist in God's face and I will
have my way. And the Bible tells us while
we were yet enemies, do you see it? Christ died for us. That's what I'm getting at. I'm
getting at the reason why God can smile on you and me is because
he's not looking at you and me. He's looking at a fellow that
was stuck between his love for us and his love for his father.
That's David and Jonathan. David here is a type of the father.
Jonathan is a type of the son. who as the son now is mediating
for guilty sinner. That's called mercy. That's called
grace. Got it? That's called mercy and
grace. Now I know you feel bad because I just jacked you up.
I told you you were bad. You think that's bad? Wait till
you hear me talk about you next week. We are going through a series
on the subject of God's glory. We are dealing with grace today.
And next week, I want to deal with human absolute depravity. Because see, in this generation,
we have bought into humanism and we have bought into this
idea that man is basically good. Now, that philosophy and that
ideology is diametrically opposed to scripture. And when you embrace
that philosophy, you stand over against the counsel of God and
you darken it by words without wisdom. And now you become the
enemy of God, at least philosophically and theologically. We must tell
the world the truth that while as yet you are outside of Christ,
you are the enemy of God. Do you hear me? And the wrath of God hangs on
your head. We're going to find out exactly how that wrath hangs,
because we must tell the truth about our condition. Now, if
you were this man who was about to experience the mercy of God
here in a moment, you know what you would do? Right along with
Mipha. Mephibosheth, you would recognize
that Mephibosheth agrees with me. Mephibosheth is not like
you. He agrees with me that he doesn't
deserve the mercy of David. Mephibosheth agrees that everything
that went on between his father's house and David's house merits
nothing but the wrath of God. You see, back in the fourth chapter,
Mephibosheth found out that David was conquering and prevailing
over the house of Saul, and his nurse, when he was a little baby,
ran away with him. He became a fugitive. He was
running from David. He was running from David's authority,
from David's power, from David's influence. That's what you do
while you're outside of Christ. You're running from God right
now, some of you. Talking about God loves you. You're running
from God. Why? Because his wrath hangs on your
head. His wrath hangs on your head
and you fight against this truth. You don't like to hear the gospel.
You don't like to be told what you are by nature. Why? Because the wrath of God is upon
you. That's where we are, ladies and gentlemen, and that's where
Mephibosheth is. Now, Mephibosheth ran and hid
down in Lodabar. Load a bar. David inquired, where is Mephibosheth? This is quite interesting. Now
watch how this works. You in your own heart, a child of wrath
against God, and yet God's now hunting you down. Isn't that
awesome? From heaven, God is sending his
word to hunt you down. because you're a fugitive hiding
down in Lodabar from God, running from the gospel, running, running,
but you can't hide down in Lodabar. A brother named Makir, he was
from the tribe of Manasseh. Manasseh and Gilead were the
tribes that were what we would call sort of compromised tribes. When Joshua brought the children
of Israel into the land of promise, Manasseh and Gilead weren't quite
confident that they could go all the way into the land of
promise and take it. So they asked David, sorry, Joshua, could
we have some land on the other side of Jordan? We want to be
right up against the promise, but we don't want to go into
the promise because we got to fight once we get there. So just
let us be on the other side of Jordan. It's called Gilead, the
half tribe of Gilead. They were on the other side of
Jordan. And if you need some help, by the way, call us and
then we'll cross over and help you fight. But we want to stay
over here. Joshua let him have it because God knew what he would
do way down the line when he raised up David. He would take
even that and use that as a strategic military front to get his enemies
way over in Moab. David was fighting enemies way
over in on the other side of Jordan the trans Jordanian Track
is where David is now operating David has taken the kingdom and
over in this transfer Jordanian track There's a man hiding. His
name is Mephibosheth. He is a fugitive. He hopes David
never finds him He's in a land called Lodabar What is Lodabar? It's nothing That's literally
what the word means. Nothing. It's a place where nothing
exists. It's a place where there is no
pasture, no foliage, no food. It's desert. Nothing exists there. Lodabar is a place where there
is nothing. It's literally called a pasture-less
land. That's why they called it Lodabar.
Lodabar in the literal translation means no word. The prominent Hebrew word in
the Old Testament is Dabar. The little prefix there, lo,
means no. Mephibosheth is in a place where
there's no word. That's where we all are outside
of Christ. We are in a place where there's
no word where there's no promise, where there's no gospel, where
there's no Christ. While as yet God hasn't hunted
you down, you are in a pastorless land. Am I telling the truth?
You are in a place where you can't hear God, where you can't
experience His grace, you don't know His mercy, you are without
Christ. Christ is the Word made flesh.
load a bar load a bar but now remember what we said grace does
something for a brother doesn't it you know what david said david
said go to load a bar and get it look with me over in verse
three and four and the king said is there yet any of the house
of saul that i should show the kindness of god unto him And
Zibna said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame
in his feet. We'll talk about that next week.
And the king said unto him, where is he? And Ziba said unto him,
behold, he is in the house of Macker, the son of Emiel in Lodabar. Now watch verse five. Then king
David sent and fetched him out of the house of Macker, the son
of El-Emiel from Lodabar. Here's my next point, and it's
in our outline. Dealing with the concept of God's
grace, there are four characteristics that are critical for the child
of God to remember. There are four adjectives that
I want you to get a hold of concerning the grace of God. The first is
this, God's grace is sovereign. Got that? God's grace is sovereign. Now what that means is God's
grace is not something that everybody experiences. God's grace is sovereign. Now sovereignty means God's personal
prerogative to act independently of the creature's person or work. When God acts sovereignly, He
is acting out of His own precognition without regard to your actions,
good or bad. When God acts sovereignly, He
is not compelled because of your plight. He is not compelled because
of your situation. God's sovereignty never operates
out of respect of persons for you. Are you hearing me? Sovereign
grace is even as Moses was told in Exodus 33 19 I Will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion That shut Moses's mouth Because
you know what God was saying as we make our way through the
wilderness to get to the promised land. I'm gonna kill some people I Just want you to know my ways
Moses I You don't like that, do you?
It's true. Sovereign grace is God's personal
prerogative to save whom he will, grace whom he wills, mercy whom
he wills, without any human creature having the right to say, what
are you doing? Romans chapter nine, the apostle
Paul argued that. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. And that before the children
were born, before they had done any good or any evil, to argue
that God did good to Jacob because Jacob was good, he did bad to
Esau because Esau was bad. No, we're all bad. And he should do bad to all of
us. But he has chosen in his sovereign grace to do good to
some. And if you have experienced God's
grace, you better take your place with Mephibosheth right now.
You better take your place with Mephibosheth right now, because
the fact of the matter is the whole house of Saul was just
about wiped out. And the question was, is there
anybody left in Saul's house? Yeah, that fella that ran. he
running from God in that place of fear in that place of doubt
in that place of anxiety knowing that the wrath of God hung on
his head knowing that it is appointed unto men once to die and after
this the judgment he knew it he knew it and when he heard
that David was coming after him can you imagine the ride from
Lodabar which was about a 40 mile ride to Jerusalem And you
know how kings are, they don't tell you what they're up to until
they get you in their presence. He brings Mephibosheth to Lodabah. Are you hearing me? And that's
how God deals with you and me. When God starts dealing with
us, He doesn't comfort us first, He convicts us. Now conviction
is different than condemnation. Folks walk around with condemnation
all the time. God's people walk around with conviction. I believe
God, don't you? I'm convinced that I'm a sinner.
God doesn't have to twist my arm anymore. I know what I am. And I know that as God drug me
into his presence, he drug me into his presence and I was fearing
and I was trembling. And you were too. As you contemplated
the possibility of standing before God, you were aware that it might
just be that God would pour his wrath out on us and you would
be right. By nature, we are objects of wrath. Can you imagine Mephibosheth
being brought to David thinking, now I'm about to die? Well, he
had to think that way because he was in the land of what? Lodibor. No word, no gospel, no promise,
no hope, no Christ. Am I telling the truth? And as
he gets brought into the presence of David, we see something wonderful. But before we go there, I want
you to mark what David did. The King, verse five, David sent
and fetched him. We can't get past this without
marking the significance of that, because some of you need to know
it. God's grace is sovereign. He saves whom he wills. His grace
is also free. Are you guys hearing me? It's
free. That means you can't earn God's
grace. If you could, it wouldn't be grace, it would be works.
That means when God poured his grace on you, it wasn't because
of something you did. But he did it out of his own
prerogative. So your action of accepting Jesus or receiving
Jesus was not the basis for the grace of God. It was the evidence
that God's grace was already operating in your life. Is that
OK? All through the Bible, God talks
about his free mercy, his free grace, his free love, his free
justification. God has loved us freely. God
has saved us freely. God has chose us freely. God
has justified us freely. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
He has been merciful to us freely. In other words, it didn't cost
us a dime. It didn't cost us a dime. And
that free grace not only was free in his character, but it
freed us from our sins. Isn't that what it did? Let my
people go. Do you know how free Mephibosheth
is about to be? He's about to be liberated from
his fear. from what he was sure was certain damnation. He gets
brought into David's presence, which brings us to the next point
of the nature of grace. Here it is. Grace is effectual. Please hear me. Grace is effectual.
We have to fight against our contemporary interpretation of
biblical concepts. This religious generation has
stretched grace out so far that it's not recognizable. You know
how you take a knitted sweater and you just stretch it way out?
Can't even wear the thing no more, it's all stretched out.
That's what people have done with God's grace. They talk about
God's grace in everything. God's grace over here, God's
grace, or God just being gracious. Listen to me now. When they talk
like that, they deny God's exclusivity, they deny God's character, and
they deny God's efficacy. Because not everyone is experiencing
the grace of God, but the ones who do experience the power of
that grace. Mephibosheth was down in Lodabar,
not only unwilling to come to David, unable, because he was
lame in his feet. And that's the way you and I
are outside of the grace of God. While as yet you and I are dead,
dead, dead in trespasses and sins, we not only are not willing
to come to God, we can't. Am I telling the truth? We can
I'll be dealing with that the impotency of the wheel because
we're dealing with doctrine these days And God in his mercy not
only said well, I want to be gracious to David No, he said
I'm gonna be gracious to Mephibosheth and he went down there and you
know what the verb is fetched him You better hope God fetches
you See my country brother feel pretty good right about now because
they got country terms in the Bible We don't use fetch around
here. Go fetch him. We do in the South,
don't we? Go fetch him. Some of our older folks use the
word, go fetch him. But the verb means, listen to me, the verb
means to carry, to pick up, to draw, to apprehend, to exercise
full authority over. It's not send a letter. It's
go get him. It's beautiful. It's a nuptial
term that has to do with the man taking his wife and picking
her up and taking her across the threshold. She gets to get
carried into the covenant realm. And that's how God is when he
saves a sinner like you and me. He comes get us. Am I telling
the truth? He comes get us right where we
are. Right where we are and our trespassers just start dealing
with us. Start picking us up and carrying us to himself. That's
what we call effectual, effectual grace. Is that what happened
to you? Right where you are, God picked you up and start carrying
you to himself. Mephibosheth is being carried
40 miles from no word into the presence of the King. That's
called effectual powerful grace. And he's there now, and I want
you to hear what it says. This is glorious. We're in verses
six and seven. Now, when Mephibosheth, the son
of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was coming to David, how'd he
get to David? David brought him there, right?
How'd you come to Christ? Christ drew you. He brought you
to himself. No man can come unto me except
my father, which sent me what? Draw him. And he fell on his
face. That's what you do when you get
to Christ. Am I telling the truth? And he fell on his face. And
he fell on his face, that's what it said, and did reverence. You
know what that is? Worship. Now watch this. And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, behold thy servant. Complete subjection to the king. No argument, no debate. When you come to Christ, you
don't argue with him, you bow. and you submit to his full crown
rights and you acknowledge your servanthood. Now notice what
he goes on to say. And David said unto him, isn't
this our Lord? Fear not. Now, isn't that how
good God is to us? See, you know, Mephibosheth was
afraid because the power has taken him and brought him into
the presence of the king and he doesn't know the king's grace
yet. and he's dropped right at the
feet of the king and all Mephibosheth is doing is quaking in his boots. And God says, don't fear. See,
now he's hearing the word of promise. Now he's hearing a word
of grace. Now he's hearing a word of mercy.
Don't fear. I am not going to do to you what
you deserve. Isn't that good? I am not going
to do to you what you deserve. Listen to this. And David said
unto him, fear not, for I will surely show you kindness for
Jonathan, your father's sake. Do you see that, saints? For
Jonathan, your father's sake, I'm gonna show you kindness.
Children of God, God saved you for Christ's sake. God saved
you for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake is he showing
kindness to sinners today. For Christ's sake. Listen to
it. And thou shalt, now I love this. and I shall restore all
the land of Saul thy father and you shall eat bread at my table
continually. Isn't that overwhelming? Here
you are one minute ago, afraid of this God who is a consuming
fire. The next minute, God says, don't
fear. I'm giving you all that you had
and more. I'm bringing you and sitting
you at my table. I know that Mephibosheth couldn't
believe that. Because we don't believe it.
Isn't it true? When you hear the grace of God
taught and expounded, the glories of Christ, all that Christ has
done for you, it's hard to believe in that. See, because you and
I are stuck between what God said and what we are. And that has a tendency to cancel
out the verity of what God says to us. I know he said it, but
I can't quite believe it. You mean I have been taken from
nowhere? and set not only in the presence
of the king, but I am now going to be at the table of the king.
This is what God does for sinners in Christ when he takes them
from the downhill of damnation and sets them on high with princes.
when He brings them out of darkness into His marvelous light, when
He raises them from the dead and gives them life and faith
in Jesus Christ, and He sits them in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus at the right hand of God. Everything that Christ is, we
are in Him. Do you believe that? Which brings
me to my last characteristic of grace that you need to hear.
Not only is the grace of God sovereign, not only is it free,
aren't you glad it's free? You ain't got nothing to pay
for God's grace. His grace is effectual. It did
something for you. You fought against it, didn't
you? You fought against it, but God reached down and turned your
heart. That gospel that you hated. Now
you love to hear the gospel, don't you? Now Christ is lovely
to you. Now he comforts your soul. Now
you delight in the Savior. That's what Mephibosheth is starting
to find out. Can't believe it. But the next thing is, is God's
grace is glorious. It's glorious. God's grace is
glorious. The grace of God is glorious. And what I mean by that is, the
grace of God's first flows from God's nature. God by nature is
glorious. God by nature is gracious. It's
not merely what he does, it's what he is. Is not God gracious?
And so we say that when men and women are saved, what it means
to be saved is not to merely buy into a set of theological
propositions, but to be brought into a relationship with the
true and the living God. Salvation is God joining himself
to you through Christ. Got it? That's what salvation
is. And so God, pours his grace into
the life of the sinner and now the sinner by virtue of that
grace can experience God's glory. To sit at David's table, to eat
with David is glorious and grace flows from God's nature which
is glorious. It saves the sinner which is
a glorious act. It conforms the sinner to Christ,
which is an even more glorious act. Can you imagine what you're
going to look like when you get the glory compared to what you
look like now? That's glorious. And when he's
done, you will be made compatible to that essential glory of God
by which we can see his face. See his face. and be with him
for all eternity. Grace is glorious. Isn't that good? Quite interesting
as we close. While our feet are planted on
the ground, God does that. Keep your feet on the ground,
boy. I don't want you to get too excited. Look at the last
two verses. Thou therefore, Mephibosheth,
and your son and your servants, shall till the land for him.
And you shall bring in the fruits that your master, he's speaking
to the servant of Mephibosheth, that your master's son may have
food to eat. But Mephibosheth thy master's
son shall eat bread always at my table. Verse 11. Then said Ziba unto the king,
according to all that my master said and commanded his servant,
so shall your servant do as for Mephibosheth and the king, he
shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons. He was the king's enemy. Now
he's the king's son. You and I were children of wrath,
even as others, but in Christ we have been adopted in the beloved.
We are now sons of God. Awesome. Awesome. Just, just, you know, flip out
now. Awesome. Awesome. It's over with. Nearer, so nearer to God I cannot
be, for in the person of his son I'm as near as he. You cannot be nearer, you cannot
be dearer to God than to be in his son. For when you are in
his son, you are just like Christ to him. I don't know how to figure
that out, but it's glorious. It's glorious. And he sat at
David's table enjoying the blessings of God. Infinite blessing. And he was lame in his feet.
Lame in his feet. Lame in his feet. Which means
you don't shape your mouth to tell somebody that you're not
still a sinner. Only a sinner. Saved by grace. To God be the glory. Only a sinner. He'd get down from that table.
He had to crawl everywhere he went. Because that's all we are. until he comes again. Sons and
daughters of God who are sinners saved by grace. Amen.