Somehow in the process of religious
confusion, preachers by and large have convinced themselves that
preaching is proving theological points and issues, debating. Preaching is telling a story. That's all it is, is telling
a story. Not proving anything, just telling
a story. of God's free, saving grace for
poor sinners like us in Jesus Christ the Lord. And God tells
it in a lot of ways. You'll be turning, if you will,
to 2 Samuel Chapter 9, but stop along the way in 1 Samuel Chapter
20. Here we have two of the most
remarkable human beings in the history of the world. One of
them was in line for the throne of Israel. And the other one
was the man God had chosen and anointed to be the king of Israel. In order for David to become
the king, Jonathan, Saul's son, knew he must die. And Jonathan
was perfectly willing to take that place. For the glory of
God and the good of the kingdom, and he loved David. Loved him
as he loved his own soul. And David had been ordained of
God to be king. He knew the crown was his. He
knew that God had chosen him, and God had anointed him, and
he knew that Saul wasn't fit for killing. He knew Saul was
a worthless king, but David did nothing to promote himself to
the throne. He allowed no one else to do
anything to promote him to the throne. He waited for God to
establish him as king. Now just before Saul was killed
and his son Jonathan, Jonathan knowing Saul's determination
to murder David made a covenant with David and required David
to make a covenant with him. 1 Samuel 20, verse 14, Jonathan
is speaking. He's speaking to 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. Now, sixteen years later, We
come to 2 Samuel chapter 9. And David has come now to the
time when he would fulfill his covenant promises to his friend
Jonathan. And it really involved just one
thing, kindness to his house, mercy, goodness. It's called
repeatedly in the scriptures, the kindness of God, the kindness
of the Lord. And David is determined to fulfill
his covenant promise, so he seeks out the last living member of
the house of his dear friend, Jonathan. Let's read this chapter
together. 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, Art thou Ziba? And he said, Thy servant is he.
And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul
that I may show the kindness of God unto him? And Ziba said
unto the king, Jonathan, hath yet a son, which is lame on his
feet.' And the king said unto him, Where is he? And Ziba said
unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Makar, the son
of Emel, in Lodibar. Then King David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Makar, the son of Emel, from Lodibar. Now when Mephibosheth the son
of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was coming to David. He fell
on his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth? And he answered, Behold thy servant. And David said unto him, Fear
not, for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's
sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father. and thou shalt eat bread at my
table continually.' And he bowed himself and said, What is thy
servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as
I am? Then the king called to Ziba,
Saul's servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master's
son all that pertain to Saul, and to all his house. Thou therefore
and thy sons and thy servants shall kill the land for him,
and thou shalt bring in the fruits, that thy master's son may have
food to eat. But Mephibosheth thy master's
son shall eat bread all way at my table." Now Ziba had fifteen
sons and twenty servants. Then said Ziba unto the king,
According to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant,
so shall thy 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 to Mephibosheth. So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem,
for he did eat continually at the king's table, and was laying
on both his feet." David sent for Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth,
and brought him to the palace. And when Mephibosheth first learned
that the king had found him, he had been hiding now all these
hiding, secreting himself from the presence of the King, knowing
full well that David had killed every last one of Saul's sons
except him, and that he did it by the command and decree of
God. He must have been terrified.
He must have been terrified. Ziba goes down to Lodibar and
he said, Mephibosheth, King David, has sent me to bring you to the
palace. I can just imagine how he must have trembled. This man,
Mephibosheth, comes before David expecting to be slain. And what
a surprise he found. David brought him to his palace
because of his love for his father, Jonathan, only to be gracious
and merciful and good to Mephibosheth. Now let me tell you the story
once more and follow me through the scriptures as I try to tell
you this story and show you the kindness of God to you and me,
his chosen people. Let me show you four or five
things here. First, Mephibosheth was a shameful man, utterly unfit
for the king's palace. completely unworthy of the king's
notice, a shameful man. In fact, his name Mephibosheth
means shameful. He was poor, destitute, and helpless. All the sons of Adam might well
be named Mephibosheth. We are all as an unclean thing. From the sole of the foot, even
to the crown of the head, there is no soundness in us but wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores. Mephibosheth is my name. Mephibosheth is my nature, and
yours too. Shameful. Like the leper, we
have an incurable disease. Like the harlot, we're defiled. Your name and mine is Mephibosheth. a shameful thing in heart, in
will, and in deed. And Mephibosheth, this shameful
man, was the natural-born enemy to David the king. He was Saul's
son. Saul's son. He was hiding from
David that David wasn't his enemy. And by nature, all the sons and
daughters of Adam are enemies of God and enemies to God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. That is to say, every man, woman,
and child who ever lived in this world lives by nature hating
and despising everything about God. Hating God. Hating God. We teach our children
as we bounce them on our knees, as mamas nurse them at their
breast. We teach our children from their youth up that which
is totally contrary to divine revelation. We teach them to
say, I love Jesus, I love the Lord, I love God, and nothing
could be further from the truth. Wonder why they live liars. We teach them to lie from their
youth. We teach them that which is false, and they're bound to
discover it sooner or later. Oh, but my boy's different. He
loves the Lord. No, your boy's just like mine
and just like the neighbor's. The carnal mind, every thought
of the natural mind springs from a heart that hates God. Hates God. Hates the fact that
he is. Hates everything about his character.
Hates everything he does because man by nature really wants to
be God. We were hiding from God when
He saved us, like Adam, hiding in the garden, like Mephibosheth
down in Lodebar. But in spite of all that, in
spite of the fact that if we could have got our hands on Him,
we'd have killed Him, God Almighty has never been our enemy. Never. Never was a time. Turn
to Romans 5. Let me show you. Hold your hands
here in 2 Samuel. Turn to Romans 5. But doesn't
the Bible teach that we were born children of wrath and went
astray from the womb, speaking lies here like everybody else?
Of course it does. Doesn't the Bible declare that all men without
faith in Christ abide under the wrath of God? Of course it does.
Conscientiously. That is, as far as they know.
As far as I knew. All the days of my life, I was
under the wrath of God and God Almighty was after me. But what
I thought wasn't true. God Almighty had reconciled me
to himself before the world began. Before ever I went astray in
the Adam fall and went astray from my mother's wooden speech
and lies, I was reconciled to God by the death of his son. And it was accomplished in time
at Calvary. Look at Romans 5, verse 5. Hope maketh not ashamed. Because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. Not He began loving
us then, it was shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were 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, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Now watch this. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Since
Christ died for us, we're justified, and since he justified us, there's
no possibility of condemnation. Look at verse 10. For if, for
if, when we were enemies, We were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son. What did that say? When you were
still living with your fist shoved in God's face. Reconciled to
Him by the death of His Son. Much more. Now that God's broken
your rebellion. Now that God by His almighty
grace has subdued your heart. Now that God has made the rebel
a willing servant. Being reconciled. We shall be
saved by His life. Turn over to 2 Corinthians, chapter
5. Paul tells us in verse 18, we're God's ambassadors. We have
the word of reconciliation. This is it. Verse 19, that God
was in Christ reconciling the world. Reconciling everybody
in the world? Of course not. Reconciling His
elect throughout the world? That's got to be what it means,
because the whole world wouldn't reconcile. God was in Christ
reconciling the world of his elect unto himself. How is that? Not imputing their trespasses
unto them. David Byrd just read back in
the office a little bit ago, Psalm 32. Blessed is the man
to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. The apostle Paul quotes
that Psalm and says, blessed is the man to whom God will not
impute sin. And here he says, God was in
Christ reconciling us, his people scattered through all the world
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath
committed to us this word, this message of reconciliation. Now
then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were talking
to you by this man who is speaking to you. We beseech you. Be ye reconciled to God. Put down your shotgun and bow
to Jesus Christ. Quit trying to attack God from
your hearts in mystery. Quit your rebellion. Be reconciled
to God. Kiss the Son. How come? For He hath made Him to be sin
for us, His natural born enemy. who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. And now, by the preaching
of the gospel, God Almighty is ever beseeching sinners to be
reconciled to Him. The gospel addresses men and
women as they really are. Doesn't attempt to dress it up,
doesn't attempt to cover facts. I'm talking to you who yet live
without faith in Christ, and I'm here to confront you. I'm
here to confront you as the ambassador of the King of Glory, to confront
your rebellion, to confront you with God's terms of peace for
your soul. And God's terms of peace for
your soul are absolute surrender, nothing else. That's what reconciliation
is. Quit fighting God. Quit opposing
God. Bow to His Son. And this man,
Mephibosheth, who was shameful, disgusting, the natural born
enemy of David the king, was lame. Lame on both his feet. Lame through a fall. We read
it in verse 3. When news reached the palace
that Saul and Jonathan had been killed on the battlefield. Mephibosheth was just five years
old and his nurse knew that Mephibosheth would be a marked man. Knew that
Mephibosheth, being Saul's son, would be put to death. That was
her presumption. And so she grabbed the boy up
in a panic. and ran away from the palace,
finding a hiding place for him. As she did, she dropped him,
broke both his legs. And he was from that day on lame
on both his feet. Lame through it all. That's a
pretty good picture of us. Shameful. Enemies of God and
lame. God created man upright. You ever wonder What kind of
man Adam must have been. The power of his mind. The strength
of his body. That man, Adam, named every creature
of God by himself, darling. By himself. Named them. No assistance given. Oh, what a mind he must have
had. What brilliance. What understanding.
He rebelled against God until he fell. And that's left us in
the shape we're in. God created man upright, but
man who sought out many inventions became helpless. And we are now
lame cripples because of the fall of our father Adam. Lame
cripples. I know it's not politically correct
to use the word cripple. Political correctness, you see,
is the illegitimate child of false religion, because we won't
dare say anything where it really is. You know what a cripple is?
A cripple is somebody who's helpless. Got to have somebody else to
help them. Got to have somebody else to carry them from one place
to the other. Got to have someone else to assist
them along the way. But we are far worse than physical
cripples without ability physically. Man by nature, since the fall,
is a spiritual cripple. And assistance won't help us. Our crippling fall is the fall
of death. And our Lord says as the result,
no man can come to me. Not a possibility. Not a possibility. I thought I was talking to me
earlier today. He said, I believe God gives us, God's so great,
He gives us the choice. He's so great, He stoops to our
footstool and makes us the God of God. That's the meaning of
the language. So great that He allows us to
make the decision. You wonder where folks get the
notion about religion, don't you? It's not out of this book.
Not out of this book. Our Lord said, no man, C-A-N,
can. That's not a word of permission,
that's a word of ability. No man has the ability to come
to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him. That doesn't mean except the
Father which has sent me kindly tug at his heart and say, pretty
please come to me. That doesn't mean that the Father
which has sent me give him a nudge in the right direction. That
means no man can come to me. And because he cannot, he will
not come to me, that he might have life except my Father put
his Spirit in him and fetch him to me. And if the Father draws
him, oh, if God's pleased to intervene tonight, and fetch
you to Christ, our Lord says, and I will raise him up at the
last day. Well, what does all that mean?
That means you're dead in trespasses and in sins. A spiritual cripple,
an impotent soul. You have neither the ability
nor the will to come to Christ but God, who is rich in mercy. For his great love wherewith
he loved us has quickened us together with Christ. That's
the only reason you're sitting here worshiping God now, because
God stepped in. And if God steps into your life,
draws you to his Son, the Son of God will raise you up at the
last day. And the fibbership, that period
of 2 Samuel 9, was far off from David the king. In verse 4, we're
told that he was in the house of Mekah, the son of Emiel in
Lodibar, far away from the king, far away from Jerusalem, the
place of blessing, the place of peace, the place of worship. He was in the house of Mekah.
The man's name means sold. He was in a place called Lodibar,
a place of no bread. That's where God found me by
His grace. sold unto sin. In the place where I fain would
have filled my belly with the husk, the swine did eat, but
there was no bread for my soul. All right, here's the second
thing. Verses 4 and 5. The fiddler's chef was a shameful
thing, but David fetched him. I love that word, don't you?
And the king said unto him, said to Ziba, Where is Mephibosheth?
And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of
Mekah, the son of Amiel in Lodibar. Then the king sent and fetched
him out of the house of Mekah, the son of Amiel from Lodibar."
Now, for you folks who aren't familiar with southern culture
and southern ways, especially in the mountain areas, fetch
is a good southern word. When I was a boy, my grandmother
and aunt lived in a house that had a spring out behind the house,
had a spring house. And they would send me to fetch
water. And you know, when I was just
a little boy, I knew exactly what they meant. I never dreamed
of going out there and setting a bucket down and calling the
water to come get in the bucket. Never dreamed of that. Never
dreamed of just standing at the door and holding it open and
saying, water, come in. Never dreamed of it. That meant,
Don, you go out to the spring house, take this bucket with
you, and bring us some water. This is what David did. He sent
Ziba down to Lodibar and fetched Mephibosheth. This is what God
the Holy Spirit does when He calls sinners by His grace. He
fetches them to Christ with irresistible, omnipotent mercy. He fetches
them. Abraham was in Ur of the Chaldees,
but God fetched him out. Moses was in Midian, but God
fetched him out. Our Lord Jesus one day walking
through the streets And a man by the name of Zacchaeus had
climbed up in a sycamore tree, a little man, short of stature,
a despised man, a tax collector, working for the Roman government,
but a Jew. And the Lord Jesus came to the
place where Zacchaeus was, and he said, Zacchaeus, make haste
and come down, for today I must abide at thy house. And his reason
for it, he said, for he too is a son of Abraham. He too is the
object of God's mercy. He too is a covenant child. And
so the time came called the time of love when the Son of God came
to where Zacchaeus was and fetched him to himself. Our Lord Jesus
found Saul of Tarsus in the desert. on his way to persecute the church,
despising him, despising God's Son. And the only way to get
to God's Son was to get to his people. And the Lord thanked
him to himself. The Lord had a man, an Ethiopian,
for whom the time of love had come. And he picked up his servant,
Philip, and in a whirlwind, took him down to where that Ethiopian
was. and caused him to preach the gospel to him in the power
of the spirit. How did he do that? Well, he
heard that Ethiopian reading Isaiah 53 and he walked along
the way and he said, do you understand what you're reading? Do you understand
what you're reading? And that Ethiopian, he said,
how can I? I said, some man showed me. He
said, scoot over, I'll show you. And he opened the scriptures. God opened his heart and caused
him to hear. Mephibosheth then in verse 6
comes before David and he comes with reverent submission. David
said, Mephibosheth, as he falls on his face and does reverence,
Mephibosheth answered, Behold thy servant. When he first came
into the king's palace, he reverenced David. with fear and trembling. He didn't have any idea what
David was fixing to do. No indication that Ziba told
him what David had told him. And Mephibosheth comes before
the king, terrified, recognizing the king's authority and the
king's power, and he throws himself at the king's throne at his feet. That's the way to come to Christ. Prostrate yourself at the throne
of grace. No arguments, nothing to offer
him, no plea to make. Throw yourself and sue for mercy. And David broke his fear. He called Mephibosheth by name
and spoke peace to him. He said, Mephibosheth, Mephibosheth, I've been waiting
for 16 years to do this. I've been holding this up for
16 years. Mephibosheth, fear not. For I
will surely show thee kindness." Throw yourself at the feet of
God the Son and He will speak personally to you and speak peace
to you and do you kindness. Now watch this. Mephibosheth
was received in all his deformity. He's still lame on both his feet.
He, no indication that he cleaned himself up. Ziba was sitting
down there to fetch it. And Mephibosheth throws himself
on his face before David's throne. And David said, don't be afraid,
I'll do you kindness. And he embraced him and received
him in all his deformity for Jonathan's sake. Just as I am
without one plea. But that thy blood was shed for
me, O Lamb of God, I come to thee." That's how you come to
Him. No preparations, no qualifications, nothing. Come to Him just as
you are. And in verse 4 or verse 7 we're
told, David said unto him, Fear not, for I will surely show thee
kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake. and will restore thee all
the land of Saul thy father, and thou shalt eat bread at my
table continually." David received him because he loved Jonathan. That's all. Because he loved
Jonathan. David didn't owe Mephibosheth
a thing. Mephibosheth had no claim on him, but he owed Jonathan
a lot. And Jonathan had a great claim
on him. Will you hear me? God Almighty receives every sinner
who comes to Him through Jesus Christ the Lord because of Christ's
precious blood, His perfect obedience, His complete satisfaction of
justice by His death, His perfect righteousness because God loves
He receives such things as we are because of His love for His
Son. And He receives us in His Son. And Mephibosheth, when he found
out something about David's love for Jonathan, something about
David's magnanimous character, found out something about David's
great, great goodness when he came to David. He learned those
things. And he learned to have a very
true, proper, accurate estimate of himself. Look at verse 8.
He bowed himself and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest
look upon such a dead dog as I am? Such a dead dog. that Syro-Phoenician woman took
her place as a dog before the Lord Jesus and said, it'd be
all right for the dogs to eat the crumbs that fall from the
master's table, wouldn't it? And that was great faith. But here's
the biblical shift. He doesn't just call himself
a dog, but a dead dog. Dogs are dirty animals, filthy
animals. Now, don't misunderstand me.
I like dogs. But dogs are filthy animals, filthy animals. Loyal
but filthy. Filthy animal. What did you ever
see eat a dead dog? What did you ever see eat a dead
dog? Filthy animal. That's what you are. That's what
I am. And we learn to look upon ourselves
as such only when we see the goodness and mercy of God in
Christ's forgiving sin. And then in verses 9 and 10,
Mephibosheth was reconciled. God had long ago been reconciled
to us, reconciling us to Him on the grounds of perfect justice.
But if we would enter into glory, we must be reconciled to Him.
And David was reconciled to Mephibosheth long before Mephibosheth came
to him. This was done on covenant terms
before ever David met Mephibosheth or Mephibosheth met David. Verse
9, The king called Ziba, Saul's servant, and said unto him, I
have given unto thy master's son all that pertain to Saul
and to his house. Thou therefore and thy sons and
thy servants shall kill the land for him, and thou shalt bring
in the fruits that thy master's son may have food to eat." That's
what God does for us in Christ. He restores back what He took
not away. and gives us more than we lost
in our father Adam, and He commands all the world to till the ground
for us. The sons of Ham are servants
to the sons of Shem and Japheth, because God commands all the
world to take care of His own. Now, what's this? But Lefibulsheth
thy master's son, shall eat bread all the way at my table.' Now
Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. Mephibosheth was restored
to David, and David restored to Mephibosheth everything he
had lost. And he sat continually in the
palace and ate bread at the king's table as one of the king's sons. And the scripture tells us that
he was still laying on both his feet, still just as helpless
as he was before, still just as deformed as he was before. But he sat under the king's table
and his twisted, mangled, ugly feet nobody could see. That's where we sit in Christ
Jesus our Lord, continually feeding at the king's table in perpetual
fellowship with the king himself. It is our privilege, our joy,
our honor to walk in the company of the king of glory, to speak
freely to the king of the universe, to live upon his riches, to live
under his constant care. And because of the grace that
Mephibosheth received, Oh, how he loved the king. You don't
need to turn there, but in chapter 19, Absalom let a revolt against
his father. And David had to flee for his
life. And when the king returns to
Jerusalem, Mephibosheth had, he said to Ziba, he said, David's
coming home. Sat on my ass and we'll go meet
him. And Ziba left him sitting and went out after the king and
slandered Mephibosheth. David said, where is your master,
Mephibosheth? He said, oh, Mephibosheth, he
seized the opportunity with Absalom and he thought this is it, David's
going to be killed. And oh, Mephibosheth was sad
there, but I'm loyal to you. I've followed you, I stayed with
you all this time, and I'll come out to meet you." And when the
king got back to Jerusalem, he said to Mephibosheth, why didn't
you come meet me? He said, my servant Ziba, he
sat on his ass and left me sitting here, and he slandered me before
you. And David said, no need to talk
about this anymore, but I've given Ziba everything that I'd
given to you, all your father's fields, everything. And the fiddle
chef said, let him have it all. I've got the king full of gratitude,
full of praise, because he knew who and what he was, and he knew
who David was and what David had done for him. He wanted nothing
else. But Lacrosse told me a story
this morning, illustrates what I'm saying. Sunday school boy
in class, the teacher required him to learn the 23rd Psalm. And he just couldn't get it.
He just couldn't get it. And they called on his boy to
stand up and recite the psalm. And he said, The Lord is my shepherd,
and that's all I have to know. The Lord's my shepherd, and that's
all I need to know. Amen.