is God's kindness toward us,
and it is exceedingly great. Justice gives every man exactly
what he deserves. Justice never considers circumstance,
age, or condition. Justice never considers extenuating
things. Justice gives every man exactly
that which is his due. It shows no favor, it gives no
mercy. But grace, grace is the free
favor of God toward us in Christ. It is unmerited, unwarranted,
and unexpected. Grace is purely a matter of charity. That's all it is. As a matter
of fact, the word charity comes from the word that is commonly
translated grace. It is purely a matter of charity,
exercised sovereignly and spontaneously, arising purely from the heart
of God. As Lindsay has been showing you
in the exposition of Romans 9 in the last few weeks, God's grace
and mercy toward us has nothing to do with what we are or what
we do. It is altogether God's sovereign
act arising spontaneously from his heart. It is attracted by
nothing in us, but repelled by everything about us. Divine grace
is God's free favor, bestowing all the gifts of His kindness,
mercy, and love upon lost sinners for Christ's sake. It is not
just shown to those who have no merit. Grace is shown to those
who have much demerit. It is not merely bestowed upon
the ill-deserving. Grace is bestowed freely upon
the hell-deserving. If ever we grasp the gospel,
if ever we understand the teaching of this book with regard to God's
free, sovereign grace in Jesus Christ, then all notion of merit
will vanish from our hearts. We will be made to understand
that the creature has absolutely no merit before God Almighty. None whatsoever. We deserve nothing
from God but His wrath. Let me make that as personal
as I possibly can. If I could sit down beside each
one of you, put my arms around your shoulders, and look you
square in the eyes, I want you to hear me just like I was talking
to you like that. You deserve nothing from God but eternal
damnation. Do you understand that? You have
no merit before God Almighty. You have no worth before God
Almighty, except as the objects of His just wrath. That's true
of you, and that's true of me. We are justified, listen now,
freely by His grace. By grace are you saved. Salvation
is the work only of God's free grace in Jesus Christ. The scripture
tells us that as plainly and as repeatedly as it possibly
can throughout the Old Testament as well as the New. Now, there's
an old saying, one picture's worth a thousand words. Well,
let me give you one picture. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 21 and
verse 7. David has killed the last sons
of Saul's house. Remember Saul did not honor the
treaty made between Israel and the Gibeonites, and now because
of Saul's treason against the Gibeonites, God requires David
to give to the Gibeonites that which they required. They said,
we'll have seven sons of Saul. Give us his seven sons, we'll
hang them up, and that'll put an end to the matter. And so
David takes Saul's last seven sons, except one. And he was
the eighth. He was the one son who didn't
count. He was the one son nobody looked at. He was the one son
nobody cared for. He takes all of Saul's sons except
Mephibosheth and hangs them up to die as a matter of divine
justice. The slaughter of Saul's sons
was justice. The slaughter of Saul's sons
was exactly what was due to Saul's house as a matter of right, justice,
and truth. Now look at the text. 2 Samuel
21, verse 7, But the king spared Mephibosheth. But God, who is
rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, by
grace he has saved us through Jesus Christ the Lord. 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. Now who was this Prince Mephibosheth? He is Jonathan's last surviving
son, the last living survivor of Saul's royal house. When the
news reached the palace that Saul and Jonathan both were slain
on the battlefield of Gilboa, Mephibosheth's nurse picked him
up, he was just a boy, five years old, and she fled for refuge
to get out of the way for she knew of certainty that the house
of Saul was fallen and Saul's sons in the customary manner
would surely be slain. And so she fled with the baby
seeking to save his life. But as she did, in her panic,
the baby fell. And when he fell, he crippled
both his feet. And he was from that day on lame on both his
feet. Now turn back with me, if you
will, to the passage we read earlier in 2 Samuel chapter 9. When you open this passage of
Scripture, 16 years had now passed since David and Jonathan had
made their covenant together. You can read about that covenant
in chapter 21. 1 Samuel, or chapter 20 rather of 1 Samuel, I think
it is, along about verses 14 through 17 or 18. Jonathan knew
that God had given the kingdom to David, and he knew that in
order for God to give the kingdom to David, he had to die. He understood
that. Jonathan understood that he was
going to be killed one way or another, and he was perfectly
content, because he loved David. But he took David aside and he
said, now David, swear to me, swear to me, that you will be
merciful, gracious, and kind to my sons after I'm dead. Swear
to me that you'll not destroy my house." And David said, I
do. And the love between Jonathan and David, we're told in scripture,
was greater than the love of a man and a woman one for another.
Jonathan loved David as his own soul, and David loved Jonathan
as his own soul. And then a second time, Jonathan
called David out into the field when he understood that the kingdom
was about to be taken from the house of Saul. He said, now David,
we made a covenant. Swear again to me. Swear to me
that you will not destroy my family. And so David now seeks
an opportunity to fulfill his covenant responsibilities to
his beloved companion, Jonathan. And he's sent for Mephibosheth.
brought him to the king's palace. I read this text of scripture
and I think to myself, if I had been Mephibosheth, and I'd been
in hiding all these years, and suddenly I found out the king
found out where I was. I suspect if I could figure out
any way to do so, I'd crawl into a hole and try to hide some more.
That's exactly what happened when I found out God had found
me. When I found out God's eye was
upon me, Mephibosheth must have trembled, terrified. He must
have been horrified. The king has found me and says
for me to come to the palace. Now that wasn't an invitation.
This man was king and I've got to go to the palace. Whatever
he does to me, he's the king. I've got to go to the palace.
And then I think to myself, what a blessed surprise this man found. when he fell down before David
and said, behold, thy servant, here I am. I'm in your hands,
you're the king, I'm your servant. You can do whatever you want
to. And David saw the fear and trembling on his face. He said,
fear not. Don't be afraid. I'm not brought
you here to destroy you. I brought you here to be merciful
to you, to fulfill the kindness of God to you for Jonathan's
sake. Now follow along with me as I
show you how this story sets forth the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Behind the noble kindness of
David toward Mephibosheth, the gospel of God's marvelous grace
towards us shines forth most beautifully. When the poor crippled
son of Jonathan was brought from Lodibar to Jerusalem and made
to sit at the king's table, you will see as we go through this
story that words could never begin to express this man's gratitude. And when a slave to sin and Satan
is set free from the curse of God's law, and set free in righteousness
to serve Jesus Christ the Lord, made to be an heir of God and
joint heir with Jesus Christ, made to sit at the king's table
as one of the king's sons. Eternity itself will be insufficient
to express the gratitude that is due to his name from our unworthy
hearts. David's kindness then to Jonathan,
or to Mephibosheth for Jonathan's sake, is a beautiful, clear picture
of God's loving kindness and tender mercies to sinners for
Christ's sake. Let me show you as we go along.
I'll call your attention to four or five things. First, Mephibosheth
shows us God's grace and mercy by displaying his condition.
Mephibosheth was in a very miserable condition when the king sought
him out. He was altogether unworthy of
David's attention, his regard, or his favor. But David freely
showed kindness to Mephibosheth for Jonathan's sake. It didn't
have a thing to do with Mephibosheth. David didn't even know who Mephibosheth
was until he brought him into his palace. He wasn't even aware
of Mephibosheth's existence until he brought him into his palace.
So his kindness toward this man had absolutely nothing to do
with this man himself. It was altogether for the sake
of another, for Jonathan's sake. And so it is that God Almighty
shows grace and mercy to us, not because of us, but because
of Christ Jesus, His Son, for Christ's sake. And His condition,
Mephibosheth's condition, is a pretty good representation
of our condition by nature. His name, Mephibosheth, means
shameful. Shameful. He's given another
name in the book of 2 Chronicles, Mary Bale. That is, it is a coiler
of shame. Mephibosheth means shameful and
a shameful thing he was. He was poor, destitute, helpless. Well indeed, may all the sons
and daughters of Adam wear the name Mephibosheth. That's your
name. That's your name. That's your
name. That's my name, Mephibosheth. Shameful things we are. This
is what the scripture says. We are all as an unclean thing. That doesn't mean we've got some
smudges and fingerprints on us. I went out and shined my shoes
earlier this morning. I came back in the house after
taking a shower and had some black polish on my finger. That's not
what it's talking about. That's not what it's talking about.
That's talking about utterly filthy, an unclean thing. As one who has not only fallen
into an open sewer, one who has rebelled in the open sewer and
comes out for others and other folks who've never smelled a
sewer before, they look at it, and utter disgust. Bobby Estes,
that's what you are before God Almighty by nature. Me too. Me too. An unclean thing. Listen
to this. From the sole of the foot, even
to the crown of the head, there's no soundness in us but wounds
and bruises and putrefying, oozing sores. Man at his best estate. A man, when he's got in his finest
three-piece suit, and comes to church on Sunday morning with
the Bible tucked under his arm, man at his best estate is altogether
vanity. Vanity. Just a puff of wind.
A shameful thing. Like the leper, we have an incurable
disease. Like the harlot, we are defiled. Your name and mine is Mephibosheth,
a shameful thing. In heart, in will, in word, indeed,
shameful. Mephibosheth. was not only shameful,
he was the king's enemy. This man was one of Saul's sons,
a natural enemy to David, hiding from David. Now David wasn't
his enemy, but he was David's enemy. This man was one who well
represents all of God's elect in this world. By nature, we
are the sons of Adam, and all the sons of Adam are the enemies
of God. The scripture says the carnal
mind is enmity against God. Now that doesn't mean that the
carnal mind has some objection to God. That's not it at all.
It means the carnal mind, the carnal heart, Every thought,
every aspect of your reason, every aspect of your soul, every
aspect of your being despises God Almighty. Man hates God. That's our nature. Now I don't
mean by that that men hate their notions of God. They like their
little rabbit's foot gods. They like their little totem
pole gods. They like their little peanut gods. They can use whatever
they want to. They like their ideas and notions about God because
they make their gods like themselves, kindly, puny, and sickly. Man
thinks he can take his God and do with him what he will. And
so he loves that idea of God. But man by nature despises the
fact that God Almighty sits on the lofty throne of heaven and
you're in His hands. And He can either save you or
damn you. It's all together up to Him. Man despises the fact
that God is perfectly righteous and demands perfect righteousness.
He is perfectly holy and demands perfect holiness. Man by nature
then is God's enemy. And we were like Nephibosheth,
hiding from God when he saved us. But God never was, never
is, and never shall be the enemy of his people. I get letters
from folks who try to get things sorted out theologically, and
they think about God's immutability. But the scripture says we're
children of wrath, even as others. The scripture says we were enemies
to God, just like everybody else. The scripture says. We were in
our works, children of wrath, even as others, and in our minds,
enemies to God Almighty. The problem was not with God,
the problem was with us. And we lived in this world from
our youth, going forth from our mother's womb, speaking lies
with a fish of square in God's nose. But God never was angry
with His people. God never was looking on His
children as the objects of His wrath. You see, in salvation,
God does not, He does not cease to be wrath. He takes away the
curse of His wrath. God in His grace and mercy always
looked upon His children as the objects of His love and favor
and grace, for He looks on us in Christ from the foundation
of the world, that Lamb slain before the world began. Just
as God looks on us in mercy and grace, having reconciled us when
we were yet enemies by the death of his son. Now he beseeches
lost, lame, vanquishing sinners to be reconciled to him. He sent me here today to preach the gospel of his grace
to you. And as he does, this is what he says. He says, I stretched
out my hand. And I call to you. Imagine what
God condescends to stretch out the arms of mercy to guilty,
doomed, dead sinners and calls us, be reconciled to God. Quit fighting against God, you're
gonna lose. Quit your warfare against God,
you can't possibly win. Be reconciled to God. You see,
the problem with unbelief is not that men and women Do not,
just simply do not believe that Jesus came, or that Jesus is
the Son of God, or that Jesus died at Calvary. The problem
is that you hate God, and you live with your fist square in
His face. Now whenever you, whenever you reconcile to God, you take
your fist out of His face, and you bow before Him and say, Behold,
thy servant. Mephibosheth, this man became
lame through a fall. Look in verse 3 here of 2 Samuel
9. You can read of the actual event
itself in 2 Samuel chapter 4 verse 4. But here we're told the king
said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul that I may
show him the kindness of God unto him? And Ziba said unto
the king, Jonathan, hath yet a son which is lame on his feet. Now that's a pretty good picture
of us. God created man upright, but we failed. And when we fell
in our Father Adam, we became lame spiritually, altogether
helpless spiritually. That's the reason our Savior
says no man can come unto me. Now I know folks like to latch
on to the text where he says, ye will not come to me that ye
might have life. And that's true, you won't do
it. You won't do it. But the problem is not just with
your will. The problem with your will is
in your ability. No man can come to me. Because you're lame spiritually.
You don't have the ability to decide for Jesus. You don't have
the ability to decide to come to Christ. You don't have the
ability to lift yourself from the gates of hell to the gates
of glory. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. Well preacher you keep
Preaching like that and you make us think that we're just shut
up to God's mercy and the salvation is altogether up to Him. It has
nothing to do with our will, our decision, our works. You
heard exactly what I said. Either God Almighty will come
your way and call you by His grace or He'll pass you by and
it's totally up to Him. Totally up to Him. And Mephibosheth
was in a far, far country. Look at verse 4. The king said
to Ziba, where is he? And Ziba said to the king, behold,
he's in the house of Maker, the son of Amiel in Lodibar. Mephibosheth was a long way off
from the king, far away from Jerusalem. He was down in Lodibar. There was no prophet down there,
no preacher down there. He was far off from the place
of blessing, far off from the place of sacrifice, far off from
the place of worship, far off from God, down in the house of
maker. The word maker means sold. We've sold ourselves to Satan. I remember as a boy, the old
movies, these horror flicks that would come on, Talk about me
and making a deal with the devil. We made a deal with the devil
long time ago We sold our souls to the devil sold our souls in
bondage to sin in our father Adam and Every day we lived in
rebellion to God You who are without faith in Christ? You're
not in a position of indifference You sat here this morning for
whatever reason, but you sat here this morning deliberately
choosing to continue a path of rebellion and hatred against
God Almighty, selling yourself willingly into bondage. A loaded
bar, it means the place of no bread. No bread. You remember that prodigal? He wasted his substance in riotous
living, and he went and joined himself to a citizen of that
country. Dr. Gill said he joined himself to a self-righteous legalist
preacher. And he said, you don't have to
go back to your father's house. You can work your way back into his good graces.
Come feed my hogs. And he went and fed the man's
hogs. And he would feign, had filled his belly with the husk
that the swine did eat. But there's no possibility of
that happening. When will you learn? When will you learn? Lodibar. No bread is written
across the fields of this world. All of them. All of them. Rex Bartley, there is no satisfaction
for our souls in this world. That dear lady there? Oh, I love
that girl. And she loves me. But one of
these days, That's going to cause a lot of dissatisfaction for
one of us or the other. One of these days, because we're
going to have to part with one another. That little girl over
in Lexington, oh, I love that girl. But there's no satisfaction
for my soul there. That's just temporary. That grandbaby
we're expecting, I expect we'll go about as crazy as everybody
else does when they get grandchildren. But there's no satisfaction.
No satisfaction. There's no satisfaction for your
immortal soul in this world. Will you ever learn that? If
not in husband or wife or son or daughter or grandchildren,
certainly not in all the money you can put in the bank, all
the houses you can build, and all the property you can amass.
No satisfaction. As long as you seek for it in
this world, you'll never find it. God setteth the solitary
in families. He bringeth out those that are
bound with chains. But the rebellious dwell in a
dry land. That's what God said in Psalm
16. Dry land. You, you who live in
your rebellion against God and you, you seek satisfaction in
your pleasures and in your lust and in your ambitions and you,
you, I'm going to make something of myself in this world. I'll,
I'll show everybody. You live in a dry land, ain't
nothing to drink, ain't nothing to eat. Now you sit and you just
ain't. I wouldn't if it wasn't for snooty
folks who didn't like it. There's no satisfaction here,
no satisfaction. Secondly, Nephibosheth shows
us God's grace in his calling. He was called by the king. Look at verse five. Then King David sent and fetched
him. Fetched him out of the house
of Makar, the son of Amiel from Lodibar. David sought Mephibosheth
and fetched Mephibosheth. He didn't ask him if he would
pretty please like to come. He fetched him. And when God
the Holy Spirit comes to lost, ruined, doomed, damned sinners,
the only way they ever come to Christ is Him to fetch them. Thank God for His fetching grace. He sends His Spirit to seek and
find His people who have strayed far away from Him, and He always
finds them. He always brings them home. He
says, follow me, and they follow Him. He says, come, and they
come. Mephibosheth came to David in reverent submission. In verse
6, he fell on his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth,
and he answered, Behold thy servant. This man came in to David and
he knew his only hope was that David would be merciful. And
what he did is he just, he threw himself at David's feet. And
when David spoke, He said, I'm yours. I'm yours, you can do
with me what you will. And David broke his silence by
saying, Mephibosheth, fear not, I will surely show thee kindness.
I wonder if you can do that now. Will you? Oh, will you now cast
yourself at the feet of King Jesus as his servant in the hands
of this great king? I promise you, if you will, if
you will, It's because he's fetched you to himself. And he'll receive
you just like David received Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth was
received in all his deformity. Just like he was. Without any
improvement. Without any change. David received
this poor cripple, and the Lord God received sinners in Christ
as poor cripples with no change, with no corrections, with nothing
that they do to me in their ways, 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."
This man, Mephibosheth, was received altogether for the sake of somebody
else. for Jonathan's sake. And God receives us all together
for Christ's sake. All together because of His covenant
with Christ Jesus, our Lord and our Redeemer. On the basis of
who Christ is and what Christ has done. Because of His righteousness,
His obedience, His death, the merit of His person and His work.
Jesus Christ is that by which we, or Him by whom we draw near
unto God. He is that way by which we come
to God. When Mephibosheth came to David,
it was there that he learned to have a proper estimate of
himself. In verse 8 we read, he bowed himself and said, What
is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon
such a dead dog as I am? We've seen Mephibosheth in his
change, showing us a picture of God's grace as well. I'll
just give you the highlights, but listen. When Mephibosheth
came to David, he got more than he had lost in his father Saul
and his house. He didn't just get back Saul's
possessions and Saul's property. He was made to sit as one of
the king's sons at the king's table. And in Christ Jesus, he
says, I restored that which I took not away. He gives us life eternal
here and heavenly glory hereafter. This man, Mephibosheth, came
to David and he sat under the king's table with all his deformity. He was
still a lame, crippled man, crippled on both his feet. But sitting
under the king's table, all his deformity was out of sight. Are
you listening? Coming to Christ by faith, taking
our place at the king's table. Oh, what a privilege. We're still
vile sinners, long as we live in this world.
But Merle, his blood, his righteousness covers all our sin, all our deformity
from the eyes of our God. Now sinner, come to Christ. Come ye weary, heavy laden, lost
and ruined by the fall. If you tarry till you're better,
you'll never come at all. God help you to come for Christ's
sake. Amen.