I had prepared to bring a message
from Luke 4 this morning on the offense of the gospel. But Friday
night, we were down at the conference at Kingsport for a little bit,
and Donnie Bell brought a message. And during that message, he mentioned
this. He mentioned fetching grace. Fetching grace. I just haven't
been able to get away from that. So the Lord willing, this morning,
we'll look at this passage from 2 Samuel chapter 9. I believe
this is, I probably say this every time we look at an Old
Testament picture, but I believe this is one of my favorites. I know I've tried to teach from
it a number of times. I've tried to preach from it.
a number of times, but it truly never grows old. To understand this chapter, though,
it's essential. It's essential. I think the key
to it is to know who is speaking. Who is speaking in this passage? This isn't just anyone, OK? This is King David. It's the
king speaking. In Ecclesiastes 8, 4, it says,
where the word of the king is, there's power. There's power
in what he says. Where the word of the king is,
there's power, and who may say unto him, what doest thou? The king speaks in power. with authority. Now, those are
words that I'm not sure we're real familiar with in our day. Power and authority. Sovereignty. You know, if you
go back in the Old Testament, when those kings spoke, I don't
know that anybody raised their hand and said, I disagree. with
that. I was thinking there when those
men were cast into that fiery furnace, the king said, you turn
that oven up seven times hotter than it was meant to be. And
he still expected his soldiers to cast those men, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, into the fiery furnace. And if you remember,
some of his mighty men were slew in the process of doing that.
They did not question the king. And again, by nature, this goes
over our heads. David is the king. He sets in
power. He's one in authority. He's to
be respected. His word is to be honored. His
commands are to be obeyed. Turn to Romans, hold your place
here in 2 Samuel 9, but turn to Romans 13. Where does this power come from?
Romans 13, verse 1. Let every soul be subject unto
the higher powers. For there is no power but of
God. The powers that be are ordained
of God. And whosoever therefore resisteth
the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist
shall receive themselves damnation. Now what does this mean? There
is no authority apart from Almighty God. All authority is by his
permission, by his appointment. That's true of civil authority,
that's true of all authority. The husband in the home. He's
the authority in the home. Parents have authority over their
children. Bosses at work. He says even to the good and
to the froward. We may not always, I heard somebody
say that before, we may not always agree with the boss, but the
boss is always the boss. Elders, all those who rule, their
authority comes from God. And our nature, our sinful nature
is one that will question that. That's common to us, to question
authority. And that was on full display
in the garden. Remember that when God gave Adam
one command. Don't eat of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. And what happened? In time, and
I suspect a short amount of time, Adam took that fruit and he ate
of it willingly. He disobeyed God. And that's,
again, that's our attitude by nature. We will not have this
man to reign over us. And it's a terrible problem when
we rebel against authority, when we rebel against the law. What do we read there? Be subject,
be subject to the higher powers. What about this? There is no
power, no power but that which is ordained of God. And listen. We have a far greater
problem than that. Why would we expect man to recognize
the power in this world, the power of those who lead, the
authority of those who lead, when we fail to recognize that
Almighty God is sovereign in all that he does? A God who rules
and reigns over all. You know, again, it's Almighty
God that puts people in authority. We just read that in Romans 13.1,
let every soul be subject to the higher powers. There's no
power, no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained
of God. And I say all that to say this,
David here is God's king. And he's getting ready to speak.
And when he speaks, he speaks in power. And that points to
Almighty God, Almighty God who is sovereign in all that he does. He's sovereign in creation. He
has all authority in heaven and in earth. Back in Genesis 1,
we read, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Think about his power. He just,
he spoke these things into creation. And he set it all, he set it
all in motion. He orders and directs all of
it. And then if you go to the end
of Genesis 1 to verse 31, it says, he looked back the sixth
day at everything he made and he said this, it's very good. Very good. All that he made,
very good. That which he created. God is
sovereign. in creation. He's sovereign in
providence. That's in Ephesians 1 verse 11,
it says, in whom we've obtained an inheritance who being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things. All things after the counsel
of his own will. Not a few things. Not some things,
not most things. He says, what does he say? All
things. Everything after the counsel
of his own will. Spurgeon said, he said, the path
of that dust mite, you ever catch a little dust mite out of the
corner of your eye and it just kind of floats through the air? He said, the path of that dust
mite is as sure and certain as the planets. All things, all
things are ordered of God. Our God is sovereign in providence. And then Jonah said this, and
it's repeated throughout God's word, he's sovereign in salvation. Jonah said, I'll sacrifice, I'll
sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I'll pay
my vows. Salvation is of the Lord. It's all of Him. And in this
passage of Scripture, again back here in 2 Samuel 9, David, David
the king, is going to show mercy. Mercy to Mephibosheth. And he's the only one that can
do that. as the king. He can only do this
if he is sovereign. He can only do this if he has
all power. Verse 1, David said, is there
any left? Is there yet any that is left
of the house of Saul that I might show him kindness? That I might show him Mercy. The king is going to show mercy. He's going to show mercy to an
enemy. The house of Saul was an enemy.
It wasn't uncommon in those days to destroy everyone of the previous
administration. That way no one could question
authority. David said, I'm going to show mercy. I'm going to show
mercy. Our God is merciful. That's what scripture says. Turn
to Psalm 130. Turn over just a few pages. Psalm
130, look at verse 1. Psalm 130, verse one. Out of
the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. If thou,
Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand? There's forgiveness with thee,
that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul
doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the
Lord more than they that watch for the morning. I say more than
they that watch for the morning. Verse seven, let Israel hope
in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy. There's mercy. Aren't we thankful
that God is merciful, that He's pleased to show mercy, that there's
forgiveness with Him, there's mercy with Him? Well, still here, back in our
text, 2 Samuel. Still in verse 1, David said,
is there any yet that is left in the house of Saul that I might
show him mercy for Jonathan's sake. For Jonathan's sake. Mephibosheth
is not deserving of mercy. David's going to show mercy here
for the sake of another. Mercy isn't earned. Mercy isn't
merited. Mercy isn't deserved. He says,
I'm gonna show mercy for the sake of another. Back in 1 Samuel,
we won't turn there, but there was a covenant made. There was a promise made between
Jonathan and David. A promise, a covenant. And David's
gonna show mercy as a result of that covenant. He's gonna
show mercy as a result of that promise. He's gonna show mercy
as a result of his love for Jonathan. He's gonna show mercy because
he made a promise to show mercy. Scripture says this, that David
loved Jonathan as he loved his own soul." That must be pretty
great love. We can say what we want to, but
I don't know that there's anyone we love more than ourselves. Earthly speaking. And David said,
he says here that he loved him more than he loved his own soul. He showed mercy for Jonathan's
sake. I ask you, why does God show
mercy for his people? It's not for anything that we've
done. He shows us mercy for the sake of another. He shows us
mercy for Christ's sake, as a result of his love for his son. Well, quickly, what have we seen
here? David's the king, David's sovereign. As the king, he has power, and
the king, as the king, he's gonna show mercy, and he's gonna do
this for the sake of another. Let's continue on here, the rest
of this chapter. Back into our text, verse two,
there was the house of Saul, a servant whose name was Ziba,
and when they, had called him unto David, the king said unto
him, are you Ziba? And he said, thy servant. And
the king said, is there any yet? Is there not any yet? Again,
who's speaking here? The king. Is there not any in
the house of Saul that I may show thee the kindness of God
unto him? Is there anyone? Is there anyone? And Ziba said, he said, there's
one. There's one. Jonathan has yet
a son which is lame on his feet. Turn back to just a few pages,
2 Samuel. Turn to chapter 4. He's lame on his feet. 2 Samuel 4 verse 4, and Jonathan,
Saul's son, had a son that was lame on his feet. He was five
years old when tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel,
and his nurse took him up and fled, and it came to pass, as
she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame, and
his name was Mephibosheth. When he was about five years
old, a nurse picked him up to flee. And as a result of that,
in the process of that, there was a fall. There was a fall. And Mephibosheth was lame. He
was lame because of a fall. Does that sound familiar? Lame as a result of a fall? Isn't that true of each and every
one of us? When Adam, there in the garden,
when he fell, we fell. When Adam sinned, We sin. When Adam disobeyed God, we disobeyed
God. Romans chapter five says, wherefore,
as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And death passed upon all men. Why is that? For all have sinned. Lame because of a fall. Well, again, here in our text,
back to 2 Samuel 9. The king said unto him, verse
4, where is he? Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king,
behold, he's in the house of Maker, the son of Amor and Lodabar. Down there in the land of no
pasture, a land of no bread. And the king sent, and he fetched
him. He fetched him out of the house
of Maker, the son of Ammo, the Lord of all. David sent and fetched
him. Now that, listen, that word,
some of you have dogs at home, right? You toss the ball and
the dog runs and gets it and grabs it and brings it back,
or at least that's the way it's supposed to work. He sent and he fetched him. Again, that's the title of this
message, Fetching Grace. He's going to send somebody down
there, he's going to send his servant down there and that servant's
going to go down there and he's going to fetch Mephibosheth and
he's going to bring him back to the king. Isn't that the simplest thing
in the world? Doesn't that just sound so simple? The king tells
his servant, go down there and get that man, and you bring him
back to me. That's what the Lord has done
for every one of his sheep. That's exactly what he's done.
In Luke 15.4, that parable over in Luke 15, the parable of the
lost sheep. Turn there with me. Turn to the
New Testament. Hold your place there. Turn to
Luke 15. Verse four. What man of you, Having a hundred sheep, if he
lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness
and go after that which is lost until he find it. And when he's
found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes
home, he calls his friends together and his neighbors, saying unto
them, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. That's a reason to rejoice, isn't
it? Don't we rejoice? Doesn't our
heart just rejoice when we see the Lord's pleased to call another
one of His sheep to Him, when He fetches one of His sheep and
brings him to Himself? Well, let's read on here. Back
in our text, 2 Samuel 9, David says, fetch Him. Fetch Him and
bring Him back. You know wherever God's people
are found, in His time, not necessarily
in our time, but in His time, He goes and He gets them, He
fetches them, and He brings them back to Himself. No matter where
they are. Matthew was at work. He was sitting
at the receipt of custom. And the Lord passed by him, and
He just said these two words to him. He said, Follow me. Follow me. I didn't read anywhere where
Matthew even asked the question. He got up, he arose, and he followed
the Lord. In Luke chapter 19, remember
the account of Zacchaeus? There where it says the Lord
came to the place, and he looked up, and he saw Zacchaeus, and
he said unto him, Zacchaeus, he called him by name, and he
said, make haste. Make haste and come down, for
today I must abide in thy house. Zacchaeus came down, didn't he? Of all things, he put Paul and
Silas in prison to take the word to that one prison guard and
his family. He fetches him. He fetches him. Our God is merciful. Aren't we thankful that he's
merciful? Aren't we thankful that he goes
and he finds his sheep? They're His sheep. He knows where
they are. He doesn't stumble across His
sheep. He knows where each one of them
are. And He finds them, and He fetches
them, and He brings them home. He brings them back to Himself. Some of you know that, don't
you? Where were you when the Lord fetched you and brought
Him to yourself? And I was thinking about this. This is some irresistible fetching. Mephibosheth, he's lame on his
feet. He can't run. He can't hide. I was thinking about this years
ago, I got to take Dale down to Crossville,
he was preaching for Donny Bell, and the room we stayed in was
the very top of the hotel. And we just happened to look
out, and there was a manhunt going on. And there was a fella,
he would, there were some policemen and maybe some folks from the
fire department, but I'm telling you, they were on the trail of
this fella. And he'd run a little ways, and he'd jump down in the
ditch and he'd hide. And then they'd kind of go over
to another place, and then he'd hop up, and he'd go across the
street and jump in the other ditch and hide. We could see
it because we were up high enough. They couldn't. But listen, it
was evident they had dogs. They were going to catch this
fella. Why do we continue to run and
hide? Why do we do that? Why do we
do that? But I'm so thankful that despite
the fact that we do, we can only run for so long. We can only
hide for so long. He is going to fetch his sheep. He's going to find each one of
them and bring them to himself. He said this, of all that the
Father hath given me, I shall lose nothing. Not one, not one will be lost. Well, back to verse six of our
text. Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan,
the son of Saul, was coming to David. He fell on his face and
did reverence. David said to Mephibosheth, think
about this, he called him by name, Mephibosheth. And he answered, he said, behold,
thy servant. Mephibosheth, he fell on his
face. He did reverence. He stands before the king, a
sovereign king, a king who can do with him as he will. We're in his hands. Imagine this. Imagine David. Imagine Mephibosheth
coming to David and saying, David, I know I'm your enemy, but I've decided to make peace
with you. How about this? King David, I'm
going to take the first step. He's lame on his feet. There's
no taking a first step. I am completely dependent upon
him. What about this, David? I know
my grandpa was your enemy. I know my house is an enemy to
you. But I've decided to let you show mercy on me. Wouldn't that just be absolute
foolishness? And yet that's what men say today.
But here we read this, Mephibosheth, the grandson of Saul, the enemy
of the king, that one that's laying at his feet, he falls
at his feet, falls at the feet of the king. Mephibosheth knows something
about who he is, and who the king is. He's a sinner standing before
the king who can do with him as he will. And David says, Mephibosheth. Again, he calls him by name. This is particular. There's a
lot of people mentioned here. There was Ziba and all of his
sons, but that's not who the king's talking to, is it? He's
talking to Mephibosheth. He's talking to that one to whom
he's going to show mercy. Over in John 10, verse 3, we
read, to him the porter openeth the sheep. What do they do? They hear his voice. He calls
them. How does he call them? By name. And he leads them out. Well,
read on here in our text. Verse 7. David said unto him,
oh, he speaks peace to him. Fear not. David, don't be afraid. I tell you, by nature, he had
every reason to be afraid. Don't fear. I'm going to show
you mercy. I'm going to show thee kindness
for Jonathan thy father's sake. And he bowed himself. And he
said, what is thy servant? What is thy servant that thou
should look upon such a dead dog as I am? What am I? A dog. And listen, a dead dog, a dead
dog at that. Remember that Canaanite woman
when she come seeking mercy for her daughter? And our Lord said,
it's not meat. to take the children's bread
and cast it to dogs. What's he saying to her? You're
a dog. You're nothing but a dog. And
listen, apart from God's grace, our reply would be, well, you
can't call me that. What'd she say? Truth. truth. Yet the dogs eat the crumbs that
fall from their master's table. I'm a dog. I'm a dog, but Lord,
just show mercy to me. Just give me, just give me a
crumb. And our Lord looked at her and
he said, Oh woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as
thou wilt." And her daughter was made whole from that very
hour. What is thy servant that you
would look upon such a dead dog as me? He's an object of mercy. He's
an object of mercy, an object of fetching grace. Verse nine,
our text. The king called Ziba, Saul's
servant. He said unto him, I've given
unto thy master's son all that pertains to Saul and all his
house, all of his inheritance, everything. Thou therefore and thy sons and
thy servants shall till the land for him. Thou shalt bring in
the fruits that thy master's son may have food to eat. Mephibosheth
thy master's son shall eat bread always at my table. Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants,
and Ziba said unto the king, this is a wise answer, he's speaking
to the king, according to all that my lord the king hath commanded
his servant, so shall his 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 under Mephibosheth. So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem,
for he did eat continually at the king's table and was lame
on his feet. Lame on his feet, yet an object
of mercy. Fetched by the king. Undeserving,
and listen, he knew it. He said, why would you even take
notice? Why would you look at a dead
dog like me? Why would he? Truly, why would
he? He had mercy on him for Jonathan's
sake. And God has mercy on his people.
Why? For Christ's sake. For Christ's
sake. And now, Old Mephibosheth, he sits at
the king's table. At the king's table. Not as a
guest. Not as a distant relative. Not as a neighbor. He sits there,
how? As a son. How is that? Because he is. He's made a son. Turn with me to Galatians 4. I'll close with this passage. Galatians chapter 4. Made a son. Isn't that what God has done
for his people in Christ? Made us sons. Look at Galatians
4 verse 4. But when the fullness of the
time was come, God sent forth his son made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law. That
we might receive the adoptions of sons and because Ye are sons. God hath sent forth the spirit
of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore,
thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, an heir
of God through Christ. This is true of Mephibosheth,
and this is true of all of God's people. No more, no more servants, but sons and
heirs of God in, by, and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray God
bless His word to our hearts. All right, let's have a closing
hymn.