Sovereign Mercy

All right, you can open your
Bibles with me now to the book of 2 Samuel. I want you to use the scriptures
as I bring this message. Let me give you just a little
background. You know, Israel had desired
a king. The Lord God said, I'm your king.
But they said, we want a king like the other nations. So God
said to Samuel the prophet, give them a king. And Samuel objected,
and the Lord said, now Samuel, he said, it's not you that they're
objecting to. It's not you that they're refusing. It's me. So let them have a king. Let them have a king. I want
to let them have their way and show them what it will do to
them. So they selected Saul. And Saul was not a good king.
He was an impressive fellow. Stood head and shoulders above
everybody. Powerful, powerful man. But he
sinned against God. He did so many things that were
wrong. And God rejected Saul. And God
sent Samuel down to the house of Jesse to anoint his king. God had a king for Israel. He was David. And Samuel went
down to the house of Jesse and he anointed David to be king
over all of Israel. Saul was still king, but David
was God's chosen. He said, I found David to be
a man after my own heart. David was a very young man then,
when God anointed him king by the hand of Samuel the prophet.
But Saul was still in power. But David served Saul. He fought
valiantly for Saul, won many victories. Saul became quite
jealous of him because the people loved David. They recognized
in David a man of God. And they would sing songs like
this, Saul has killed his thousands, David his ten thousands. Well,
Saul became more angry and more jealous of David as days went
by, and he recognized also the hand of God upon David, and he
knew, I think in his heart, that someday David would be king of
Israel. And so he began to harass David
and sought to kill him and threw a spear at him, you know the
story, and finally ran him away from the kingdom. Well, Saul
had a son whose name was Jonathan. And Jonathan loved David. This
son of Saul loved David, and David loved Jonathan. They were
friends. They were very close friends.
And Jonathan recognized the hand of God upon David. And Jonathan
told him, he said, someday you'll be king. I'm not going to be
king. I will not succeed, my father. I know that. My father
will be killed, my father is rejected by God, and God has
chosen you, and I know that. I know that. you'll be king.
They were close friends. Well, finally, Jonathan and Saul
both were killed, and David became king of Israel. Now, it was customary. It was a very hard custom and
a very cruel custom, but it was customary in those days when
a man became king of Israel or most any country. If he was not
of the house of the preceding king, if he were not the son
of the preceding king, but was someone else, the thing for him
to do is get rid of the whole family. Get rid of all the remaining
sons and grandsons, just kill them all. Do away with the house
of Saul. That was the custom. That would
be the wise thing for David to do. Just get rid of the house
of Saul, obliterate it, eradicate it, wipe it out so there won't
be any rebellion, so that this man won't say, well, I'm really
the rightful king. That man's not the king. I'm
the son of the king. I'm the grandson of the king,
or I'm the nephew of the king. Just kill them all. But when David came to power,
one of the first things that David did, one of his first acts
as king, here in chapter 9 of 2 Samuel, I read it to you a
moment ago. David sat on the throne and David
said, now he didn't say, is there any left of the house of Saul
that I might destroy him? But he said, is there any left
of the house of Saul? any son or grandson left of the
whole house of Saul, that I might show him kindness and mercy for
Jonathan's sake, my friend." And somebody said, well, they
said, yes, there is one that we know about. There were others,
too. We'll see in a little while. But he said there's one, but
said he's a cripple. His name is Mephibosheth. Jonathan,
your friend Jonathan, has a son. He's a grown man now, but he's
lame on both his feet. And he lives down in a place
called Lodibar, a very poor, poor place. In fact, the name
means no pasture. They call it the place of no
bread. And King David sent and fetched him. He sent after Mephibosheth. He said, you go get him. And
he sent his service. They brought Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth
came before David. You can imagine what it was like. Here David, the king, David who
was the enemy of his grandfather. David now sat on the throne of
Israel where this man's grandfather once sat, where his father was
the rightful heir, and where he was in the lineage. house. And the enemy, and here was David,
all of his generals and captains and princes and powerful leaders
and all the pageantry and beauty of that palace and that courtroom. And here came in this, they had
to help him in, this crippled fellow, you know, couldn't walk,
lame on both his legs and probably poorly dressed and scraggly and poor, poverty stricken,
and he supposed, he thought, well, this is, he'll kill me.
He'll wipe out all the memory of my grandfather's kingdom.
That's what he brought me. He came before David, and David
said, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Because I'm
going to show kindness to you. I'm going to make you one of
my sons. I'm going to restore everything. I'm going to restore
your father's houses and lands and cattle and sheep and oxen
and servants. You'll have servants. You'll
have a place. You're going to sit at my table. You're going
to be my son. You're going to live here. You're
going to eat my food. You're going to have everything
you lost." And the man was You talk about
amazing grace. Dumbfounded. He said, but my
Lord the King, who am I? Who am I that you should show
such mercy? As he sat there on the floor,
and all these witnesses about, and King David pronouncing upon
him such favor, such mercy. Who am I that you should show
such mercy to such a worthless, poor, dead dog? And then David
said, everything I'm doing for you
and to you is for the sake of Jonathan, your father. I don't know you, but I knew
him, and I loved him, and I'm doing it for his sake. Now then,
I want to look at this story again, and while rejoicing, David's
a picture of Christ. David's a picture of our Lord.
No question about that. Our Lord's called the son of
David. It says he'll sit on the throne of his father David. David
is a type of Christ, a picture of Christ. And every time we
hear this story and anybody preaches on it, we rejoice in the kindness
of David, the mercy of David, the grace of David, the beauty
of his favor to this man. But I want to tell this story
from a different standpoint. David is a picture of our Lord
showing mercy to fallen sinners, but I want to tell this story
from the standpoint of that little fellow sitting on the floor,
Mephibosheth, because that's me. I can relate to him. David is Christ. David's sovereign
mercy is the sovereign mercy of my Lord to sinners like you
and me. But that's me down there on the
floor, and that's you. And I want to tell this story
from his standpoint. And the first part is this. Did
you know this? This is not where this story
began. This is not where this story
began. This story began before that little fella, that man there,
was in the condition he was in. This story began before he was
lame. This story began when his grandfather
was still king. This story began when things
were going well. This story had its beginning
a long time before this. Did you know that? That's right. I want you to turn back to 1
Samuel, 1 Samuel now, chapter 20. Here's where this story began. There was mercy from Mephibosheth
before he ever became lame. When he was in riches,
when he was the grandson of the king, when he was the pet. You know how much I think of
my grandson, you know how much you think of yours. How special
they are. Well that's Mephibosheth, he
was the grandson of the king. When this story had its beginning.
Here in 1 Samuel chapter 20. Now you remember I told you his
father Jonathan and David were dear friends. So here in 1 Samuel
20 verse 11. And Jonathan said unto David,
now this was when David, Saul had run him off, was chasing
him, was trying to kill him. And Jonathan the son of Saul
said to David, verse 11, 1 Samuel 20, Come, David, let us go out
into the field. And they went out, both of them,
into the field. And Jonathan said to David, O
Lord God of Israel, when I have sounded or inquired of my father
about tomorrow, any time, or the third day, and behold, if
there be good toward David, and I then send not to you, and show
it to you, the Lord do so, and much more to Jonathan. But if
it please my father to do you evil, David, I'll show it to
you, and I'll send you away, that you may go in peace, and
the Lord be with you, as he hath been with my father. And thou
shalt not only while I live show me the kindness of the Lord that
I die not, but also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from
my house, my children. No, not when the Lord hath cut
off the enemies of David, every one from the face of the earth.
So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let
the Lord even require at the hand of David's enemies. And
Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him,
he loved him as he loved his own soul. Preacher, what's that
say? It's saying that this man, Jonathan, friend of David, took
David out in the field, and he said, Now, David, my father the
king has enmity against you, and he's going to try to destroy
you. And I'm going to tell you about it so you can escape. But
now, David, when you come into your kingdom, when I'm dead and
all my house, my father's gone and his holding, will you show
kindness to my house after I'm gone?" And they made a covenant
right then. They made a covenant. This fellow
right here, this Mephibosheth who's sitting in front of David,
Before he was ever crippled, before he was ever in this condition,
back yonder, years before, David made a covenant with his father
to show kindness to this boy. He didn't even know him, but
he showed kindness. And I'll tell you this, long
before I fell in my father Adam, when my father Adam was still
in the garden and had dominion and power and life and holdings
and all these things. Almighty God made a covenant
with Jesus Christ, my Lord, before the foundation of the world.
He made a covenant. He called it the everlasting
covenant. He said in Ephesians 1, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed
us with all heavenly blessing in Christ before the world began,
before the foundation of the world, that we should behold
him without blame before him in love. Paul said, I thank God
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation. In other words, the Father and
the Son entered into a covenant and the Son became a surety for
his people before the world began. Before God ever saw you and called
you and saved you, Christ stood for you. That's right. He's a
shepherd of the everlasting covenant. That's what Paul's saying in
Galatians 1.15. God separated me from my mother's womb, but
called me by his grace. So here Mephibosheth is in front
of David. Now he's broke. Now he's poverty
stricken. Now he's fallen. Now he's crippled. Now he has nothing. But David said, I made a covenant
with your father. long before, that at his death,
I'd show mercy to his son, and I'm going to show mercy to you.
And that's the mercy God's given us. Let me show you another way
that we're like Mephibosheth. Turn with me to 2 Samuel 4. How did Mephibosheth get to be
a cripple? Here he is now, he's crippled. He's He's got legs, but he can't
walk. And here he sits on the floor
in such a desolate condition. How'd he get there? Well, he
got there through a fall. Through a fall. In 2 Samuel 4,
it says, verse 4, now listen, 2 Samuel 4, and Jonathan, Saul's
son, had a son that was lame on his feet. That's Mephibosheth,
we're talking about him, Jonathan's son. He was five years old. when the tidings came of Saul
and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up," in
other words, the bad news that God's judgment was upon Saul
and Jonathan, and his nurse took him up to flee. And it came to
pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.
He was lame by the actions of another. He was laying through
the fall. He was being carried in the arms
of another, and they fell, and he became a cripple. What happened
to me? The scripture says, by one man,
Adam, sin entered the world. And I was being carried in the
loins of Adam. And he fell. He sinned against
God. He rebelled against God. And
I fell with him. I fell in Adam. By one man's
sin entered this world, and death by sin. So death passed upon
all men, and in Adam all died. By the sinfulness and disobedience
of one, we became sinners. When this nurse took up this
child to run, she fell down the stairs or something, but he was
left severely crippled. He had legs, but he never could
walk again. And you and I have eyes, but
we can't see. And we have ears, but we can't
hear. Christ said, they have ears, but they don't hear. They
have eyes, but they don't see. They have minds, but they understand
not. They have hearts, but they love
not. And Christ said, you will not come to me that you might
have life. No man can come to me except my Father who has sent
me drawing. So there sits Masturbation. He's
got legs, but they don't work. Physically, they just don't work.
And it was all caused by our fault. And here, Adam's sons
sit and out yonder in the world. And spiritually, they're lame.
They have eyes, but they don't see, ears, but they don't hear.
Not spiritually. Legs, but they can't walk. Minds,
but they don't understand. Hearts, but they cannot love.
Lame through the fall of another. Now, back to the text. Here in chapter 9 of 2 Samuel,
let's look at this. Now here is David on his throne.
David has become king. He served for a while over two
tribes, and now he is king of all the tribes, twelve tribes.
He is the sovereign monarch. And I don't read anything, when
we read this a while ago, I didn't read anything here of Mephibosheth
seeking David, did you? Mephibosheth, now let me tell
you something, the covenant was made unknown to him a long back
time. He was already laying through
the fire of another, but he wasn't seeking David. He wasn't seeking
David. David, he thought, was his enemy.
Now, if he had known David, he would have sought him. Just like
our Lord stood by the well and said to that woman, if you knew
the gift of God, you'd ask me. I'd give you living water. And
this crippled fellow down in Lodabar, I told you he had legs
but he couldn't walk. And these crippled folks here,
if we knew the gift of God, we'd go to God. But we run from God
like Adam. We hide from God. Mephibosheth
was hiding from David. He was down there where he hoped
nobody would find him. But David remembered his covenant.
David remembered his covenant. Our Lord God remembers his covenant. And he sent and fetched Mephibosheth. He sent for him. Whom he foreknew,
he predestinated. Whom he predestinated, he called. Whom he called, he justified.
Whom he justified, he glorified. And David sent after him. And
God will send for you if you are one of his. He'll find you. You can't go far enough. to get away from it. If I ascend
into heaven out there, David said, if I make my bed in hell
out there, if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the
innermost parts of the sea, then there shall thy hand find me.
And it will all be light of day. He'll find you. And there's some
this morning, his covenant mercies, they're in Africa, they're in
Mexico, they're in Australia, they're in Canada, they're wherever
they are, Russia, China, America, David said, where are they? And
Ziba said, in Lord above, he said, go fetch him. Fetch him. That's called fetching grace.
And I tell you, when he came up there, he didn't come up there
as a smart aleck. He came up there and old Mephibosheth
knew there's a lot of difference between the fellow on the throne
and himself. David could walk and he could walk all over him.
David had absolute power. That man, Mephibosheth, that
crippled fellow sitting on the floor, that's where he had to
sit, or a box or something. He couldn't stand. Who should
stand in his presence? None of us cripples. And he was
down on the floor, and he knew David could kill him, David could
burn him at the stake, David could do with him what he would.
And I'll tell you this, God doesn't owe us anything. We're enemies
by birth, by nature, and by choice. We had our way, we do away with
God. That's what we do. When we sin, we're saying, no
God. But God speaks in mercy. But
this man did reverence. He came before God. I know people
walking down the aisle saying, I'm going to accept Jesus. Mephibosheth
didn't come up here today and say, I'm going to accept mercy.
I'm going to let you make me a son. I was down at a loaded
bar and I heard down there that you had a lot up there that you
were willing to give folks, and I'm going to decide I'll just
let you make me one of your sons and let me sit at your table."
Hogwash! Mercy is sovereign, it's not
mercy. If mercy is owed, if mercy is earned, if mercy is deserved,
it is not mercy. And he sat there on the floor
and David said, I'm going to make you a son. I'm going to
give you everything you lost. You are going to sit at my table.
Oh, I tell you, I tell you this, and Mephibosheth understood why.
Listen to verse 7. And David said, Don't be afraid,
I am going to show you kindness, mercy, for Jonathan your father's
sake. I tell you this, Mephibosheth
later on, he sat at the king's table, but he knew why he was
there. The love of David for his father. He ate the good food. He drank the good wine. He wore
the good clothes. He slept in the nice bed. He
walked about on the oriental rugs. But he knew why he was
there and he never forgot it. He was there because David loved
his daddy. And that's the only reason. And
I'll tell you why you're here. Because God loves his son. Now
you can, I know these preachers, I see it on bumper stickers,
I see it everywhere, God loves you, and I love you, and Jesus
loves you, and everybody in the world is in love with you, but
don't kid yourself. Don't kid yourself. There's nothing
about you for God to love. God would have to cease to be
a holy God to love you or me, either one. But I'll tell you
whom he does love, he loves Christ. He didn't make a covenant with
you, he made a covenant with Christ. He made a covenant with
you in Christ. He loves Christ. The Father loves
the Son. And David reminded Jonathan of that. When Jonathan said,
why? He said, for Jonathan's sake.
When Mephibosheth said, why? He said, for Jonathan's sake.
And I tell you, God's mercy to sinners is for Christ's sake.
It's for Christ's sake. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, forgave
you." That's what it said. He loved the Son. Well, I want
to show you something else here. Mephibosheth was now the son
of David. Adopted. We adopted, for Christ's sake. He dwelt in the king's house.
He ate at the king's table. He had restored his lost standings. He was the son of a king, now
he's the son of the king again. That's right, Pop. When Saul
was king, he was son of the king. And he became a nothing. Now
he's adopted and son of the king by choice. The king chose him. Had a smile on his face, didn't
he? Joy in his heart. On good terms with the King,
the King had adopted him. He loved the King. Well, look at the last line,
verse 13, chapter 9, 2 Samuel. He was still laying on both his
feet. Yeah, he still had a smile on
his face and joy in his heart. and a crown on his head, but
he still had to drag those legs. He was still crippled. And I'll tell you this about
us. We have joy in Christ, the crown of sonship. We're sons
of the King. We sit at the King's table. We
eat the children's bread. But as long as we walk on this
earth in this flesh, we're going to drag around the results of
the fall. That's right. Unfortunately,
it's just so. Someday it'll be different. But
don't ever forget, you're still a cripple. That's right. Still a cripple. Have to have
his grace. Well, let me show you something
else. Also, Mephibosheth was not without trials. You say,
well, his war is over. No, I beg your pardon. He's going
to go through one of the most severe trials yet that you can
imagine. His love for David, his gratitude
to David, his confidence in David is going to be tested beyond
expression. Now I'll give it to you briefly.
David was reigning as king, but David had a son by the name of
Absalom, handsome. handsome man, strong man, personable,
a lot of charisma. David was so busy that that son,
Absalom, sat at the gate, and when people would come to see
David, the king, he'd stop them at the gate. And he'd say, what
do you want to see my father about? He's busy. Talk to me.
And they'd talk to him. He'd give them anything they
wanted. And he kept doing that until he just singled out and
won the hearts of the people. They didn't even get to see the
king. They talked absolutely. So when he was ready to spring
the net, he had the people with him. And he took his father's
kingdom. Absolutely. And David had to
get a few charged friends, people who were still loyal to David
and to the Lord, and flee the city. and run for his life. And Mephibosheth said to Zabba,
saddle me an ass so that I can go with my king and get provisions,
bread and meat and clothing and all these things and get a bunch
of asses and saddle them up for me. I'm crippled, you see, I
can't do any of these things. You're supposed to do that. So
Zabba didn't do that. He did saddle the ashes, and
got all the beautiful provisions, and he left town with David.
He ran after David, and left Mephibosheth at home, the cripple.
See what happened. Turn to chapter 16, 2 Samuel
16. Oh, this is a trial. Won't you
listen to this? And when David was a little past the top of
the hill, 2 Samuel 16 verse 1, when David was a little past
the top of the hill, behold, here comes Ziba, the serpent
of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of ashes saddled, and
upon them two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred bunches of
raisins, a hundred summer fruits, a bottle of wine, and the king
said, Ziba, what meanest thou by these provisions? And Ziba
said, the ashes be for the king's household to ride on, and the
bread and the summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the
wine that such as be faint in the wilderness may drink." And
the king said, Where's Mephibosheth? Where's your master's son? And
Ziba lied. You ever had anybody lie on you? Religious folks ain't above it,
you know that, don't you? And Ziba said to the king, Behold,
he stayed in Jerusalem. He said, Today shall the house
of Israel restore me to the kingdom of my father. Then said the king
to Ziba, Behold, thine are all that pertain to Mephibosheth.
Everything he has is now yours. And Ziba said, I humbly beseech
thee that I might find grace in thy sight, my lord, O king." Don't you wonder? You say, how
can men be so evil? They're born that way. It takes
the grace of God to make anybody different. Well, David was gone
for a while, but he came back. Absalom was killed. his son Absalom. Remember, O Absalom, my son,
what God hath done for you. Absalom was killed. And David
was restored to the kingdom. What about Mephibosheth? Turn
to 2 Samuel chapter 19. David came back. David came back
to Jerusalem. David returns to Jerusalem, 2
Samuel 19, verse 24. Let me tell you something, Mephibosheth
loved the king. Mephibosheth was devoted to the
king, no matter what happened. He loved David, he was devoted
to David. We're going to see that now, no matter. But this is a
trial. This is to test that fellowship,
test that love. He could have said what Ziba
said, but he didn't say that, because he was the son of the
king. But verse 24, 2 Samuel 19, and
Mephibosheth, the grandson of Saul, came down to meet the king
when David came back into town. He hadn't dressed his feet, he
had not trimmed his beard, he had not washed his clothes from
the day the king departed unto the day the king came again in
peace. He grieved because his master was gone. And it came to pass when he came
to Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said unto him, Wherefore
wentest not thou with me, Mephibosheth? Why didn't you go with me? And
he answered, My lord, O king, Ziba, my servant, deceived me.
Thy servant said, I said to Ziba, I will saddle me an ass that
I may ride thereon and go to the king, because thy servant's
lame. He hath slandered thy servant
unto the Lord, unto my Lord the King. But my Lord the King is
as an angel of God. Do therefore unto me what's good
in your eyes." Whatever you wish to believe, whatever you wish
to do, just go ahead and do it. Because to me, you're an angel
of God. For, listen, for, all my father's
houseboat were but dead men before the Lord before my Lord the King,
yet didst thou set thy servants among them that eat at thy table.
What right, therefore, have I to cry any more unto the King? I
don't have anything to bellyache about, or cry about, or murmur
about, or complain about. I was a dead man when you found
me as all my father's house, and you were merciful to me.
Do with me what you will. Anything you do, be all right. because you're the king and I
don't deserve it. Didn't then and I don't now. That's God's
people. I didn't then and I don't now.
Do with me what you will. Now there he endured the test.
Let me ask you something. Did this trial make him love
the king like that? No sir, this trial revealed he
loved the king. This trial didn't make him love
David and devoted, this trial revealed what Zabba was and what
Mephibosheth was. This whole thing. That's what
God uses these things for. And the king said unto him, he's
going to test him again, listen. Don't talk to me anymore about
this. Why speakest thou any more of
this matter? David wasn't, isn't like our
Lord God. David's limited in his knowledge.
He's heard Ziba speak, now he's heard Mephibosheth, and God knows
David didn't know. But David had an idea. And David
said, I've said thou and Ziba divide the land. Let the tarrys
grow with the wheat. Y'all just divide the land. And Mephibosheth said to the
king, yea, let him have all of it, I don't care. Let him have
it all. For as much as my lord the king
is come again in peace under his own house, I'm happy with
him. I'm happy with him. Yes sir, I'm happy with him. Can I show you one more thing
about him? Well, David reigned. And a question
arose from the Gibeonites. Do you remember them? The Gibeonites?
And David sent word to them and wanted to know what their problem
was. They said, King Saul, when he was king, killed eighty-five
priests. Remember that? Eighty-five priests. Saul had killed in cold-blooded
murder with the children and their families. You see, one
of the Gibeonite priests showed kindness to David. Remember David
and his men were hungry and they came to the Lord's house and
they let him eat the bread? And Saul found out about it and
he came down there and said, Did you fellows let David have
bread here? They said, Yes. He said, Kill
every one of them. And one of his men with him said,
I can't do that. Another fellow picked up a sword and said, I
can do it. That's as many people sitting over there. He killed,
he had every one of those priests killed, 85 of them. And this
had festered all these years. And so they came to David and
they said, that hasn't been dealt with. Saul had 85 priests killed. And we're not going to be happy
until this thing is brought up. And Saul's sons are all killed. His sons and grandsons, we want
them all killed. Find them and kill them. David
said, I'll do it. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 21. Don't forget Mephibosheth is
one of those sons too, you know. I'll find every one of them and
kill them. Verse 3, 2 Samuel 21, look at it. Wherefore David
said to the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? And wherewith
shall I make the atonement, that you may bless the inheritance
of the Lord? And the Gibeonites said, verse 4, We will have no
silver nor gold of Saul. We don't want anything in his
house. Neither for us shall you kill any man in Israel. And he
said, Well, what ye shall say? That will I do, David said. And
they answered the king. The man that consumed us, that
devised against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in
any of the coast of Israel, let seven of his sons be delivered
unto us, and we'll hang them unto the Lord in Gibeah, whom
the Lord did choose." And the king said, I'll give them. What's
going to happen with Ephibosheth? But the king spared Mephibosheth,
the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the Lord's
oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan, the son of
Saul. Nobody is going to touch Mephibosheth.
David entered into a covenant for his soul. And you know when David lay dying,
he remembered a covenant. If you want to read it sometime,
just one chapter over, chapter 23, after this couple of chapters,
David, the last words he spoke before he died, he said, well,
my house is in a mess. My house is in a mess. It be
not so with my house. But God made with me an everlasting
covenant. in all things and sure, this
is my salvation." You're looking at old Mephibosheth,
son of the king, blessed of God. But I'll tell you, I know why. It's for Christ's sake. And if
I'm remembered and I'm preserved and I'm kept and spared, when
God deals with the sons of Adam for the sin of crucifying his
son and rebelling in the garden, it will be, for Christ's sake,
it will be the covenant mercies of God and its sovereign mercy. That's it. That's what this book teaches.
And I know, and you know, this is not Won't you let God save
you? Won't you give God a chance?
Won't you accept Jesus? Won't you, won't you, won't you?
I'm praying, God, won't you have mercy? Let me be a Mephibosheth,
an object of your love. Don't pass me by. All right. Let's open our Bibles again now
to that scripture in Matthew chapter 5, which Brother Colan
read for us a moment ago. And seeing the multitudes," Matthew
5, verse 1, "...he went up into a mountain. And when he was set,
his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught
them." Now, these are the words of our Lord.
These are the words of the Master. Great multitudes followed him.
And he went up into a high place. And he sat down, as was the custom
then for teachers, when they were preaching and teaching,
they would sit down and the people would sit on the ground around
them when they were outside. And our Lord did much teaching
in this manner. And it said he was set and his
disciples came unto him, gathered close about him. And he opened
his mouth and he taught them, he taught them. Now the second
thing that I want to say about this before I speak concerning
these words, is our Lord is not setting forth here at all the
way to be saved. He's not speaking at all in these
verses about how a man is saved, how a man comes to God. He is
speaking here about the evidences and the marks of those who are
saved. These are the attributes of children
of God. This is not how to be saved.
We're saved by faith. We're not saved because we're
poor in spirit or merciful or meek or so forth. We're saved
by the grace of God through the blood of Christ. It's the blood
that makes us atonement for the soul. It's his righteousness
that covers us and makes us holy in God's sight. We're saved by
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is not how to be saved
at all. These are the marks of people
who know God, who are the children of God. He's not teaching them how to
be saved. You don't teach a man how to
be saved. God saves him. It's a miracle
of his grace. And we're saved by grace through
faith. But now, wait a minute. What
our Lord is doing here is identifying the faith that saves. You see,
that faith which saves, that faith which lays hold of Christ,
is a faith that produces works of grace. You know, James said
that. He said, faith without works
is dead. Faith without works is dead.
Faith that does not work is not living faith at all. It won't
save you. So that's what our Lord is showing here. He's showing
us how this faith produces works, and also faith produces evidence
of its presence.

Sovereign Mercy

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Sovereign Mercy

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

More from Henry Mahan

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Henry Mahan

Books by Henry Mahan

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book