There is so much in the books
of 1 and 2 Samuel about this man Mephibosheth that it takes a lot of wisdom
and leadership of the Holy Spirit to present his story so that
it might be appreciated and understood and applied by you and me to
our own experience in grace. You see, actually, the story
of Mephibosheth begins before he was born. I call this message,
Mephibosheth, an object of mercy, an object of mercy on the part
of another for the sake of another. And this mercy that was given
to Mephibosheth was designed and purposed on his behalf and for him between
his father and his father's friend in a covenant that they drew
up before Mephibosheth was ever born. And every blessing that
Mephibosheth received from David, every blessing, every consideration,
every benefit was a result of that covenant. Now let me show
you that. Turn first to 2 Samuel 21. And here we're coming to
the closing days of Mephibosheth's life. You say, you're starting
at the wrong end, but you know, I'm starting here at the end
of his life. David was now an old man. Mephibosheth
was up in years. David was about to end his reign.
Solomon was about to become king. And you'll find in 2 Samuel 21
verse 7, 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. That's why he
spared him. All the way through his life,
down to the end of his life, every benefit and blessing and
consideration that he received from the hand of David, all was
as a result of that covenant made before he was ever born
between David and Jonathan. Now go back to 1 Samuel 18 and
let's begin there. Mercy was designed for Mephibosheth
before he was born. He's an object of the mercy of
David before he was ever born. In 1 Samuel 18, you see David
was a very, very young man. Jonathan was a very young man.
David had already won acclaim for his victory over Goliath.
He had already been anointed by Samuel to be king of Israel.
Saul was in the waning days of his rule, rejected by God in
disfavor. The Spirit of God removed from
him, but he was closing out the last days of his reign. And his
jealousy of David was terrible. He wanted to destroy David. He
saw in David, the new king of Israel, a potential threat to
his throne, and he wanted to get rid of him. But his son Jonathan,
the son of Saul, king Saul, Jonathan, loved David. Their hearts were
knit together. Look at this in chapter 18 of
1 Samuel. It came to pass when he made
an end of speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit with
the soul of David. And Jonathan loved David as his
own soul. And Saul took him that day and
wouldn't let him go no more home to his father's house. And then
Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own
soul. There was that love between Jonathan and David and they made
a covenant with one another. Now let me show you what some
of this covenant involved. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 20.
At this time, Jonathan did not have a son. Mephibosheth evidently
was not even born. They were both young men in the
household of the king. And Jonathan loved David. He
knew David would be the king. He had perception and understanding
and discernment. He saw his father's rebellion
against God and he saw his father's evil. And he knew David was going
to be king. And so out in the field one day,
John and David were out in the field. And Jonathan said to David,
verse 12, verse 11 of 1 Samuel 20. Now listen to it. Jonathan
said to David, come, 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 my father
about tomorrow, any time, or the third day, behold, if there
be good towards you, David, And I send not unto 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, I'll show that to you and
send you away, that you may go in peace, and the Lord be with
you, as he hath been with my Father. Now watch this. And thou
shalt not only, while yet I live, show me the kindness of the Lord,
that I die not. Be merciful to me, David. But
also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house. My family,
my children, forever. No, not when the Lord has cut
off the enemies of David, everyone from the face of the earth. You
take care of my house. And David, Jonathan, made a covenant
with the house of David, right there, saying, let the Lord even
require that the hand of David's in it. There's the covenant,
there. Jonathan and David are making preparation right there
in that field. Show mercy to my fellowship.
Jonathan said, David, when you get to be king and sit on the
throne, I'll be dead. He knew that because he was the
heir to the throne by lineage and so forth, not David. And
he said, well, when you sit on that throne, you make a covenant
with me right now that you'll show kindness and mercy to my
son. And that's where it starts. And
I'll tell you this, the mercy I enjoy right now, the blessings
and benefits I enjoy from the hand of God are the result of
every consideration and every mercy and every benefit are the
result of a covenant, an eternal everlasting covenant made before
this world ever began between the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, in which the Father gave me to the Son, in which
the Father made the Son my surety." Jonathan is making David the
surety of his household right there. I hold you responsible
to show mercy to my son. And the covenant was made and
agreed upon. And when we come to the very
end of Mephibosheth's life, through all the trials and everything,
David spared him because of that covenant. And let me show you
that in the Scripture now, Ephesians 1. Turn to Ephesians. The mercy that any sinner enjoys,
any son of Saul, son of Adam, son of fallen Adam, any consideration
and kindness and mercy and grace that we enjoy is because the
Father, before the foundation of the world, in a covenant of
grace and mercy, making Christ our surety and giving us as a
gift to His Son, designed and purposed and planned to have
grace and mercy upon some sinners for Christ's sake. That's where
it all started. Look at Ephesians 1 verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heaven and places in Christ,
according as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy. that we should be holy and without
blame before Him, in love, having predestinated us to the adoption
of sons. 1 Thessalonians 2. 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 13.
That's 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. 2 Thessalonians. But we're
bound, Paul said, to give thanks always to God for you brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. Paul said, God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace was pleased
to reveal His Son in me. Revelation 13.8 says Christ is
the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Hebrews 13.20 and
21, let's look at that, talks about
the everlasting covenant, the great shepherd of the sheep,
Hebrews 13.20, Now the God of peace that brought again from
the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through
the blood of an everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good
work. What is this everlasting covenant? Eternal covenant. Well, when I read over here in
2 Samuel of Jonathan standing talking to David, David is the
The future king. David is the one who will sit
on the throne. David is the one in whose hands
all mercy is placed. And Jonathan knows that his family
is in disfavor. It's a rebellious family. It's
a family of Saul. He enters into a covenant with
David. This was before Mephibosheth ever came into this world. And
he said, David, someday you'll be king. Someday everything will
be in your hands, all mercy and grace and everything, to do with
me and as you will. Based on your love for me and
our friendship, would you show mercy to my son?" And David,
however they agreed on anything, shaking hands or whatever, David
said, you can rest assured, because of my love for you, that boy
will always be taken care of. The rest of them were killed,
see. The whole family was wiped out except that boy. And I'm
saying this, and you can call it a contract, and people can
talk about contract theology and all that. I don't know anything
about those terms. That's not my business to enter
into battling over terms. I just know before this world
ever rotated into space, there was a covenant, an everlasting
covenant. And it wasn't between God and man because man wasn't
here. And it wasn't between God and the angels because they weren't
here. Between God and God. In which Christ became a surety
of an everlasting covenant. His blood the blood of an everlasting
covenant. In which God designed to show
mercy. In which God seeing the fall
of the household of Adam. And the utter decay and rebellion
of the household of Adam. And the alliance between Adam
and Satan. Man and Satan. He said, I'm going
to show mercy to some folks for Jesus' sake, for Christ's sake. And that's where the mercy's
been, all right? Turn to 2 Samuel 4. So Mephibosheth came along. He
was five years old. And Saul was in deep trouble. Saul was dead. King Saul, his
granddaddy, Abner was dead. Saul's right-hand man. Jonathan was dead, his daddy.
David was growing stronger and stronger. David's followers were
growing more and more. And Saul's family knew that David
would be king. And when the news came of Abner's
death, verse 1 of 2 Samuel 4, Saul's son heard that Abner was
dead. And these folks were taken over.
Verse 4, and Jonathan Saul's son had a son that was lame on
his feet. He was five years old when the
tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse
took him up and fled. He's a five-year-old boy. She
took him up to run, and it came to pass that she made haste to
flee, that he fell. And as a result of his fall,
he became lame, and his name was Mephibosheth. What a picture. What a picture. Here, before
this little fellow was ever born. And David and Jonathan, see,
they had no sight or knowledge, sight into the future, knowledge
of the future. They were made a covenant of love between them.
Knowing David's power and the fact David would be on the throne,
Jonathan committed his family to David. But our God chose a
people by name and gave them to Christ His Son long before
they were born, before the world was created, before Adam was
ever put in the garden. But when Adam was put in the
garden, we were there with him. And like Mephibosheth, we were
involved in a fall, a terrible fall. I see this nurse taking
up that child in some way And whether she was putting him up
on a chariot or putting him up on a camel to ride or somewhere,
but he fell and both of his legs, pelvis evidently were crushed.
He never walked again. Lame always, all his life on
both his feet. But what a picture of our involvement
in the fall. Although God's love and covenant
was directed toward us, we were involved in that fall. And that
fall left us lame. Not just on our feet, but from
the top of our heads to the bottom of our feet. It left us crippled.
Let's see that in Romans 5. Turn to the 5th chapter of Romans.
It left us crippled. The fall in which Mephibosheth
was involved, and he was running with all the other rebels. Rebels
against David, and rebels against the kingdom of David, and it's
like Adam was running from God. And as a result of that rebellion,
it left Mephibosheth crippled. And as a result of Adam's fall,
it left us crippled. Crippled in mind, and heart,
and body, and everywhere. In Romans 5 verse 12, Wherefore
by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin. So death was
passed upon all men. Death came upon us as a result
of that fall. For all sin. Not only death,
but look at verse 18. By the offense of one judgment
came upon all. condemnation. Verse 19, by one
man's disobedience many were made sinners. Here I see Mephibosheth
sitting there on the ground with his legs. They never developed.
They never grew. They were crippled and lame.
He never used them. The muscles never developed. That was the
result of the thought when he was fleeing from David. And I
see us sitting here and And the Scripture says, having eyes,
we don't see, we're blind. We were blinded in the Garden
of Eden. Blinded to what? Well, not to sin, and not to
materialism, and not to the world, not to our own way, but blinded
to God. We don't see God's gospel, or
truth, or beauty, or glory, or sovereignty. We don't see our
own sin. Having ears, we hear not. We were made deaf. Oh, our
ears pick up the uncertain sounds of the world, but they won't
pick up. They're not in tune to God. Our mouths are full of
cursing and bitterness. Scripture says our whole head
is faint. Our minds, our hearts are sick. Our throats are open
sepulchers. Our tongues are set on fire with
hell. Our hands shed innocent blood.
Our feet walk in pairs of destruction. Our imaginations, every imagination
of man's heart is evil continually. Our mind is enmity against God. Well, we look at Mephibosheth
and see what happened to him in the fall. Crippled. Physically
crippled. We look at ourselves and see
what happened to us in the fall. Spiritually crippled. Without
strength, without hope, without help, without God, and without
Christ. And there he is, and he's down
there living with somebody in the house of no bread, in the
house of no pasture. David took the throne. All right,
2 Samuel 9. Let's look at this. David is
enthroned. David has accomplished the victory
over his enemies. And our Lord has come down here
and conquered Satan. He has crushed the head of Satan. He's conquered. He's king. He
has purchased his kingdom and his people. And the first thing
David said when he became king, one of the first things, not
the first, one of the first, he said, I've got a covenant
to fulfill. I've got a promise to keep. Oh, how he loved Jonathan. Talked
about in one passage that they loved each other so deeply, they
were so close. The Father loveth the Son and
giveth all things into His hands. Oh, how the son loves the father,
and the father loves the son. And David said, I want to know,
is there anybody left of the house of Saul? And one fellow
said, yes, there is a servant called Ziba. So he called Ziba
in, and the king said, Ziba, verse 3, is there any left of
the house of Saul? I've got a promise to keep. I've
got a covenant to fulfill. I'll show him kindness for Jonathan's
sake." And Ziba said, well, Jonathan's got a boy. He's in a mess. He's crippled. Now, the first
thing I noticed about this is Mephibosheth wasn't seeking David.
Mephibosheth's thoughts were not directed to David. His thoughts
of love and seeking David. If David had never called him,
he'd have stayed down there in the house of no bread, fearful
and afraid. He had no understanding of David's
mercy. He looked upon David as his enemy,
not a friend. He looked upon the house of David
as his enemy. He knew that righteous judgment
would blot him out like it did all the rest of the sons of Saul.
or those that were dead, the family of Saul. So he stayed
there. But David had thoughts of love toward him. And this
is the same thing, if you are redeemed here tonight, if you
know God, if you know God's mercy, God's thoughts of love and mercy
are toward you first. We didn't seek Him, He sought
us. We didn't love Him, He loved us. We didn't call upon Him first,
He called on us. And David said, where is He?
And Ziba said, Down there in the wretched place of Lodabar
and David, watch verse 5, "...sent and fetched him." Brethren, that's the way the
Holy Spirit does one of God's children, one of those who are
included in the covenant, in the mercy of God from the foundation
of the world, God will get him. God will call him. He'll send
after him. He'll send the Holy Spirit after
him. He'll send the preacher of the gospel after him. He'll
send the word of the gospel to him. He'll make known his thoughts
of love and mercy to that sinner. And they went down there and
got Mephibosheth and brought him to David. And the Holy Spirit,
Christ said, other sheep I have, them I must bring. They will
hear my voice. The Scripture says where the
word of the King is, there's power. You talk about David. David had power. And when David
said, go get my fever sheds, somebody moved. And then I get
tired of preachers picturing God as some little impotent old
granddaddy up there in heaven that sure would like to do something
for folks, but they won't let him. I get tired of hearing preachers
try to get folks to feel sorry for God. God is sovereign Lord
of heaven and earth, King of the universe, who giveth it to
whom he will, who reigns over the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. And he has a coven made with
his son. And he doesn't owe this generation
of Adam's sons anything. And when he goes after Mephibosheth
and he says, go fetch him, he means fetch him. And he'll fetch
him, too. He'll fetch him. Oh, the word
will spread everywhere about the King's mercy, but the object
of mercy is Mephibosheth. There's some folks that'll hear
about it, and folks that'll talk about it, and some folks that'll
get in on it. But the object of mercy is Mephibosheth. They
went after him, brought him up there, and brought him in front
of David. And Bephibosheth didn't approach
David with this buddy-buddy religion of today and say Jesus is my
co-pilot and God and I are in partnership and all that junk.
Bephibosheth was a poor, lame, dirty, helpless cripple who was
sitting on the floor in the presence of a sovereign. And he was scared
to death. Scared to death. Can you imagine? His granddaddy used to sit on
that throne. But his granddaddy was a rebel,
and God dethroned him, God disowned him, God slew him, and everybody
connected with him. Saul's house was under the wrath
of God. The Scripture said God rejected
him. Well, Phibosheth knew all that.
He knew that the new king was David, who was under the power
of God, and acted by the power of God, was accepted and anointed
of God, and he was part of that old reign. He was scared to death. to death. And you and I got a
right to tremble in God's presence. We got a right to be afraid.
We're sons of Adam. We're a generation that nailed
his son to a cross. We're people who said, we'll
not have this man reign over us. We're people who spat on
the Son of God. We're brought by the Holy Spirit
before the Lord God. It's not this, I believe I'll
let you show mercy to me, David. Can you imagine Mephibosheth
walking in there, you know, cocky and smart? and saying, well,
it's about time you called me. I think I can make a sizable
contribution to your kingdom, David. I'll tell you, I'll serve
in certain capacities. Why don't I be ambassador to
Syria, or maybe I'll be the ambassador to Babylon, or maybe you could
use me in this department. He sat there on the floor and
trembled, and David said, now, don't you be afraid. But you've
got one reason not to be afraid. I love Jonathan, your daddy.
That's the only reason you've got not to be afraid. For Jesus'
sake. My brother, if Christ is not
in this thing, you're under the wrath of God. If it hadn't been
for Jonathan, my pivot shaft would have been snuffed out just
that quick. But he was there on the basis
of David's love for another. He was there because David loved
Jonathan. He was there, and he was protected,
and he was hedged about, and mercy was upon him because David
loved Jonathan, his daddy. And that's the only reason. And
you can go, you do what you want to about it now, but this thing
of the love of God, God is love, but God is justice, and God is
righteousness, and God is holy. And God will deal with the wicked. And the Scripture says, "...he
that believeth not on the Son, the wrath of God abideth on him."
We are protected by the relationship of our Savior, the Lord Jesus,
with the Father. That's where it all is. And David
said, "...don't be afraid." But you've got one reason not to
be afraid. It's not because of who you are,
because you're nothing. It's not because of what you've
done or what you can contribute to me. What could that cripple
contribute to David? He didn't have a thing. He was
bankrupt. He was sick. He was helpless. He was everything that David
was. What could he make? What contribution? Not one blessed
thing. And you're in the same boat and
I am too as far as God's concerned. But he said, I'll tell you why
you don't be afraid. I'm going to show you kindness
for your daddy's sake. That's the reason. I'm going
to restore you everything you lost. I'm going to make you a
son. But I notice this, verse 13,
So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, and did eat continually at the
king's table, but he is still lame. He's still lame. Well, you get by that preacher,
I tell you, you and I still carry about Fruits of the fall, don't
we? Huh? David didn't heal him. Oh, he dressed him up. He fed
him. He fattened him. He cleaned him
up. He made a lot of difference in
him. But everybody still looked at Mephibosheth and said, I remember
when you fell. I remember. How do you remember?
I look at your leg and tell you, you fell one time. And you and
I, when God, for Christ's sake, makes us new creatures in Christ
and makes us sons of the King, And every once in a while somebody
can listen to us and say, you fell one time, didn't you? Yeah. Still talk like a fallen creature.
You still walk like one, do you? You still walk like a cripple.
You don't walk in holiness and perfection. You still walk like
a cripple. And you still look like one,
too. But he's going to straighten that out some day. Well, let's
look at something else. I've always stopped my message
right there on Mephibosheth, but I want to go a little further.
Chapter 16 of 2 Samuel. Well, some years went by, and
I'll make this brief. Somebody said something about
preachers preaching too long. I guess we do, but I'll tell
you, there's so much here that it's hard to quit. Well, the
years passed, and David had a son named Absalom. And Absalom won
the hearts of the people. He did. He rebelled against his
daddy, David. And he won the hearts of the
people. And he'd sit down by the gate, you know, and greet
the people. And David was busy, and Absalom
was winning their favor. He was courting the folks, and
he'd sit down by the gate, and he'd talk. Now, my daddy's all
right, but have you ever thought about this? But, you know, that's
characteristic of a goat. He buts you. And he kept butting
them. Finally, he won their hearts,
and he took over. And David left the kingdom. He
was driven out. And some folks went with him.
And Mephibosheth, when David was driven out of the kingdom,
Mephibosheth called his servant Ziba. And he said, My lord, the
king, David, is out yonder in the mountains, and I know he's
hungry. And I know those with him are hungry, and I know they
need help. You saddle up two asses, and you put on them 200
loaves of bread, and you put on them 100 bunches of raisins,
and you put fruit, and you put wine, and you saddle that ass
for me, and I'll take it to David. I'll ride out there." He was
crippled, you see. He couldn't do these things. So Ziba was a crook. He was a deceitful person, and
we go on into folks like that, you know. In chapter 16, so when
David, verse 1, let's read this, this is interesting. So when
David was a little past the top of the hill, Ziba, the servant
of Mephibosheth, met him. And he had a couple of ashes,
saddle, and 200 loaves of bread, and 100 bunches of raisins, and
hundreds of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine. That's what
Mephibosheth was going to take. You know what Ziba did? He sneaked
out there and did all that, and left Mephibosheth at home, and
rode out there to David. And the king said, Ziba, what
meanest thou by these? And Ziba said, the ashes be for
the king's household to ride on, and the bread and 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? Oh, I always get sad when I read
this. Where's Mephibosheth? And Ziba
said, listen to the King David. Behold, Mephibosheth stayed at
Jerusalem. He said, today shall the house
of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father. He never said that.
Ziba lied on him. And the king said, Ziba, behold,
thine are all that pertain to Mephibosheth. And Ziba said,
I humbly beseech thee that I may find grace in thy sight, my lord,
O king. You know, Arthur Pink, I read
his comments on it. I don't believe David is that
blind. Pink talked about David's impulsiveness and David believing
the lie. I don't know whether David believed
that or not. Because we're going to see in a few moments that
David put some folks under certain kind of trials to test them. David had been king for many.
David was a wise man, a brilliant man. He dealt with cooks before
his own son had thrown him out of the kingdom. He didn't believe
everything everybody told him. He didn't believe everything.
And that doesn't sound like David. David's putting some folks under
judgment and trial. You'll see this in a moment.
So, all right, let's go now, if you will, to chapter 19. So
David came back. I'm going to skip all that. You
see, a lot happened. But he told Ziba, he said, all
right, everything that I gave Mephibosheth, I'll take away
from him and give it to you. Now, wait a minute. David had
a covenant he abided by. You're going to see in a moment,
he never did take it away. He did that to Ziba. Like our
Lord God says it, Cain, where's your brother? He knew where his
brother was. He was trying Cain. Our Lord
said to the men in the garden, Whom seek ye? God asked questions,
not for information, but to reveal a crooked heart. And David is
going to reveal a crooked man in Ziba, and in a minute he's
going to reveal affection in Mephibosheth. So David came back,
chapter 19, he came back to the kingdom. Absalom was killed. And David came back. Chapter
19, 2 Samuel, verse 24. And Mephibosheth, the son of
Saul, came down to meet the king. David's coming back in Jerusalem,
crossing the Jordan, coming back home. And Mephibosheth went to
meet him. Since David left, he hadn't dressed
his feet, he hadn't trimmed his beard, he hadn't washed his clothes. From the day the king departed,
the day came again in peace. That man loved King David. And
you know David knew that. Peter said, Lord, you know all
this. You know I love you. You can't hide love. You can't
hide affection. You can't hide devotion. And
this man Mephibosheth was devoted to David. Since David left the
kingdom, this man had not washed himself, clay changed his clothes,
or trimmed his beard. Oh, he looked a mess. But he
was in grief over the absence of his Lord, his King. And with
that kind of devotion, one lie from Ziba certainly wouldn't
change that relationship with the king. But David is going
to try him. Now listen. And our lives are
going to be filled with trial. And it came to pass when he had
come to Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, Wherefore
wentest not thou with me, Mephibosheth? Why didn't you go with me? And
he answered, My lord, O king, my servant deceived me. For thy
servant, I said to Ziba, I'll saddle me an ass that I may ride
there on and go to the king, because thy servant is lame."
And he slandered me unto the Lord the King. But my Lord the
King is as an angel of God, do with me what's good in your eyes. Oh, what a spirit of humility
and grace. I've been lied about, he said,
I've been deceived, but now you do with me what you will. For
all my father's house were but dead men before my Lord the King,
yet you set your servant among them that did eat at your table.
What right have I to cry any more unto the King? I don't have
any right. You don't owe me anything. I
hear folks that have been Christians a few years say, well, I've served
the Lord, and I believe I'm going to my reward. I believe the Lord
is going to take notice of me. That's not the way Mephibosheth
talks. What right have I to cry any
more to the King? Why, you showed mercy to me when
I was but a dead man. You don't owe me anything. And
the king said to him, why don't we speak anymore on this matter?
Now listen, he's dealing with Mephibosheth, he's going to expose,
he's going to reveal something. God's going to reveal something
in that man's heart. He said to him, we don't talk
about this anymore, I said you and Ziba divide the land. Now
David said, Ziba, you can have it all. You see, David's a wise
man. Now he's dealing with Mephibosheth. And God's going to deal with
you and me. We're going to have trials in this life. Now how
is Mephibosheth going to react? Now wait a minute, you gave that
to me. That's not what he said. But you promised my daddy. That's
not what he said. He said, Master, verse 30, let
Ziba have all of it. Let him have it all. My Lord
the King has come back home in peace to his own house. All I
need is Christ. All I need is your presence.
Just let him have it all. You know, Solomon was a wise
man. And you remember that time that
these two harlots both had children, and during the night one of the
children died. And they both claimed that the woman whose
child died, she told the other one, said, your child's the dead
one, mine's the living one. She said, no, mine's the living
one, yours is the dead one. No, mine's the living one, yours
is the dead one. Well, let's let the king settle it. You remember?
So they came to Solomon, and here's the real mother, and here's
the imposter. And the imposter says, it's my
child. And the real mother said, no, her child's dead, this is
my child. The imposter said, no, her child is dead, this is
my child, Solomon. What's he going to do? He said, hand me the baby. And
they hand him that beautiful little cuddly, fine looking little
girl or boy. He said, hand me a sword. They
hand him a sword and he held the baby up by the leg or arm.
He said, I'll cut it in half and divide it with you. The imposter
said, okay. The real mother said, don't,
don't do it. Don't kill my baby. Give him,
give him to her, but let him live. So I said, I know whose
baby it is now. He got that from his daddy, David.
David said, Saba, David said, Mephibosheth, we'll divide the
inheritance. And the real owner, the one who
loved David, said, uh-uh, let him have it. I just want you. Oh, that put Zab out of business,
didn't it? And that put Mephibosheth in
business. See, God tries our hearts. He says over in 1 Peter,
Beloved, think it not strange when fiery trials come upon you.
David, David knew the love of that man, but he's trying him,
he's testing him. He's revealing his love and he's
acting like he's mad with him. Where were you? Master, I was
lied on. Why didn't you come to meet me?
I was coming to meet you. Well, we're not going to discuss
this anymore. You and Ziba are divided like
I said. Let him have it all. I want you. I'm not interested
in that, Elaine. I'm interested in you. My Lord's
back home. That's all that matters. Well,
let's go to 2 Samuel 21 and say goodbye to Mephibosheth, the
object of mercy. Before David died, the Lord brought judgment on
Israel because of an agreement that Saul broke. You see, Saul and the kingdom
of Israel made an agreement with the Gibeonites that he would
show them mercy. Well, he broke that agreement
and he destroyed those people. And years later, verse 21 of
2 Samuel, this is the basis, there was a famine in the days
of David three years, year after year after year, and David inquired
of the Lord and the Lord said, this famine is for Saul and his
bloody house because he slew the Gibeonites. Well, let me
make it short. David went to the Gibeonites
and he said, I want to make restitution for what Saul did thirty years
ago, because God's dealing with me about this matter. And they
said, well, we don't want your gold or your silver or your money.
We want some of Saul's sons, we want to punish them for what
he did and what they did. They were in on it, his whole
family. So David sent seven of these sons by concubines and
wives and so forth to the Gibeonites to be hanged. But Charlie, he
didn't send one. Who was that one? That was Mephibosheth.
Look at verse 7. Verse 6 says, Let seven men of
his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them before
unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, whom the Lord did choose. And
the king said, I'll give them. But the king spared Mephibosheth. And I'll tell you, the sons of
Adam are going to answer for the fall. The wrath and judgment
of God is going to come. But there's one son that's not
going to suffer. And that's that one given to
Christ. And he said the king spared Mephibosheth because of
the Lord's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan,
the son of Saul. Turn to the book of Malachi chapter
3. I'll show you a verse of Scripture.
Malachi chapter 3, the last book in the Old Testament. Malachi 3, verse 6, I am the
Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. That's the basis of it. Brethren,
I tell you, Mephibosheth loved David. He
loved him, oh how he loved him. We saw that. He was thankful
to David. He praised David. But let me
tell you something. Mephibosheth all during his life
was mighty glad for that covenant that David made with his daddy
John. And I don't worship the covenant of grace. I worship
and love Christ and all my mercies and blessings are through him.
But I'll tell you I'm mighty glad that God in his mercy chose
to save my soul. If this left up to me I'd still
be in Lodibar and so would you. And I resent anybody who makes
fun of that covenant. I resent anybody who denies it.
I tell them this. And I say this. If anybody had
come to my fibbershare and said, I don't believe your daddy and
David made any agreements. He said, I'm living proof of
it. I'm living proof of it. I don't believe that took place
in the field back there before you was born. He said, I'm living
proof of it. Living proof of it. And I'll tell you this, I
know something took place back yonder, it's in the scripture,
and I'm living proof of it. That God gave Christ to people.
And I'm mighty grateful that I'm one of them. And I know you
are. Let's sing a closing hymn, Brother
Ron, if you'll lead us please.