Fetching Grace

I'd like for you to take your
Bibles and open them with me to the book of 2 Samuel. I have
here one of the most interesting stories to be found anywhere
in God's Word. It's a beautiful picture of God's
grace toward sinners. I call this message, Fetching
Grace. And we're going to read as I
take 2 Samuel 9, verse 5. Then King David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Makar, out of the land of Lodibar. David
sent and fetched him. Now Saul had been rejected by
God because of disobedience, and Saul was now dead. David
was king over all Israel. David sat upon the throne in
complete authority. And one of the first things that
King David did, after he became king over all of Israel, was
gather all of his leaders together, servants, captains, generals,
and he spoke to them one day, and this is what he said, Is
there any left of the house of Saul, any of the house of the
former king Saul, that I might show the kindness of God to him? Is anybody left, anybody at all,
of the household of Saul? And Ziba, one of the servants
there, reported that Saul had a grandson, Jonathan's son. His name was Mephibosheth, and
he lived down in the house of Macher in Lodibar. But he said, King David Mephibosheth
is a helpless cripple. He's lame on both his feet. Mephibosheth
is Saul's grandson. He's Jonathan's son. And he's
now living in the place called Lodivar, the place of no pasture,
no bread, the house of no bread. He's a helpless cripple. He's
lame on both his feet. And David sent his servants to
Lodivar and fetched him. And the crippled Mephibosheth
was brought to the capital and appeared in the presence of King
David, fell on his face, did reverence to the king. And David
said to him, Mephibosheth, fear not, for I will show you the
kindness of God for Jonathan's sake. You're going to inherit
all that you lost. You're going to inherit Saul's
entire land. Fifteen farmers, twenty servants,
all the land, and you're going to sit at my table continually
and be one of my sons." And Mephibosheth looked at the king, and this
is what he said, "'What is thy servant, that thou shouldest
show such mercy to such a dead dog as I am?' And David said,
"'For Jonathan's sake I show you the kindness and mercy of
God.'" Now, this is a beautiful story. I wish you'd take a Bible. If you don't have one handy,
I wish you'd jot down these scriptures and go back and read it later.
You can, by reading this chapter in 2 Samuel, chapter 9, you can
learn something, at least in your head, if not in your heart,
about the gospel, how God deals with sinners. It's a beautiful
picture. And it can be told in seven or eight words. Let's take
them one at a time. Now, first of all, in verse 3,
The word is King. And the King said, is there not
yet any of the house of Saul that I might show him the kindness
of God? The King said. The King speaks. This mercy, this kindness, all
begins with the King, with King David. And the Bible says where
the word of the King is, there's power, all power. David was now
ruler. sovereign king over all of Israel. These people are sitting there
listening to what he had to say. They were awaiting his commandments. They were awaiting his word.
There's no counsel here. There's no bargaining here. There's
no cooperation here. It is total authority. It is
total power. It is total sovereignty, King
David said. And King David speaking here
with this authority, with this power, with this sovereignty
is a picture of our sovereign God as he speaks in authority. In second, in Isaiah 45 verse
6, God says, I am the Lord. There is none else. I form the
light. I create darkness. I make peace. I create evil. I, the Lord, do
all these things. And then in Isaiah 46 verse 9,
he says this, I am God. There's none like me. I declare
the end from the beginning. And from ancient times are things
that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, I will
do all my pleasure. And the king said, Is there any
of the house of Saul that I might show him the kindness of God?
I will do my pleasure, I will carry out my purpose, I will
accomplish my will, and that's what God is saying here. And
in 1 Samuel 2 verse 6, the Lord killeth. and the Lord maketh
alive. The Lord bringeth down to the
grave, and the Lord raiseth up. The Lord maketh poor, and the
Lord maketh rich. The Lord bringeth low, and the
Lord lifteth up. Our God is a sovereign God. He's
an almighty God. An almighty God is absolutely
sovereign in all of creation. Scripture says, in the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth. Almighty God created all
things by the word of his power, according to his own purpose,
according to his own wisdom, and according to his own will.
God is sovereign in creation, and our God is absolutely sovereign
in providence. The scripture tells us he worketh
all things. after the counsel of his own
will. There may be second causes, there may be third causes and
fourth causes, but God is the first cause. And all things are
either in the directive or permissive will of God. All things, Paul
said in Romans 8.28, work together for good to them who love God,
who are the called according to his purpose, because God Almighty
controls all things. All providence is in the hands
of the Lord. And then God is absolutely sovereign,
not only in creation, and not only in providence, but he's
sovereign in salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. In
the book of Psalms, the psalmist says, the salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. He planned it. He purposed it. Just as David, sitting on this
sovereign throne, with all things under his control and his power,
he spoke to these people and he said, is there any left of
the house of Saul that I might show him mercy. I decree to do
it. I purpose to do it. I plan to
do it. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Great God, how infinite thou
art! What worthless worms are we! Let the whole human race bow
and give their praise to thee. thy eternal throne hath stood,
ere seas and stars were made, thou art the ever-living God,
were all the nations dead. Eternity, with all its years,
stands present in thy view. To thee there's nothing old appears,
and, great God, there's nothing new." This story begins with
a king. Our story begins with a king.
Mercy begins with the king. The mercy we receive begins with
the king. The salvation of Mephibosheth
began with the king. The king purposed it. The king
decreed it. The king planned it. The scripture
says in that verse 3 of 2 Samuel 9, and the king said, and I can
almost hear God himself speaking in glory in his own decree and
purpose saying, I will be merciful. And the second word Look at verse
3 again, it's kindness. And the king said, I will show
kindness. Is there any left of the house
of Saul, my enemy, the one who tried to kill me, the one who
tried to prevent me from coming where I am, the one who tried
to keep me from the throne, Saul, my enemy, is there any left of
his house that I might show the kindness of God to him? The word
kindness here is mercy. or pity. Saul's house was David's
enemy. All of his house. But Saul, but
King David said, I'm going to be merciful to my enemies. And
the scripture says this of us. God commended his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
God says, I will be merciful. I will be gracious. Psalm 130
verse 7 says, Let Israel hope in the Lord. For with the Lord
there is mercy. He delights to show mercy. Is
there any left of the house of Saul that I might show mercy? Mercy. Now, my friends, today,
people engage in a lot of talk about serving God, and I know
what they mean. And I don't mean to be critical,
but I'm trying to be honest with you. People today engage in a
lot of talk about working in the kingdom of the Lord, and
working for the Lord, and serving the Lord, and they talk about
earning rewards, and having stars in their crowns, and you hear
talk like this all the time, and we're going to appear before
the judgment seat of Christ, and we're going to, some of us
are going to get a lot of rewards, and some not very many rewards,
and some no rewards, but the language of real salvation is
mercy. Mercy. David said, is there any
of the house of Saul that I might show him mercy? He doesn't deserve
anything. He doesn't have anything coming.
Actually, he deserves to die because he's the son of my enemy.
If I leave him alone, he may try to take my throne. He may
raise up a coup against me. He may raise up a group of people
to attack my throne. But I'm going to show mercy to
him. Mercy. And when God Almighty looks down
at Adam's sin, curse, race, He doesn't owe us anything. God
never has and does not now, and never will be indebted to you
or to me. If God gives us what we deserve,
we'll get eternal condemnation. It's not justice we want, it's
mercy. And mercy is the language of
grace. Mercy is the language of Bible
salvation. Listen to it. Paul said, I obtained
mercy. Mercy. And when he was praying
for old Nessie, for his house, he said to Lord Grant that his
house might have mercy. That God will give him mercy.
He was a faithful friend of Paul, a faithful disciple, a faithful
preacher, and all Paul could wish for him was that he might
find mercy. The publican in the temple, what
did he ask God for? Mercy. The woman who came, the
Canaanite woman, and asked Christ to heal her daughter, what did
she pray for? Mercy. It's all the way through
the scripture. God be merciful. And in Hebrews
chapter 4, verse 16, the scripture says, let us come boldly, us,
you and me, sinners saved by God's grace, let us come boldly
into the holiest, into the presence of God, that we may obtain what? Rewards for our work, congratulations
for our endeavors, that we may obtain what? Mercy. mercy and
grace to help in time of need. Here's the story, the king said,
I will be merciful. Merciful. Merciful to the undeserved. Somebody said grace is God Almighty
giving us what we don't deserve. And mercy is God not giving us
what we do deserve. And that's the language of grace.
It's mercy. It's not reward. It's not service. It's mercy. And that's what we
want now, and that's what we want tomorrow, and that's what
we want next year. We want mercy. Now look at the
third word in verse 3. And the king said, Is there any
left of the house of Saul that I might show mercy? And Ziba,
one of his servants, said, Yes, Jonathan hath a son, Saul's grandson,
who is lame on both his feet. There's the word lame. He's a
helpless cripple. Mephibosheth is a picture of
you and me. Mephibosheth is a helpless cripple,
and you and I spiritually are helpless cripples. Not only,
not only are we without use of our legs, but every other faculty
of our being has been tainted and stained and slain by sin. We're not only without hope,
we're without God and without Christ and without help. You
know how Mephibosheth got crippled? If you take your Bible and turn
to the book of 2 Samuel, chapter 4, verse 4, you'll find what
happened to him. When he was just a little bitty
boy, the news came of Saul and the battle going against him,
and the enemy was prevailing, and this little boy's nurse picked
him up, Mephibosheth, and was going to run with him, and when
she did, she dropped him, and he crushed both of his legs.
And from that moment on, he was a helpless cripple. He was crippled
in the fall. And you know what happened to
us? We were crippled in the fall. Go back yonder to the Garden
of Eden. When God put Adam and Eve in a perfect garden, he created
them righteous and upright. But they sought out many evictions
and rebelled against God. And as a result of that fall,
the scripture says, by one man, sin entered this world, and death
by sin, so death. judgment, condemnation passed
upon all men. And by one man's disobedience,
we were made sinners. And not just our spiritual legs
are lame, but listen to the scripture. Every imagination of the thoughts
of man's heart is evil continually. The poison of snakes is under
his lips. Having eyes full of adultery,
he cannot cease from sin. His tongue is set on fire with
hail. His feet are swift to run the
mischief. You will not come to me, that
you might have life. Men love darkness rather than
light, because their deeds are evil. From the sole of our feet,
Isaiah said, to the top of our heads, there is no soundness
in us. We were ruined in the fall, we
were slain in the fall, we were destroyed in the fall, and we
are hopeless, helpless cripples who are living like Mephibosheth
in the dunghill, in the pigpen, we're living in the house of
no bread and no pasture, the place of evil, lame on both our
feet. We cannot run to God, and we
wouldn't if we could. Now, notice the fourth word,
and that's the word in my text, in my topic. Verse 5, look at
it. Then King David, is there any left of the house of supper?
I'm going to show him mercy. And Ziba said this one, Mephibosheth,
son of Jonathan, son of Saul. He's in the house of no bread.
And David, King David, sinned and fetched him. David proposed to show mercy. David purposed and planned to
show mercy. It was in his heart. Nobody told
him to. It was in his own heart. It was
in his own mind. It was according to his own purpose.
I'm going to show mercy. to one of Saul's sons, if there's
any left. David set his heart on this cripple. Somebody told him there's a cripple
son down there in Lodiborne. David set his heart on him. And
David, having purposed to show mercy to Mephibosheth and setting
his affections on him, he sent and fetched him. He sent after
him. He said, you go and bring him
up here. My friends, the Lord of glory
has determined to show mercy. He purposed in his own heart
to show mercy to Adam's race. God is love. God is mercy. He set his affections on us.
He said, I have loved you with an everlasting love. With an
everlasting love I have drawn you. We were enemies. Enemies
of God in our minds and in our hearts, and yet he committed
his love toward us in that while we were yet enemies, sinners,
Christ died for us. God set his affections on us.
God set his love upon us. God purposed to save a people.
And then he sent his son into this world to be our savior.
Christ came into this world and took our flesh, flesh and bones,
flesh and blood. He became a man. He obeyed the
law of God perfectly. He went to the cross and died
for our sins. He took all of our guilt and
our shame and our sin in his body on the tree and paid for
it. God sent his Holy Spirit to awaken
us, to quicken us, to call us. He came where we were and called
us unto himself. And that's what David did. He
said to one of his servants, you go down in the land of no
pasture, Lodibar, and you get Mephibosheth and you bring him
up here. And that's what Almighty God
did for us. He sent his Son to give to us
a perfect righteousness. He sent his Son to give to us
a perfect, holy standing. And then he sent his Holy Spirit
to awaken us and quicken us and call us and rule us and bring
us to himself. Now look at verse 7. So they
brought Mephibosheth up to the palace. I can just imagine the
scene. Here this boy, crippled, probably
ragged, probably had nothing of his own, living off the welfare
of others. He was brought up to this beautiful,
beautiful palace where David lived. Here was David sitting
there on the throne, and on each side of him a minister of the
state, and surrounding him were generals and bodyguards and captains
and lieutenants and princes and all manner of royalty. And down
there on the floor, on his broken, crippled, helpless legs, sat
Mephibosheth. the son of David's enemy, Saul. Here he was in the camp of David's
friends. He was the only descendant of
Saul. He was the only one left. They
all were looking at him, and he was afraid. He was afraid. He bowed, the scripture says,
on his face and did reverence. And David looked down at him
and said, Fear the shaft? Fear not. Don't be afraid. Because I'm going to show you
the kindness of God for Jonathan's sake. Now here's the fifth word,
sake. S-A-K-E. Not because of you,
Mephibosheth. Not because of who you are, not
because of what you've done, and not because of anything you
can add to me. What could that helpless cripple
add to powerful David? What could that helpless cripple
add to this court of handsome, strong, beautiful people? What
could that helpless cripple add to the glory of a man who already
had all authority, all sovereignty, all power over this whole mighty
kingdom? Not a thing. He couldn't add
a thing to David, but David could add a whole lot to him. And I'm
saying, what can you add to God Almighty's kingdom? What could
I add? A helpless, hopeless cripple.
A sinner. wicked, sinful, evil, what could
I add to the kingdom of God or to the assembly of his angels
and cherubims and seraphims and his heavenly glory? Not a thing.
But God can add a whole lot to me. And David said, Mephibosheth,
I'm going to show you kindness, what Jonathan said. Now wait
a minute. This whole story had its beginning a long time before
Mephibosheth was ever born. That's right. Who's David talking
about Jonathan? I'm going to show you, you helpless
cripple, you broken, hopeless cripple, I'm going to show you
kindness for Jonathan's sake. Who was Jonathan? Well, back
before Mephibosheth was ever born, back before Jonathan was
ever married, Jonathan, the son of Saul, became a friend to David. David had just killed Goliath.
He was just a stripling of a lad himself, probably in his late
teens, and he came before King Saul, holding that head of Goliath
in his hand by the hair. And Saul, sitting on the throne,
this was when Saul was king and David was just a young boy. And
Saul said, What's your name, son? And David said, I'm David. He said, Whose son are you? He
said, I'm the son of Jesse. I'm from Bethlehem. And when
Jonathan saw him, Scripture said he loved him. He loved him. Jonathan
was Saul's son. And he loved that boy. They were
about the same age. And they became fast friends. They became the best of friends.
The Bible says they loved each other more than the love of woman.
They were so close. They were such friends. And one
day Saul, I mean, one day Jonathan and David were out in a field.
Saul was trying to kill David, trying to run him out of the
kingdom. He knew David was more popular than he was and more
powerful than he was, so he was trying to get rid of him. And
Jonathan said, Someday you're going to be the king. My father
is disobedient to God, and someday God's going to disown him, and
God's going to cast him out, and you're going to be the king.
Now, David, you'll find this in 2 Samuel chapter 18, or 1
Samuel 18 and 1 Samuel 20. He said, David, I want you to
make a covenant with me right now. When anything happens, if
anything happens to my father and to me, and you become king,
Will you show kindness to my family? Will you remember my
family? Whoever's left, will you? And David shook hands, or
whatever they did then, and he said, I'll make a covenant with
you. Whatever happens to you, Jonathan, I'll be merciful to
your family. Well, the years went by, and
Saul was killed, and Jonathan was killed, and David was sitting
on the throne. Now, it's years later, and that's
when he said, Is there any left of the house of Saul that I might
show that kindness of God to him? And they brought that cripple
up there, Mephibosheth, on one leg. And David said, I'm going
to show you kindness. For Jonathan's sake, I loved
him. And I'm going to be kind to you for his sake. That's what
God did for you and me before we was ever born. He loved us
in Christ. He chose us in Christ. He set
his affections on us in Christ. He made a covenant with his Son.
Christ is the surety of an everlasting covenant. His blood is the blood
of an everlasting covenant. He was a lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. Paul said, God, who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace, was pleased
one day to reveal His Son to me. He said to Jeremiah, he said,
Jeremiah, before I formed you in the belly, I knew you. Before
you came out of the womb, I sanctified you and set you apart. Christ
said, all that my Father giveth me will come to me, and him that
cometh out in no wise cast out. Yes, God is kind to us and gracious
to us. But not because of anything he
sees in us. Not because we're better than
anybody else. Not because we deserve his kindness. We're enemies. Not that we deserve his grace.
He's doing it for Christ's sake. That's the reason when you bow
your head and pray, Our Father, forgive our sins, we ask it for
Christ's sake. Amen. You be kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God, for Christ's
sake, forgave you. That's what it's all about. That's
the basis of God's mercy. God shows mercy to the undeserving,
to the ill-deserving, to the hell-deserving, to the sons of
his enemies. He does it for Jesus' sake, because
of what Christ did for us, and because of Christ's love for
us. Now watch, I'll close with this word. Down there in verse
9, it says, I have given to Mephibosheth all that he lost in Saul. I'm going to give him those 15
farmers and 20 servants and all that land. Everything that pertained
it to Saul now belongs to Mephibosheth. And God Almighty in Christ restores
to us everything we lost in the fall. Sonship, heirship, the
inheritance, everything. I have given it to you for Christ's
sake. If you'd like to have this message
on cassette tape, there'll be a small charge. You write to
me. The address will appear at the close of the broadcast. You
write to me and I'll send it to you. Until next week, I bid
you a very pleasant good day.

Fetching Grace

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