I plan to just say a few words
to us tonight before we observe the Lord's Table, but I'd like
for us to look in our Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 9. 2 Samuel chapter 9. First, I want to read the last
few words in verse 7. These are the words of David
speaking to Mephibosheth, and thou shalt eat bread at my table
continually. This evening, before we eat from
the Lord's table, who is our king, we know the Lord Jesus
Christ as the mediator of the everlasting covenant, and he
is the prophet He is the priest and he is the king. He's our
king, he's our priest, and he's our prophet. He came to reveal
God to us. He said, he that has seen me
has seen the father. He came to reconcile us unto
God. He offered that one sacrifice
for sin. that put away the sins of His
people. And those of us who know Him
as our Lord and Savior, He came to us as a King and conquered
us. He conquered us by God the Holy
Spirit and the Word and brought us, made us to be subjects of
Him. So we're going to eat tonight
from our King's table, just like Mephibosheth ate from his king's
table, that is King David. And I want to just bring some
parallel thoughts to us between Mephibosheth eating at David's
table and you and I eating tonight at our king's table. First, Mephibosheth
was living lame in Lodibor and in fear. That's the way he's
presented to us in this passage of scripture. He's living, he's
lame, he is in the city of Lodibor, and he is afraid. And we can see some things that
are parallel to our condition. when the king of kings came and
with his gospel and by his spirit set up his kingdom in our hearts,
his throne in our hearts. Notice in verses three and four,
the king said, is there not yet any of the house of Saul that
I may show the kindness of God unto him? And Ziba said unto
the king, Jonathan hath yet a son which is lame on his feet. And
the king said unto him, where is he? And Ziba said unto the
king, behold, he is in the house of Macher, the son of Amiel in
Lodibor. He wasn't lame, but Phibosheth
wasn't lame on one foot. You notice it says he was lame
on his feet, that is both feet. He was lame. And so you and I,
When we came into this world, and if you do not know the Lord
Jesus Christ tonight as your Lord and Savior, you too are
lame. You cannot walk so as to please
God. The scripture says in Romans
chapter 8 and verse 8, so then they that are in the flesh, that's
all they are, flesh. They do not have that spiritual
nature. That's the way all of us are
when we come into this world. We walk in the flesh. And until
a person is born of the Spirit of God, that's all he is, flesh. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. We're lame on both feet. We not only did not walk in the
ways of God, but we could not. That's the condition of all men
by nature. Not only that we did not, but
we could not. The doctrine of total depravity
includes total inability. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. We were lame. We were lame. We know that Mephibosheth
became lame by a fall. We won't turn to the scripture,
but I'm sure all of us here tonight are familiar with this. He became
lame on his feet by a fall. And the same is true of you and
I. We read about the fall in Genesis
chapter three. Those men who call themselves
preachers, and there's many of them today in our land, and they
want to say the first seven chapters of Genesis is just a myth. It's
a fable. No, my friends, it's the word
of God. And if we miss Genesis chapter
three, the fact that we fail in our father Adam, we're going
to misunderstand the rest of the scripture. Man is spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. We're laying on our feet. We
cannot please God. We cannot walk in the ways of
God. We read about that fall in Genesis
chapter three. You say, do you believe that?
Absolutely. Absolutely. I believe that. I
believe that you and I and every other person, we all spring from
Adam and Eve. They are our common parents. And Adam, not only was our parent,
but he was our representative. And all of his physical seed,
when he sinned, we sinned. That's what the Apostle Paul
explains to us in Romans chapter 5. For by one man sin entered
into the world, And so death passed upon all men. Death reigns
in this world over all men because of sin. What other explanation
could there be that everyone who comes into this world dies? Some just come into this world
and take a few breaths and then they die. What is it that has
brought this to pass? It is by the one sin. Now Adam lived a number of years
after we know that. I forget how many years. And
I'm sure, like all of us, he committed a number of sins over
his lifetime. But it was only that one sin. That one sin. And that's the
thing about grace that the Apostle Paul emphasizes there in Romans
chapter 5. That we are guilty by his one
sin. but we are blessed and justified
and forgiven of our many sins. Not just one sin, not just that
original sin that we inherit from Adam, that fallen nature,
but all of the sins that we are guilty of. You say, past sins? Yes. Present sins? Absolutely. Future sins? Yes. All sin. He took all our sins in his own
body, bore them on the tree. We come into this world lame,
just like Mephibosheth. What a parallel here. And then
we see, secondly, he lived in a place called Lodibor. Now,
if you look that up in Concordance, you find what that actually means
is pasture-less. Pasture-less. In other words,
there was no pasture there. There was no food there. There
was no bread there. That's where Mephibosheth lived,
and that's where you and I lived when we came into this world.
We did not have the true bread, that is, the living bread that
came down from heaven. We didn't have that. All of us
by nature, we were like that prodigal in our Lord's parable
in Luke chapter 15. We were trying to fill our bellies
with the husk that satisfied the swine. We thought that that
would satisfy us. Remember what our Lord told that
woman in John chapter four, whosoever drinketh of this water shall
thirst again. And that's the way we all were.
We were living in loaded bar. We were lame. We had no bread,
no spiritual bread. We were trying to fill our bellies
with the husks that the swine eat. Peter, in his first epistle,
wrote this to believers. These words are to believers.
But he said this. He said, For the time past of
our life may suffice. In other words, the time before
we came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
He said, That time may suffice us. In other words, that's sufficient.
May suffice us. to have wrought the will of the
Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lust, excessive wine, revelings,
banquetings, and abominable idolatries. And that was all of us, trying
to fill our bellies with the husks that satisfy the swine. Look with me in Titus just a
moment. Titus chapter two, I believe it is. It's always, when I read this, always impresses
me. Chapter three. Put them in mind, now these are
believers. He's writing to Titus, the minister
there that he had left on that island. put them in mind to be
subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates,
to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be
no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men." Now
notice, for we ourselves. Paul is writing this. There was
not a more religious man on the face of God's earth, I don't
suppose, than Saul of Tarsus until the Lord caused the law
of God to come to him in power. And then he came to see what
he really was. And this is what we ourselves
also were sometimes foolish. That pretty well describes all
of us. We were foolish. And I'll show
you how foolish we are. We all thought You know, the
scripture says that Christ is the wisdom of God. He's the wisdom
of God. In other words, He is the way
by which God has ordained that sinful men and women may be justified. You say, well, that's very simple.
How can that be called wisdom? If it were so simple, why is
it that almost 100% of the people, the population, Don't come up with that. We all
come up with this idea that by our works, by something that
we do, we're going to make ourselves acceptable with God. Christ is
the wisdom of God. He's the only way. We were foolish.
Remember those verses in Proverbs which say, there is a way that
seemeth right unto men, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
And all of us were in those ways. We were foolish. We were disobedient. Disobedient to God. Disobedient
to our parents. Disobedient to civil magistrates,
if we thought we could get away with it. We were just disobedient. Deceived. Serving diver's lust, different
lust. One person has this lust, one
person has another lust. Not everyone is enslaved in the
same sin, right? Diver's lust. But we were all
practicing these things. And pleasures, living in malice
and envy, And this is, these last two things here, this is
what always gets me, hateful and hating one another. Lost
people are just hateful. And we were too. And if you're
here tonight and you're not saved, that's your condition. You're
hateful and you hate other people. Now, He lived in Lodibor. He was lame. And then the third
thing about Mephibosheth, he lived in fear. You say, how do
you know that? I know that Mephibosheth lived
in fear because the king, David, immediately said to him, fear
not. Fear not. And rightly he lived
in fear because it would have been expected that when a king
comes to the throne that anyone who might have some pretense
to the throne, the best way to deal with them is just to eliminate
them. Now Mephibosheth, he was the
grandson of the previous king, King Saul. And he was in that
lineage, wasn't he? He had some right there to the
throne. And that was just common in those
societies where kings ruled. When a king came to the throne,
He eliminated one of the kings. I read this this past week. I
can't remember which one it was, but one of the kings of Judah,
when he came to the throne, I think he had about 30 brothers, something
like that. And he had them all executed.
No one was going to take his place, not of his father's descendants. He had them all executed. Yeah,
he lived in fear. He knew that David on the throne
had absolute authority. His word was law. The scripture
says in the word of a king, there's power. Well, he lived in fear. In Hebrews
chapter two, we're told that because the children, that is
the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ, because they are partakers of
flesh and blood, that he partook of the same, and he did so that
through his death he might deliver, or he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them
who fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to bondage.
through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Here's the second thing. Mephibosheth
was a beneficiary in a testament. He was. He was a beneficiary
in a testament. You notice that in verse 1. David
said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that
I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? A testament that he probably
knew nothing about. He was a beneficiary. He was
named in this testament, in this last will and testament. He probably
knew nothing about it until this time. He was named as a beneficiary
and he would receive all the benefits and he would be showed
kindness for the sake of another. for Jonathan. We too, those of us who know
Christ tonight as our Lord and Savior, we too are beneficiaries
of a testament. A testament that was made in
which we are showed kindness for another's sake. I lived a
good part of my life and I didn't know that I was a beneficiary. I didn't know that I was named
in this testament. this testament that was made
between God the Father and God the Son. I didn't know that. I didn't know that I would be
showed kindness for His sake. I was deceived. I lived thinking
that I would be the recipient of kindness if I was because
of my works, because of my obedience, that I would receive the benefits.
like forgiveness of sin, eternal life, and all of those benefits
that we receive. Then I learned, thank God, then
I learned from the Word of God, by the Spirit of God, that it
was for Christ's sake that my sins were forgiven me, and only
for Christ's sake. Not because of anything, not
even because of my faith. That's a gift that He gave me.
Not because of my repentance, that too is a gift that he gave
me. I received the benefits for Christ's sake, pure and simple. He fulfilled all the stipulations
in that covenant that he made with his father before the world
began. The third thing I would bring
out to us is Mephibosheth was called to the king. Notice that
in verse 5. Then king David sent and fetched
him out of the house of nature. He was called to the king. We as well have been called by
the Holy Spirit using the gospel. Now Mephibosheth, he wasn't invited. He really wasn't. The king didn't
send a RSVP invitation down there to Mephibosheth. He didn't. He fetched it. He called him. And the same is true of you and
I. And I'll tell you something else.
Mephibosheth was not introduced to the king either. He wasn't. If you were invited tonight to
go to England and have an audience with Queen Elizabeth, you would
not be introduced to her. You wouldn't. You would be presented. Not introduced. Presented. But Fevesheth, when he came into
the presence of the king, he wasn't introduced, he was presented,
and he took his place on his face before the king. That's what the scripture says. There was only one place for
him, and there's only one place for a sinner seeking forgiveness,
and that is the place of a mercy seeker. He confessed himself
to be a dead dog. You know, a live dog's worth
a little bit. For some of you, they're worth a whole lot, I
realize that. You have to be careful. I know people love their dogs,
their animals. But I tell you what, how much
is a dead dog worth? Think you could sell, think you
could... Take a dead dog down to the market and get a whole
lot of money for it? I don't think so. And yet that's
what Mephibosheth recognized, confessed himself to be before
the king, a dead dog. That just tells me he was a mercy
seeker. He was seeking mercy. We didn't come trying to make
a deal. Mephibosheth didn't and neither did we. Sometimes you
will talk to people and they'll tell you, well, I told God, and
you know right then, well, that's bad. That's bad. I told God if he'd do this, I'd
do that. No. He didn't tell King David
anything other than the fact that he was a dead dog and he
was on his face before the king. He was there seeking mercy. He wasn't there to seek justice. He was there to seek mercy. He didn't try to barter with
the king. He didn't try to tell the king, you know, really, I'm
a descendant of a previous king. He didn't say anything like that. No, he needed the one thing. He knew the one thing he needed
was mercy. And being on his face before
the king, that's the place of mercy. God, be merciful to me,
the sinner. And you notice the king called
him by name. The king called him by his name. It says in verse six, now when
Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was coming to
David, he fell on his face and did reverence, and David said,
Mephibosheth, Mephibosheth. He called him by his name. The
Lord Jesus Christ is a great shepherd. He calls his own sheep
by name. That's what he said in John chapter
10. I know my sheep, and my sheep
know me, and they follow me. and I call them by name. Has
he called your name? Has he called you? You say, well what, how is that?
Has he called you? Has God the Holy Spirit called
you in your heart? Did you hear him say, sinner?
Sinner? He's talking to you. Do you hear his voice? Do you
fall at his feet tonight and say, God, be merciful to me,
the sinner? He calls his sheep by name. And
here's the fourth and last thing I want to point out. Mephibosheth,
as we began, he was told by David that he would eat at the king's
table. Let's read that again. At the
end of verse 7, he said, thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. Now what we didn't read, I'm
sure you are aware of this, that David restored unto Mephibosheth
his grandfather's servants, his grandfather's land, and everything
that was Saul's. and thus Jonathan's and thus
Mephibosheth. But that was sufficient, no doubt,
to feed all of those servants, but not Mephibosheth. You're
not going to eat from that food, Mephibosheth. You're going to
eat here at my table. The point I want to make is he
didn't contribute anything to the table. The bread and the
wine tonight, we don't bring anything. Christ provided everything
for us. But Phibosheth, he didn't bring
any food to this table. His servants didn't bring any
food to this table. No, David supplied everything. But I want to show you in closing
one contrast that I see here at least in verse 11. And to
me it's a big contrast. Then said Ziba unto the king,
According to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servants,
so shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the
king, he shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons. Now
here's the contrast I see. You see that little word, as? He wasn't really one of David's
sons, was he? David said, he's going to eat
here as one of the king's sons. Tonight we eat at this table
and we are the sons of the king. You see a difference? I see that. He's not, we're not just as one
of the king's sons. We are the sons and daughters
of God by his adopting work. We are made heirs and joint heirs
with Christ. Well, I pray that the Lord would
bless these few thoughts to us tonight. What a wonderful Picture,
isn't it? I think it is. Oh, my.