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Amen, indeed. Please be seated. And we come to God's Word, the
sermon text in particular. From 2 Samuel chapter 9, the first 13 verses. Hear the Word of God. And David said, is there still
anyone left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness
for Jonathan's sake? Now there was a servant of the
house of Saul whose name was Ziba, and they called him to
David. And the king said to him, Are
you Ziba? And he said, I am your servant. And the king said, Is
there still someone of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness
of God to him? Ziba said to the king, There
is still a son of Jonathan. He is crippled in his feet. The
king said to him, where is he? And Ziba said to the king, he
is in the house of Makir, son of Amiel at Lodibar. Then king David sent and brought
him from the house of Makir, the son of Amiel at Lodibar. And Mephibosheth, the son of
Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and
paid homage. And David said, Mephibosheth,
And he answered, Behold, I am your servant. And David said
to him, Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake
of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you the land
of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always. And he paid homage and said,
What is your servant that you should show regard for a dead
dog such as I? Then the king called Ziba, Saul's
servant, and said to him, all that belong to Saul and to his
house I have given to your master's grandson. And you and your sons
and your servants shall till the land for him and shall bring
in the produce that your master's grandson may have bread to eat.
But Mephibosheth, your master's grandson, shall always eat at
my table. Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. Then Ziba said to the king, according
to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so will
your servant do. So Mephibosheth ate at David's
table like one of the king's sons. And Mephibosheth had a
young son whose name was Micah. And all who lived in Ziba's house
became Mephibosheth's servants. So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem,
for he ate always at the king's table. Now he was lame in both
feet. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Oh, Heavenly Father,
we thank you for your word. And we know that all of it is
given by inspiration of you, and that you will bless it to
us. Father, bless it to us. Change our hearts. Conform us
to Christ. Give us grace. In Jesus' name
we ask it. Amen. It's easy to receive this story
about David and Mephibosheth. David here, who has come to the
throne, Saul, the previous king, is dead, and with him his son
Jonathan, David's best friend, and now David here is showing
kindness to Mephibosheth, Jonathan's lame son. And as I said, see
it as a parable of mercy and kindness, I see I should be like
that, and quickly pass on to the next chapter. David was merciful
and kind, I should be too, and that is certainly true. David's
conduct here is godly. It is an example to us of godliness
and love and mercy. But you can be merciful and kind
only if God has been merciful and kind to you in Christ. You can be an agent of mercy
only if you are an object of mercy. This chapter shows us
the precondition of living out that lesson on mercy. This chapter
is a lesson in grace. Mephibosheth shows us the picture
of man in his sinful condition. Mephibosheth was not created
lame. It happened early in his life
when there was a fall. A fall, my friends. Look back
if you have your Bibles with you. 2 Samuel 4, verse 4. Yes, verse 4 of chapter 4. Jonathan, the son of Saul, had
a son who was crippled in both feet. He was five years old when
the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel that they were
dead. And his nurse took him up and fled. As she fled in her
haste, he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth. Why
did she flee? Because it was the tradition,
the tradition, it was the practice in the ancient Near East that
when somebody defeated, somebody from one house defeated another
house in battle and there was going to be a change of ruling
families, the new ruling family murdered the entire old ruling
family. Why? Because you don't want children
in the old ruling family growing up and becoming a center of dissent
and people rallying around that person and then maybe killing
you later on with their supporters. So you kill the whole family.
And so the nursemaid is thinking, she's thinking, he's a dead boy. I've got to get him out of here.
So she flees with him and falls on his feet and he is lame in
both feet. He becomes incapacitated through
a fall. He was as a human being ought
to be when he was born and then he fell and he was disfigured. Mephibosheth is a picture of
you and me in our sinful condition. Adam was as a human being ought
to be and he fell and we all fell in him and were disfigured
in sin, incapacitated in sin. And it says, and his name was
Mephibosheth. The name Mephibosheth means a
shameful thing. Shame is the condition of those
who live for sin instead of for God. Psalm 31 says, do not let
me be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called on you. People who call
on the name of the Lord have nothing to be ashamed of. Let
the wicked be ashamed. Let them be silent in their grave. It is a shame to be made in the
image of God and yet live as an animal for your belly. It's
a shame to be made to be exalted, noble, dignified in the image
of God, and yet lower yourself in this way. You know, when President
Clinton, this story came to mind, when President Clinton was leaving
the White House in the year 2000, right, 92 to 2000, I've got that
right, He has been president of the
United States for eight years. He's up there. What was he doing?
They were stealing the White House china. Many of you remember
this. What a shame. You're up here
and you're lowering yourself to this. And we're the same way
and many times worse. made in the image of God, lowering
ourselves in sin, made to be a prince in the kingdom of God,
and yet living like a grasping orphan. And yet in our sin, this
is how we are. And Mephibosheth is disabled
in both of his feet. Sinful human beings are spiritually
crippled as well, unable to do any good. And notice it says
he was lame and it stresses at the beginning and end of the
chapter, in both feet. Man apart from God cannot walk
in the ways of the Lord, cannot even limp in the ways of the
Lord. We are incapacitated. Romans 8 says, the carnal mind
is at enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law
of the Lord, nor indeed can it be, so then those who are in
the flesh cannot please God. We cannot please God in our sin. And Mephibosheth is disinherited.
His father is dead, his grandfather is dead, and he's lost all his
lands. Sinful man was made in the image
of God. And in the image of God, therefore,
Adam is called a son of God in Luke's gospel. So we're made
sons in God's household over the earth. We were made to possess
and administer the earth the way a son administers his father's
estate. But we are disinherited by the
fall. And we are orphaned, made to
be sons of God, but we were orphaned by the fall. without God and
without hope in the world. And Mephibosheth is subject to
death at the hands of David simply because he is the grandson of
Saul. This was the practice, as I said,
simply because he is descended from Saul He can expect death. And so too,
we, simply because we are descended from Adam, we're in Adam, we
inherit Adam's sin, we are subject to death at God's hands. And he says he lives in lo dibar. Lo dibar in Hebrew means a place
of no pasture. Pasture in the Bible is a sign
of blessing and provision from God. Think of Psalm 23, the Lord
leads me in paths of righteousness. He makes me to lie down in green
pastures. Safety, provision, and then Christ
in John chapter 10, where he's presented as the good shepherd.
What does it say there? He says, my people will go in
and out and find pasture. They're safe. I provide for them
because there's peace between us. They are mine and I am theirs. But Mephibosheth is living in
a place called Lodibar, a place of no pasture. This world, my
friends, provides nothing to satisfy the human soul. It provides many good things.
The Lord gives bountifully to us, and we enjoy these things
as from Him, as ways of worship. We worship Him in the enjoyment
of our meals. We worship Him in the enjoyment
of our clothing, of our entertainments, of one another, and so forth.
But these things do not satisfy. only as far as they point to
Him and our ways of enjoying Him. Christ alone is the bread
of life. If we're looking for our pasture
in this world and from this world, we will be desolate because it
is a place, apart from Christ, of no pasture. And then we come
to David. If Mephibosheth is a picture
of man in his sinful condition, of us in sin, David is a picture
of Christ. When Mephibosheth was called
before David, he expected death. So he abases himself. He can't
run away. He's lame in both feet. So he
has no choice but to come to David when David calls him. And
he bows himself low and says, I am your servant. He expects
death. But David deals with him graciously. And he deals with him graciously
because of the covenant, the covenant he has. with Jonathan
that he made back in 1 Samuel 20. Oh, let's look at that. 1
Samuel, we're in 2 Samuel, we go back to 1 Samuel 20, verses
14 to 17. And here is David and Jonathan,
the two fast friends, making a covenant with each other. And
Jonathan knows that David is the anointed. Jonathan knows
that David will follow Saul on the throne, not him, Jonathan,
the son. And he's fine with that. He's fine with it because that
is God's will. He loves God more than himself
or any earthly privileges. 20 verse 14, if I am still alive,
show me the steadfast love of the Lord. that I may not die,
says Jonathan, and do not cut off your steadfast love from
my house forever, when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies
of David, which he understands includes his father. from the
face of the earth. And Jonathan made a covenant
with the house of David, saying, may the Lord take vengeance on
David's enemies. And Jonathan made David swear
again by his love for him. And he loved him as he loved
his own soul. And David remembers this covenant. And for the sake of that covenant,
he blesses Mephibosheth. And he receives Mephibosheth
to the royal table in verse 10. Verse 10 of our passage, and
you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and
bring in the produce that your master's grandson may have bread
to eat. But Mephibosheth, your master's grandson, shall always
eat at my table. This indicates peace. In the
ancient Near East, you share a table with somebody. That is
a gesture of peace. It's a covenant of peace. He's
making peace with Mephibosheth, as Christ makes peace with us.
He receives Mephibosheth into his family. Verse 11, then Ziba
said to the king, according to all that the Lord commands your
servant, your servant will do. So Mephibosheth ate at David's
table Like one of the king's sons, David receives him into
his family as Christ adopts us as sons of God. And he restores
Mephibosheth's lost inheritance, verse seven, and David said to
him, do not fear, for I will show kindness for the sake of
your father, Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of
Saul, your father, and you shall eat at my table always. He restores
his land. He goes better than just receiving
him into his house. He gives him, he restores to
him all the years that the locust has eaten, as it says elsewhere. in Joel. The whole story is a
picture of God's saving grace. What does it tell us about saving
grace in this passage? It tells us first of all that
saving grace is undeserved. Mephibosheth had nothing to offer
David. David's not thinking, OK, I'm
newly on the throne. My authority isn't really firmly
established. I've got to start making deals.
I've got to start making alliances. Here's Mephibosheth. He can give
me something. I'll give him this. No. Mephibosheth
has nothing to offer David at all. Neither do those whom God
redeems have anything to offer God. What God gives us is entirely
by grace. We have no favors in the past,
and no service in the future to offer him. All the service
we give him is God's grace working in us. In the past, we have sin,
we have rebellion, we have unfaithfulness, and yet he graces us, he gives
us. Romans chapter 11, who has ever
given to God that God should repay him? And saving grace is
God's initiative. David sought out Mephibosheth. Look at the first words, the
first words David speaks, the first words in the conversation
between them are between David. David seeks out Mephibosheth,
not the reverse, and David initiates the conversation. Mephibosheth
was in hiding, like Adam in his sin in the garden. Adam was hiding,
go away from me. And God approached. Here, Mephibosheth
is in hiding. He has only death to expect from
David. And David approaches him. He's
running from David in dread fear. And David says, Mephibosheth. He speaks his name. It's not
a general call. If anyone out there is interested
in a favor and anything I can do for them, form a line on the
right. But nothing of this sort. He
calls Mephibosheth personally and he speaks his name personally. It reminds us of John chapter
11 where Jesus approaches the tomb where Lazarus is lying dead,
helpless, and Jesus says, come out and Lazarus revives
and responds and comes out. And we think of John chapter
20 where the risen Christ is there with Mary and Mary doesn't
recognize him, she can't see him. And Jesus says to her, Mary,
and her eyes open and she sees the Lord. And then on Acts chapter
9, Saul of Tarsus knows about Jesus and he's persecuting Jesus,
he's persecuting the church, and Jesus appears to him on the
road to Damascus and he says, Saul, Saul! And Saul responds,
Lord, and so too here Mephibosheth. Isaiah 65 says, I was sought
by those who did not ask for me. I was found by those who
did not seek me. I said, here I am, here I am,
to a nation that was not called by my name. I can tell you, Scotland
wasn't looking for Jesus when Jesus came to Scotland, right,
where my people are from. But the Lord approaches, and
he approaches us by name and personally, and calls us personally. out of our sin. So does sheep
come looking for the shepherd? Not at all, no. The sheep wander
far and away and the shepherd, the shepherd who understands
the danger that they do not see and they do not understand, the
shepherd seeks them and saves them. So too, Jesus, the son
of David, seeks and saves us who were hiding and helpless. and saving grace is God's eternal
plan. Mephibosheth's deliverance was
based on something that happened before he was born, this covenant
between David and Jonathan. And when that was done, Mephibosheth's
blessing was arranged. It was a covenant between his
savior, David, and his father, Jonathan. in 1 Samuel 20. So, too, there is a covenant
of redemption between the Savior, Jesus the Son of God, and the
Father. And the Father gave you to Christ
to save you before you were born, before you were a twinkle in
your parents' eyes, before the creation of the world. The Father gave you to the Son
to be saved. Not because of your asking, not
because of your love, not because of your deeds, not because of
any worthiness in you. David did this because of his
covenant with Jonathan, not for anything that is in Mephibosheth.
Remember, Mephibosheth has nothing to offer. God's saving work is
not a testimony to our worth and our deserving. but to God's
grace in the face of our undeserving. That's what grace means. God's
goodness to us in the face of and despite our undeserving.
And saving grace is wonderful. It would have been a blessing
to Mephibosheth simply to be left alive. Where is Mephibosheth?
Okay, leave him alone. Just leave him alone. Wow, what
a guy. This is no ordinary king. You'd think he'd go and kill
him, but he said, I heard him say, leave him alone. Greater
still, to have his lands restored, leave him alone. And by the way,
give him back his lands. Wow, double wow. What a guy. But to bring him to live in the
palace with the king, whom his grandfather made his enemy and
tried on innumerable occasions to kill. That's even better,
isn't it? But even then, if he had been
left alive and brought into the palace to be allowed to crawl
under the king's table and eat whatever crumbs and scraps fell
to the floor, in the palace, mind you, from the king's table,
instead of being killed, What a blessing, what a mercy. This was the attitude, I'm not
making it up, this is the attitude of the Syrophoenician woman,
remember? Syrophoenician woman, she's not a Jew, she's a pagan,
she's a Gentile, and she wants Jesus to heal her daughter. He
says, why should I give the food of the children to a dog, right? Because that's what they called
the Gentiles. And she said, even the dogs are
happy to sit under the children's table and eat what crumbs, what
scraps fall to the floor. And he said, that is faith. That
is faith. And he could have done that to
Mephibosheth. And Mephibosheth would have had
every reason to be grateful. but to be fed at the table as
a son, not just one special occasion, all your life, dining on the
best food just as the king does. This is like Christ's love. We are spared our just punishment
in hell. That's good. We are restored
to Adam's dominion over the earth. We are given access to the presence
of God, whom we had made our enemy. And moreover, we are adopted
as sons and made joint heirs with Christ. John chapter three,
my friends, maybe you're thinking the same thing. Behold what manner
of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called
the sons of God. That is the gospel. That is the
fullness of the gospel. That is how saving grace is wonderful. Grace is not just getting, let's
get this right, grace is not just not getting what you deserve,
forgiveness of sins. It is also getting what you do
not deserve, adoption, eternal enjoyment of God. As Ephesians 3 says, immeasurably
more than we could ask or imagine. More than we could imagine. More
than we could ask. More than we could imagine. Immeasurably
more than all we could ask or imagine. That is the wonderful
gospel. This is not a pretty picture
that we see of ourselves in Mephibosheth. We have digital photography now.
We have digital photography, and so we take a lot of pictures.
I asked Abigail to take a picture of me the other day. I think
I had the cat by my side or something like this. And pop, pop, pop,
pop, pop, pop. I took several. You wouldn't have done that in
my day, that costs a lot of money. But lots of them, and then you
go through and you pick the best one. What does best mean? The
most flattering one, right? Your eyes aren't half shut, you're
looking square in the camera, you've got what you think is
your best smile. You pick the most flattering picture. Here,
God gives us a picture of ourself, and it is not flattering. We are shameful, spiritually
crippled. impoverished, orphaned, condemned
to die, unworthy of belonging to God, incapable of seeking
God. And the sinful nature looks at
that and we start touching up the picture, right? Photoshopping
it, spiritually photoshopping it, as it were. And we say, well,
I'm better than this, right? I mean, what about my ability,
my ability to choose God? What about that? See, we always
want to be in control. Grace means I'm not in control. Grace means I have nothing. I
completely depend on God to give. But the what about me comes in.
But that's our problem. Our problem in sin is we want
to be in control. I don't want God in control.
I don't want other people in control. I want to be in control.
And the grace of the gospel is, praise God, good news. You're
not in control. If you were in control, you'd
be lost. God is in control. He's sovereign. He is wise, and
He is good. He has all these things to you.
But what about the good that I have done? Does that count
for nothing? And you go back over your life, and you start
rehearsing this. All these, what you think, are good things, which
come very swiftly to mind. Nothing. The good things you've
done, nothing. Isaiah 64 6, all our righteousnesses,
all the things we think commend us or should commend us to God,
all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Anything commendable
in us is traceable to God and His grace. The sin is ours. You might say, but God loves
me. I saw it on a bumper sticker. I heard it in a song. God loves
me. He loves me. Therefore, I must
be lovely. No. It's a gracious love. It's
a gracious love that He gives us. He says in His Word, even
while we were yet sinners, that is, even while we were unlovely,
Christ died for the ungodly. That is a gracious love. He places
His love upon us. Who we are doesn't draw out His
love. He places it on us graciously. Your redemption is not fundamentally
about you. It is fundamentally about God,
just as your creation was not fundamentally about you. God
created you. At first, it was nothing, right?
No you. There's no you to love. And He made you for Himself,
for His glory. So, too, your redemption, which
is your recreation. It's not about you. It's about
Him. He recreates you. He gives you life. He redeems
you. He gives His Son to die for you
on the cross for Himself, for His glory. And you who are redeemed
like it that way because you love Him above all things. Conversion
is the experience of that shift from focus on you to focus on
God. That's the conversion. And this
picture that we have of ourselves humbles us. It reminds you of
that humbling. The picture is unflattering,
but it's accurate. And you are, you who know God,
are delighted in how flattering it is to God and God's power
and God's grace. That's what we like about it.
Do you see your helplessness, brothers and sisters? David's
words to Mephibosheth are Christ's words to you. Do not fear. You look at your sin and you
think, how could God love this? You look at your sin, you say,
I failed again. You look back over your life and you see
regrets, you see failures, And God speaks your name over
you and says, do not fear. Don't look at yourself. Look
at my son Jesus, whom I've given to you and given for you, and
in whom you are engrafted, and in whom you have life, in whom
you have hope, your only hope. Your hope is not in what you
look back over your life to see, or your hope is not what you
look into yourself and see. Your hope is in Christ, and he
is given to you abundantly and irrevocably. And eternally, do
not fear. Come to me, he says, all you
who are weary and heavy laden, heavy laden by what is past,
heavy laden by what is present, heavy laden in what you anticipate
will come in the future. Come to me, all you who are weary
and heavy laden, and I, I promise, as God who cannot lie, will give
you rest. Brothers and sisters, Mephibosheth
is a story of grace and so it is a story of peace. Though your
sins be as scarlet, rest assuredly they will be as white as wool
in Christ. And so, as to that kindness that
David shows and which we should manifest in our lives, you are
free now to exercise that kindness. You are empowered in Christ to
exercise that kindness. And as your heart grows in Christ,
you are delighted to exercise that kindness. Let's grow in
Christ. Let's seek him with all our heart,
soul, mind, and strength and grow in him and in our delight
and power and freedom to live in that kindness. Let's pray. Oh, Heavenly Father, We thank
you for your grace to us. We thank you that you placed
your love upon us from before the foundation of the world. That you brought us in, that
you followed us in all our ways, that you gave us life, that you
found us and filled us with your spirit. Father, remind us, we
need reminding, remind us again and again that it is all You,
it is not us. Let us lose ourselves, lose ourselves
in You and thus find ourselves and live in peace and the strength
of Your love. In Jesus' name we ask it, Amen.
Mephibosheth Means Grace
| Sermon ID | 810162034440 |
| Duration | 33:15 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 2 Samuel 9 |
| Language | English |
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