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This is what I meant when I said
that. All righty. Well, thank you.
It's good to be here again. I count it a great privilege
to be here in this pulpit and to see some of you young people
again. I was telling Brother Surratt that as I looked out,
I said, you young people get younger and younger every time
I come here. He gets older and older. I don't know, he's got
to get in on some of that somewhere, but anyway. Hey, listen, the
ensemble that was there at our church just a couple of weeks
ago, would you raise your hand just for a moment? I know you two back there. We
thought we had a problem. When the ensemble came last time to
our church, we had one husband and two wives. Until I found
out it was your sister, but that helps. Anyway, they were introducing
each other, and right away your eye goes up. You think, okay,
what's going on at Ambassador? But I did want to say, I have
a feeling that Doc Scovel still has a hand in putting everybody
together for these ensembles. I suppose I'm right. But listen,
when they came, I want you to know that our folks noted again
the quality of these young people. And several people noted, they
said that the young ladies carried themselves as godly young ladies.
Now, I don't know what happened to the guys. But I know they were talking
about the whole group, but they were good representatives of
the school, and they were excellent representatives of the Lord.
And I want to thank those young people, and you folks, and you
teachers that you're here to do a job for the Lord. I'm thankful
for that. It is always good to come back and see folks again
and to renew friendships. This time I have here though
my nephew Mark. He's here and I'm glad he's here
at Ambassador. Ambassador is the school that
I send young people to. If they're training for ministry,
this is it. The Lord has raised the ambassador up, and I know
when Dr. Comfort began this school, and I was a youth pastor when
he did so, the Lord's hand has been upon this place, and I'm
very thankful. And for that, I stand in this
pulpit scared. It's a great privilege for me
to be allowed to come here and preach, and as I ask the Lord
what to preach, I know the chapel is supposed to encourage you
and to, again, to build up the saints and challenge you young
people. And I hope that will happen this morning as we look
at the scriptures. If you would please turn to 2
Samuel 9 this morning, 2 Samuel 9. We're reading the first eight
verses there in just a moment. But before we do so, let's bow
for a word of prayer. Father, I do thank you again
for the privilege of being able to stand behind this pulpit,
to be able to stand before these young people. Dear Lord, I ask
that you would help me to do better than I know how to do.
Holy Spirit of God, that you would help me to do that which
I cannot do, that only you can do within the hearts of these
folks here this morning. Help us now as we turn to these texts,
that we might learn, that we might leave from this place differently
than we came in. I pray in Jesus' precious name, amen. Years ago,
when my wife and I were rich, that was B.C., before children,
we decided to take a trip to Germany. My wife and I both have
German roots, and we wanted to go to Europe, and we wanted to
travel around, and we did. Had a wonderful time there, and while
we were in Germany itself, seeing some of the historic sites that
were there, We stayed in one of the bed and breakfasts there
and the German people are very gracious people. The older generation
that came out of World War II appreciate Americans. And while
we were there in that home and this lady had taken care of us
very well, that morning as we were preparing to leave to go
on another journey, she came to us and with a big smile and
broken English, she said to us, where do you go today? And without
thinking from our itinerary, I looked at her and I said, we're
going to visit Dachau. Her face fell. Her eyes immediately
went down to the floor. You see, Dachau, like several
of the other German concentration camps, are a great shame to the
people of Germany. When we went there and we saw
what had occurred in these places, in the American history books,
you will see certain things about some of these places. You do
not understand the fullness of what happened there until you
go. When we went to Dachau and the original gates had been re-established
again, because at the end of the war many people tried to
tear down these terrible places. They wanted to do away with the
remembrance of these places. Some people very smartly said,
no, leave them up. We do not want the world to forget
what happened here in this place. Well, as we went through the
tour and saw some of the ovens in which the bodies were done
away with, and we saw reconstruction of some of the rooms that these
people, these barracks these people stayed in, after all the
impact of those horrendous acts were done and we were leaving
the compound, there on a great brass plaque were the words of
Santillana, the Spanish philosopher and writer. Very famous words,
I know you've heard them. They said this, those who cannot
remember the past, are condemned to repeat it. It is for that
reason that those concentration camps were left up, so that the
world could see what had unfolded, what had happened there to God's
people during World War II. It is with this intent that I
look at our text this morning. Before we get to it, let me give
you a little bit of a background. It is a day of David. It is a
day of Saul. We find in 1 Samuel chapter 31
that Saul, that great, tall, large king of Israel, had defied
God. He had sinned against the Lord,
and God had stripped the throne from him. Saul had lost his life
in battle. Along with his sons, Jonathan,
Bimidad, Amelchizou, the only remaining son is Ishbosheth.
Ishbosheth now is at age 40 years old. He finds Abner, his father's
old general, and links up with him to regain his throne and
his rightful place as he considers it there in Israel. David now,
being the anointed king of Israel, is now striving to regain, or
striving to gain for the first time, really his place where
God had laid him. For seven and a half years, David
now had reigned in Hebron. There, with Ispacheth still trying
to regain his throne, a couple of men now come forward to David. They have a gift for him. They
say to him, David, we have something for you now, and we think you'll
be pleased. And they, I suppose, set it on the floor before David.
It's a piece of cloth with something obviously inside. They begin
to open up the cloth, and as the last flap of the cloth finally
comes undone, there is a head that had been rolled up inside.
That was the head of Ish-bosheth. These two men had gone in, and
while Ish-bosheth slept, they had gotten into where he was,
and they had killed the king. And now, taking his head, they
brought it to David in hopes of gaining some reward. King
David, the righteous king, was not impressed. In fact, he said
to them, when Saul died, I had people coming claiming that they
had killed him, and I killed the messengers. Why should anything
be done different to you who has taken the life of an innocent
man? And David tells his men to take
these two men out and to kill them, and so they do. The only
living relative that we know of according to the Scripture
now is this one by the name of Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth is
the son of Jonathan, now according to the Scripture and by calculation
about 21 years old. It is this man that I would like
to focus upon in his relationship with King David this morning.
I would entitle my message, In the Presence of the King. Here
our account begins in 2 Samuel 9 verses 1-8. We shall look at
it in just a moment. But as we study these two, Mephibosheth
and David, I would say to you this morning that we will study
not only the historical characters that are represented in these
pages, but we will also cast upon them the shadow of types.
As we see these two as they are representative of the lost sinner
and of Christ and His relationship with us. As I begin this morning
in verses 1-5, the scripture says this, And David said, Is
there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may
show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? And there was in the house
of Saul a servant whose name was Zeba. And when they had called
him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Zeba? And
he said, Thy servant is he. And 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 Makar, the son of Amel and Lodabar. Then King David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Makar, the son of Emiel, from Lodabar. I would have you see this morning,
first off, Mephibosheth's condition. Mephibosheth's condition. The
scripture tells us a few things about him, of which I'd like
to look at this morning. First off, I see that he was
of the house of Saul. At one time a mighty house, but
at this time now it was a fallen house. This dynasty had risen
and now fallen flat on its face. It no longer carried the glory
and the honor that it once carried. This young man was of the house
of Saul, this fallen house. In order to keep himself from
being known in public, in order to hide himself so that his presence
would not be known, he lived now in obscurity with his mother's
relatives in Lodabar, Gilead, far away from Jerusalem, from
the place where the reigning king would now take his stand. But not only was he of the house
of Saul a fallen house, he was also lame on his feet. The Bible tells us there in chapter
4, verse 4, that when everything had occurred, when things had
happened with his father, that a nurse came in, and knowing
that someone was coming to destroy the royal line, picked up this
young baby and took off outside of the palace, wherever they
were meeting at that place at that time, and on her way out,
she dropped the baby. Because that baby had fallen,
it had permanently ruined his legs. Here now we find a man
who is represented as being, the Bible says, lame on his feet. That is the report of this servant
now. There is one. He is of the house of Saul, of
Jonathan. He's Jonathan's boy. But he is lame on his feet. I
would say to you that there's not much good that could come
of this young man by the name of Mephibosheth at this time.
He had nothing much to offer King David as he stood in his
life. Take your Bibles now if you wouldn't
turn to Ezekiel 16. Don't lose 2 Samuel, we'll be
back. But in Ezekiel 16, and I would say to you keep your
fingers there in Ezekiel 16, we'll be back there as well throughout
the message. And see yet another child from
the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel 16 starting in verse
1. Again, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of
man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. And say, Thus
saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is
in the land of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite, thy
mother an Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the
day that thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither wast
thou washed in water to supple thee. Thou wast not salted at
all, nor swaddled at all. None I pitied thee to do any
of these things unto thee, to have compassion upon thee, but
thou was cast out into the open field to the loathing of thy
person in the day that thou was born. Here is a picture now from
the words of Ezekiel by the Holy Spirit of God. This is a picture
of Israel. Israel is now pictured as a young
child. I would say to you, absolutely
helpless, absolutely, in the world's eyes, worthless. After
this child had been born, there was no traditional care taken
to this baby. To be able to rub salt, to tighten
the skin, to take the navel and to tie it off. None of these
things had been done. In fact, this baby had been thrown off
into the wilderness. You want to know why? To die. There is not much in a human
life that this old world cares for. This world counts very little
value the independent soul that is born into the world, that
is conceived into the womb. They have nothing, no value of
these individuals who are born. And here now is a picture of
Israel, the great Israel. Oh, she is not great now. She
is now, as a baby, cast out into the desert, into the open field,
open for the birds of prey and for the animals who will come
around and will end this baby's life. I say to you that there
is not much hope. I say to you that there is not
much good condition. As we have seen in Mephibosheth's
condition, there's not much value here. The world sees very little
worth in this child. Very little can this child offer.
You know, children are strange things. Excuse me for phrasing
it that way. We tease. My son Joshua just
got his license and along with that comes insurance. I am shocked
at how much insurance it is. And I told him, I said, son,
I said, if you're going to drive, I said, you've got to pay for
the insurance. He's got to go out now and work to be able to
have that privilege to drive. I have a dog. I'm no comparison
between my son, but I just took my dog to the vet. That dog cost
me $200. Most of you are saying, why'd
you spend that? I have no idea, except my wife
loves him. I teased when I was paying for
that vet bill, and I looked down at my dog and I said, Cookie,
time to get a job. My dog is worthless. 14 years old, never got a job. Now,
what I'm saying is this. This infant child, by the world's
vantage point, is absolutely worthless. Has no means of supporting
himself. Left to himself, he will die. And so this one by the name of
Mephibosheth, we understand his condition. Ezekiel 16 is not
so unlike our condition. When the Lord God finds us, who
has been discarded by the world of absolutely no value to her,
but yet in the mercy and the grace of God, we'll see that
in just a moment. Mephibosheth's condition of the
house of Saul, a fallen house, lame upon his feet. Luke chapter
10 tells us of a centurion who one of his servants that he loved
very much had gotten sick. He had heard of Jesus. He had
been around during the time when the Lord walked upon the earth.
And he sent some of the elders, some of the Jewish elders to
Jesus to ask a favor that he would heal his servant. These
leaders went to Jesus and they said, Master, this man, this
centurion, has a servant that is sick and he has asked that
you would please consider healing his servant. He said he has done
great things for us. He's built a synagogue. He loves
God's people. If you would please come and
heal his servant. And as he was making his way
to his house, he was met by some other servants of this centurion.
And this is a wonderful telling story of this centurion. He said
through his servants to the Lord, Sir, I am not worthy that you
should come to my house. Nor do I find myself worthy enough
to come out here to even meet you, so I have sent other men
out to do so. What humility! The end of the
story is good, of course, the Lord did heal his servant. But
I want you to see the picture of humility. This is a centurion,
folks. This is one who has rule over
the Jews. And yet somehow, as the Spirit
of God would work in this man's heart in that time period, his
spirit was broken. He recognized somehow that this
Christ was well beyond his understanding and his means. The story is told
not too long ago of a drunkard who was out in the bars with
his buddies, late at night, well into the early morning hours.
And while he was with his buddies, he began to joke and say, ha,
he said, my wife, he said, I could go home and wake my wife up and
tell her to prepare a meal, and she'd prepare a meal for us,
she'd prepare a meal for all of us. well of course the drunk
buddies didn't didn't believe him and challenged him and said
please let's see if that's true and so all together they went
to the house and they got in the house and you can imagine
the noise in the front room when they came in the husband shouted
up the stairs come down and fix us dinner And after a little
bit of stirring, pretty soon a form emerged from the upstairs
and she came down fully dressed and went into the kitchen and
began to prepare a meal and not just any meal, not just hamburger,
not just sandwiches, began to prepare a full meal. After these
men had eaten the meal and the lady was putting things away,
one of the men who had sobered up a little bit went in into
the kitchen and said to her, why do you let him treat you
that way? Why would you do that? Why would you be willing to come
up from upstairs when you were asleep and to come down and to
serve all of us? I said, loud, obnoxious men,
why would you do that? Here is the response of this
woman. She said, when I was married, she said, both my husband and
I were lost. She said, since that time, I
have come to know Christ. She said, my husband does not
know him. And if he might see Christ through
me, then he might come to know the Lord. The end of the story
is this. The old drunk husband did eventually
get saved. That is humility. Here is the
worth as we stand before God as Mephibosheth now is braced
with the opportunity and the fear of going before David. Here
we are as we stand in a worthless condition before the Lord. Number two this morning. Mephibosheth's
fear. Mephibosheth's fear. Verse 6,
Now when Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan the son of Saul was
come unto David, he fell on his face and did reverence. And David
said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold thy servant. Note please this morning Mephibosheth's
fear. He is summonsed by David. Can you see him? Here he is in
the Lord of Bar-Gilead and we're going about his regular life.
Really he thinks he's safe and secure and now all of a sudden
a messenger comes and delivers a note from the king himself.
The king would see you. Let me tell you what's going
through Mephibosheth's mind. In these days, and even since
these times, it was the duty, if you will, and even the responsibility
of the current reigning king to eliminate the entire family,
all of the seed of the prior king. Why? Because he might think
that he has a claim to the throne. I can see Mephibosheth as he
begins to shake. Why would David want to see me?
Why? Why is he calling me to Jerusalem? Well, what's behind this note?
And his relatives said, I don't know what, but I'll tell you
what, the men who came to get Mephibosheth, they had a duty
to fill out. They had to bring this man before
the king. I wonder sometimes if even those
messengers didn't think that Mephibosheth was going to be
killed. I have no idea what they knew. All they had was a responsibility
to bring him in. When Mephibosheth finally gets
into the presence of David, here he is now in the presence of
the king of all of Israel. The Bible says that he fell on
his face. He bowed himself before the king
and he did reverence. That word reverence in the Hebrew
is the word that means to press, to humbly beseech, even to worship. He is terrified. His life is
about to be snuffed out. And we understand Mephibosheth's
fear. And yet as I search the Scriptures, I find others who
have come in contact with the King, and they too have fallen
down upon their face. I think of Abram in Genesis chapter
17. Job in chapter 42. That great
godly man who came in direct conflict with God and debate,
and now falls in his face before the Lord. I think of Isaiah in
chapter 6 as he met and saw the glory of Almighty God. Ezekiel,
our prophet that we deal with this morning. He in chapter 1. Daniel in chapter 10. John in
chapter 3 of Revelation. All of these men, as they have
come in contact with the King, fell upon their face. You know,
I am interested in our Christian school this year. I'm teaching
through the book of Revelation. Verse by verse. I hope you're not here next week.
I hope the Lord comes back. Believe me, it will be worth
your exams. I believe like my pastors before
me that the Lord will come before I die. There is not one who will stand
before the King and utter an excuse. All those who face Christ
as the great Judge will fall upon their face in fear as Mephibosheth
did here before King David. In Matthew 10, verse 28, the
Bible says, "...fear not them which kill the body, but are
not able to kill the soul, but rather fear Him which is able
to destroy both body and soul in hell." It is not men that
we fear, although they may try to exercise fear over us. It
is the one who can kill the body and the soul and cast them into
hell. That is the one, He is the one
worthy to fear. He is the one worthy to fall
on our face before. Who is God? I know Bible college,
you already had theology class. Let me remind you again. In Exodus
chapter 3, old Moses came face to face with God and was told,
I am that I am. John 8, Jesus Christ claims the
same title, for He is God in the flesh. He is the creator
of the universe. As we study this universe and
we see everything that goes on, we understand, anybody with any
kind of understanding of things, understands that structure demands
a designer. I do not understand how men can
look at what we have and say, no, it just happened. Many years
ago, as we were in the middle of trying to adopt some of our
children, We had the privilege of going up to Flagstaff, Arizona.
And while we were up there, one of the mother, grandfather, and
grandmother of this young lady we were trying to adopt the child
from, we were talking to them and just getting to know them
a little bit and found out that he worked at the Naval Observatory
in Flagstaff, Arizona. Well, I was teaching science,
and I enjoyed science a great deal. And I asked him, I said,
Harry, could you Is there a chance I might be able to see this observatory?
I said, we're into astronomy and science classes. He said, oh, he's Dutch. He said,
I think we can work that out. And I said, what do you do there,
Harry? And he said, oh, he said, I clean up a little. I thought, oh, the
janitor. Well, very good. Not a very impressive
fellow, not very imposing at all in the way he carried himself.
So anyway, we got to go there the next day, and I was fascinated.
I mean, here I was, the whole thing had been opened up for
my wife and I, and to see this observatory in full working order. And I asked him a little more
about how this thing worked, and he said, well, let me see
if I can get it to work a little bit. He went into the control
box, the control center, and began to mess with some knobs
and some buttons. And I was getting a little scared
here, because I thought, man, if you break something, I'm in trouble,
because I asked you to do this. And he worked it a little bit,
and I saw the whole dome swing around. This is an impressive
building. And then I said, to myself, something's
not quite gelling here. I said, Harry, where do you work? Where's your office? A janitor's
office. Okay, let's see your janitor's
office. And I went and he brought me into a very small, modest
office. But on the wall were star charts. I looked at him and I said, Harry,
I said, what do you do here? He said, I'm the head of the
observatory. I said, Harry, what do you have your degrees in?
He said, I have my doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics. I said, OK, now I've got the
man I need to talk to. I said, we began to talk about
different things. I was witnessing to him and stuff.
We were talking about the glories of creation. And I said, Harry,
he claimed to be a Christian. And I said, Harry, I said, as
we talk about creation, he was not clicking with me on some
of these things. And I said, Harry, I said, you do not believe
that God created the heavens and the earth, do you? He said,
no. He said, he said, I think God
used evolution to build this thing. I said, Harry, I said,
you're a theistic evolutionist. He said, oh, no. I said, oh,
yes. I said, that's what you are. You believe in evolution,
yet you want to claim God. I said, the problem is the two
of them don't go together. Well, as far as I know, Harry
never did come to know the Lord. I didn't offend him. We have
a good relationship even to this day. We write to him and talk
with him a little bit. It was incredible to see a man
so intelligent. these men who defy every law
that we live by. The first and second law of thermodynamics,
the first being that matter and energy can neither be created
nor destroyed. And I questioned him on that.
I said, is that not a law of our whole universe? He said,
yes, it is. I said, then how is it can you, in the expanse
of time, say that these laws have altered? He had no excuse.
I said, what about the second law, entropy? Everything tends
to run down. I said, Harry, I said, look around
you. I said, things are getting worse. And he came back to me
and he said, Oh no, Phil. He said, he said, things are
getting better. And I said, where do you see that? And he looked
now, he focused in on a particular detail of his life of his daughter
who had just given birth out of wedlock at this brand new
boy that had been born into the family and looked at the preciousness
and the individuals of this baby child and said, see, I have hopes
that things are going to get better. I said, Harry, the very
laws that you work with dictate that they will get worse. Is
it any wonder why Mephibosheth fell in fear? Why Mephibosheth,
as he came into David's throne, why he fell down and fell to
the floor before the king? Is it any wonder why we, when
the Holy Spirit of God comes and touches our hearts and brings
us into an understanding that we need to be born again, that
we fall before this great God? Oh, the pictures are wonderful
here within the Scripture. Here we are now, and in great
fear, we are called before the judgment seat of Christ. But I would have you see now,
number three, Mephibosheth's privilege. We don't dare leave
him there. This would be a terrible state
to leave him in. By the way, it would be a terrible state
to leave you at the bench of salvation. Now we see mercy and
grace bestowed upon Mephibosheth. Look at verse 7 and 8 if you
would please in this text. He said to this young man, listen,
fear not. I did not come to destroy you. I came to shower upon you mercy
and grace. And here we have ourselves as
we find ourselves before the Lord at the point of salvation. Trembling because of the power
and the real awesomeness of who God is. And he reaches down and
says, I've called you here for a purpose. To shed upon you my
mercy and my grace and to save you and to bring you into my
household to live with me forever. The story is so many years ago
of a missionary in Central Africa. A witch doctor had just come
to know the Lord. And in testimony to it, he publicly
burned all of the things that went with his craft. The missionary
came to visit him a week later and found him literally in a
ball in the corner of his hut, terrified. He went in, he said,
he said, what happened? What's going on? He said, everybody
in town is saying that because I burned all of my instruments
of magic, because I have dealt with these things and I've destroyed
them, they say I now no longer have any protection from the
evil spirits. He said, my wife came to me and
told me that in a dream she was digging my grave. He was absolutely
paralyzed with fear. The missionaries went in and
dealt with him for a little while and couldn't get him to shake him
free from that. And finally, I think the Holy Spirit laid
upon this man's heart this missionary, Revelation 1, verse 18. It reads, I am he that liveth
and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. and have the keys of hell
and death." Read that again? He read it again. And after a while he took his
finger and he laid it there upon the scriptures. And his whole
body, the whole countenance began to change. The fear began to
roll off and the confidence and the joy of his salvation began
to come out again. And this man now was able to
stand up and go outside into his community now and to live
for the Lord Jesus Christ. Because he understood that it
was God who held the keys of life and death, not men. And
that's what happened when I came to know Christ. That little boy,
1969, just 7 years old, Chicago, Illinois. when I finally met Christ face
to face. It was not a happy thing for
me until He bestowed His grace and His mercy upon me. Until
He saved my soul. Then I had confidence. And the
Lord has been with me ever since. But He said, Mephibosheth, He
said, fear not. He said, I will restore to you all the land. What land? Well, the land that
had been forfeited through Isphosheth's rebellion. When his father had
tried to take the throne of David, all of that land had been absorbed
into David's bank account. That's the way we did things
back then. He said, I'm going to give to you all of that land.
What was your father's, you will again have the title to it. You
know, I think of a lot of things that was taken from us when sin
entered into the world. I think of the curse within the
garden. The woman. Because of sin, they shall multiply
thy sorrow. Pain of everyday life, I believe,
and mother's concerns for her family. There are more mothers
that their hearts break because of their children. Pain of childbirth. Scripture says that thy desire
shall be to thy husband. If I'm correct, when Adam, and
the Bible says, and they were Adam, Adam, there was no hierarchy
in the garden. Until sin entered in, And now
she, her desire would be to her husband. To the man, his habitation
would be cursed. His employment would be cursed.
And he would now begin to deal with physical death. What a penalty
sin brought in. What things have been stripped
from us. I don't have time to do it this morning, but we can
take all of these curses from the garden and I can show you
where they are reversed in the heart and in the life of a Christian.
These things are made right. These things are made, if you
will, something that we can bear up under because of the Lord's
help. We still live in a sin-cursed world, but we don't have to live
among the sin. And I must ask you this morning,
what has Satan stolen from your life? What property has been
forfeited because of the sin, because Satan has had reign in
your area of life? Has your joy of life been taken?
Your reason for living? Sin is a terrible thing, young
people. It will crush, it will completely drain of life everything
that God has given to you and the desires of which He has set
in your heart to do. Fear not, for I will restore
all the land. And I want you in verse 7 to
eat at My table. In other words, Mephibosheth,
everything that you enjoy will come from the king. The story
of the soul of a man, an elderly Christian man in a small town.
He was always looking for opportunities to honor and glorify the Lord.
One of the boys was walking by with a loaf of bread he had picked
up for his mother. And he said to him, he said, son, what do
you got there? He said, I have a loaf of bread. He said, where
did you get it? He said, well, I just got it
from the grocer. He said, where did the grocer
get it? I guess he got it from the baker. Where did the baker
get it? Well, I guess he got it from
the miller who took the grain and made flour out of it. Where
did the miller get the grain? Well, I guess he got it from
the farmer who grew it. Where did the farmer get it? And it made sense. God had given
him the bread. Everything that we enjoy, every
grace, every mercy that God bestows upon us, It's from His hand. And the Bible says that when
He brings, He saves these folks, when He saved you, He brought
you now to eat at His table. And the provisions would come
from His hand. Not from men's, but from His. In 2 Kings chapter
3, Solomon, the wisest man ever to live upon the face of the
earth. After he had completed, finally restored, he had set
the tabernacle off, and he had built this beautiful, massive
temple. At the dedication of this temple, he went in now,
and I find it interesting that this man said, I am but a child,
I know not how to come in. That doesn't mean he was a child,
he was a full grown man. What it meant was, he had no
understanding how to approach a thrice holy God! Please show
me, how am I to worship Thee? How am I to rule this people?
It would be by God's hand that he would do so. And if you were
to make an impact in the lives of young people, an impact in
the lives of your churches, in the areas in which you're going
to serve the Lord, in the Christian schools, it will be God who gives
you that wisdom to be able to do the work that you're supposed
to do. Turn with me back to Ezekiel chapter 16. Ezekiel chapter 16,
this morning again, verse 6, and reading through the end of
14. And when I passed by thee, I
saw thee polluted in thine own blood. And I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live. And I caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field. And thou hast increased, and
waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breasts
are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked
and bare. Now when I passed by thee, and
looked upon thee, behold, thy time was a time of love. And
I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness. Yea,
I swear unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith
the Lord God, and thou becamest mine. Then washed I thee with
water, yea, I thoroughly washed away the blood from thee, and
I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered
work, and shod thee with badger skin, and I girded thee about
with fine linen, and covered thee with silk. I decked thee
also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thine hands, and
chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead,
and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head.
Is there not a better picture of the salvation of men's souls?
Here is a picture of Israel! Ah Israel the one who would soon
become now the wife of God Almighty Here he finds this baby absolutely
left to die in the wilderness and God takes that child and
scoops that little girl up and takes care of her brings her
back to full life Continues to watch over until she grows and
then at the time when it is ready for her to be married Then God
enters into a covenant with her Here is the very picture of the
beginning of Israel God and his mercy and grace is bestowed upon
her and now she becomes his I know I don't need to say this because
I know we're where ambassador stands But we got a great problem
in our churches with people thinking that Israel is the church They're
not They're totally different Israel is the wife of God The
church is now again espoused to the Lord. We're preparing
a bride for the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not married yet, but we've
been espoused to Him already. But here now is that picture.
And yet it is that very same picture that we find in our own
lives. When Christ finds us, the world
has no time for us, no care for us at all. And yet it is the
very God of the universe, this God of creation, this God who
again is so magnified within this book. It is He that comes
and personally attends to who you are. He saves you. He adorns you. He makes you ready
for the work that He wants. He allows you and brings you
now, enters you into His house. And you shall eat at My table.
Oh, what a privilege. What a privilege. Here's Mephibosheth.
He is absolutely terrified as he comes in. He falls down and
says, oh, this is it. This is the end. And David says,
fear not. I'm not here to do you harm.
I'm here to save you. and you will eat with me and
I will take care of you for the rest of your life." But now we'd have you see Roman
numeral 4, Mephibosheth's acclamation. You see, this is normally where
the story ends and I could end it here and walk away and you'd
say, that was excellent, boy I like that. It doesn't end here. There's one more chapter we have
to look at. Mephibosheth's acclamation. Let me explain to you what I
mean by acclamation. Years ago, when my wife and I were younger,
and both of our bodies were flexible, we went skiing. My wife was from
Minnesota. She skied as a child, and I never
had, so she thought she'd educate me. And so again, in Arizona,
we went to Flagstaff, which is in the mountains, and went there
one winter, and we were skiing. We bought our ski lift tickets,
and we were on the ski lift, and we began to go up. And I'm
looking around going, wow, man, this is really cool. Man, I can't
wait to get off to the top. And I'm looking at my wife, and
my wife's doing this. Now, I was newly married. I was
concerned. And I shook my... I said, I said,
honey, honey, Kathy. I can't shake her too hard because
we're on a ski lift and she'll fall off. And I said, honey, honey,
are you all right? Are you okay? She just sat there.
We got up to the top, and I'm terrified. I'm thinking, I hope
there's a doctor up here, somebody that can help me. And we get
up to the top, and I kind of grab her. You know, if you don't
get off those ski lifts, they kind of take you back around and back down again.
And so I had to get myself off and her, so I basically threw
my wife down is what I did. Don't tell her. She doesn't know
that. And I got her, and I said, honey, and I shook her again,
and pretty soon her eyes began to open. My wife has low blood
pressure. When you ascend too quickly,
Her blood pressure doesn't get to the head and she faints. But
when my wife was acclimated to the level at which we were at,
she came on board again. That's acclimation. They are
now used to the condition of which they find themselves. And
here now we look at Mephibosheth's acclimation. Turn with me to
2 Samuel chapter 16 for the end of this story. Starting in verse 1, read what's
happening. And the king said unto Ziba,
What meanest thou by these? And Ziba said, The asses be for
the king's household to ride on, and the bread and the summer
fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine that such be as
a faint in the wilderness may drink. And the king said, And
where is thy master's son? And Ziba said unto the king,
behold, he abideth at Jerusalem, for he said, today shall the
house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father. You know what we call that? Careful
now, I'm going to yell. Treason! He's doing what? Well while you're
out taking care of the business of the kingdom, Mephibosheth
is back home. Now that the king's gone, the
mouse is away, the cat does play. And he is getting ready now to
reestablish himself in HIS KINGDOM! Mephibosheth had acclimated. He had gotten used to the blessing
of the king. He had gotten used to the feel
of the palace. He had gotten used to everything
that goes along with being king, and he liked it. And now he would
try to retake the kingdom for his own selfish means. As I study
the Scripture, this story comes up over and over and over again.
In 2 Samuel chapter 2, I see Eli's sons, the high priest boys,
Hophni and Phinehas, And yet they have acclimated to the position
of the high priest boys. And they sin mightily against
God. And God kills them. In 1 Samuel chapter 13, I think
of Saul, that mighty king, the first king of Israel, who was
told to go and to wait in Gilgal seven days, so that Samuel could
come and offer a sacrifice. And Saul, he'd been king for
a long time. He knew how it worked. And after
seven days, he got impatient. And Saul offered the sacrifice
that was only to be made by the priest. What happened to Saul? He acclimated. He could do this. He didn't care
what God said. He could do it. Turn back to
Ezekiel chapter 16. Ezekiel chapter 16, verse 15. But thou didst trust in thine
own beauty and playest the harlot because of thy renown, and pourest
out thy fornications on every one that passed by, his it was.
And of thy garments thou didst take and deckest thy high places
with divers colors and playest the harlot thereupon. The like
things shall not come, neither shall it be so. thou hast also
taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I have
given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and committest
whoredom with them, and tookest thy broidered garments, and coverest
them, and thou hast set my oil and mine incense before them.
my meat, also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey,
wherewith I fed thee. Thou hast even set it before
them for a sweet savor, and thus it was, saith the Lord." What
happened to Israel? Everything that God had given
to her, she acclimated to. And she began to use now the
blessing of God for her own devices. The story of Israel is a horrid
story, as far as man is concerned. And it is not so much one like
ours. Israel acclimated, Lefebosheth
acclimated, and now how about you? Say, pastor, we're just
getting started in this thing. We haven't had much time. Yes,
you have. You've had plenty of time at
this institution to acclimate. Do you remember when God first
called you into the ministry? I remember I was terrified. Nobody in my family has ever
been a pastor. Dad was a deacon. How in the world could I stand
behind a pulpit and preach God's word? It was in those days that
I depended upon God. Some of the adults that are here
are some of the older adults. Do you remember when your pastor
came to you and asked you to be a deacon? Do you remember? Your wife laughed. She said,
you're not old enough to be a deacon. Are you wise enough to be a deacon?
And you got on your face before God and pled and said, Lord,
my pastor asked me to be a deacon. I don't think I can do it. But
you've been a deacon for 20 years now. And you don't need God anymore. Do you remember when your pastor
came to you and asked you to teach a Sunday school class? You know, junior
high. I love junior high. They're my
favorite of all the young people. Do you remember when you were
given that Sunday school book? It said, prepare this for next
Sunday. And you said, what do I do? What do I do? You know, a teacher has to know
the subject better than the students. And you found yourself in the
beginning opening up God's Word and studying. And that study
would expand itself in other portions of Scripture. And you
began to learn more and began to grow in the grace and the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as you stood before those
children, you said, Dear God, help me. But you've been doing it for
several years now. You don't need God's help anymore. Some of you that have children.
Do you remember when that first child came into your home? We
have four children, all of them are adopted. I was terrified. How in the world do you raise
a child? They don't come with manuals. Oh, I know the spiritual
ones say, oh yeah, it's right there in front of you right now.
I get it. The principles are there. You better study the book. But now several children down
the road, we know what we're doing. We don't need God anymore. We got it all under control. Young people, I'm willing to
bet that you were probably like me. That once you got over the
initial shock of God calling you into the ministry, once you
got settled down and you were trusting the Lord and following
His leadership, you said within your soul, dear God, please use
me like you used D.L. Moody. Believe me, I've been doing this
for 25 years. I'm preaching to myself this
morning. We acclimate to the service of
God. We begin to depend upon our strengths
and our abilities. We are not so unlike Mephibosheth
in this story. We are the ones now that don't
need God anymore. I said, Pastor, you're really
talking some bad stuff here. Yes! I am! If we try to do the work of God
without the power of the Spirit of God upon our hearts and our
lives, what good are we? Israel has taken what God had
given to her and used it for her own! I have seen times in
my life when I have used what God has given to me for my own. And let me tell you, young people,
you will make a wreck of the situation. What of you? What of your actions? Places you go? Things that you
see? What of your conversation? Is
it as pleasing now to the Lord as it was when He first knocked
you on line? What of your desires? We can't
see inside the deep, dark recesses of your heart. God can. What would you do if you could
do it? Ecclesiastes 12.1 says this,
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Those who forget history are
condemned to repeat it. These accounts are given to us
that we might be shaken free of our acclamation. Deuteronomy
4.9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently,
watch this, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have
seen, and lest they depart from thine heart. This morning, we
have seen Mephibosheth's condition. It was worthless. as ours. We have seen Mephibosheth's fear
as he faced the king himself. As we who know Christ have a
testimony of facing Christ as well. We see Mephibosheth's privilege
and the mercy and grace that was bestowed upon him and so
it was on our lives. But I leave you with this last
point. Mephibosheth's acclamation. Never forget. We are a people that forget.
I believe one of the jobs and responsibilities of the pastor,
I have no new doctrine to teach from this book. There's nothing
new under the sun. My job is to, again, bring this
book online into the lives of my people to remind them again,
thus saith the Lord. Young people, what of you this
morning? If you would, every head bowed,
every eye closed, no one looking around this morning. I don't
usually do this in chapel, but I'm going to do it this morning.
I have a very serious message. It doesn't mean that you're involved
in something terrible. It just means, watch this young people,
that perhaps you've taken the reins back in your own life. If you have acclimated, is there a difference between
the time you were first called and the time now? You may have gone
up, may have gone down, but where are you now? Perhaps there's
one here who would say, pastor, that's me. I'm not where I should
be at this point in my life, but I need to get that right.
I just want to pray for you this morning. If that's you, would
you raise your hand just for a moment? Say several hands, several thank
you. Appreciate that you can put those
down. Thank you in the back. Have you acclimated? The call is to come back. Our
Father, we do thank you again for the privilege of being able
to consider this text. Lord, this is the call of your
people that we would, on a consistent basis, be empowered by thee and
to lean upon thee for the things you've called us to do. Lord,
I will testify before these young people now that I stand before
them guilty so many times in my own strength. And by Thy mercy,
You hold me back. Help us, dear Father, during
this time, I pray in Jesus' precious name, Amen.
In the Presence of the King
Series Spring Semester 2010
| Sermon ID | 8172142723166 |
| Duration | 56:42 |
| Date | |
| Category | Chapel Service |
| Language | English |
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