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.