Mephibosheth

2 Samuel 9
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Gospel—W. Smith
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Brother was speaking this afternoon.
About Jonathan.
And it suggested to 1.
That we might look.
The second Samuel 9.
Yeah.
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 of the House of Saul a servant whose name was Zaiba.
And when they had called him under David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba? 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?
Zyber said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son which is lame on his feet.
And the king said unto him, Where is he?
Driver said unto the king. Behold, he is in the House of Maker, the son of Emil in Lodibar.
Then King Davis sent and fetched him out of the House of Maker, the son of Emil, from Lodi Bar.
Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was coming to David, he fell on his face and did reverence.
And Davis, said Mephibosheth.
And he answered, Behold thy servant.
And Davis said unto him, Fear not, for I will surely show thee kindness, for Jonathan thy Father's sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul, thy father, and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. And he bowed himself.
Said What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am.
Then the king called, as I saw servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master son all that pertain to Saul, and all his house.
Thou therefore thy sons, and thy servants shall till the land for him.
And thou shall bring in the fruits, that thy master's son may have food to eat, but Mephibosheth, thy master's son shall eat bread all the way at my table. Now Zaiba had fifteen sons and 20 servants.
Then said Ziba under the king, according to all that my Lord the king has commanded his servant, So shall thy servant do As for Mephibosheth, said the king, He shall eat at my table as one of the King's sons.
And the fibers had a young son whose name was Micah, and all that dwelled in the houses either were servants under Mephibosheth.
So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he did eat continually at the King's table.
And was lame on both his feet.
The story told.
I was servant of God many years ago.
Who read this chapter?
And he wondered what there was in it.
He read it and read it over and over again.
And finally.
We saw what was in it.
That wonderful picture of the love of God to a poor, helpless Sinner.
And what a marvelous picture it is.
The love of God.
To those.
Who never sought after God, who had no claim on God, and who were at a distance from him?
And as I was with David.
So with God, the work was all his.
There was God that sent his Son down here into this world.
It was God that manifested His love in the giving of his only begotten Son.
And through him.
To open up the way that you and I by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Might have eternal life.
So we have pictured here.
Centuries before the Lord Jesus came.
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We have pictured what was in the heart of God.
You know the coming of the Lord Jesus down here into this world.
Was not just an afterthought with God.
It was not done on the spur of the moment.
God and His eternal counsels had planned.
That the Lord Jesus was to come into this world to die.
If you and I, as sinners, might have a savior, that we might be justified.
From all things.
That we might be brought into the family of God as his children.
And so we have in the Old Testament picture after picture.
Of the love of God in sending the Lord Jesus, type after type, given to us. And how precious it is to think that was in the heart of God.
From a past eternity.
And we have given to us the record of what was in the councils of God the Lord Jesus, saying, Lo, I come to do thy will, oh God.
And I was just thinking this afternoon.
As our brother was speaking about Jonathan.
And how he had failed to give David his shoes.
His walk was not such.
Patrick go along with David and his rejection.
And he suffered for it.
He was found among the slain on Mount Gilboa.
Yes, that was his end.
He missed the sharing of the throne with David.
He missed out.
And I'm afraid of something else that he missed too.
I'm speaking. I'm thinking of a dear young parents.
Here this evening. Just a word for them.
If we go back just a little bit in the life of Mephibosheth.
We find that when David was brought to the throne.
That refurbishes.
Had to flee.
His nurse took him up.
And carried him out, and on the way out she dropped him so that he fell and he was crippled.
But you know Jonathan, if he had been faithful to David, I'm sure he would have told John, he told Mephibosheth.
What kind of a man David was? He would have told him of the love of David.
He would have told him of the promise that had been made between the two, that there would be kindness shown.
Amongst their seed.
That verse in the 20th of the first book of Samuel was referred to this afternoon.
How did they made a promise to each other?
But refurbishes apparently knew nothing about it.
How about our children?
Have they been told of the love of God?
Have they been told of the desire of the Lord Jesus to have the little children come to him?
Have they heard from your lips?
The story of the Lord Jesus come down here saying, Supper the children to come unto me.
Well, you know, Mephibosheth.
In fleeing.
At the news that David was about to take the throne.
He has a fall.
He became a cripple.
Know what a story it is?
Here is a man.
You've grown to manhood now.
He is unable to help himself.
Is hiding from David.
Yes, he is helpless.
And is hiding from the one whom he thinks hates him and is seeking his life.
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Oh, how like, man, that is.
Man at a distance from God, helpless.
In a simple condition.
Man, you know, has a fallen nature.
Man, apart from the work of Christ, can do nothing to please God.
No man has a conscience.
Just like Mephibosheth, all Mephibosheth knew how that his grandfather saw had persecuted David.
And I'm sure that his thoughts of David were that he was an austere man seeking revenge.
You and I.
Have sinned before a holy God.
And you know, like Adam in the Garden of Eden.
When he heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the cool of the day, he hid himself.
He was afraid, he said. He was afraid.
And God had to call him.
Said Adam. Where art thou?
Oh, he said. I was afraid and I hid myself.
Man would like to do that today to hide himself.
From the presence of a holy garden? Or he would fain do that?
But his conscience tells him that he can't.
Now his conscience tells him.
And its conscience is that which gnaws at the heart.
But oh, we find in the record we have in the Word of God.
That wonderful story.
Does the love of God.
And we have here in our chapters it starts out.
David.
He settled on the throne now.
Penny says. Is there yet any of this left of the House of Saul, that I might show him kindness for Jonathans sake?
Then it brings to mind that verse we have in Romans 5. God commendeth his love in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Oh, it's the love of God. Come out, manifested.
In the Lord Jesus Christ coming down here into this world as a man.
There was thus that God expressed his love.
To poor sinful men.
If he had come down in all his divine glory.
It would only have been to drive man away from him in terror.
But he humbled himself.
He veiled his glory, and he came down here as a poor, humble man.
It came down into this world.
Speaking words of comfort and healing.
And going to the cross.
In order to manifest to the full.
The love of God.
To sinful men.
None deserving the love of God, but God in his sovereign grace and love.
Coming out.
There is now beseeching men.
Women and children to come to him.
And so, David?
Is there yet any that is left of the House of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?
So they call Zaiba.
Zyber knows about Amphibious.
Yes, Jonathan has a son.
The furniture.
He has a son, but his lame.
On his feet.
Oh, what a picture that is lame on his feet.
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All he couldn't come to King David. He couldn't come there.
No, no more than you and I could come to God in our natural state.
We're helpless.
Impossible to come to God as we are by nature.
Because God is a holy garden.
And you and I, sinners. And how could we come into the presence of God?
Because God is holy, cannot have sin in His presence.
My favorite other was lame on his feet.
Told a story of how he had gotten away.
He told the story of his fleeing when David.
Would have shown kindness to him.
No, Jonathan and David had made that promise.
And David was intending to keep that promise.
Just as God has made promises to you and to me.
And God will keep those promises.
And the Lord Jesus says him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.
The invitation is yours tonight.
By faith.
To lay hold upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That you?
May enjoy the love the grace of God in receiving Sinner.
And putting away their sinners in order they may be fit for his own holy presence.
He gives that nature that is fitted and suited to his own presence.
So that there may be the coming without fear.
So the King asked Ziba, where is he?
Zyber, Saturn to the King.
The whole he is in the House of Maker.
Son of Emil in Lodibar.
You know many of the names in Scripture.
Have a meaning. A wonderful meeting.
Maker was the son of Emil.
The people of God. Emil means the people of God.
Here is one who had been raised with the people of God.
The words he found.
Always down on loader bar.
A place of no pasture.
What a story that tells.
Here is 1 raised.
Were the people of God.
And he's in a place where there's no pasture.
He's gone out into that place where there's nothing to satisfy.
Nothing to enjoy.
Oh, how is it with us?
I'm sure that most, if not all here in this room.
Now the young people.
Have been raised in Christian homes.
Where do you find your pleasure?
Where do you feed?
Upon what do you feed?
Are you out in that world?
Where there is nothing to satisfy.
The soul.
In that place where there's no food.
And where there's nothing to refresh.
You know, this world is a place of no pasture.
We sometimes sing this world as a wilderness wide and all it is.
It's a wilderness.
It's a place where there's nothing to satisfy.
For eternity not one single thing, and that was the world has to offer, is only that which you have to go back, and again, and again and again.
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Define any kind of pleasure.
Ernest, like the Lord told the woman on Sychar's well.
She had come here to draw water.
And the Lord told her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.
You have to keep coming back and back and back.
To find any kind of refreshment.
And is only fleeting. It's only for the moment.
But he also told her that he had wanted to give.
That if she would drink, she would never thirst.
And that is the kind of refreshment that Lord himself gives.
A refreshment that satisfies not only for this world, not only for time.
But for eternity.
To satisfy the soul, to find enjoyment.
And it'll be with singing forever and ever in the presence of our blessed Savior. Are you going to be there?
Are you going to be there singing, or are you down in the place of no pasture?
Are you in the place where you have to go back and back and back in order to be to keep occupied and to find any bit of pleasure at all here in this world?
Oh, you know, Satan would like to keep you there. He'd like to keep you occupied with that which is down here.
But it doesn't satisfy, and if you've tried it, I'm sure you're going to agree with me that there's nothing to satisfy for eternity down here in this world.
Well, David.
Does he send word to Mephibosheth to come up?
You see them? Oh no.
Davis, Simmons to fetch my Bishop.
Oh, how precious that is.
He knew Mephibosheth's condition. He knew he couldn't come.
And so he sends down for him.
So the apostle John writes that the Father sent the Son to be the savior of the world.
There was a father gone.
That sent the sun down here.
To be the savior of the world.
Yes, the work that the Lord Jesus did at Calvary.
Is there such magnitude for such infinite magnitude?
That is available for everyone in the whole world, if they'd only come to him in faith.
But you know.
It takes faith on the part of the individual to lay hold of the promise of God. To lay hold upon his precious word, then it must be from the heart.
Yes, it's faith that lays hold upon the word of God.
And trust him.
Well, David sends down.
To Loadibar.
They guess my fibership out of the House of Maker, the son of Emil from Loadebar.
So my fibrous has ushered into the presence of the king.
So he comes.
And I'm sure that along the way he must have trembled.
He must have had thoughts as to the purpose of David's sending for him.
He hadn't yet made the acquaintance of David. He hadn't learned the heart of David.
No. So it must have been with fear and trembling.
And as like the poor Sinner.
Awakened to a sense of his need before God.
And the trembling Sinner fear that God can never forget.
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No. Oh, but there's more to that. One full payment clears his memory of all debt.
Well, when, David?
Brings Mephibosheth into his presence.
The furniture falls on his face.
And he owns the claims of David over him, he says. Behold thy servant.
And you know that's precious.
He didn't know the heart of David.
But he knew that he had claims over him.
And how many sinners have come to God?
And owned that they were sinners.
And that they had a responsibility to God.
Yes, they've owned his claims over them, and they've found God as good as it were. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Thomas Fibbage says, Behold thy servant.
May it be that there's one here tonight?
That will own the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Over you.
He came down here and died as you might be saved.
He has a claim upon you.
Are you going to bow to him?
You know the day is coming.
When every knee.
Not only in this world.
But angelic beings?
Infernal beings.
Are going to own that his Lord is going to be to the glory of God the Father. Let it be so.
Everyone is going to bow the knee to him.
Oh, may it be with you in this, the day of grace, that your bother need him now, today, tonight.
For Miss Levish's vows before David, and he says, Behold thy servant.
And our prices of words of David, Fear not.
I'm sure there was a fear and trembling that Mephibosheth was there.
But how precious their words Fear not.
Have you heard those words?
From the lips of the Lord Jesus, Fear not.
Oh, he doesn't desire to condemn the Sinner. He didn't come down here for that purpose.
No, he came down here that you and I might know him as a savior.
So the word is fear not.
Oh, he's opened up the floodgates of the love of God.
And the shedding of his own precious blood that cleanses from sin.
Is made available to you tonight that you may come.
There's no need for fear.
Oh, the perfect love of God casts out all fear.
All they hold upon the fact that God loves you.
Lay hold upon the fact that it's perfect love.
When you see that that God is nothing but love for the poor Sinner, oh, it takes away all those fears in order that you may come and avail yourself of that infinite work at Calvary.
Fear not.
I will surely show the kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake.
Oh, what a thing that is. I will show thee kindness.
Then you know God.
Is showing kindness and.
Love tonight.
For the sake of his own beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Yes, it was his work.
That has opened up and manifested the love of God.
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I will surely show the kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake.
Oh, would you come tonight?
God loves you, the Lord Jesus Christ loves you, and he came down here.
To express.
The love of God.
To you tonight. To each one of you, he is expressing his love to you.
Is there no response in your heart?
Oh, he says. John Mephibosheth.
Not only.
Will I show kindness here for Jonathan's sake?
I will restore the all the land of Saul thy father, and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually.
Oh, what a thing that is.
Oh, he didn't say. Well, I'm going to see that you're comfortable for the rest of your life. No, that isn't what he wanted to do.
He wanted to bring mathematics right into his own family.
And that's what God wants to do to you tonight, my dear young friend.
He will only come.
By faith tonight to the Lord Jesus.
You'll find that God desires to make you one of his own children.
Oh, how precious that is.
To be brought into the conscious relationship that God is my father.
Can there be any greater expression of love than that?
God, the guest whom I sinned, the God whom I have offended.
Is the one who desires to bring me into his own family.
And gives me a nature.
Suited to his house.
And he clothed me with a robe of righteousness.
With a garment of salvation that I may be properly attired.
For that home of glory.
All my fibrous You're going to eat bread at my table continually.
What a wonderful place. What a privilege.
And Ohio, if you come to the Lord Jesus, then you'll receive him by faith tonight.
You can be brought into that relationship too.
Wilmer fibership is overcome by this.
Yes. Did he deserve such love as that?
No, His family were the mortal enemies of David. David had been sought for years. He'd lived in exile.
He was haunted, he says, like a Partridge on the hills, haunted by Saul. You sought to kill him at every opportunity.
And here is his grandson.
Who deserve nothing but the same kind.
And here is the one whom his grandfather persecuted and hated.
Show him kindness, bringing him into his own family.
You know God.
There's one, I guess, to whom we've sinned.
And you only need to go out into the world.
And possibly look at your own heart too, and see the hatred for God that has been there, hatred for him.
Talk to your neighbors. Talk to your companions about the Lord Jesus Christ. Talk about the love of God. You'll find out what's in the heart of man.
Will have nothing to do with it.
Oh, here's Mephibosheth.
He thought that David had hated him, that now he finds it nothing but love in the heart of David for him.
And he bows himself again.
Just as a poor Sinner coming to the Lord Jesus Christ and finding.
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That the Lord is a gracious Savior seeking sinners to come to him.
Oh, what a revelation to the heart to find that all that God has for us is love.
Oh, how it bows our heart and Thanksgiving and praise to him.
When we find that out.
Then is humbling till you know.
When we think of what we are by nature, to think that gone would have in his heart love for such as we are.
Oh, it humbles us.
It breathes upon our faces before him like it did in a fibbusha.
Then he says, What is thy servant? That thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?
That's the expression, I think, that we often fail to realize the.
Depth of it.
There are no dogs in those days.
We're scavengers. They threw out the refuse into the street and the dogs ate what they threw out. That's all the dogs were for.
Yeah, they didn't have them as pets like we have now.
They were only the scavengers of the neighborhood.
And they were in very ill repute.
John Deere Mephibosheth didn't say that thou should look upon such a dog as I am. No, but here's a dead dog.
And of what worth is a dead dog?
Oh, it's only fit to be taken away, Disposed of.
The furniture takes that place.
And at the right place, it's the only place of blessing.
You know there were two men that went up into the temple to pray.
And one went up there, the Pharisee, and he prayed with himself.
They told God what a wonderful man he was. He told him of all his good deeds.
The other.
He didn't come very far into the temple. He stood afar off.
This poor man Republican.
They recognized Sinner in the city.
He stands afar off.
Now I suppose he hung his head because the Scripture says he would not so much as lift his eyes to heaven.
Smiled upon his breast and said, God be merciful to me, the Sinner.
He took his true place before God, and the testimony of the Lord Jesus is that this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.
Mathematics took his right place before David.
Of not being deserving.
Of the mercy of David.
You know, when we get into the presence of God and see ourselves in the light of His holy word.
Oh, how it brings before us our own worthlessness.
And all that magnifies the grace of God to think of such as we are that he was stoop.
To pick us up.
We only need to turn to the Scripture to find God's thoughts about us.
Many places in the scripture.
We have the record of what we are by nature.
But all we have to along with it.
The fact that God in his sovereign love.
That desire to pick us up and make us his own.
Sommerfelygoth takes his right place before David.
And now he's in the place of blessing.
No longer is he done in a loaded bar. No longer is he in the place of no pasture. No, he's not far off from David now, no longer fearing David.
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But he has found out.
That all this time that he was down there, he had missed.
The enjoyment of the love of David.
And how many there are?
Who have come to the Lord Jesus when they have gotten up in years.
And they have lamented the fact that they have put off so long.
Coming to know the Lord Jesus as savior. Oh what we've missed, what we've lost all this time.
But oh, thank God that Mephibosheth was brought to David.
And now he has a promise sitting at the King's table.
Yes, I shall eat bread at my table continually. Oh, what a wonderful thing that is.
To feed upon the King's body.
And not only that.
The king calls his eyebrow now.
And he says, I have given unto thy master son all that pertain to Saul unto all his house.
Thou therefore, thy sons, and thy servants shall kill the land, for and thou shalt bring in the fruits that thy master son may have food to eat.
Yes. Not only was Mephibosheth brought into the King's house and made us one of his sons.
But he has now 36 servants.
Just to wait upon him.
Oh, how he's blessed.
You know, we've been reading today in the Epistle to the Ephesians.
And we find in the first chapter that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
Every spiritual blessing that God can give, he has given.
To those.
Who know him as father. Is he your father? Is the Lord Jesus your savior?
Oh, if not.
How much you're missing? Think of it every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.
God has given her to those who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you have those blessings? Can you claim them for yourself?
Mephibosheth now could claim the place at the King's table.
He could claim 36 servants to wait upon him.
All the bounty of the king.
And all that you and I have by grace as children of God, is from the hand of a bountiful God.
As for Mephibosheth, said the king in the 11Th verse, he shall eat at my table as one of the King's sons.
Oh, how precious it is.
To sit down as one of the King's sons, to eat at his table.
And enjoy the fellowship.
Of those who were seated there at that same table.
I know how precious it is when some can come together in a meeting like this.
Or even as we come together in our own little meetings where we live, we can come together and enjoy.
Feasting upon that which is the King's table.
Feasting upon the precious word of God and enjoying it together.
Where the people of God. Oh how precious it is. And so Mephibosheth.
Eating at the King's table.
As one of the King's sons.
And I suppose as they sat around the table.
Look at them all.
All suitably attired for the feast.
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Yeah, there was number difference between them to be seen.
But you know the end.
Now this chapter tells us.
That he dwelled in Jerusalem, for he did eat continually the King's table, and was lame on both his feet.
Well, it told us that before that he was lame on his feet.
Another word of God does not repeat needlessly.
We don't find repetitions in the word of God.
And this is put in here at the end of this chapter for a very good reason.
You and I who believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We've been brought to the King's table.
We enjoy what is set before us. We enjoy the feast.
That is prepared for us and the fellowship of the King's Son's.
But like Mephibosheth, let us never forget that we're lame on both feet.
There is a continual dependence.
Upon that same one who brought us to himself.
We can never walk in our own strength. We can never go our own way. Or if we do, we'll only stumble and fall.
No, we need to be kept by the power of God.
And like refurbishes who had to be moved around by others, so you and I, dear fellow Christian, must never forget that we cannot take one step in our own strength.
But God has made provision for us.
Yeah, she has made a wonderful provision for us.
And all he knows how weak we are. David knew the Mephibosheth was a cripple. He knew he could never walk.
But he made him one of the King's sons in spite of it all.
And in spite of what you and I are by nature as helpless God has brought us into His family.
And he's made us such.
That we can depend upon him? Yes, he has.
The same one who saved us.
The same one who brought us to himself is now on high on our behalf.
Oh, how precious it is.
Though one trusts none here tonight.
But what like Mephibosheth?
They brought to know the Lord Jesus Christ as savior. Oh, there's one here. Would you come tonight and find out what a God of love is beseeching you to come to him?
Shall we sing #38?
I know not why God's wondrous race to me hath made known, nor why unworthy as I am, He claimed me for his own. But I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day #38.
2.