2 Samuel 9:1-8

[0:00] Yeah, okay, well, I don't know how much story you've received or haven't received, but Nathan was here this morning.! He was trying really hard to push through and make it. As you know, he's stubborn like I am and a lot of other people, but he finally decided to tap out and go home and then make the 730 phone call to me, phone a friend to pick up the service.

[0:26] And so, but I myself, some of you that know me well know I probably have some mild insomnia, so I'm not really fully awake this morning myself, but I was glad to help out.

[0:41] So, I went upstairs and thankfully, my wife Kathleen made some oatmeal for me and some coffee and I slammed that down. No Red Bull or pre-workout is in the equation this morning.

[0:56] I probably should have gone to some of that, but I thought it would make me too jittery. So, I was upstairs just like, alright Lord, here we are. What in the world are we going to talk about this morning? What will you have your people here?

[1:13] And for some reason, my mind was led to another time I was asked to preach short notice. I think it was like in 2010 probably or 11.

[1:28] And just a story that illustrates just the simple gospel, one that we are prone to forget, one that we are prone to wander from. And so, I was in doing some mission stuff, doing some ministry in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

[1:49] And my best friend Mark, he was in charge of this ministry team. And he said, so, you want to preach tonight? And that was like two hours away. And I told him, are you serious? I kind of like laughed at first.

[2:02] And then he's like, I'm not joking. I'm like, do you want to preach tonight? And we were in inner city Belfast and at a church that was just sitting right in the middle of inner city Belfast.

[2:17] And it was around the time of the year when there's a lot of conflict and rioting and fighting in Belfast. There's a lot of tension between Irish Catholics and, quote, you know, British, Scottish Protestants who were there.

[2:32] And there was a pretty big riot that year, actually. And we were right near the place where the two neighborhoods kind of meet. So, that's where all the stuff goes down.

[2:43] Like, you know, Irish Catholics over here and the, I'm just saying, quote, Protestant, not real, probably, in a lot of ways. But on this side of the street. And I knew that a lot of them were going to be around that week.

[2:55] A lot of them were going to come around and hear, like, what is this, what is going on at this gathering over here? So, that's what my friend asked me to preach at.

[3:05] And I told him, like, do you really want me to preach this short notice? And he was like, you Americans, you rely so much on, like, preparation. And he just started giving me a hard time about not being prepared to, like, just give a message.

[3:19] And as you know, he's very sarcastic in a loving way. And so, I don't know why, but I was led to 2 Samuel.

[3:30] So, open your Bibles there. And probably a big mouthful of Hebrew narrative is not the best thing to preach on in the morning when you're really tired.

[3:42] But the Lord has pictured his gospel for us in so many ways. We're blessed to have a Bible that comes to us in such an incredible form.

[3:57] Where there's everything from law to historical accounts to poetry. And different ways that God has sought to reveal himself to us.

[4:09] And in our passage, we'll be in 2 Samuel chapter 9. It's a wonderful story that depicts what God has done for us in Christ.

[4:22] And as I thought about it, I don't think that, at least myself, I've never spoken on this before here. And as many of you are aware, the Old Testament, what we call the Old Testament, is all in many ways foreshadowing and pointing to a greater fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

[4:45] So, God sovereignly was organizing and bringing about so many things to depict for us what he would do one day for us in Christ. And this is a story that really, really moves me.

[5:00] And I hope it does the same for you. But let's give you some context before we start getting into chapter 9.

[5:11] Most of you know that King Saul was Israel's first king. And he had wandered away from the Lord and he had sought very simple things out.

[5:24] And God had judged him and said, basically, you will no longer be king over Israel. And as time went by, Saul was killed by the Philistines, along with his three sons, his three heirs.

[5:41] And that included Jonathan, who was David's really close friend, if you remember that story. Jonathan was one of David's close confidants, even though his father was seeking to kill David.

[5:56] But Jonathan was killed as well in this battle with the Philistines. And David, even before Saul was actually killed, was anointed king by Samuel.

[6:08] God had told Samuel, go and find this one that I'm going to appoint to be king over Israel. And he found him right out in the field, watching the sheep, and anointed him to be the king.

[6:23] So David was really just waiting for God's timing and still trying to honor Saul, because he had a great love for Saul, even though Saul was trying to kill him.

[6:34] But after this disaster happened, and Saul was killed along with his three sons, there was a civil war that erupted in the nation. And under Saul, they had been united under one nation.

[6:49] But after that, he was killed, it broke off back into the old ways of more like tribal rivalries with all the different tribes kind of fighting each other.

[7:00] But most of the tribes were connected to the house of Saul. And they fought against David and his house, which was the house of Judah. And over time, David began winning more and more victories.

[7:14] And the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker. And there was one connection still to Saul. His name was Ish-bosheth. And he eventually was leading the forces that were fighting against David.

[7:31] And at some point, somebody thought it would be a good idea to kill him and brutally kill him, hoping to gain favor with David.

[7:41] So he brought the head of this man to David. And David was not happy. He said, you have unjustly and cruelly murdered this man, even though he was a connection to the house of Saul.

[7:58] And so he executed that man. And so after all this happened, the civil war was over. Everyone began looking to David for leadership over the nation.

[8:09] And that around the age of 30, he was crowned king of a united Israel and Judah. So one nation again. And in history, this was sort of the golden age in a lot of ways, that they look back on the nation of Israel when David was the king.

[8:25] And so here's what we pick up in our text. We'll start at verse 1, chapter 9.

[8:37] And David said, All right.

[9:16] All right.

[9:30] So after he's crowned king, David steps back and he asks this question, Is there anyone left in Saul's family at all that I may show kindness to him, as God has shown kindness to me?

[9:43] And so he learns about the son of Jonathan. And why is this uncommon? This is a very, very uncommon thing. I could give you, I will spare you, probably spare myself too at this point.

[9:57] But there are a ton of historical accounts of when someone takes over rule of a nation, like an emperor or a king or whatever.

[10:08] There's tons of this in Roman history. They would make sure that there was no immediate threat to their position as ruler. So they would have anyone related to the previous ruler just killed, executed, to strengthen their own position.

[10:25] So stepping back, there's a pretty amazing that David didn't do this because if Saul had a direct descendant, technically that could be argued that he was supposed to be the king and not David.

[10:39] And then civil war could happen all over again. But in 2 Samuel chapter 4, this is actually a reference back, going back to the son of Jonathan.

[10:54] But 2 Samuel 4.4 says, Jonathan, the son of Saul, had a son who was crippled in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel.

[11:07] And his nurse took him up and fled. And as she fled in her haste, he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.

[11:20] So this descendant of Saul, Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth, he had been injured and he was lame. Couldn't walk. Had to be carried around everywhere.

[11:32] And so David deliberately seeks out Mephibosheth, not to do him harm like as would be expected, but to do good to him.

[11:46] So Mephibosheth had no part in this and taking initiative to go and see David. More than likely, he was fleeing for his life, hoping David would not kill him. He was afraid.

[11:56] So, that was point number one, by the way. Verses one through four. Which is, if you want to write this down, there's only three this morning, but the first one is like, moved by grace.

[12:14] And that's seen in verses one through four. Moved by grace. David deliberately sought out this descendant of Saul to show him kindness.

[12:26] All right? So then we will read on. This goes into the second point, which is a humble response. A humble response. And we'll see this in verses five through eight.

[12:40] Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Meshire, and the son of Emiel at Lodabar. And Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David, fell on his face, and paid homage.

[12:57] And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold, I am your servant. So he's just laying down like, Please don't kill me.

[13:08] I'm your servant. And David said to him, Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father, Jonathan.

[13:18] And I will restore to you all the land of Saul, your father. And you shall eat at my table always. And he paid homage and said, What is your servant that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?

[13:38] So we see a humble response from Mephibosheth. He came into the situation expecting like I've been caught, and now I'm going to be executed by King David.

[13:52] And he is mind blown. He's probably just on his face prostrated before King David saying, I'm your servant. I'm your humble servant. Please don't.

[14:03] Please don't kill me. And David says, Hey, listen, I haven't brought you here to do this. I'm bringing you here because I want to show you kindness for the sake of your father, Jonathan.

[14:16] He still couldn't believe it. He was shocked, and then he responded, Who am I? He calls himself, Why are you showing regard for me? I'm like a dead dog.

[14:28] I have no value at all. So you've got to ask yourself, What is David's motives for showing kindness towards Mephibosheth?

[14:40] He, again, has nothing to offer. He has no service he can offer to David because he's lame. He's physically unable to.

[14:51] He has no case to plead before him. No money to offer. So he expected death. So why did David do this? And at least from our text, we can pick up two reasons why David chose to show such kindness to this young guy.

[15:11] The first one, it says, Kindness for Jonathan's sake. He desires to display the love and the loyalty he had to Jonathan, who was his best friend.

[15:23] And a long time ago, in 1 Samuel chapter 20, Jonathan and David make a covenant together and basically say, After all this is over, will you swear before God to take care of my family and anyone that follows me?

[15:41] And they both promised each other that. If something happens to the other, they would see to it that they looked after their family. So he made that covenant with David before God.

[15:51] And this was him being faithful to that covenant. The second thing that we also see in our text, it says, That I may show the kindness of the Lord to you.

[16:06] David could love his enemies because he had experienced being loved as an enemy by God. He was very, very mindful that his own sin and his own rebellion against God deserved death as well.

[16:22] But now he wanted to display the kindness and forgiveness of God in how he treated Mephibosheth. There's only a couple of places for you to look today outside of our main text, but hold your hand there.

[16:35] But go to Psalm 25. Psalm 25 and verse 6. And this is a psalm of David. He's pouring his heart out to the Lord.

[16:50] So David wrote this. And just to kind of give you a glimpse into his heart and his relationship with God, that he was very aware that he himself had received mercy from God.

[17:03] So look at verse 6. He says, Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love. For they have been from of old.

[17:14] Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions. According to your steadfast love, remember me for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.

[17:26] Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore, he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humble his way.

[17:38] All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt for it is great.

[17:54] Really remember verse 11 particularly. For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt for it is great. So David is a man who is very aware of his own sin and his own rebellion against the holy God and that God has shown him mercy, shown him his goodness and his steadfast love.

[18:14] And so, all of us know that if you actually have been touched and saved and born again, you can't look at other people around you, including your enemies, the same way anymore.

[18:26] You are transformed by the grace of God. And so, this is David's motivation. He wants to keep his covenant that he made to his loyal and best friend, Jonathan, but also to display the kindness and forgiveness of the Lord.

[18:44] So you can go back to 2 Samuel. And this brings us to our third point. Point number three is accepted and blessed by the king.

[18:59] All right. So verse 9. It says, Then the king called Ziba Saul's servant and said to him, All that belong to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master's grandson.

[19:19] And you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and shall bring in the produce that your master's grandson may have bread to eat.

[19:31] But Mephibosheth, your master's grandson shall always eat at my table. Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. And Ziba said to the king, According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so will your servant do.

[19:50] So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. And Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Mekah. And all who lived in Ziba's house became Mephibosheth's servants.

[20:05] So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem for he ate always at the king's table. Now he was lame in both his feet. So, not only does David just spare his life, he could have said, I brought you here just so you would be aware that I could execute you, but I'm just going to get rid of you instead.

[20:29] Just disappear. Get out of my sight. I don't want to see you again. He could have said that and that would have actually still been merciful. That actually still would have been a crazy act to the people around him.

[20:42] Like, why aren't you killing this guy? But, he not only just shows him mercy, but he blesses him with land and servants that came from the house of Saul.

[20:55] So, you see that greed was not really in David's. He didn't really care about all of that. He gave it to Mephibosheth so that he would have somewhere to go and people to help him because of his condition.

[21:10] And so, not only he just stops there, it goes even further. One more step. Not just spares his life, not just gives him land and servants. But then he says, hey, I want you to know that you always have the right to come and eat here with me, the king.

[21:28] You're always welcome at my table. And said, join this fellowship and join friendship with me and come and eat with me. At best, right?

[21:40] He could have just said, get out of the knowledge, but he said, I don't want to just stop there. I want you to really see the mercy and grace of God. So I want you to come and actually dine with me as if you were one of my own sons.

[21:54] I mean, so mind blowing. And I love the emphasis in our text. It kind of reminds you at the end of verse 13.

[22:06] Now he was lame on both feet. Just, you know, most of you who are, he's repeating himself by saying just the emphasis is that this man had nothing to offer the king at all.

[22:19] And the king accepted him, forgave him, and blessed him, and made him a part of his own family. So what is some application then for us, if we haven't gotten some of that already?

[22:32] A few things. One is, just as the house of David and the house of Saul were at war with each other, we also, apart from Christ, are at war with God.

[22:47] All of us have shown great rebellion and great hostility to God himself. Unimaginable hostility between God and man. All of us have done this, all of us.

[23:03] In Romans 6, 23, a well-known verse, it says, for the wages of sin is death. God is of such great value, such unimaginable beauty and greatness and perfection, that for us just to look at him and say, you are no longer God, but I'm going to rule my own life and do what I want to do, isn't just a trivial thing, it's treason of the worst kind.

[23:37] And so, all of us have exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and we worship the things in this world rather than the creator himself.

[23:50] All of us are at war with God, and by right, if he desires so, God could destroy us without showing us any mercy.

[24:03] But another connection to our story is the pursuit of God. As David pursued Mephibosheth, he had nothing to do with that.

[24:15] He didn't initiate anything with David at all. He was on the run. He was hiding, hoping he wouldn't be caught by David like a fugitive. But David intentionally, deliberately sought this man out and pursued him.

[24:31] And the connection is that God has intentionally, not by accident, not because he came up with a new plan, but God has intentionally pursued us by sending Christ.

[24:44] He has sought us out. Have you ever taken note of that in your own life? Have you ever stood back and been like, if I really am careful and I look at my life, I can see the pursuit of God on my life.

[24:59] People that he put in my life, the place where I grew up, the fact that there are so many gospel things that are out there for us to hear, some bad stuff too, but so many Bibles that are around, God seeks us out.

[25:19] He's not just sitting back very passively on his throne saying, I hope they figure it out and I hope they know I'm here. If you read the scripture, God hunts people down.

[25:31] He finds them and he knocks them off their horses and he says, you're mine. I'm choosing to show you mercy. And if you really are careful to go back over your life, you'll see God at work.

[25:45] You'll see his handprints everywhere. And he didn't have to do that. He's not required to. Like, like Mephibosheth, we have no case to plead with God.

[25:59] We have no righteousness or goodness of ourselves to offer to God at all. He does not need us. We are all guilty without exception.

[26:13] The psalm that David read earlier, Psalm 14, is quoted in Romans 3 where Paul says, all are guilty. None are righteous.

[26:24] No, not one. No one understands and no one seeks God. Our lost condition is so beyond our imagination.

[26:35] If you really step back and look at what God's word says about us, then look at your own life. You'll see these things. That we were slaves. Jesus says those who commit sin are slaves to sin.

[26:50] He also says, this one really bothers people and it scares me. He says, if you're not in me, you don't belong to me. You don't belong to my father, but your father is your, you belong to the devil.

[27:03] He said, you are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the will of your father. All of us have hearts and minds that are corrupted by sin and evil.

[27:15] We're not just, you know, morally off and need a little bit of help, need a little bit of guidance from a therapist. We're not just sick in bed, we don't need a doctor. We need a complete miracle worker who can bring us back from spiritual death to life.

[27:33] And that's the depiction. That's why we need to be born again is because we are dead in our trespasses and sin. So we have nothing. We have nothing to go before God just the way that Mephibosheth had no case to plead.

[27:48] And as we look, we saw David's motives for why he chose to show mercy to Mephibosheth. But what are God's motives?

[28:01] Why does God do this? He's not under any obligation to. Well, the second place I want you to look is Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1.

[28:13] This is, there are many more, but the two main motives I'm just going to connect to our story is that God chose to show us mercy and grace for the sake of his own glory to display how great he is and how forgiving he is.

[28:34] Look at Ephesians 1 verse 6. It's talking about our salvation in Christ. It says, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

[28:49] In him we have redemption through his blood and the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight.

[29:02] So, God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to come here and bear the punishment of our sin, to die in our stead.

[29:14] Unlike David, God can't just pardon a crime and then not punish it. He has to punish it. He must punish it. All of us are outraged when we hear about a case in our country where clearly someone committed a crime, a really heinous crime, and then they're pardoned.

[29:36] And I think none of us would be in that position if we heard a judge who really committed a really bad crime. A judge just say to someone, you promise not to do it again?

[29:47] I know you had a really rough upbringing. You promise? Okay, go free then. Just don't do it again. God cannot do that and will not do that. He has to punish sin.

[30:00] And so either you're going to bear your own punishment or Christ is going to bear it for you. God. And that's what we read here is that in Christ God did this to the praise of his own glory so that we would look at him and be like this is an amazing, forgiving, glorious God.

[30:22] So that's one motive to the praise of his glory. The second motive is God's love and his mercy towards us. Just jump ahead one chapter in Ephesians chapter 2.

[30:36] In verse 4 it says, But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead and our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

[30:53] By grace you have been saved. So we see that God didn't just, he's not just really tight with his mercy, he loves to show mercy to those who were coming to him for forgiveness.

[31:07] And it says there that we were dead but we were made alive with Christ. And, you know, of course in the Bible belt, you hear from everybody they are saved.

[31:20] But if you ask many of them, what are you saved from, they don't really know how to say, they don't really know. But we are saved from the holy, just wrath of God.

[31:32] The judgment of God. You were delivered from that in Christ. And so God's mercy is so great. Got a couple quotes.

[31:44] Our man Spurgeon, he said, God's mercy is so great that you may sooner drain the sea of water or deprive the sun of its light or make space narrow.

[31:59] than to diminish the great mercy of God. The Lord's mercy is a sea which cannot be filled though mountains of sin be cast into its midst. It is like Noah's flood which covers all and drowns even the mountaintops of heaven defying sins.

[32:18] God's mercy is so beyond us as fallen creatures. We have no comprehension in and of ourselves of grace of mercy.

[32:31] It is not within us to think that way at all. We want justice when we see wrong being done except when we are the one who has committed the crime. Then we want mercy. It is always twisted but God's mercy is so pure, rich, and great.

[32:49] So how are we to be made right with God then? This is just going back over our story a little bit. And if you remember what I read to you earlier out of the Psalms about how David was aware of the forgiveness that he had in Psalm 25, for your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my sin and my guilt for it is great.

[33:15] So just kind of unpacking that a little bit, we can receive the mercy of God only through Jesus Christ, and we must have it that way. So if you're here this morning without Christ, hear these words, and if you are, just rejoice, be happy, be glad that God has made you aware of these things.

[33:40] These points actually came from Jonathan Edwards. He said about being right with God, you must see the misery and feel the weight of your sin.

[33:52] Do you have broken God's law and his wrath abides on us? Are you conscious? Are you aware of the sin in your life? Those of us who have come to know Christ, we're very aware.

[34:08] So beyond perfection, so beyond just, you know, it's a saying in our culture, whenever someone wants to kind of get out of trouble, like they've done something wrong, this is kind of their phrase they always throw out there, I mean, nobody's perfect, they have no idea the seriousness of what they're saying, no one is, and we are all guilty before God, so if you are aware of that, that's the first thing we have to recognize.

[34:40] It's where David says, pardon my sin, because it is great, he's very aware. The second thing is that we have to be sensible that we are not worthy that God should save us.

[34:53] He says that we come as beggars and rags and not as creditors. And connecting that to our story, we're in the same position that Mephibosheth was in.

[35:05] We live in such an entitled culture now where we think that we deserve good things, like we expect it even. And if someone doesn't show us that, we are very angry about it.

[35:16] God's But that is not so with God. I had a friend in college when I was up here in North Georgia, and he was a Gulf War vet.

[35:28] He was an old ranger guy. He was a demolition guy. He always said, I always got blue stuff up. He didn't say stuff though, he said other things. And I always tried to share the gospel with him constantly.

[35:39] I had like five classes with this guy, and he always just told me, hey man, me and God were cool. We've worked something out. Like we have an understanding.

[35:49] And I just kept saying, no you don't. You don't have an understanding. It's come to God, God's way, or not at all. You can't work out an agreement. And we don't deserve this mercy.

[36:05] There's a story of Napoleon Bonaparte, who had someone commit a serious crime against him, and against just the nation of France. And this man was under the sentence of death, and this man's mother came to plead with Napoleon to just forgive her son.

[36:25] And she said, you know, your highness, please show mercy to my son. And Napoleon said, I can't do that.

[36:36] And she said it again, please, my emperor, please show mercy to my son. And Napoleon said, your son does not deserve mercy. And her response was, my emperor, if he deserved mercy, I wouldn't be asking for this.

[36:55] I know he doesn't deserve. If he was entitled, if he deserved it, then I would not be having this conversation with you. And then Napoleon agreed, okay, you're right.

[37:06] Mercy is only given to those who don't deserve it. So he was correcting himself. And so he pardoned her son. We must come to God for mercy in and through Jesus Christ alone.

[37:19] There is no other way. We remain enemies of God until we come to God on his terms and not our own. And the beauty of this guys is that God is not up there just being stingy and angry.

[37:34] He wants to show grace to sinners. It's a part of who he is. in Isaiah chapter 30 it says therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you.

[37:48] Therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice but blessed are all those who wait for him. And all of us I am I've had a chance lately just the Lord has just reminded me of so much of the sin that he has saved me from and the sin that's still in my life and in my heart I have to have mercy I have to have grace there's no other way and that's the beauty of the gospel that Jesus came to die poor sinners we are undeserving we are just like dead dogs we are like lame in both feet we have nothing to bring to the king we're at his disposal but he is ready to pity us and show us mercy and to lift us up and not only God could have done the same thing that a lot of people have done he could have said

[38:48] I'm going to not destroy you I'm not going to judge you just go and be free but he didn't do that he saved us gave us the perfect righteousness of Christ and brought us into his family in the same way that Mephibosheth was brought into the family of David and we are welcome at his table because of Christ and accepted in the beloved so I pray that you actually ponder the great mercy of God don't forget it always keep it very near that you are not worthy of anything good that you have especially redemption in Christ and may that lead you to rejoice in God's salvation and may that lead you to obedience in Christ what a savior we have he's so good to us so with this let's close in prayer