Sound Doctrine

Guest (Male): I'll go to heaven because I'm a good person. We hear that a lot, and it's a tremendous lie. Here's Pastor Jeff Johnson.

Jeff Johnson: For those of you that didn't know this, I've got maybe some news for you and I hate to pull the rug out from underneath your feet, but man is not basically good. And God doesn't dwell in every man. And how some people like to put it, "Well, there's a little bit of God in all of us." That is not true.

We are all sinners. Our hearts are wicked. We are lame. We can't walk right. But God does promise this as He searches for us in Romans chapter five and verse eight. Let me read it to you. "But God commends His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Guest (Male): Can you remember details from your early childhood? We usually remember the events or words spoken that had the greatest impact on our lives, like kind words spoken or outstanding acts of love. That goes to show you just how helpful and encouraging Christian love and kindness can be.

Today on Sound Doctrine, Pastor Jeff Johnson returns to 2 Samuel. And in chapter nine, we notice a marvelous display of kindness, a divine kind of love. Stand by for great encouragement. Here now is Pastor Jeff to encourage us to follow in the footsteps of David.

Jeff Johnson: 2 Samuel chapter nine. This chapter is really the high point in David's life, and this chapter is one of the most meaningful and moving texts of the Old Testament. So we're in a very beautiful, beautiful place here as we enter into 2 Samuel chapter nine.

To go back a little bit, we have seen that David's obedience, David's submission, and through David's humility before his God, God has made him more than a conqueror. David has come through and he's defeated and fought the Philistines. He has mowed down the Moabites. He has brought the Syrians under as servants to him.

Throughout the whole land, he has brought peace and he has conquered the Promised Land through God's help, through His preserving power. And so there was kind of a time, you might say, of an outward peace in that all the enemies have been conquered. So there really wasn't any warring going on in the land, but there was a troubleness and a nagging thing in David's heart that wasn't finished. It was unfinished business.

And that was his covenant with the one that he loved before he died, Jonathan. He made a covenant with him. Remember Jonathan over in 1 Samuel chapter 20 in verses 14 through 17. Jonathan reminded David of this covenant, and that is that when he would leave, when he would die, that David would take care of his family and that he would show forth God's kindness when God had given him victory in the land over all of his enemies, that he would remember his family.

And then he even said, "David, now swear to me again. Tell me again you're going to do this for me." And so David said, "I'm going to do this for you. Don't worry about it." You see, David loved Jonathan. And now that there has been victory throughout the land, David was looking. He knew this was unfinished business.

And so he began his search and he said to himself, "Could there yet be someone that has survived of Saul's family in the land?" And so that's where we pick it up here in 2 Samuel chapter nine, verse one. 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?"

In this chapter, I want you to first of all get in your mind's eye and get this mindset that David here is a beautiful example or type of God's love for us throughout this chapter. David, a type of God's love toward us. So David here is searching out for any descendants of Saul, any survivors that he might show himself strong towards them.

Just as God does, He searches throughout all of the world, goes to and fro to find out whose hearts are turned towards Him. Why? So He can show Himself strong towards them. So God is doing this even as I speak in this crowd this morning, searching out those that will turn their hearts towards Him.

Verse two, "And there was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they called him unto David, the king said to 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 might show the kindness of God unto him?" And Ziba said unto the king, "Well, Jonathan had yet a son which is lame on his feet."

Ziba, is there anyone left alive? I want to show my kindness. And in the Hebrew, it is my loyal love to them. That's what the word kindness there means in the Hebrew. Yes, Ziba says, there is one son of Jonathan, but he is lame from his feet. And if you look back with me at 2 Samuel chapter four in verse four, we get this little introduction of this individual and what happened to him.

2 Samuel 4:4, "And Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son that was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel. And his nurse took him up and she fled. And it came to pass as she made haste to flee that he fell and became lame." You see, something happened. She dropped him, his spinal cord busted, something took place where he was paralyzed from his waist down.

And his name, it says, was Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth. Say it three times quickly. Great name. Interesting name. Do you know what the name Mephibosheth means? It means shameful one. Interesting. Now, he was five years old when this happened. Now, we're going way up in time. 14 years later, we see in verse 12 of chapter nine that he's got a son already.

So this is years down the road after David's conquered the land. Now, we're going to look at in this chapter three things that David did with Mephibosheth. Number one, how David sought him, how David went after Mephibosheth. Number two, what he showed to Mephibosheth. And number three, where he sat Mephibosheth in the place that he sat him.

And I want to look at all three of these this morning. Before we get into this, first of all, we need to look at and to realize that Mephibosheth is a picture of us, okay? Because why? Well, we are the fallen ones. We are the ones who are lame. We are the ones that cannot walk uprightly. Our feet have been crippled.

Now, over in Romans, it says, and I'll read it to you in Romans chapter three and verse 15, "Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways." We are crippled. And because we are crippled, we do things terribly. We do not walk uprightly. We are messing the land that we're living in up.

We're messing lives up. You see it every night on the news how crippled man is and what he's doing to his fellow man and how he's messing things up. The Proverbs says there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death. And we see man thinking that he's on the right path, going the right way, and yet he's destroying himself and those around him.

He is not right. He is not walking uprightly before his God, and that is the problem. He is lame. But God loves us and He has called us and He is seeking us. And for those of you that didn't know this, I've got maybe some news for you and I hate to pull the rug out from underneath your feet, but man is not basically good.

And God doesn't dwell in every man. You know how some people like to put it, "Well, there's a little bit of God in all of us." But that is not true. We are all sinners. We are wicked. Our hearts are wicked. We are lame. We can't walk right. But God does promise this as He searches for us in Romans chapter five and verse eight, let me read it to you.

"But God commends His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." While we were in our sin, in the gutter, He went searching for us, looking for us, loving us, as David does here for Mephibosheth. Look at verse four now of 2 Samuel 9. And the king said to him, "Where is he? Where is this person?"

And Ziba said unto the king, "Behold, he is in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lo-debar." And King David sent and fetched him out of the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel from Lo-debar. Mephibosheth ended up in a place called Lo-debar. Really, it is located on the other side of Jordan, the Jordan River, in the area of Gilead, which is about 10 miles south of the Sea of Galilee.

It's right in that location. And the reason I'm pointing it out to you is because this is the place the nurse carried this young boy, who was now crippled, over into safety across the river Jordan. But it is also an interesting area in that this is the area where the tribe of Gad, half the tribe of Reuben and Manasseh settled in the promised, actually settled outside of the Promised Land in disobedience to God.

Remember God said, "Here is the Promised Land. I give it to you on this side of Jordan. Go in and possess it." But these, this one tribe and two and a half tribes, they sat there and they said, "No, we're raising cattle. We like this area where we're at now. There seems to be a lot of enemies in the land and a lot of fighting and a lot of bad stuff going on in there.

We don't really want to go in there. Maybe we'll send our men to help you fight while you're in there, but we would like to stay on the other side here of Jordan." And so this is a place of disobedience. This is a place where these people settled for second best. God gave them His best and they said, "We don't want the Promised Land. We want what we want."

That is very scary. And they raised cattle. Years later, we see Jesus going across the Sea of Galilee into the land of the Gadarenes. There He went on the other side of Jordan and He saw this man who was possessed with demons. And there He confronted this man and He delivered the man from all of the demons and He sent the demons into a herd of swine which were nearby.

Which is very interesting. The Gadarenes were now raising pigs. No longer raising cattle, they're now raising pigs, which is not a very kosher business in Israel. And so these, this herd of pigs just ran over the cliff and they went into the Galilee and they slit their throats with their hooves and they all die.

And the people came out hearing about this. Now, I want you to see something that's very important when we settle for second best. Number one, they were the first tribes to be hit by the enemy when they came into the land. They were the first to fall. Number two, they were raising now pigs instead of cattle.

Even their work and their labor was now menial stuff and things that were disobedient to God totally. And the worst thing of all was that when you settle for second best and do your thing, the people came out from that village and they saw what Jesus had done to their pigs and they said, "Jesus, get out of here."

They demanded that He leave their coast. Get out of here, Son of God, Messiah. We don't want you or your miracles or anything about you. And there's a hardness of heart when we settle for what we want instead of what God has for us. Danger. Well, David found Mephibosheth in the land of Lo-debar, which is an interesting name too because it means a place of nothingness.

So as we were at one time, so we see now Mephibosheth is there in the land of nothingness, a place of no substance, a place of disobedience. He is lame. He is even his name is saying he is shameful in his sin, going nowhere. And yet David is looking for him. And he didn't look for him as other kings would look for him.

You see, you've got to understand the mentality during that time. Other kings during that time, when they would take the throne, they would go after all the descendants of the throne and all of the nobles under the throne and they would wipe them out. They would kill them. They would slaughter them. They would find them and they would not only kill them, they would take the flesh off of their bodies and make furniture out of it.

Why? So when you walked into the king's palace and sat down on some of that nice decor, somebody would say, "Well, what am I sitting on here?" And the king would point it out. You know, you actually knew it, you know? And you'd feel very humble. This is a powerful man right here, and this is what I could end up if I don't light up and submit to this guy, you know?

And that's just the thing that they did back then. But David wasn't going after Mephibosheth to do this. And notice this, that he sent his servant to find him, just as God sends His Holy Spirit to woo men's hearts to Himself, to bring them into the family of God into His very presence. He seeks a bride.

And the reason the Lord seeks us is because He is doing it for His Son's sake because His Son seeks for a bride, right? And then you look at Mephibosheth and you go, "Well, couldn't he get anybody prettier than that?" I mean, the guy's lame, you know what I mean? I mean, why did he go after him? Well, he did it number one for his son's sake, and not because Mephibosheth was so beautiful and not because we're so good-looking.

In fact, it says in Ephesians that everyone will marvel at God's choice and grace towards us. And the world out there looks at us and says, "You mean God chose those guys? That's a marvel." You know? And sometimes we even look at it and we marvel, you know? It's not because we're pretty. It's because God loves us very much.

And He went after us. We weren't seeking Him, He was seeking us. We didn't have a heart towards God, but His heart was always towards us and He reached out to us where we were at and He pulled us out of that mess because of His love towards His son. Notice in verse six, "Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come to David, he fell on his face and he did reverence.

And David said, Mephibosheth. And he's answered, Behold, thy servant." I like this as he fell on his face. I can see him in total fear. I know his heart was beating bad, you know? You could probably hear it because he was afraid that he says, "I'm going to be a piece of furniture." "This guy hates me, man. He's going to polish off all of Saul's descendants and I'm one of them.

And he found me and now he's brought me before him. I'm history. I know he's against me and he's going to wipe me out." And I think there's many people that are put into this place like Mephibosheth. They know they're sinners and they're going before a holy God. And so they don't like that, and so they stay away. They go so far off. They stay away.

They don't even want to get into the very presence of the situation. They are very fearful and they keep their distance from all this godly stuff, from all this getting yourself into a position like some of you find yourself this morning. I mean, you've tried your best to stay out of this situation and now you find yourself here. And sometimes we're a little fearful.

And I'll tell you something, that fear can lead to a hard heart. Eventually, you become very antagonistic towards God in the place of you'll start questioning. "Well, if God is a God of love, how could He allow those six million Jews to be killed? And if God is a God of love, how could He," you know, and you just start getting real angry inside.

And that's what happens when you've got fear. You start to harden up. But David didn't come to kill him. He came to show him mercy. But his fear is really a fear that Satan has planted in his heart. It's a lie because Satan has come to steal and to rob and to destroy what God wants to do in your life.

He's come to rip us off if he can, and he tries. In fact, over in 2 Corinthians chapter four and verse four, let me read it to you. He says that Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

And so he seeks to blind people to keep people from this life, this abundant life in the Lord God through coming to Jesus Christ. And I want you to note this, that David says one word and everything is changed here. Look at verse six here. It says that David said, "Mephibosheth." That's it, and it changed everything.

Do you remember the story in the garden when Jesus was resurrected and Mary was weeping and just couldn't know they didn't he all she knew is the tomb was empty? They didn't where is they've taken my Lord. And she starts talking to this guy who she thought was a gardener. And she's laying this heavy thing on him.

And finally, this supposedly gardener turns around and says, "Mary." And she goes, "Whoa, Lord, it's You!" And just like the tone, you know, you just knew it's Him. You know, it's like when you're on the phone with somebody you know real well, even though they try to, you know, make their voice sound weird, you go, "It's you! I know your voice." You know that voice.

It's like when my mom used to say, "Jeffrey William!" I knew that voice and that tone, what that meant. I was in trouble. But when David said, "Mephibosheth," it was like, "Hey guy, everything's okay. It's going to be all right. Everything's well." And so he was at ease. The Lord says in 2 Corinthians chapter five and verse 19, "To wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and he has committed unto us the word of reconciliation."

The word of redemption. I've come to save you, to deliver you from your sins. I've come to bless you in your life. Why turn Me away? And then He says your name, and you know everything's all right. I don't have to fear. This is a God of love, man. This is a God that came and died for my sins. Proved it. God so loved the world that He loved you.

If you were the only sinner in the world, He would have died for you, that if you would believe, you should not perish but have everlasting life. Over in Romans chapter eight in verse 31, it says, "What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" He gave His Son. He delivered Him up for us all.

He's going to freely give us all things. Who's going to lay anything to God's elect? It's God that justifies. He makes intercession for us. Who's going to separate us from the love of Christ? Yea, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. And I'm sure that Mephibosheth felt that when he heard his name.

He just knew that it's going to be all right. David's not against me, he's for me. He's not trying to blast me, he wants to bless me. He loves me. And you could tell by the tone of his voice and how he said it. The Psalm we read this morning, Psalm 56, verse 13, listen, "For thou hast delivered my soul from death. Wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?"

And so God looks down at those that are lame, and He tells us that very thing. I'm going to blow your mind. I'm going to bless your life. You need to just come. And so Mephibosheth is there and he's open. Now David can fulfill his promise and his covenant towards Jonathan. He can now show forth God's kindness to Mephibosheth.

And as he responded here, and notice the last part of verse six, he says, "Behold thy servant." And that's his response to David. He just says, "Here I am, I want to just serve you, Lord. You're my king." See, he is Saul's, or actually Jonathan. Jonathan was Saul's son. Mephibosheth is Jonathan's son, heir to what? The throne.

And he looks at David and says, "David, no problem with me, man. I'm your servant." I'm going to, you know, just because of the love that's the interaction here. And just like Paul. Paul said, "Jesus, I'm your bondslave. I mean, I'm going to serve you from here on out. You've done so much, you've been so good. You're so awesome. I'm going to give you my life. No problem."

And so that's his response. Notice first Mephibosheth came, he humbled himself, and then he heard David's voice. And I'll tell you something, once you hear the voice of the Lord, the gospel of John it says in chapter 10, "The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and he leads them out. The sheep follow him, for they know his voice."

If He calls your name this morning, He knows your number, doesn't He? If He gives you a little ring this morning as you're listening to me. If He begins to get your number and begins to call you and you begin to hear His voice. I'm not talking about an audible voice where you hear your name loud and clear. I'm talking about the tug of His Spirit on your life. He wants you to follow, you must follow. If you're His sheep, you will follow. And that's exciting.

Guest (Male): So, who are you following today? Think about that as I invite you to join us next time for the conclusion of Pastor Jeff Johnson's study in 2 Samuel 9 here on Sound Doctrine. We house all of our 2 Samuel studies at sounddoctrineradio.org.

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