Sound Doctrine

Announcer: Satan loves to discourage us. Discouragement can drive a wedge between us and God. Here is Pastor Jeff.

Jeff Johnson: Because we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, He covers us with His love, doesn't He? With His righteousness, we are in Christ. There is nothing to do with our sins anymore.

Even though the enemy comes and tries to lie, saying, "You lamebrain, you idiot," and he tries to come down on us and condemn us. "You can't come and eat before this table, you have no right," and on and on and on. We just have to put that aside because Jesus is calling us and He's saying, "Come and dine."

Announcer: Welcome to Sound Doctrine with Jeff Johnson. Our eyes today will rest on 2 Samuel chapter 9, where Pastor Jeff has us observe the life of David.

While David had many triumphs in his life, there were also a few noteworthy defeats that can serve as encouragement for us to live a life with purpose. All around us people are searching for the meaning of life. Some search for fulfillment in a spouse, or at work, in their children, or in pleasure or popularity. Pastor Jeff shows us now how to become all we were intended to be.

Jeff Johnson: Let's look at where David sat Mephibosheth. Look at this. It says in the last part of verse 7, "Thou shalt eat bread at my table continually." He is going to supply our every need. And so Jesus says to His disciples, as they were toiling all night and they were all tired and out of it, they couldn't catch a thing and wasted.

Jesus has already got a fire there on the shore, nice big fish, and bread. Barbecue going, you could smell it. And they're coming in and saying, "That's the Lord." And the Lord says, "Hey you guys, come and dine." The Master is calling, and they just beeline right to Him and right into all those goodies. Warm fish and bread. And the Lord was there, and it was a good time.

For the Lord is calling many to come and dine. In fact, this whole statement, "eat at my table," is shared four times in this chapter. Verse 7, verse 10, verse 11, and verse 13. Over in John's gospel chapter 6, in verse 35, Jesus said unto them, "I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."

Verse 58, it says, "This is the bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever." And He spoke of Himself. Partake of Me, feast on Me, and you'll never hunger again, and you'll live forever.

So God reaches out to us this morning. He is saying, "Come, sit at this table of abundance." And definitely this table, the King's table, is better than what you've got at home. It's a spread of abundant life and an abundance as never before. In fact, in the scriptures, it talks about Solomon's table as it would set up as they would begin to feast.

22,000 sheep in one day, 22,000 oxen, hundreds of thousands of calves and meal and fowl. I mean, we're talking about a spread as He spreads out and makes a table before us in the presence of our enemies. And He brings us by the green pastures and said, "Here, now partake." The Lord has good things for us if we'll come.

Remember, you have to first come, and then He'll tell you you don't have to fear any longer. And then He'll begin to restore you and He'll begin to nourish you. In Him is satisfaction. In the Lord is fullness of joy. You don't have to be barren anymore. You don't have to walk around in a land of nothingness and be shameful anymore. You can walk with your head up and know that God is blessing your life.

If you look at the Harvest book—and that is an interesting book as God has brought together in that book testimonies of all these pastors that are pastoring some of the largest churches in the nation. Some of the largest outreaches in all the world are coming out of these churches pastored by these society's rejects, gang members, drug addicts, mental patients, totally handicapped as Mephibosheth.

And yet God has picked them up out of the street and done His awesome work in their lives. Blessed and restored. And isn't this what it's all about? Isn't this why He came to a generation of hippies that were dying in the streets, had no purpose or hope, and He called our name out, and we came? And He restored to us life, abundance. And now many are being fed. He is feeding many and wants to continue this whole thing until He comes.

Look at verse 8 now and notice Mephibosheth's response to what David said. He bowed himself and said, "What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?" I can't understand this. Who am I that God would do this for me? Well, first of all, you are His peculiar treasure. And you go, "Well, that sounds all right. I am peculiar." But you are His treasure, His pearl of great price.

You are very valuable to Him. He gave His Son to die for you. He bought you with a price. But Jesus, why me? As Mephibosheth comes hobbling in, maybe he drug his legs in. I don't know. Did they have wheelchairs in those days? Maybe they did. But he is on canes or something. I mean, he comes walking in and, "What am I?" as he sat there barely able to stand.

"I can't even walk upright, I'm lame." Why was he lame? Because of the fall. Why are you lame? Because of the fall. We have sin in our lives. But the Lord says, "I want you to come as you are with all of your sin. I want you to receive My loving kindness for your life. I want to forgive you of all your sin." And isn't it the goodness of God that brings us to repentance?

That God is so good that we come. He's done so much for us that we continue to serve Him. We cannot outgive Him. And it's a reasonable thing to give Him our bodies as living sacrifices after all that He's done for us. You see, He didn't come as a top dog, He came as a dead dog. There's the humility. And you know what? You too will be that dead dog as you just look at grace.

Grace does it to us, doesn't it? Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I'm a dead dog, but I receive it. It's amazing grace, and I embrace it with everything that I have. And I thank God He's given us this amazing grace. God is so good.

So He took him into His family to eat at His table continually. Incredible. To receive all this, not because of who Mephibosheth was, but because of who God is. Come on, feast upon My table. Look at verse 9. And then the King called Ziba, Saul's servant, and said unto him, "I have given unto thy master's son all that pertains to Saul and to his house."

"Thou therefore, and thy sons and thy servants shall till the land for him, and thou shalt bring in the fruits, that thy master's son may have food to eat, but Mephibosheth, thy master's son, shall eat bread always at my table." Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. Then said Ziba unto the king, "According to all that my lord the king has commanded his servant, so shall thy servant do."

Every area of Mephibosheth's life was blessed. Why? Because he sought first and he looked to the King. He came as the King called him, and then he looked up and he heard the King and he responded to him. And when we do that, when we seek first His kingdom, everything else is going to be taken care of.

Mephibosheth's life was taken care of, wasn't it? You don't have to worry about anything. You have come to the King, and I'm going to take care of everything in your life. Don't you worry about it. Seek Me first, look to Me, and everything will fall into its place. And that's what God is saying to us today. Seek Him first.

Now Ziba, on the other hand, was no saint. This is not a good guy here. We're going to see later on he is going to lie to David, and David is going to have to deal with him harshly. But I did cheat a little bit and I went ahead a little bit to find out what happened to Mephibosheth and how he responded to when David finally reaped what he had sown and he got kicked out of his own kingdom by his son who hated his guts and wanted to kill him.

And then after his son was killed on the battlefield, David came back into Jerusalem to be king again. And here's his response. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 19. 2 Samuel 19 verse 24. And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king because David was coming back into the kingdom, and had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came again in peace.

Wow, he must have smelled. But check what else. Verse 30. And Mephibosheth said unto the king, because the king said, "You and Ziba, I'm going to give you the kingdom. When I leave here, you and Ziba are going to have the kingdom." And this is his response to David. And Mephibosheth said unto the king, "Yea, let him take all. Give it to Ziba, I don't want it, forasmuch as my lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house."

All I wanted was you to come back and be king. I waited for this day. And I want you to see two things here that he did, which we need to do. Number one is abstinence. Our King is gone, but He's coming. What are you doing during this time of waiting? How are you interacting with this world? Abstinence is to be our call.

Not only abstinence but abandonment. That you abandon yourself only to Him, that you will have only Him, and you don't commit fornication and adultery in anything or with anything in this world. But you're longing for the mercy, you're looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And your heart is turned towards the Lord. And that's the way he was as he waited for his King to return.

He didn't do a thing as far as getting involved in the world and living in the high luxury of the world. He just looked for the coming King and he said, "That's all I wanted for you to be back." I love this scripture that Paul puts it all into one verse. He says, "But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."

The cross has come into my life. He is now my King and my Savior, and no longer do I involve myself in this world, and this world is dead to me and I'm dead to the world. I live only unto the Lord and I seek only Him. Verse 11, the last part of verse 11, he says, "As for Mephibosheth," said the king, "he shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons." And so he brought him in as one of his own adopted family. He adopted him.

To those of you this morning who receive Him, Jesus Christ, you will become a child of God. That's God's promise to you. He'll adopt you into the family of God and you'll cry Abba Father, and that Abba is Hebrew for Daddy. He'll become your Father, your Lord, the provider of everything in your life.

Now notice verse 12. And Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Micah. And all that dwelt in the house of Ziba were servants unto Mephibosheth. So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he did eat continually at the king's table, and note, and was lame on both of his feet.

Even though Mephibosheth was lame, he continued to eat at the King's table. You see that? And the Lord says to us today, "Come and dine. Your weakness is going to be under the table. It won't be seen, your lameness is going to be hidden." Over in Hebrews it says in Hebrews 10:17, "Their sins and iniquities I will remember no more."

As far as the east is from the west. When you come into the presence of the Lord, He doesn't look at your sin. He doesn't start talking about your sin. "You look pretty lame." I don't think the conversation at the table was David talking about how crippled Mephibosheth was and, "Oh you poor thing, you can't walk very good, can you? You're kind of lame, aren't you?"

I think the conversation between Mephibosheth and David was talking about who? Jonathan. That's what they talked about. The conversation was around Jonathan. That our conversation, our manner of living, would be around the Son of God who gave His life for us, who died for us, who loves us. That we would always be talking about our Lord, that we would be in love with Him, that our conversation would be around Him. He's our all and all. Lord, captivate us with Your love as we partake of You continually.

Because we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, He covers us with His love, doesn't He? With His righteousness, we are in Christ. There's nothing to do with our sins anymore. Even though the enemy comes and tries to lie, saying, "You lamebrain, you idiot," and he tries to come down on us and condemn us. "You can't come and eat before this table, you have no right," and on and on and on.

We just have to put that aside because Jesus is calling us and He's saying, "Come and dine. Let's spend time together. Eat with Me and I will restore you, I will bless you, I will feed you." And I think when we look at Mephibosheth, we can see that David wasn't mocking him or coming down on him. So with us, we are not to mock those that the Lord calls. Who the Master calls, He has called to Himself. He has received unto Himself. We are not to say a thing. Jesus called that individual. Don't talk about them. The Lord called them.

Any dead dog or lame person can come who God calls. Then Mephibosheth got his eyes off his legs. You can see him at that table. He is no longer looking at his legs. What is he looking at? A table that's awesome. He is sitting before the King, and all of a sudden he's not looking at his lameness anymore. He's looking at God's provision. He's looking at what God has done for him. And he begins to rejoice. "I can't believe where I'm at. Look where I'm eating. I eat here every day. I eat here continually." And he is not looking at what's going on, except the provision. Not his handicap.

Listen, don't be afraid and don't run. Just think if Mephibosheth would have run. Just think if he would have run away, and you kind of think, "Well wait a minute, how can he run away? He's crippled, he'd just fall right down." But he was lame, wasn't he? And he could go nowhere. That's interesting.

You might want to get out of here today, and you might say, "I wish this guy would get done. In fact, as soon as everybody stands, I'm out of here, I'm history. Because I really don't like what's going on here. I don't like what I'm feeling, what I'm going through. I just want to get out of here." You see, you're running in fear. What are you afraid of?

The Lord loves you. He is calling you to Himself. What are you running to but the land of Lodebar? The land of nothingness. Where you going to go? You just going to drag your legs around all over the place? Think about it. He wants to bless you, not blast you. And you can hide your lameness in Him. He wants to restore you and feed you with His goodness. So He says, "Come and dine." Humble yourself before this call and come.

Some of you Christians, you need to come this morning. You need to answer this call. Why? Because you've been afraid. People have been making fun of your lameness, and you've been listening to it and you've been pulling back. And you're almost walking on a fence, and that's a dangerous place to be.

You need to come and to rededicate your life to the Lord and answer His call to commune with Him, to feast upon Him, to partake of Him this morning. So you can walk worthy of your vocation wherein He's called you. And you haven't been, and you know it. It's time to get it right. It's time not just to go to church. "Well, I go to church every Sunday." Big deal.

Are you living for Him out there? Have you been partaking of Him all through the week continually? You see He wants us to do it on a daily basis, not just once a week. Because you can't live for them out there by just coming in here once a week. What are you doing, putting your time in? Thinking that you're going to go to heaven because you're going to church? That's not it.

He says, "Come, partake of Me so you can walk with Me. Don't run away." He's begging you, He's bidding you to come. Why don't some people come? When you think about it, it's because many get their eyes upon man and lean upon the arm of man. Many get hung up in counseling. I'm not saying counseling is bad, but they get hung up in it.

Many get into group therapy, many get into having a therapist and "I've got to go talk to this guy, and I'm hung up on this guy." And they run off to man to get what they think are answers, and they're spinning their wheels. Many don't come, many don't seek Him because they've got their eyes somewhere else.

When the Lord is saying, "Hey, I'm the only one that can pull you out of your rut. I'm the only one that can restore your situation, I'm the only one that can deliver you, I'm the only one that can save you, I'm the only one that can fill that void in your life." Nobody else out there is going to do that. You need to come to Me.

And we need to just lighten up and to see that He is the only one. There is no other. And when we do that, counseling is good on the side and this and that, but we need to come to Jesus. We need to come to the Lord. After all, when you were a younger Christian, isn't He the one you ran to every single time anything happened? And then you get to be that kickback Christian of the '90s, and that's dangerous. He's saying, "You need to come and restore your fellowship with Me. You that are lame this morning, come and dine."

You're going to be refreshed and you're going to be healed. Do you remember the time where they took that crippled man and their friends loved him so much they couldn't get into the house where Jesus was teaching? They went up on the roof and tore the roof apart. And as Jesus is teaching in there, he looks up and these guys are tearing the roof apart.

They let this guy down in the stretcher with ropes, right down in front of Him. And He says, "I can't believe the faith of these guys. They tear up this guy's house to get this guy into Me." And He says, "This is great." And everybody was watching Him see if He'd heal him because it was the Sabbath. And the scribes and Pharisees were standing there, "Okay, let's see what He does."

And He knew what they were thinking. And He said, "What is it? Is it easier for Me to say your sins are forgiven?" And they went, "Oh, he said his sins forgiven. Only God can forgive sins." That's right. He was there. "Is it easier for Me to say your sins be forgiven or get up and walk?" And just to blow everybody's mind in this study, He said, "I'm going to do both. Your sins be forgiven. Get up, take your bed, you're healed."

And the guy got up and he went, "Whoa!" And everybody's around there, you know that place came unglued. Totally that lame man was healed. And that's something to behold. A life that has been restored. A family that's been restored. People's minds have been restored.

To you this morning who are doing it yourself, who are going to leave here and go out to continue in Lodebar, I want you to know that you're going to have to keep what you've got this morning. That's the best it's going to get. That's it. Nothing's going to change until you come and seek God. And when you come, He will answer you and counsel you, but you've got to come.

So the Lord says, "You come unto Me and I will give you rest. If any man thirst, let him come unto Me," Jesus said. The Spirit and the bride say, "Come, partake of the Lord."

Announcer: He is there before you. Why won't you take Him up on His offer? Make that step forward and partake of the Lord. This is Sound Doctrine. Pastor Jeff Johnson will be back in a moment with a closing thought for us. Pastor Jeff's messages are archived for you at sounddoctrineradio.org. That includes all of 2 Samuel. Our programs are also accessible at oneplace.com and on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

If you enjoy the teaching you receive through Sound Doctrine, you can show your support through a financial gift and thank you for whatever the Lord lays on your heart. There's a place to give at sounddoctrineradio.org. Now with a closing word for us from Isaiah 55, here's Pastor Jeff once again.

Jeff Johnson: And then I want to end with this scripture this morning in Isaiah 55. Listen to this. Isaiah 55 verse 1 and 2, and we'll end here. This is God's call to all of us this morning. "Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that has no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfies not? Listen diligently to Me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." See, with the Lord as Christians we can get as fat as we want because we can partake of this word of God, this soul food, and it's without calories.

And we just partake and feast upon it, and God just blesses our lives and our families more and more every day. He says, "Come ye, buy and eat. Don't go on laboring for that which satisfies not. Come to the Lord. Come ye, buy and eat. If you don't have any money, you don't need any money. Come as you are, lame and broke." And He says, "I'll bless your life. That's all I want to do is love you."

Announcer: Next time on Sound Doctrine we see how David's kindness was responded to shamefully. It's a great lesson for us today for those inevitable times of life when kindness is abused. Join us for the next Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff right here. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Downey.