2 Samuel chapter 9. Continue to go through the book of 2 Samuel. Here we are at this chapter. You can find this on page 196 in your pew Bible. Again, this is God's holy word. Now David said, Is there still anyone who has left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? There was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba. So when they had called him to David, the king said to him, are you Ziba? He said, at your service. And the king said, is there not still someone of the house of Saul to whom I may show the kindness of God? And Ziba said to the king, there is still a son of Jonathan who was lame in his feet. So the king said to him, where is he? And Ziba said to the king, Indeed, he is in the house of Micah, the son of Ammiel in Lodabar. The king David sent and brought him out of the house of Micah, the son of Ammiel from Lodabar. Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, had come to David, he fell on his face and prostrated himself. Then David said, Mephibosheth? And he answered, Here is your servant. So David said to him, Do not fear. For I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan, your father's sake, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul, your grandfather, and you shall eat bread at my table continually.' Then he bowed himself and said, What is your servant that you should look upon such a dead dog as I? King called to Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, I have given to your master's son all that belonged to Saul and all his house. You, therefore, and your sons and your servants shall work the land for him. And you shall bring in the harvest that your master's son may have food to eat. Though Mephibosheth, your master's son, shall eat bread at my table always. Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. Then Ziba said to the king, according to all that my lord the king has commanded his servants, so will your servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table like one of the king's sons. Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micah, and all who dwelt in the house of Ziba were servants of Mephibosheth. So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he ate continually at the king's table. And he was lame in both his feet. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go to some friends that Dorsey and I have made through a homeschool group, and they were having a fundraiser because they're raising money to go to Ethiopia. The man is a surgeon, and his wife is also medically trained, and they are raising money, involved in a Christian medical group. They're gonna go to Ethiopia, in Soto, Ethiopia, and not only are they going to do, not only is he gonna operate and be a surgeon, but he's gonna train Ethiopians to be surgeons. And it was so encouraging to hear their story, to hear how they came to faith, and how they grew in grace, and how God gave them both a desire for missions, and to serve others in their willingness to leave home, and to go to, not just leave home, but to go to Ethiopia, take their kids with them, their young kids, for five years, and to serve Ethiopians. What a testimony, what an example of love, love. And that's what we have tonight. It's hard to, especially as we learn about Christ's love in this chapter, it's hard to really illustrate the love of Christ better than Christ's love in some other way other than his own acts. But here in this chapter, Something of the love of Christ. And as you probably have noticed, as I've preached through 2 Samuel, I see Christ in a lot of places. There's reasons for that, and perhaps it's useful for me to mention a few of them. We need to interpret the Bible correctly. There's certainly been an abuse of this type of thing. Matthew Henry says about this chapter, now because David was a type of Christ, let his kindness to Mephibosheth serve to illustrate the kindness and love of God our Savior towards fallen man. Is that a correct view? Is it useful for us? Is it correct for us to see Christ in this chapter? Well, we know that there is such a thing as a type, a type. You've heard me talk about that before. We know that there were things, institutions, people, activity in the Old Testament that pointed to New Testament realities. For example, Romans 5, 14, in reference to Adam and his fall in the garden, Paul says this, Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come." Who was a type of him who was to come. Because Adam sinned, you sinned. Because Christ obeyed, His people obeyed. Adam is a type in that way. As we go through the book of 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, you see the history of God's people. What is God doing? Why has God given us this book, 2 Samuel? Is it not the history of how God is saving His people? Is God not illustrating to us what a king does? And what a priest does, and what a prophet does. Now that God's people are saved. What about Mephibosheth? Think about Mephibosheth as a person. Is he not being saved in this chapter in some way? I think it's appropriate for us to see Christ in this chapter. Now David is at the peak of his reign. He's more or less been at his peak for the last chapter or two. One commentator said, this period of David's life was its golden era. Chapter eight, he had just defeated many kingdoms. Chapter seven, we saw his concern for the temple and to build a temple. Chapter six, we saw his focus on worship, bringing the ark to Jerusalem. He's very pious, very pious here. He's doing well. He's very much exemplifying obedience to the law and those types of things. And here we see love. We specifically see this lesson for us. Christ loves helpless and undeserving enemies by giving them peace, and an inheritance and fellowship." That's our lesson from this chapter. Christ loves helpless and undeserving enemies by giving them peace, an inheritance, and fellowship. And I'm gonna speak to this under two main ideas. The first idea is who does Christ love? And the second idea is how does Christ love? And I hope that we not only see tonight, not only see how Christ loves his people, but reasons for us to love him back. Reasons for us to love him back. Christ loves the helpless. Notice in this chapter how Mephibosheth is helpless. Three times we're told that Mephibosheth is lame in both his feet. 2 Samuel 4 verse 4 says this, Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled. And it happened as she made haste to flee that he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth. Here in this chapter, that's emphasized three times. We have it at the end of the chapter. It says he was lame. Ziba introduces him as Jonathan's son, who's lame. And Jesus, or David, mentions this again in the middle of the chapter. And the idea is, The idea is that David is having compassion on those who can't help themselves. This would have affected his life big time. He can't provide for his family, neither can he come to David. David sent for him, but he fetched him, he brought him. Verse six, when Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan verse 5, "...the king David sent, and brought him out of the house of Micah the son of Emiel from Lodabar." God's people, all people are helpless. This is our condition. And just as David saw Mephibosheth and had compassion on him, so does Jesus. Think about Jesus. I've preached through Mark. He sees the multitude. He sees their weaknesses, their hunger. He shows them compassion. He shows them kindness. I have compassion on the multitude. Mankind is helpless. All of men are slaves to their sin. They're unable. They're unable to help themselves. Is salvation impossible with man? Matthew 19. It's impossible with man. It's not impossible with God. Christ is able to save to the uttermost all those who come to God through Him. But it is the helpless. What does Christ love? He loves the helpless. He loves the undeserving. I want to spend a little bit more time on this point here. The undeserving. Why does David's kindness come to Mephibosheth? Did Mephibosheth earn it? Mephibosheth is very insignificant. I mean we have these things, verse 12 says that he had a young son whose name was Micah. We don't know if he had a wife. We should probably assume that this is a legitimate son, but he just had one son. Very insignificant. He's a humbled man by all that's happened to him. I mean he's all that's left the house of Saul as far as a male heir. He's humbled. Look at verse 8. When he hears what David's doing, what is your servant that you should look upon such a dead dog as I? Mephibosheth hasn't done anything. But more than that, notice verse one. What does David say here? Is there still anyone who's left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Mephibosheth had done nothing. His father had done something. What does Jonathan do? 1 Samuel 20 tells us a little bit about Jonathan. Jonathan was faithful to God. Because he was faithful to God, he was faithful to God's anointed. He was a friend of David. He told David, my father intends to kill you. He defended David. And they had a covenant. They took vows. This is what Jonathan did for David. Because Jonathan did that for David, grace and blessing came to Mephibosheth. Grace and blessing came to Mephibosheth. Think about the gospel. Does anybody earn God's blessing? No. You don't earn it. It's a gift. For the gift of God is eternal life. By grace you've been saved through faith, and out of yourself it's a gift of God. It's undeserved. I was in Afghanistan. One of my deployments to Afghanistan, I had a very... What should I say? Just a very difficult superior officer. He was very hard on me. He never thanked me or never gave me a pat on the back, never did anything good. If I messed up a little bit, I heard about it. And I walked around kind of like, you know, have I pleased him? And sometimes you can act, you can feel that way. Have I done enough to please God and to earn His favor? Listen, you can't. You can't earn God's favor, but you don't have to. Jesus does it for you. God loves you. Listen to me. God loves you, not because you obey Him. I want you to think about that. He loves you, He continues to love you, not because you maintain His love, because of your obedience. He loves you because of somebody else, Jesus Christ. He loves the undeserving. I want you to think about that. This is who Christ's love, this is who Christ loves. He loves the helpless and the undeserving. Now I want to talk to you about how Christ loves. Secondly, how does Christ love these types of people? He loves them by giving them peace. And in this way, I want to talk about three different ways in which we see how Christ loves sinners. The first way, we'll learn a little bit more about who these people are as well. But I want to focus on what it's like. He loves them by giving them peace. By giving them peace. Now, we need to stop here for a moment. We think about David's interaction with Mephibosheth. We need to think about the historical context. Mephibosheth is the son of a rival king. He's the son of a rival king. Now in those days, what was normal? I'm not saying it's right. but it would have been the custom. What would a king do who took the throne to the children of a rival king? Think about it. He would kill them. They're rivals, they're enemies. And this is certainly a biblical fact. It's not right to do that, of course, but it's a biblical fact. Think of Abimelech and Judges. It's interesting, Abimelech's called a king. He wasn't really a king, but he's called that. And when he, quote unquote, took the throne, this is what he did. Judges nine, verse five. Then he went to his father's house at Orpah, at Ophrah, and killed his brothers, the 70 sons of Jeroboam on one stone. This is just the custom. This is what people expected. Why is Zeba nervous? At your service. Why does Mephibosheth fall on his knees? He prostrates himself. Well, he is not sure what David is going to do. Is this a trick? And Jehu in 2 Kings 10 kills the son of Ahab, who is the king of Israel, and kills the sons of Hazahiah, I'm not sure exactly how to say his name, who was the king of Judah. But what does David do? He gives them, he gives him peace, gives him peace. Verse seven, so David said to him, do not fear for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father's sake. Now who, how does God, how does God describe man in sin? They're enemies. They're at enmity with God. They don't have peace with God. They're at war against God. They hate God. What does God do through Christ to His people? He gives them peace. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 14 through 16. Notice the emphasis on peace. For He Himself is our peace. He has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation. having abolished in his flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace." He gives them peace. We need peace with God. And this is how God loves us through his son, Jesus Christ. Jesus died on the cross. He was the propitiation for our sins. And as a result of that, there's peace. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. Notice this, another way in which Christ loves us. He loves us by giving us an inheritance. Again, think about what's going on here. Who is Mephibosheth? He's his son. He's not a servant. It pays. It's good to be an heir to the inheritance. Ziba's pretty prominent. He got 15 sons himself. Where's 10? 15 sons, 20 servants. Seems to be pretty successful, pretty competent. I mean, again, who's Mephibosheth? Mephibosheth's not real gifted. He's lame. Probably hasn't learned too much. Probably, you know, stayed at home a lot. But he's the son. He's the son. You want to be a son. Because he's the son, he gets the inheritance. Notice verse 7. I will restore to you all the land of Saul, your grandfather. Now we don't know exactly how it is that David can restore it. Maybe David assumed the estate of Saul because of Ishbosheth's rebellion. It's most likely, because there's Old Testament provision for this, that Micah, who was the only known heir, even though she was a daughter, she would have taken this estate. Well, who's Michael? David's wife. So David has this, and he gives it to Mephibosheth, an inheritance. An inheritance. The scriptures say, refers to God's people as sons of God. It's very important for us to hold on to the theology there. Maybe some of you ladies are like, well, I'm a woman. But the son is an heir. Galatians 3, 26. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Our inheritance, our land is heaven. where God's people are and where Christ is forever in peace. We want that. We want that inheritance. And sons, sons receive this inheritance. Now, this somewhat kind of goes into the last way in which we see the love of Christ and how Christ loves us. And that's fellowship, not just peace. You can have peace with God and not know God. That's conceptually an idea. You can have an inheritance and just as I've said before, Muslims have no concept of a relationship with Allah, okay? That's a Christian thing. What's going on here is there's gonna be communion and a relationship and fellowship between Mephibosheth and David. Notice the language here, verse seven. I will restore to you all the land of Saul, your grandfather, and you shall eat bread at my table continually. Verse 11, the second part of verse 11. Ask for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table, like one of the king's sons. And the very end of the chapter we see it again. Now, the king's table, that's what I'm getting at. There's something about a table It's that communicates to us the idea of fellowship. One of the reasons why we come forward in communion is we are trying to kind of depict a table because of the fellowship we have, not just with Christ in communion, but with one another. We come forward, we sit close to one another. I mean, even in this time, certainly even now, but even in this time, if you ate at the table with someone, then you had a position with them. You had access to them. You could talk with them. You knew them. It's similar to this idea. When I was in Iraq, I remember, because I was an officer, and because I would go out and I would interact with local leaders, oftentimes I'd have a meeting, and before the meeting there would be a meal. And I would eat with the head honchos. And there would be a nice table, we'd all stand up to it, like about this right here, and we'd just eat with our hands, and there would be no plates, no forks, we just, all these massive amounts of food. And when the head honcho was done, he'd go sit down, we'd have our meeting, and we'd all go sit down. But then the second wave would come, you know, the lower class, if you will. But I had access to the table. with the head of Hansha. Mephibosheth has access to the king. He has fellowship. There's a sense in which this is the premier aspect of how Christ loves his people and how he saves them. This is the narrative. God's people or Adam and Eve, they send in the garden and communion and fellowship with God was severed in a great way. We turn to Revelation. Okay, all through the Scriptures. What's God doing? He's reconciling Himself to His people through Jesus Christ that He might know them. This is eternal life. That they might know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. We will be in heaven and we will see the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know how often we'll get to talk to Him. But we're going to know Him. We're going to know God truly. through Jesus Christ, our mediator. We're gonna have access to him, fellowship with him. We who were his enemies, we who did nothing to deserve it, this is how he's shown his love to us. Christ loves helpless and undeserving enemies by giving them peace and inheritance and fellowship. What I would like to do tonight as we reflect on this, I wanna give you really just one application tonight. You're just like me. You're just like me. You go through life and you struggle to love God, to serve him with zeal. Kids, perhaps you, young people, perhaps you wonder, why are my parents telling me that I have to come to church a second time to worship God? Why do I need to read my Bible? Why do I need to listen to God's Word during family worship? Perhaps you, you know, you're just thinking to yourself, you know, why do I have to devote myself to the Lord Jesus? This is why. Think about who you are, apart from His grace. You're like Mephibosheth. What has he done for you? He's done all this. He's done all this for you. He's given you peace with Him. He's given you an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. Loving God, serving Him, giving Him your mind, worshiping Him. It's really the least that we can do. It's really just our duty. It's our duty. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do. It's very reasonable for us to love the Lord Jesus Christ because of who we were when he loved us and how he's loved us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight. We pray that you would give us love for you. We pray that we would love your Son, the Lord Jesus, that we would appreciate all that he has done for us, that we would remember who we are apart from your grace, who we would be without your grace, undeserved grace coming upon us through him. Father, we pray that you would give us a zeal to serve you, to serve your son. We pray that you would give us renewed love and appreciation for the cross, for the person of your son, for all that he does for us. We pray this in his name, amen.