2 Samuel 9 | "No Leg to Stand On"

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Good morning, everybody.

Thank you so much, especially to Pastor Jason, for allowing me into his pulpit.

It's a wonderful privilege to be here, and uh it's always a joy to open God's Word.

Uh for people that love God's Word and appreciate it for what it is, the inspired word of God.

Um I have really enjoyed the hospitality of Anton and Mariki, and um I know he's threatening to take me out for a walk.

Uh I don't trust him to bring me back home, though, so just be aware if I go missing, it's his fault.

Um I do enjoy being here though in the cold.

It's uh it's a wonderful, refreshing respite from what I'm used to in the on the you know the Gulf Coast.

It's just nine months of the year.

It's extremely hot and humid.

It's like living in somebody's mouth.

It's really the only way to describe that.

So I like it out here.

Mobile is known for its baseball, uh, produced a number of Hall of Famers.

Um maybe you read in the news recently, Hank Aaron passed away, and our stadium, our local stadium, is called Hank Aaron Stadium.

And uh when I was installed as the new pastor there, they invited me to come and pitch the very uh first pitch, the opening game of uh the Mobile Bay Bears.

And uh that was the first time I'd ever pitched a baseball in my life because I grew up with cricket.

Um so my goal is just to not hit anyone in the eye or embarrass myself, and I managed to get it all the way to the mound, so there's that.

Um but I do enjoy baseball and and followed the lore of baseball.

Um and one of uh the more colorful characters that I came across was Lefty Gomez.

Lefty Gomez was a pitcher.

Can anyone guess which hand he used to pitch?

Not a trick question.

He was a Southpaw, he was a left-handed pitcher for the New York Yankees in the 1930s, and he had a wonderful reputation, a really a colorful reputation for um uh his sense of humor and for stopping the game, calling it a timeout for uh quirky reasons.

So one of the times he called the timeout because he just wanted the whole game to pause while he watched a plane fly overhead.

Um another time the fog had set in and he was trying to make a statement about how they should really end the game because nobody could see what was going on.

So he called a timeout and asked for a box of matches, went back to the mound, lit up the match, pretended it helped him see, and then pitched the rest of the game that way.

Uh but my favorite uh story of him uh pausing a game was one day it was in the World Series, it was the bottom of the ninth, the bases were loaded, it was a very tense moment.

This was probably the most one of the most important pitches really in his career, and he called a timeout, much to the delight of the catcher that ran up to the mound thinking, okay, now we're going to strategize about this all-important pitch.

And uh Lefty said to him, Hey, do you have any hunting dogs at home?

The catcher was flustered and replied, Why are you asking me about dogs when the bases are loaded?

Lefty said, Well, uh, a friend of mine knows that you hunt, and he asked me to find out if you have any dogs for sale, and I promised that I'd ask you the next time I thought of it, and I just thought of it.

I don't know what we think about his wisdom or his timing or his sense of humor, but one thing we know about uh Lefty Gomez, and that is to him, a promise is a promise.

And uh promises are really what the fabric of our our uh society is based on.

We we might call them covenants, we might call them contracts, vows.

We have promises in marriage, we have uh promises in in law, and uh throughout society, we have these promises, contracts, vows, covenants that we make.

And um unfortunately people are taking that less seriously these days than they were in the days of the Old and New Testament, where people understood the importance of a man's word.

And the disciples of Jesus, when he spoke about the covenants, the new covenant in his blood, they would have understood what that meant.

And that when Jesus broke the bread in the upper room in John 13, and he broke the bread and he um he shared the cup, and uh when he said, This is my blood, the blood of the new covenant that is shed for you, they all understood what a covenant was and the importance of it.

And why?

Because they had a foundation in their minds that was set in the Old Testament.

And so I want us to look at a covenant between two people that really represents in a in an interesting way the power of covenants that we have with our Savior.

So turn your Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 9.

2 Samuel 9 · chapter mention

The second book of Samuel chapter 9.

Um the the Jews in Jesus' day would have known all of these stories really, really well.

And so the terminology that we find in the New Testament really comes out of the Old Testament.

So I love the Old Testament.

I love obscure characters in the Old Testament and what we can learn from them.

And just to give you some context, where we find ourselves here, um, the book of 1 Samuel, as you know, is about the prophet Samuel, the transition from the judges to the kings.

It is uh the anointing of the first king of Israel, King Saul.

Um King Saul was not all everyone thought he was going to be.

They picked him because of his looks.

He turned out to be tall, dark, and disappointing.

Um so God deposes him and anoints David through Samuel to be the next king of Israel.

But even after David had been anointed to be the king, Saul was still on the throne.

Saul was threatened by him, threw javelins at his head, uh, would hunt him down, and David had spent uh many moons running away from Saul and refusing to kill Saul because he trusted God.

And he trusted that God's promise was that he would put him on the throne.

Now, 2 Samuel occurs after Saul has died.

His sons have all died, they all died in battle, and David is now on the throne, finally.

He's been king for a while in God's eyes, anointed by the prophet Samuel, but now he's king in the eyes of the people of Judah and Israel.

This is before the kingdom split, and he is finally on the throne.

God gave him great blessings of peace during his time.

At the beginning, any nation that tried to attack him was soundly trounced by David's practically invincible army.

Word got around that you better make peace with this guy.

Don't even um don't even try to fight him.

And at this point in 2 Samuel, we've met a character named Toy, the king of Hamath, and he has um preemptively made peace with David and surrendered before they even declared war.

So David is really in uh a good place.

He doesn't have any obvious threats anymore, except one.

One potential threat to his throne at this stage in his reign.

This was a common threat because thrones were generally passed on from the father to the next male relative.

And if Saul has a blood relative who's still alive, then David's throne is in jeopardy.

Because that man has a legitimate claim to raise up a rebellion against David and to lead a coup d'etat to take the throne back.

And so this could spark a civil war.

Um, so David finds out if there is any blood relative who's alive.

What would commonly happen in those days is you find all the blood relatives of the previous king and you kill them.

You just exterminate them and eliminate that threat.

And so now that David's on the throne, one of his four first orders of business is to call for a search for any surviving male blood relatives of King Saul, and they found one.

And so David summons him to the palace, but not for the reason you might think.

Let me read for you from 2 Samuel chapter 9, first eight verses or so.

2 Samuel 9 · chapter mention

And David said, Is there still anyone of the house of Saul that I might show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?

Now there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Zeba, and they called him to David, and the king said to him, Are you Zeba?

And he said, I'm your servant.

And the king said, Is there not still someone of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God to him?

And Zeba said to the king, There's still a son of Jonathan.

He is crippled in his feet.

And the king said to him, Where is he?

And Zeba said to the king, He's in the house of Makir, the son of Amiel at Lodabar.

And then King David sent and brought him from the house of Makir, the son of Amiel at Lodabar.

And Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, fell on his face, and paid homage.

And David said, Mehphibosheth! And he answered, Behold, I am your servant.

And David said to him, Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore you, 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?

Then the king called Zeba servants, uh 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.

Just until there.

We're going to look at two aspects of a covenant so that you will have assurance of your salvation.

Because if you understand the characteristics of the covenant we see here, and really what that represents, what that illustrates about a covenant that you and I are actually involved in with our Savior, we will be assured of our own salvation.

So we're going to look at the motive of the covenant and the provision of the covenant.

Those are the two aspects I want to look at this morning.

The motive and the provision of the covenant.

Now, the motive we see here in verse 1.

David said, Is there anyone left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?

Could you try again?

For Jonathan's sake.

This is unexpected.

This is as unexpected as Lefty Gomez calling a timeout to talk about hunting dogs.

This is not what would normally happen in the chain of events.

A king comes into power, yes, of course he would call if there's anyone left of the house of Saul, the previous king, that I might execute him.

Just to give you a little taste of what new kings usually did to the relatives of old kings.

You don't have to turn there, but in 1 Kings 15, verse 28, we mean we meet a guy called Bashar who comes to the throne.

1 Kings 15:28

In Bashar, verse 29, as soon as he was king, he killed all the house of Jeroboam, the previous king.

He left to the house of Jeroboam not one that breathed until he had destroyed it.

Then Bashar dies in chapter 16, the throne's taken over by a guy called Zimri.

And when verse 11 says, When he began to reign, as soon as he had seated himself on the throne, he struck down all the house of Bashar.

And he did not leave him a single male of his relatives or his friends.

This is normal change of regime stuff.

You get in power, you kill your predecessor's heirs, all the male relatives, and if you're really paranoid, and they're friends.

And you can read through the book of Kings.

This happens all the time.

So it's very normal for David to call for a relative of Saul to find one and to summon him.

And you can tell, you know, he says, I'm going to show him kindness, and Zeba is kind of like, you're right.

Kindness of the Lord.

But hey, I'm your servant.

Don't I'm not Saul's servant, I'm your servant, Ziba says.

And he's like, Well, get me somebody.

And he's like, Well, I'll bring you this kid, but hey, have mercy on him.

He has, he's crippled in his legs.

Everybody sees what's coming.

Off with his head, that's what's coming.

I mean, even today, uh, there's a little analogy of this can be found in the transition of administrations in the White House, right?

I recently uh read a really interesting book about transitions in administrations.

Um, and uh there's some really interesting ones in in history, but my you know, the one that's happening at the moment is a little bumpy.

Um but one of my favorite stories of the transition between the two administrations was when Bill Clinton's staff handed over to George W.

Bush's staff.

And in the transition, on in the transition, there was a budget and with line items for what would need to be spent.

And one of the line items was$4,850 to replace all the keyboards in the White House because Bill Clinton's staff had pried off all the W's.

So the keyboards didn't have any W's, so no one could type the word George W.

Bush.

Which I find kind of funny.

I mean, it's it's annoying, especially because it's our tax dollars that had to replace all those keyboards.

But it's almost worth it, isn't it?

Just for a prank that's funny like that.

But that's better than a line item being we need, you know, 12 gallons of cyanide so that we can execute gas all of the previous employees.

You know, nobody's gonna execute anybody as you come into the White House, but in those days that's what happened.

It wasn't a prank, it was serious business.

And so Saul has a surviving relative.

If you just turn back a page or two, you're gonna find chapter 4, 2 Samuel 4, um we meet this relative, verse 4.

Jonathan, the son of Saul, had a son who was crippled in his feet.

He was five years old.

When the news of Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled.

And as she fled in her haste, he fell and he became lame.

And his name was Mephibosheth.

Mephibosheth may be his name, maybe a nickname.

It means great shame, big embarrassment.

That was his name.

This kid at five years old.

The nurse doing her best to save the life of this child because she knows what happens in these mix-ups, these political, military mix-ups.

And so she tries to hide him, and as she's doing that, who knows how it happened, um, but maybe putting him on a horse and he falls off or something, in the escape, he falls and he is crippled for life.

So in chapter 9, when David said, Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul that I might show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?

People must have been skeptical.

But sure enough, it was never David's intention to harm Aphibosheth, but to bless him.

And my question is, why?

Why this counter-cultural decision?

Why this move of kindness and compassion that was so different from what everybody else would have done?

Well, for that I want you to turn to the previous book, 1 Samuel, not 2 Samuel, but 1 Samuel, uh, chapter 20.

And we're just going to be reminded briefly about this wonderful relationship that you've all heard of, the David and Jonathan bond.

David and Jonathan are um friends.

Jonathan is the prince.

He is the son of Saul.

He is the rightful heir.

He is the firstborn male heir to the throne.

And he knows that, but he also knows that God has chosen David and that God has anointed David.

And unlike Saul, who felt so threatened by that information that he'd try to hunt down David and kill him, Jonathan loves Yahweh so much and is so committed to God and God's plan and loves his friends so much that he tells David, I'm on board with you.

I don't want the throne.

It's your throne.

We're all in this together.

We want what God wants for the kingdom.

And if God has chosen you, praise God.

I'm going to support you, and I'm going to do everything in my power to get you on that throne.

And Jonathan sides with David even against his own father.

And in this chapter, they have that little plan where it's like, well, let me see how serious my dad is about killing you.

You stay away and I'll see his mood.

And then he shoots the arrow and kind of tells David, You need to go and hide because my dad wants to kill you.

Whereas all Jonathan had to do is say to David, Yeah, no, my dad's fine, come on in.

And then David would have been executed.

So Jonathan has proven time and time again that he's on David's side because they love each other and they have this intense bond.

And you might not be aware of this, but if you look at the age at which Saul takes the throne and reigns for 40 years, and David takes the throne at age 30, and you piece things together, you realize that Jonathan is 60 years old and David is 30.

So they have a mentor-mentee type of relationship, even, and and and love one another.

And here we see in a flashback, we go back in time a little to chapter 20, we see this discussion between the two of them.

In verse 14.

He says, uh, you know, uh in verse 13, may the Lord be with you as he is with my father.

In the verse 14, if I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of Yahweh, that I may not die.

And do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever.

When Yahweh cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.

And Jonathan made a covenant.

There's our word.

Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, May Yahweh take vengeance on David's enemies, and Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.

So here we have David and Jonathan signing a contract, they're cutting a contract, they're making a promise, a covenant.

And Jonathan says, You're gonna be on the throne, and if I'm still alive when that happens, please don't kill me.

Because he he knew what David should have done, what would have been politically expedient and and militarily prudent.

He says, Please don't kill me.

In fact, don't kill my house.

My my my household.

May God take care of your enemies for you.

Don't you take care of them?

God will do that, and we won't be your enemies.

It's a really poignant moment between these two.

David, of course, agrees, and they have this love for one another.

And in that little passage, and you can go back to 2 Samuel, but in that little passage we have the answer to our question.

Why?

Why would David call for a relative of Jonathan to show kindness to instead of executing?

And it's because of that passage.

There was a covenant based on love.

He loved him as he loved his own soul.

So to answer the question, why did David do this?

The answer is obviously because of the covenant of love.

But sometimes, you know, sometimes on Twitter people will post these posts and then they'll say, um, you know, what's happening here?

And then they'll say in brackets, wrong answers only.

Have you seen those?

No?

Okay, well.

Um, I spend way more time on Twitter than I should.

Foul on, foul on.

But um, the wrong answers only.

So uh it's a kind of just a fun way of of uh starting a joke.

And so here we have why why would David uh be kind to Mephibosheth?

Wrong answers only.

And a wrong answer would be because Mephibosheth has a lot to offer David.

Here's another wrong answer.

He would make a mighty military warrior in David's army.

Uh he poses no threat to the throne whatsoever.

These are all the wrong answers.

This isn't why David made him, uh gave him this kindness and spared his life.

He didn't merit anything from his own worth.

He is the enemy's blood relative.

He is the only threat to David's throne, and he has nothing to offer David.

He can't even be a servant.

This is a This is a cripple.

He can't be his slave.

He can't be a general in his army.

He can't be a foot soldier in his army.

He literally has no leg to stand on.

And so it's such an interesting picture to me that here is a man without the use of his legs.

Because in a picturesque way it kind of symbolizes his helplessness before David that he doesn't have a leg to stand on in this discussion.

He's got nothing to offer.

He's got nothing to keep himself safe except for this one thing.

David loved his dad and made a promise to him to spare his household.

And in the same way, you and I don't have a leg to stand on before God.

We've got nothing to offer God.

We've got nothing to say, please forgive my sins because I am actually not that bad.

I mean, I've never murdered anyone, I've never cheated on my taxes, I help old ladies cross the street, and that's a big deal here in North Dakota with all the ice, right?

You know, I'm a good person.

Who here actually believes that they're a good person?

No.

No, we don't have that leg to stand on at all.

Mephibosheth has none of the right stuff.

He's the wrong stuff.

And spiritually speaking, we have none of the right stuff.

We are all the wrong stuff.

We've got no merits to offer, we've got nothing that we can do to earn our salvation.

Romans 3 verse 10 says, as it is written, none is righteous, no not one.

Romans 3:10

No one understands, no one seeks for God, for all have sinned and fall short of what?

The glory of God.

Everybody sitting here has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, which is the standard of perfection which is required to get you into heaven.

You don't have any merits to offer.

And all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment, filthy rags, something disgusting to God.

You think you're offering God a pure, good work with the right motives, with the right intensity, with the right worship that he deserves?

Gross, he says.

Ugh.

That's not righteousness.

You want to see righteousness?

Go read about Jesus.

That's righteousness.

Who never sinned once in word, thought, or deed.

He never omitted to do something he should, and he never committed a sin in his life.

And he had perfect righteousness that came not from his deeds, but from who he was, the Son of God, the very nature of God.

And took on a second nature, the human nature, so that he could sympathize with our weaknesses, yet without sin.

That's our Savior.

And so what leg do I have to stand on before the throne of grace?

No leg.

Nothing.

Nothing.

But the blood of Jesus.

Spilled to ratify the covenant of God's love.

Just as the hymn writer says, what can wash away my sin?

Nothing can for sin atone.

Nothing but what?

The blood of Jesus.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again?

Nought of good that I have done.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

And why would Jesus die for you?

Why is this covenant made?

Why did he spill his blood?

And when he poured the wine, he said, This is my blood which is shed for you the new covenant.

Why would he shed his blood because of the new covenant?

Why is this covenant even made?

Why would God even do this for us?

John 3 16, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

God did this because of his love.

Just like David did for Mephibosheth what he did because of his love and his promise.

Romans 8 38, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

That's our assurance.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation.

No pandemic, no global collapse, no one world government, no global reset, no nothing.

Powers, height, depth, anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You are safe and secure because of God's love and his covenant.

That's why no religion can help you gain forgiveness but the true religion of the scriptures.

A lot of people sometimes say to me, Well, why are you always persnickety about Jesus is the only way?

Can't we all just get along?

You know, I mean, surely all the different religions are just different pathways to God.

We just call him by a different name, and there's different ways of doing it in different cultures, but it's all the same thing, the same God.

No, no, it's really not.

It's really not, because the covenant was not just made willy-nilly, it was made because of God's love for his son.

And it was his son that lived the life we should have lived, and it was his son that died the death that we should have died, and he did it so that whoever places his faith in his son would be saved.

And that is why Jesus says in John 14 that no one comes to the Father except through me.

I mean, that's a crazy wacko, uh politically incorrect statement to make, isn't it?

I mean, unless it's true.

And it's true.

And so why didn't David adopt another cripple in Jerusalem?

Because he didn't have to.

He didn't have a covenant.

But Mephibosheth had a relationship with David because it came through Jonathan.

David's relationship with Jonathan is what kept Mephibosheth safe.

And the father's relationship with his son is what keeps you safe if you're in his son.

So God has no obligation to save anyone in the world, except those who approach him through his son.

We're his enemies.

He doesn't have an obligation.

David had no obligation to spare this guy's life, except he made a promise based on love.

It's the same with God.

It's not politically correct, but it is true.

So that's the motive.

Secondly, I want us to look at the provision of the covenant.

The motive of the covenant is love.

Very simple.

What is the provision, the extent, you might say?

Look at verse 9.

2 Samuel 9, verse 9.

2 Samuel 9:9

Then the king called Zeba, 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.

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.

But Mephibosheth, your master's grandson, shall always eat at my table.

Now Zeba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.

Then Zeba said to the king, According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so will your servant do.

So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons.

And Mephibosheth had a young son, his name was Micah, and all who lived in Zeba's house became Mephibosheth's servants.

So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king's table.

Now he was lame in both his feet.

And it's interesting how the narrator just reminds you again, all of this happened.

And he doesn't even have a leg to stand on.

David did not just spare his life.

He could easily have said, Mephibosheth, because of the covenant with Jonathan, I promised him I would not kill you.

Get out of here.

Stay out of my sight, and you'll be fine.

I don't care where you live, get out of Israel.

I will not hunt you down.

Don't set foot back in my country.

He could have done that and kept the covenant.

But the covenant was based from love, and love doesn't act that way.

So he doesn't just spare his life and give him what could rightfully have been claimed to be his, his grandfather's land, Saul's lands, and his servants.

But David does do that.

Hey, all of your land, which is actually now my land, because I'm the new king.

When the new king comes in, he takes over the old king's land.

I'm going to give all that land back to you.

And all of the crops and all of the farms and even the servants and the manager and that whole business enterprise, that whole industry that's going to produce wealth that I could take from me is now yours, son.

And you'll be fine.

You'll be rich.

You'll be one of the richest landowners in the country.

But that's not all.

Not only does he spare his life, not only does he give him an income and a safety and a security for the rest of his life, he then says, I'm giving you all of this money and all of this land and all of this enterprise, but guess what?

You're never going to need it because you are going to come live with me.

And you're going to eat at my table, and I'm going to treat you like one of my own sons.

And I'm going to give you protection by living in the palace.

I'm going to give you provision at my own table, and I'm going to give you a position.

You are going to be as if you were one of the king's sons.

I mean, this is the exact opposite.

This is as far the opposite as you could possibly imagine what anyone else would have done in David's shoes.

And David could have kept his obligations by doing the bare minimum, as many Christians do in their walk with the Lord.

But instead of doing the bare minimum, he does not only more than the bare minimum, but he does the most you could possibly imagine.

And you don't get more than you don't die, but you become my son at my table where I provide for you, oh, and I give you everything else that you need anyway, as well, in case you don't want to sit there one day.

It's amazing the provision, the extent.

This adoption, protection, provision, and position through adoption.

In the same way, we have no leg to stand on, and we are helpless, and we are enemies of God, and yet He doesn't just forgive us.

And friends, let's just face it: if God had offered to forgive you and not let you into heaven, but at least not send you into hell, you would be grateful.

You know what hell is like.

He said, Okay, well, I made this promise that if you believe in Jesus, your sins are forgiven, you can go free.

I have made another whole realm, another whole galaxy for all of you to go and populate.

Stay out of my sight because of what you've done to me and my son.

Um, but at least you're not going to hell.

And you would take that.

You don't have any choice.

But he doesn't say that.

No, that's not our God, that's not our Father.

He says, no, not only are you forgiven, but our relationship is going to be better than it was before I forgave you.

I'm going to restore you not only to what you deserve, which is nothing, more than you deserve, which would be great.

I'm going to give you what my son deserves: intimacy and love and protection and provision and position in Christ.

And then we can now look forward to dying.

Dying is the best thing that'll ever happen to you.

Maybe not the way you die, but dying is your graduation day where you get to go and be with this father forever.

In my father's house, Jesus said, John 14, there are many rooms.

And I'm going ahead to prepare a place for you.

And I'm not going to leave you often.

I'm going to come back and get you so that you can be with me and my father forever.

And in the meantime, I'm going to go to heaven, and that's to your advantage, because I'm going to send you another helper.

And he's going to dwell in you forever.

And he's going to lead you into all truth and illumine your minds and grant you assurance and seal your adoption.

And make sure that you get to heaven and are glorified so that you live with me and my Father and His house and our Spirit in you forever and ever, feasting with the Lamb.

That's worth an amen, right?

Ephesians 1 3, blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love, he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.

Adoption is one of the most poignant and vivid pictures that we have as humans of what God does for us.

Taking somebody who has no claim on you and lavishing on them love, protection, provision, and position.

Inheritance.

An identity.

And you know, you get these adoptions that happen before the baby's even born.

Where they find the mom and they're there with the they see the sonogram and they're there on the birthday, and that baby doesn't even know what a vulnerable situation he or she is in.

In the womb.

With the world telling the mother to abort the child.

With all the things that can go wrong.

But what that baby doesn't even know is that he or she has already been adopted.

Predestined before the foundation of the world.

That was you.

While you were just in the mind of God, you weren't even a person yet.

You weren't even born.

You didn't even exist.

This plan was in place to adopt you.

Amazing.

All because of Jesus.

Charles Spurgeon says, Mephibosheth has no great, he was no great ornament at the royal table.

And yet he had continual place at David's table because the king could see in his face the features of the beloved Jonathan.

Like Mephibosheth, we may cry unto the King of glory, What is your servant that you should look upon us as a dead dog?

But still the Lord indulges us with most familial fellowship with himself, because he sees in our countenance the remembrance of his dearly beloved Jesus.

Isn't that wonderful?

David looks at Mephibosheth and sees the resemblance of his dad's face.

The dad I love so much, Jonathan.

And God the Father looks at you and sees the resemblance in you of his son Jesus, whom he loves so much when you are in Christ.

Romans 8:15, for you do not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Ava Father.

Romans 8:15

I'm reminded of what happened when Nelson Mandela came to power.

You know, he had been a prison prisoner in Robin Island prison in South Africa as a political prisoner for many years, and there was a warden that was placed over him, and when he was released from prison, he was made president of the country.

That's quite a reversal.

I mean, from a prisoner to president with the army at his disposal and with all the power that he could possibly have, and he summoned his warden to his house, he invited him to come have lunch with him, and they had a barbecue in his backyard.

To symbolize to the nation, there's no hard feelings here.

We don't want a civil war.

If I can forgive the man who treated me the way he treated me in prison, and I can have him in my home, and I can offer him food and we can eat together, and I can show him a restored relationship that's better than it was before the forgiveness, then we can do that as a nation.

And the country was spared from civil war.

And here we have a picture of God not just doing the bare minimum, but of adopting us in, forgiving us, and restoring us to a relationship that's better than it was before.

And you may need to forgive somebody in this room today.

You may need to forgive a family member in another state that you haven't spoken to because they've hurt you.

There may be someone that needs to forgive you, and they're asking your forgiveness, but you don't want to grant it because they've hurt you, or you've hurt them and they don't want to forgive you.

And what the scripture says is that forgiveness isn't just, well, I'm a Christian, I've got to do this, so let's get this over and done with.

It means that your relationship needs to end up better than it was before the hurt.

Forgive as God forgave you.

Well, Lefty Gomez kept a promise.

Because to Lefty, a promise was a promise.

As strange as it was.

All eyes were on him, and expectations were kind of disappointed, but he didn't care.

And then we see David keeping his promise, because to David a promise is a promise.

But what I want to leave you with today is that you are safe and secure and adopted with an inheritance that is imperishable and undefiled and kept for you in heaven for one reason and one reason only, because God loves you and made a promise.

And to God, a promise is a promise.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can count on your promises and your covenants, that we know that you are a God of truth, that you have shown us time and time again in Scripture.

And we're thankful for this picture of David and Jonathan and their love for one another.

What a picture it is of your love for your son, and how that love and that covenant spilt over into the life of a helpless young Mephibosheth, and how your love and your covenant has overwhelmed us with love and inheritance and adoption and position and protection because of your great love.

And so we thank you for all of these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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