A Picture Of God's Love

A PICTURE OF GOD’S LOVE

Date: April 21, 2002 AM service

Place: Allendale Baptist Church

Text: 2 Samuel 9:1-13

Introduction

Imagine with me for just a moment a large screen, a large white screen. And on that screen is a black dot, about 12 inches in diameter. What will your attention be drawn to? Not the mass of white but the one dark stain.

Now think with me about a huge field of white sheep hundreds of white sheep. And in the midst of those white sheep there is one black sheep. Which one will be more noticeable? Of course the one different, the black sheep

So it is with the life of David. We always seem to concentrate on the darkness of the sin in his life.

** Someone has said, “ There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it behooves most of us not to talk about the rest of us.”

I hold in my hand the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God. I ask that you please stand with me in reverence for the reading of God’s Word.

Read Text – Prayer

Chapter 9 is a story of David’s great show of kindness to Mephibosheth. David is often called a man after God’s own heart and rightly so.

 Saul the previous king of Israel, and his son Jonathan, David’s dear friend, have been killed in battle. At this time David takes over the kingdom.

 Saul was the people’s choice as king, but David was God’s choice.

I would like to imagine as David sat around the tent one evening, fond memories of his dear friend Jonathan, come to mind. He remembers the covenant he made many years ago with Jonathan, and asks the question verse 1 is there anyone left from the house of Saul that I may show mercy to for Jonathan’s sake.

In this passage of Scripture I would like you to see…

I. The Concern of the King. V.1-3

A. Based on a covenant of love.

1. Jonathan & David were the closest of friends

2. Jonathan protected David & literally saved his life. 1 Sam 19:1-2

3. They were bound to one another by a covenant of love

B. David’s love illustrates God’s love to us.

1. His love was spontaneous.

a. It was the voluntary impulse of a kind and merciful heart.

b. So it is with God, He has taken the first step toward man’s redemption.

c. He so loved the world that He gave His Son.

2. His love was gracious.

a. Mephibosheth was undeserving of this show of love.

b. Ancient custom was for the new king to kill & destroy all the relatives of the previous kings.

c. David offered his love to an enemy.

d. The Bible teaches us that we are enemies of God.

3. His love was self-sacrificing.

a. David was willing to give what was his that he might show kindness to Jonathan’s son.

b. Jesus was willing to sacrifice His life, to die on Calvary, that our sins might be forgiven.

c. What David gave was only temporary, what Jesus gives is eternal.

Now I want you to see…

II. The Condition of Mephibosheth.

A. His Fearfulness.

1. He was hiding from the King.

2. He was unaware of the king’s love that was to be extended toward him

3. Like Mephibosheth, so many of us are hiding from God.

B. His destitution.

1. Mephibosheth was in a city called LoDebar.

2. This name means a “place of no pasture”.

3. It was actually a barren waste land

4. Outside of God’s will, so many of us are living in a spiritual LoDebar,

a. With no hope.

b. No spiritual food.

C. His Helplessness.

1. Mephibosheth was lame in both feet.

2. 2 Samuel 4:4 tells us when he was 5 years old he was injured in a fall.

3. His helpless condition is a picture of each of us without Christ.

4. We are crippled by sin.

5. “There is none righteous, no not one”… “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”… “All like sheep have gone astray”…

Last let’s look at

III. Salvation of Mephibosheth.

A. The king’s invitation.

1. David sought after Mephibosheth… Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost.

2. He sent his servant to find him and bring him…. Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

3. This is an invitation of grace.

B. Mephibosheth’s response.

1. He could have refused but he had nowhere else to go.

2. Often times it seems we turn to the Lord when there is nowhere else to go.

C. Mephibosheth’s blessing

1. He humbled himself before the king & said, “What is your servant, that you should look upon him as a dead dog”