Good morning. Turn with me, if
you would, this morning to Joshua, Joshua chapter 24. We're going
to read just a couple of verses here in Joshua chapter 24, starting
in verse 11. But before we do, if you'd listen
to a verse here in Deuteronomy chapter seven. When the Lord thy God shall bring
thee into the land where thou goest to possess it, hath cast
out many nations before thee. And these, these seven nations,
seven representing the number of completeness, all of the things
between us and God, the Hittites, the Gergesites, the Amorites,
the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites,
seven nations greater and mightier than now. And now let's, let's
look here in Joshua chapter 24, starting in verse 11. And he
went over Jordan and came into Jericho and the men of Jericho
fought against you. The Amorites, the Perizzites,
the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Gergesites, the Hivites,
the Jebusites, all seven. and I delivered them into your
hand. The Lord delivers. And I sent the hornet before
you, drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the
Amorites, but not with thy sword. The Lord delivers, but not with
thy sword, nor with thy bow. I have given you a land for which
you did not labor, cities which you built not, ye dwell in them.
Of the vineyards and olive yards which ye planted not, do we eat,
right? Okay, let's stand together while
Chris leads us in our call to worship. Come, humble sinner in whose
breath the thousand thoughts revolve. Come with your guilt
and fear, O friend, and make this last resolve. I'll go to Jesus through my sin
and make a mountain road. I know His courts, I'll enter
in whatever may oppose. Prostrate I'll lie before His
throne and where my guilt can I'll tell him I'm a wretch undone
without his sovereign grace. Perhaps he'll not admit my claim. Perhaps he'll hear my prayer. But if I perish, I will pray
and perish wholly there. I can but marry if I go, I am
resolved to try. For if I stay away, I know my
love for it will die. ? But if I die with mercy sought
? Then I the king have tried ? Where were I died, delightful
thought ? Has ever sinner died Okay, you can be seated now,
and if you would, while you're being seated, grab your hymnal.
Turn it to page 209. 209, grace greater than our sin. Yeah. ? The marvelous grace of our loving
Lord ? ? Grace that exceeds our sin and our will ? ? Yonder on
Calvary Mount have borne ? ? There where the blood of the Lamb was
spilled ? Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that will pardon
and cleanse within. Grace, grace. God's grace, grace that is greater
than all our sin. Sin and despair, like the sea
waves cold, threatens us all. ? Grace that is greater yet grace
untold ? ? Points to the refuge, the mighty Christ ? ? Grace,
grace, God's grace ? ? Grace that will pardon and cleanse
us all ? ? Within grace, grace ? God's grace, grace ? That is
greater than all my sins ? Dark is the stain that we cannot hide
? What can avail feet away. Look where it's flowing, a crimson
tide. Whiter than snow you may be today. Great, great, God's great Grace
that pardoned and cleansed within Grace, grace, gracious Grace
that is greater than all our sin ? Marvelous, infinite, matchless
grace ? ? Freely bestowed on all who believe ? ? You that
are longing to see His face ? ? Will you this moment His grace receive? ? Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that will pardon and clean
within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all
our sin. Turn with me, if you would, to
Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6. And while
you're turning there, our pastor and Janet are in Danville today.
Frank's preaching this morning there in Danville. He'll also
preach Tuesday, and then Lord will, and he'll be back with
us worshiping on Wednesday. So remember them and the congregation
there as they worship, and we're Very pleased to have Pastor Walter
Pendleton and his wife, Penny, here with us today. Thank you
for the long, hard trip in in this weather and the service
that you're called to do. I encourage you all to get online,
listen to this morning's message. It was absolutely, absolutely
a blessing. We look forward to this morning
too, brother. Hebrews chapter six, we'll start here in verse
13. For when God made promise to
Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swear by himself
saying, surely blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I
will multiply thee. And so after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise for men verily swear by the greater
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
We're in God willing more abundantly to show under the airs of promise,
the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath, that
by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an
anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth
into that within the veil, whether the front runner for us entered,
even Jesus made an high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
We'll end our reading there. Let's pray together. Our father, we pray that for
your glory, you send your spirit here with us today, that we may
worship in spirit and also in truth together, that we may worship
your holy name. for Christ's sake, that we may
hear and learn of you, that we may be beatified and drawn, that
we may worship, come to your throne of mercy, come to your
throne of grace, come before your throne of justice in Christ's
name for his sake, for what he has done, for who he is. We may come before you for Christ's
sake. And Father, we pray that you teach us to pray We'll, we'll
pray for fleshly things and temporary things. And you've, you've told
us to do so to, to make our, our prayers and admonitions known.
And we do, we bring our, our needs before you for, you know,
we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities, but rather we do. And we do bring our infirmities
before you, but at the same time, father, and by your grace, you've
taught us to most importantly, bring our need before you, which
is our, our need of forgiveness, our need of acceptance, our need
to be to be made righteous for Christ's sake and father, we
do. We pray that you allow us to to hear with the year that
you give us that this morning. Pray that that should be with
Walter and give him a word from you. We pray that you be with
our pastor with Janet and the congregation there as they worship
and pray that you give them traveling mercy's home that we may be together
again this upcoming Wednesday. Father, we ask you for a blessing
for us together as a congregation. We thank you for drawing us together
today to worship. I pray that your hand be on us
as you promised. And we bring these things to
your throne in Christ's name and for his sake alone. Amen. Good morning again. I am just getting over the, I'm
on the end of a cough that I've had for about three weeks. I
thought I was about ready to lose it back there just a moment
ago. So you all pardon me if I do start coughing. I will have
to stop for a moment and take a break. I have a couple things
I want to say to you before I get into the message, but if you
would be turning to Matthew chapter 14. Now, that will not actually
be my text, but it will set the background for my text. But before we go there, I am grateful to be here this
morning. It's been several months since
Penny and I were here. And after Frank, because he got
back from the trip he was on, and out to preach. His wife took
a little time there to go visit some places. And when he come
back, he said that somebody said, you need to get that preacher
that was there last Sunday to come again. I don't know who
that was, but you're a glutton for punishment. That's all I
can say. But I thank God for you. And
it is a joy to be here. Let me give you, this is a quote
from Clay Curtis. I'm sure it's probably in one
of Clay's bulletins, but I actually got it from Larry Chris's bulletin.
And it just touched my soul. We, what was it, February, we
weren't able to meet at all at Chapel, where we saw Grace Chapel.
The parking lot and the driveway is like this. And it's back up
in the woods. And we could not get anyone to
scrape. And this old boy don't have the back to scrape it. So
it was a whole month of February where we weren't able to meet.
And we weren't able to meet until last January. Sorry. Scratch
that. Preachers lie even from the podium.
January. So we were able to meet in February,
wasn't it? One Sunday. But then I read this. Let me just go on. The title
of it is The Assembling of ourselves. And of course the passage is
Hebrews 10 verse 24 and 25. It said, let us consider one
another. And then it goes on, not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the matter of some is. And Clay went
on and wrote these words, an elderly believer with almost
complete hearing loss came to every service. Someone asked
why he came when he could not hear. He said, this is where
the truth is preached. I come to be identified with
Christ and his saints. I hope me being here will encourage
my brethren to continue the same as their presence encourages
me. I hope if I ever lose my hearing,
I'm still of the same attitude and opinion. Don't matter whether
you're really hearing it or not. Just to be with God's people
and knowing that the worship of God is taking place. Let me
give you a song that my fellow preacher at Sovereign Grace Chapel
He usually sends me a song every Sunday morning, especially for
when I have service. Of course, now, some of you here
think that two messages is quite long. We have three every Sunday
if all three preachers are there. Joe preaches, my brother Paul
preaches, and I preach. So you have to take a real deep
breath between each service because you've still got more to go.
This is by John Adams. It's from Gadsby's hymn book.
It's number 205. If you were to want to look it
up, it probably will sound familiar to most of you. The title of
it is Free Salvation, and Adams took it from Psalm 6820, Isaiah
4517, and Acts 412. And the words are this, Jesus
is our great salvation. worthy of our best esteem. He has saved his favorite nation. Join to sing aloud of him. He has saved us. Christ alone
could us redeem. When involved in sin and ruin,
and no helper there was found, Jesus our distress was viewing. Grace did more than sin abound. He has called us with salvation
in the sound. Let us never, Lord, forget thee.
Make us walk as children here. We will give thee all the glory
of that love that brought us near. Bid us praise thee and
rejoice with holy fear. Free election, known by calling,
is a privileged divine. Saints are kept from final falling. All the glory, Lord, be thine. All the glory, all the glory,
Lord, All right, are you on Matthew chapter 14? So, if you're there, Matthew
chapter 14. Before I read, and I have a couple verses and I'm
gonna set the backdrop of my text for this morning. And I'll
read in Matthew 14 in just a moment. Before I do, I want you to do
this. You don't have to close your eyes if you, If you don't
want to, if you want to, that's fine as well. But I want you
to picture something in your mind's eye. Just picture this
in your mind. One morning, our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Master, arises from sleep. He's near the shores of the Sea
of Galilee in the land of Genesaret. In this reading, he wakes up
early one morning. And here they are. In Matthew
chapter 14, look at verse 32. Now if you'll Kind of briefly
scan over that text real closely. You will see that they were crossing
the Sea of Galilee. This is when Peter asked to walk
on the water, okay? And they were going toward the
land of Genesaret. That's where they finally landed. Look at what it says in Matthew
14, verse 32. And when they were come into
the ship, that's Peter and Jesus. Remember, Peter started to go
down. The Lord saved him. And when they were come into
the ship, the wind ceased. Now here's the next verse. Now
one more verse. of Gennesaret. So you picture
it in your mind's eye. Here is Christ. They've had this
ordeal with Peter on the Sea of Galilee. They've now come
all the way to the other side. They are now on the northwest
side of the Sea of Galilee. And they clearly probably spent
the night there. Maybe the next morning. It doesn't
tell us for sure as you begin to read through the context.
You do find out our Lord began to teach. And many things happened
while they were there in the land of Genesaret. But one morning
our Lord gets up. Again he awakes from his sleep
and he says something of this sort to the disciples, we have
a journey to embark upon. Now I want you to turn to Matthew
chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15. Now the remainder of chapter
14 from where I read in the start of verse of chapter 15, rather,
tells what happened in the land of Genesaret, northwest side
of Galilee. Then look at Matthew 15 and then
verse 21. This is my text for this morning. It says, then Jesus went thence.
Went thence from where? Well, if you look back, it's
the land of Genesaret. That's where they had sailed
to. When Peter went into the water, Christ picked him up.
They went to Genesaret. They spent however many days
it was there. And then it says, then Jesus
went thence and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. Now, if you look on a map of
that area, you will find that Tyre is the closest. to the Sea
of Galilee. I'm sorry, Tyre is over here
on the coast of the Mediterranean. The Sea of Galilee is over here.
And then Sidon is way up here about 20 or 30 miles further.
So, when the book says he entered into the coast, plural of Tyre
and Sidon, that means he was somewhere in the middle. Had
he went to Tyre, it said Tyre. Had he went to Sidon, it would
have been Sidon. But he went into the coast of Tyre and Sidon.
So, with that in mind, hold that Thought. Don't ponder. You listen
to what I have to say now. Don't let that stick in your
craw and you don't get what else I have to say here, but don't
lose that thought. Remember, he's at the land of
Jehnezeret. And he departs thence, right? And Jesus went thence
and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. Now here's the
rest of our text. And behold, behold, The book
doesn't say that just for colorful language. This is God's book. This is sacred canon. This is
holy scripture. There's a reason here that Matthew
says, and behold, and here's why, and behold, a woman of Canaan,
not an Israelite. Do you see that? She's not even,
she's not even a proselyte for the Jewish religion. Almost everywhere
in the New Testament when someone who was a Gentile who was favorable
toward the Jews and favorable toward the Jews' religion, the
Jews would speak of this. You remember the centurion and
he asked for the Lord to do something for him and the Jews said, yeah,
he's helped build us a synagogue. It doesn't say anything like
that about this woman. Look. And behold, a woman of
Canaan came out of the same coast See it? Tired sight. Remember? She lived somewhere between those
two towns or cities, whatever they were. Of the same coast,
and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me. Now here's a Gentile. Think about that. A Gentile.
There's no mention of her going to synagogue, being a proselyte,
nothing. And yet she says, Have mercy
on me, O Lord, thou son of David. That is an astounding statement
because not even too many Israelites were calling him that. Now son of David, my daughter
is grievously vexed with the devil. This sounds quite serious. Her daughter was no doubt in
desperate need Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David.
My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil." But he answered
her not a word. And his disciples came. Now,
not only did he answer her not a word, then the 12, at least
the 12, may have been more, but the 12, and his disciples came
and besought him saying, send her away, for she cries after
us. How often are we wrong in the
Lord's way? She wasn't crying after them.
She was crying after him. But we'll look at that here.
But because of their connection to him, they took it personally. But they didn't say, well, Lord,
maybe this woman needs, no, send her away. I detect a little bit
of embarrassment here from these disciples. This Gentile woman
just comes and starts crying out. Oh Lord, thou son of David,
my daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. Lord, I need
your mercy. For she crieth after us, last
part of verse 23, but then 24, but he answered and said, I am
not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Let me move on. Then came she
and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But, now in this context, this
is what we would call a negative. But he answered and said, it
is not meet. It is not proper. Just using
a couple of, it is not right. It is not correct. But he answered
and said, it is not meat to take the children's bread. He just
said, I'm not sent but the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
He said, it's not meat for me to take the children's bread
and cast it to dogs. And she said, truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. Yet the dogs eat
the crumbs which fall from their master's table. I put this in human language.
Here's the first positive thing. I can just imagine this woman. Her daughter's grievously vexed
with a devil. She's begging for mercy. He's
basically just brushed her off. Right? Brushed her off. And she says, truth, Lord. Yet the dogs eat the crumbs which
fall from their master's table. Now here it is. Then Jesus answered
and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Now if the master says great
is thy faith, bless your heart, it's great. Whether you think
it is or not, whether you feel like it's the smallest piece
of faith that God ever gave to any one single individual, if
the master says it's great, guess what? It's great. It's great. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as
thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. Now, just one more verse. And
Jesus departed from thence. Do you see that? And Jesus departed
from thence and came nigh unto what? The sea of Galilee. Hold that thought. That's it,
hold that thought. Do we picture it in our minds
now? We see him getting up one morning and say, all right, fellas,
come on, we're leaving. We spend enough time in the land
of Genesaret, we're going somewhere. And I don't know, I just think
of these things and they probably, Lord, where are we going? And
maybe he said, well, we're just going. Just follow me. Just come
with me. But you know what I'm thinking?
I see the whole story. When they first started out,
they were probably warned, everywhere we go, trouble starts. Right? Right? Everywhere we go, something
happens. People get angry, and when they
get to where they're going, the coast of Tyre and Sidon, the
first person that seems to come on the scene is this Syrophoenician
Gentile woman, crying after them, as the disciples said. And I
can just see, I can see me, if I'd have been there, here we
go again. He done leading us into more trouble. But I have to say this, this
is my message. Oh, to be the master's dog. Just to be the master's dog. So, our text begins with Christ
leaving Genesaret and entering in the coast of Tyre and Sidon.
Clearly he's somewhere in between the two. We don't know thereabouts
and I looked on the map and of course I'm just measuring with
a pencil. I didn't even look for my ruler. I took my pencil
and held it and held it down to the miles and it's somewhere
between 30 to 40 miles. Somewhere, give or take. Because
we don't know exactly where he was. We know he was in the land
of Genesaret at the Sea of Galilee, but he goes up to the coast,
tire, and south. Note first, Something unprecedented
happens. A Gentile comes out in the mix
and cries for mercy. And it's not, I can say it, it's
not even really, although there's I guess some sense of it, it's
not even really selfish mercy. It's not, Lord, I have this own
person, my daughter. Anybody here got kids? What if
your child was truly grievously vexed with the devil. What if you cried out to the
master for mercy? And he just answers, you, not
a word. Now let me just put a little
shoe leather on this. I think we got a lot of people
that are vexed with devils today. We got people in this country,
and I'm a part of them by nature. My old man, my old nature, my
Adamic self is just like theirs, but we're going nuts in this
country. And I'm not even going down the
list. If you can watch the TV and not say, this country's going
nuts, something's wrong with you. Something's wrong with you. But I see this woman come out
and under the auspices of who these people are she's seeking,
they're Jews. They're brought up under the
one religion with the one true and living God. Here's this woman
from the coast of Tyre and Sidon asking for help for her unclean
child. You ever look at somebody and
think about them and their children that way? Huh? No, I'm sure you
good church folk never have done that, have you? Huh? Note first,
something unprecedented occurs. An unaffiliated Gentile comes
forth. But I got to say to me and to
you too, beware pride and grace. Send her away. Don't I'm not I'm not picking
others ever had somebody walk into the assembly and think why
are they here? I've had some people tell me
they were coming To service a certain Sunday, and I knew I mean this
is this was a well-known fact. We'd had trouble with that person
before serious trouble And you think I was a boy, I'm
just so glad they're coming this Sunday. You remember? You wonder if they might be packing. Folks, I'm from West Virginia.
People in West Virginia pack, heat, guns. We got to beware of the pride
of grace. I can just see these disciples.
This is an unclean woman. She's not just someone you look
down upon. The law declares her to be unclean. She's a Gentile. Who is this
person? But not only that, this Gentile
had heard something from someone somewhere. Well, she said a mouthful
compared to what most Jews were saying. Oh, Lord, thou son of
David. She was not just acknowledging
his genealogy, brothers and sisters. She's acknowledging his claim
to messiahship. You're the messiah. That's what
she was saying. This Gentile woman knew more
than most Jews did. We must be careful here that
we don't become proud of place. I'm going to put it this way
because I'm here this morning. It would apply to Sovereign Grace
Chapel or anywhere else I am. Do you think this is the only
place God can send somebody the truth? He sent this woman some
truth, somehow, somewhere, by somebody, way up there at the
coast of Tyre and Sidon. Right? Now, her, she did. She had to. But bless God, she
heard. Let us beware, pride of grace,
pride of place. My brothers and sisters, God
called me out of a association of regular Baptist church way
up in a holler in West Virginia in a place called Elgood. You
ain't never heard of it. And even when I was there, I
didn't know where it was. It was that far back up in the
woods. And we were steeped in religion. And the only thing
that was preached there was God loves everybody, Jesus died for
everybody, won't you come forward and make a decision for Jesus?
And if you have done that, then you probably ought to get right
with Jesus. Come up here and get right with, I heard it over
and over and over and over. And God didn't send me to 13th
Street. God didn't send me to a place
called Sovereign Grace Chapel. God sent one man to that place
with the gospel. And he wasn't even a preacher.
He was just looking for a place to worship. And he shows up there, starts
to talk to me, and I thought this man is nuts. And then God laid hold of me. Now he didn't save me with the
error I was hearing, but he sent the truth right in the midst
of that error. Then when I began to speak about
it, guess what they said? Bye. Just remember, all of us, let
us beware pride of grace and pride of place. This Gentile
woman had dire need. What a glory it is to be shut
up under God's mercy. When I was in religion, I thought
I had it all. I made my profession when I was,
I am told, I barely remember it, when I was five years old.
And I was even a soul winner. Now I'm told, I don't remember
this, but my mother tells me that I as a five year old boy
would go out with the women on soul wedding night. And I would
go up to houses with the Bible tract that even some of the women
didn't want to visit. Why? Because I believed in Jesus.
But I had no idea who he was. Until one day he left Genesaret. Came all the way to the coast
of Tire and Sidon and crossed my path. And he laid something
on my soul that was a dire need. I'm really lost now. I'm really
lost now. This woman had dire need. God
in that place took me just very similar to this woman. He put
me in a place of dire need. And all around me was cousins
and uncles and brothers and sisters and grandparents. It was my family
church. And not one of them cared about
my dire need when I got in trouble. Well, you made a profession,
which is fine. You've rededicated over and over again. You come
to church. You're a young preacher now. I'm glad God shut all that down
to me. Just shut it down. And then there was a man named
Laurel Cochran. He was in his late 60s. He was
done of what we call retirement age. And took me under his wing. I knew very little, if anything,
other than God had rocked my world, if you pardon the language.
He caused me to see what I really was, and God looked a lot different
to me then. What I began to read in this
book about his son was not what I had been taught all my life.
And that old man took me into his pulpit. This young lady here probably
remembers some of that. She was very young back then,
by the way. I wish I had the grace that an
old man had. I am so skeptical of people today.
Have people show up at our little group. We're pretty tight-knit. When there ain't but about 15
of you, you get to know one another after 50 years. Somebody strange
comes in, I start doing just like these disciples. Who's this? Why are they here? Are they here
to cause trouble? No, maybe God just brought them
there to hear the truth. Hmm? Now, again, you good church
folk don't ever do that to you. But here's a second thought.
Look at the master's soul-winning prowess that is toe-in-cheek.
Let me say that right off the bat. He didn't answer her a word. That's not what I was taught.
I actually looked up on my phone, this phone right here, I looked
up an app. I found out more than one, but
here's one, effective soul winning tips for busy believers. Yeah. Evidently our Lord didn't read
that app. Did he? Lord, have mercy on me. My daughter's grievously vexed
with the devil. And he answered her not a word. He ignored her. And then, he didn't even rebuke
the disciples' bigotry, did he? Now did he? Matter of fact, it's
almost as though he confirmed it. Because he said, his disciples
came and besought him saying, send her away, for she crieth
after us. But he answered and said, I am
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He's just letting this thing
fester. God will use even the wrath of
men to praise him. That's what God says. That's
what God says. But he answered and said, I'm
not sent under the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And just
notice, this dear lady didn't say, well, but Lord, there, you
know, a Jew is not one, which is one outwardly, a Jew, which
is one, she knew exactly what he was telling her. You're not
a Jew. And beloved, salvation is of
the Jews. Because when God saved each and
every one of us, if we're Gentiles, you know what he made us? Jews.
But she didn't cry that. She didn't say, but Lord, they're
not all Israel, which are of Israel. Now did she? Now that
was prominent even in the Old Testament. Prophet after prophet
after prophet was basically told, not in these words, but the same
truth, they're not all Israel, which are of Israel. Isaiah was
told only a tenth shook up. He was told that. No. Then came she and worshipped him. Think about it. He ignores
her. He didn't even rebuke the disciples' bigotry. I, let me make this personal,
I never see things as God sees them. I never do. God always
throws a wrench in it somewhere. I've been doing this for almost
50 years. He still throws a wrench in it
somewhere. I think I've seen it all. And
then God says, no you ain't. No you ain't. We never see things as God sees
them. And God will almost always act
contrary to human thought about a matter. Wasn't this a perfect
time to school her in the finer thoughts of what the law really
meant and what the law really was? No, he wasn't there to see
if she would be legal. He wasn't there to see if she'd
even be obedient after the law. You know what he was doing? He
was drawing that God-given faith that God had given her out into
the open. He's forcing it out into the
open. And I can relate because that's
what God did to me. I would have stayed where I was
and preached what I knew as God taught me. It's just they wouldn't
have it. This was my family. I was perfectly
willing, brother, to stay there for the rest of my life and preach
what I was beginning to learn, but they said, we will not have
it. The note thirdly, well, turn to Matthew chapter
11. Let me save my spot. Turn to Matthew chapter 11. Here's
third thought. A relentless, God-given, unshakable
faith is what's manifested right here. I mean, if you can be ignored and
then told basically, all right, basically down to the point that
you're nothing but a dog, right? That's what he told her. It's
not right for me to take the children's bread and give it
to dogs. I can see my flesh now. Who are
you? Right? How about one of you?
What about if I came to you this morning and I walked in and said,
you're a dog? Well, of course the hair bristles on the dog. But not this woman. You see that? And the disciples didn't, it
gives no indication, they come up and say, No, it's, Lord, she's
crying after us, send her away. And he does all of this and says
all he says so she can hear it. So she can hear it. She still
says, truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. Now think of this
verse, Matthew 11, verse 12. And from the days of, I know
how many people interpret this. But let's look at it for what
it really is. Verse 12 of Matthew 11, and from the days of John
the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffered violence.
And the violent take it by force. Now I read all kinds of commentaries
and they're talking about people who oppose the kingdom. That
ain't talking about opposition, that's talking about what? Taking
it. This woman, because God had given her a God-given
faith, would not take no for an answer, even though she was
being constantly insulted. Do you hear me? She was being
constantly insulted. She just cried out for mercy,
even for her daughter, not even for her own personal self. But
her faith knows this is the master. This is the Son of David. This
is Messiah. And you know what faith will
do? One of the first things faith does is not teach you what Jesus
died only for the elect. I'm going to whoop-dee-doo. If
that's all you know, you don't know anything but doctrine. True God-given faith causes you
to bow down to the authority of Jesus Christ no matter what
he says or does. It's what it does. It's what
it does. Think of it. It's unshakable.
She's taking it. I will not relent. She doesn't demand her rights
though, does she? What'd she say? He says, it's not meat to
take the children's bread and give it to dogs. Her first words
are truth, Lord. You see it? Oh, that that faith in me would
just always shine bright. It's there, but all too often
it gets shrouded by my flesh and by me. What about you? but
doth forthly." What did he actually do? He ignored her. He told her,
basically, this is not for you. He says, it ain't even right.
It ain't even right to do what you're asking. That's what he
said. He insults her, calls her a dog. How would that go over at Joel
Osteen's church today? Anybody know Joel Osteen? Shame
on you if you do. But I guess shame on me too.
I've seen him too. You think Joel Osteen gets up
and tells them people they're dogs? Of course not. But the
master did. Didn't he? He called it like
it is. She was a dog. And so am I. So am I. But you know what? Old to be the master's dog. Just being a dog's of no merit.
There's no merit there. But if you're the master's dog,
you are somebody. Because you're owned by the master,
even though you're nothing but a dog. Nothing but a dog. Here he is. Look at this soul-willed
prowl. Now he's pouring salt into the
wound. But that God-given face, he says,
truth, Lord. Now here's the fifth part. Think
about it. The master does not mollycoddle
faith. That's what people are doing.
They're mollycoddling people's faith. Now, you really mean something,
God. God really cares a lot about
you, and you're so great, and God would be so blessed. They
may not say it this way, but this is what they're talking
about. God would be so blessed if you just let him have you.
Well, he owns us lock, stock, and barrel, whether we're reprobate
or elect, whether we're a believer or an unbeliever. Whether we're
regenerate or unregenerate, He owns us lock, stock, and barrel,
and He does with us as He pleases. God-given faith is always tried
with fire, not with sugar, not with honey. That's why if you
believe God this morning, and you say, well, why does this
happen that tries your, we'll see if you're gonna cry out,
truth, Lord, Even while your flesh is saying, I hate that.
Ever been there? Ever had that part of you say,
why has this happened to me? And then the faith says, why
not? I deserve far worse. You just rub salt in the wound.
But notice this faith, this is it. Brothers and sisters, this
is where it comes down to. Faith, a God-given faith, that
faith that's associated with, joined to salvation. And I say
that because faith's not your savior. Christ is your savior. He gives you faith to join you
to him. Faith seeks its source. Faith,
when given by Christ, where's it gonna run? To Christ. To Christ. But faith is never offended by
the truth. I know when God first opened
my eyes, and I have to confess, I believe that he's done this
over and over again. You know, just like it's over,
I know he's opened my eyes. He opens my eyes again, and then
later on he'll open my eyes again. My problem has always been with
not, listen to, not me, it's been with this book. I've been
comfortable with myself for almost 63 years. And I could live with
myself another 63. I could. Until God opens this book up
to me. Then I'm exposed for what I am. A dog. A dog. And you know what? He keeps telling
me over and over and over again, you're a dog. And I cry, that's
the truth. But even the dogs eat the crumbs
that fall from Get it? Their master's table. You know what she's saying? You're
right, Lord. I'm a dog, but I'm your dog. I don't know how much
she knew about redemption. I don't. I guarantee as things
went on, she began to receive them. Don't you think a woman
like that could receive the truth of the scriptures that come more
and more and more? She's able to put up with that. The religious world in which
we live today, brothers and sisters, they won't put up with the Word
of God for anything. I've read people directly from
the Scripture and they say, well, I don't believe that. And they
claim to be a Christian. And I'm thinking, really? That's
what it's come to? I don't really believe the Book
of God, but I'm a Christian? Faith never is offended by the
truth. But here's the thought. Was the
master really ignoring her? Now, he actually did ignore her,
but was that his intent? Was that the intent? Was it his
intent? Now, he was hard on her, but
was it just to be hard? Was that the reason? Was he truly
being uncompassionate? I want you to raise your hand
this morning if you're here and you've done it. Anybody ever
walk from here? And I'm talking about go up the road with that
north, whatever, south, whatever way that you go up the road toward
the four lane up yonder. Anybody ever walk from right
here all the way to Milton, West Virginia? Anybody? I can't raise my hand. I ain't
never done that. I've been by there all kinds of times. I ain't
never walked from here all the way to Milton. You ever done
that? Anybody? I guess. Anybody ever
walk from here to Milton? You know how far that is? About
35, 40 miles. And then what happens immediately
after it says, O woman, great is thy faith. Be unto you as
you will. And from that hour, her daughter
was healed. What does the book of God say?
And Jesus departed Thetis and came nigh unto the Sea of Galilee,
turned right back around from Milton, walked all the way back
to this church building. For that one woman. Did you see it? I mean, that's
not profound doctrine, but it's profound truth. He went all the way there just
for her and her daughter. Brethren and sisters, he came
all the way down from up there, wherever that, all the way down
from up there and came and dwelt in a body. that's a body likened
to yours. I'm not saying this trying to
be brash. I'm saying this trying to speak
the truth. He had the smell of sweat on him. This is the Lord
of glory. The God who created the universe. He had the smell of sweat on him. The smell of human waste
when he had to go. When you wash, when those women,
some of them washed his feet, it was not a pleasant job. But this is the master, you see. There's no beauty in him that
when we see him we should just... When you look at him, he's not
that picture we used to have on that church I told you I was
born and raised in. We had a big, I mean it's a big
old picture right back here of Solomon. You ever seen Solomon
or the head of Christ? You ever seen it? This great
looking Gentile fellow with big long hair. You ever seen that
one? And then I sat on the back pew and the preacher's standing
right here with Jesus right behind him with hair down to here and
he'd tell me it's a sin for a man to have long hair. Ever been
in one of them places? And I was thinking, wow. Wow. But we got smart and got rid
of that and put a big cross up behind the pulpit so I guess
we were doing better. Ever walk from here all the way
to Milton just to help somebody that's totally opposite of you? That's what our Lord did for
us. He came down from glory and became human flesh. And here's an astounding thing.
He will now be that forever. Forever. My late pastor I love
that man. He said, God confined himself
to an ovum in a woman. Think about it. In a woman's
womb. You don't see there that woman. For nine months, God confined
himself to that. And for about 33 and a half years,
he lived in this world where you and I live today. And you
remember what I told you earlier about this world's gone mad?
It's always been mad. It's always been mad. We just
have such immediate access to it all now, right? We can just
see it on TV and the internet. It's always been this way. There's always been men who wanted
to be women and women who wanted to be men. There's always been
sexual perversion and there's always been religious perversion
in this world. Let me tell you something, the
master will draw out the faith he is so graciously given. He's
going to do it from you. If he gives it to you, he's going
to draw it out of you. but it's not going to be what
we call pie in the sky. What did Peter say our faith
is tried by? I didn't come up with that on my own earlier.
It's tried by what? F-I-R-E. Our Lord put that woman
through the fire. Now did he not? And yet she says,
then she came and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But
he answered and said, it is not me to take the children's bread
and cast it to dogs. And she said, truth, Lord. Yet
the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table. I am not, by any stretch of the
imagination, a proponent of what most people think about when
they think about slavery. And you know what I'm talking
about. But I am glad I am the slave of Jesus Christ. He bought
me with his blood. He owns me lock, stock, and barrel. And he will do with me as he
pleases. And sometimes it hurts. And sometimes it hurts severely. And sometimes you wonder, how
is this good? But he says, all things work
together for good. He didn't, he just said, what'd
he say? And we know. You don't have to even say it,
you just know it. Lots of times when we say it,
we're doing it tongue in cheek, now ain't we? Come on now. Well
God's will be done, but we know we really wouldn't go a certain
way. Now come on, right? It's easy to say God's will be
done. But God'll put us through exactly what he's pleased to
put us through. And he won't ask us our opinion
about the matter. But yet he will be able to say
unto us. Then answered Jesus and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. She didn't muster this
up. You know where it came from? That same master that was standing
right there in front of her. Think about it. He left Genezareth. And somewhere, maybe before,
I don't know when it took place, somewhere along the line, he'd
sent somebody, that woman, to tell that woman something. And
there'd come a day when he said, all right, fellas, we're going
to the coast of Tyneside. I don't know that he, he didn't
tell them this to start with. There was some faith there he
was ready to bring out into the open. You see, the master will always
draw out faith that he so graciously bestowed. And here's what faith
does. It submits to the master. It
submits. Think of it. Faith hopes only
in the master. There is no other place of hope. I love those people that I gather
with, you know, every Sunday that we can. And I love you. I love just being here just this
second time. I love it. It's a joy. But you're not my hope. Am I
making that trip all the way up here and preaching these two
messages? Will send me to hell apart from
Jesus Christ. Do you understand that? It will
send me to hell apart from Jesus Christ. Think of it this, let me just
get ready to close this down. Or leave you with this. Pardon
me just a second. Faith never demands the bread. Not faith. If there's ever any
demand, it's flesh. Faith never demands the bread. But it does rejoice in every
crumb. It rejoices in every crumb. Think about this. Some dogs never
even get a crumb. Right? Some dogs never even get
a crumb. And you know what happens to
them? They perish under the master's damnation. But there are some
dogs, he says, that's for you. It's more than I deserve. And
you know what? It's plenty enough to get me
through. God got you through so far? He
will bring you the rest of the way. Now, he may take everything
away from you to do it, but he'll bring you the rest of the way.
Heavenly Father, Lord, these things are beyond us, beyond
our natural ability to perceive, believe, trust, but oh God, you're
able. You're able to make us, make us into what we need to
be in your son, in Christ's name, amen. All right. Thank you, brother. Weren't we
blessed? So thankful our Lord does not
change. What does he say? I, the Lord, I change not. Therefore,
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. And that's our comfort, isn't
it? Walter, we appreciate you. Appreciate you coming. Appreciate
the message and appreciate and love the fact that the Lord has
blessed you and called you to service. As Chris comes and leads
us in our closing song, Walter and Penny, while we're singing,
are going to go back into the vestibule. They're eager, as
you can imagine, to get on the roads. Not only are the roads
getting probably bad between here and there, they actually
passed a sinkhole this morning. Part of the road caved in on
them. So pray for them as they travel back home. Thank you all
for being here. All right, Chris. All right, in closing, take your
hymnal and turn it to 256, and we'll be standing as we close.
It is well with my soul. Two, five, six. ? When peace
like a river ? Attends my way ? When sorrows like sea billow
roll ? Whatever my lot ? Thou hast taught me to say ? It is
well, it is well with my soul ? It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should bow, though
trial should Let this bless the sure right's
control That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate And hath shed
his own blood for my soul It is well ? With my soul ? It is well, it
is well ? With my soul ? My sin, oh, the blame ? Of this glorious
throne ? My sin not impart ? But the whole ? Is nailed to the
cross ? And I bear it no more ? Please the Lord ? Praise the
Lord ? O my soul ? It is well ? With my soul ? It is well ?
It is well with my soul ? And Lord haste the day ? When my
face shall be sighed ? The clouds be rolled back as a scroll ?
The tribe shall resound ? And the Lord shall be saved even
so ? It is well with my soul ? It is well ? With my soul ? It is well, it is well with my
soul