Our Father who art in heaven,
holy, reverent is your matchless name. Father, we dare only come
into your thrice holy presence, pleading the person of our Lord
Jesus Christ, pleading his obedience as our only righteousness, pleading
his blood as the only forgiveness of our sins. And Father, we come
with a grateful and thankful heart How thankful we are for
the Lord Jesus Christ that you would send your only begotten
son to come as a man in the flesh
to be the representative of, to be the substitute, the sacrifice
for sinful men and women such as we are. Father, we're overwhelmed
and we thank you. And I pray that this morning
that the name of our Savior would be exalted and magnified so that
your people here could see his glory, that we would be drawn
to him, that you would give each one of us faith to trust in our
Lord Jesus Christ, trust our souls completely and wholly to
him. And Father, we thank you for
the many blessings of this life that you've given to us this
week, Father, how we thank you, knowing that everything we have
has come from your hand. We thank you for this place,
a place that you've provided where we can meet together and
worship. And Father, I pray you'd bless your word as it's preached
from this place, that it might reach your people wherever that
they may be found, that it might draw them to Christ, that it
might comfort and strengthen and edify the hearts of your
people. We pray that you keep this as a place, as a lighthouse
of your gospel, where sinners can always come and hear the
Savior. Father, what we pray for ourselves,
we pray especially for our children's classes this morning, that you
would bless our teachers, Father, that you'd bless our children
with your mercy and your grace. And we dare not, Father, forget
to Pray for your people that you brought into the valley of
trouble and trial. Father, we know it's of your
eternal will and purpose, it's not an accident. Father, we pray
that you'd comfort the brokenhearted, that you'd heal the sick, that
you'd be with those who are in difficult, difficult places,
that you'd lead them out according to your will and purpose. All
these things we ask in that name which is above every name, the
name of Christ our Savior. I've titled the lesson this morning,
The Results of Electing Love. Our text this morning has to
be one of my very favorite stories in the whole Word of God, because
it shows us the results of God's electing love. I love to read
these accounts of the Savior's interactions with needy sinners,
because it always, whenever I read those things, it gives hope to
this needy sinner. So first I want us to see that
the results of electing love The Lord comes to where his elect
are found. In verse 24 of Mark chapter seven,
and from thence he arose and went into the borders of Tyre
and Sidon and entered into a house and would have no man know it,
but he could not be hid. For a certain woman whose young
daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell
at his feet. Now the scriptures make it as
plain as the noonday sun that God the Father elected a people
unto salvation. In his great mercy, his grace,
his love, the Father chose to save a sinful people. And I'm
so thankful for God's electing love. I know this is a hated,
hated doctrine by the natural man, but I'm so thankful for
it. God's elect never would have chosen him, but he chose them
anyway. God's elect never would have
desired to be saved on God's terms by God's son, but God chose
to save him anyway. God's elect, we never would have
come to Christ on our own. So the Savior comes where his
people are. He comes to save them from their
sins and to bring them to him. We won't go to him, so he comes
to us. Isn't that what a shepherd does?
The shepherd has to go seeking the lost sheep. The shepherd
has to go where that lost sheep is. It's out wandering aimlessly
around the wilderness, and the shepherd has to go where that
sheep is. The sheep's not going to come back. The shepherd's
got to go to that sheep. He's got to pick that sheep up, put
it on his shoulders, and bring it all the way back to the fold.
Now that's what's happening here. Now I know on first glance, it
looks like this woman is the one who's seeking the Lord, doesn't
it? It looks like she's taking the initiative to come to him
and find him in this house. It sounds like she made all these
first moves. Now it's true, she's seeking
the Lord. But only because he sought her first. She's only
seeking him because he came where she was first. That's the only
way she could ever find him. He came to her first. And that's
what he does for all of his people. All those people that the father
gave the son to say, he comes where they are. All right, number
two. Now there's, the Lord comes to
his elect. Second, there's the elect sinner.
In verse 25, it says, a certain woman. Now the Lord came to this
place, to this house, at this particular time, on purpose.
Because he was seeking a certain woman. A certain woman, not just
any woman, but this woman, a certain woman. He'd known her from all
of eternity. As far as I know, we don't know
anything else about this woman. We don't know her name. We don't
know anything else about her, but the Lord knew her. He's known
her from all of eternity. He chose to save her by His grace,
by name, on purpose, He selected her. And now, Her time of grace
has come. And the time of grace is the
time when the Lord has ordained for us to meet the Savior. Now this woman needed a time
of grace. She's a sinful woman. It says in verse 26 that the
woman was a Greek. She was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician
by nation, and she besought him that he would cast forth the
devil out of her daughter. Now God's elect are a sinful
people. And they need somebody to do all the saving for them.
They can't contribute the first thing to their righteousness.
They can't contribute the first thing to their justification.
They can't help God save them in any way. But God chose to
save them anyway. And that's who this woman is.
She's not a Jew. She's a Gentile. She's an alien
from the Commonwealth of Israel. And she's from a wicked town.
Look over in Luke chapter 10. I'll show you this. is known
for being a very wicked town. And that's where this woman's
from. Luke 10, beginning in verse 13.
Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For
if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which
had been done in you, they would have a great while ago repented.
sinning in sackcloth and ashes, but it should be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. Now, Tyre is known
to be this awful, wicked city, and everybody around would say,
oh, this is the worst. That's where this woman's from,
the worst kind of sinner. But don't you see this time and
time and time again in scripture? God's elect are always found
where the natural man would least expect them. Abram, the idolater. Not a man seeking the Lord, a
man bound down to an idol. God called Rahab the harlot. Not a fine upstanding woman,
a harlot. God saved Ruth, the heathen. The Moabitess, the idolater,
and put her in the line of Christ the Savior himself. Zacchaeus,
the publican. The man is a traitor to his country,
he's cheating his countrymen. That's who the Lord called. How
about the thief on the cross? This man was so bad, a wicked,
violent society said, we got to do away with this guy. And
the Lord saved him. How about Saul, the self-righteous
Pharisee? He hated Christ and his church
so much He'll throw men and women and children into prison for
believing. He'll hold the coats of the men who would stone Stephen
for preaching the gospel, for believing Christ. You and I would
think, well, you know, somebody persecutes us, somebody, you
know, beats or tortures or throws in jail or even kills one of
my loved ones. I don't want God to save them.
That's who God saved, the self-righteous Pharisee. God always chooses
to save the worst sinners. And he does it for this reason,
so his grace and his mercy and his love and his power will be
glorified. That's why he does it. There's
no doubt, this woman would tell us she is the least likely sinner
of all to receive mercy. All right, number three. God's electing love will create
a need, a great need in a sinner. This certain woman, she had a,
verse 25 says, had a young daughter with an unclean spirit. And when
she heard of him, when she heard of the Lord, she came and fell
at his feet. Look back at Matthew chapter 15. This woman had an
urgent need. Matthew kind of describes a situation
a little more clearly. Matthew 15 verse 21. Then Jesus
went thence, and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon.
And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast, and
cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son
of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil." Grievously vexed. Now, you parents, can you think
of a more urgent need? on a mother's heart than your
young daughter suffering a grievous illness, a serious sickness.
Maybe this was her only daughter. It was her young daughter, a
little daughter. And watching her suffer like that, it's just
ripping this mother's heart out. This is an urgent need. I mean,
I don't think anything can hit a mother in particular, but any
parent, mother or father, either one, I don't think anything can
hit us harder than the torment of a little daughter, a young
daughter. It's just so much harder for
a parent to watch a child be sick than be sick yourself. I mean, every parent in here,
you know, seven days a week and twice on Sunday would trade sickness
with one of our children. I would rather suffer it myself
than watch my child suffer that. And this woman, her daughter
was grievously vexed with the devil. I mean, just so horrible
for her to watch. She's in great need, isn't she?
Great need. Her heart is just broken. But
do you know that need, that great need created in her life was
a blessing to her. This heathen woman never would
have found the Lord Jesus unless he first created an urgent need
in her heart. And that's what the Lord does
for all of his people spiritually. He's got to create a need, a
great need, an urgent need in our heart. He's got to make us
absolutely miserable. He's got to make us miserable,
not just in our sin. He's got to make us miserable
in the works of our flesh. The Lord's got to strike at the
thing that we hold the dearest to create this urgent need in
our heart. And the thing that is the most
dear to every one of us is our works. Now, by nature, that's
the thing that's the most dear to all of us. It's the works
of our heart. And God's got to make us see
those works, those works that I've done to make God pleased
with me, those works that I think I've done that, you know, I've
done better than other people in society. So God's going to
love me more. God's got to make me see that's
my greatest sin. That's my greatest sin. And when
the Lord shows us that, that's gonna make us absolutely miserable. He's gonna make us miserable
in failing to establish our own righteousness. Now that's a miserable
situation, but it's the greatest blessing that we could have.
Because we'll never come to Christ, we'll never seek him, we'll never
beg him for mercy until the Lord makes us miserable. The Lord
is more ready to give us mercy than we are to beg for it. So
he makes us beg for it. That's what he does. He creates
that urgent need so that we'll beg for his mercy. All right,
here's the fourth thing. God's electing love will result
in God's people, those elect, hearing of Christ. Verse 25 says
that this certain woman whose young daughter, unclean spirit,
heard of him. She heard of him. Somehow, this
woman heard of Christ And it's probably not all that surprising,
really. The fame of the Lord Jesus was
spreading through this area like wildfire. I mean, everybody was
talking how Jesus of Nazareth, this man can heal any disease.
I mean, what disease do you have? They said, I saw him on Isaac.
He heals any disease. They said, I've seen him raise
the dead. They said, I saw him cast out demons. And they said
that, and this woman's ears perked up. What? He cast out demons. The Lord made sure word of him
came to this woman. So she'd hear and come to him. This woman, this, I mean, it's
a, oh, it's a mother whose heart is just being broken. This was
good news to this mother. Jesus of Nazareth, he's exactly
who I need. That's what she heard. And the
Lord does the very same thing for all of his elect. Somehow,
some way, he makes sure they hear of Christ. Somehow they
will. Maybe they're born in a home
where their parents bring them to the service. Maybe they have
a friend or a neighbor who invites them. Used to be maybe they'd
be tuned up and down the radio dial. Maybe today they're on
the internet somehow and a message pops up. However it is, the Lord's
gonna make it so that his elect hear of Christ. You have to hear
of Christ before you believe in Him, don't you? Look at Romans
chapter 10. I hope we never underestimate
the importance of hearing the gospel, of hearing Christ preached
because we can't believe on Him. Nobody can believe on Him until
we hear Him praised. Romans 10 verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how then shall they
call on him in whom they not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they not heard? And how shall they hear
without a preacher? Somebody's got to tell us who
Christ is. Somebody's got to tell us that
Christ is the savior of sinners. And God Almighty is gonna make
sure His elect hear. He's gonna make sure that His
sinful people hear who Christ is and what he has done for his
people. God's elect are gonna hear that
Christ justifies sinners. He makes them without sin. He
makes them righteous and holy and he saves his people without
any help from you. You don't have to have any input
in this thing. You don't have to help him in any way. Christ
is everything that you need. Now you just bow to him. You
believe on him. Christ saved sinners all by Himself
without any contribution from me. To a sinner, that's good
news. And God's elect are all going
to hear that. They're going to say, that's
the best news I've ever heard. I'm going to be like this woman
and I'm going to Him. I'm going to Him. You may think,
well, I don't know where He's at. Well, if I need Him, I'm
going to find Him. This, you know, the Lord tried
to go in this house and have nobody know it so he could have
peace. This woman found him, didn't she? Because she heard
of him. Because she had a great need
and nothing's gonna stop her from getting to him. All right,
here's the fifth thing. This is the result of God's electing
love. Will cause God's elect to beg
for mercy. Verse 26, the woman was a Greek,
a Syrophoenician by nation, and she besought him. She begged
him. that he would cast forth the
devil out of her daughter. Now someone's gonna say, well,
you know, I've heard the gospel. I've heard this doctrine of election. And I can even agree with it.
I can see it's in scripture. I can agree with it. I can agree
that it's God's right to choose who he will save and who he'll
pass by. I can see that. I've heard from scripture and
I see it. I've heard it from the preacher.
I've seen it in scripture. I believe it's true that Christ
died for God's elect, and only God's elect. Christ didn't die
for everybody, trying to see if they might decide to accept
him or not. Christ died for his elect, and
only his elect, and he put their sin away, and those people, and
only those people shall be saved. I see that. That's so. God's elect shall be saved, nobody
else will. Well, since that's true, I'm
just gonna wait and see if God will save me or not. Because
you know, whatever will be will be. You know, God's already decided
what he's gonna do. Whatever will be will be. I'm
just gonna sit here and see if God will save me or not. No,
sir. No. That's not the language of
faith. And that's not the language of
need, is it? You know, if the Lord ever makes
you a guilty, needy sinner, you will not be fatalistic about
begging for mercy. Just like you ever get real sick,
you won't be fatalistic about seeing the doctor. If you're
really sick, you won't say, yeah, oh well, I'll see the doctor
whenever, you know. I'll just, you know, whatever
will be will be. I'll just wait till he has an opening, you know.
No, sir, you're going to call him every day. Do you have any
cancellations today? Do you have, I need to see you.
Do you have a few extra minutes? You're going to insist on seeing
that doctor because you have a need. This poor woman had a
need, and she had no problem following it to feed the Savior
and begging Him for mercy. No problem whatsoever. She wasn't
trying Jesus out to see if He could save her too. She wasn't
trying Him out to see, well, you know, let's see, if He does
something for her, maybe I'll believe on Him. She was urgently
begging for mercy. Because that's the only thing
she needed. She needed mercy. So she's going to beg for it.
And I'm telling you, before the Lord saves you and me, He's gonna
bring us to that place where all we can do is beg Him for
mercy. Just begging for it. I've been in Mexico, and I've
seen what I assume to be real beggars. I mean, you know, there's
folks who think they're kind of sergeants. I believe I've
seen some real beggars. and just bless their hearts. I mean, it's heartbreaking, really,
to see. I mean, you and I aren't close
to going out and begging for food right now, are we? We're
not close to going out and begging for a coat or, you know. We have enough of it on our own.
We're too proud. We're too proud. Right now, we're
too proud to beg because we're too full. But when the Lord empties
us, He's gonna take that pride out of us, and we're gonna beg.
And God's got to bring us to that people. And if you're one
of God's elect, that's what He's gonna do. He's gonna bring you
down till you beg Him for mercy. And here's the sixth thing. The
Lord's gonna teach His elect, He does not have to show mercy
to them. Verse 27 says, but Jesus said
unto her, let the children first be filled. Well, it's not me.
It's not right to take the children's bread and to cast it under dogs. And the Lord told her, it's not
right for me to show mercy to you. It's not right for me to
do anything for you. The children got to eat more
dogs. You're not a child. You're a Gentile. You're not
a child. You're just a dog. And I'll tell
you what the Lord's showing us here. God is God. I mean, He
is God. And that means when I say God
is God, this is what I mean. God has the right to do what
he will, with whom he will, when he will. That includes me and
mine and you and yours. God has the right to do what
he will because God Almighty is not beholden to anybody. He
doesn't have to do anything. Now God can have mercy on me
if he will, but he doesn't have to. You know, this is one of
the things I hate about these false prophets that say, you
know, you see them on TV, you know, repeat this prayer after
me. If you say this, you know, God
will save you. Like, somehow God has to save
me if I ask Him. You know, I say this sinner's
prayer because I said it, now God has to save me. He'd be holding
to me. No, sir, He's not. No, He's not. My salvation is
completely completely up to the Lord. He decides. He alone decides if I want to
be saved or I want to be damned. He decides that. God would be
just and right to pass you and me by and to save some idolater,
to save some freewheeler and just pass us by. God would be
right to do it. Now, that being said, Don't go back
to being this fatalistic guy and say, well, you know, God's
going to decide wherever we'll be. God's people are going to beg
for mercy. And you go through this book, you will find one
person who ever begged for mercy that did not receive it. Not
one. But God doesn't have to show
mercy to me because I begged. No, God's the one who showed
mercy on me when he made me beg. See what I'm saying? And then
he's going to reveal himself. Then he's going to save us. But
first he's going to show us this. He's not beholding to you and
me. He's just not. And the only option that leaves
me is begging. So that's the seventh thing.
God's electing love. This is how the result of it.
We're going to take sides with God against ourselves. In verse
28, the Lord called her a dog. I mean, now, I wouldn't try doing
that with too many people, but Lord called her a dog, and this
is how she responded to that. She said unto him, yes, Lord,
yet the dogs eat under the table, or dogs under the table eat of
the children's crumbs. You know, this woman, she had
a great need. She was a beggar. She gladly
took her place as a beggar before the Lord, and you couldn't run
her off. You couldn't insult her and run
her off. You know, sometimes I'm afraid,
gosh, did I do something to offend somebody, this person or that
person? I hope I didn't do something to offend them and run them off.
The Lord insulted this woman on purpose. He called her a dog. And all she said was, Lord, you're
right. I'm a dog. I'm no good. I'm no
count. I don't deserve anything from
you. That's why I'm begging for mercy. Look back at Matthew chapter
15 again. She just kept begging. And Matthew,
again, gives us some more details about this, about how persistent
she was in begging for mercy. Verse 24. Well, look at verse
23. She's crying and begging for
mercy. He didn't even answer her word the first time. He just
ignored her. And the disciples came and besought him, saying,
send her away, for now she's crying after us. But he answered
and said, I'm not sent but of the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. I'm only sent to save my elect, that's what he's saying.
When she heard that, then came she and worshiped him, saying,
Lord, help me, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, it's
not me, it's not right to take the children's bread and to cast
it to dogs. And she said, truly, Lord, yet
the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the master's table.
This woman was persistent. You know, when he told her, I've
only come to save my elect. She didn't say, well, that's
not fair. I mean, what about me? I'm here begging for mercy.
I've got a need. That's not fair. When she heard
the Lord say, I only came to save my elect, she said, well,
then Lord, would you have mercy on me? You came to save your
leg. Lord, would you have mercy on
me? Would you save me? Lord, I'm a dog. I'm not worthy
of the least of your mercy. And I'm not begging for a feast.
I'm not begging for a seat at the table alongside your children.
I'm not asking you to be like David was with Mephibosheth and
give me a seat at your table. Lord, I'm asking that you just
let me sit like a dog under the table and eat some crumbs that
the children drop. That's persistence. That's persistence. And you know, a dog is happy
to do that. Our family, between us, we have
three, four, four dogs. And you all know, I've mentioned
him once or twice, I've got a grandson, 16, 17 months old, and he eats
kind of sloppily, you know. The dogs love it. when Grayson
eats. I mean, they love it. He's their
favorite guy. They're all around him. They've
eaten some of the children's crumbs. That's fine with a dog. They kind of act like it's a
feast. If you and I are a dog, we're
going to find a feast under the master's table, aren't we? The
crumbs that fall from his table, the crumbs are a feast, are a
feast to sinners. And Lord's going to take the
starch out of us till we realize I'm a dog. I'm a dog. And that's going to make me persistent.
That's going to make me persistent to keep begging for mercy no
matter what. And do you know what the Lord
called that? Great faith. In verse 28, he answered in... All right, Clay's. Yeah. Verse 29. No, I'm still in the wrong place.
I need to be back in Matthew, I think. Yeah, in Matthew 15
verse 28. 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. This woman just begging for mercy,
just taking, having no pride in herself whatsoever. The Lord
called that great faith. That's a result of God's electing
love. He's gonna give his people faith.
And here's the last thing. God's electing love results in
salvation and rest. Rest in Christ. Now back over
in Mark 7 verse 29. And he said unto her, for this
saying, go thy way. The devil's gone out of thy daughter.
And she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out,
and her daughter, laid upon the bed. You know, the Lord gave
this poor mercy beggar everything she asked for. She went home
and she opened up the door and she found everything the Savior
told her was true. Everything he said was true.
She went home and found her daughter resting. She wasn't grievously
vexed and tormented and going all over the place and foaming
at the mouth. and out of control because of this demon anymore,
she went home and found her daughter resting on the bed. Now that's
a picture of what happens to every one of God's people. Oh,
God chose a people. He came where we are. He showed
us what we are. He gave us a great need. He made
us beg Him for mercy. He made us keep begging Him for
mercy. He showed us. He's not beholden to us, but
He gave us mercy anyway. He's going to make us see ourselves
for who and what we are. So we're totally dependent on
Christ. He gives us faith in Christ.
Faith to trust Him. And we find out everything He
said in His word is true. His grace is sufficient. That's true. His mercy the riches
of His mercy, you never reach the bottom of it. His love for
sinners, you can't measure it. That's true. That's true. God
saves sinners and He keeps them and preserves them and brings
them all the way to glory. Everything that every promise
that He says in His word that to the natural man seems too
good to be true, the believer finds out it's true. And that
lets us rest. Rest in Christ. No more of this
running around, foaming at the mouth and worrying about everything. Rest in Christ. That's the result
of God's electing love. It ends up, rest in Christ. All right, hope that'll be a
blessing to you.