I'm sure Norm has had this happen
to him. Sometimes people will say to
a gospel preacher that we need to preach more responsibility
and by that what they mean is we need to preach more of the
law. Why would a person say that? Is it because they are concerned
about how other people live? No. Is it because they need to know
how they should live? No. They already know that. There's only one reason a person
would say you need to preach more responsibility, need to
preach more of the law. They want their life to be validated. They want their righteousness
to be affirmed. They're not concerned about how
other people live. They want other people to know
how they live. That's it. That's it. We preach Christ. He'll take
care of how people live. Are we responsible? Are there
certain things we ought to do and ought not to do? Of course.
Of course. But the Lord, the Lord's the
only one that can do that. And his grace is greater than
our sin. The law's not greater than our
sin. His grace is greater than our sin. Where sin abounds, grace
does much more abound. Let's, Bert, you were gonna open
with the back of your bulletin. Let's stand together. Bert, you
come please. In thy great name, O Lord, we
come to worship at thy feet. O pour thy Holy Spirit down on
all that now shall meet. We come to hear Jehovah speak,
to hear the Savior's voice. Thy face and favor, Lord, we
see. Now make our heart rejoice. Teach us to pray and praise and
hear and understand thy word. To feel thy gracious presence
near and trust our living Lord. This house with grace and glory
filled ? Congregation blessed ? Thy great salvation now revealed
? Thy glorious righteousness May be seated. For our scripture reading call
to worship, would you turn with me to 2 Kings 6. 2 Kings 6. And we're going to begin reading
at verse 13, 2 Kings chapter 6. I was telling Norm at the break
how I loved to hear and to see gospel messages in the Old Testament.
And here's one of my favorites. They're all my favorites, but
here's another one right here. If you remember, the king of
Syria was wondering how it was possible that every plan was
detected. They told him that there was
a fellow down by the name of Elisha. And that's where we're
gonna begin the story. Verse 13. And Elisha, by the
way, the name means God is salvation. That's what Elisha means. Verse
13. And he said, go and spy where
he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him saying,
behold, he is in Dothan. Therefore sent he tither horses
and chariots, and a great host. And they came by night and compassed
the city about. And when the servant of the man
of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, the host compassed
the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said
unto him, oh, alas, my master, how shall we do? And he answered,
fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be
with them. And Elisha prayed. This is the
Lord Jesus Christ who was our intercessor. Praying to the Father,
Lord, I pray that you open his eyes that he may see. And the
Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw. And behold, the
mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about
Elisha. This is not the end of the story.
Here's the other glorious part of this story. And this is what
takes place here when the Lord brings us together. This is glorious,
verse 18, and when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto
the Lord and said, smite this people and I pray thee with blindness.
And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
And Elisha said unto them, this is not the way, neither is this
the city, follow me and I will bring you to the man whom you
seek. But he led them to Samaria and it came to pass when they
were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes
of these men that they may see. And the Lord opened her eyes,
and they saw, and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.
And the king of Israel said unto Elisha when he saw them, my father,
shall I smite them? Shall I smite them? And he answered,
thou shall not smite them. Wouldst thou smite those whom
thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set
bread and water before them that they may eat and drink and go
to their master. And he prepared great provision
for them. And when they had eaten and drunk,
he sent them away and they went to their master. So the bands
of Syria came no more into the land of Israel. That is my hope
this morning, that the Lord would be pleased once again to open
our eyes and that he would send his spirit empowered to preach
the gospel and the truth. Because like these enemies, the
love of Christ leadeth to repentance. And that's my prayer this morning.
We keep asking to see. I keep asking, oh Lord, let me
see today. And for those who've never seen
before, that this may be the day that you see the love of
Christ, which leadeth to repentance. Let's pray. Lord, that's our heart's desire
this morning. Thanking you, Lord, that you have gathered us again
in this place to hear you and pray, Lord, that
you would enable us to hear, to see, and to believe. And that once again, if we would
see the love of Christ, the love of your gospel, that not only
constrains us, but also, Lord, leads us to repentance. May that
be, Lord, today. Lord, we want to see you. We
want to know you. We want to fellowship with you
and your power of your resurrection and suffering, Lord. Just for
a few moments, Lord, enable us to have our affections caught
up above where you are seated and enable us by faith, Lord,
to believe and to worship you. Lord, we trust once again you
would be pleased to enable Greg by your power. With clarity and
conviction, Lord, to lift up Christ. Give us a heart to believe. Forgive us, Lord, of our sins.
For we ask it in Christ's name and for his sake, amen. We're going to sing now the hymnal
number 75 in your blue hymn number 75. Abide with me, if you could
all please stand. ? Abide with me ? ? Fast falls
the eventide ? ? The darkened deep end ? ? Lord with me abide
? When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless,
so abide with me. Swift to its close heads outlies
little day. Earth's joys grow dim, its glories
pass away. Change and decay in all around
I see. O Thou who changest not, abide
with me. I need Thy presence every passing
hour. What but Thy grace can foil the
tempter's my guide and stay can be. Through cloud and sunshine, oh,
abide with me. Hold thou thy word before my
closing eyes. Shine through the gloom and point
me to the sky As morning breaks and earth's faint shadows flee In life, in death, O Lord, abide
with me. You may be seated. Adam. Redeemed. How I love to proclaim
it. Redeemed. By the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed. Through His infinite
mercy, His child and forever I am. Redeemed. Redeemed. Redeemed by the blood
of the Lamb Redeemed through His infinite mercy His child
and forever I am His child and forever I am Redeemed and so
happy in Jesus, no language My rapture can tell. I know that the light of His
presence with me doth continually dwell. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed through His infinite
mercy His child and forever I am His child and forever I am I
think of my blessed Redeemer I think of Him all the day long
I sing For I cannot be silent His love is the theme of my song Redeemed, redeemed Redeemed by
the blood of the Lamb Redeemed through His infinite mercy His
child and forever I am His child and forever I am I know I shall
see in His beauty the King In whose law I delight Lovingly guard my footsteps and
give me songs in the night. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed through His infinite
mercy, His child and forever I am. Thank you, Adam. When the Lord
redeemed his people, when he bought them, He paid the full
price. You are redeemed not with corruptible
things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't leave one penny for
us to pay. He paid it all. He paid it all. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Mark Chapter 7. Mark Chapter 7. I know Todd Nyberg preached a
message from this text and titled it, All Dogs Go to Heaven. And I actually considered that. But I've decided to title this
message, he cannot be hid from dogs. He cannot be hid from dogs. Now, something about a dog's
senses, they have hypersensitive noses, don't they? They use dogs
to search out people that have been trapped rubble, they use
dogs at the airport to look for drugs and guns. Dogs are able to sniff things
out that we can't detect. And they actually even train
dogs to know when their owner is going to have a seizure before
they have a seizure. I want to be like that, don't
you? I want the Lord to give me hypersensitivity
to His presence so that He cannot be hid from me. Left to myself. Left to myself. I'll never see
Him. I'll never hear His voice. I'll never be able to detect
His presence. but dogs, dogs. This Syro-Phoenician woman, the
Lord called her a dog. And when he made such a statement
about her, don't think that he was referring to your little
cute cuddly pet that you coddle in your home and feed so well
and take such good care of. No, dogs were scavenging mangy
mutts. And so when the Lord referred
to her as a dog, you remember what she said? Truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. I almost thought
of the title of this message. Are you a dog? Are you a dog? Only dogs are
going to be saved. Only dogs are going to go to
heaven. And every single one of them is going to heaven. He cannot be hid from dogs. Look at verse 24 in Matthew and
Mark chapter 7. We're going to go to the Matthew
passage also because this same story is told in the Gospel of
Matthew and a few more details are given in Matthew. Verse 24,
and from thence he arose and went into the borders of Tyre
and Sidon. Now Tyre and Sidon are two cities
about 20 miles apart. in the country of Phoenicia over
on the Mediterranean Sea. These cities were populated by
Gentiles who were also referred to as dogs in the Bible. And
they were very wealthy cities. They were port cities. So the Lord goes over to Tyre
and Sidon and entered into a house Oh, that's where the Lord always
goes, doesn't he? He enters into his house, and
he makes himself known in the house, and would have no man
know it. He would have hid himself, but
he could not be hid. For a certain woman whose young
daughter This is a very young girl. This
word young refers to a small child. This poor child was afflicted
with some sort of demonic depression or oppression, I don't know.
A certain woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard of
him and came and fell at his feet. And the woman was a Greek,
a Syrophoenician by nature, and she besought him. that he would
cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto
her, let the children first be filled for it is not me to take
the children's bread and to cast it unto dogs. And most folks
at that point would have said, well, if that's what you think
about me, I'll go find somebody else to help me. And she answered
and said unto him, yes, Lord. Yet the dogs under the table
eat of the children's crumbs." Now here's the glorious truth
of the gospel. If the Lord gives you but a crumb
of his gospel, of himself, of his word, of his grace and his
truth, it will fill your soul with the hope of salvation. It's like that oil that dripped
off the hem of Aaron's garment. It didn't take but one drop,
one crumb. Somebody said, well, you know,
the Lord gives us a lot more than crumbs. Oh, but one crumb
is sufficient, one crumb. And he said unto her, for this
say, go thy way. The devil is gone out of thy
daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil
gone out and her daughter laid upon her bed. Now turn back with
me to Matthew chapter 15, Matthew chapter 15. Then Jesus went then, verse 21,
Matthew chapter 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. 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. He ignored her. He acted like
she wasn't there and like she had said nothing. And his disciples
came and besought him saying, send her away for she crieth
after us. So now the Lord ignores her and
the disciples come and say, you know, she's just an embarrassment.
She's embarrassing you and me and everybody. Just send her
away. She's a dog. But he answered and said, I am
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then
came she and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. Help me. Somebody said, well,
wait, it was her daughter. It was her daughter. But he answered
and said, verse 26, 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 the master's table.
Then Jesus answered and said unto her, oh woman, great is
thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt. and her daughter
was made whole from that very hour. I'm interested in the Lord not being hid from me. I do want to see him. I want
to know him. I want to hear his voice. What is it that that must be present in order
for the Lord to manifest Himself. Well, He must be present. And
He is present in the preaching of the gospel. He said, if I
be lifted up, I will draw men unto me. As Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. So, here's the necessary elements for the Lord to not
be here he's got to be in the house he's got to be lifted up
and then somebody's got to be needy somebody's got to be needy
this woman had a great need so if I'm preaching Christ you have
a need we have hope we have hope that the Lord will not be here Now, one of the things we see
in this story is the Lord proving her faith by withdrawing, if
you will, the awareness of his grace for a time. He ignored
her. The disciples shamed her. Then he called her a dog. And what do we find her doing?
Was she deterred by these things? No. No, she wasn't deterred at
all. The Lord makes Himself known
the same way today that He did 2,000 years ago. He proves the
sincerity of our need by withdrawing the awareness of His presence. You remember the story of Naomi
and Ruth? And the scripture begins in that
book of Ruth by talking about Elimelech. And Elimelech lived
with his wife Naomi in Bethlehem, the house of bread, and God sent
a famine to Bethlehem, a drought. Well, what did Elimelech thought?
Well, it's not prudent for me to remain here in Bethlehem I'll
go to Moab." And so he packed up his stuff and he took his
wife and his sons, moved to Moab, and his sons died there. Both his sons had been married
while they were in Moab. So they had Moabitist wives. Now Bethlehem in this story is
a picture of the church. And Moab's a picture of the world.
And what the Lord's saying to us is, If you're going through
a period of drought, don't leave Bethlehem to go to Moab. There's
no meat in Moab. Wait for the drought to be over
and continue to pursue the Lord with all of your heart. He's
trying the sincerity of your heart. Now perhaps you've been
coming to Bethlehem but experiencing a drought. The Lord will not
be hid. He is in the house. And he will
make himself known to those who are in need. In need. This isn't a matter of commitment.
This is a matter of need. And then after, after Elenalech
died in Moab and the two, her two sons died in Moab, she's
left with her two daughters-in-law. Ruth, and what was the other
daughter-in-law's name? Anyway, he's got Orpah. He's got the two daughter-in-laws,
Orpah and Ruth. And Naomi says to her two daughter-in-laws,
go back to your family. I'm going back to Bethlehem.
said, I'll go back to my family, and she left. And Ruth said,
your God will be my God. Your people will be my people,
and where you are there I will be also. Don't send me back to
Moab. Let me go with you to Bethlehem. In religion, I say, what's the
point you're making, preacher? In religion, The plea is to invite
men to walk an aisle, to perform a work, to pray a prayer, to
do something in order for them to come to Christ. Oftentimes,
oftentimes the Lord will say to his people what Naomi said
to Ruth and Orpah. Leave if you can. Isn't that what the Lord Jesus
Christ said to the disciples after he fed the 5,000? He said,
will you not leave me also? And what did Peter say? Lord,
we've got no place else to go. We believe that thou art the
Christ, the son of the living God. We know and are sure that
you alone have the words of eternal life. You've shut us up to yourself. Now that's what's happening here
with this dog, this woman who's a Gentile. The Lord's proving
the sincerity of her need by holding her off at an arm's distance
and inviting her to leave if she can. Now here's the truth. If you or I are able to leave
the gospel, we will. we will. Only those who have been shut
up to Christ, only those who have no place else to go, only
those who see themselves as needy, mercy-begging, dog sinners will continue to worship Him
even when He holds them off. even when he hides himself. The Lord Jesus Christ left David
to himself for a while, didn't he? After David committed that
awful sin with Bathsheba, he spent nine months trying to hide
his sin. And I made this point Wednesday
night. You remember in Psalm 51 when
David said, if sacrifice and offerings thou wouldest not."
Why did David know that God wasn't pleased with his sacrifices and
his offerings? Because you know for the last
nine months David had been going to the temple and making sacrifices
trying to atone for his own sins and the Lord just let him wallow
in the shame of his own guilt until the prophet of God came
and Nathan said to him, art, the man. You're a dog, David. You did this. And David said, oh, I've sinned.
And Nathan said, and God has forgiven you. God has forgiven
you. See, as long as we try to atone
for our own sins, the Lord will hide himself. Until we become
unable to find any peace in our self-atoning ways, And we will
do like this woman did. We'll bow at his feet and we'll
worship him and we'll cry, help me, help me. The Lord Jesus Christ could not
be hid from Zacchaeus, could he? The Lord went to Jericho
and the crowd was so pressed and Zacchaeus was so short he
wasn't able to see over there. What did he do? He got up in
the tree. He wanted to, he didn't want the Lord to be hid from
him. And the Lord said, Zacchaeus, come down. Salvation has come
to your house this day. Blind Bartimaeus, the Lord couldn't
be hid from him even though he was blind. He heard that the
Lord was coming that way and he was crying, Jesus, thou son
of David, have mercy upon me. And what did the crowd say to
blind Bartimaeus? Same thing the disciples said
to this woman, shut up. Bartimaeus, you're just a blind
beggar. Nobody's interested in you, you're
a dog. And what's the scripture say?
He cried all the louder. He cried all the louder until
someone came to him and said, be of good cheer, the master
calleth thee. Zacchaeus, what would you have
me to do for you? Oh Lord, that I might see, I
might see. Like Alimelech, like Zacchaeus,
like Blind Bartimaeus, you're going through a drought. The
Lord will not be hid from dogs. He won't be. That woman with an issue of blood,
she couldn't get to the Lord, could she? The crowd was so thick. She had to get on her hands and
knees and crawl between people's legs until she finally got close
enough to where she could touch the hem of his garment. And virtue
went out from her. Why? She had a need. She had
a need. Who touched me? And the disciples
said, Lord, why do you say who touched me? Everybody's touching
you. Oh, no. Someone's touched me with faith.
Someone's touched me with need. Virtue has gone out from me.
Power has gone out from me. The Lord Jesus Christ cannot
be hid from those who have a need. And all dogs are needy. All dogs
are needy. What about that man that could
not get near to the Lord because he was crippled in a bed? and
the house was full and there were people standing all outside
in the front yard. And so what did his friends do?
They took the tiles from off the roof and they lowered him
down, didn't they? Oh, the Lord cannot be hid from those who
are in desperate need of grace. He will be hid. He will be hid
for a time in order to prove the sincerity of our need. And
he will always be hid. He will always be hid from the
self-righteous. What did the Lord say? Father,
I thank thee that thou hast hid these things from the wise and
the prudent. If you're wise and you're prudent
in your own righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ will be hid
from you. And then what did he say? But
thou has revealed them unto babes. A baby's like a dog. A baby can't
do anything. A baby's dependent. Oh, the Lord cannot be hid, even
when we try to hide from Him. Even when we try to hide from
Him. And that goes all the way back to the very beginning when
Adam sinned against God. What did he do? What did he do? He fled in fear. And he tried
to cover his nakedness with his own righteousness. Well, the
Lord pursued him, didn't he? Where art thou, Adam? Where art
thou? He knows where his people are.
2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 3,
if our gospel be hid, it is hid from them which are lost in whom
the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe
not. Turn with me to the book of Ephesians,
Ephesians chapter 3. the Lord Jesus Christ ultimately
cannot be hid from dogs. They'll find him. They'll find
him. Look at Ephesians chapter three,
adverse nine. And to make all men see. what is the fellowship of the
mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in
God who created all things by Jesus Christ to the intent that
now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might
be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. So these things were hid by God
from the beginning of the world. And now they have been made manifest
through the church, in the house, by the preaching of the gospel,
where God's needy sinners come together for grace. She begged for mercy, didn't
she? And what did she do? She acknowledged
Jesus as Lord and Christ. Now what she said, look back
with me to the passage in Matthew. Verse 22, have mercy on me, O
Lord, thou son of David. So she refers to the Lord Jesus
Christ first as Lord and second as Son of David. Now Son of David
means the same thing as Christ. Every Old Testament Jew knew
that the prophecy of the Messiah was through the line of David. And the one that was referred
to as the Son of David all throughout the scriptures was the Messiah. He was the Christ. And even that
Samaritan woman as a half Jew knew that when Messiah comes,
he'll straighten everything out. He'll lead us into all truth.
He'll show us the truth. He'll reveal to us the hope of
our salvation when Messiah comes, the son of David. So this woman
acknowledges the Lord Jesus Christ first as Lord, Lord. That means that she's bowing
in submission to him as the sovereign. He's sovereign in creation. He made all things after the
counsel of his own will and for his glory they were made. He's sovereign in providence.
He works all things after the counsel of his will and performs
his purpose in the lives of all men for all things for his people
work together for good. He's sovereign in salvation. You see, if a person believes
in free will, they do not believe that Jesus is Lord. You can't have them both. You
can't have them both. talking to a man this week, and
he was telling me about a woman preacher that had laid her hands
on him and anointed him as a prophet. And he was a seer now, and he
had insight into things. And I had listened to him for
just a minute, and I finally said, I said, well, I said, God's
never called a woman to preach. And he said something to me that
kind of set me back for a second. I'd never heard anybody say anything
like this before. He said, well, if you just go
with what the Bible says, that's true. So then he started talking to
me about all these extra revelations that God has given. If God has
revealed anything outside of his word, then that makes the
word of God irrelevant. makes all of God's Word irrelevant
if there's new revelation given outside of the Word of God. How's this book end? If any man
add to the prophecies of this book, the curses of this book
will be added unto him. No, we don't add anything to
the revealed Word of God, do we? So finally, after listening
to him for just a minute, I finally decided to tell you what, David,
let me ask you a question. What do you think about Jesus
Christ? And he said, what do you mean?
He said, I love the Lord. I said, well, just pretend that
I've never heard of Jesus Christ. Tell me who you think he is.
And he said, well, he died for everybody's sins. I said, okay,
you just called him Lord and he died for everybody's sins.
Does that mean everybody's going to heaven? He said, oh, no. No, everybody doesn't go to heaven.
I said, so man's will overpowers his will. And then he made another
statement that was astounding to me. He said, you're just trying
to be logical. And I thought, you know, I need
to go. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far
from me. He called him Lord, but he didn't believe he was
Lord. He did not believe he was Lord. You cannot believe that
man's will overpowers God's will and that Jesus is Lord at the
same time. Those two things don't go together. She acknowledged the Lord Jesus
Christ as the sovereign God, the Lord of heaven and earth,
the one who reigns sovereign over the armies of heaven and
all the inhabitants of the earth, and he hath done whatsoever he
wills." She acknowledged him as that. And all dogs do. All dogs do. And then she called
him the son of David. She knew that he was the Christ. She knew that he was the one
sent of God with the full anointing of the Spirit of God in order
to accomplish the salvation of all of Israel. That's what Christ
came to do. All Israel, Romans chapter 11,
shall be saved. She knew that he was not only
able to save, but that he was going to actually do the saving
all by himself. To say that Jesus is Christ and
to believe that he died for everybody is to deny the very essence of
what Christ means. And I have yet to find someone
who believes that the death of Jesus Christ has actually accomplished
the salvation of everybody. Everybody. Just like this gentleman
I was talking to, I said, do you believe everybody's going,
oh, no. No, man has to decide. She worshipped him even when
he would not acknowledge her. And so it is with all needy sinners,
we bow in submission and in worship even when the Lord is silent."
And what did she say? In both texts, she said, help
me. Help me. You say, well, I thought
the problem was with her child. What parent, what parent does
not feel the pain and suffering that their children go through
as their own. What parent does not say, I would
take that from you if I could. I would rather bear it myself
than to see you bear it. What parent, listen to me carefully,
what parent has not felt guilty for problems that their children
have? Now the world would say, the
world would say, You're not responsible for that. Don't feel guilty and
they would have you sad your conscience with some ideas that
I didn't have anything to do with that. But in your heart
of hearts, you know you did. You know you did. So what's the hope of the shame
and guilt of all the mistakes that I made as a parent that
my children are now suffering from? I'll tell you what it is. It's not the denial that you're
not responsible. It's the forgiveness of God. It's the forgiveness of God.
Now that's real. That's real. For God to say,
I have separated your sins from you as far as the East from the
West and I remember them no more. I buried them in the depths of
the sea. There's no more condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. He bore all of our mistakes and
all of our sin and all of our failure in his body upon that
tree and put it away once and for all by the sacrifice of himself. Now there's my hope. My hope
is I've been forgiven for all those mistakes I made. She said,
she said, help me. And aside from the fact that
we have created much of the problems that our children suffer just
like we suffer the problems that we got from our, I mean, that's
what sinners do. Sinners produce sinners, don't they? And the sins of the fathers are
carried on to the second and third generation. We just keep
repeating ourselves, don't we? But aside from all of that, aside
from all of that, Every single one of us have given birth to
a lot of evil. This child of hers was possessed
with the devil and she said, Lord, help me. And here's how
I know that the Lord Jesus Christ is not going to be hid from me
because the need that I have is my need. I cannot tell you
how many people, it's like I said earlier, people, people, I've
had, I've had people say to me, we've had people leave this church
because I didn't preach enough responsibility. And every message
they heard, they were thinking about, and I've had them say
to me, well you know what so and so's doing and you know what
they've done and you know what they, why do they do that? Why do they
do that? They're looking for some affirmation
of their behavior. They're wanting their righteousness
to be affirmed. They're wanting their lives to
be validated for what they've done good. And the only way they
can do that is to falsely compare themselves to the law or falsely
compare themselves to other men. This woman said, I'm the one
that needs help. I'm not looking at anybody else. As soon as I hear somebody talk
about somebody else's sins, I think, you know what? I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner. Isn't that what that publican
said? Lord have mercy upon me, the
sinner. I'm my own worst enemy. I'm the
one that needs help. Not anybody else. Now the Lord
Jesus Christ will not be hid from dogs who bow in worship
to him even when he holds them off. He will not be hid from
dogs who realize that all their problems are their problems,
nobody else's. The Lord did help her, didn't
he? Deuteronomy chapter 23. says thou shalt not, here's the
law, thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore or the price
of a dog into the house of the Lord for an offering for anything
for it is an abomination to God. Now What is the hire of the whore? And what is the price of a dog? It's our own self-righteousness,
isn't it? You see, if we're dogs, then
to bring anything that we've produced before God for the hope
of our salvation is bringing the price of a dog before God,
and God says it's an abomination to me. And we're all, by nature, spiritual
prostitutes. We've sold ourselves out to another
man. He's the man of sin. And if we bring something that
we've done before the altar of God in hopes of atoning for our
sins, the Lord says it's an abomination to me. You remember when David
went up against Goliath And David went with a sling and
five stones and David stood, he said, this uncircumcised Philistine,
he curses our God and God's gonna hand him into, and what did Goliath
say? What did Goliath say? Goliath
stood up nine feet tall and he said, am I a dog? Am I a dog
that thou wouldst come against me with staves and stones? There was a man that didn't believe
himself to be a dog, didn't he? There was a man that was going
to bring his power and his might before God. And then in 2 Kings chapter 8,
Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria. Yeah, the same Syria we just
bombed the other night. Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria,
was on his deathbed. And Ben-Hadad sent a man by the
name of Haziel down to Elisha to find out from the prophet
of Israel if he was going to recover from this death. Elisha, the scripture says, looked
at Haziel and said, yes, he's going to recover, but then he's going to die and you're going to do great
evil against Israel. And he told Haziel, the scripture
says, that the prophet began to weep and he stared at Haziel
until Haziel was ashamed of himself. Now as the story turns out Haziel
goes back, Ben-Hadad recovers but Haziel kills him. And Haziel
becomes the king of Syria and amasses the army of Syria comes
down to Israel and slaughters women and children in Israel
and that's what Elisha was talking about. And you know what Haziel's response
to Elisha was? When Elisha told him what he
was going to do, Haziel said the same thing that Goliath said.
Am I a dog that I would do such a thing? Now there's two examples of men
who did not believe themselves to be dogs. And then we have Mephibosheth. And Mephibosheth was hiding out
in Lodabar. He had gone to Moab. That Lodabar
is a place of no bread. There's no gospel in Lodabar,
but that's where Mephibosheth is hiding out, the son of Jonathan. And David says to his captain,
he says, is there anyone left of the house of Saul that I might
show kindness toward him for Jonathan's sake? And his servant said, well, there's
a crippled boy down in Lodabar, his name is Mephibosheth. He
said, go fetch him. What a picture of the gospel,
fetching grace. And he brings Mephibosheth back
to David. Mephibosheth convinced that he's
going to be put to death. And when David sees Mephibosheth,
he says, oh, Mephibosheth, Mephibosheth. He saw the likeness of Jonathan
whom he loved in his son Mephibosheth, didn't he? and God sees the likeness
of his son in those crippled dogs and what did Mephibosheth
say? When David said, sit here at
my table and you'll eat of the king's fare the rest of your
life and I'll hide your crippled feet under my table, what did
Mephibosheth say? What would the king have anything
to do with such a dead dog as I? And then you remember the story
of Gideon? When the Lord told Gideon, he
said, you take all the men down to the river. And those who put
the water in their hand and lap it out of their hand like a dog,
you separate them aside. And the rest of the men that
put their faces down in the water and drink it out of the river,
And 300 men lapped up the water like a dog. And those 300 men
became the army of Gideon that defeated the enemy of Israel. This woman believed herself to
be a dog. She wasn't bringing the price
of a dog to the Lord for his No, she worshipped him. She said,
truth, Lord. Truth, Lord, that's what I am.
But oh, the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table.
Lord, would you just give me a crumb of your grace? And the Lord did. The Lord did. Let me read you a verse from
Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse 4. A living dog is better than
a dead lion. For the living knows that he
shall die, but the dead know nothing. Now you're either a living dog
or you're a dead lion. And the living dog knows that
he's gonna die. And that he's in need of an advocate.
He's in need of a savior. He's in need of one who will
stand in his stead before God and provide him with a righteousness
that he cannot provide for himself. A living dog is better than a
dead lion. A dead lion knows nothing. Nothing. Now, let me close with this. Who is this salvation for? Who is it for? We often make an emphasis out of the fact
that God's mercy is limited to God's elect, and it is. I will
have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and whom I will I'll have
compassion, so that it's not of him that willeth, nor of him
that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." And that's so
true. And this is not a contradiction.
It's not a contradiction. That's the That's the limits
of God's mercy but the Bible also says that God delights in
showing mercy and so how broad is God's mercy? How broad is
God's mercy? Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. That's how broad his mercy is. Whosoever will Let him take of
the water of life freely. Whosoever believeth in him shall
not perish, but have everlasting life. Let me close with this.
Are you a whosoever? Are you? I've heard Todd say on a couple
of occasions, I'd rather have whosoever will than my name written
in the Bible. How about if your name was written
in the Bible and God says, Robert Horton's going to be saved. Well,
how many Robert Hortons are there in the world? Maybe he's not
talking about me. Maybe he's talking about somebody
else. But whosoever? Whosoever? I can fit into that
category. Now, the self-righteous, the
one that would bring the price of a dog for their atonement,
would say, well, that means that I've got to exercise my will
in order for God to be able to save me. Let me ask you a question. Are
you willing to be saved God's way? By the shed blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ alone. Are you willing to be saved?
Now let me ask you a second question. Who made you willing? Who made
you willing? Did you just decide one day that
you're going to be willing? Or did God make you willing in
the day of his power? whosoever will come to the water of life
and drink freely. And everyone that comes knows
that had God not made me willing, had he not made me a dead dog,
mercy-begging sinner, I'd be just like Goliath. I'd be just
like Hazael. I'd be just like everybody else
in this world. Are you calling me a dog? Truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. And the dogs eat the crumbs that
fall off the children's table. Lord, just give me a crumb of
your grace. I'm willing. I'm willing. And
I'm a whosoever. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word. We ask now for your Holy Spirit
to make it effectual to our hearts. We pray it in Christ's name.
Amen. Number 11, the Spiral Hymnal.
Let's stand together. We're going to sing this a cappella. With broken heart and contrite
side, a trembling sinner, Lord, I cry. Thy pardoning grace is
rich and free. O God, be merciful to me. ? I smite upon my troubled breast
? With deep and conscious guilt oppressed ? Christ and His cross
my only plea ? O God be merciful to me ? Nor works nor deeds that
I have done ? ? Can for a single sin atone ? ? To Christ the Lord
alone I flee ? ? O God be merciful to me ? And when redeemed from
sin and hell, With all the ransom throng I dwell, My raptured song
shall ever be. God has been merciful to me.