Mark chapter 7. Verse 24, Mark 7, 24. This is a hinge or a conjunction. It connects what came before
with what is about to happen next. He says, verse 24, 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. Now, what says from thence, he
left one place and went into another place, and both occasions,
what happened before and what happens after, Both of them have
to do with regeneration, the washing of regeneration. It has
to do with sanctification by the Lord, making the heart new,
creating a new heart, a new spirit within. And what comes before,
we see what happens when somebody has not been sanctified, when
they've not been regenerated. What comes after, we see what
the Lord works. when he has regenerated, when
he has sanctified. In the Pharisee, we're gonna
see someone who is self-righteous, trying to make themselves righteous
before the law, using the law, and trying to wash themselves,
make themselves undefiled, holy. And then after, we're gonna see
the work the Lord does. Now let's go back up here. to
verse one, and I don't wanna spend all my time here with the
Pharisee, because I wanna get to this Syrophoenician woman,
but we need to look at the Pharisee first. Now, the first thing we
notice is the Pharisees were looking on the outward, and due
to that, they found fault. Look, verse one. They came together
unto him. They came to the Lord Jesus.
And certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem, and when
they saw, they're looking, and when they saw some of his disciples
eat bread with defiled, that is to say with unwashing hands,
they found fault. Now, immediately we see this
has something to do with sanctification, washing. They believe they sanctify
themselves by washing outwardly. That's what the majority of religion,
whether it's under the Christian banner or not, believe they wash
themselves. They wash themselves. And it
results in a religion of fruit inspectors. always looking at
others, trying to inspect others, and finding fault with others.
Now, get what they did. They found fault with the Lord
Jesus. These men found fault with the
Lord Jesus and his disciples. They looked at the Lord, and
he didn't wash his hands before he ate, and his disciples didn't,
and they found fault accusing them of being defiled. They're accusing the Holy One. This is God in human flesh, and
they're accusing Him of being unholy. And here are disciples
that He has given the Holy Spirit, washed in regeneration, sanctified
Himself, robed them in His righteousness before the law, And they looked
at them and they didn't wash their hands outwardly, and they
found fault with them and considered them defiled. You see, looking
on the outward, that's gonna be the result. That's the fruit
of self-sanctification. All right, and then here's another
thing. They held their traditions over
the word of God. They held to the traditions of
their fathers over the word of God. Verse three, for the Pharisees
and all the Jews, except they wash their hands often, eat not,
holding the tradition of the elders. It's been passed down
to them. And when they come from the market, except they wash,
they eat not, and many other things there be, which they have
received to hold. They had a lot of other things
like this as well. as to washing of cups and pots,
brazen vessels and of tables. Now, when this is, when a religion's
self-made, which this is, self-made religion, self-sanctifying, when
that's the case, there's always a haughty, disrespectful attitude
and a irreverent attitude toward the Lord himself. and toward
his people. Verse five, then the Pharisees
and scribes asked him. I want you to see how irreverent
this question is. This is just a haughty question. This is the Lord of glory. This
is a pretense of piety, a pretense of holiness, but no true holiness,
no true reverence, no fear of God. And they ask him, why walk
not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders?
But eat bread with unwashing hands. They're putting their
elders above the Lord Jesus. They're putting their elders
above the God-man mediator. That's a self-righteous, self-sanctifying,
self-exalting religionist. That is in your sin nature and
in my sin nature. That is all our sin nature is. Our sin nature is immoral and
self-righteous. You think, how could it be both?
And that's what we are in our nature. Those saved by mercy,
though, been given a new heart, they're merciful. because you
know something of God's mercy to you, and you're merciful.
By the spirit of the Lord dwelling in you, he makes you merciful.
When you're saved by grace, it makes you gracious. It gives
you a humble heart, a contrite heart, not this arrogant. They
just walk right up to the Lord and ask him, why walk not thy
disciples according to the tradition of the elders? I mean, you think
about that. Would you go into a, into a service,
as you don't know, and hear a man preach, and then after, walk
up and accuse the man and the one sitting in the pew, accuse
them of something like this. That's what they're doing. They
just come to the Lord and accuse him of this. Self-righteous,
self-sanctifying religion is mean. It's just mean. You know, our Lord's parable
of the Pharisee and the publican. He was speaking that to Pharisees,
and this is how he started it. They thought within themselves
that they were righteous and despised others. That's what
it always genders. And then the Lord declares here
what the problem is. He declares the problem is the
heart, the sin nature. Look at verse six. He answered
and he said unto them, well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites,
as it is written, this people honoreth me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship
me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. They were
ceremonialists, they put confidence in what they did outwardly, what
they did outwardly or what they abstained from outwardly. This
is what their holiness was. You remember in Matthew 23, 27,
the Lord said, woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for
you're like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful
outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all
uncleanness. The heart hadn't been made new.
They hadn't been given a new heart and a new spirit. Even
so, you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within
you're full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Now, it's not that
they didn't use the commandments of God. It's that they, by adding
their commandments to God's commandment, they totally laid aside God's
commandment and made it of no avail. Look at verse eight. He
said, for laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition
of men, as the washing of pots and cups and many other such
like things you do. And he said unto them, full well
you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own
tradition. For Moses said, honor thou father
and thou mother, and whoso curseth father or mother, let him die
the death. But ye say, If a man shall say
to his father or mother, it is Corbin, that is to say, it's
a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be
free. And you suffer him no more to
do aught for his father or his mother, making the word of God
of none effect through your tradition, which you have delivered, and
many such like things do ye. Brother Henry used to say, I
can jump over a barn if you let me build the barn. And that's
basically what the Pharisees were doing. If you bring the
law down low enough, and you change it enough, and you make
it so a man can keep it, well, he thinks he's keeping the law.
But he's not keeping the law. You've changed the law. You brought
the law down. The law was given. Romans 3,
it was given to shut our mouths. It was given to show how guilty
we are, how worthy of death we are, that we're the sinner. But
you take that law and you don't use it lawfully to preach every
man a sinner. You change it and make men think
they can keep it, and men think they can walk in the glory because
they've kept the law. The Lord declared it's the sin
nature in a fallen man that defiles. It's not something from outside
that comes in, it is what we are by conception. Look here,
verse 14. And when he had called all the
people unto him, he said unto them, hearken unto me, every
one of you, and understand, there's nothing from without a man that
entering into him can defile him. Nothing from without a man
that entering into him can defile him. But the things which come
out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man have
ears to hear, let him hear." He's declaring this is the heart,
this is the nature that we have by our first birth. We got this
from our father Adam. When he sinned, his heart became
corrupt and he passed that on to us. And we have that same
sin nature. Every thought, the nature is
nothing but sin, and every thought is sin. And all that we can produce
from our sin nature is sin. And that never changes. As long
as we live in this world, we're gonna have that sin nature that's
nothing but sin. That's when the Lord gives you
a new nature. Look over at Romans 7. When the
Lord gives you a new nature, that's when you begin to see
what you are in your sin nature. And that's when you know something
about sin. Verse 18, Romans 7, 18. This is why we don't trust in
ourselves. This is why we don't look to
ourselves for sanctification or justification. Paul had been
declaring up to this point. We're not justified by our works
We're justified by the righteousness of Christ by his obedience now. He's dealing with sanctification
Because he said in Romans 6 he said we're gonna be accused of
less sin that grace may abound he said no No, we now we live
under Christ. We have our fruit unto holiness,
but he's gonna show here that Where does he begin? He begins
by saying, we're yet sinners. We can't trust ourselves, we
can't look to ourselves. Verse 18, I know that in me,
that is in my flesh, in my nature, what Christ is talking about,
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present
with me, that's in my new man. But how to perform that which
is good, I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not. Can't you say that, believer?
Isn't that true of you? The good that I would do, I don't do it. And this other thing's true,
the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would
not, it's no more I that do it, it's sin that dwelleth in me.
I found in a law that when I would do good, evil is present with
me. I delight in the law of God after
the inward man. In the new man, the new man is
holy, born of God, the Spirit of the Lord. You've been washed
in regeneration, been justified and made righteous before the
law of Christ dwells in your heart, and there's a new will
to obey God. And you want to obey God perfectly,
but you still have this sin nature. And so, I see another law in
my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me
into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. And
here's where we are. This is where God's people are
all the time. Oh, wretched man that I am. That's what a holy,
sanctified child of God will say about himself. Oh, wretched
man that I am. And here's another thing it keeps
you doing. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So then with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, with the flesh the law of sin. It keeps
you knowing you're a wretched sinner in yourself, in your sin
nature, and it keeps you looking to the Lord Jesus, to God our
Father, to save you and deliver you. The Lord declared the Pharisees
were hypocrites. He declared they broke the whole
law of God in their heart. He declared their heart was sin
and it only produced sin. So how will a self-sanctifying
man receive that message? How will a self-sanctifying man
that's trusting that he sanctified himself, how's he gonna receive
that message? In Matthew 15, look there, because
that's the other, that's Matthew's account of the same thing. And
let's see what happened here. Matthew 15, 12. It says, then came his disciples
and said to him, knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended
after they heard this saying? They got offended. The gospel
declares all men are sinners. It declares that that's all that
you and me can produce. Everything that comes of us is
sin. If there's anything good worked
in you, it's of the Lord, working his will and good pleasure in
you. And God's people, because of this sin nature, you don't
even have to do anything. You know sin is mixed with everything
you do. And you're gonna give him the
glory. And you know of yourself, I'm
just a wretched man. But when they heard that, they
were trusting in those words. And what showed they were trusting
him is they got offended at the message. Offended at the Lord
Jesus. But what did the Lord tell him?
What did the Lord tell Peter and the others? Verse 13, Matthew
15, 13. But he answered and said, every
plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted
up, let them alone. They be blind, leaders of the
blind, and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into
the ditch. Mark 7, hold your place there
in Matthew 15, we may come back. Let's go to Mark 7 now. The new
heart the Lord gives is gonna submit to the Lord, not easily
offended. You wanna submit to the Lord
by the Spirit of God. Now, this is what the Lord says
to his disciples. Verse 17, when he was entered
into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning
the parable. And he saith unto them, are you
so without understanding also? That's pretty strong now. And
if he would have said that to the Pharisee, they'd have got
offended. You know, one time before, he said something similar,
and they said, are you saying we're blind? That was pretty
strong. Are you without understanding
also? But if the Lord's given you a heart to submit to him,
you're gonna listen to what the Lord's teaching you. And that's
what happened. He says, do you not perceive
that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot
defile him? Because it enters not into his
heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the drought, purging
all meats. And he said, that which cometh
out of the man, that defileth the man. Why is the world such
a bad place? That which cometh out of the
man defileth the man. for from within, out of the heart
of men proceed evil thoughts." Everything he's talking about
next are just thoughts. He's not even talking about the
act. There's plenty of the acts that go, but he's saying just
the thought defiles us. We're defiled before holy, holy,
holy God with just the thought of these things. Out of the precede
evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness,
wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride,
foolishness, all these evil things come from within and they defile
the man. When you go home and read Psalm
51, you'll hear David praying for the Lord to justify him,
blot out my transgressions, and you hear him praying to be my
sanctification, creating me a clean heart. We need Christ for justification,
and we need him for sanctification, because who can bring a clean
thing out of an unclean thing? If all you are is everything
he just described, and that's what we are in ourselves, how
can you bring a holy thing out of that? Can't be done. Can't be done. Can the Ethiopian
change his skin? Can the leopard change his spot?
Then can you do good who are accustomed to do evil? We can't
bring anything holy out of ourselves. If God doesn't have mercy, if
he doesn't show us grace, if he doesn't come and save us and
give us a new heart, what we just saw in the Pharisees is
the only thing we would ever be. Because you can't bring a
holy thing out of an unholy thing. So, we're gonna go now to this
next part, and I want you to see this. Our Lord rules all
providence. As soon as he left, for him,
for the sovereign God of glory, when he walked this earth, for
him to deal with these Pharisees and then leave there and take
off to where they go next, he was doing this, teaching his
apostles, his disciples. This is just one lesson for them.
They got it from the Pharisees, now he's fixing to show them
something. He's working one of his chosen children, right here. This is all about the still washing
inward. This woman needs a devil cast
out of her daughter. And that dealing with the heart.
But we're gonna see in her a new heart. We're gonna see the heart
the Lord gives. The Lord comes to his elect child. He comes
seeking us, and he draws us to him. and he gives us a new heart
and faith to look to him. He gives us a need, that's what
he does. He makes you have a need that you can't meet so that you
know he's the only one that can save you. Verse 24, from thence
he arose and he went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon and
entered into a house and would have no man know it, but it could
not be hid. For a certain woman whose young
daughter had an unclean spirit You see sanctification running
from that to this? It's all through this passage.
She's got a daughter with an unclean spirit. She heard of
him and she came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek,
a Syrophoenician by nation, and she besought him that he would
cast forth the devil out of her daughter. This woman's not of
Israel. She's not of Israel, she's a Gentile. She never had
the law of Moses. How's she gonna be sanctified?
She never had the law of Moses, never was under it. She's a chosen
child of God, and the Lord comes to her, and the Lord seeks her,
and the Lord had made this woman hear of him. She heard of him. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell
in thy courts. We'll be satisfied with the goodness
of thy house, even of thy holy temple. The Lord made this woman
see she had a need, and she couldn't meet the need. Her daughter has
a devil, an unclean spirit, and she can't do anything to help
her daughter. That's all of us by nature. That's
so of us in our own self, and that's so of our children. We
can't save ourselves, we can't save our children. How do we
know that the Lord had given this woman a new heart? You know
Titus 3. After that, the love of God toward
man appeared, not by works of righteousness we had done, but
by his mercy, his grace, he washed us with the washing of regeneration,
renewing of the Holy Spirit, washing, that's what he's doing.
He had done that for this woman. And you know how we know that?
Verse 25 says, she heard of him, and she came and fell at his
feet. That's how you know. What's the evidence? Everybody
wants evidences, evidences, evidences. That's it right there. You can
hear Christ and when you hear him, you come to him and you
fall at his feet with a broken and a contrite heart. Verse 27
says, she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out
of her daughter. She couldn't do it. She knew
she couldn't do it. She needed Christ to save. Matthew
said, she cried unto him, saying, have mercy on me, O Lord, thou
son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou
son of David. She knew he's the God man. She
knew he's the son of man and the son of God. And she knew
she needed mercy, and she believed he would be merciful to her.
You wouldn't come to him if you didn't think he'd be merciful.
She came there begging mercy. The Lord sends the gospel to
his child, just like he came to her right there. Right now,
he doesn't have to come bodily. He's gonna cast that devil out
of her daughter. He don't even see her daughter. He gonna do
it from right there where he's at. From right there where he
is now, at the right hand of God, he sends this gospel and
he can speak into the heart and give spine a new heart just like
that. And sanctify his child. Now, do you see a different spirit
in this woman and in those Pharisees? Do you already see the difference?
They came finding fault in our Lord. She came bowed down at
His feet. They came puffed up and disrespectful
and irreverent. She comes bowed down, owning
Him to be Lord, owning Him to be the mercy giver and herself
to be the one in need of mercy. And then next, the Lord shows
that the one He's justified and sanctified and given faith They
have to have Christ. We have to have the Lord Jesus.
And nothing, nothing can make God's child, by his grace, by
his spirit, by his power, he's gonna keep you having to have
him. You can't do without him. You
have to have him. Verse 23, she came there, did
all this, and he answered her, not a word. Well, I'm sorry,
that's Matthew 15. He answered her, not a word. Matthew 15,
23, when she did it, he didn't answer a word. Did that run her
off? She then went to his disciples.
Matthew 15, 23 says, and his disciples came and besought him,
saying, send her away, for she cries after us. But he answered,
said, I'm not sent unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
The Lord is teaching a lesson to them, to us, to her, But he's
teaching them a lesson too, his apostles, his disciples. He's
teaching them not to judge after the outward appearance. Peter
seemed like he didn't want the Pharisees offended. He came and
said, Lord, did you know they were offended? That was his kinsman
after the flesh. And he didn't want to see them
offended. But this old Greek dog, Lord, won't you send her
away? She's getting on our nerves.
Why was he favorable to the Pharisee, but not to this woman? What he
saw with his eyes, what he felt carnally, and had been taught
carnally about this woman. This is somebody the Father chose
in Christ. This is somebody Christ justified.
This is somebody he sanctified. This is his own, the same as
Peter and those other apostles. This is one the Holy Spirit sanctified
within. This is one Christ is gonna save. She's gonna be with him for eternity,
just like Peter and the others. What'd she do when she heard
him say, I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel? What'd she do? Matthew 15, 25 says, sorry, I'm
going back and forth, but I want you to see both of them, because
it tells the full picture. Matthew 15, 25. Then came she
and worshiped him, that means bowed down at his feet and said,
Lord, help me. I mean, first he don't answer
her at all. And then his disciples are begging
him to send her away. She's hearing that. And then
he says, I'm not sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
and she comes and bows down at his feet again and says, Lord,
help me. Talk about a prayer. You know, the word reveals the
heart. The word of the Lord reveals
the heart. It revealed the heart in those Pharisees. He, the word,
Christ, the word, revealed their heart by the things he said.
They were offended. And he revealed the heart that
he'd given this woman. She came and bowed down and said,
Lord, help me. I'm a lost sheep. You not sent
me to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? I'm a lost sheep.
But I'm your sheep, and I need my shepherd. Help me, Lord. Verse 20, Matthew 7, I mean,
Mark 7, 27. But Jesus said to her, let the
children first be filled, for it's not meat to take the children's
bread and to cast it unto dogs. What is the Lord doing to this
woman? I mean, he just keeps saying things that that would
a long time ago offended the Pharisee. What's he doing? He loves her. Remember when Mary
and Martha sent word and said, Lord, He whom thou lovest is
sick. Lazarus had died. Scripture says
the Lord waited two days before he went to him because he loved
him. The Lord, when you pray and you
pray and the Lord don't answer you, the Lord is answering you. You don't think he answered you.
He is answering you. He's teaching you to trust him.
He's growing you in patience. endurance, and he's gonna make
you see how faithful he is, make you see how he does love you.
That's Romans 5, with glory and tribulation also. These trials
work patience, they work faith, they hope. That's what he's doing
to her, increasing her in faith. But look what he said to her,
verse 27, Mark 7, 27. It's not meat to take the children's
bread and to cast it to dogs. You know, this woman, a dog was
unclean according to the law. A dog was unclean, unsanctified,
unholy. And that's why the Jews referred
to the Gentiles as dogs. They called them dogs. And if
the Lord had, what he said to them was the same as if he'd
have called them dogs, telling them their heart was unholy.
They were defiled like a dog under the law, before the law.
But this woman had heard Jews, Jewish men, she had heard Jewish
men walking around with their chest poked out, arrogant, proud,
self-righteous, and they had called her a dog all her life,
and she'd heard it. But she had faith, and she knew
this one standing in front of her wasn't no ordinary man. This
is the God-man, this is our Savior. She had faith to believe that.
And he'd call her a dog, didn't run her off. Here's what she
did. Verse 28, she answered and said to him, yes, Lord, yes,
Lord, I'm a dog. Yet the dogs under the table
eat of the children's crumbs. She owned herself a sinner. She
owned herself a sinful dog. And she said, I'm willing to
eat the children's crumbs. That's when Christ has sanctified
you within. And you hear this gospel priest
declaring you're the self-justifying, self-sanctifying, self-righteous
man. You're a dog, you're a sinner,
you're unclean before the law of God inwardly, and all you
can produce is sin. When you hear that, you know
what the spirit of the Lord, that new heart, you know what
it makes you do? Yes, Lord. That's so, that's me. That's
me. Yet I'm your dog. I'm your dog,
Lord. Matthew said, She said, truth
Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their
master's table. I'm a dog, but you're my master,
Lord. Why are men offended when you preach Christ, when you say
that Christ is the wisdom? of his people, he's the righteousness
of his people, he's the sanctification of his people, he's the redemption
of his people, he's the author and finisher of our faith, the
Alpha and Omega, he's everything. God looks to him and to his obedience
and his faithfulness and not to you and me. We must be found
in him only. He has to be all to us. Why do
men hate this gospel? because they hear it declaring
them to be dogs. That's why they hate it. They
hear it declaring them to be sinners, but you know what? The Lord's given you a new heart
to own yourself, to be exactly what the Lord says you are, a
sinful dog, but he's made you to know by his grace, you're
his dog. and you're saved entirely by
his grace, entirely by his mercy, and you're not offended. You used to be
offended, you used to hate him, you used to hate the gospel.
Now, you have a new man and a new spirit and faith, and you believe
him, and you agree with him. Yes, Lord, I'm a dog, but I'm
your dog. And you know what? The Lord Jesus
always has mercy on his dogs. He always saves his dogs. Mark 7, 29, and he said unto
her, for this saying, 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
the bed. Matthew said, Jesus answered,
said to her, O woman, great is thy faith. Great is thy faith. Be it unto thee, even as thou
wilt. You hear folks talking about
faith and oh, what their idea of great faith is. Well, we just
heard the Lord say what great faith is. Great faith is looking
to our great Savior. and trust in him only, him only,
knowing you are a sinner that can contribute nothing. He is
all, he is all. And those that can take their
place right there with that spirit, want to be saved by mercy, by
grace, by the Lord alone, they have great faith, all of his
grace, and he saves each and every one. He'll never lose one. That's our Lord. That's true
sanctification. That's the true spirit of one
that's saved right there. All right, Brother Adam.