Elders, for they wash not their
hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto
them, this is the Lord speaking to the scribes and the Pharisees.
Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your traditions? For God commanded, saying, Honor
thy father and mother, and he that curseth father or mother,
let him die the death. But ye say, whosoever shall say
to his father or his mother, it is a gift, by whatsoever thou
mightest be profited by me, and honor not his father or his mother,
he shall be free. You say Corbin is what they would
say. That means it's a gift. And so
they wouldn't honor their father and their mother. And they said
he's free from that law because of this tradition. And the Lord
says, Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect
by your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah
prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with
their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart
is far from me. But in vain do they worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And he called the multitude
and said unto them, Hear and understand, not that which goeth
into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of
the mouth, this defileth a man. Then came his disciples and said
unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after
they heard this saying? 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. Then answered Peter and said
unto him, declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, are
ye also yet without understanding? Do not ye understand that whatsoever
entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out
into the drought? But those things which proceed
out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the
man. For out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts. murders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man, but to eat with unwashing hands defileth not a man. 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. But he answered her not a word.
And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for
she crieth after us." Apparently, this woman, after the Lord didn't
answer her, she went to his disciples. And they came to him and said,
She's crying after us. But he answered and said, this
is what he said to them. He said this to his disciples
that were there with him. This was the word he gave them
to go back and give to her. I'm not sent but unto the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. Then, then came she to the Lord
and worshiped him saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and
said, now he's talking to her, she's come to him again, it's
not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs.
And she said, truth Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which
fall from their 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. Let's pray. Our Lord, we thank
you for this time. We thank you. For your abundant
grace and mercy. We thank you that you hear us
when we pray. When we come by faith in our
Lord Jesus. And that you continually. Bless
us. And all the prayers and the things
that we ask of you in days past. Lord, we don't thank you enough
for those things that you truly provide
for us. We do ask you now that you'd
be pleased to grant us a hearing ear and an understanding
heart, and that you would turn our minds from all else, and
that you would truly teach us now, Lord, by your word, through
your gospel, through your spirit in our hearts. And Lord, edify
us. Call out your sheep. Make us
to know true wisdom, is to know our Lord Jesus Christ. God our
Father. Lord, we ask you to forgive us
our sins. We pray to you now in the name
of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, we have an account here of two
contrasting types of people. And what I want
you to see here is a contrast in heart, a contrast in heart. The Pharisees and the scribes
were the religious establishment of the day. They were much like
what we consider the conservative fundamental Christians in our day, so-called
Christians in our day, as opposed to, like, Sadducees, which would
be considered, like, the liberal, liberal so-called Christians
in our day. Why is it that two opposing groups
like that, who normally won't get along with each other, how
is it that they came together to crucify the Lord Jesus Christ?
Why was that? Why is it that folks who claim
to believe the gospel we preach, who claim to believe it in creed,
will side with folks who trust in
their free will and side against us and not hear the gospel with
us? How is that and not be one with
us when they claim that they are one with us? These Pharisees
claim to be worshiping God, and here God stands in their midst. And they argue with Him, and
they're contentious toward Him, and they debate with Him over
just tradition, traditions of men. That's the problem they're
having, traditions of men, man-made precepts, man-made arguments. And so He asked them, he says,
by your tradition, by your, these man-made washing of the hands
and all this, he said, by that, he said, why do you transgress
the commandment of God? Now he's not implying there that
we come to God, that the believer can come to God by the law. He's
not implying there that we're under the law. He's just teaching
these folks who have all these rules and these outward ceremonies
and these outward washings and things, who claim to be keeping
the law just as they keep these traditions. He's telling them,
you break the very commandments of God by your tradition. teaching
for commandments what are really just the precepts of men, not
the commandments of God at all. I can't tell you how many times
I'll preach the word and I'll hear somebody that is in disagreement
and they'll come up and they'll quote somebody from some preacher
from the past. Somebody that preached the gospel. They'll quote them and say, well,
they said this, or they said that. How often do they do that
to the Lord? They come up to him and say,
well, Moses said, Moses said, and he said, well, if you believed
what Moses said, you'd believe me, because Moses was writing
of me the whole time. Everything in the Law and the
Prophets was written of the Lord Jesus. But why is it that folks
who claim to be seeking the glory of God and walking according
for the glory of God and truly concerned over the glory of God.
Why is it that folks won't hear when the gospel is preached and
when the message that's being preached is truly the message
that is simply exalting God the Father, God the Son, God the
Holy Spirit, exalting the fullness of the Godhead in Christ Jesus,
the Lord, the Son of God, when it's abasing the sinner, and
it's exalting God, and God's receiving all the glory in the
message. Why won't everybody that claims to believe Christ,
why don't they, why aren't they together on that message? Why
aren't they saying, yes, that is the gospel. We believe, we're
of one accord. Why is that? Well, the Lord says
here, verse 8, he's quoting Isaiah, and he said, Isaiah spoke well
of you. These people draw nigh unto me
with their mouth and honoreth me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me. It's a heart problem. These Pharisees,
if you looked at them on the outward appearance, you would
think they were the cream of the crop when it came to piety,
when it came to to looking at somebody and saying, now that's
a moral man. And he says here, verse 9, he's
quoting Isaiah still, in vain, in vain do they worship me. They
claim to be worshiping God. They claim, although they didn't
believe Christ to be God, they claim to be worshiping God. And
he says, in vain they do worship me. It's all vanity. Every bit
of it is vanity. Teaching. And so it's the doctrine
of God when it's really just the commandments of men. The
commandments of men. It's not according to this Word,
according to the law and the testimony, to the Word of God,
to the Holy Scriptures. The Lord said through Isaiah,
it's because there's no light in them. And He told them then,
He said, He told the disciples to leave them alone. He said
they're blind and they're leading the blind. That's who hear each
other, blind. These blind, spiritually dead
religious folks would side with these blind religious leaders,
and they would follow these blind religious leaders. But he said,
leave them alone. They'd both fall into the ditch.
And he said to them, he said, it's not those things, verse
18, it's not those things which proceed out of the, or those
things which go into the mouth, verse 17, that defile. They go into the mouth, they
go into the belly, they go out. This is what they're, they were
minding carnal things. And that's what, that's what
most of religion in our day is. It's minding carnal things. It's
minding What you eat and don't eat. What you do and don't do.
What you touch and don't touch. What you see and don't see. These
things. Minding. I get so tired of hearing,
you know, we're a church body that we believe we all are accountable
to each other. That's just one more indication
that you're going to find in a place like that a whole lot
of finger pointing and a whole lot of self-righteousness and
a whole lot of frightened folks who are in bondage. In bondage. Well, he says to them, it's that
which comes out of the heart, that's what defiles the man.
It's a heart issue. It's a heart problem. The heart
has to be made new. God has to give a new heart,
created anew, recreated after the image of God. One that desires
the glory of God. One that has the law of God written
on the heart. One that has the better testament
written on the heart. One that can see and hear and
smell and feel and touch and really know who God is and follow
after God. And he says to them, that they're
disputing and they're questions and they're having a problem
and taking issue with the Lord. He said this is their problem,
verse 19, out of the heart precede evil thoughts. Where did these
man-made doctrines come from? Out of their heart. They were
evil thoughts. That's what they were. They were
evil imaginations. They were made-up things. And
he said, murder, adultery, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are all things the law
is against. And he said, that's all That's
what the heart is. And the law of God is against
the natural heart of man. But when the Lord creates a new
heart, what did Paul say that new heart is? He said out of
it is the fruit of love and longsuffering and kindness and gentleness and
meekness. And he said against those things
there is no law. There's no law at all. It's in
accordance with the law of God. It's the very spirit of the law
of God, what the law of God is teaching. That's the substance
of the new man. That's what he is. He's new. He's created after the image
of God. That's who our God is. That's how he is. And he said,
these things, these evil things, this heart condition, this is
what defiles the man. But to eat with unwashing hands,
that doesn't defile a man. You know, I don't know if I've
told you this, given you this illustration or not, but there's
a place way up north where you can stand and you can put one
foot on the up and the other foot and straddle the Mississippi
River. And then down at the Gulf of
Mexico, where the Mississippi River runs into the Gulf, it
is huge down there. You can't go down there. and
try to change the course of that river. But you could stand right
there where you can, where it's coming up, bubbling up, and where
it's just a little stream, and turn it whichever way you want
to turn it. Our God doesn't go to the, men go out here to the
Gulf of Mexico, to the hands, and to the body, and to the eyes,
and the ears, and the flesh, and try to change What can only
be changed by going to the source of the problem. And only God
can do that. Go to the heart and change that
problem. And make a new heart. But then
I want you to notice something. I put this together one day,
reading this, and it really struck me here. You see, the apostles
had some problems with this, what the Lord was teaching them. They came, Peter came, and he
said, Lord, declare unto us this parable. And the Lord explained
to him, it's a heart problem, Peter. This is why they're offended
at you, Lord. And he said, leave them alone.
And Peter doesn't understand why they're offended. What's
the offense? Why are they so offended? And
the Lord said, it's a heart issue. Now the Lord, we're talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ here, who is God, who works all things
together according to the counsel of His will. He can work everything
together for the good of them who He's called, that love Him
by His grace, and He does all this on purpose. Then, verse
21, Jesus went this and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.
He takes His disciples with Him. He's going there to teach this
disciple. He's going to teach them something
about what He just said to them. He's going to show it to them.
He's going to show them the difference between the heart of a Pharisee
and a heart that's been made new. Now watch. So they go over
there to Tyre and Sidon and this woman of Canaan comes out of
the same coast. Now this is a woman of Canaan.
She's not of Israel, of the nation Israel. She's not a Pharisee.
This is a woman from Canaan. She's not a man. She's not a
Pharisee or a scribe like they were. This is a woman and a Canaanite
woman at that. She 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. He went to these coasts for a
purpose. He went there because this was a certain woman there.
Anytime we read that word certain, it's always important in the
scriptures. Certain woman. God has certain people He's going
to come to. They're called the elect of God.
Those that He's everlastingly loved. And He's going to come
to them. And He's going to find them. And He comes to this woman. We read that in another place
that this woman is a Syrophoenician by nation. She's a Greek. She's
a Syrophoenician by nation. See, the Lord's Fiction is showing
us something here about what happens when He gives a pure
heart, when He gives faith. He's going to contrast here for
us the difference between a Pharisee, a hypocrite in heart, who draws
near with his mouth, but his heart's far from God, and contrasting
that with a pure heart, great faith, that's the gift of God.
He's going to show us the difference, and He does it by showing us
It doesn't matter if you're a Pharisee, it doesn't matter if you're of
the nation of Israel, it doesn't matter if you were raised up
in a godly household in the temple with the oracles of God, or if
you're a Greek Syrophoenician woman like this woman. What matters
is what grace has done in the heart. That's what we're talking
about here. So that's a big contrast here between this woman and those
folks. And so he comes here to where
she is. There's no doubt about it that we see here she came
to Him. She did that. She came to Him when He came
to her. He came to where she was. He came to the coast where
she was. The Lord's going to come to where
His children are. This woman had a need. She had a daughter
that was grievously vexed. The Lord's going to give us a
dire need to make us call on Him. He's going to work everything
together to make us to know He's able to meet our need. He's going
to do that. No man can come to Him except
the Father which sent Him to draw Him. And they'll come then. And they'll fall at His feet.
We'll love Him because He first loved us. And that's what He's
going to make us to see. Now, do you have some need? Anybody
here have a need for Him? A dire need for Him? A real need
for Him? Well, it's evident. It's evident
if you do. I've given up trying to determine,
and I shouldn't, nobody should determine who are God's sheep
and who aren't. But I do know this, I do know
this, just preach the word. Just preach the word. The Lord
said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. And a stranger
they won't follow. These Pharisees wouldn't follow
the Lord. They just wouldn't. And he said
the problem was their heart. But now let's see what this woman
does. Verse 22, she comes and she says, have mercy on me, oh
Lord, thou son of David, my daughter's grievously vexed with the devil.
Now that's the first thing we see about a pure heart of faith,
it comes to Christ. That's where she came to. She
came to Christ and she came seeking mercy. You know what mercy is? When you come and ask in mercy,
she came there, not because her daughter was well, because her
daughter was sick. You don't come to Christ if you
think you're well. You come to Him if you think
you're sick. You don't come to Him if you think you have wisdom.
You come to Him asking because you need answers. You need Him
to be your wisdom. You won't come to Him if you're
full. You come to Him asking to be filled. That's how we come
to Him. That's what being a mercy beggar
is. So she comes to Him and she's
grievously vexed. You young people, listen to me.
You sit here and you think, well, I don't know why my mom and my
dad are so eager for me to come here. And I don't know why they
insist on me being here and all these things. Let me tell you
something. I can tell you this. I know this
is so. A believing mother and father,
they're vexed about their child. They want their child, their
son and their daughter to know the Lord. And just like it says
here that this woman's daughter was vexed with the devil. Those
who don't know the Lord are under the power of the prince of the
power of the air. You're under the strong man has
you bound. You really are. He's got to come and bind that
wicked one and bind that strong man and give you a heart so you
can hear and you can see and you can understand. He's got
to do a miracle, a miracle of grace in you. And He'll do it
through this Gospel, through this Word, through His Spirit.
And that's why they want you here hearing this Gospel and
hearing this Word preached. because they're vexed for you
like she was. And they pray for you like she
came to the Lord and prayed for Him. That's a little side note,
but that's so. Now, notice how she addresses
Him. She says, O Lord, Thou Son of
David. She's confessing Him to be Lord,
to be Emmanuel, to be God with us. And she calls Him that. That's who He is. He is the Lord. Now, here's the second thing.
A pure heart, a true heart will be tried of the Lord. Be tried
of the Lord. Look at verse 23. But he answered
her not a word. He didn't say anything to her.
How many times have you prayed to the Lord? Truly sought mercy,
truly asked Him, truly begged God for mercy. And it just seemed
like He's not going to answer you. Just not going to answer
you. True faith, this true heart is
going to be tried. It's going to be tried. But you
know what a true heart, a pure heart and true faith, you know
what it always does? Stays on Jehovah. Stays on God. Stays on the Lord. Keeps asking. Keeps waiting. Keeps begging.
Can't be turned away. Just can't be turned away. How
long do you think those Pharisees would have kept begging? They didn't come asking for anything
in the beginning. They just came to argue. They
wouldn't have hung around if he ignored them. The third thing here. A pure
heart of faith receives and believes and submits to the word of God's
grace concerning who Christ is and what he's done. Look at verse
23. He didn't answer a word. And his disciples came and besought
him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. Now, she
didn't get an answer from the Lord, and she goes to his disciples
and she starts asking them. This woman's persistent. This
is a heart of pure heart. This is a heart of faith. She
needs the Lord. She needs him. She needs mercy.
So she goes to his disciples and starts asking them. And they
go to the Lord. They get kind of grieved by her,
because she just keeps on, you know, she's persistent. And so
they go to the Lord. And they say, send her away. She's crying after us now. Now,
listen to me. The Lord came to do the will
of God who sent Him. The God of heaven and earth sent
Him for a particular purpose. He said, my meat is to do the
will of Him that sent me. He said, I came down from heaven
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
And He tells them, He tells him now, don't send her away. Don't send her when she's crying
after you. This is what he's telling him.
Don't do that. He gives him this word. He says this, verse 24. He answered and said, I am not
sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Boy, when they go back and tell
her that, that's going to run her off. That's gonna make her
feel so terrible. She's not an Israelite by nation. She's a Syrophoenician by nation.
That's gonna really run her off. That's gonna make her so sad.
When have you ever heard the gospel and it made you sad? If you know the Lord, if you've
been given a pure heart and a heart of faith, when have you ever
heard the gospel and it made you sad? The gospel don't make
you sad. The gospel brings you great joy. The gospel is the good news. It's the comfort, the comfort
of my people. It's the declaration that our
warfare is accomplished, that the Lord has rewarded us double
for all our sins. Is what he said to them to tell
her the gospel? See, he's teaching his disciples
something here. They just left the Pharisees,
who wouldn't hear what the Lord said. And he told them it's a
heart issue. That's their whole outward problem
of not following the word, not delighting in Christ, not delighting
in the gospel. They delight in that outward
show. They delight in hierarchy of
people and church and the whole, like a big drama club and all
that. They delight in that stuff. They
delight in that. It's no different, really. A
church without Christ, a so-called church without Christ, is no
different than what makes men delight in something like the
Freemasons or anything else. It's a power and position and
a way to have folks, and it's just somewhere to fit in and
be somebody. But in the church where God is,
where Christ is, where Christ is speaking, men and women are
there because they want to hear Christ. They want to delight.
They delight in Him. They're following Him. And that's
what brings us together. And that word is the discernment.
That word is what separates. That word is what divides, strikes
to the very thoughts and intents of a man's heart and exposes
the man for what he is. You remember all those come out
of Egypt and they walked for a ways and they were all together
and it wasn't very long and some of them said, we're tired of
this light bread. We won't go back to Egypt. We
won't go back being that bondage under that taskmaster, make bricks.
At least we got to eat garlics and leeks and things like that.
We're tired of this light bread. All God's preacher does is set
forth the light bread, Christ the bread from heaven, the manna
from heaven. And sooner or later, folks will
say, well, you got anything else? Uh-oh, there's a problem. It
struck to the intent of the heart. The intent of the heart never
was to worship Christ. It was to be there to find out
where's life in my hand? Where's something I can do? or
something I can do, but this gospel is life, it's life. Look,
how's this the gospel, what he told them to tell her? And he
told, I love this too, he's telling them to go tell her this, just
like he's told me to come tell you the gospel. Just like he
sends forth his messengers with the gospel word. Look at how
this is the gospel. He said, I'm not sent. Our Lord
Jesus Christ is sent in me. He was sent of God. I was sent
to do the will of Him that sent me, He said. Not to do my own
will, but the will of Him that sent me. He was sent. He says
He was sent to save a particular people. He said, I'm not sent,
but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That's the gospel,
isn't it? I'm not sent, but to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. Well, this woman, she's not of
national Israel, but she's of the house of Israel. The true
Israel. She's God's Israel. She's one
of those chosen from before the world began. And what kind of
people, what kind of sheep are these that He sent to? They're
lost sheep. Lost sheep. They have no way
of being found unless He comes to them and finds them. They're
sheep. They're His sheep. And He's the
shepherd. And He's going to come to them. And He's going to find
every one of them. And He's going to put them on His shoulder.
And He's going to bring them home rejoicing. Every single one of them. And
He tells her this. This is the word He is showing
His disciples. You go back and tell her this,
and watch what happens. Watch what happens. Go back and
tell her the Gospel. Go back and tell her, I am not
sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, to mine
elect, my chosen, who are lost. I came to redeem them. I came
to buy them. I came to purge their sin. I
came to call them by my grace. I came to bring them home to
the Father. I came to bring them and present them faultless before
God. That's why I came. Go tell her
that. Go tell her that. He has power over all flesh.
He's the good shepherd. He knows his sheep. That's what...
Well, what was her response when she heard that? What'd she do?
What'd she do? Verse 25. Then came she and worshipped
Him, saying, Lord, help me. You know what the gospel will
do to one that has a pure heart, one that has God-given faith?
It'll make them come to Him and fall down and worship Him and
call Him Lord and say, I need help! I can't save myself. That's
what it'll do. That's exactly what it'll do.
You see, there's a big contrast here from what those Pharisees
were. They came saying all they wanted
to argue about was ceremony. All they want to argue about
was, why do y'all do it that way when we do it this way? What I don't like is how y'all
do things this way. We always done this way. If we
know Christ and we're worshiping the same Lord, the same God,
the same Savior, that mess don't matter. It don't matter. If y'all
all worship laying on your backs, it'd be all right with me. I
preach the gospel to you that way. In fact, where I came from, most
folks don't come dressed in shorts quite as casually as y'all do.
That's okay with me. I really don't care. I think,
really, for me, I want to come dressed honoring the Lord that
I've served, but I'm not going to let that interfere with what
we're talking about here. We're not talking about those
little things. We're talking about who we serve, where our
oneness is, who it is that we're We're following after. And this
woman, when he's showing his disciples, when a person has
a true heart of faith, when they hear the word of sovereign electing
grace, when they hear the word of predestinating grace, when
they hear the word of redeeming grace, when they hear the word
of regenerating grace, when they hear the word of preserving grace,
when they hear grace, grace, grace, grace, grace, Glory to
God in the highest. And that which abases man. Oh,
their hearts get set on fire and they come and they come to
Him and they worship Him and they say, Lord, help me, help
me, help me. Now her response was altogether
different from the Pharisees and this is the contrast of hearts
that he's teaching us here. He's worked all this together.
Leaves a whole area where these people are and knows right where
he's going to this Syrophoenician woman. Leaves teaching them this
lesson just as easily as if I was on this side of the room and
was teaching you all and I walked over here to this side of the
room and started teaching you. He's of power to work everything together.
So he was teaching them this in one place with the Pharisees
and they saw that heart and he told them the heart problem is
the issue and he takes them over here to another place and takes
them to this Syrophoenician woman. He's worked her out of need.
She's there. She's come begging him. They
come now and they're saying, we just need to send her away.
She's getting on our nerves. And he said, no, go preach the
gospel to her and watch what happens. He's teaching these
boys the difference between a true, pure heart of faith and that
heart that draws near with the mouth, but when the heart's really
far from it. What did the Pharisees do? Turn
to John 10. John 10, 25. Let's look at verse 24. Then
came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost
thou make us to doubt? Oh, that's a tell-tale question
right there. It's the Lord's fault that they
don't believe. That's what they're saying. How long do you make
us to doubt? Tell us plainly, if thou be the
Christ. Verse 25. Jesus answered them,
I told you, I told you, I preached the same gospel to you as I preached
to that Syrophoenician woman. I told you. And you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. Now watch this. But you believe
not, because you're not my sheep. As I said unto you, Here's what
discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. My sheep hear my
voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them
eternal life. He didn't say, you're not my
sheep because you don't believe me. He said, you don't believe
me because you're not my sheep. You don't hear my voice because
you're not my sheep. You have no problem with all
these other customs and traditions and walking after the law and
saying you love Moses and saying you love all the dead prophets
because the dead prophets can't do a thing to you. They can't
tell you you're wrong. They can't sit up and preach
the gospel to you where it's going to rebuke you in your heart. If you get upset with what they
say, you turn the page. Shut their mouth. You can't shut
this one's mouth. He's right here alive for you,
preaching to you, teaching you. The Lord's telling him this.
And he said, and the reason that you don't believe me, the reason
you can't hear my voice is you're not my sheep. My sheep hear me.
When they came back to that Syrophoenician woman, she heard. She heard his voice. She heard
the truth. She heard the gospel. And she
came to him and she said, Lord, help me. It's all the same as
if she was coming to him and saying, okay. You're sent to
lost sheep. Here I am. Lord, help me. I'm one of those. I take my place
right there. Help me. That's a pure heart. That's the
heart of faith. Alright, here's the fourth thing. A pure heart
of faith is going to confess there's no good in a sinner. Come back to him now. She's talking
to him directly. Verse 26. But he answered and
said, it's not me to take the children's bread and to cast
it to dogs. Was it your will that saved you?
Was it some foreseen merit in you on God's part that made Him
choose you? Did He see down the road somewhere
that you'd believe, so He decided, okay, I'll choose you? Was it
anything about you that made God set His affection on you? It wasn't. If you know Him, it
wasn't. If you know the truth, you know
it wasn't. He said, it's not me to take the children's bread
and cast it to dogs. Are you a dog? Are you? Are you a dog? Look what she
answered. She don't defend herself. She
don't say anything. She don't say, Lord, I came to
you. She doesn't say, when I heard
the gospel, I believed it. She doesn't say, I look how persistent
I've been. She doesn't say she doesn't say
anything to commend herself to anybody. Look what she said. Truth Lord. Truth. I'm a dog. I don't deserve anything. Truthful. I tell you how you'd
know a pure heart from a hypocritical false heart. a pure hearts gonna
gonna not just say I don't deserve anything. But when they're said
you're not getting anything, they don't say, okay. All right. I don't deserve it. Look what
she said. She takes her place with the
dog and she says yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall
from the master's table. You don't have to give me a feast.
Just take a crumb. I'll do whatever you can give
me, Lord. Whatever you're willing to give
me, that's what I'll take. Take my place with the dogs under
the table. That's a heart that God's given.
That's a pure heart. That's a true heart. You see
the contrast here between this woman and those Pharisees? Now
if you looked at this woman, if you passed her on the street
or you saw her or she came into this place right here or whatever,
she's not going to be somebody you're going to look at and going
to impress you much. Now those Pharisees, just looking
with these eyes, you know, they'd impress religious folks. They
probably wouldn't impress you any more than they'd impress
me. That kind of stuff stopped impressing me when the Lord called
me. But they would look impressive to religion. They'd be just the
kind of folks religion wants. An attractant. Something that
will make people want to come, you know. Well, what does he say about
her? Verse 28. Then Jesus answered
and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Great is thy faith. Great faith comes to Christ seeking
mercy, owning Him to be who He is. She came to Him and said,
Lord, Lord, Son of David, that one promised. Great faith waits
on Christ and can't be driven away. He didn't answer. She kept
on waiting on Him, asking Him. Great faith bows to the Gospel
of Christ as it's revealed in His Word. He said, I'm sent to
particular lost sheep I'm going to redeem them, I'm going to
redeem them only. It's called particular redemption. It means Christ died for somebody,
and He purged the sin of somebody, and He accomplished the redemption
of somebody. And every one of those for whom
He died shall be saved. His cross shall not ever fail. That's what the scripture says
of Him. He shall not fail. True faith hears that, says truth,
Lord. Hypocrisy hears that and says, well, I believe that. But
I also believe that these liars over here that are saying Christ
died for everybody and wants to save everybody, they're also
preaching the truth. Because what that hypocritical
heart is really saying is, I think I was saved under that. And by
my same will that made my decision for Christ, I arrived at this
superior knowledge of doctrine. And that's all my hope's in now,
what I've learned, how I've come to the doctrines of grace. And
I didn't like them at first, but I came around to it. Now
I like them all right. And now I see that that's a lie.
And those people that understand that, they just weigh beneath
us. because he hadn't been saved by God's grace and by the power
of the Holy Spirit and renounced the hidden things of darkness
and called it dung what it is, because he's still trusting in
that profession and still trusting in that lie, he'll say, but now
they're still my brethren. If you believe that, let me give
you, let me give you this crystal clear. Me and you don't believe
the same God. We just don't. And it'll be evident. It'll be
evident. Because a pure heart, God-given
faith, when hears that, comes and says, Lord, help me. Just like this woman. That's
what this woman heard. That's what she heard. A hypocrite,
a hypocrite says, that Armenian free will idolatry is a lie. But I saved under that lie. That's
hypocrisy. That don't even make sense. That
don't even make sense. Fourthly, great faith repents
from any pretended goodness in us and takes our place as dogs
at the master's table. It's not a matter of tolerance
and accepting folks and this and that. This is the problem.
The folks that won't submit to the gospel and the word of God
and say truth Lord is that they don't think they're dogs. You
don't think you're a dog. The Pharisees didn't think they
were dogs. They thought they could clean themselves. He said,
you got a defiled heart. She was a dog. And great faith
always gets what it asks for. That's the fifth thing. Great
faith always gets exactly what it's asked for. You know why?
Because great faith's been made one with Christ. And He delights
to shower His children in mercy and grace. Did she get what she
asked for? Look at verse 28 at the end.
Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made
whole from that very hour. Do you see the contrast in hearts?
Contrast in heart. I hope you do. God teach you.