I like watching him handle sinners
as I read through the Gospels. He never turned away, and it's
so encouraging to me personally, and it's so encouraging to me
in preaching and as a pastor. He never turned any sinner away
who came to Him for help. I can stand here with full confidence. and say to any sinner in the
house, come to Christ, and you'll find mercy. You'll find forgiveness. You'll find help in time of need.
He's never turned a sinner away. The self-righteous Pharisees,
He left alone. You see that in verse 14. The
great physician of souls never turned away a sick sin soul. He never did. But the hole wasted
his time. He said he came to save the sick. The hole need not a physician.
Now in this story we find hope for sinners. Hope for the helpless. You know the gospel is only for
sinners. It's only for sinners. It's not for anybody else. It's
only for sinners. It's for those who have no hope
and no help. We find in Christ, in our most desperate time, hope,
forgiveness, acceptance. Look over in verse 29, 31. And
Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the Sea of Galilee,
and went up into a mountain, and sat down there. And great
multitudes came unto Him, having with them those that were lame,
blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, cast them down at Jesus'
feet, and He healed them. There was no case too hard for
Him. You may think your case is too
hard for him. No. No sin he can't put away. And
that's good news to me. That's good news to me. Even
now, it's such good news to me now. I've believed on him for
years, but I tell you what, that's good news to me now. I need his
forgiveness and cleansing as much now as I did the day I first
believed. I need it now. Now we know this, we know that
all healing that we see throughout the Gospels represents His power
to heal us spiritually. It's a representation of His
power to heal us spiritually. But I don't want to overlook
this fact that He does also heal us physically. You know, there's
some now among our church, not this particular group, but our
church, I think of D. Parks. There's others that I
know of that are sick. Some are nigh unto death. And
I know this, I know the Lord can heal them. I know He can.
If He will, He can heal. He can speak a word and heal
them physically. Or He can use the medicine to
heal them. But either way, healings of God. It's all healings of
God. It's just a matter of His will.
And we submit to that. Now I want us to look at this
woman in her desperate situation and how this woman would not
let go. Boy, that's just so encouraging to me. She would not let go.
Now in the beginning of this chapter, let me set this up a
little bit here. Our Lord had been attacked by
the Pharisees. They came to Him there in verses
1 and 2, and they were upset that the disciples were breaking
the tradition of the elders. They were not washing their hands.
They were so upset about this. They were not washing their hands
before they ate. And the Lord knew the root of
this, as if clean hands had something to do with your soul. These hands
have nothing to do with my soul, whether they're clean or dirty.
Whether I go out here and work in the yard and come in and eat
with them washed or unwashed, it never touches my soul. And
they were upset with that, and they came at Him. And he pointed
out to them, he said, well, why have you replaced the commandments
of God with the tradition of the elders? That's a bigger problem. I mean, these Pharisees were
always coming at him. Always. And he taught in this
chapter here that it's not what goes in the belly that defiles
a man, it's what comes out of the heart. That's who you are. That's who I am. That's what
my heart is. That's what, whatever comes out
and defiles me is what's in my heart. It's my heart. Now after
this encounter, the Lord, He had someplace else to go. Now
over in Mark, it says He went near the coast of Tyre and Sidon,
just as it says here in Matthew. But in Mark it says He went into
a house and He said, don't tell anybody. You know, when you've
dealt with religious people all day, you just kind of need some
time alone, don't you? I think that's what he needed.
He just needed some time. It's like he needed some time. He's
a man. And he needed some time alone. But there was a woman
who was not going to leave him alone. And sinners will not leave
him alone. They're not going to leave him
alone. And so he goes to the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And
every day, I know this, every day had its agenda. You ever
get up in the morning and say, what are we going to do today?
I've said this with Vicki before. What are we going to do today?
I don't know. What do you want to do today? He never got up like that. Every
day had its divine predestinated agenda. And he was about his
father's business. He said, I must be about my father's
business. And there's some business he
must do over at Tyre and Sidon. And he goes that way. And this
is not an easy trip, though. It's 50 miles. How would you
like to start out right now and walk 50 miles?" 50-mile trip
is where he said it wasn't an easy trip for him to go there. And the disciples, they have
no doubt this, the disciples, it looks like another day trip
to them. It's like, well, let's go. Let's go. The Lord doesn't
tell him where he's going and why he's going. Being the sovereign,
he doesn't explain himself. He just says, follow me, doesn't
he? When Abraham believed God, he told Abraham to leave his
house, and Abraham believed God, and what does Abraham do? He
goes home and says, Sarah, we're going. Where? I don't know. Well,
how would you like your husband to come home and say that? I
don't know where we're going. I don't know. But I do know this. God said, go, we're going. Christ
said, follow me. We follow him. We follow him. But now, on His way there, there's a woman who's heard of Him. It says over
in Mark 7.25, here we see the preparation for the meeting. Every sinner whom the Lord saves,
He prepares them for the meeting. He prepares them. And this woman,
if you go over Mark, look over Mark 3. Let me read this to you.
I got it marked. In Mark chapter 3, look in verse 7 and 8. But Jesus
withdrew Himself with His disciples to the sea, and a great multitude
from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea, and from Jerusalem,
and from Adamia, and from beyond Jordan. And they about Tyre and
Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things
He did, came to Him. Where at? Tyre of Sidon. This
woman heard. She heard of the Savior. She
heard of His ability to heal. She heard of His ability to cast
out devils. She heard of Him. And God on
purpose made sure that she heard of Him because faith comes by
hearing and hearing by the Word of God. You're not going to be
saved. No sinner is going to be saved that does not hear the
Gospel. He's going to send a preacher
and He's going to prepare the sinner for the meeting. And He
does so here. And one of the reasons I also
know that she heard and learned something about Him is she called
Him Lord, and she called Him something else. There in verse
22, Son of David, the Messiah. She's calling Him the Messiah.
She is recognizing Him as the Messiah, the promised Messiah
that was given back in Genesis. She believes He's it. She believes
with all her heart. In her heart, He's going to prove
her faith. It's going to come out. He's
going to prove it. But she believes with all her
heart, He's the Messiah. He's the Savior. He's the Savior. That's what she believes. Somewhere
along the way, the seed was planted, and now it's time for the Lord
to give the increase. And it's about to happen. And
she has hope for the first time. For the first time, she has hope
for her daughter. When she heard of Him and His
ability and His willingness to save, to heal, to cast out, for
the first time, this mother had hope. I can't even imagine what
she was going through. Her daughter vexed with the devil.
I can't imagine that. I saw this on television once.
This woman had a very severe autistic son and he beat his
head against the wall. And he had to wear a football
helmet. She had a football helmet on
his head because he would beat his head against the wall. And
when they was interviewing her, you could see this woman was
absolutely drained. She was drained, and when I watched
that, my heart sank. I mean, it just sank. I felt
for that woman. I thought, my, how does she go
through this day after day after day? And this woman here, her
daughter is vexed severely, sorely, greatly vexed with the devil.
Remember that one father whose son cast himself into the fire
and into the water, trying to drown himself? I mean, can you
imagine living like that and living with that? This is what
she lived with. She says, he's grievous. She
was grievously vexed. Grievously vexed. But she had
some hope now. She had some hope. I can't imagine
my soul. She had some. I imagine she was
probably about to, she was probably floating. For the first time,
there's some hope. There's some hope for her daughter.
How long she'd been this way, I don't know. I'm sure she sought
help before, but didn't find any. There's no one who can deal
with this situation but Christ. He's the only one who can cast
out devils. He's the only one that can break
the power of sin and the power of Satan. Everyone born into
this world, now listen, everyone born into this world is under
the power of darkness. They're under the power of darkness.
Scripture teaches us that in Ephesians chapter 2. And He's
the only one who can break that. He's the only one who can set
the captive free. He's the only one. Her problem? Her daughter vexed
with the devil. Here's another problem she runs
into, and this is another trial of her faith. The disciples. And I thought, Lord, don't let
me be a problem. Don't let me be a problem. The
disciples wanted to run her off. Can you imagine that? Can you
imagine me staying here this morning, trying to run the people
out of here that I'm prejudiced against? Because they were prejudiced
against her. She was a Gentile. Mark calls
her Greek. Mark says she's Greek. She's
a Gentile woman. And they want to run her off.
They felt embarrassed of her. This is like a dog in the house.
And they hated dogs. They have prejudice. They want
her to leave. They're like Jonah. They don't want to help her.
They don't want her to be helped. They just want her gone. You
know, there's something in reading this that just stood out to me.
You remember when the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead? And he
came out there and he had these grave clothes on. They wound
him about with grave clothes and the Lord said, loose him.
He told some, maybe his disciples, he said, loose him. Take the
grave clothes off of him. You know that's what I do every
time I'm preaching. That's what the Lord does. Every time we
sit here on the gospel, a little more of the grave clothes are
taken off. It takes us a while to grow up in Christ. It takes
us a while to get rid of old traditions and old prejudices.
It takes a while to get rid of that. And the only way that he's
gotten rid of is through growth in grace and in knowledge of
Christ. I can't imagine. These are the disciples. These
are the ones that are going to go out and preach the gospel.
These are the ones, the twelve, he's going to send them out. And they hate this woman. But
they're going to grow to love her. It's going to take some
time to go by. He's going to go to cross. Peter's going to deny him. And
once they realize who they really are, and that's a process. That's a process. Learning who
you really are by nature is a process of the work of God and the work
of grace. It's a process. And the more
you grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ, the more you begin
to love others that are not like you, that are not like you. And so the disciples are a problem.
And her being a Gentile, her being a Gentile, you know what
that says? She has no right what she's asking for. She has no
right for what she's asking for. But I tell you what, that didn't
stop her. That did not stop her. She came
to Christ. She came to him. He was in that
house. He said, don't let anybody bother
me. That's what he's telling his
disciples. Don't let anybody bother me. Well, she's out there. She's
coming. She's like, I'm getting in this
house. Remember those ones who tore up the roof and they led
them down through the... You don't have to beg anybody
to come to Christ. We don't beg sinners. We point
to Christ. Look to the Lamb of God. God
will draw. God is at draw, His grace is
powerful. But she came to Him. If I could only get this across
to sinners, just this one thing, come to Him. Just come to Him. It says in the Scriptures, in
Hebrews 7.25, Wherefore He is able also to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth
to make intercession for them. Here's the problem. wherefore
he is able also to save them to the uttermost." It's hard
to find somebody that's been to the uttermost, the uttermost
of themselves, to the wit's end. Hard to find them. It takes God
to make them that way. But she came, and she came for
mercy. She came for mercy. She said,
Lord, have mercy on me. But you know what she's doing?
She's asking for mercy on her daughter. on her daughter." Every
parent understands this. Every parent here understands
what she's saying. Mercy on her daughter is mercy
on her. It's mercy on her. She's asking for the Lord to
have mercy on her. For the Lord to have mercy on
our children is a great mercy to us. Isn't it? Our children, our grandchildren?
It's a great mercy. God can have no more mercy on
me than to save my own. You know, Paul said it like this.
Paul said it, and I tell you, this is a, whew, this is a tough
statement. Paul over in Romans chapter 10,
I believe it's in chapter 10, he said, I could wish myself
a curse from Christ if it would save my brethren. If it would
save them, I would, me being a curse from Christ would save
them, I'd do it. And he's not just saying that
either, he meant it. Paul meant it. Parents know something
about that. Believing parents also know this.
They know that their children inherited their sin nature from
them. Why do you do that? Well, I'm
looking at why I did it, Dad. I'm looking at why I did it. That's why I did it. And you
know that. You know that. I tell you, children inherit
what they have from us, and that goes all the way back to Adam.
All the way back to Adam. The only thing Adam could pass
on to his children and we pass on to our children is a sinful
nature. A sinful nature. And if they're ever saved, the
Lord will have to do it. We can't do it. Trying to put a fence
around them, trying to say, don't do this, don't do that. Trying
to scare them with all kinds of stuff. That's not going to
save anybody. Look to the Lamb of God. He saved
them the same way He saved us. That's why it's so important
when you come here. I just preached the gospel. Somebody will hear
this over the air someday. Who knows? Someday they may hear
it and believe the gospel. Well, she comes. She comes because
she's in need of mercy. She comes because her daughter's
vexed with the devil, and there's nobody that can help her but
the Lord. And she heard about that, and she believes it. She
came in faith. She came in faith. But now her
faith's going to be tried. Real faith is going to be tried.
It says, look in verse 23. But let me go back to verse 22.
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. You're going
to find out he doesn't give her any encouragement to keep coming
and keep believing and keep crying. First thing he does, he doesn't
answer her. His response is completely different than what she expected.
She heard how he saved, how he cast out devils, how he made
the lame to walk, the deaf to hear. She heard that and she
was expecting him to say, oh, well bring her here. Bring her here, bring her to
me. But he doesn't answer her a word. Silence. Well, there's a lot revealed
in silence, you know that? The Lord can reveal a lot with
silence. How many times have you prayed
and prayed and prayed and you get no answer? But you realize even more and
more and more how much you don't deserve what you're asking for.
A lot can be revealed in His silence. He answers her, not a word. And
then when He did answer her, you know what He did? He spoke
of election. He said, listen here, listen
to this. He answered her, not a word, and then the disciples
said, send her away. But He answered and said, I'm
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. You see,
the key word here is lost. Then sheep. Lost. He had to get her to this point.
But you know what? That didn't drive her away. That
didn't drive her away. You know, I can relate to this.
I can relate to this, this story, because when I first heard the
gospel, and I heard Henry, and I heard how God had chosen people,
but that didn't keep me from Christ. I wasn't worried about
whether I was one of the elect or not. I didn't worry about
that. You know what I was concerned with? I'm a sinner and I need
a Savior. I need the Lord to save me. That didn't drive her away. You
can't drive a sinner away in need of mercy. You can't do it. She said, I'm only sent to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. And you know what she knows?
She's a Gentile. She knows she's a Gentile. How
discouraging. How discouraging. But she's holding
on to this. She's holding on to this message
she heard, that He heals the lame, the deaf, and the dumb,
and He casts out devils. That's what she's hanging on
to. He saves sinners. That's what I hung on to. That's
what you hang on to, isn't it? It is. And then, not only does he mention
he was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,
now it's evident, when the Lord saves her, she was one of them.
Because the lost sheep of the house of Israel is more than
that little nation over there in the Middle East. It's the
whole church of God. It's the whole church of God.
We are the circumcision, Paul said, who worship God in the
Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh. And then he lets her
know that she has no right for what she's asking for. He says,
look here, in verse 26, and he answered and said, It's not meat
to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. Boy, you
would think he would give her a little crumb of encouragement
here, but he doesn't. But here's what's going on. Here's
what's going on. The Lord is putting her in her
place, He's revealing to her, her true unworthiness, and she
is, but at the same time, He's holding her up. At the same time,
He's doing heart surgery, and yet He's holding her up through
it. I know this, you think you're not going to make it, The Lord
wouldn't save me and at the same time I keep coming and I can't
stop keep coming. He keeps you coming. He's working
on both ends. He said it's not right to give
the children's bread to the dog. He's telling her she has no right
for what she's asking for. But here's the beautiful thing
about mercy. Here's the beautiful thing when
you ask for mercy. I'm not asking for something
I deserve, Lord. I'm asking for something I don't
deserve. I'm asking for something I don't
deserve. Well, that didn't drive her away. And Marcus says she
came and fell down at his feet. Fell down at his feet. And she
said, help me. Lord, help me. Lord, help me. You know what he said to the
disciples concerning the Pharisees in this chapter? He said, leave
them alone. The disciple said, don't you know you offended the
Pharisee? He said, leave him alone. But
he wouldn't leave this woman alone, and this woman wouldn't
leave him alone. She comes to him, falls at his
feet, and worships him, worships him. He makes her to realize
that mercy is sovereign. We have to realize this. In our
day, in present day preaching, it's not sovereign. It's just
like He wants to if you'll just let Him. The Lord is sovereign in His
mercy. And then He makes her realize
her unworthiness of mercy when He calls her a dog. Would that
offend you? Would that offend you if somebody
called you a dog? You know what she said? How dare
you? You know what she said? Truth,
Lord. You're right. Over Mark, she said, Yes, Lord.
She absolutely submitted to truth. She's saying that's the truth.
That's not his opinion. Truth is never an opinion. Truth
is the truth. He says, it's not right to give
the children's bread to dogs, as she said, truth, Lord. Truth,
that's the truth, I am a dog. I'm a dog. Yet the dogs eat of
the crumbs which fall from their master's table. acknowledges
Him to be the Master. And she's the dog who needs a
crumb of mercy right now. She's just saying it's just a
crumb of mercy. For you to do this is... I mean, for me, it'd
be the greatest thing ever, but for you, it's a crumb. Because
His mercy is so great. It's so great. She acknowledges her sinfulness
and unworthiness. And she acknowledges that the
dogs, they eat the crumbs which fall from the master's table.
She acknowledges, I'm your dog. You're my master. How can you
not answer that? How can you not answer that? And then she listens. She came.
She came, fell at his feet, totally broken, totally at his mercy,
and said, Lord, help me. And in verse 25, back in verse
25, help me. That's all. I just need your
help. Nobody else can help me. And then last of all, I'm going
to close. We see in verse 28, faith is
revealed, faith is proven, and faith is victorious. This is
what we've seen. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, O woman, great is thy faith." When you think
of great faith, what do you think of? You think of defeating this,
doing great things. You know what great faith is?
Let me give you great faith. To believe God. To believe God. You know what
the worst sin? Think of the worst sin. Think
of the worst sin you can think of. Unbelief. That's the mother of all sins.
Unbelief is the worst sin of everything. Oh, I've been so
sinful. Unbelief is the worst. It's the worst. The Pharisees,
they were committing the worst sin. They did not believe Him. They did not believe Him. And
then in verse 29, And Jesus departed from thence, and came down to
the Sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain, and sat down
there. And what's He doing? The next
thing. On His way to save another lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And one day He came to Spring Lake. And there are some few
sheep here in Spring Lake. Oh, the woman who would not let
go. I won't lose anybody like that
this morning. I'm one. We're going to close with a song
that's been abused by the Armenians, abused by Billy Graham. I mean,
it's been, but I absolutely refuse. I refuse to throw away that which
they abuse. But I'm going to give you the
story of this song. I'm going to give you the story. This woman's
name is Charlotte Elliott. She's from over in England. She
was a very bitter woman. Bitter, unloved woman. Her disabilities,
she said, hardened her. She embarrassed her family and
her pastor one day. When her pastor was preaching,
she stood up and said, If God loved me, He would not have treated
me this way. Being crippled. He would not
have treated me this way. And her family was so embarrassed. that they got up and left. They
got up and left the congregation. They were so embarrassed. Well,
the pastor sat there for a minute or so. And after a few minutes,
the pastor looked up and said, You are tired of yourself and
you are holding on to your hate and your anger, Charlotte. And she replied, What is your
cure? He said, the very faith in the Lord Jesus Christ you
are trying to reject and despise is the answer. He said, it's
the answer. And he says she softened a little
bit and asked, what can I do to be changed or to be saved?
He said, just come to Christ. Just come to Christ. Come to Him with all your fears,
all your shame and all your pride and ask for mercy. Asked for
mercy, she replied, you mean come just as I am? He said, yes. And 14 years later, she wrote
that song, Just As I Am. And we're going to sing it this
morning.