We can see everybody again. If you will, open your Bibles to
Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15. John put
an article in the Bulletin last night. Brother Henry wrote it
a long time ago, but he was just telling a story about Ebenezer
Eskin. In the late 1700s, a pretty popular
preacher, going to a conference just like we're at tonight, or
this morning. He was going to go preach in
Northern England. He went by this little town and the pastor
there knew him, fellow laborers. And he said, will you come preach
for us on Wednesday? He said, sure, I'd love to. That
happens a lot in our day, don't it? And a whole lot changed.
And he stopped there at that church and he preached. And they
were just going to have a normal Wednesday evening service. Everybody
showed up, always shows up. Brother Eskam was there to preach.
And boy, he just lit the room up. God blessed it. So he went
on that weekend and preached, and the pastor said, will you
come preach for us next Wednesday? And he said, sure will, on the
way back. So on his way back down to South England, he stopped
at that same little church and preached for them. And after
the service, a man came up to him and said, Pastor, he said,
last Wednesday, he said, I was just blessed by that message.
And he said, and this Wednesday, I wasn't. He's going to complain
about it. And that wise, unnamed pastor,
he said, why was you here last Wednesday? He said, well, I came
here just to hear from the Lord, it was a Wednesday. He said,
why are you here this Wednesday? He said, I came to hear Brother
Eskin. He goes, there's your problem. There's your problem. You come to hear from the Lord,
the Lord will bless that woman. Not from a man. That's the means
he uses, but we come to hear from the Lord. We pray he blesses
it. Our Lord always had someone around
him. Those times he was by himself seemed to be recorded. But all
around him, on the outside, was the world. Everybody looking
for something. I heard about some fishes. I'm
hungry. My shoulder hurts. I want to get healed. I want
some kind of temporal benefit in this life that was surrounding
me. Ask them for something. Want something. Think they deserve
something. Entitlement. What's going on in our nation
ain't nothing new. We like to think it is. We like to think
we're special, don't we? We got it harder than anybody else has
ever had it in the history of man. Nothing's changed. Inside of that circle was a religious
Pharisees following our Lord. Biting, devouring, entangling
Him in His words. Seeking Him, questioning Him. How? That's what they asked that
blind man. How? How did you get your sight? How? How? They didn't
once ask who. Who gave you sight? How did you
get sight? And inside of that circle that
always followed Him was His disciples. His people. His sheep. Those that He gave His life for.
That shepherd gave His life for. All those people on the outskirts,
that's what you read in John 9. The Lord came and spit in
the dirt. made some clay and put it in
that man's eyes. Did he ask him? There wasn't
a word said. There was a blind man sitting
on the side of the road. The Lord went up, spit in the
dirt, and put it in his eye. He said, go wash. He went and
washed. He said, I see. Those neighbors
he had that sat with him asked him, how did you get your sight?
He said, there was a man named Jesus. His sermon was a little
longer in the beginning. As he got more experienced, it
shrunk. He said, there was a man named
Jesus. He made some clay. He put it in my eye. He said,
go wash. I went and washed. I followed
him. I obeyed the command of God.
He gave me the power to obey him. And I can see that wasn't
good enough. Take him to the Pharisees. I
ain't got a good handle. I don't understand what happened.
I need an educated man to tell me. Somebody went to the seminary.
They got to sort this thing out. They took him to the Pharisees.
The Pharisees said, how? How did you get yourself? And
then they started arguing among themselves. Fighting and devouring each other
until they saw that this man really did heal him. They said,
oh, he's a sinner. Oh, he's not a sinner. That was
their argument in John 9. And they said, how could he be?
How could he be a sinner if he healed this man? Oh, it's a Sabbath
day. Oh, Moses gave us a Sabbath. We've got to love Moses. That's
who they followed. And they asked, go get his parents.
The neighbor said, who? That's how they approached him.
The neighbor said, how? The parent said, we don't know
how this happened. We know he's blind from his birth. And the Pharisee said, how? How? How? And he finally whittled
that message down to, I don't know, I was blind, I see. That's it. It kept getting simpler,
wasn't it? And then the Lord, they kicked him out of the temple.
He got run off. And when he got run off, the
Lord sought him again. He come to him. He said, you
want to worship the Son of God? He said, Lord, Who is he having
him worship? Who? Who? He said, he's standing
right in front of you. And he bowed and he worshipped
him. He bowed and he worshipped him. That's three kinds of people.
Those that are neighbors. That's all around us. I passed
10,000 of them come up the road the other day. Everybody in this
world. I was floating around just like them. And then I learned
some doctrine. I became a Pharisee. I got to
know the house. I got to learn something. Gotta
be right. Didn't worry about who was right,
I wanted to be right. And then God did a work. I was
blind that whole time. Whole time I was bouncing around.
Whole time I was bouncing in religion. And then I was blind. And now I see. Each one of those
three types of people, they approach the Lord in different ways, don't
they? And we see all that wrapped up in one person. How do we approach
a conference? We come here to see men. If y'all
came to see me, you're going to be disappointed. If you come
to hear me, you're going to be disappointed. I love the vessels
that the Lord uses to contain His water. Clay, Rick, Norm,
John, I love listening to you preach. That pleases me. But if it's you or somebody else,
I love you. But I'll take whoever the Lord puts His message in.
I need Him. I need Him. We see all these
three ways of how we approach the Lord, how we approach worship,
how we approach when we wake up in the morning. So all three
of these wrapped up in one person. One person. Here in Matthew 15,
we begin in verse 21. Matthew 15, verse 21. Then Jesus went thence and departed
unto the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the coasts, 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. But He answered
and said, speaking to the disciples, I am not sent but unto the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped
Him, saying, Lord, help me. You know what happens every Sunday
across this nation, across this world? We're going to worship.
Oh, I want to worship. Do you? Do you? Is that what
you're there for? You're there for some help? She came, she worshiped him saying,
Lord, help me. But he answered her and said,
it is not me to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. And
she said, Truth, Lord. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from their master's table. And Jesus said unto her,
O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour." This is a very popular passage to preach
from throughout this nation, throughout the world on Mother's
Day. Everybody wants to preach this on Mother's Day. They said
this is a persistent mother that finally got what she wanted for
her daughter. She wouldn't let up until she
made God cave in and bless her daughter. What folly. What foolishness. I want to see
three ways that this woman approached the Lord in this passage. First
way, she came approaching Christ with a reason for Him to help
her. He was indebted to her. He ought
to help her. She's entitled, isn't she? She's
asking for mercy. She was calling Christ by His
rightful office, but she had a reason. She had an external
reason. He had to bless her. He's supposed
to bless her. It says there in 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. That sounds good, doesn't it?
That sounds good. Have mercy on me, O Lord. You're
the son of David. All her ducks are in a row, and
there's a semi-colt. There's a reason he's supposed
to have mercy on her. That kind of nullifies mercy,
doesn't it? If you deserve mercy, that ain't mercy. That's the
rocky ground. That's what this woman's claiming.
That word had come to her. She'd heard about the son of
David. She'd heard something about mercy. But there wasn't
no soul there for her to take root. Worthless seed. Wasted seed. There's no root
to it. That's most people. They hear
about a god, little G. Make him anything you want. He'll
have ears, he won't hear nothing. He's going to have hands, but
he's going to have to have your hands to do something. And you ask him anything
you want. And if he don't give it, you
get enough people ganged up on him in a prayer group. We can
twist his arm, he'll do it. That's called a mutiny. That's
what that is. He's going against God. We sang
songs about this. Mercedes Benz. What nonsense. Foolish. Do you
know who you're talking to? That's a holy God. A thrice holy
God. Who they're approaching. But
that's what religion gives us. I read some things the other
day. One person was tearing up another person correcting everything
they'd ever thought in their lives. You don't raise your kids
right. You ain't running your business good. You ain't eating
right. You ain't doing nothing. And at the end of it they said,
God bless you. We approach God thinking we're
something and he owes us. That's one way of approaching
God. And what's the response to that? How does the Lord respond
to that? Look here at verse 23. But he
answered her not a word. 1 Samuel 3, it says, In those
days the word of the Lord was precious. There was not an open
vision. Nothing's changed. The word of
the Lord is precious as in its proclamation on the west coast
of this country. Those candlesticks are few and
far between. Precious. Precious. And His disciples came and besought
Him, saying, Send her away, for she cries after us." Well, this
woman's bothering. And this is sincere. That's what
Paul prayed there in Romans 10. They have a zeal, not after knowledge. They don't understand. But He
answered and said to those disciples, I am not sent but to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. The lost. He's the shepherd of
the sheep. And you know what those sheep are? Lost. Lost. Everybody wants to get saved.
You don't need to get saved. You need to be lost. That's who
he came for. Lost sheep. Much like that blind
man. There in John 9. He said, I was
blind and now I see. There's a whole mess of people
around everywhere. Everybody I know, they see. Well,
I got a Bible. I know God. Go out in the streets
and find somebody and say, do you hate God? Are you at enmity
with God? Are you enemies? Are you ungodly?
I ain't that bad. Everybody knows God. Everybody likes Jesus, don't
they? Find me somebody that's blind.
Find me somebody that's lost. Find me somebody that is sin.
Not that they've committed some sins, plural, that's what they
are. And I got good news for them. I got good news for them. Find me one of those. If you
got some of your own, I can't help you. If you're only blind
in one eye, I ain't got no good news for you. Much like that
Pharisee and the public in it. Turn over there to Luke 18. A
few pages of Luke 18. This lady came to the Lord indebting
Him as a reason for mercy. We hear about this Pharisee and
the public in Luke 18, beginning in verse 9. You can mark your spot there,
we'll come back to it. Luke 18, 9. And he spake this parable unto
a certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. Two men went up into the temple
to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a publican. And the Pharisee
stood, he stood, and he prayed thus with himself. God, I thank
Thee that I am not like other men are. Sounds good so far,
doesn't it? Words seem right. Extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, even as this old publican sitting over here.
I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. That Pharisee saw a reason the
Lord should deal with him. He had done something. We are
not to come to Christ on anything we have done or that we have
in our possession, in our race, faith, or grace. When the Lord
has blessed me, the Lord has been merciful to me, a sinner.
giving me life. I don't come to Him boastfully
and demanding of things. I always use that example of
my mother. I go into her house. That was my mother. Nothing's
going to change that. Half my DNA comes from her. And
I don't just kick over the garbage can and flip the lamps over and
put my feet up on the table and say, make me a sandwich. No,
I come in there honoring her, loving her, fearing her. That's
how that Pharisee approached the Lord there in a temple. Back
in our text of Matthew 15. The second way this woman approached
the Lord, she came to Him needing some help. She worshiped, she came to where
Christ was, she used that right title, but she wanted help. She
was still able to do part of the work. She was still able
to do something, but just needed a little extra nudge. She could muster some faith on
her own. She could do some works. She could pray. I can do that. I can pray. I can believe partly
on my own. I just need a co-pilot. I can
still fly this plane. I need somebody to help. Look
here in verse 25. Then she came and worshipped
Him, saying, Lord, help me. Help me. We do have a need of
Him. We do have a need of Him. Scriptures
say He is our help in time of trouble. He's our help in time
of need. But that help He has, that's an all-encompassing help.
It's not help like we think. That's being saved to the uttermost. To Him who had to do everything
for you. That's our help. There's a difference
between saved and help in our vocabulary in these modern days.
You save somebody, they didn't do nothing to contribute. There's no bragging rights to
it. If you help somebody, they got a leg to stand on. The Hebrew
writer said, "...wherefore He is able also to save them to
the uttermost that come to God by Him." How do we come to God? Fully. Completely in Christ. That's the only way we can approach
Him. "...seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them."
Ever living. God on His throne making intercession
for His people. That doesn't sound like a little
bit of help, does it? Sounds like He's got to do everything
for His people. At this point now, This Syrophoenician
woman, she isn't mentioning her personal troubles no more, is
it? What happened to her daughter? She said, Lord, have mercy on
me. My daughter's got some trouble. Now she's saying, Lord, help
me. Her daughter's out of the picture. Her worldly concerns
are starting to go away. She has a partial need for herself.
That's a thorny ground. A seed's been cast on her. some
roots grow, it shoots up. Now it's starting to look pretty
good. It's starting to look like a plant. There's going to be some fruit out of
this and then the forms of this world consume it. Choke it out. Take it away. What's that world? I. That your wife and your children
and your family and your job and Alcohol, drugs, tobacco,
whatever. Is it something else? Could be,
yeah, but it's I. That's the problem. That's my
primary problem. Go read Psalm 140. I woke up
yesterday morning thinking about that. Read that and read it as
if you were on a deserted island and ain't nobody there. Lord,
protect me from this evil man. That ain't my boss when I don't
like him. That ain't my wife when we're fighting. That ain't
my kids when they don't listen. That's right here. Right here. Verse 26, but he answered and
said, it is not me to take the children's bread and to cast
it to dogs. To dogs. I don't have to. And my faithful pastor told me
one time, you don't have to scream the gospel for it to be a fit.
In the sight of God, you're a dog. People drive all over this country,
have lots of places that says God loves you. Outside of Christ,
God hates you. That's right. I can whisper that
to somebody. God has to make that powerful.
I can tell you the truth. He has to make you believe it.
He has to give you ears to hear and a heart to believe it. Lord
God Almighty told this woman, you're a dog. You're a Gentile
dog. That don't mean much to me and
you nowadays, but being a Gentile is a pretty bad thing. She's
a Gentile dog. Are you a dog? Or do you have some worth? Do
you have some reason that God's supposed to be indebted to you?
Do you have a leg you can stand on? Do you just need some help? Or are you just a dead dog sinner? What's the third way we approach
the Lord? From some cause they owe us something? Some lay women
stand on her own power, her own ability. Or thirdly, in humble
submission and in truth. Look here in verse 27. And she
said, truth, Lord. Notice that T is capital. Is that capitalized in your Bible?
Capital T, truth. For she come declaring to the
Lord, Christ! Why are you here? What right
do you have to be in glory? Christ! What right do you have
to have mercy? Christ! What right do you have to be
in the presence of a holy God? Christ! Truth! She said, truth
Lord, you're telling the truth. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from their master's table. That's the good ground. That's the good ground. That
seed went into that heart and it grew and right there is fruit
coming out of it. Fruit declaring the Lord Jesus
Christ. I read through the parable of
the four tops of ground, four tops of heirs. And you know I
plowed a little bit of ground before. I grew some plants and
watched some fruit grow, planted some trees. And on my property,
do you know wherever Stony Path is? Right where I want, where
it's convenient for me and it pleases me. Do you know where
all the weeds are growed up that I haven't weed-eated yet? Where
I ain't wanted to weed-eat yet. Do you know where the good ground
is? Where I plow it. I take the rocks out, I take
the weeds out, I make it just the way I want it and every time
I see a weed, I go and I pluck it. Ground didn't do that by
itself. Who plows the ground that's in
the heart of a sinner? God Almighty does. If it's stony, He was pleased
to leave it stony. If there's thorns growing up
and choking it out, it pleased Him. to let those grow. It honored him, the husband.
And if it's good ground, well plowed, no stones, no weeds,
that's because it pleased him. And it honors him, doesn't it?
What's the result of all that? That's why I'm saying it's a
true submission. I read an article this morning as a French lady. Back in 2017, she went to the
doctor and they pulled up her shot record and they said, well,
this is kind of weird. You're dead. And she said, huh,
must be a glitch in the system. Well, then she went to travel
and they pulled her passport and said, no, this passport won't
scan. You're dead. You don't exist. You're gone.
And she said, well, now something's, maybe somebody stole my identity.
And then she went to the bank. A little tiny local bank. Been
banking there 27 years. She had a business. She knows
them. She knows them. When I had a business, I got
to know the people at the bank real well. You're there all the time.
And they said, honey, you don't exist. Government's come down,
it's you're dead, and that's what hit the bank account. You
gotta give us your checkbook. You ain't got no money. It's
gone. You're dead. Everything she went, she went
to go get a driver's license. You're dead. You're dead. And for the last
three and a half years, she's been trying to prove to everybody
around her that she's dead, or she's alive, that she ain't dead.
Bailiffs come to the house for her husband two years after.
And they say, well, it's statute of limitations or whatever. After
two years under French government, they give you a death certificate.
So that way he could transfer the house over and it's just
his name and the cars or whatever. And she's the only one at home,
and she's the one that signed the paper for her death certificate
so her husband could switch everything over. Oh, she's fighting. She's
fighting so hard to prove she's alive. She ain't a figment of
somebody's imagination. I read that story, and I started
bawling. this morning on the back porch. Every person born of Adam is
trying their best to prove they're alive. I ain't dead. I ain't dead. Look, I read a
Bible every day. I ain't dead. I said prayers. I ain't dead. I gave to homeless
children. I ain't dead. If I was that woman,
you know what I'd do? Her husband lives. You've got
to pay taxes. I don't owe you no taxes. I'm
dead to your taxes. You've got to file these reports. I don't
have to file no reports. I'm dead, remember? How are you
going to get food? My husband lives. He's alive. He'll handle everything
for me. That's a good place to be, isn't
it? I'm just an old dead dog. Right then you've got everything.
All the worries are took away. That's pressure, isn't it? What's the result of the Lord
doing a work like that in a sinner? Look here at verse 28. Jesus
answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto
thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. Great is thy faith. Oh, and one
other time the Lord said, Oh, what great faith. There's that
centurion, wasn't there? What did that centurion do? That's
a captain, he's over 100 people. And today's military is pretty
powerful man, he's got some respect. He said, Lord don't even come
to my house. I don't even want to look you in the eye, you just
say it. You will it, it's done, my servant will be made whole.
What great faith, what great faith. Turn back to Luke 18 real
quick. Luke 18, verse 13. And the publican,
the Pharisee just prayed all to himself and about himself
and because of himself, his power, his rights. Here's that publican. Verse 13. And the publican standing
afar off would not lift up so much his eyes unto heaven, but
smote upon his breast. What was he hitting right where
the problem was? Right in the heart. That's where my problem
is. saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner, a dead dog sinner. God be merciful to me. Our Lord
says, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather
than the other. For the one that exalted himself
shall be abased, and he that humbled himself shall be exalted. You know that servant's not above
their master. You know that? Turn over to Psalm
51. Our Savior, He humbled Himself. He was humbled. Psalm 51. Psalm
51. Verse 1, Have mercy upon me,
O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude
of Thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash
me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me against Thee. And thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou, that thou
mightest be justified when thou speakest and clear when thou
judgest." That's our Lord speaking. That humble? He became a man and bore on his
shoulder this government and bore our sin on his shoulders. and bore other sheep. That shepherd
went to go get the sheep and put it on his shoulders. He didn't
put it underneath his arm. He didn't say, come on, put it on his shoulders
and bore it. He bore our sin as his own. What humbleness. What an obedient,
faithful servant to his father and to his people. What a great
husband to his bride. What a great husband to his bride.
Thanks be to God that we're made one with Christ. Everything that
is required of me, every mercy I must beg for, every forgiveness
I must beg for, every prayer I must pray, Christ fulfilled
it. What's required of me, whatever
is required, I don't know what I don't know. Whatever it is,
Christ fulfilled it for me. I found this beautiful too, there
in 2 Corinthians 5, it says, For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. You don't hear nobody arguing
over what righteousness is, do you? How are you righteous? I've told this before, I said
that word sin there, the offense, the fatal flaw, that's a noun.
It's not a verb. That's a noun. Do you know what
I am? I'm a noun. He was made me. And I was researching, reading
on that again this morning and I missed something. That's a
feminine noun. A feminine noun. You know what
that was? His bride. His gomer. That's what he was made. Is that
humble? That's how He approached the
Father. Why? Because that's how I had to approach
the Father. That's how you had to approach
the Father and He completed it for us. Unfathomable, isn't it? How do I know if I'm His sheep,
if I'm that bride? What if I approach Christ in
the wrong way? This woman, she came to Him, didn't she? How
did she come to Him? He drew her. That's how we come
to the Lord, isn't it? He draws His sheep to Him. Turn
over to John 6 and I'll let you go. John chapter 6. John chapter 6 verse 37. Here's a promise. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. shall come to Me. And him that cometh unto Me,
I will no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.
And this is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that all
of which He hath given Me, I should lose none, but raise them up
at the last day. They shall come to Him. They shall be drawn to
Him. We're going to experience this.
There's going to be some changes. There are a lot of times, even
in my life now, I feel like the Lord is silent. He didn't answer
me. You know what the problem is? I think I deserve an answer.
I'm the problem every time. That's where the problem lies.
And then there's times I think I got a pretty good handle on
this. Lord, will you help me? I don't feel like he's helping
me now. Trial comes. You know what the best thing,
the best thing that ever happened to that Syrophoenician woman?
Her daughter was vexed with the devil. That don't make sense
to natural man, does it? What's the best thing that could
happen to one of you parents? One of your children completely
lose their mind. That don't make sense to us,
does it? Well, for her it was. That's
exactly what the Lord sent. The trial he sent had accomplished
exactly what he sent it for. To bring her humbled before the
Lord. And he said, oh great is our faith. What great faith! Where did you get that? He gave
it to me. We come humbly looking to Christ.
We conduct our daily living humbly looking to Christ. I pray I can
preach humbly preaching Him. And that just dogs could come
get crumbs. And that's what that one man
said. He said, I may be a dog, but I'm the Lord's dog. He's
my master. That's a good place to be. Amen.