If you will open your Bibles
with me to the book of Matthew, chapter 15. You know, it just might be that
we'll stand before the throne today. And if we do, what is our hope? We're just saying it. When I
stand before the throne, I'll stand in Him complete. He died my soul to save, and
my lips shall still repeat, He paid it all. As we heard yesterday,
what God has been pleased to do is save His people from their
sins, and it shall be forever. It shall stand. We are complete
in Him. Here in Matthew chapter 15, Let's
start reading in verse 21. Matthew 15 verse 21. Then Jesus
went thence and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon.
And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and
cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, 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, I am
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then
came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It
is not meat 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, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee,
even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole,
from that very hour. Here we have the passage of the
Syro-Phoenician woman, the master's dog. And there are three things
that I really want us to see that I pray God will be pleased
to show us in His Word this morning. And these three things are His
purpose. Let us always look for His purpose, because God does
everything on purpose. Remember that. Second, I want
us to see how this woman came to Christ. Did you know we must
come to Christ? If we're to have any hope of
eternal life, we must come to Him. And we're going to see how
to come to Him and how this woman came to Him. And third, I want
us to see how our Lord dealt with her. If we come like this
woman came, What's the outcome going to be?
How does God deal with sinners? Okay, the first thing I want
to see is the Lord's purpose. Now, our Lord, as verse 21 tells
us, He departed from where He was into the coasts of Tyre and
Sidon. Well, why did He go to Tyre and
Sidon? Why did He do this? It was on
purpose. Now look back at the beginning
of our chapter here in Matthew 15 verse 1. It says, Then came
to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,
Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?
For they washed not their hands when they eat bread. Here the
Pharisees and the scribes are making a scene, causing, stirring
up trouble as usual. That's what they always did.
And look what our Lord had to say in response to them in verse
three, but he answered and said unto them, why do you also transgress
the commandment of God by your tradition? Here they are, why
do your disciples not wash their hands. Why are they ignoring
the tradition of the elders? And what did the Lord say? It's
not about the tradition of the elders. You're totally omitting
the commandment of God. Look down at verse 6. In the
middle of the verse, He said, Thus have you made the commandment
of God of none effect by your tradition, you hypocrites. Well, did Isaiah prophesy of
you, saying, This people draweth Niah to me with their mouth,
and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me."
These scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees, these men came to
the Lord, but they did not come in faith. They came not believing
Him to be Lord. Your disciples don't do this. Are you going to heal this man
on the Sabbath day? Is it lawful? That's how they
came to the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's not how we come. They were grievous. Our Lord,
no doubt, was grieved by these hypocrites, as he called them.
Read Matthew 23. You'll see what the Lord thinks
of self-righteous Pharisees who have no need of Christ. So first
our Lord left. He left because He was grieved
by these religious people who knew it all. They didn't need
God to do anything for them. But before our Lord leaves, He
turns to the multitude. He turns to those who want to
listen. instead of tell him what they
had to say, those who might be interested in what he had to
say. And I want us to see what he told them. Look down at verse
18. He said, But those things which
proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they
defile a 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 unwashed hands, defiled, not a man." What
he said was, it's not about what we do, it's what you are. The problem is not the outward
appearance. The Lord told him, you clean
up the outside, but the inside is full of corruption, dead man's
bones. We have a heart problem. Why do we sin? Because we're
sinners. We're nothing but sin. That's
why we sin. That which we do is a result of what we are in
the heart. That's what He was telling them.
And so here our Lord departs. Look at verse 21 again. After
this, then Jesus went hence and departed into the coast of Tyre
and Sidon, and behold, Here's his purpose. 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. Why did our Lord leave where
he was and come here? Do we really have to wonder why?
He had a lost sheep. Look in verse 24, He answered
and said, I'm not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. You recall that Samaritan woman
to your mind. It says in John chapter 4, it
says, He must, needs go through Samaria. Why? because he had
a lost sheep in Samaria. He went to Jacob's well. He sat
thus on the well. He was wearied with his journey.
And what do you know, here comes this woman. What a coincidence.
Oh no, what purpose? What purpose? He must needs go
reveal himself to her. That Samaritan woman, she said,
oh, our fathers worship in Jerusalem. He said, you know not what you
worship. She said, I know that when Messiah
comes, He'll tell us all things. He said, I am. You're looking
at the Messiah. This is He. I am. And she went
home not boasting of her religion. She went home with a brand new
message, and her message never changed. From then on, her message
was, is not this the Christ? I pray that somebody will go
home today from this building saying, is not this the Christ?
I want to get on my airplane today and be sitting there thinking,
isn't this the Christ? The Savior, the Savior of sinners,
the Messiah. Why did our Lord must needs enter
into the coast of Tyre and Sidon? Because He had a lost sheep there. And notice the purpose. In verse
24, you see that word, sent. I am not sent, but unto the lost
sheep. You know, there's purpose when
you send somebody to do something. God sent His Son. He gave His
Son. He sent Him here on purpose. And I love what John the Baptist
said. He said, Why was He sent? Was He merely sent to set us
an example to follow so we could be like Him? He is our example, absolutely. He's our example, but that's
not why He came. That's not why He came. Not so we could work
up and try our best to be like Him. There's no salvation in
that. Oh, no. Did He come to make salvation
possible so that we might be saved? Oh, no. He didn't make
anything possible. No, sir. No, sir. He did not
come here to show us how to be saved. Call His name Jesus for
what? He shall. Purpose. Purpose. He shall save His people
from their sins. Now I want to show you Mark's
account. Look over here in Mark chapter 7 if you will. These
are the two accounts we have of this encounter with this woman. Mark chapter 7, look with me
at verse 24. Mark 7 24. And from this he rose
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 for a certain woman whose young daughter had an unclean
spirit heard of him and came and fell at his feet. Again,
what a coincidence. He enters into a house. It says
he would have no man know it. But a certain woman came and
met him there. What divine purpose? Do we not
see the goodness and the purpose of our God here? She found him
in that house. But did you know he went there
for her? We know He did. We know He did. God does everything on purpose.
Our Lord came to this certain house. I'm sure there were many
houses on that coast He could have gone into. He came to this
certain house at this certain time for this certain woman on
this certain coast. Do you believe that? Is it any coincidence that our
Lord came to that well for that Samaritan woman at the exact
time He came? And that she went out to get
water at that exact time she came? It's all according to God's
purpose. All things are ordered and sure
according to His purpose. Now I love how it says in verse
24 at the end, it says, He could not be hid. Could He have hidden Himself?
You know there was a time when these lost religious men took
up stones to stone Him. You know what it says? It says
He walked through the midst of them. Here we read He could not
be hid. Could He have hidden Himself
if He wanted to? Absolutely. He's God. As we saw
yesterday, this is the Creator of everything. Of all things,
absolutely He could have hidden Himself. But according to God's
purpose, He could not be hid. Could not be. It was purposed. You see, our Lord did not come
into this world to hide. He came into this world to seek
and to save that which was lost. Purpose. Purpose. He came to
her. Now let us see how she came to
him. Here in Mark 7 verse 25 again
it says, For a certain woman whose young daughter had an unclean
spirit heard of him and came and fell at his feet. How did
this woman come to him? She came to him in faith. And you know what faith does?
Faith comes to Christ. It doesn't go to anyone else.
Faith comes to Christ. believing. Faith believes. What
does faith believe? That He alone is able to help
me. That He alone is able to save
me. And you know what else faith
does? Faith falls at the feet of the Savior. That's what it
says she did. She heard of Him and came and fell at His feet.
This woman She came and fell at His feet. She came in humble
faith. Now, how did this woman obtain
faith? Well, we know. How do we obtain faith? Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Verse 25
tells us also, it says, she heard of Him and she came. We're not
going to come to Christ until we hear of Him. She heard of
Him. She heard the gospel of Jesus
Christ And God gave her faith to believe. She believed on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and now she's calling upon Him to do for her
what she cannot do for herself. Look over with me in Romans chapter
10. It's a wonderful, wonderful passage
here. Romans chapter 10. This matter of hearing and coming
to Christ by faith. Romans chapter 10, look at verse
13. Romans 10, 13 says, For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. She came to him calling upon
him, Lord help me, Lord save me. And verse 14 says, how then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? How shall
they believe in him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. She heard. And I like to think,
perhaps this woman, when our Lord turned to the multitude,
and He said, this is what defiles a man. Man is a sinner. Man has no ability to save himself. Man is in great need. Perhaps
she was among that multitude and heard Him speak those blessed
words. Perhaps. And what does faith do? Faith
flees to Christ. If she was on that coast and
heard Him speak those words, she got in her boat and followed
Him. Lord, save me. Faith flees to Christ, and that's
exactly what she did. I've got to get to Him. Faith
flees to Christ and Him alone. And look back in our text, Mark
7 again, verse 25. Mark 7.25 says, for a certain
woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit. This woman came to the Lord needy. She came to Him with a need.
We just read why the Pharisees came. They came to say, whoa,
whoa, whoa, your disciples, they're not washing their hands before
they eat. Do they not know this is the tradition of the elders?
They did not come with a need. There's the difference. Let us
not come to the Lord telling Him what we know or what we've
done. Lord, Lord, we've done many wonderful
works. The Lord won't have that. He'll say, depart from me, you
workers of iniquity. I never knew you. I don't want
to stand before God in judgment and hear those horrible words.
I don't want to come to God bragging about what I've done and be damned
forever. Oh no. We must come to Christ
with a need. It's the only way to come. Now
many suppose that this woman was a widow. Many suppose that
this young daughter was all the family she had. And we don't
know. But we do know how much she loved
that daughter. Oh, she loved her daughter, her
only daughter. How do we know? She brought her
before the Lord of Glory. Oh, Lord, my daughter has an
unclean spirit. My daughter is demon possessed.
Would you remove that spirit from her? Lord, would you save
her? She knew that her daughter could
not save herself. She knew that she could do nothing
for her daughter but bring her before the Lord, knowing that
He alone could save her. We would be wise to do the same
thing. I have family. You all have family. Unless God saves us, we're not
going to be saved. I can't save my siblings. I can't
save myself, let alone anyone else. Let us come to the Lord
and let us bring our loved ones before the Lord because He can
save us and He can save them. Only He can save us. Only He
has the power to save. The only way to come to Christ
is with a need. Now turn back to our text in
Matthew chapter 15. And look with me at verse 22
once again. Matthew 15, 22. And behold, a
woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried unto him.
She came crying. What was her cry? Have mercy
on me, O Lord, thou Son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. She came crying for mercy. Well, I thought she came for
her daughter. Yes, she did. But she cried, have mercy on
me. You see that? Without a doubt, she was crying,
have mercy on my daughter. But she was praying for mercy
for herself. And you know, we cannot be concerned with the
souls of those we love Unless we're concerned with our own
soul. Is that not so? She came to Christ with two needs.
Mercy for me and mercy for my daughter. She came with one need. Mercy. Mercy. Now let me ask us a question. What do we need? What have I got to have? You
know, I finally got me a good job. And I'm enjoying it, and
I'm thanking the Lord for it. But you know, if He took that
away, you know that'd be okay. No matter what the Lord takes
away from us, there's just one thing we need. And you remember
Mary? I love this. She fell at the
Lord's feet, and she sat and heard His word. And our Lord
says, she hath chosen that good part which shall never be taken
away from her. What did Mary need? What do we
need? Mercy. Mercy. Mercy truly is the one thing
needful. Mercy in Christ. What do our loved ones need?
Mike, what does our family need? Mercy. And we can't give them
mercy. We can't give somebody the mercy
of God, but we can bring them here to hear about He who can. Him who delights to show mercy
There's only one place to find mercy and that's at the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's where this woman came.
Fell at His feet and cried for mercy. You know what all believers
have in common? We're good people, we've straightened
up, we've quit sinning, we're living right, we're treating
people right. We're doing good. Oh no. All children of God are
sinners. Mercy-begging sinners. It's the one thing we all have
in common. And it's the one thing we've
got to have. We've got to have mercy. Now lastly, I want us
to see how did our Lord deal with this woman? How did He handle
such a plea? Verse 22 again, But he answered
her, not a word. Does that surprise you? When I read this, it blew me
away. Here she comes, falling at his
feet, begging for mercy, and he didn't answer her word. How
in the world could that be? I thought he never turned down
a cry for mercy. I thought this was him who delights
to show mercy to everyone that needs it. It is. The point is, he didn't have
to show her mercy. We need to let that sink in.
God does not have to show us mercy. What did He say? I will
show mercy to whom I will show mercy. I heard Brother Clay Curtis
say this once. We are at the mercy of God whether
we like it or not. That's just so. I'm at the mercy of God. If God
ever teaches us that, we're going to follow His feet. and beg for
mercy. Here our Lord was going to prove
whether her faith was sincere or not. Because religion is full
of fake cries, fake, phony professions. I'm sure, I grew up in a gospel
church, so I didn't make a confession, profession, until the Lord saved
me. But I'm sure some of you were
raised in religion and made one, two, three, four, I don't know,
how many professions? A true cry for mercy will keep
on crying. Our Lord answered her not a word,
well, she's just gonna wander off. Oh well, he didn't show
me mercy, guess I'll just get religious. Oh no, oh no. Read verse 23 again. But he answered
her not a word, and his disciples came and besought him saying,
send her away, for she cried after us. She just kept on crying. Lord answered her, not a word.
You're his disciples. Oh, would you please tell him
I need mercy. Isn't this the Messiah? Isn't
this he who shows mercy to sinners? I've got to have mercy. And shame on his disciples. Lord,
send her away. She just keeps on crying. She's
driving us crazy. Was he going to send this poor
woman away? Was he possibly going to send
her packing? Oh no. Not a chance. There's a people whom God has
purposed to save from eternity. A people who will in due time
cry out for mercy. And you know what they're going
to receive? Mercy. Every single one of them. Every
single one of them. I love this. Isaiah 65 verse
24 says, And it shall come to pass that before they call, I
will answer them. Well, He didn't answer. He had
already answered her. The fact that He chose to show
mercy to her from eternity is why she can cry for mercy. Because
He purposed to save her. God doesn't save us because we
cry for mercy. A baby doesn't cry until it's
been born. We don't cry for mercy until
we've been born again. And we get on babies for crying. Would we just learn from them? Let us cry like a baby. God,
be merciful to me. Before they call, I will answer.
And while they're yet speaking, I will hear. He may not have
answered her, but oh, he heard her. He heard her loud and clear. He's going to show her mercy.
Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. I'm not
going to send her home without mercy. No, no, no, no. You see,
though the disciples grew weary of this poor woman, our Lord
will never grow weary of sinners coming to Him, begging for mercy. Never. Never. He said, Come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will, I will
give you rest. I will. Oh, blessed promise.
God is merciful. God is merciful. How did he deal
with her? By not answering her word. Oh,
he's going to answer. Second, he dealt with this woman
by declaring to her the truth of the gospel. Verse 24 again,
but he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. He said, I'm sent. You know that? I came here on purpose to save
my lost sheep of the house of Israel. He said, I was sent into
this world to fully obey God, to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to die on the cross, to be made a curse, to redeem them that
were under the curse, to be made sin for my people, that they
might be made, that they shall be made the righteousness of
God in me. I come to lay down my life for the sheep. I come
to give eternal life to those the Father hath given me. But hold on now. She wasn't of
the house of Israel. She's a Gentile dog. Gentile! Look over with me in Romans chapter
9. Romans 9 verse 22. I thought salvation was of the
Jews. I'm a Gentile. Romans 9 verse 22 says, What
if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known,
endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His
glory on the vessels of mercy which He had aforeprepared unto
glory? Now look at this, Even us, whom
He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. This is for Jews and Gentiles.
There's no difference. Bon or free. No. Jew nor Greek. We're
in Christ. Christ is in us. It's all that
matters. Christ died for sinners. The
house of Israel. This is spiritual Israel. They're
not all Israel which are of Israel. It wasn't about the physical
nation Israel. You know where the nation of Israel come from?
Jacob. God gave him a new name. Used
to no more be termed Jacob, but Israel. Well, up in verse 13 of Romans
9 it says, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. Well, how can that be? How can
God love one and hate the other? Because Jacob was a vessel of
mercy, a fore prepared unto glory. God was pleased to show mercy
to Jacob and not Esau. Well, that's not fair. of its fair. Verse 19, Thou wilt
then say unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? Who hath resisted
his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replies against God? He is our Creator. Shall the
thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made
me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same
lump, to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? Jacob was a sinner, just like
you and me. The house of Israel is the house
of sinners. Christ came to save sinners,
of whom I'm chief. And I can just picture the Lord
looking at this woman, beholding this woman, saying, this is a
faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. I'm sent for the lost sheep.
I came to save sinners. Is there a needy sinner in this
house? This house that our Lord came into, there was a needy
sinner there. Is there a needy sinner here?
Oh, I pray there is. I pray there is. Look back at
Matthew 15. Matthew 15, verse 25. Then came she and worshipped
Him, saying, Help me. What a prayer. You know, we like
to make long prayers, and that's okay. As long as we're not doing
it like the Pharisees, to be seen of men. But you know, sometimes
the shortest prayers are the sweetest. Lord, help me. That's far greater than any prayer
I've ever tried to pray. Lord, help me. Oh Lord, I am
a sinner. I am a lost sheep. Would you
help me? I can't help myself. I'm at the point of despair.
I'm helpless. I'm hopeless. Lord, help me.
And look what he said in verse 26.
But he answered and said, It is not meat. It is just not right
to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. She didn't
come here asking for bread. Where's the dogs? She came asking
for mercy. That's the bread. And she was
the dog. Our Lord said, you're a dog. You're a dog. Why should I show
mercy to you? Surely this will drive her away.
This has got to be the last straw. I already didn't answer her.
Now I'm calling her a dog. She's going to go away. Does
this offend you? I hope we realize this offends
all of us by nature. This absolutely crushes our sinful
pride. This lays us in the dirt. Dog. Dog. And look what she said in
verse 27. And she said, Truth, Lord. You're a dog. You don't deserve
mercy. What do we say to that? Amen,
Lord. That's the truth. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from their master's table. I do not deserve even the least
of your mercy. I just don't deserve it. I don't deserve it. I don't deserve
for God to be gracious to me. I do not deserve it. I'm just
a dog. But I'm your dog. I'll just be honest with you,
I've never cared much for dogs. Some of you probably do. But
you know what? What does a dog do? If there's
one thing a dog does, a dog follows its master. A dog can't feed
itself. A dog's going to run off and
start eating some rotting flesh of a bird or something. That's
what dogs do. Lord, I'm your dog. and I'm going
to follow you. I'm going to keep coming to you
and crying for mercy until you show me mercy. Even the dogs
eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Oh
God, would you just let some crumbs of mercy fall my way?
Please Lord, please give me some crumbs. I've got nowhere else
to go. To whom shall I go? You have
the words of eternal life. You have mercy and you alone
have mercy. Please let some mercy fall my
way. But what happened? That's how she came. Now look
at verse 28. Then 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. He healed her daughter. That's not all He did. You know,
our Lord physically healed many whom He did not truly save. We know that because there were
many lepers He healed that went away. How many turned back and
gave Him thanks and praised His name? Just one. Just one. O Lord, if I may but
touch the hem of Thy garment, Lord, if I could just have a
crumb of mercy, what faith? He said, be it unto thee even
as thou wilt. You want mercy. I can tell mercy
is the one thing you've got to have. You can have all the mercy
you want. Mercy there was great, and grace
was free. Depth of mercy, can there be? Mercy is still reserved
for me. You know, she went home having
everything she wanted. everything she could possibly
want, mercy for herself and for her daughter. I pray God will
give us such faith. I really do. Lord, I'm a dog. I'm your dog. Please show me
mercy for Christ's sake. You know, it's hard to consider
this passage and not think about old Mephibosheth. What did David
say? He said, is there any left of
the house of Saul, wicked evil Saul, that I might show kindness? Why do you want to show kindness
to wicked sinners? For Jonathan's sake. For Christ's
sake. And he found his way to Mephibosheth,
laying on both his feet, and he brought him to the king's
table. He said, you're going to sit at my table, and you're
going to eat there continually with the king. And you remember
what he cried to David. He said, what is thy servant
that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am? There's no reason why God should
look my way. No reason. But for Christ's sake. because He was pleased to make
me a vessel of mercy from eternity, because He was pleased to come
and save me, to make me a trophy of His grace, that I might be
in glory, praising His name forever. Worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is
the Lamb. Do you not just love this passage? You know, I thought about this.
I cannot wait to meet this dear sister in glory. And I don't
even know her name. You know, we know Moses' name.
We know Elijah. We know Abraham. We know Jacob.
We know Isaac. We know Peter. We know John. We know James.
We know Paul. We don't even know her name.
But the glory in that is in glory. We all share the same name. This
is the name wherewith she shall be called the Lord our God. Oh, does that not bless your
heart? There's mercy for dogs, but only
for dogs. Amen.