Matthew chapter 15. Matthew 15. That prayer of Israel, that's
something in it. Doesn't that go well with the
Bible study this morning? I believe it's the average person
would honestly read this passage here that we're going to look
at. The story of this woman, Canaan,
Syrophoenicia. It was a town. I believe if the
average person would honestly, just honestly read it, that they would be shocked At
the way the Lord dealt with this woman. And yet. You who have read it. And have
heard it really hurt. Better yet, have experienced
what she experienced. Then right where she is. You're not shocked at all. And. This what you heard. from him or didn't hear. And her response was and is your
response. I see recognition in the faces
of many. The truth is what she heard.
Now, this is the same old message. Same old message. Same old, same old. You're going
to hear it again. And I've preached it more than
you've heard it. There's nothing we need other
than this right here. My wife has been teaching our
children one thing needful. And this is it right here. This
is the best part. This is the good part. This is
it doesn't get any better than this. And I'm going to try to deal
with it one more time. I thought, you know, that this
was awful familiar. I thought we just looked at this
six months ago. No, it's been three years, believe
it or not. Well. If the Lord will give us years
to hear. Now verse twenty two. It says behold a woman of Canaan. Mark's gospel says a certain
woman. Woman of Canaan. Came. Out of the same coast. And cried
unto the Lord, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil." Now, I didn't attempt to say
that the way she said it. She's crying. She's begging,
pleading with the Lord. Mark's Gospel says she fell at
His feet. Have you ever been so overcome
with something you fell down? Have you? Would that more people do this? They would receive mercy. Their
daughters, sons. I mean, all down, desperate. This woman was desperate. You
ever been desperate? Desperate means you despair of
everything and anyone and everyone. Especially yourself. You're in
despair. No hope, no help, nowhere to
turn. She's desperate and she comes
to the Lord Jesus Christ and falls down at His feet and cries
unto Him from the depth of her heart. Have mercy on me, O Lord. Would that more people would
do that. Would that believers always felt upon coming here. That's why they come here. Always
felt a desperate need of this gospel and this mercy. I've preached to some who I haven't
seen a tear in their eye in years. Or a gleam of joy and rejoicing. And Paul one time said to the
Galatians, where is the blessedness which you spoke of? I know what the problem is. Because
when Ezra prayed, he said, we, didn't we? When he prayed all
the way through there, he said, we. I know what the problem is, because
I'm a man of like passion. I'll tell you what the problem
is. It's this world. We're rich and increased with
goods, and have need of nothing. That's the rebuke the Lord gave
Galea to see it. Old Bunyan in his book, Holy
War, said to the people, where's Mr. Wetteyes? We're in captivity. Let's send
Mr. Wetteyes to Emmanuel. And we've heard it a long time.
It's become a commonplace to us. This woman, she's desperate. And she falls down at the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we come here, we come here
to Christ, we come here to hear from him. And somehow, some way,
we have got to fall at his feet. Why? We've got daughters grievously
vexed. We've got sons. Grievously vexed. We've got husbands. We've got
wives. We've got mothers and fathers.
And we've got maybe us. Grievously vexed. Mercy is what she wanted and
needed. And mercy is what we want and
need. Mercy. We need mercy. We need
mercy. Scripture says this of the Lord's
mercies that were not consumed. He said, I'm the God of, I'm
the God of, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Mercy. Mercy means she cried
mercy. What she was saying is, Lord,
don't give me what I deserve. That's what mercy means. Don't
give me what I deserve. Lord, don't deal with me according
to my iniquities. Don't punish me. What I deserve,
Lord, spare me what I've earned. That's what mercy make, Lord,
spare me what I've earned. Spare my daughter what she's
earned. The wages of sin. Sinners against God, that's who
we sin again daily, daily. Not we were, we are. That's why
we keep coming to hear this gospel. Daily centers against God daily,
we're in daily need of great mercy and bless God. He said they're new every morning. We just sang that song. No, Sherry played it. How can it be? That God should
love a soul like me, how? Don't give me what I deserve.
That's what she's crying. Don't give me what I deserve.
Don't take this gospel from me. Don't take that Holy Spirit from
me. Have you ever told a story to
somebody that wasn't interested? How often does that happen to
you? You got something you really really excited about something
that happened to you or something you want to tell, something that
thrills you, and you start trying to tell somebody in there, you
know, they may be looking at you, but they're not listening. And you think, why am I telling
them this? Man, this is God's Word. This
is Christ's book. This is his gospel. And it's life or death. It really
is. It really is. Some of us in here,
some in here, I won't even presumptuously include myself, some in here
are going to go be with the Lord someday, forever. And I hadn't seen here, hadn't
heard that. Man, we can't enter into it. If we could, really
could, all of this would so fade. And some are going to miss. Some
are going to miss. That's right. Always a savior
of life and death, both always. My daughter is vexed, young ladies,
young teenage girls and guys, but since it's a daughter here,
whatever it is, it's vexing you. And I know what it is. Is killing your mother. Oh yeah. Young men, young sons, whatever
it is that vexes you, just tears them into pieces. They are grieving more than you
are troubled. Absolutely. Let me give you an
example. Have you ever had a pet? a little
cat or a dog or something and it got hit by a car or something
happened to it and it got sick. Have you? Anybody? Something
wrong with it? It made you so sad, didn't it?
You really mourned over it. You grieved over it. That's a mighty poor example.
But you can't believe how your father and your mother are grieving
over your soul. You just can't believe it. Maybe someday you will. And may
God have mercy upon you. And if he does, he'll have mercy
on your mother. The happiest day of her life
will be when the Lord It heals you of this vexation of the sin
in the world. You understand that now? My daughter. The mercy she wanted
was for her daughter. For herself. And mercy on me. My daughter. You see that, Teresa, don't you?
What she's saying. You'll be merciful to me if you
spare my daughter. You might spare me. Spare her. Now, verse 23, she cried unto
him and verse 23, he answered her, not a word. He didn't answer her. I don't know. I'm laughing that
I hope with holy laughter because I know what I'm about to say. I know what he's going to do.
He doesn't answer her. She's begging, she's crying. He's ignoring her. No, no, no,
no, no, no, no. I looked at that word. I've used
that before. Say he's ignoring her. No, no,
Melanie, he's not ignoring her. Ignore means to pay no attention,
to pretend they don't exist. He's not saying ignore. He's hearing every word she's
saying, every tear dropping from her eye. He sees it. That's what
David said, not all my tears in a bottle. He hears, but he's not answering. He doesn't have to. He doesn't have to answer. He
doesn't have to answer her or anybody for that matter. The
sovereign Lord and King of glory is not at man's back and call,
meaning he's just waiting for you to call on him. No. God is not obligated to answer
or acknowledge anybody. Everyone in here, from the youngest
to the oldest, at some time, at some point in our lives, they're
going to call on God for whatever reason. For whatever reason. They're going to get in trouble,
or get sick, or something traumatic happened, or hopefully it'll
be under conviction of sin. But everybody in here is going
to call on God at some point. God's going to hear some, and
not going to hear some others. Why should he? Stop and think
about why should God hear us? We go for years. Everyone in
here, we go years without giving God a thought. Without giving God a thought,
and he feeds us and clothes us and provides for us, keeps giving
and giving. We don't ever give him a thought
and we get in trouble. And then we call on him. Anybody
in here got any friends that the only time they call them
is when they need something. That's what it says, the scriptures
say, as a friend is born for adversity. Friend in need is
the old saying and is a friend indeed. One, you don't mind calling
on you when they're in need. But, you know, honestly, we we
live all our for however long without giving God a thought.
And then we get in trouble and then we call on him. And he's
supposed to be just waiting to hear. And then quite often. We get out of trouble. and forget
him all over again. Most people go to church, so
to speak, when they get in trouble and their marriage is broken
up or whatever, get sick or near death or whatever. They come
to church and then things get better, they're gone. And they get in trouble again.
they call him. Why should God listen? Why? Is
it any wonder that God's not answering? There's people praying
by the millions, aren't there? Everybody's praying. Some God,
Islam, everybody. Billions of people are praying. And it's obvious God is not answering
it. Not answering it. Why should
he? And. Well, this woman, then she
went to his disciples, look at verse. Verse twenty three, he answered
her, not a word, and his disciples came and besought him, she. Went
to them asking them to help her. And, you know, that's what she
should have done. Shouldn't you? Who were the disciples? They
were God's apostles, Christ's apostles. These were gifted men. Christ is a shepherd. They're
under shepherds. They're the ones whom Christ has gifted and
blessed to deal with. And he gave them gifts and so
forth unto men. She should have done that. She
should have. She did a good thing in doing
that. And like that article in the
bulletin last week, you know, none call it for justice. I don't
have anybody asking me anything. I don't have people calling me
about anything. And I blame it mostly on preachers,
you know. They don't have so very few true
ones that don't have anybody's respect. They can't do anything
for anybody. Well, the disciples, what they
did, these true disciples, what they did, When she came to them,
what they did was went right straight to the Lord. Lord, you
do something. We can't do anything, you do
something. Verse 24, and he answered and
said, now he spoke this to them. He said this to them. And I think
they went back and told her. See, he's not answering her. Was she going to hear from him
through them? He answered and said to them,
I'm not sent, but under the lost chief of the house of Israel. In other words, he says the God
of God of heaven sent me. I'm sent down here when you're
sent, what does that mean? And he says this often. And this
is something this religious generation doesn't have a clue about, because
they don't know God. They don't think God has a will
and a purpose. They don't think God is sovereign.
They can do anything without man. They don't think Christ
came down here with a job to do. They certainly don't think
he did it. But he says this over and over again. I'm sent, throughout
the Gospel of John especially, sent. The Father has sent me.
I'm sent. God Almighty. before the world
began, made a purpose, according to his good pleasure and his
will, to do something. It's called salvation. For a
bunch of rotten, no-good maggots that don't want it, don't care
for it, not calling for it, not asking for it, but God. Mercy
and grace and a love that nobody can understand. Nobody. And nobody can preach it. his son. And we don't know anything
about this either. He who left heaven. You know,
we're going to leave this cesspool and go to heaven. We. Whoever. Somebody's going to
leave this cesspool and go to heaven. Like leaving a pit of
absolute filth and corruption and go to paradise. And we're never even going to
think about this place. We're going to think about it
with nausea if we did. He left that. We sang that. He left that place. Why? To come down to this filthy hell
hole called Planet Earth. Why? For you. For a dog. For a dead dog. I'm sent, he says. You see, there's
a message and a word and it's sent. And when I say sent, when
Scripture says sent, it means God had a will, had a purpose
concerning him, a job for him to do. Call his name Jesus because he's
sent to do something. Father sent him to do something.
Somebody. Did he do it? Oh, yes, ma'am. After he got the job done, John,
he went back and sat down, unlike any other high priest. He sat
down, job finished, expected it would all be carried out and
fulfilled what he did. Job done. Took off his work clothes. Sent. I'm not sent except but
to the house, the lost sheep of the house of Israel. What
he says there is God Almighty, the God of heaven sent me to
this earth to save the elect, the chosen seed of Israel. Nobody else. I'm not sent to
say I came here to save the elect. Tell her that. Go back and tell
her that. I'm only going to save the elect. So they did. And a faithful preacher,
that's what he'll do, buddy. God said it. Christ said it. He said, you get up and you sound
it forth. There's a remnant according to
the election. So they repeated it to her. Lost sheep of Israel. Lost. Don't know the way. You ever
been lost? Don't know the way. If you're
lost, you can't save yourself. Old Brother Barnard used to say
this. He said, I'm not trying to get
people saved. I'm trying to get people lost. That's the way it is in our day.
Very few lost people. Lost sheep. I'm not here to argue
with goats. Don't you know the Pharisees
were offended? They said, but I'm not talking to goats. I've
come for my sheep. They're humble. They're broken.
They're submissive sheep. They don't butt. They bow. Sheep of Israel. The elect. Jacob have I loved. Lost sheep
of the house of Israel. Jacob have I loved. What do you
think about that? I love Jacob, but I hate Esau. What do you
think about that? What does she think about that? It's what you heard, wasn't it?
This is what you heard. You might have called on God
for a while. He didn't answer you. He doesn't
have to. But he heard you. And he might have heard your
mama. For years. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. That principle. Joe prayed when his sons and
daughters were praying that God hear Joe. Well, verse twenty five says,
then came she. He heard all this. What she did,
Irene, what does she do? Where did she come? She went
to the disciples for her. Now she comes to Him, to Christ. And what does she do? She hadn't heard anything from
Him yet. Her daughter hadn't been healed yet. There had been
no promise to her at all of mercy yet. What does she do? She worships Him. Is that why
you're here? Worship. We're trying to teach
our children to worship the Lord. I tell them, you tell them, sing
these songs. Even if you don't feel it in
your heart yet, sing them. Make them sing. Is that hard? No, it's just right. Shouldn't they worship the Lord? We read that about Samuel. Didn't
he worship the Lord before he knew Him? Can you do that? Well, he did it! Did the Lord
bless him? Did He bless him? Look at God's Word with us. This
is God's Word. Not Dad's Word. Not the preacher's
words. God's Word. Come worship the
Lord. Why should you? Because He's
worthy. Everything you have is from the
Lord. Oh, mercy, oh, grace of the Lord's
mercy. You're not in hell right now.
I'm not in hell right now. Huh? Why should we come? He's
merciful. Let's come thank Him for His
mercy. She came and worshipped Him. Fell at His feet. Worshipped Him. That's why we
come. And said, Lord, help me. Can you hear the desperation
in her voice? Help me. Well, now Jesus is going to tell
her. Jesus is going to tell her how much He loves her, and what
a sweet and precious lady she is, and how sorry He is for her,
and how He wants so badly to help her. Now, surely, He's going
to tell her that, isn't He? How He's been waiting all this
time for her to accept Him, and she hadn't, but now He's so happy
that she has let Him into her life. Jesus is going to tell her that,
isn't He? No, sir. Not the Jesus Christ of Scripture.
Another Jesus would, but not this one. What's he saying? What's
she hearing him say? Look at verse 26. He answered
and said, It's not fit. It's not right to take the children's
bread and to test it to dogs. You're a dog. You're a dog. I'm the great master. I don't
have time for dogs. She's going to be mad now. Oh,
you offended her now. She's never coming. But what
did you say that for? She ain't never coming back now.
She won't like that. If she's a dog, she won't mind. If she's a dog, she won't mind
being called a dog, will she? My pastor preached this message
and he entitled it, All Dogs Go to Heaven. God is a dog lover. Now, the name of this, the title
of this message is The Master and His Dog. Now, what good is a dog? Honestly. You've heard this so many times.
I have too. I tell it a lot, don't I? Because
it blesses me, Hannah. Every time I look, there's an
old black hound that's laying around that just can't get close
enough to me. Can't quit looking at me, Ron.
Sometimes I think, would you quit looking at me? He can't get close enough. Saddles
up to me. He follows me. This dog. I got better things to do than
to tend to the dog, don't I? But I pay attention to him. And
I love him. I really do. I love him. Why? Because he's a humble dog. He's a submissive dog. He's a
dependent dog. Every morning, he's crying and
he wants out. Ever thought about how dependent
a dog, a house dog is? Dogs aren't meant to be in the
house, you know that? That's a good illustration. Dogs
aren't supposed to come in the house. They aren't meant to be
in the house. Dwell with humans. They're not fit to dwell with
humans. That's a good illustration of it. Some of you, us, love dogs so
much you let them in the house. Feel sorry for them. You have
compassion on them. Cats, too. Now some of you think,
oh, you've taken it too far now. Cats. Especially you men. Nobody in their right mind would
love a cat, let alone let it in the house. Well, you know,
beasts receive mercy from merciful people. And anyway, dogs aren't supposed
to be in the house. But every now and then you let
them in the house. Some of them stay in the house. Oh, they must be
special dogs. No. They're just dogs. They do
the same thing in the house that dogs do out of the house. They're still no good. Here's
the point. They're no good. I don't care
how you dress them up. I don't care what you call them.
I don't care what pedigree they have. I don't care what they're
wearing. They're dogs. And they're euthanizing them
today, right now, as we speak. They're being euthanized somewhere.
They're being killed by the thousands. Right? I don't have time for a dog.
It's not right for me to give the children's bread to a dog. What's she saying? Look at this. God's Word is so
complete. Tammy is so complete. She says
truth. I want that to be my heart's
confession to everything written in this book. Everything that
comes my way, every dealing, every time he doesn't hear me,
every whatever he says about me to me. This be my confession. Truth. Truth and say true. A lot of
people say that's true. You ever heard somebody say,
you know, you say something to him and say, well, that's true. Have you ever Oh yeah, that's
true. She says, truth. Everything you've done is truth. That's the way it should have
been done. That's the way I should have been treated. Every time
you didn't answer me, you didn't have to. What you say about who you came
to save and the elect, truth. It's truth. That's the truth. What you say about me, everything
you say about me, I'm a dog. Truth. The whole truth and nothing
but the truth about me. Truth. And you're Lord. You're
the Master. I'm a dog. Yet, dogs get a few crumbs from the
Master's table. I'm not asking for much, she
said. Just some crumbs. The crumbs of mercy. I'm not asking for blood. I'm
a dog. That's right. Truth. You know, when we finally
hear who God is, we'll worship him. Nobody will have to ask
you to come here. You can't wait till the doors
open. When we finally hear what we are, We'll come running to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Begging him to have mercy. Worshipping
him. No preacher will have to beg
you or tell you what to pray. No sir. You'll be begging the
preacher. What shall we do? What can I
do? I don't think I'm saved. Help me. Help me. And he'll go
right to the Lord. Help her. Help him. Well, truth, Lord, even dogs will eat
crumbs. Just a few crumbs is all I want. I'm a dog, and you're the Lord
of glory. You're so far above me. But I just want a few crumbs.
I don't want much. Just a few crumbs of mercy. Now,
let me ask you, honestly, everybody in here, have you ever heard
anything like this in your life? Have you ever run into anybody
like this at all? Ever. Have you ever heard anybody,
have you ever talked to anybody at work or your mother or father
or somebody you're related to, your friends, told them who God
is and what Christ, who Christ is and what man, what we are
and heard them say anything like this? Have you? Anybody? I haven't.
I haven't. I've never heard the likes of
this, except what I read. Well, that's, Ron, that's what
the Lord said. He said, Oh, woman, great is
thy faith. Over in Mark's gospel, he said,
I've not found anything like this, not even in Israel. I've never seen the likes of
it. Never heard it. Great is thy
faith. Great faith. Great faith. saving faith, this will get you
into heaven. This will guarantee that you
go to heaven. What? Coming to the feet of Christ.
Acknowledging that God doesn't have to answer you. That you
need mercy. That Christ is your only hope.
That you're a dog. Everybody that confesses this.
Has saving faith. He said this to her. He said, be it unto thee, even as thou
wilt. What does she want? What was it she wants? Her daughter. The Lord saved her daughter.
And the Lord had mercy on her. Great mercy. Great mercy. All her real troubles,
real troubles were over. Yes, they were. Don't you imagine
that from this day forward, she has a healthy daughter, Margaret,
no more vexation. I believe the Lord saved her
daughter, whoever he takes some unclean spirit out of. And he had mercy on her. Did
she have any real problems after that? She had the typical problems. Mercy is what she needed and
mercy is what she got. As thou wilt. Great faith. And that's what
it is. I'm a dog. I'm a dog. I'm just like millions of others.
Worthless, sinful human beings. I'm no better. I know better,
there's a billion more just like me. If I die, the world won't
miss a thing. Won't miss a thing. I thought
about, I brought up Ellen last time. I thought about, they're
going to bulldoze her house. Have they done it yet? Yeah,
they will, aren't they? Progress. It's coming through. There's a little white house
down there on 220, or on 40. A little bit of white clabbered
house. A little widow woman sat in it for years. Nobody from nowhere. And they were just going to level
it to the ground. And put something up. And nobody will ever know she
existed. The world won't. They won't care.
She'll be totally forgotten. Just another old, widowed woman,
just like thousands and millions all over this planet. Oh, no. No, no, no, no. She belongs to
somebody, Sherry. They leveled her house. And her body's in the grave,
where it's corrupting. She's sitting right now at the
master's feet in a mansion in glory, clothed in white robes,
singing his praise, the dew of youth on her brow. You wouldn't
recognize her. Her own daughter wouldn't recognize
her. The master and his daughter. She's in the big house to stay. I'm going to stay there forever. All dogs go to heaven. That's
a great thing because we've got a great master. All right, let's
sing a closing hymn of the game. What number have you got picked
out? 314. 314. We'll sing the first and last
verse. I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard
Thy voice, and it told Thy love to me. But I long to rise in
the arms of faith and be closer drawn to Thee. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed
Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer,
nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. Last verse. There are depths
of love that I cannot know till I cross the narrow sea. There are heights of joy that
I may not reach till I rest in peace with Thee. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed
Lord, to the cross where Thou hath died. Draw me nearer, nearer,
nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. you you Okay. All right. All right. I don't know. I don't know. Okay.