Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Matthew, Chapter 15. Matthew, Chapter 15. I had Brother
Travis read that narrative over and mark there, because we'll
be studying the same narrative, but we'll be looking at it in
Matthew, Chapter 15. Again, this is another divine
encounter. This is another encounter with
Christ, part of the Divine Encounters with Christ series. There will
be a two-week stop. And then we'll be back on it
when I get back. And please give Brother Travis a good hearing.
It'd be a blessing. I listened to the last message
he preached and I was really blessed by it. He just glorified
God in the preaching and it was wonderful. Today we'll continue
again our Divine Encounters with Christ series. Looking at the
narrative, this narrative here of the Canaanite woman. who had
a daughter who was vexed by a demon. Turn in your Bibles to Matthew
chapter 15. We'll read verses 21 to 28. Then Jesus went thence and departed
into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coasts, 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 to 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 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 will. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. Oh my, what a beautiful portion
of scripture, beloved. Here is a divine encounter between
the Lord Jesus Christ and one of his blessed sheep, one of
his lambs. We also see a divine miracle in the healing of her daughter,
which again demonstrates the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It demonstrates who he is. He is God incarnate in the flesh. He's not no mere man. He is God
in the flesh. He's the one with all power.
We saw that in John chapter 17. He has all power, all authority
is being given to him. Power in the Greek there is authority.
He has all authority over all flesh. That's who Christ is. He's not a God up there wringing
his hands. He has all power, all authority. That's why we can rest and trust
in him no matter what happens in this world. We can just trust
in our Savior. Now we're aware of the situations,
but oh my, when we keep our eyes upon Christ, those situations,
we realize, are all part of the divine purpose and will of God,
and we can sit back in rest in his sovereignty, can't we? Why
are there wars? Because of man's sinfulness. Why is there death? Because we're
sinners. The wages of sin is death. But
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And over there in the portion
that Brother Travis read, Mark 7, verse 25, listen to these
words. This woman is called a certain
woman. She's distinguished from all
the other women there. A certain woman. Scripture declares
this in Mark chapter, if you want to turn there you can, or
you can hear me while I read this, that this certain woman,
It says in verse 25 of Mark chapter 7, for a certain woman, not just
any woman, a certain woman, one of the Lord's sheep, one
of his lambs, a certain woman whose young daughter had an unclean
spirit heard of him and came and wept. What did she do? She
fell out of his feet. Do you know that's the best place
for a believer to be? At the feet of Christ. That's
the best place for us. No matter what's going on in
our lives, no matter what's going on in this world, the best place
for us to be is at the feet of Christ. Remember the gathering demoniac
when he was healed and all those demons came out of him at the
Lord's command? Where was he? Well, he was in
his right mind, he was clothed, and beloved, he was sitting at
the feet of Christ. That's the best place to be.
That's the best place to be. Because you know why? You know
what we're doing when we're sitting there? We're going like this.
We're looking up to Him. We're looking up to our Savior.
We're at rest, and we're looking to Him. Oh, beloved. And then it says the woman was
a Greek. the sire of Phoenician by nation,
and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out
of her daughter. Again, this is the best place
for a sinner to be, right at the feet of Christ, right at
his feet. And again, a certain woman of
Canaan, she's a Gentile, beloved of God, she's a Gentile. The
Jews considered the Gentiles as just dogs. They considered anybody outside
of the Jewish nation as a Gentile. And they looked down on them.
They looked down on them. What we see here before us is
God's distinguishing grace. A certain woman. Do you know
Christ went all the way across to the coast of Tyre and Sidon
just for this certain woman? Do you know Christ will go where
His sheep are and find them and save them? We won't come to Him, but He'll
come to us, won't He? Oh, it's wonderful. A certain
woman. At first glance, some might say
this narrative is just about this woman seeking the Savior.
And she does, but remember, she would not have sought him if
he didn't come to where she was. She wouldn't have sought him.
No. We seek him after he's found
us. See, we're the lost sheep. What does a shepherd do when
a sheep is lost? He goes and finds them. We were lost, weren't we? And
he came and found us, beloved. He came and found us. My, oh my. And what do we do? We praise God for that fact,
don't we? Because we would never, we'd never chosen him if he hadn't
chosen us. We'd never flee to him. And you know what? Here find
his lost sheep. He won't lose one of them. All
that the Father had given him, here find them all. And they'll
all be regenerated. They'll all be given faith to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And he'll take them all home
to glory. You know why? Because he shed his blood for
them. He died on Calvary's cross for them. And look at this. We're just
like the Canaanite woman. We wouldn't seek God. But he
comes to the place where she is, and I believe she's born
again, because she runs to Christ. And there's a reason why I believe
that, and we're going to bring that out, by the words she speaks. By the words she speaks to our
Savior. Now, how is she born again? By
the Holy Spirit of God. Right? The only way we can be born again
is by the Holy Spirit of God. So here's the great shepherd
seeking out one of his lost sheep. And again, here seek him out.
Just like he sought out this Canaanite woman, here seek out
every one of his sheep that are lost. And they'll be born again
by the Holy Spirit of God. And then you know what they'll
do? They're going to flee right to Christ. We're living testimony of that,
we who are God's people. Were you looking for God when
he saved you? I was going the other way. Wasn't looking for him at all.
My oh my. This Canaanite woman, she came
earnestly seeking, didn't she? You know what this brings forth?
I often think of this verse when I see this. Thy people shall
be made willing in the day of God's power. She came running
to Christ. Because she's made willing. She's
made willing. She flees to him now. Oh my, and where is she? She's
sittin' at his feet. Sittin' at his feet. Again, she
wouldn't have come to him if he had not come to where she
was. Look at Matthew chapter 15, verses 21 and 22. And then
Jesus went thence and departed unto the coast of Thyatira in
Siloam. So he left the place he was and he went to this place. And we know why now. Because
there was a certain woman there. There was a certain woman there.
There was one of his lost sheep there. Oh, that's wonderful. Oh, what hope. What hope this
gives me preaching the gospel, knowing that God's going to take
it and use it to draw on his lost sheep, beloved. It says,
and behold, a woman of Cain came out of the same coast and cried. Now, it doesn't say anyone came
out with her, does it? We don't know if there was more
people with her. We don't know if there wasn't anybody with
her. But it doesn't say that a multitude came out. It says
a certain woman came out again. 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. Now God, in his eternal
decree, had marked out this time and place. as her time of love. Do you know God marked out the
time and the place where we would hear the gospel? Where we would
be regenerated by the power of God, the Holy Spirit? There's
no such thing as chance or luck in this world, not in God's economy. Some people say, well, you were
lucky to be there at that meeting. No, I wasn't lucky. Luck didn't
even enter into the equation. It's called God's divine providence.
It's God's divine providence that we're all here today. Isn't
that amazing? But God in his eternal decree
had marked out this place and this time to be her time of love,
when she would meet the lover of her soul. Is that not what
Christ is to us? When she would meet the one who's
fairest of 10,000, is that not what Christ is to us? Oh, he's
the lover of my soul. He loves me so much he died for
me, gave his life for me, shed his precious, precious blood
for me. God did that. God in the flesh
did that. Marvel, marvel at this great love before us. And she
did not know that she would meet, as Brother Travis brought out
in his prayer, the all-sufficient Savior, the one who's completed
all the work. He's done it all. The all-sufficient Savior of
sinners is right there before her. And he had come to her. He came to her, beloved. He came to her. He came on purpose
to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, because it had been decreed of
the Father in eternity that this was her time of love. That this
was the time when she would meet the Savior of sinners. It's wonderful. We can look back
in our own lives to when the Lord saved us and say, that was
all decreed and planned and purposed by God. Marvel at that. Marvel at that. Marvel that God
didn't leave us where we were, dead in trespasses and sins,
because that's where I was. And I know that's where you were
before the Lord saved you. Enjoying sin, not thinking anything
of God, having no care. Oh, but there was a day when God
stopped us in our tracks, wasn't there? And we heard for the first
time about this wonderful, merciful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we fled to Him, just like
this woman comes to Christ. We're made well in the day of
God's power. She met her creator. You know
that too? She met her creator there. All
things were created by Christ, by the word of his power. She
met her creator there. You know what else she met? She
met her redeemer there, more importantly. She met the one who was soon
to go to the cross to die for her sins. who would give his life for her. I believe she had a knowledge
of him as the Messiah. We're going to look at that,
too. She calls him the son of David. That's one of the titles
for the Messiah. So somehow she had heard that
the Jews were waiting for a Redeemer, waiting for someone who would
come. She lived right neighboring the
Israel nation, the nation of Israel. So it's no doubt she
would have heard something. Oh my. And she believed that this was
him. Because she came to his feet.
And again called him the son of David. Oh my. Remember, all the movements
of the Lord Jesus Christ upon this earth were planned and purposed
by God. Nothing happened. He did nothing
by chance. Every step he took was planned
and purposed by God, the Father. And he came to this place. He
came to her in her great need, not only for her daughter, but
her great need spiritually too. And it all happened according
to God's divine providence and power. My, oh my. There's nothing by
accident in God's providence. And our dear sister in this text,
at the exact time that God ordained, came to the master's feet. You know, wherever you find a
seeking sinner, you'll also find a seeking Savior. And you know, Christ never turned
away anyone who's come to Him. He never turned away anyone.
And He's able to save to the uttermost those who come to Him.
Doesn't matter how black your sin is. We're all living proof of that,
aren't we? We who are His people are trophies
of His grace and mercy, aren't we? We know what we've been saved
from. My, oh my. Listen to these words in light
of a seeking sinner and a seeking Savior coming together. No man
can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him. and
I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall all be taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me."
John chapter 6, verses 44 and 45. Now, let's go back to Matthew
chapter 15, and we see here something very sad. The response of the
apostles is very sad. It's very sad. We should never judge as believers how much sin one who's come into
Christ has. We should never say, well, the
Lord can't save that person. He saved me. John Newton. The slave trader who wrote Amazing
Grace said, if God saved me, he can save anyone he wants.
And every one of us who are born again say the same thing, don't
we? Again, he'll never turn anyone away who comes to him. Never.
Never. But look at this. This sad response
of the apostles. Remember, we who are saved are
just saved sinners. Let's not be too hard on them.
Because we're safe sinners, that's all we are. And this is proved
out right here. This is proved out right here
before us. Matthew 15, 23, but he answered her not a word. And
his disciples came and beside him saying, send her away for
she crieth after us. Tell her to go away, Lord. Now
she's crying after us. Tell her just to go away. Send
her, get her out of here. Oh my, that's tragic, isn't it?
May we never turn away a seeking sinner. May we just point him
to Christ. Just point him to Christ. And what we see here is that
Christ's people are often less gracious than Christ himself.
See, he's sinless, right? He's perfect. We're a bunch of
sinners. We can say hurtful words. But look at, he's not like us. He's not like us. And the Lord's
disciples, they were guarded and having a tiring silence is
unworthy of the Master's help. May we never, ever, ever come
across that way. May we never come across that
way. They despised the Gentiles. See, so their prejudice were
coming through, wasn't it? And they despised the Gentiles,
and they said to him, send her away. Get her out of here. That's one of the Lord's sheep,
Oliven. And they're the Lord's sheep, too. You know, sheep bite,
don't they? Right? May the Lord keep us from being
like the apostles here. May we never discourage one who
has small faith. If we think we have great faith,
just look at our own fickleness. You ever doubted? You ever doubted
God's providence? His sovereignty? You ever wondered if you're truly
saved? My, our faith can be so fickle
at times. And may we never, may we never ever doubt the reality
of a beginner's grace, of when the Lord has drawn the soul to
him. And may we never doubt a profession
of a believer either. Do you know the only ones who
we can know is truly saved is ourselves? That's all. I've been places where people,
and I despise this, even when I was in religion. And to my
shame, when I was in religion, I'd say the same thing, to my
shame. How can that person be a Christian
and do that? Oh my gosh. Then the Lord showed me grace
and I realized, I'm talking about myself. My. And someone says, well, that
person's saved, but that person's not. Or this person's saved.
You can't know that. All we can do is take people
at their word, right? That's all we can do. Take people
at their word. So we're not to determine who's
saved and who's lost, who's sincere and who's true. Who's not a believer? And again,
we have no way of knowing. We can't look upon their heart.
We know our own heart. We know how black our own heart
is. My. So may we never discourage someone
who's coming to Christ. And may we never be doubtful
of those who profess faith in Christ. Take them at their word.
Take them at their word. It's not up to us. Tell you what, I just praise
God that I'm saved. Is it so for you? All right, hallelujah. What a savior. Now true God-given
faith may sometimes be found where it might least be expected. I think we're all living proof
of that. I really do, I think every believer's living proof
of that. that faith may be found where it's least expected. I had no clue that I was one
of the Lord's sheep. I had no clue at all. Growing
up, I had no clue. Going into my teen years, I had
no clue. In my 20s, no clue. And then when the Lord saved
me in my 30s, my goodness. Then I started to be taught by
the Holy Spirit about God's eternal plan of salvation. And I marveled
that I was included in that plan. Is it so for you? It is a marvel
that God included us. So here's this Canaanite woman.
Here's where true faith is found here where it's least expected.
The apostles are telling her, well, tell her to go away. She's
just a Gentile dog. True faith is found where one
would least expect it. This Canaanite woman cries to
our Lord, O, for help, doesn't she, on behalf of her daughter?
And she shows great faith. She says, have mercy on me, O
Lord, thou Son of David. Now, such a prayer as this would
be, if one in Jerusalem or one in Bethany That people would
say, well, yeah, they've heard Christ and they've seen him. But someone from the coast of
Tyre and Sidon, a Gentile? A Gentile woman? What does this teach us, beloved?
It teaches us that God's grace is what saves us, not the place
where we are. It's God's grace that saves us. The state of one's lifestyle
even doesn't come into play. Whether you're rich or poor.
The color of one's skin doesn't come into play, does it? God
as a people are a very tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation,
doesn't he? My oh my. It's God's grace that
has changed this Canaanite woman. And that's why it's so sad when
the apostles are saying, send her away. She's a seeking sinner. She's seeking the Savior. Again, let us never hinder anyone.
What did Henry Mahan say one time? And I'm going to repeat
this to you because I think this is so important and such a good
instruction. When someone's coming to Christ,
just leave them alone and let God do the work. Don't try to
get them to pray some prayer, because praying some prayer won't
save you. Don't try to get them to walk an aisle, because walking
an aisle won't save you. Don't tell them to come and shake
the preacher's hand, because shaking my hand won't save you. I can't
even save myself, let alone anyone else. Salvation is of the Lord. Leave them alone. Let the Lord
deal with them. And He will, if there is people. Here, deal
with them, won't He? He dealt with us. Oh, thankful
He did. Oh, that's why, Dave, like you
said, we're a bunch of smiling folks here, because we're redeemed.
We're saved sinners. We're a bunch of saved sinners
in here. I remember someone came in one time and said, oh, there's
a bunch of good folk here. And somebody who was here said,
no, we're just a bunch of saved sinners. That's so true. That's
what we are. We're saved sinners. We love the Lord. We rejoice
in Him. My. Again, this teaches us that it's
God's grace, not the place where you're born that makes people
believers. Think of this. We read of Gehazi
in 2 Kings. He is a servant of Elijah. He
was a servant of Elijah, but he is a God-hater, and he died
in the sins. My oh my, we may live in the
midst of superstition and idolatry like the little maid in Nahum's
house. Remember her? She was in Syria. All around
her was idolatry and superstition, and yet she clung to the Lord,
didn't she? And then she told Nahum about
him. Said, you should go see the prophet, Elijah. He's one
of God's servants. And so Nahum, he went there.
And Elijah told him a strange thing to do, didn't he? He said,
go and dip yourself in the Jordan seven times. He thought, well,
there's rivers in Syria. Why should I dip myself in this
river? And he went away mad. And his
servant said, why don't you just do what he said? And he came
out of that river after the seventh time, white as snow, beloved. What a picture of us being cleansed
by the precious blood of Christ. Wide as snow, no more leprosy,
which pictured sin, no more. My. So what do we learn here
then? Well, we learn not to despair
of anyone's soul. Don't despair of anyone's soul.
Merely because they're in a bad position or a bad place, because
we see that it's possible to dwell entirely in Siloam and
yet be in the kingdom of God. Look at that. God will find a sheep. He goes
to them. He goes to them. And we who are the redeemed of
the Lord only need to look at ourselves and not despair that
the Lord can save whomever he pleases. This Canaanite woman,
beloved, she was a vessel of mercy. Do you know that? She
didn't know it, but she was a vessel of mercy. She wasn't a vessel of destruction.
She was a vessel of mercy. She had no clue. Oh my, she had
no clue at all. Listen to this. Paul penned this.
And like I said, I believe this is a picture of God's distinguishing
grace here with this Canaanite woman. Paul wrote this. He said,
for who maketh thee to differ? Now differ there in the Greek
is distinguish. Who distinguished you? One from
another. Who saved you, Dave, and set
you apart from all others? Only God did it, didn't he? Tom,
same with you. Only God did it. Travis, only
God did it. God is the only one who's done
that. For who made you to differ? And then it says, and what do
you have that you didn't receive? See, we can't boast in any gifts we
have, because God gave them to us. We didn't earn them, we didn't
merit them, we didn't even exercise them until the Lord put us in
a place where we could exercise those gifts. My oh my. And think of this, many in this
world live in the homes of God's people, many, and yet they live
and die without Christ, without grace, without life, and without
faith, having no care for their souls. And others, like this
Canaanite woman, rise from darkness in the debauchery of idolatry
and sin and other paganism to faith in Christ. Who made them
to differ? Only God, only the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the only one. So if you're
one of his people, rejoice. God's made you to differ. And
there's nothing special about us, is there? I stand before
you a safe sinner. rejoicing in my Savior. And I
don't deserve to be saved. I didn't merit salvation. I didn't
even seek it. He sought me out. And what do we say? Praise be
to God, right? That's what we say. We went from idolatry because
I know the God that I had cooked up in my mind wasn't the God
of the Bible. We've went from idolatry to believing in the
one true savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our righteousness,
isn't he? You don't hear about righteousness
being preached much anymore. But if you're not clothed in
the righteousness of Christ, you can't be in the presence
of God. See, men is going about trying to establish their own
rights and say, well, I'm good, I'm not a sinner. Yeah, you are.
Whether you believe it or not, you're a sinner. Whether you
believe it or not. And we can't be in the presence
of God as sinners, can we? But praise God, the Lord saved
his people from their sins, didn't he? And then he closed us in
his righteousness. The perfect, spotless righteousness of Christ. And he is our righteousness,
isn't he? The scripture calls him Jehovah
Sekindu, which is the Lord our righteousness. That's what he
is. I have no righteousness of my
own. No, well, the ones I did was just like filthy rags in
the eyes of the Lord. Praise God, he's taken off those filthy
garments and clothed me now in the righteousness of Christ.
And that's what he's done for all of us. Isn't that amazing? Incredible. All we who are his
people, he's done that for us. And God's saving grace is not
a family inheritance. It doesn't run in bloodlines.
And no one, by nature, has a claim on God's grace. But rejoice, none are beyond
the reach of God's grace. David was a murderer, an adulterer. Paul was going around slaughtering
the church. And before we say, well, man,
they were great sinners, just think of us. Did we ever use
God's name in vain? Did we ever lie? Do we ever have thoughts of evil? Do we ever have adulterous thoughts,
lusting? See, when the Lord spiritualized
the law, everyone is done. When the Lord said, if you look
upon a woman with lust in your heart, you've already committed
adultery with her, everyone's done. When the Lord said, if
you get angry with your brother, you've already killed him. Everyone's
done. That's why the scripture says
that all the world is guilty before God. But praise be to
God. There's a great Redeemer. There's
a great Savior of sinners. So though my sin is just so black,
and I still get reminded of it, I still have Satan remind me
of stuff I did in my past. And I just flee to Christ and
say, Lord, it's all under your blood. You know what Martin Luther said?
He said, when Satan reminds you of what you've done in the past,
remind him of his fiery future. His time is short. And remember,
our God is all powerful. Now this Canaanite mother, no
doubt she was tried and severely afflicted with grief. She'd been
greatly tried. She saw her daughter suffering
deeply, and she was vexed with the devil, and she was, this
poor mother was unable to help her child. Unable to help her child in any
way. Couldn't relieve her of any pain. You ever had your child so sick
and you say, Lord, I wish you could give that to me? Take it
away from them. My, oh, my. Oh, this woman loved her daughter,
and she's unable to relieve her suffering. And the trouble that brought
her to Christ and taught her to pray was her daughter being
afflicted. Sometimes afflictions are a blessing.
Sometimes the sufferings that we go through are a blessing.
Never forget that things are working out for God's glory and
for our good, even if we don't understand it. Even if we don't
understand it. One old preacher said, we often
forget that every cross is a message to make us think and is intended
to do us good to the end, and it always brings us to the feet
of Christ. Always for the believer. That's
the only place we have refuge. That's the only place where we
find comfort for our soul. Think of this, anything is better
than living in sin and dying in sin. Better to be like this
Canaanite mother here. in our text and flee to Christ
and live at ease like the rich fool and die at last without
Christ and without hope. Take note also that this Canaanite
woman, she's got a great need. It's her daughter. She's grievously
vexed with the devil. But she had great faith in Christ.
And now we're going to look at some of the statements she makes
that shows us that. Note in verse 25, she says, O
Lord, thou son of David. She calls him Lord. She calls him Lord, beloved.
If you go through the scriptures and you see the folks that call
him Lord, they're believers. Remember the leper? Lord, if
thou will, you can make me clean. She calls him Lord. She's been
taught something, beloved. Something's being revealed to
her. And that something is Christ. That something is Christ. Look
at that. And then she calls him, thou
son of David. Again, that's a title, that's a messianic title. The
son of David. She calls him Lord and then uses
a title for the Messiah by calling him the son of David. Oh, how
this brings forth the fact that she has God-given faith. We call
Him Lord, don't we? We call Him our Savior, our Redeemer,
our Rescuer. He is the Messiah sent by God
to save His people from their sins. And she has faith in His
power. Did you know that? She has faith
in His power. Look what she continues to say
in that same verse. She believes He has dominion
over all things. Because she says this, O Lord,
thou son of David, my daughter is grievously vexed with the
devil. She's coming to the only one
who can help. She's coming to Christ. She calls him Lord, believing
that all diseases are at his command. I bring my daughter
to you because what she's vexed by, you can command it to be
gone. You have all power, Lord. And he could remove them if it
was his pleasure. He could take this devil away from his daughter
if it was his pleasure. And then, oh, look what she cries
in verse 25. Oh, is this not the cry of a
believer? Lord, help me. Help me. When we're at our end,
when we've tried to do things on our own, which we all do,
what's our cry usually? Lord, help me. Help me, Lord,
I can't get out of this. I made a mess of things, Lord,
help me. Help me. And this shows us her knowledge
of who he is. Again, for the second time now,
she calls him Lord. The sovereign of all. She said it revealed to her that
Christ is Messiah, and she believed he was Messiah by the faith,
which was God-given faith that she had. This is God-given faith.
She'd been born again by the Holy Spirit of God, and she'd
been given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And again,
being in a neighboring country, the Jewish nation, one commentator
said she's either a proselyte to the Jewish religion or through
a general report, which had reached her, she had heard that Jesus
expected a wonderful deliverer, and they called him the Messiah.
And what she's saying here, she believes that he is that person.
She believes it. How would she conclude that? Only by God-given faith, right?
Look at verse 28 now. Then Jesus answered her and said,
O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole
that very hour. Look at that, great is thy faith.
Well, that's God-given faith. She's just exercising that faith
God's given her, isn't she? She's just casting herself on
Christ at his feet. My, oh, my. Let's read verses
23 to 28 of Matthew 15 now. But he answered her not a word.
And after 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. Help
me, Lord. But he answered and said, It
is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. And
she said, Trick, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which
fall from their master's table. I got a dog, when I got to play
the food, he follows me everywhere. He's half blind and he still
comes. I don't know what it is. He follows me everywhere. Just
waiting for any little thing. I put my plate down when I'm
in, and he does a pre-dishwasher wash on it. I'll tell you that.
He cleans that thing. It's amazing. But see, we can
all relate to this, right? Because she's bringing forth
the truth that when we eat, and if a crumb or something falls,
and if you have a dog, it's like a vacuum cleaner, isn't it? It's
gone. It's gone. You just take it right away.
And that's what she's talking about here. Even the dogs of
the master eat the crumbs from the table. My, what a statement! She's just showing that she's
just cast herself on Christ. She's just wholly cast herself
on Him. Truth, Lord. Again, calls Him
Lord again. That's the third time. Calls
Him Lord. Verse 27. 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 will. Remember, oh my, Lord, if you
will, the leper said, Lord, if you will, thou can make me clean.
And then look what he says here. Be it even unto thee as thou
wilt. She wanted her daughter to be healed. The Lord says,
be it as you will. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. Look at that, what power, what
majesty our king has. He's not even in her presence! And she's made whole. Oh, this is the King of Glory,
beloved. This is no mere man. This Savior
of ours is the Sovereign God of the universe incarnate. And the whole reason He came
here was to save His people from their sins, and He did it. My, oh my. And what an encouragement
also for us here to pray, to pray to the Lord. I believe there's
great encouragement in this text for us to pray to our King, both
for ourselves and for others. And this is the most striking
illustration of the truth. At first, the mother seemed unnoticed,
right? Lord didn't answer her back, and the disciple said,
now she's bugging us, Lord, send her away. Again, don't be too
hard on them. We're all flesh. We're all flesh. Don't be too hard on them. My,
my, oh, my. And he answered her another word.
And yet, what did she do? She just prayed on, didn't she?
She just kept crying out to the Lord, didn't she? Yes, she did. When he spoke to her, it sounded
discouraging when he said in verse 24, but he answered and
said unto her, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. She is one of the lost sheep
of the house of Israel, beloved. She won a God's elect. Oh my. Verse 25, then she came
and worshiped and said, Lord, help me. That's the cry of every
believer. I'll tell you, that's the heart
cry of every believer, right there. Right there. And it's
not just when we're asking the Lord to save us, it's for the
rest of our lives, isn't it? Lord, help me. Don't let me go where you don't
go before me, Lord. Don't let me go anywhere where
you don't go before me, Lord Jesus. Oh, help me, Lord. And then the second thing he
said even seemed more discouraging when he said in verse 26, but
he answered and said, it is not meat to take the children's bread
and cast it to dogs. But she wouldn't remain silent,
beloved. She kept crying out to the Lord,
didn't she? Look what she says now. And she said, truth Lord,
let the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's
table. and heard pleas, what did they
do? They received a gracious reward, right? I said a couple
weeks ago that God honors God-given faith. Now, this doesn't mean
that when we pray, we're going to get everything we want. That
doesn't happen. God gives us what we need, not
what we want. If we got everything we want,
we'd probably destroy ourselves. But He gives us what we need,
doesn't He? Always, I'll tell you what. Every one of God's
sheep have exactly what they need. And what's our most pressing
need? Salvation. And we have all spiritual
blessings in Christ, in Christ and Him alone. Oh my. Oh my. Our Lord promised this, and this
promise came to pass for her. Ask, and it shall be opened unto
you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. She just kept pleading, didn't she? That's why we should
just keep going to the Lord in prayer. We're gonna answer sometime. When we pray for ourselves, let's
remember this. Sometimes we are tempted to think
that our prayers do no good. We're sometimes tempted to think
that way. And sometimes we think, well, I may as well just quit
praying about this. Well, that temptation doesn't come from
God. That comes from Satan. That comes from the devil. May
we then believe and pray on. May we pray against our own beset
in sin, which we have. May we pray against the world.
May we pray against the wiles of the devil. And may we pray
and not faint. May we continue in prayer. May we pray for grace and strength
through trials that will come our way. May we pray for comfort
in trials which will come our way as well. God always hears
people's prayers. He always does. And in his own
good time, here answer. Do you have children who need
to be saved? Oh, I pray for my kids. That
God would save them. It would be his will. What about friends? Your friends
who do not know Christ? Many, don't we? May we be like
this Canaanite woman. May we lay them all at the feet
of Christ. Lay our family and our friends, co-workers, at the
feet of Christ. And name their names. Name their
names to our great King. And never rest until you have
an answer. Don't give up while they still breathe breath. Oh my, and let us believe that
our Lord has not changed. that he who heard this Canaanite
woman, this Canaanite mother, and granted her request will
also hear us and one day her give us an answer, an answer
of peace. And take note also of the wondrous
miracle that occurred with a word of the Savior, just a word. The
word of God incarnate, the one who came to save his people from
their sin, he speaks a word of healing. A word of healing, look
at verse 28. And what happens? This Canaanite
woman's daughter is made whole. And again, there's no, again,
when we go in for operations and things, there's always a
time of recovery. But when God heals in these narratives
that we've looked at, it's a perfect healing, right? That's how you
find out that these guys on TV are just a bunch of liars and
want people's money. Because they say, well, we can't
heal except we're in a special meeting and da-da-da-da-da. Well,
you never saw Christ do that. Right? Never at all. And when he healed, this girl
is made whole. This devil is cast out. Look
what it says. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as
thou will. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. The moment he spoke these words,
she was healed. Remember the woman with the issue
of blood? If I could just touch the hem of his garment. Remember
the man with the withered hand? Stretch out your hand. Remember
the paralytic we looked at last week? Man, he picked up his bed
after they lowered him through the roof. He picked up his bed,
and he went home glorifying God, didn't he? Remember the man at the great
call, beautiful, with Peter and James? Silver and gold have I
not, but such as I have, I give thee. In the name of Jesus Christ,
rise up and walk. And man, that guy was leaping
and praising God, the scripture says. No rehabilitation, no physical
therapy, right? Man, he's gone. And could you
imagine what the folks said? Could you imagine what this lady's
neighbors? What happened? Well, Christ saved my daughter.
She would be testifying of what Christ did for her daughter for
the rest of her life. And then she'd, more so though,
she'd be testifying what Christ did for her. He saved her soul. He was her Redeemer. He was her
Messiah. And remember this, this is our
Redeemer who we've seen in the text today. This is the one who
purchased our eternal souls with his precious, precious blood.
This is the one who holds us in his hands. Can he keep us? Well, he keeps the world spinning,
doesn't he? He keeps the sun rising, doesn't he? Surely, he
can hold in little old me a piece of dust, and you too. If we're just like pieces of
animated dust, he can hold a whole bunch of us in his hand, can't
he? Oh, my. He's God. He's God. This is the lover of my soul.
This is the lover of my soul, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he
proved to me that he loves me so much that he died for me.
And he will not cast any who come to him by faith. He will not cast anyone who comes
to him. Sinner friend, flee from him.
All we are who are the redeemed are saved sinners. And the only
one who has made us to differ is God. May we praise his mighty
name for the mighty thing