Open your Bibles with me to Matthew
chapter 15. Matthew 15. I believe this is a familiar passage
of Scripture for most of us. It's the account of the Canaanite
woman. Let's read together beginning
with verse 21. It says, Then Jesus went hence,
And he 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 meet to take the children's bread and cast
it to dogs. And she said truthfully, 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
in that very hour. And one of the first things we
see in this passage of scripture is God's sovereignty, God's sovereign
hand. In verse 21, we see that the
Lord Jesus Christ had departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon.
And at the same time, this Canaanite woman, she came out of the same
coast and she cried unto the Lord saying, have mercy on me,
have mercy on me. Men would say, boy, she just
hit it just right there. She come out just at the right
time. There's no question about this.
God's path, those who preach the Gospel, those who hear the
Gospel, He orders and directs all things. The Lord Jesus Christ
and this Canaanite woman's path have to cross. God's sovereign
hand in this. John 6. I'll not have you turn
there, but John 6, 37, let me just read it to you. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to
me I will in 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 has sent me, that of all which
he hath given me I lose nothing. I'll not lose one, but I'll raise
it up again at the last day. This is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life." I'll raise him up at the last
day. She comes to Him. She comes to
Him, but it is He. He's drawn her to Himself. The Scriptures declare this.
It shall come to pass before they call. Before they call, I'll answer. While they're yet
speaking, I'll hear them. And it's also clear that she
knew something. She knew something of Christ.
She knew something of him. This woman had a daughter who
was very sick, very grievously vexed with the devil. And she
cries out in great distress and she says, Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord, thou son of David. The Lord Jesus Christ, He is
the Son of David. He's God in human flesh. God
and man in one person. He's Emmanuel, God with us. She comes to Christ. I would
have to imagine that while our Lord walked this earth, can you
imagine the thousands? Just a huge number of people
that just walked right by, walked right past, that knew Him only
as a man named Jesus. They knew Him only as the carpenter's
son, or maybe they knew Him as the son of Joseph and Mary. They knew Him only as a man,
just a fellow that lived down the street. He's the Son of God. He is God. God in human flesh. And this has to be revealed.
And it's going to be revealed to this one lost sheep, this
Canaanite woman. She said, O Lord, thou Son of
David, have mercy on me. And she comes to Him by faith,
asking by faith and revealing her faith in His power and dominion
over all things. Wonder how many people she had
been to. Wonder how many hoping that her
daughter would be healed. But she comes to Him knowing
that only He can accomplish this. He has all power to accomplish,
to heal her daughter. All things, all people, all diseases,
all under His control. Knowing the Lord, being Lord
of all, could heal her daughter. and that he could save his daughter
if he was pleased to do so. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. And she comes to him for mercy. Back in our text, look at verse
23. But he answered her, not a word,
not a word. Here we see faith tested. Her faith would be tested. And
it would appear that for a while, she stopped asking Him. And she
went to the disciples. Look at the rest of verse 23. The disciples came and besought
Him on her behalf and said, send her away. Send her away, for
she cried after us. You know, we must be taught.
We must be taught continually to wait on the Lord. to wait,
to wait on Him. You know, we want everything,
we want everything right now, don't we? This nation, we don't
want to wait on, we don't want to wait on one thing. I think Isaac ordered a pair
of cleats off of Amazon Wednesday night and they were there Friday
morning. You know, we don't wait on, we don't wait on, we don't
wait on anything. The psalmist wrote this, he said,
Wait on the Lord. He has good courage. He shall
strengthen thine heart. And in case you didn't get it
the first time around, wait, I say, on the Lord. Wait on Him. But we see she continued
to cry after Him. I was thinking about, me and
Mike were talking there, like Jacob of old. Remember Jacob,
he said, I won't let you go. I won't let you go till you bless
me. Or like that blind beggar over
in Luke chapter 18. He said, Jesus, thou Son of David,
have mercy on me. And the people around him, they
were trying to hold him down a little bit, keep quiet here.
We read that he cried out, he cried out the louder. That's
a man in need, isn't it? That's a man in desperate need.
He cried out the louder and people rebuked him. They said, hold
your peace, be quiet. But he cried out even louder,
Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. Simon Peter, remember Simon Peter,
our Lord said, Will you go away? Will you go away? He said, Lord, whom shall we
go? Now has the word of the Lord. Whom shall we go? And God's word
declares this, Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord,
shall be saved. Look at verse 24. He answered
his disciples, and he says, I am not sent, I am not sent, but
unto the lost sheep of Israel. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. Not sent, but the lost sheep
of Israel. He came to save his church, his elect. Our Savior
and our Redeemer, He made full satisfaction and atonement for
the sins of His elect. He came to obtain eternal redemption,
to save His sheep. In Adam, we're lost, we're strained,
and we could never recover. We could never recover ourselves,
but He came. The Lord Jesus Christ came in
the fullness of time. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. Verse 25, she came and worshiped Him. Job said this, Job said, though
He slay me, though He slay me, I'll trust Him. I will trust
Him. Consider her condition. I mean, consider our condition. She could do nothing for herself.
She couldn't help herself. No man could help her. No man
could make her daughter whole, only Christ. Only Christ can
do that. Only Christ can save. Christ
can save and Christ alone. No hope. No hope apart from the
Lord Jesus Christ. No hope apart from His mercy.
No hope apart from His grace. No hope apart from His love. Turn over to Acts 27. This woman's hopeless. Look at
Acts 27. Here we read of this perilous
voyage of Paul on his way to Rome. And look at beginning of
verse 20 of Acts 27. It says here, when neither sun
nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us,
all hope that we should be saved was taken away. No hope. But after long abstinence, Paul
stood forth in the midst of them, and he said, Sirs, you should
have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and have
gained this harm and loss. Now I exhort you to be of good
cheer. Be of good cheer? We have no hope. How can we be
of good cheer? give good cheer, for there shall
be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. For
there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am
and whom I serve." That can only be Christ, can't it? Whose I
am and whose I serve? Saying, fear not, Paul, thou
must be brought before Caesar, and lo, God hath given thee all
them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be a good cheer. I believe God. I believe God
that it shall be even as it was told. He said all hope, all hope
that we should be saved was taken away. But then he said be a good
cheer. I believe God. I believe God. This woman, this woman who had
heard of Christ, this woman who had been whether she realized
it or not, had been brought to Christ. This woman that cried
out for mercy, she believed God and she came to Him and she worshipped
Him. Listen to her cry. Listen to her petition. Three
words. Look back in our text, Matthew
15, look at verse 25. Then came she and worshipped
Him, saying, Lord, help me. Help me. Think about this. Our Lord had said, I'm not sent,
but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I've come to save, I've come
to save my land. I've come to save my sheep. I've
come to save my people. Think about how men respond to
that statement. I've come to save my elect. Many of you have probably experienced
this or seen this, maybe felt this way yourself at one point
in time. I came to save my elect. Turn to Luke chapter 4. How does the natural man respond
to that statement. Look at Luke chapter 4. Our Lord spoke here. This is
our Lord speaking. He said, I tell you the truth.
Look at Luke 4 verse 25. I tell you the truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elias, when the heavens were shut up, three years and
six months, when great famine was throughout the land. But
unto none of them was Elias sent. He was just sent to one. What
about all those other people? He was sent to just one. Save
unto Sarepta, the city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elisha, the prophet. and none of them was cleansed,
saving Naaman the leper." God's right to save whom He will. What's the natural man's response
to that? Look at verse 28. All they that were in the synagogue,
these religious people, when they heard this, they didn't
rejoice, did they? They were filled with wrath.
They were angry. So angry, look at verse 29, they
rose up and thrust him out of the city and led him under the
brow of the hill whereon the city was built that they might
cast him down headlong. They were going to throw him
over a hill headfirst. They won't hear him. They were
filled with wrath. Turn back to John chapter 10.
John chapter 10. Brother Wayne read this earlier.
Look at verse 26 and 27. Our Lord said, you believe not,
you believe not because you're not My sheep. As I said unto
you, My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me. My sheep, they hear My voice,
they follow Me. What was the Jews response to
that? Look down at verse 31. They took
up stones to stone him. This Canaanite woman, what's
her response? This woman with no hope, this
poor sinner, what's her response? She came. And she worshipped
Him. This is one of His lost sheep.
She came and she worshipped Him, saying, Lord, help me. Help me. The self-righteous man,
when he hears this, he's offended. Man's offended. By nature, we rest in our works,
in our deeds, in our keeping of the law. And despite the fact
that those things mean so much to us. And they may look impressive
to maybe our neighbors or those around us. In the sight of God,
our best works are filthy rags. The sinner cries, help me, help
me. Why wouldn't we cry that? The
Lord Jesus Christ, we've read this, He came to seek and to
save that which was lost. Now back to our text. Look at verse 26, Matthew chapter
15. He answers and he says, our Lord
Jesus Christ, against me, he said, it's not meat to take the
children's bread and cast it to the dogs. How long? How long will faith
be tested? How long will a trial last? I wonder if this Canaanite woman
just thought, you know, is he going to hear me? Will he hear
my cry? Will he hear my plea? Don't we
feel that way from time to time? Why is this trial here? Why am I being tested so? Well,
how long will we be tested? Until his purpose. is accomplished
in the man. 1 Peter 1.7 says that the trial
of your faith being much more precious than of gold, though
it be tried with fire, might be found to the praise and honor
and glory of the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said
it's not meat. It's not meat to take the children's
bread and cast it to the dogs. You're a dog. You're a dog. You're unworthy. You're a sinner. How do you reply to that? Is
that angry? Would you run away from that? Remember when he went to be healed
of his leprosy and he took all those changes of clothes and
those gifts And he went to the prophet Elisha. He finally went
to him. He went to the king first, but
he finally went to the prophet Elisha. And he came with his
horses and his chariot. And he stood at the door of Elisha,
and he just stood there waiting, waiting for him to come out.
What happened there? Elisha sent a messenger. Elisha
sent a messenger out there, and he told him, he said, you go
dip seven times in the River Jordan. How did Naaman react
to that? He was furious, wasn't he? I'm a great man. I'm an honorable
man. How did he respond? He was furious. He said, I thought
he would come out to me and he would stand there and he would
call on the name of the Lord his God and strike his hand over
the place and my leprosy would be taken away. Had to be brought
down, didn't it? Had to be humbled. This Canaanite
woman, she was brought love. He said, shall I take the children's
bread and give it to you? Look at her reply. Look at verse 27. How do you reply to that? Oh,
I'm not a dog. She says, truth, Lord. Truth. Truth. She didn't say, I don't understand
why bad things happen to good people. She didn't say, you know,
if you really knew me, you'd know I'm a good person. Or I
fast twice a week, or I give tithes of everything I own. No,
she said, what you're saying about me is true. You know, that response can be
attributed to nothing. but the grace of God in the heart.
God had revealed that to her. She said everything. All that
you've said, I can't speak one thing against it. It's true. He was sent. What did he say?
He said he was sent to the lost sheep of Israel. He said she
was a dog, a sinner, unworthy of any favor. He said, it's not
right to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. All
this is true. There was no argument, was there?
No argument. But she says, yet. Yet, even
the dogs, even the dogs eat from the crumbs that fall from the
master's table. Just some crumbs. Just some crumbs
will do if they fall from the master's table. 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 in that very hour. I look at that word whole, it
means to be cured or it means to be healed. But it also means
much more than that. It means to be free from sin. It means to bring about one's
salvation. She was made to be free from
sin. The Canaanite woman, she desired her daughter to be
healed. So much more, huh? She was made free, free from
sin. I want to close by reading a
passage of Scripture from Ephesians 3. One thing before you turn
there, consider this. The Lord Jesus Christ, He said,
O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee, even as thou
wilt. And there's a period at the end of that, isn't there?
That conversation was over. Be it unto thee, even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very Very hard. Turn to Ephesians 3. Ephesians chapter 3. She had hoped that her daughter
would be made whole. She had hoped that she'd just
be made well from this disease. He saved her. Look at Ephesians
3. Look at verse 20. We'll close with this. Now unto
Him, now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in
us, unto Him, unto Him the glory in the church by Jesus Christ
throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.