Our thought this morning goes
along so well with our Bible class lesson. And I'm speaking
to us on this thought, the persevering power of God-given faith. The persevering power of God-given
faith. God-given faith is the only thing
we have that will not fail us. Our hearts fail at times for
numerous reasons. Our minds get messed up and fail
us. People fail us. We fail ourselves. But God-given faith does not
fail. How blessed this is. And when
I'm talking about God-given faith, I'm not talking about what today's
religious world calls faith. Just some pumped up confidence
in your flesh. That's not faith. The devil can
knock that out of you about as quick as you can pump it up.
And he does. But God-given faith never fails. It's the gift of God. It's called
saving faith, and that it does, without fail. It's called the
faith of God's elect, given to every one of God's children,
and none but God's children. Now this passage illustrates
this thought, the persevering power of God-given faith. First, I would have you notice
Verse 21, our Lord travels outside the country of Old Testament
covenant Israel. Verse 21 says, then Jesus went
thence. Then Jesus went. When? When? Well, according to
verse one, the scribes, Pharisees had come complaining as they
did very often. Verse 7, Jesus calls them hypocrites. Well did Isaiah prophesy of you
guys, saying, This people draweth not unto me with their mouth,
and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. They have not God-given faith. They believe not the Lord Jesus
Christ and can't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, now
that hadn't changed. That hadn't changed. Without
this God-given faith, people today do not and cannot believe. Savingly. People say, well, you know, I
believe. True believing is not without commitment. It's part
of it. And that needs to be pressed
in this hour. If you really believe in fire,
you won't stick your hand in it. If you really believe in electricity,
you won't play with live wires. And if you really believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ, It's more than just some kind of a little
religious game that you involve yourself in to the extent that
you wish. Oh no. True believers are committed. Not because we decided to be
committed, but because the Lord has graciously received us and
changed our hearts and given us a heart for Him. So then Jesus went thence. Departing Israel and into Gentile
country, verse 21 says, into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, that word behold
means look, listen up, pay attention. Here's what happened. A woman
came to him whose daughter was demon possessed. The scripture
says here she had a devil. And don't let that throw you. There is one devil, Satan. But
by devils, often in the New Testament is meant demons, agents of Satan. Now, some cases of demon possession
in the New Testament had great physical effects. And I believe
it's the same today. But especially in the Scriptures,
we're familiar with these. Remember, one was brought to
Christ who was possessed and dumb, could not speak. It had
that effect. And when the demon was cast out,
he spake like anybody else. Another man's son, we read about,
was demon-possessed and he would fall to the ground and go into
fits. like a seizure of some kind.
And the Bible said the demon tear him. Another man's son, he said, was
a lunatic. He would fall into fire and into
water and would have to be rescued by someone else. Especially in Mark 5, we've preached
about this man numerous times through the years. the man that
dwelt among the tombs. He lived in the graveyard. And
the demons made him uncivilized. He would go unclothed and he
didn't care who saw him. And it involved self-inflicted
pain. He would cut himself on the rocks
and cry out. And the demons in that case gave
him great physical strength. He'd been caught and he'd been
bound with chains. But the Bible said he would break
the chains like they were nothing. People today make light of demon
activity and demon possession. But it's a power that controls
and oppresses individuals. And I'm sure demons laugh hilariously
to hear men assert their free will. That we can walk away from the
devil and his demons anytime we choose, but it's not so. It's not so. That's to assert
that we don't need the delivering power of God. But we do. We do. People make the same mistake
in regard to salvation, asserting that it's in our power to free
ourselves from the kingdom of darkness, and then in our right
mind, we apply to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. The Scriptures
do not teach that. Until the Holy Spirit does His
work, you can't have a right mind. It is God Colossians chapter
1 verse 13 said, who delivers us from the kingdom of darkness
into the kingdom of his dear son. But in this text that we
read, there is no evidence that this girl's trouble was physical.
She might have just been an ordinary young person. She may have fitted
into the class of what we call a normal rebellious young lady. We don't say We don't see anything
wrong. She don't see anything wrong
with where she's at. But she's deceived. She's grievously
vexed. The Amplified says she was miserably
and distressingly and cruelly possessed by a demon. Some of you have been there,
and you know it. Some of you might be there now
and don't know it, but it's serious business. This text and many
others teaches us that the only hope for demon possession or
even demon oppression, which we all face daily, the
only hope is the deliverance God gives. through his son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. This text does not say or even
imply that this daughter vexed with the devil was interested
in getting help. She's out yonder somewhere else
doing her thing. She thinks she's fine. That's depravity. Not only did
this daughter not come with her mother. She had no desire to
come and saw no need to come. And that's the condition of society
today. They see no need in their lives
for what we're doing here this morning. They have no heart for
the Lord. Now it is evident that this woman
came to Christ with something more than she
possessed by nature. It was more than a self-created
decision. And of course, that's what most
modern religion nowadays is based on, just make a decision for
Christ. Won't you accept Christ? He's
desperate without you. He needs you on his team. But
you see, she never came with the idea that my next move will
be determined by how he responds to my first move. No, no. She
came for help. And she could not be talked out
of it. And she didn't mean to leave without it. Now, I've heard
it said many times, well, you know, don't take no for an answer. Well, that's just positive thinking.
It's not that simple. The truth is, hers was a living,
God-given faith that could not and would not quit without the
blessing. So the question is not just your
determination. The circumstances of life are
bigger than your determination. And this two or three negative
things will knock the soup out of you. You know that. I know
that. So the question is not your determination. The question is whether or not
you're moved by and motivated by this precious gift of God-given
faith. That perseveres. I've watched
people in life and I've watched myself. When everything's going
well and you're up and you're whistling Dixie, buddy, everything's
good. It appears you have faith enough
to walk on water. But when things turn sour, and you get down, and before long, you're wondering
if you're even God's child. Or if He even cares about you.
And maybe even if there even is a God. We don't control this
mind. No, no. What am I saying? I'm saying, left to ourselves. A simple turn of events can cause
us to cash in whatever seeming steadfastness we had. It's the keeping power of God.
It's the persevering power of God-given faith. And without
a constant flow from heaven, without a 24-7 heavenly IV, so
to speak, We're like reeds blowing in the
wind. No stability. But when God is pleased, as He
was with this woman, through some severe trial or testing
in our lives, He is pleased to exercise in us this persevering
power of God-given faith. It's a marvelous thing. It's
really a miraculous thing. You hear these birds say, well,
just exercise your faith. No, no. If it's God-given faith,
it exercises you. You're not in control of it.
It's in control of you. It goes beyond anything natural
to us. By all natural means, we're all
quitters when the chips are down. Don't take long to get to the
place until it's time to curse God and die. And you'll justify
yourself in doing it. But God. Only God. I want us to see it for a few minutes
in this woman's heart. Note, it was a faith that did
not question who Jesus Christ is. Though she's a Gentile and
a Canaanite, she had heard of Israel's Messiah that was to
come. That He was to be the seed of
David, the famous Old Testament King. And in verse 22, she addresses
Him as such, O Lord, Thou Son of David, she believed He was
more than just a man. She believed He was divine. And she calls Him Lord three
times. Verse 22, verse 25, and verse
27. Lord. In all three places, it's
the Greek word kurios in the New Testament, meaning supremacy,
supreme in authority, and power, controller. Master, Lord. She knows this is somebody she's
talking to. It's not, if you can help me.
She's coming, you can help me. And she continually acknowledges
her belief in His sovereign rule over all things and all situations. This word Lord is equivalent
to the Old Testament Hebrew, Jehovah. So don't think she's
coming wondering if he can help her. She knows he can. Now there's
some obstacles here. Obstacles that would send the
average person back to the house with head high and low. No hope
for me. First obstacle, when she cried to him, verse
22, it is a very appropriate cry. It began with a cry for
mercy. She never came with a proposition. She had nothing to bargain with
and knew it. And neither do we. Cried for mercy. What is a cry
for mercy? Here's what it is. It is the
acknowledgement of this, Lord, you don't owe me anything. I'm not here to collect something
I deserve. I'm here to plead for something
I don't deserve. That's how she came. And how
very necessary it is that we approach the Lord in that attitude. And yet how impossible it is
in ourselves to do it. left to ourselves, we'll come
to pray with that little lying ego that's in us all, and say
something like, now Lord, you know I've tried to do my best. And if he'd speak audibly, he'd
say, when did you try your best? Lord, you know I've tried to
always be there for you. I've always meant well. What a terrible enemy this stinking
rotten flesh is. This is the thing that's so precious
about Peter's restoration. Remember that? He had failed,
and he knew it, and he confessed it. There's no pretense. He went out and wept bitterly.
And he confessed to himself and he confessed to the Lord, I'm
all wrong and you're all right. That'd be a good way to start. Every day. Lord, I'm all wrong
and you're all right. He said, Peter said, Lord, I
played the fool. I thought I could make it. I
said I'd be there for you and I wasn't. I said I wouldn't deny
you, but I did it three times. See, when you come like that,
that's grounds for mercy. You're not trying to bargain
with God about something you might deserve. No, no, no. It's grounds for mercy when you
get down to the nitty gritty about how you've treated Him. Now, the Lord's not interested
in your opinion that you've not fallen quite as low as I have.
or somebody else. No, we're not our own standard. He's not interested in the fact
that you've managed to do a little better than the average person. It's just you and Him. And unless
He gets to you, you will not get to Him. Unless He gets to
you, about what you are, you'll not get to Him. This pitiful
Arminian world gives God no more credit than just responding to
us. But what's real is the operation
of this God-given faith, bringing us to respond to Him. That's
the order. That's the order. I've heard many say through the
years they have this business of prayer figured out. They say
God always answers yes or no or wait. They've overlooked this passage.
This woman made a very sincere plea for mercy and the Lord never
said yes. He never said no. And He never
said, wait. So much for their theory. As
a matter of fact, verse 23 says, He answered her, not a word. What is more pride killing than
humiliating than to be ignored? He answered her, not a word. Lord, if I thought enough of
You to come to You, You ought to say something." Well, he didn't. He didn't. He answered it out
of words. She gets the silent treatment. No response at all. This is the
first obstacle. We look at that awful treatment
and say, I believe I'd just turn around and go to the house. She didn't have to be treated
as if she didn't exist. But you see this God-given faith
will carry you on. It'll hold you steady while you're
being treated as if you didn't exist. How many times through
the years have I heard people say they treat me like I didn't
even exist. Hey, this thing of God-given
faith will carry you on in the midst of that treatment. We're
so pitiful talking about our rights. Our rights are violated
and we hit the ceiling. Oh, I just didn't deserve that.
Well, since when do you want your life to be about what you
deserve? Not me. Not me. Christ said to His disciples
one time, O ye of little faith. Another time He said, how is
it that you have no faith? So again, I say left to ourselves,
We're a pitiful lot. Faith is a living thing. Coming from God, it's the gift
of God. Coming from God and communicating
back to God. And without it, we're all so
proud of ourselves, we have absolutely no need for the Lord. The next obstacle, verse 23, The disciples, they bud in. They came to Him and said, send
her away, for she crieth after us. They had a little ego problem
themselves. She wasn't crying after them.
She was crying after Him. And in light of Jesus' answer
in verse 24, it seems that what the disciples
were suggesting in verse 23 was that he is to give her what she
wants, answer her cry and be rid of her. They sense her determined
attitude and they seem to imply she's not going to just go away,
go ahead and do something and satisfy her. But then in verse 24, the Lord
answers them, not her, but them. He still doesn't speak a word
to her. But he says to them, I am not
sent, but under the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And this is so great. He is saying
one thing to them and he's saying something else to them, to her
in the same words. Only deity can do that. He's saying to his disciples,
now you boys know, Matter of fact, your favorite doctrine
is that this business of salvation and acceptance with God is a
national thing. It only works within the boundaries
of Jerusalem. Didn't you all notice she's a
Canaanite? I'm not sent but by the law of the house of Israel.
That's what they heard. But in verse 25, she's not shaken
by his comment. Then came she and worshipped
him, saying, Lord, help me. Quit responding to them and respond
to me. Help me. Say something to me.
He still hadn't said anything to her. The power of this faith, it challenged
the boundaries of Judaism. She was a Canaanite. Not the
daughter of an Israelite. Not naturally of the house of
Israel. But faith, this faith, God-given faith we're talking
about, showed her an Israel that was not Israel. True Israel is broken, crushed,
conquered, and changed Jacob. If you go back to the Law of
First Mention, where do we first have the name Israel? It's when
Jacob wrestled all night with the Lord. I'll take that back. I believe
it says the Lord wrestled with him. That's Israel. Broken Jacob. which is what we all were by
nature is a Jacob. But true Israel is broken, crushed,
conquered, changed Jacob. And faith showed her the Israel
of God. Faith showed her that she was
believing just like Abraham believed. And that made her a daughter
of Abraham. You see, Abraham believed God
before there was any distinction of Jew or Gentile. That's what she was doing. Her
faith was not smothered out because she was a Gentile. It wasn't
about who she was, it was about who he is. She didn't have a New Testament,
but Galatians 3.7 was living in her heart. Know ye therefore
that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham." God put this in her. We read in that same book that
the gospel was preached to Abraham. Did you know that? I hear fellows say, well, the
gospel began when Christ came. The gospel began at Pentecost.
I read in this book where the gospel was preached to Abraham. God called him out of a heathen
society, preached the gospel to him. He
saw Christ's day and was glad. Who preached the gospel to him?
God did. Who preached it to this woman?
God did. Who preached it to me? God did. Oh, I've heard hundreds of preachers.
And so have you. But if you ever know it, it will
be God that does it. This woman had no doubt heard
things about him. But all she had heard was that
he had come for the Jews. And she wouldn't be eligible. But when she heard from God,
she's eligible. how much or how little she knew,
we don't know. But faith worked in her. And she believed as much as if
she had been a Bible scholar. So faith took her beyond the
barrier of Judaism or nationality. The next thing, I'm hurrying,
faith took her beyond the supposed boundaries of election. Verse 26, Jesus talks about children
and dogs. He answered and said, it is not
me to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. The obvious implication being
that the disciples were children and she was a dog, excluded from
the family. I wonder why she didn't ask what
people have asked me. What if I'm not one of the elect? Well, the answer is, you won't
be much concerned about it. If you have a heart to know God,
He gave you that. I'm not talking about if you
want to go to heaven, everybody wants that. And I'm not talking about
if you want to escape hell, everybody does. But if you really want to know
God, Judas Iscariot was never concerned
about whether or not he was God's child. He was perfectly content
with not being God's child. Now he was very concerned when
Mary took a full pound of spacknard ointment very costly and anointed
the feet of Jesus. He said, why this waste? Oh,
this could have been sold for 300 pence and given to the poor
and we could have got a lot of glory out of this. He's concerned
about that. But the Lord Jesus said to him,
shut up. Judas was never interested in being God's child. He was
interested in profit when he had the opportunity to betray
Christ and make a deal for 30 pieces of silver. But he was
never concerned about whether he was one of God's elect. And if you're not, you won't
be concerned about it either. You live for self, maybe play
a little religion along the way, until you drop off into hell
one day. That's how it works. Verse 21, Christ had journeyed
to this woman's territory near her home in Tyre. She's a Syrophoenician
by birth. God-given faith was working in
her heart long before Christ came. She believed just as Christ
had said on one occasion, I must needs go through Samaria. That he must needs go through
Tyre and Sidon. He'll be coming this way. Who
told her that? Probably not the news media.
God did. Matter of fact, this is the only
time Jesus traveled outside of Jewish territory. And faith quickened in her heart
this thought, if there's no hope for me, what's he doing here? And you this morning can say,
if there's no hope for me, what am I doing here? God's got you here. Faith took
her beyond the supposed boundaries of election. I said supposed
boundaries. Now there are boundaries. But
they're not ours, they're God's. They're God's. Talking about
the persevering power of God-given faith. The Jews called Gentiles
dogs. Very arrogantly, I might add.
Infidel dogs. And they later called believers
in the New Testament times Christian dogs. Well, there's two Greek
words translated dogs in the New Testament. And you can look
these up in your Strong's Concordance with the Greek Dictionary. One
word refers to the large, mangy, wild dogs that roam the streets. They're the ones that came and
licked Lazarus' sores. That's not the dogs Jesus referred
to here. This word is K-U-N-A-R-I-O-N,
meaning the little pet dogs in the house that everybody's attached
to. Gets treated better than the
children. Treated like a member of the family. This woman knew that word. What was it saying to her? That
Christ had not put her out with the street dogs, but she's in
the house at least. Faith quickened that in her heart. And how did she respond? There's
no theologian, there's no philosopher, there's no poet, no Shakespeare,
or anybody else could improve on her response. Instead of her
heart fainting in despair, She said, truth Lord. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from their master's table. You've just given me hope. This God-given faith does not
promise you can qualify yourself. Forget that. No, no. And you can be somebody. You
can be near the head of the table. You can have the best seat and
you're sure to get a piece of bread. That's not it. That's
not it. God-given faith promises on the
basis of the sinful creature you are. If you can somehow get
down low enough and wait under the table as a dog, as a poor
becker, and searched diligently, there's sure to be some crumbs.
That's how she came. This woman wasn't cussing God's
election, like most people I know. She was crying, Lord, is there
not room for me somewhere in it? And every single one of God's
children do that very same thing. If you're trusting in one earthly
reason why God should include you, He probably hadn't. Don't bother telling the Lord
what a good family you came from. He knows too much. Finally, in verse 28, the Lord
responds positively to this woman. What did He say? What does he
say to her? Oh woman, you're really something
special. No. Oh woman, you drive a hard bargain. No. It's not about the woman. He said, Oh woman, great is thy
faith. If this was just you and about
what you're doing, you'd never have gotten my attention. But he said, I recognize something
here that my Father is in on this. There's something working in
you that my Father gave you. And I can't say no. I've come to give eternal life
to as many as the Father has given me. John 6.37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and you've come. O woman, great is thy faith,
be it unto thee, even as thou wilt." And her daughter was made
whole from that very hour. Christ was not just responding
to her, He was responding to the gift of the Father working
in her. God-given faith. This whole passage
involves a fellowship between the Father and the Son. Instead of Christ looking at
her like everybody else and saying, what are you doing here? No,
he's seeing my Father is here in her heart. He's put something
in there. The Father, Son, and the Christ.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And the Son
never refused her. Him that cometh I will in no
wise cast out." And this morning, if God puts true, saving faith
in your heart, you can and will come to Christ. I'm not going
to drag you down here, but He'll drag you off somewhere in the
back room of your house or somewhere out in the woods or in a briar
patch. And you'll pour your heart out
to Him. That's how He works. And I trust it so in every heart
here this morning. And that's our message, the persevering
power of God-given faith. It works.