That's a beautiful hymn. We don't
sing that hymn. I like that a lot. Will you open your Bibles with
me please to Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7. Now as you I'm sure know, Mark is
a much shorter account of things that are written in Matthew at
a longer description. So what I want to do, this story
that's given to us in Mark chapter 7 is also found in Matthew 15. So if you would like to put your
finger in Matthew 15, we'll be going back and forth. It's the
same story, but Matthew 15 gives us more detail as to what happened. Mark chapter 7 verse 24. And
from thence he arose and went into the borders of Tyre and
Sidon and entered into a house and would have no man know it.
But he could not be hid. That's the title of the message. He cannot be hid from dogs. The Lord has given to dogs senses
that are very keen in terms of smell and hearing. We use dogs
to sniff out drugs and bombs in airports. We use dogs to find
bodies under rubble after a catastrophe. We use dogs to people who have
epileptic seizures. They have dogs that can sense
their seizures before they even happen. And there's something
very sensitive in the senses of a dog that enable them to
sniff things out that we can't see. So the title of the message
is, He Cannot Be Hid From Dogs. For a certain woman, whose young
daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell
at his feet. And the woman was a Greek, a
Syrophoenician by nature, and she besought him that he would
cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto
her, Let the children first be filled, for it is not meet to
take the children's bread and to cast it unto dogs. And she
answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord, Yet the dogs under the
table eat of the children's crumbs. And he said unto her, for this
saying, go thy way. The devil has gone out of thy
daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil
gone out and her daughter laid upon the bed, resting at peace. All right, turn back with me
to Matthew chapter 15. Verse 21. Then Jesus went thence
and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a
woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried unto him,
saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter
is grievously vexed with the devil. And he answered her, Not
a word. He ignored her. And one thing
that's true about dogs is that they are not easily offended. They are beggars by nature and
they will be persistent to beg even if you ignore them. If you
have a pet dog, you know what I'm talking about. But when he answered her not
a word, and his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send
her away, for she crieth after us." Dogs are not easily offended. They will continue to beg, even
if they're shamed. I can remember in religion, you
just have to walk on eggshells around people and people would
get easily offended and leave the church for all sorts of reasons. But we don't want to offend one
another, but we do, don't we? But it doesn't chase off dogs.
It doesn't chase off dogs. But he answered and said, I am
not sent but unto the lost sheep of Israel. Then came she and
worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and
said, it is not me to take the children's bread and cast it
to dogs. And she said, truth, Lord. You have spoken the truth, that's
what I am. I'm a dog. Yet the dogs eat the crumbs which
fall from the master's table. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee, even
as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. You can't discourage a dog from
begging. You can't embarrass a dog. You
can't offend a dog. Dogs are persistent until they
get some food. They just continue to beg, don't
they? The scripture speaks of dogs
on several different occasions. In Deuteronomy chapter 32, the
Lord says, Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore or the price
of a dog into the house of the Lord. For any vow for both of
these is an abomination unto the Lord thy God." Now to bring
the price of a dog to the house of God is to bring our works
into the presence of God as an offering. We're the dogs. The Lord says
if you bring something that a dog has done, or you bring the price
of a dog before me, it is abomination to me. In Judges chapter 7, when Gideon
gathered his army together, against those thousands of the enemies
of God. And the Lord had Gideon bring
his men down to the river. And you remember that there were
300 of all the men of Gideon that lapped up the water like
a dog. And the Lord said, those are
mine. Those are mine. In 1 Samuel chapter 17, when
young David goes up against that uncircumcised Philistine, Goliath. And, you know, in religion the
story of David and Goliath is all about bravery, but that's
not what the story is about at all. Remember Goliath offers,
both armies were there. They could have gone to battle
against each other and thousands of men been killed. But the king
of the Philistines had an idea. He said, I'll tell you what,
I'll send my biggest warrior and you send your biggest warrior.
And the one that wins the battle between the two will win for
the whole nation. That way we won't all have to
die. And so Saul thought that was a good idea, but every day
that Goliath came out, Saul realized, we don't have anybody to go up
against a man like that. Nine feet tall, what are we gonna,
who are we gonna send out there? And young David comes to bring
provisions for his brothers, and he sees this uncircumcised
Philistine come out, and he hears him curse the God of Israel,
and David said, I'll go, I'll go. Saul tried to put his armor
on him, remember? And it didn't fit. David couldn't
go in the power of the flesh. He had to go in the power of
the Spirit of God. And he went out with a sling and a stone.
And he killed Goliath. But before he killed Goliath,
Goliath spoke these words. He says, am I a dog that you
would send out a man with sticks and staves to come against me?
Now David is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he won
the battle for all of Israel. He defeated Goliath. But Goliath did not believe himself
to be a dog. He said, I'm a dog. And then
in 2 Kings chapter 8, the king of Syria, whose name was Bildad,
was on his deathbed and he sent his servant down to inquire of
the prophet of Israel as to what his fate would be. And the prophet
of Israel, Elisha, says to him, he said, well, he said, is he
going to die? And he said, no, he's going to,
he's going to recover from this illness, but he's going to end
up dying. And the prophet looked at this
servant that Bildad had sent down. And he stared him in the
eye until the servant was ashamed. And he said, what are you looking
at me like that for? He said, because I know that
you're going to go back and you're going to kill the king of Syria.
And then you're going to take over the army of Syria and you're
going to send the Syrians down and destroy the people of Israel.
And this servant looked at the prophet and he said, am I a dog? That I would do such a thing?
So here we have the uncircumcised Philistine, here we have the
Gentile Syrians who are offended by the fact that they would be
considered a dog. What does this Syrophoenician
woman say? Truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. But the dogs eat
the crumbs that fall from the master's table. Lord, that's
all I am. I'm a begging dog, a mercy begging
dog, completely dependent upon the master to feed me. Then you
remember when Mephibosheth, when David sent his servant to go
get Mephibosheth, he said, you fetch him. Is there any of the
house of Saul that I might show them kindness for Jonathan's
sake? Jonathan and David had a covenant
promise together, didn't they? And Mephibosheth sure that David
was sending him to destroy him. Thinking that David would kill
him, he came back and David looked at Mephibosheth and said, Oh,
Mephibosheth, Mephibosheth. He saw the likeness of his father,
Jonathan, in his son, didn't he? And he loved him. And so
the father looks upon us and he says, Oh, child of God, I
see the likeness of my son in you. And he told Mephibosheth,
he said, you sit here at the king's table and I'll feed you
all the rest of your life. And what did Mephibosheth say?
Why would the king look upon such a dead dog as I? So these are people's different
responses. If you call an unbeliever a dog
and they're going to be offended. But the true dogs, They're not
offended, are they? They just keep begging. This
poor Syrophoenician woman, she just kept worshiping the Lord.
She just, she's kept agreeing with Him. Let me read you a verse
in Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse 14. A living dog is better than
a dead lion. For the living knows that he
shall die, but the dead knows nothing. Which would you rather be, a
living dog or a dead lion? You see, those who don't consider
themselves to be dogs are but dead lions and they know nothing.
The living dog, the living dog knows that he's going to die.
The living God knows that there is a God with whom he must do. The living God understands that
he's completely dependent upon the mercy of the Master to feed
him. And the living dog cannot be
shamed, he cannot be embarrassed, he cannot be turned aside. The truth is, and I've said this
to our congregation on many occasions, If a person can leave the gospel,
they will. They will. They'll find a reason
to leave. They'll get offended at somebody
or at the preacher or at the circumstances and they'll find
a reason to leave. But what does our text say? He cannot be hid. He cannot be hid. Sin will not keep us away from
Him. Sin is what drives us to Christ,
isn't it? Satan cannot keep us away from
Him. Our circumstances cannot keep us away from Him. All the
things that were done to this poor woman could not keep her
from coming to Christ. She had to have Him. She had to have Him. I think
of the story of Zacchaeus. There in Jericho, the press of
the crowd was so great that Zacchaeus, being of small stature, could
not see over the heads of the people. So what did he do? Oh,
he had to see Christ. He could not be hid from Him,
so he climbed up in a sycamore tree. And it wasn't so important
that Zacchaeus saw the Lord, it was more important that the
Lord saw him, wasn't it? Zacchaeus? come down. I must go to your house today
for salvation is coming to the house. When God puts it into
the heart of a sinner, a dog, a mercy beggar, to have Christ,
he cannot be hid from him. Blind Bartimaeus, dirty, blind
beggar, who had nothing but a holy garment over him, and the Lord
comes to the same city, Jericho, and blind Bartimaeus hears about
him, and believes what he hears. And what did blind Bartimaeus
say? Son of David, have mercy upon me. And what did the people
say? They said the same thing the disciples said here. Lord,
send her away. Send her away. She's embarrassing
us and she's embarrassing everybody. Shut up, Bartimaeus. The Lord's
not going... He has no interest in you. Look
at you. And he cried all the louder,
didn't he? He would not quit. He was a dog. You can't stop a dog from begging.
They're just going to be persistent. You can't embarrass them. You
can't shut them up. If they're hungry, they're going
to keep coming to you for food. Bartimaeus, be of good cheer. The master calleth thee. Bartimaeus
dropped his dirty robe right there on the street side and
went to the Lord Jesus Christ naked. Fully exposed. That's how we come, isn't it?
What would you have me to do for you, Bartimaeus? Oh, Lord,
that I might see. Open my eyes. Enable me to see
you. Enable me to see the truth. Enable
me to believe on thee. Bartimaeus never left the Lord's
side. I heard a story about a man who
found a dog caught in a trap in the woods. And the dog was
vicious. He wouldn't let anybody get near
him in fear that the person would finish the injury by putting
the dog to death. So the man found a branch on
a tree and cut it off, and the branch had a fork in it. And
the man took the fork and pinned the dog to the ground by its
neck, and reached down and loosed the trap, let the dog out, and
jumped back out of the way, and went on his way. A little while
later, he looked back. What do you think he found? That
dog, with its tail tucked, was gingerly following after that
man. And the man's testimony is, the
dog never left his side the rest of the dog's life. Now that's us, isn't it? The
Lord has to pin us down. We're at enmity with God. We're
vicious dogs. But the Lord pins us down and
releases us from the trap of sin. from the judgment and curse
of the law, and out of love and appreciation for his mercy, we
followed him all the days of our life. The Lord Jesus Christ cannot
be hid from a dog. He can't be hid. They're going
to find him. You remember the man who was
crippled on his bed and the press was so great that his friends
could not get him into the house where the Lord was. The house
was full, the front yard was full, the driveway was full. And so what did they do? They
got up on the roof and they removed some tiles out of the roof and
they lowered the man down right in front of the Lord. He was a dog, wasn't he? You
see, people, circumstances, sins, Satan, nothing will keep a dog
from getting to the Lord Jesus Christ. God has given His dogs
an ear to hear. He's given them a nose to smell.
And they're gonna find Christ. And they're gonna get to Him.
And they're gonna do it because He first got to them. Listen
to what Isaiah said in Isaiah 65 verse 24, "...and it shall
come to pass, before they call, I will answer, and while they
are yet speaking, I will hear." Election comes before redemption. Regeneration is the result of
the call. We're called, we're regenerated, And we hear. Actually, regeneration comes
before faith, doesn't it? It comes before faith. In order
for a man to believe, he's got to be made alive. He cannot be hid. Even when we
hide from him, he cannot be hid. That goes all the way back to
the garden, doesn't it? Adam, trying to cover his shame
with the works of his own hands, sewing together fig leaves, just
like we sew together our good intentions, our good works, our
free will. And the Lord sought him out,
didn't he? Adam, where art thou? Where art thou? And even though
Adam, even though Adam accused his wife, actually he was accusing
God, wasn't he? The woman which thou gavest me,
she gave to me, and I did eat. It's not my fault. The blame
game goes all the way back to the garden, doesn't it? We've
gotten really good at it, haven't we? Blaming other men for our
sin. When God's pleased to call us
out, He takes away all of our excuses. We've got no one else
to blame. Truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. I'm a dog. It's all my fault.
Everything I've ever done is my fault And then what the Lord
do I Just I Just think that the the lamb the Lord the Lord slew
a lamb in the garden. No question about that He slew
a lamb. He dre he he he dressed him with
the fleece of a lamb and covered his nakedness And I just think
that lamb was probably Adam's pet lamb. How grieved Adam would have been
to see the blood of that lamb shed. What was the Lord saying
to Adam? Adam, the only way I can take
away your sin, the only way I can cover your nakedness is through
the shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. There's no remission of sin. He cannot be hid from us, even
when we hide from Him. The Lord said to His Father,
Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast hid these things from the
wise and the prudent and revealed them unto babes. Unto babes. Turn with me to Ephesians
chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3. Look at verse nine. And to make all men see what
is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the
world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ,
to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers and
heavenly places might be known by the church the manifest wisdom
of God. God, who in times past spoke
to our fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his son. This gospel was hid, it was hid
from the world, and now it's been revealed in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Who is the gospel hid from? 2
Corinthians chapter four, turn with me there. 2 Corinthians
chapter four. Verse 3, And if our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this
world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine in their hearts. So the God of this world has
blinded the eyes of them which believe not. They will not come
to Christ. And in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, the Lord said, Because
they had no love for the truth, they did not see their need.
They weren't like this Syrophoenician woman. They did not believe themselves
to be dogs. Therefore, God has sent them
a strong delusion that they should believe the lie. Men believe
the lie. Let me show you what that lie
is. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 66. Here's the lie. Here's what blinds the eyes of
the unbeliever. Those who do not see themselves
as dogs. Those who refuse to beg for mercy. Those who refuse to say truth
Lord. Those who refuse to worship Christ. They engage in religious activity
in an attempt to atone for their own sins. And verse three says,
in Isaiah chapter 66, he that killeth an ox as if he slew a
man, he that sacrifices the lamb as if he cut off a dog's neck,
he that offereth an oblation as if he offered swine's blood,
he that burned incense as if he blessed an idol, yea, they
have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their
abominations. In another place Isaiah said,
you have made a covenant with death and in hell you are in
agreement. The hope of your salvation is
based on a promise that you made to God. And then the Lord says,
but I'm going to disannul your covenant. Your covenant's not
going to save you. All the sacrifices that you made,
what did David say in Psalm 51? If sacrifices and offerings are
what you would want, Lord, I would give them. But the sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart. But here's
a description of man-made religion. Works religion, free will religion. Men doing their duty in hopes
of earning favor with God. And God says you might as well
be cutting off a dog's head. You might as well be worshipping
an idol. Look at verse four. I also will
choose their delusions and will bring their fears upon them,
because when I called, none did answer, and when I spoke, they
did not hear. But they did evil before my eyes,
and chose that in which I delighted not. Now that's what men do. They choose that which God does
not choose. They delight in that which God
does not delight in. So the question is, what does
God delight in? He delights in one thing. God's
not pleased with you and He's not pleased with me. God never
said, do your best and I'll be satisfied. God said, this is
my beloved son. In him I am well pleased. I delight in him. Hear ye him. Look to him. The spirit and the
bride say what? Come, come. Come to the throne
of grace that you might find mercy and help in your time of
need. There's only one way. The Lord
Jesus Christ is that way, isn't he? I am the way, the truth and
the life. There is a way that seems right
unto man. What is that way? It's the way
of works. But that way leads to death. It leads to death. The Lord Jesus Christ is hid
from those who will delight in their own abominations, who will
not delight in Christ. And God will choose their delusions. And they will believe the lie. Religious people really do believe
what they believe. And they're convinced of it. And if God convinces someone
of a lie, you're not going to convince them out of it. The
Lord is going to have to deliver them from that, isn't he? He cannot be hid from dogs. And
yet, oftentimes, the Lord will remove the awareness of his presence
in order to cause our hearts to seek after him more. You remember
Alemalek in the book of Ruth? The scripture says that Alemalek
was living in Bethlehem with his family. Bethlehem is a picture
of the church. Bethlehem translated means the
house of bread. And there was a famine in Bethlehem. There was a drought. And rather
than waiting on God, Elimelech decided, I'm gonna move my family
to Moab. Because there's not a drought
in Moab. And Moab, you know, we'll be
okay down there. And Limelech picks up his wife
Ruth and his two sons and they move to Moab. What happens in
Moab? A Limelech dies and both of his sons die. And Ruth and
Orpah are the two daughter-in-laws. And Naomi, I mentioned Ruth earlier,
Naomi was a Limelech's wife. Naomi realizes that she's got
to go back to Bethlehem. And what does she say? She says
to her two daughters-in-law, I've got nothing for you. You
go back. And Orpah goes back. She goes
back. She kisses her mother-in-law
and she returns back to her family in Moab. And what does Ruth say? Ruth says, your God is my God. Your people are my people. And
she pleads to her mother-in-law and Ruth and Naomi go back to
Bethlehem where Ruth meets Boaz. What a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. God left Naomi and God withdrew his presence from her. She moved to Moab. Then she,
she's brought back, isn't she? And what a longing the Lord puts
in her heart after having that experience in Moab. She just
wants to be, she wants to be in Bethlehem. She wants to be
with Boaz. And what does, what does, what
does Naomi say to Ruth? After Ruth meets Boaz in the
gleaning of the field, Naomi says to Ruth, You sit right here. That man's not going to rest
until he finishes the work. And Boaz goes down to the city
gate and he reckons with that kinsman that's nearer to Naomi. Naomi's being redeemed too. It's not just Ruth. Naomi's being
redeemed. The Lord had, and you know the
rest of the story, and what a glorious picture of the Lord Jesus Christ
redeeming his people. He met with those elders in the
city gate. How many of them were there? Here's what Naomi said to Ruth,
there is a kinsman to you. This is what Boaz said to Naomi,
there is a kinsman nearer to you than me. I got to go reckon
with him. Who's that kinsman? That kinsman's
the law, isn't it? We can't reckon with the law,
but the Lord Jesus Christ can. And just like Absalom was pierced
through with ten men hanging on that tree, so Boaz reckoned
with the ten elders. He got ten elders together and
had them come to the city gate. And he reckoned with that kinsman. And he redeemed Naomi and Ruth. Ruth became the great-grandmother
of David, didn't she? She's in the lineage of the Lord
Jesus Christ. There was a removal of the presence
of God for a period of time, but the Lord brought her back.
The Lord brought her back. The Lord left David to himself
for a period of time, didn't he? Until the prophet came to
him and said, thou art the man. He drew him to himself. The Lord
Jesus Christ cannot be hid from dogs. They're going to be brought. Whether they try to hide themselves,
He's going to find them. If He withdraws His presence
from them for a period of time, He's going to redeem them. He's
not going to leave one of His dogs stranded. They're all going
to come begging at His table. I want you to notice one thing
in closing in our text, back in Matthew chapter 15. Verse 25, you remember the woman had a daughter that
was possessed with a devil and grievously vexed with a devil.
And in verse 25, then came she and worshiped him saying, Lord,
help me. Lord, help me. Now, who of us who have children
would not gladly take whatever sufferings our children had to
ourselves? We would happily do that. But here, this woman is identifying
herself with the needs of her child to the point to where she's
saying, Lord, help me. I'm the one that needs help. When we come into the presence
of God, the Lord makes it clear that
we're the ones that need help. Lord, help me. Lord, help me. It's not my child. It's not my
parent. It's not my neighbor. It's not
my husband. It's not my wife. Lord, I'm the
problem. I'm the one who is in need of
help. As we saw last night, he takes
his children aside and he speaks to them. He touches them. He prays for
them. We have to be taken aside from
the crowd, don't we? When the Lord shows mercy, it's
just between me and God. No one else in the room. There's
no one else in the room. Lord, help me. And notice what the Lord says
in verse 28. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee, even
as thou wilt. How do I know I'm a dog? How
do I know I'm a dog? How do I know that I'm an object
of God's mercy? How do I know that Christ died
for me? How do I know that I have the hope of salvation? Because
I'm willing to be saved God's way. I wouldn't be willing. I would not be willing. The Lord
said, even as thou wilt. How does this book conclude in
Revelation chapter 22? The Spirit and the Bride say,
Come. If anyone is a thirst, let him
come, and drink freely from the rivers of life. And if any man
is willing, if any man wills, let him come, let him come. The evidence of salvation is a willingness to be saved
the way God says we should be saved. Lord, you've made me willing. I know the free willers take
this and they whosoever will. And they put all the emphasis
on the will, don't they? But here's the thing about it.
God has to change the will. God has to, and he does. He makes
us say, Lord, I will. I will to beg of you, of your
mercy. How broad is the mercy of God.
Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.
We were looking, we were googling on the internet the other night,
and somebody googled the other day, somebody googled my name,
and to my amazement, there's another Greg Elmquist in the
world. I'm thankful that the Bible doesn't
say, doesn't have my name in it. I'm thankful it doesn't say,
God's going to save Greg Elmquist. Because I'm sure there's a lot
of other Greg Elmquist's in the world. And I wouldn't be certain
that that would be talking about me. But I can fit into that whosoever. Whosoever will, let him come
and take of the river of life freely. I am willing to be saved
God's way, giving to the Lord Jesus Christ all the glory for
my salvation, coming to him as a dead dog beggar, needing for
him to put some crumbs off the master's table. Help me. Help me. The Lord said, That's
what he said. When the Ethiopian, when the
Philippian jailer asked the Apostle Paul, what must I do to be saved? Paul said, there's nothing you
can do. Just go home, sit back and relax, and see if God does
something for you. No, he said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved, and thy household. God calls on us
to believe, doesn't he? Believe the gospel, believe Christ. And that Ethiopian eunuch, when
he asked Philip, he said, What doth hinder me to be baptized?
If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And what
Philip said, I do believe. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. I believe that message of salvation
that you just declared. I'm willing to be saved God's
way. And God says, Whosoever Now that's
a broad, that's everybody. Are you a whosoever? Are you
a whosoever? Whosoever will come, take of
the water of life freely. What'd the Lord say to this,
to this Syrophoenician woman? Let it be even as thou wilt. Pastor.