Wednesday afternoon, I had so
much work to do, I was wound up tight as a banjo string and
about to pull what little bit of hair I've got left out. And
David called, wondering if I'd go play some golf. I said, that's
what I need to do. So we played a round of golf
late Wednesday, and as we were finishing up, he made some statements
that stuck with me. He compared the preaching of
the gospel as the scriptures do to the spreading of a feast.
And this is what he said. Now, I didn't jot it down, so
I'll put it in my words, but he's sitting back there. He can
correct me if I'm wrong. He said, some preachers talk a lot about
the feast, but never get around to serving it. That is, they
talk a lot about preaching the gospel, but never quite get to
the preaching of the gospel. Serious, serious fact. Others, he said, spread a huge
table of salads, but never served the main course of the desserts.
That is, they spend all their time laying the foundation and
giving an introduction and telling you what they're going to tell
you, but never tell it. And that's true too. And then he said, I
sure like it when a preacher serves a small salad or just
leaves it off altogether, gets right to the meat, potatoes and
lots of dessert. Well, I'm going to take your
advice to heart. No salad tonight, just meat, potatoes and good
dessert. Turn with me, if you will, to
Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7, verse 24. Here Mark relates one of my favorite
events in the life of our Lord Jesus while he walked upon this
earth. The Lord has just had this terrible incident with the
self-righteous religious Pharisees of his day, who were objecting
because his disciples didn't go through the ceremony of washing
their hands before they ate. And he gives instruction concerning
the corruption and depravity of the human heart, and he seems
to exercise that very same counsel that he gave to his disciples
when he sent them out to preach. He said, if you enter into a
house or into a city, they won't receive you. Shake the dust off
your feet and go on. Somebody will. And so our Lord
shakes the dust off his feet. 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. For a certain woman, a certain woman, always a certain
somebody to whom the Son of God comes. A certain woman whose
young daughter, I suspect maybe David Deji your daughter, young
daughter, had an unclean spirit and she heard of him. Somebody
told her about the master. Thank God somebody told me about
him. God give me grace to tell somebody
about him. She heard of him and came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek. Now that
means she didn't have any right to come. She was a Greek, a Syrophoenician
by nation. Not only was she a Greek, but
she was a Greek, a Phoenicia of Syria, most likely. 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 cast it unto the dogs. I suspect maybe she would have got up and left
right there. I've heard all this, I'm interested in hearing it.
Except for one thing. Her young daughter was grievously
vexed with the devil. About to die, she was in desperate
need. And so she takes the grant he
gives her. And she answered and said unto him, Yes Lord, you're
exactly right. Yet the dogs under the table
Eat of the children's crumbs. If you'll just rake me off some
crumbs, I'll be happy. Your crumbs are better than everybody
else's meal. If you'll just throw some crumbs my way, that'll be
enough. And he said unto her, now listen
to this, this is remarkable. For this saying, go thy way. The devil is 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. Now put a bookmark
or your ribbon or whatever you use in your Bible there and turn
back to Matthew's account. Matthew chapter 15. I want to
read the entire account here because Matthew was moved by
the inspiration of the Spirit of God to record things that
Mark doesn't give us in greater detail, which was common in Matthew's
gospel. Though Mark gives most of the
details, and in this particular incident, he gives us details
that Matthew omits. So in order to get the full picture,
we need to read both accounts. Matthew chapter 15, verse 21.
And mark this, because we'll be looking back at this as well.
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. That's a way to approach
the Son of God. And it might be, it just might
be, that if we were as concerned about those for whom we pray
as this woman was about the one for whom she prayed we might
obtain what we seek from the Lord notice she did not say have
mercy on my daughter she said have mercy on me for my daughter
my daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. And he answered her not a word. Now, let me read between the
lines. And I'm reading between the lines
very properly. If you'll read the next line,
and we will in a moment, you'll see why. The Lord didn't say
anything. Here's this woman with a broken
heart. where the daughter grievously vexed to the devil, and she cries
for mercy from the Son of God, calls him the Lord, the Son of
David. She acknowledged what few people
acknowledge, and the Lord ignored her. So she said, Peter, James,
John, how do I get his attention? She turned to the disciples who
were near Him, and His disciples came and besought Him. That is,
they begged Him as well. But they begged Him for something
else. They said, Lord, she's a nuisance. She's pestering us. She doesn't exercise proper decorum. She doesn't know how things are
done. She stands out like a sore thumb. She's embarrassing us.
Now read on. They besought Him, saying, Send
her away. For she crieth after us. We don't
want to be bothered with her. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. Now there he plainly declares
God's purpose of grace and election. He said I didn't come here for
the benefit of anybody except the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. Then she came and worshipped Him. She heard Him declare, I've come
to save a specific people. I've come to be merciful to a
specific people. And she bowed down and worshipped
Him. And this is what she said, Lord,
help me. I never read from the lips of
a man or a woman. I never heard from the lips of
a man or a woman a more eloquent, properly phrased, effectual prayer. Lord, help me. Lord, help me. She doesn't order
anything. She doesn't command anything.
She doesn't know what to ask for. She doesn't know how to
ask for it. But she knows who to ask. And
she knows how to ask. She bows at his feet in reverent
worship and cries, Lord, help me. Wise is that man. Wise is that
woman. who simply spreads his heart's
desire before God and waits. Lord, help me. We don't. But he answered and said, it
is not meet, that is, it's not right to take the children's
bread and cast it to dogs. And she said truth, Lord, it's
not right. It wouldn't be right for you
to take bread off your table, the table of your children, and
give it to me, a Gentile dog. That wouldn't be right. And I
wouldn't ask that from you. Yet, the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from, now notice how Matthew describes it, their master's
table. Mark said the children's table,
and he was right. That's what the Lord had just
described. And I dare say the Lord spoke not only of the children's
table, but also of the master's table. And here, Matthew records
the words, their master's table. And so this woman bows before
the Lord further still. She cries, Lord, help me. And the Lord says, it's not right
to take the children's bread and give it to dogs. And she
said, all right, I'm a dog. But I'm your dog. You're my master. And it is right for the dogs
to eat from the crumbs that fall from their master's table. Then
Jesus said unto her, 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. Now putting these two passages
of scripture together, I want to give you ten gospel lessons
from this story of the Syrophoenician woman. If you want a title for
the message, my subject is Mercy Needed. Mercy sought, mercy given. The first lesson is a lesson
about sovereignty and responsibility. Everybody seems to think that
God's sovereignty and man's responsibility are two contradictory terms and
both cannot be believed by the same person, preached by the
same preacher, and certainly not in the same message. But
here our Lord shows us in Matthew 15 and verse 21 Jesus went thence,
that is, he left the Pharisees and departed into the coast of
Tyre and Sidon. Now this is the lesson. Be sure
you get it. Man's unbelief never thwarts
nor even hinders the purpose of God in grace. Never. These Pharisees heard our Lord's
teaching. These Pharisees saw our Lord's
power. These Pharisees were instructed
by the lips of the Son of God Himself in the truth of God and
they would not hear, they would not believe, they would not surrender
to Him. And our Lord said, all right,
you want to be left alone? I'll leave you alone. And I'm
telling you, If you harden your heart against the Son of God,
you flirt with judicial reprobation, and the time may well come while
you sit in church pews and listen to this man preach or others
preach until God says, all right, you want to be left alone? Leave
him alone. And he'll speak as plainly to
the hearts of his people as he did to the heart of his servant
Jeremiah with regard to Israel. And he says, Jeremiah, don't
pray for this people. I won't hear you. I'll leave
them alone. And so the Lord left these Pharisees.
He left the self-righteous religionists. He departed from them and went
into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. But he did not just depart from
the Pharisees. He left those self-sufficient,
self-righteous religionists in order that he might go to a woman
who was in desperate need. A certain woman chosen of God
for whom the time of mercy had come when he would reveal himself
to her and make himself known. The Apostle Paul raises the question
in Romans chapter 3 and verse 3. What if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith, that is the faithfulness of God, without effect? Shall
the fact that someone does not believe the message? Shall the
fact that we preach and preach and the folks we preach to just
will not hear? Does that mean that God has forsaken
His purpose? That God has given up His decree? That God has departed from that
which He determined from eternity? Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. God forbid. Let God be true and
every man a liar. The Jews rejected the gospel. They rejected the counsel of
God. They rejected the Son of God.
But in doing so, they fulfilled the purpose of God, and God sent
the gospel as portrayed in this Gentile woman to his elect among
the Gentiles. So that the fall of one is the
rising of another. The hardening of one is the calling
of another. The departure of Christ from
any is the going of Christ to his chosen. Secondly, we're given
a lesson about the first step in salvation. I'm sick to my ears of hearing
men speak to other men and tell them to take the first step. Or say, the first step toward
grace, the first step toward God, the first step to salvation
is this, that, or the other. The first step toward grace,
the first step toward God, the first step of salvation is taken
by God Himself. Now here's the lesson. Before
ever a sinner will come to Christ seeking mercy, Christ must come
to that sinner mercy. This woman was in the coast of
Tyre and Sidon and the Lord Jesus came to the coast of Tyre and
Sidon because he had come to seek out this woman. We do not
read this story aright at all if all we see is a needy soul
coming to Christ. Now we must not neglect that.
You who are without Christ must yourselves choose Christ. You
must yourselves believe Christ. You must yourselves come to Christ. But you will never choose Him. You will never believe Him. You
will never come to Him until He comes to you in mercy and
in grace. This Syrophoenician woman could
not have come to Christ for mercy and would not have come to Christ
for mercy if Christ had not come to her in mercy. She sought the
Lord. Yes, sir. She came and besought
Him. And she cried, worshiping Him,
Lord, have mercy on me! Lord, help me! But she sought
Him because He sought her. She came to him because he secretly,
in his secret, wise and good, gracious providence, brought
her daughter to be grievously vexed with the devil and caused
her to come to him. And so he caused her to hear
of him. You see, it is not the lost sheep
who seeks and finds the shepherd. But it is the shepherd who seeks
and finds his one lost sheep. Now it's interesting to notice,
our Lord did not come into Tyre and Sidon. He came into the coast
of Tyre and Sidon. Because he had determined that
Tyre and Sidon should never see and never experience his miracles
or his grace. But while he had cast off Tyre
and Sidon, just as he had cast off the Pharisees, and was about
to cast off the nation of Israel, he still had his elect in Tyre.
He still had his elect in Sidon. He still had his elect, even
among those who as a nation had been cast off. And so he came
into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. He passed by the congested, populated,
thickly populated areas of other towns in the large cities, and
he comes out into a little place that's nowhere. The coast of Nowheresville. And he shows his grace and his
mercy to nobody, so that he might in their eyes be everything. And he shows forth his sovereignty
and his goodness in doing so. Now that brings me to this third
lesson. It is a lesson about who will
be saved. Here's the lesson. It's so simple,
but so terribly ignored. Are you listening? Grace always
comes to the most unlikely. I'm not pausing because of things,
but what I'm going to say, of course, you can let it soak in. Grace
always comes to the most unlikely. I sometimes hear Men make foolish
statements in this regard. Sometimes your preachers make
foolish statements in this regard. They say, well, I'm just sure
this person will be saved of that. I'm just sure God's going
to do this or that for this person or that. I don't have any idea
who God's going to save. But I know who He's going to
save. He's going to save those I least
suspect He's going to save. and those that you least suspect,"
he's going to say. What do you mean, pastor? He
graciously and wisely passes by the noble, the mighty, the
rich, the important, the significant, and comes to nobody's. We would
think, most naturally, if the Lord is going to do any great
work, If he's going to perform any great miracle, if he's going
to select anyone and say, now this is the person who will be
the example of what I do for sinners, then he will surely
pick someone important. He will surely go to town and
find a doctor, or a lawyer, or a teacher, or a rich man, a mayor,
a governor, a prince. He'll find somebody respectable.
You'll find someone noteworthy, someone who has the attention
of other people, someone that other people look up to. But that simply is not the case.
The Son of God comes to a Greek, a Canaanite, a Syrophoenician. Isn't it amazing? He goes to
the extent to tell us he's a Gentile, a Greek, A Canaanite, a Syrophoenician. Now listen to what he's saying.
She has no promise from God anywhere in His Word. Nothing in the Old
Testament gave a single promise to a Gentile. She has no covenant
relationship with God. She has no church family background. She has no right to expect anything
from God except upon the basis of her desperate need and the
goodness of his character. She's got nothing to offer God,
nothing to do for God, nothing. The only thing she had is this.
She was a certain woman. loved of God, chosen of God, the special object
of his distinguishing grace, and the time had come for her
to know it. That's all. You remember when Samuel went
down to Jesse's house? I forgot how many sons Jesse
had. He had a bunch of them, six or seven besides David. And he
said, he said, now Mr. Jesse, The Lord God has sent
me down here to anoint a king for Israel because he's rejected
Saul. And I can see old Jesse, one
of my boys. I know which one. And he brings
him in. There's that tall, strapping,
handsome, good-looking, well-dressed fella. Intelligent, brilliant
fella. Everybody. This is the one. And
Samuel sat there and said, God's not impressed. And they all passed
before him. And Jesse said, well, you must
be mistaken. And Samuel said, is this all
the boys you got? And he said, well, all of them of any significance. I've got one other one. He's
out in the field tending sheep, redheaded. Ugly, ugly fellow. A scrawny little shepherd boy.
Nobody pays any attention to him. Samuel said, go get him. And as soon as David walked in,
the Spirit of God said, arise anointed, this is he. The Lord
God always sends his Spirit like the wind, which blows where it
listens. You hear the sound of it? You
see the result of it, but you can't tell where it came from,
you can't tell where it's going. God, send your spirit now upon
whom you will and cause a certain nobody to find out in God's eyes
he's somebody indeed, the object of everlasting love, the object
of distinguishing special grace. Fourthly, Now I'm not going to spend a
lot of time here, but I'm going to hammer it hard. I keep hammering
it all the time. We have a lesson here about the
use of means. And the lesson is this. When
the Lord God intends to be gracious to a sinner, He always, and if
you are taking notes, underscore about 50 times with dark the
word always. He always causes that sinner,
like he did this woman, to hear of him. Look at Mark 7 25. When God intends to save a sinner,
he causes the sinner to hear the gospel of his free and sovereign
grace in Christ. A certain woman whose young daughter
had an unclean spirit heard of him. And having heard of him,
came and fell at his feet. Now we recognize that God Almighty
is sovereign in all things. He has mercy on whom he will
have mercy. We recognize that God's elect shall all be saved. We recognize not one redeemed
sinner shall perish under the wrath of God. All of them shall
be born of his spirit, all of them called by his grace, all
of them brought to faith in Christ. But God has ordained the means
by which he will save them as well as the salvation of those
sinners itself. The Lord God has chosen to save
his people through the foolishness of preaching. And he'll do whatever
is necessary to cause chosen sinners to hear his grace. And
as long as he causes a sinner to hear of him, there is hope
indeed for the preaching of the gospel. is that instrument which
God describes as the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believes. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. Faith comes by hearing, hearing
by the word of God. We are born again not of corruptible
seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which lives and
abides forever. Having declared that, the Apostle
Paul quotes from Isaiah in Romans chapter 10. And this is what
he says in verse 15. How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings
of good things. Picture a man in prison. on death row, condemned,
justly condemned, one who deserves to die and is about to die. And just as the door to the gas
chamber is just about to be latched down, someone comes running down
the hallway, wait, wait, I've got a reprieve from the governor,
this man's been pardoned. I guarantee you that fella can't
wait to see the fella coming through the door. Oh, how beautiful are the sound
of those feet. That man who comes with glad
tidings of good things. Now listen, the preaching of
the gospel is just that. It is the declaration of a... from the governor of the universe
on the ground of blood atonement, declaring your iniquity is pardoned. Your sins are forgiven. You've received of the Lord's
hand double for all your sins. Fifthly, we have a lesson about
prayer. This woman in Matthew 15 cries,
Have mercy on me, O Lord. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. In Mark 7, verse 26, the scripture
says she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out
of her daughter. Now here's the lesson. True prayer. always arises from a heartfelt
need of mercy, grace, and divine intervention. Such is the pride of our hearts. Such is the self-sufficiency
of our natures. Such is the arrogancy of man. That we will never, never, never
come down till God brings us down. We'll never seek mercy until
we desperately need mercy. We'll never seek grace till we
need grace. We'll never call for God to intervene
now! Unless we're made to know God
must intervene now or we can't go on. I know we like to talk about
prayer in other ways. We like to talk about prayer
in idealistic terms. And we ought
to always be aware of our need of mercy. We ought to always
be aware of our need of grace. We ought to always be aware of
our need of Christ. We ought to always Bow down before
Him, but it won't happen. Larry, we pray when we've got
to pray. Let me be careful what I say. God fix it. God fix it, so I've
always got to pray. Fix it, so I've always got to
have you intervene. Fix it, so I always know my desperate
need of grace. Otherwise, I'll soon cease to
pray, soon cease to look to Him, soon cease to call on Him. You read the 107th Psalm and
Bob you'll find out that all the pain and heartache and trouble
that causes you sometimes in sinful rebellion to want simply
to strike out at God is the act of God's grace and
goodness and mercy by which he makes you bow down before him. We have a lesson about the place
of mercy. The place of mercy is at his
feet. In verses 25 and 26 of Mark 7,
Mark describes this woman's behavior. She was in trouble. She had a
desperate, desperate need. She heard about this man who claimed on good authority
to be the Christ spoken of in all the Old Testament Scriptures,
the Christ represented in all the Jewish ceremonies and sacrifices
and services. She heard about this man who
demonstrated with clarity that he is indeed the Christ, the
Son of the Living God. She heard about him and she says
to herself, If indeed God has come in human flesh and this
man is God, if there's anybody in the world, anybody in the
universe who can help me, he's the man. And she came to him and fell at his feet. Mary sat at his feet, heard his
words. John, when he saw the glorified
Christ, fell at his feet as one did. His feet, that's the place of
mercy, the place of humility, place of reverence, worship,
the place of love and obedience, the place of blessing. the place
of honor, the place of peace, the place of hope, the place
of contentment. Now we've got two lessons about
faith. The first is this, true faith always bows to Christ. Now you listen to me, my friends,
and listen well. I'm not here to entertain you.
I'm not here to tickle your ears. I'm not here to make you feel
good about yourself while you go to hell. If your faith does
not bow to Christ, your faith is a joke. A horrible, horrible
joke on your soul. Your faith is the faith of devils.
True faith bows to the Son of God. It bows to His Word, to His dominion,
to His purpose, to His works. It bows to the Son of God. Look at Matthew 15, verse 23. He answered her, not a word.
The disciples said, send her away. Verse 24, he said, I'm
not sent to anyone except the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And then, verse 25, have you heard all that? Have you heard all that? Tell you what, our Lord somehow
missed out on the courses on soul winning. I was taught in
Bible college. He somehow missed out on what it is to preach a
good sermon and strike while the iron's hot and get folks
to make a decision before they realize what they've done. He
dealt honestly with men's souls. And He was bringing this woman,
proving her faith. And this is how she responded.
Then, then, after he ignored her, after his preacher said
send her away, we don't want to be disturbed by her, she's
embarrassing us. After he proclaimed to her the purpose of God in
election, then she came and worshipped him. He said, I'm only sent to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. She said, well maybe, maybe,
I'm one of those sheep. Maybe, maybe, maybe I'm numbered
among the children of Israel. Abraham had two sons, didn't
he? He had one son who was not numbered with the rest of Israel.
Maybe, maybe I'm like that son. Maybe I'm one of Abraham's seed. And she said, Lord, you've proved now you are indeed
my Lord. And being my Lord, I got nowhere
to go but to you. Help me. And then he goes on to try her
faith. Let's see if you mean business. Let's see if you mean
business. I frequently have folks come
up to me here and other places preaching. Give me a call and
they, uh, I need to talk to you. God's doing something. And I was taught how to take
care of things. You know, boy, man, somebody Shows the slightest,
slightest, slightest interest. You grab them right now. Be like
a lawyer chasing an ambulance. You get hold of them now. Faithful
men don't. I'll leave you in God's hands
and let's see if you mean business. Let's see if you mean business.
You remember when Abraham heard God. Now you try to picture this. God said to Abraham, the Lord
God, came down here in the form of
a man and said to Abraham, you take your son, your only son,
whom you dearly love, and kill him on an altar for me. Now Larry, I can picture you
doing that with that boy sitting right there. If you had just
seen God in flesh, and you knew it, and in a passion, in a passion
for God. So okay, here he is. But God said, don't do it right
now. I want you to think about it
for three long days. Now let's see if you mean business. And our Lord says, alright honey,
let's see if you mean business. It is not meat to take the children's
bread and cast it to dogs. Now you can't talk to people
like that. You can't if you're faithful. You can't if you're
honest. This man is God speaking to her. And he says, I want you to understand
that the Jewish racism, which speaks of the Gentile and calls
the Gentile a dog, while it is racism from the Jews, it's truth
from God. That's just what we are. Just
dead dogs. And this is how she responds. You're right. Truth Lord! Truth! Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from their master's table. The dogs under the table
eat of the children's crumbs. She took the ground he gave her and bows at his feet under his
table as a dog and says, oh God give
me some crumbs of mercy. Oh Lord, I got nowhere to go. Nobody can
help me but you. Nobody can relieve my burden
but you. Nobody! can heal my daughter,
but you nobody can drive the devil out, but you nobody can
have mercy on me, but you. Here's the second lesson about
faith. Faith honors Christ. And Christ honors faith. She says, alright Lord, you win. Everything you said right. But I've got to have what only
you can give. And the master said, you got
it. He said, be it unto you as you will. Now some folks take that and
say, if you believe God really believe God, then you can ask
whatever you want to and God will give it to you. Those folks
don't know God. They don't understand the mercy
of God. They don't understand the character of God. They don't
understand the character of faith. Faith asks one thing from God
in all circumstances. This is the one thing I want
from God for you, Merle Hart, your family. This is the one
thing I want from God for me, my family. This is the one thing
I want from God for your children, Rex, and mine. The one thing. This is what I want from God.
Mercy. Just mercy. Just mercy. Poverty, we can live with. Disrepute, we can live with.
Pain, we can live with. But oh God. Mercy, you've got to have. And when you've got to have it,
and believe God for it, you've got it. Faith honors Him, and He honors
faith. The ninth lesson. is about the
violence of grace. We are told that when this woman
came home, she walked in the house, listen now, listen, she
found the devil gone. Here's the lesson. When Christ
enters into the house of a man's soul and takes possession of
it, he drives out the devil by the power of his grace. He binds the strong man, casts
him out, and spoils him of his goods. Not so long ago, The devil lived in here and ruled
in here and controlled everything in here and manipulated everything
in here and I wanted it that way until the Son of God entered
in here and made me by the holy violence of his grace his possessed
servant forever. Now let me show you one more
thing, and I readily admit that I'm going to stretch this particular
text a little bit, using it strictly in an allegorical way, making
a strictly spiritual interpretation of it, And I say that so that, not for
your benefit, but folks who hear this message on tape or radio
or however somebody may hear it, and they'll sit back and
say, well, he misinterprets the scripture. Now, I readily tell
you I'm stretching this text, but I'm not stretching the scripture
at all. What I'm about to show you is
clearly the teaching of Holy Scripture. This is the dessert
that I promised you. In Mark chapter 7 and verse 30,
we read, And her daughter laid upon the
bed. Here we have a lesson about the
rest that grace gives. And this is it. When the Lord
Jesus Christ saves sinners, He always puts them to bed. Isaiah speaks of a bed that is
too short, in chapter 28 and verse 20, so that a man cannot
stretch himself upon it. You can look at me and tell I
require a good-sized bed. Sometimes I go places and I am
by necessity sleeping on a bed that's shorter than I am. and sometimes more narrow than
I am too, and I don't sleep much because you can't, you know,
just stretch out, relax, be easy. I love getting those motel rooms,
get a king-size bed, just stretch out, rest good. But those who
lay upon a bed of self-righteous, freewill, works religion can
never rest. They're always torn up, always
in turmoil, always wondering, have I, have I done enough? Have I, have I repented enough?
Have I, have I believed enough? Have I, have I worked enough?
Have I kept enough law, kept enough Sabbath days? Am I holy
enough? And they're always aware, no. No matter what comes out their
lips, they know the answer is no. And the covering of their
religion Isaiah says it's so narrow that he can't wrap himself
in it. All of you have the same problems
who sleep with somebody else. Shelby and I sleep together and
when she takes a notion that she's getting a little cold,
she rolls over in the covers and my backside is left with
the cold air blowing on it. They're not comfortable. And
this is what Isaiah says, that the covers they have are so narrow
They can never find comfort in their religion. But when the
Lord Jesus comes by His grace, He lays us on a bed, you stretch
out on. Oh preacher, what bed is that?
Perfect blood atonement. Oh, stretch out here. Just turn
any way you want to, you're not going to roll off this bed. This
is a bed long enough that a man, any man, can stretch himself
on it and be at peace. Because God said that's enough.
Here's a covering you can wrap yourself in. Perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect
righteousness. Christ's righteousness. Bobby,
whenever Satan would tempt you, whenever he would turn your heart
to look to yourself and drive you in despair, and the coldness
of death rolls over your backside, rock on! In the righteousness
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, be at peace. But the only way you will ever
stretch yourself on this bed And wrap up in this cover as
if Christ himself gives you rest. Therefore this is how he speaks
to you. This is how he speaks to you.
Interested in what he has to say? Hear him now. Hear him now. Come unto me. O ye that labour and are heavy
laden, I will give you rest. I'll give you rest. Come into
me. Do just like this Syrophoenician
woman did. Take my yoke upon you. Willingly
slip your neck under my yoke and learn of me. For I am meek
and lowly in heart. And as you do, As you do, you
shall find rest unto your souls. Amen.