These are parallel passages,
and if you've got Matthew chapter 15, there in verse 21, if you've
got some way to mark that and hold it, and then over in Mark
chapter 7, in verse 24. This is the incident that this
lady who had a daughter possessed with the devil came to the Lord
Jesus. Here in Mark chapter 7, let me read this account to you,
beginning in verse 24. And from thence he arose, and
went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an
house, and would have no man know it, but he could not be
hid. For a certain woman, whose young
daughter had in an unclean spirit heard of him, and came and fell
at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician
by nation, a Gentile, 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 good, it is not
fit, it is not meet, to take the children's bread and cast
it unto the 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 is gone out of your daughter.
And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone
out, and her daughter laid upon the bed. Great is thy faith. That's what
he said to this woman. Great faith. We hear a lot of
people talking today about faith. And some talk about how much
they have. And some talk about how strong
their faith is and what great things it's done for them. But
you know it's not what people think. It's not what people think. It's not what people say or people's
opinion about their own faith. It's what the Lord Jesus Christ
says about it. It's His opinion about it. Woman
great is thy faith. Nothing was said that she knew
anything about faith. If you asked her to explain something
about faith, I doubt if this woman could. She never mentioned
her faith. She was occupied with something
else. It was the Lord Jesus Christ that commented on her faith and
called it great. A person may brag about their
faith. A person may tell what great things it is and has done. But you know something? It may
be worthless. It may be worthless. It may be
a faith to move mountains, but it may be worthless. It's not
what we think. It's what the Lord Jesus knows
about faith. Great is thy faith. This woman may have known nothing
about it. She was a Gentile woman. She was probably an uneducated
woman. But she had great faith. Woman,
great is thy faith. She wasn't a Jew. She didn't
have all the privileges. the blessings that the Jews had.
We don't even know if she had any copies of the Scriptures.
She was at a great disadvantage. And yet it was said of this woman,
great is thy faith. And it was said of him that knows. Maybe not in her sight. Not in
her estimation. Maybe in her estimation she had
just enough faith to get by. But the Lord Jesus said, Great
is thy faith. Now, what is great faith? I think
we can look at this woman and answer that question this evening.
What is great faith? If there's such a thing, I want
it. I want it. Let's look at some things about
this woman's faith. And one thing that's said about her
In Mark chapter 7, there in verse 25, this is the first thing about
her faith. And a certain woman whose young
daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came. She heard of him. Now, one of the things that made
her faith great, it was scriptural faith. She heard of him. and came. Did you notice that?
She had never seen Him before, for all we know. She had never
seen Him do any miracles before, but she simply heard of Him and
she acted upon what she had heard. She heard of Him and she came. Now, brothers and sisters, that
is scriptural faith. God is moved upon those holy
apostles He's moved upon those prophets of old, as Brother Larry
told us this morning, and he's revealed to those apostles and
prophets everything that's essential to know, everything that's necessary
to be known and believed for a man to be saved and to be eternally
happy. And when we hear this testimony
and believe it, we're saved. We're saved at last and we'll
be eternally happy even though we're filled with troubles in
this life. A faith that believes what it
hears in this Bible. That's scriptural faith. No feelings,
no signs, no visions. She heard. She heard. Isn't that
scriptural faith? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. Look over here right quickly
in 2 Thessalonians 1. Look in verse 7. Here is what
the Apostle Paul said about this. Look in
2 Thessalonians 1. Here was a group of people who
were troubled in verse 7, 2 Thessalonians 1. To you who are troubled, rest
with us. When the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flame and fire,
taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, they will be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.
and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified
in his saints, and to be admired in all of them that believe,
because our testimony among you was believed in that day." What
is saving faith? It is a faith that hears the
testimony of God and believes it. This woman heard and she
acted upon what she heard. She heard and she came. That's
faith, isn't it? That's faith. I tell you, I'd
rather have a faith that began that way than anything else. Because that's scriptural faith.
That is scriptural faith. But something else was said about
this woman along this same line. Not only was it said that she
heard, but she heard of Him. She heard of him, and she came
to him. You know a person will wind up
coming to the one they believe in. Whatever a person believes
in, that's what they'll wind up coming to. She heard of him,
and she came to him. Now, she may have heard a lot
of other things. There's a lot of things a person
can hear in the Word of God, but it's not great faith. We're
talking about saving faith only. She may have heard of how God
had created the world. She may have heard that. That's
in God's Word. She may have heard that Moses
gave the law, the moral law, the Ten Commandments. She may
have knew that. She may have knew her responsibility
to God and man. But that wasn't what she heard.
She heard of Him and she came to Him. This is
where faith begins. This is what makes faith great
when you hear of Him. You can't be safe if you don't
hear of Him. You must hear of Him. But faith can only be great
when it hears of His greatness. This woman's faith was called
great because it was exercised upon a great Savior. You say, Bruce, how do you know
that? Brother Bill read it to us. Look here in Matthew. Look
at her opinion of Him. Look who her faith was in. Look
who she had heard of. Look in Matthew 15. And look
in verse 22. Look at this. And behold a woman
of Canaan, came out of the same coast and cried unto him, she
was crying after him, saying, Have mercy upon me, look at this,
O Lord, Lord, Sovereign, the Lord of glory. Is that what she
heard? It must have been. How else would she have known
it? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, all
who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Here she
is calling upon Him. But how shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in Him
of whom they have not heard? Somebody told this woman, that's
the Lord of glory. And I tell you, she knew it.
She knew it because she said, you've got power. You have the
authority over the powers of darkness. You cast out devils. You do great miracles. That's
why she came to him. He is the Lord, the Sovereign,
the Mighty One. But notice something else in
that verse at the same time. And I'm telling you, this woman,
this woman's faith was in one, this mysterious person. that
the Pharisees and scribes never could figure out. She calls Him
the Lord of Glory, and the same breath, she says, Thou Son of
David. Who is that? That's the Christ.
That's the Messiah. Oh, the poor little baby just
bumped her head. That's the Messiah. So here we've
got these two people. We've got this man, the descendants
of David, standing before this woman, in our humanity, in her
humanity, and she says, you're the Lord. You're the seed of
David, but you're the Lord of glory. You know the Pharisees
didn't understand that. They said, if he's David's Lord,
how can you be David's son? And they didn't understand that.
Here was a woman that said, this is the Lord of glory. And He's
the Son of David. He's God in the flesh. That's
who He is. But down here in verse 20, Two,
he answered her not a word, and then in verse 24, he answered
and said, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. Then came she, look at this, and worshiped him, saying,
Lord, help me. She not only addresses him as
Lord with all authority over these devils, but now she worships
him. Who do you worship? You worship
God, don't you? He worshipped God. What is she saying? You're God. You're God. See what I'm saying? Your faith, if it's great faith,
it must be in a great person. If your faith's in a small person,
you ain't going to have great faith. Great faith is exercised
upon a great sovereign, a great Lord. She come and worshipped
Him. and said, Lord, help me. And look in verse 27. She does
it again. And she said, Lord, truth, Lord,
truth. He called her basically a dog. And she turns around and said,
Lord, I'll submit to that. I'll submit to that. You're the
Lord of truth. You know me better than I know
myself. Truth, Lord. Every sentence she made, every
time she addressed Him, she said, Lord, Lord, Lord. Do you desire a great faith? I do. If we desire a great faith,
it's going to have to be in a great person. She heard of Him. But I tell
you what she heard of Him was something wonderful. This is
the Christ. He's the Lord of glory. He's the Son of God in our humanity. And He's not only great in His
glorious person, but you know what? He's done great things.
He's done great things. Great faith must be in a great
Lord who has done great things. And she had heard about this.
Let me show you that passage of Scripture. Look over here
in Mark chapter 3. She heard of him. I don't know
who she was talking to, but boy, somebody told her some truths
about him. In the third chapter of Mark,
look over in verse 7 and verse 8. Mark chapter 3, verse 7. But
Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea. And great
multitudes from Galilee followed him, and from Judea, and from
Jerusalem, and from Adamia, and from, look at this, beyond Jordan,
and they about Tyre and Sodom. That's where she lived at. That's
where he was at. Come there to their coast. Well,
here's some more people from that place. Just before this,
They came there and they were hearing Him, a great multitude,
and look at this, when they heard what great things He did, came
to Him. She heard, either from these
people, or she was there herself hearing from it, that this Savior,
this Son of David, this Lord, had done great things. Great things He has taught us.
Great things He has done. And great are rejoicing through
Jesus His Son. If our faith is exercised upon
a Christ who has done great things, then faith says He's able to
do great things still. For me. For me. That's why she
came to Him. He's done great things. He's
the Lord, and He can do great things. What kind of estimation do you
have of the Son of God? What's your opinion of Him? What's
your estimation of His glorious person and His work? What do
you think about it? Just as much as he's exalted
in your esteem, that's how great your faith's going to be. If
you've got a little small Jesus, you'll have a small faith. I
would go further than that, but I don't want to offend anybody.
If you've got a little Jesus who has done little things, worth
making nothing mention about it, you may have a little or
no faith at all. You know why you and I believe.
You know why we don't believe in a general redemption. You
know why we don't believe that Jesus Christ obtained redemption
for everybody without exception. And I say this with all reference.
It's useless. If the Lord Jesus Christ bore
a person's sins, and suffered for them, and that person winds
up suffering for his own sin? If Jesus Christ bled and groaned
and cried and died to make payment for a person's sins, and then
God charges him with those sins again, is that not useless? What did He do upon the cross?
Did He do some great thing? Or was it useless? Was it little? Was it small? Somebody said, well, Bruce, they'll
perish in hell because they refuse Christ and they refuse the gospel.
Well, I know that. But you would think if this man,
this Lord, This Son of God offered Himself a sacrifice. And that was that great a thing
for Him to do. That sacrifice would have secured
their obedience. Wouldn't you? If He died for
their sins, it would look like then He had saved them from their
sins in their experience. And the Scripture says He did. God saw the travail of his soul
and was satisfied. And listen to this very next
verse. Listen to this very next verse. By his knowledge, knowing
him, he shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquity. He has done some great things
upon that cross. What did he do? He bore iniquity. He was punished. He put sin away. He satisfied justice. And that
secured the justification of all of those whose sins he bore. Ain't that a great Savior to
do that? Isn't that a great thing? They had heard of Him, that He
had done these great things. This woman had heard of that.
And I tell you, she exercised faith upon Him. in this great
Christ who has done great things. And the Lord Jesus said, Woman,
great is thy faith. I like a brag in Christ, don't
you? I like one to brag and then turn around and do what he brags
about. The Lord said, I'm going to send
you a Savior, a great one. And He's going to deliver you.
I like it when He says that, don't you? When He says a thousand
years before He comes, what He's going to do? And then He comes
and He does it. I like that. When He comes from
the dead and He takes the keys of hell and death and rattles
it and says, look what I've got. Look what I've done. I told you
what I was going to do and now I did it. when he spoils principalities
and powers, when he defeats them, and he puts his foot on them.
And then he makes a show of them openly and says, look what I've
done. Look what I've done. I like a bragging Savior, especially
when he does what he brags about. He's a great one. The angel said
he shall be great. Do we want a great faith? And it must be a great Savior.
Not in the little Jesus, not in a felon Jesus, but one who
has done great things. He said, Thomas, reach in with
your finger, and behold my hands, and thrust your hand into my
side. And Thomas said, My Lord and my God. And you know what
the next verse says. Thomas, because you have seen
me. You've seen me. Who did Thomas call him? Lord
and God. Because you've seen me. Who is
he? He's Lord and God. With nail prints in his hands.
Can he fail? Is he not mighty? Whatever he
puts his hand to, has he not done it? Has he ever failed? Did he not brag and say, I'll
never fail? I'll never be discouraged. And
then he turns right around and says, These things are written
that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Faith comes by hearing. We've
never seen Him. We've never seen the Son of God.
He's in heaven. He's out of our sight. But there He stands. There
in heaven. God in our humanity. And He has
those pure hands and a hole in His side. And here's the question. Do you believe Him? Do you believe
Him? This woman did. She did. She believed what she heard about
Him. And the Lord Jesus said, Great
is your faith. You've exercised it upon a great
Savior. Great is thy faith. That's the
first thing. She heard of Him. She heard of
His greatness. The great things that He had
done. The second thing about great
faith is this, and you'll find it over in Matthew's account
of this. Twenty-three. Great faith is a faith that's
severely tried. It can't be great if it's not
tried. It'll be weak if it's not tried. When the Lord Jesus
gives faith, He tries it. Not to crush it. Not to destroy
it. but to reveal its strength, to
reveal its greatness for His glory. Now look at these things. Look at these severe trials for
this woman's faith. And then you'll see why it was
called great. She came to Him in verse 22,
beseeching Him to cast the devils out of her daughter. And here's
the first trial in verse 23. But He answered her, a word. Boy, that's a trial to
faith. If you can keep on seeking, Barb,
when you don't hear a word from Him, when heaven is shut up and
there's silence and there seems to be a thick cloud between you
and Him and you don't hear a single thing from Him, And you just
hang on and hold on and continue to believe. It doesn't drive
you away. That's great faith. She said,
Dear Lord, have mercy upon me. And there wasn't one word spoken
to her. She laid out her need. My daughter
is previously vexed. Not one word did he speak to
her. She followed him crying. Lord,
have mercy upon me." And he answered her, not a word. Now, that's a trial of faith.
Listen to what these old prophets say. When I cried and shouted,
he shut out my prayer. Babysit unto thee, O Lord, my
rock, while I cry. Be not silent to me, lest I be
like them that go down to the pit. Listen to what he said in
Psalm 6. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for
I am weak. O Lord, heal me, for my bones
are vexed. My soul is sore vexed. But Thou,
O Lord, how long? Forever? Return unto me, O Lord,
deliver my soul, and save me for Thy mercy's sake. Heaven
is shut up and not a word. And what does faith do? It keeps
on believing. David said this in Psalms 13,
How long will you forget me, O Lord, forever? How long will
you hide your face from me? How long shall I take counsel
in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall
my enemies be exalted over me? Consider, O Lord, and hear me. I tell you, you can take a faith
that will wait and continue to believe In a time like that,
when he can't get an answer from the Lord of Glory, that's great
faith. That's great faith. And boy,
the Lord tries us, does He not? He tries us. Here's the second
trial of faith that this woman had, and it's found there in
verse 23. He answered her not a word, and
look at this. And his disciples came and besought
him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us." Brother
Mahan says she wasn't crying after them. She was crying after
him. The commentaries said it could
be that they wanted the Lord to go ahead and answer this woman
and then send her away. But you know, I just don't hardly
think that's right. Knowing these disciples, Who
hated the Gentiles? And wanted to call Pharaoh down
out of heaven and burn the cities up? I just about bet what they
asked him to do, would you just run her off? She's bothering
us. Boy, what a trial that was to
her. If the close friends of Christ don't like you. If the
close friends of Christ plead against you instead of for you.
Oh my, what a trial that is. If the church is weary with it,
and the church won't sympathize with you in your trouble, boy,
that's a trial for faith, ain't it? Do thy friends despise and
forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Her faith was severely tried. But great faith says this, when
my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord will take me
up. What matters if the church turns
over? What matters if my father and
my mother won't even plead for me? Faith is not in my father
and my mother. Faith is not in the church. Faith
is not in good friends. Faith is in Him. Faith is in
His goodness. And I tell you, if saints in
heaven and angels in heaven cared nothing for this woman, she could
say with David, Who have I in heaven but thee? That's where
faith is. That's where faith is. Great
faith trusts in Christ. It trusts in Christ for His help
and His comfort when all other sources of help and comfort fail. And there are times when the
Lord will try your faith if He has given you any. And all other
sources of comfort will fail. The church will fail. Your pastor
will fail. Circumstances will fail. The
providence of God will seemingly fail. And you will be shut up
with nobody to give you help or comfort but Christ Himself. And when your faith goes to Him
over everything else that has failed you, that is your great
faith. Great faith. My health has failed me. My job
has failed me. Everything has failed me. What
are you going to do? I'm going to Him. I'm going to
Him. He can't fail. And here's the
third trial here in verse 24. Boy, this had to be a severe
trial. I'm telling you. And He answered her finally.
He finally answers her. But here's what He says. Woman,
I am not sent. but unto the lost sheep of the
house of Israel." You know what he is saying to this woman? I
am not even sent for you. He was a Jew and he was sent
to the Jewish nation. But he gets more particular than
that. He said, not only was I sent to the Jewish nation, but in
particular, I am sent to the lost sheep among the house of
Israel. Israel is a big house, he said.
But I'm sent to the lost sheep in the house. You know who he
was saying he was sent to? I'm sent for the elect. I'm sent
for my people, my sheep. Can you imagine if you had some
serious thoughts whether you were one of his elect or not?
And there seemed to be some evidence that you may not be? Because
he basically said, Woman, I'm sent for my sheep. Well, that
would be a trial, wouldn't it? Wouldn't that be a trial on faith?
I ain't one of his elect. I'm lost forever. I'll die in
my sins if I'm not one of his. She couldn't reason this out
theologically. There would be no sense to sit
down and try to take the Scriptures and open all this up to this
woman. She was to trouble anyway. What's the answer? What was her
answer when the Lord said, Woman, I'm just sent to my elect? Well,
here was her answer in verse 25. And she came and worshipped Him
and said, Lord, help me. I don't know if I'm one of his
or not. But here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to get down
at his feet and say, Lord, help me. I think probably I've said against
the Holy Ghost, what should I do? Well, do what she did. Get down
at his feet and say, Lord, help me. I think I've fallen away. I don't even think there's any
more grace in my heart. What should I do? Do what she
did. I tell you, here's the answer for everything, ain't it? When
the Word of God seems to stand against us, and when Satan twists
the Word of God to discourage us and fills us with doubt and
fear, and we don't even know if we're one of His or not, I
tell you, here's the best thing to do. This is the answer to
most of our problems. Just go and get down at His feet
and say, Lord, help me. Help me. I'm not yours by electing
grace, I don't know, but I'm yours by creation. And if you're
not mine, then I don't have a Savior, because I'm denying everybody
else. Lord, help me." Boy, that was
faith, wasn't it? No wonder he said, great is your
faith. He couldn't drive her away even when he said that he
was just sent to the elect. And she had no idea if she was
one of them or not. Faith. Great is thy faith. Is your faith
great enough for you to have stood this trial? What would
you have done if you had been in this woman's shoes? When those
disciples said, Lord, send her away. She's wearing us. We're
tardy. What would you have done? When he said, I'm just sent for
my elect. What would you have done? Here's the fourth trial. Look
at this. In verse 26 and verse 27. He said, woman, it's just
not right, it's not good, it's not meat, to take the children's
bread and cast it to dogs. And she said, truth, Lord. Lord,
that's truth. But the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from the master's table. The Jews at this time
and for all these years call the Gentiles dogs. We're the
children of God and we Gentiles are dogs. We eat the Master's
bread, and there are little dogs underneath the table. They get
the crumbs. But it changed around in the New Testament. Paul writes
in Philippians chapter 3, and he says, Beware of dogs. And
who is he talking about? Beware of the concision. Who's
that? The Jews. He turns around and says, You're
not dogs anymore. They are. They're the dogs now. The Lord turns everything upside
down, But you know what this woman was saying here? The dogs
eat of the crumbs that falls from the master's table. He said,
Woman, it's not right for me to take my blessings and give
them to you. I'm going to give them to the
children. You know what she was saying here? Lord, your blessings
are so many. Your mercy is so high. Your heart
is so full. Your merit is so great you can
bless me and not diminish yourself or your blessings at all. You
can feed the children and you can feed me and not diminish
your blessings. There's enough in you to feed
the children and to feed the little dogs under the table too.
That's what she said. That's what she said. And that's
why he comes here and says, O woman, great is your faith. She heard. She heard of him. She acted upon it. She believed
what she heard. Her faith was severely tried. But boy, it stood the test. And
finally, over in Mark, he asked her this. What will you? Maybe it's in Matthew. Yeah, it's in Matthew 15, 28.
O woman, great is your faith, be it unto thee, even as thou
wilt. I tell you, faith has its reward.
God will reward faith. He that comes to God must believe
that he is. And he's a rewarder. He's a rewarder. He rewards faith. And here's
faith's reward. Be it unto thee, even as thou
wilt. What does she will? Let this
devil be cast out of her daughter. That's faith's reward. She got
what she wanted. What do you want? If the Lord
Jesus spoke to you, and He says, you believe me. I've tried your
faith. And it's the real faith. I've
given it to you, I've tested it. Now I'm asking you this question.
What do you will? What do you want? What do you
want, brothers and sisters? What do you want? You want to be saved? That's
what I want. You want to know Christ? That's
what I want. You want to know His love? I
want to know it. You want to see yourself accepted
in Him? You want to live in the assurance
of that? You want to walk with Him? That's what I want. And when I leave this world and
have to cross the river, I don't want to be swept away. I want
to cross that river and raise and have the angels to help me
to that celestial city. That's what I want. I want a
gate to open to me and go inside. And I want to see Him. And I
want to do physically what this woman did. I want to get down
at His feet and worship Him as I long to here and just not able
to. Is that what we want? We want to have the company of
saints and angels. That's what I want. I want to
be free from this body of death, free from my sin, never to sin
again, never to disbelieve again, never to misplease the Lord again.
I want to be with Christ forever. What will you? What will you? Lord, this is what I want. You
know faith's reward. Go thy way. Be it unto you, even
as you will. The Lord never gave you faith,
dear brothers and sisters, to crush it or to disappoint it
at last. He has given you faith. Exercise
it upon Him. Believe Him. Take Him at His
Word. When He severely tests your faith,
Don't let it discourage you. It's not to crush you. It's simply
to try you. And He gets great glory from
it. And in the end, here's your reward. What do you want? What
do you want? And you know you can say right
now, if you live by faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ, is your
faith that real faith that comes from hearing? This real faith
that lives upon Him, His greatness, His power, His love, His mercies? Then you can have assurance beforehand
that what you will, you'll have. He said, Woman, what will you?
That my daughter be healed. He said, Go your way. You've
got what you want. But unless she lived a ways off, And she turned and left the Lord
and went to check on her daughter. I don't know where she was, but
she was away at all. But you know something? She was
content with what the Lord Jesus told her. Woman, go your way. The devil has gone out of your
daughter. Faith takes the Lord at His word. What's going to
happen when you come down to death? You know what's going to happen?
Just what the Lord said would happen. You'll enter into rest,
and you'll be with Him forever. You just simply take Him at His
Word and go your way. It's done. It's done. Ain't that
wonderful? Great faith. Exercise upon a
great Savior, and there will be a great reward. A great reward. God bless His Word. Let's pray.