First song we sung was sinners
saved by grace. Second one was revive us again.
Now only a sinner will constantly say, Lord, revive us again. I
was talking to someone just the other day that. And they said
to me that they were saved once. They've already marked that down,
checked that off. They're good. And I thought,
I need to be saved every day, every minute, every second. That's our prayer, isn't it?
Lord, save me now. Lord, save me now. Lord, save me now. It
never stops, does it? And that's why we sing, revive
us again. We need to be revived, made alive, made Sunday, I mentioned something
that the Lord had revealed to me while I was studying, but
I didn't really elaborate on it too much. And it was the fact
that God spelled backwards is dog. And I want to bring a message
entitled God or dog tonight. If you'd like to turn with me
to Matthew chapter 15. The longer that I preach, the longer
that I'm in the position the Lord's put me in, the more it's
brought to my attention that the gospel is simple and it's
to be simple, be preached simply. It doesn't have to be complicated,
no matter what. I can't get out of my own way,
it seems like, and I believe every gospel preacher would tell
you that. I was talking to Greg on the phone. He said, I preached
twice. I preached perfectly twice the entire time that I've been
preaching. He said, and I woke up from both of those dreams.
Every time a man stands, who's sufficient? Who's sufficient
to declare the finished work of Christ? And yet, we're commanded
to. Those who the Lord's put in a
position are commanded to declare it clearly and plainly. And it's a very simple message
tonight of this woman that had a need. So I have titled the
message, God or Dogs? It's God spelled backwards as
dog, dog spelled backwards as God. In the scripture all throughout,
there is the sheet and there is the goats. There is those
that believe they're God and those who have been shown that
they've had it backwards all along and they're nothing but
dogs. The good news of the gospel is, is all dogs go to heaven.
All dogs go to heaven. Only a dog will acknowledge that
they are a sinner saved by grace. Everyone else believes that they're
God in some way, shape or form, that they contribute to salvation
or that they're good enough to obtain eternal life because of
their works or whatever it may be. They believe that they're
God in that regard. This is the lie that came all
the way from the very beginning of time. Whenever Satan tempted
Eve, he said, ye shall not surely die. This was one word that he
added into the word of God. But then he says, God knows that
in the day you eat thereof, you shall be as gods. But it's the
same word, God, as it is gods. It's Elohim, Elohim. He's literally
saying, God knows if you eat this, you're going to be God
yourself. That is the lie, isn't it? That
is the trick from the very beginning. That is what men and women believe
by nature. That's the only conclusion that
we come to is that we must do something to obtain eternal life.
We must do something to please God. So unless the Lord comes
by and says, no, you've got it backwards, you're a dog, we have
no hope. And the good news is, is all
dogs go to heaven. He only reveals this glorious
truth to his people, only to his sheep. What manner of love is it? that
he has been so merciful in revealing unto us what we are. It's mercy
in and of itself that we see ourself as sinners. People don't
believe that they're sinners. They believe that they might
sin every once in a while, but most people will tell you, I'm
not as bad as I used to be, or I'm not as bad as this person,
or I'm not as bad as that person. The Lord only saves dead dog
sinners. The Lord only saves those who
have no help in what they produce, whether it's in thought, or whether
it's in word, or whether it's in deed. These are the Lord's
dogs, the ones that realize that because they've been given faith,
faith to look to Christ, repentance towards God. This is what the
Lord does through his gospel. What amazing mercy, what amazing
love that the Lord has shown forth in his people. The scripture
says, behold, what manner of love the father hath bestowed
upon us that we should be called the sons of God. That's first
John chapter three in verse one. He says, brethren, now are we
the sons of God? What amazing love, what amazing
grace that we are called the sons of God. This is love, herein
is love, not that we loved him, but he first loved us and sent
his son to be the propitiation, the one that appeased the wrath
of God. Now, if he's the propitiation for everyone, everybody's gonna
go to heaven. But the truth is, is he did this because he loved
his people. He became their propitiation.
He appeased the wrath of God for them and saved them by his
grace. We know something about the amazing
love of the Lord, don't we? We know it's a little bit about
his amazing grace because we've seen ourself as a dog. I read
an article last Sunday about Jacob and Esau. It is not amazing
to the believer that God hated Esau. Esau devalued his birthright
to being nothing more than just a bowl of stew. birthright represented
the promise of the Messiah. It represented Christ. And Esau devalued that. He had no need for that. Why?
Because he wasn't a dog. Esau was good enough on his own.
He didn't need the birthright. Jacob wanted the birthright,
didn't he? But isn't it amazing that God loved Jacob? When you
bring into account his character, His attributes, he was a liar,
he was a trickster, he was a supplanter, he was a thief. This is the man
that the Lord said, I loved, I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau. Why did he love Jacob? By grace,
by mercy. That's the only explanation for
the love of God is by his grace alone. It certainly is not by
our merits, but here is the good news of the gospel. He truly
loves his people. His love accomplished their salvation. Now here we are in Matthew chapter
15. We have an account of an individual that received this
mercy from the Lord that she desired. And we find in verse
21 of chapter 15 of Matthew, the Lord says that 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.' But he answered
her not a word. His disciples came and besought
him, saying, Send her away, send her away, for she crieth after
us. But he answered and said, I am
not come, I am not sent, but into the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. Then came she and worshiped him,
saying, Lord, help me. But he answered, and said, it
is not meat to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. She said, truth, Lord. If the
dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table,
then Jesus answered and said to her, Oh, woman, great is thy
faith. Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was
made whole from that very hour. Mark gives the account of this
woman and tells us that she's a Seraphinitian. Seraphinitian
represents that she's on the border of Syria and Phoenician
was a nation at that time. Now understand something, anyone
that wasn't a Jew was hated by the Jews and everybody hated
the Jews because of the way that they acted. They were the ones
that had the promise. They were the most They were
probably the most racist people that's ever been because of this
promise that was given to them of the Messiah. They believed
that they were better than everybody else, that their bloodline was
better. And we see this in the way that the Pharisees acted.
We see that even here, the Lord's calling her a dog. This would
be a derogatory term. This was not something that people
would admit to openly or easily. I'll remind us that a dog back
then is not a dog now. We have a few dogs ourself and
we pet them. I think we even have sweaters
for all of them. And we take care of our dogs. We have bound
toys. We put them inside the house. It's cold outside. That's
not how they would treat dogs back then. People didn't have
that mentality that we have today. Lord's not saying you're a lap
dog or you're a chihuahua. That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about a bio. wretched, mangy beast, something that's
not looked upon by society. It's just an outcast, something
that the scripture talks about how a dog is turned to its vomit.
And we know that that's true. Any dog, I mean, that's just
what they do. They return to their vomit. And so we see what he's
saying to her is, I'm not come but to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel and you're nothing but a dog. What is her reply
to that? Was she angry? Would you have
been angry? I certainly would not appreciate
someone degrading those men that would fight over being called
a female dog. And you understand what I'm saying.
And so we see that the only way that our response will be truth,
Lord, is if we see Christ as our savior and we see ourself
as a dog. Every person that Christ died
for will be given this faith that this woman had. The Jews just saw a man. They
didn't see the God man. And you and I cannot see God
in the Lord Jesus Christ until he reveals that we are a dog
and that he is the master of the table. And how often do we
gather together at his table? How often do we pull up in hopes
that he will let some handfuls of purpose fall off from that
table? As every every chance that we
get, we come to the table, don't we? We desire to be fed from
his table, his crumbs. I know we were in John Chapter
6, but let's turn back there again. If this woman being a Seraphim
Asian had no promise of the Messiah. If she had no. hope of approaching,
somebody had to tell her who Jesus was. She didn't come to
that knowledge on her own. Somebody had to tell her that
Jesus Christ was coming by and that he could help her. She had
to have knowledge because her daughter was grievously vexed
with the devil. Who told her that? Who taught her that? Well,
we see in John chapter six, the answer to that. Verse 36, but
I say unto you that ye also have seen me and believe not. All that the father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will no wise cast
out. That's your answer, isn't it? The ones that the father
gave to him will come to him. And he says in verse 44, no man
can come to me except the father which hath sent me draw him,
and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the
prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore
that hath heard and hath learned of the father cometh unto me.
This is the hope that we have, isn't it? That the Lord would
teach us. And how does he teach his people?
Through and by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and his
finished work for his people. This is how he teaches us. One
time I was talking to, I believe it was Todd Norbert. It was several
years ago. Maybe I don't even can't remember
exactly, but it was several years ago. I don't think my youngest
daughter was born yet. And I had just heard the gospel.
I had started coming to a gospel church and I was attending faithfully
by the Lord's grace. And he said, where did you hear
the gospel from? And I said, well, I was reading
a hymnal one day. He said, no, you didn't. That's
not where you heard the gospel from. He said, you had to hear
it from a preacher. And I was taken back a little bit because
I didn't quite understand. He didn't let me finish my point.
He didn't let me get to what I was trying to say. But did
you know he's right? We can't read a hymnal. We can't even
read the Bible and come to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ
and his saving grace. You know how it comes by? The
preaching, the ordained preaching of God. We have to hear the gospel
preached by the Lord's man that's sent. That's our only hope. There's
no way we can attain the knowledge in and of ourself. No man, no
man can come to the father except the father which sent me draw
him. And how does the Lord draw his
people? By the preaching of his gospel. We must be made willing. We must
be taught of God, not of man. And she was taught of God. Now
back to Matthew chapter 15. I want you to notice her need.
In verse 22. Behold, a woman of Canaan came
out the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy
on me. What is her need? need is mercy. Did you know that that's your
need and my need as well? Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Well, what do we deserve? We
deserve hell. We deserve eternal damnation.
We deserve eternal separation from the Lord, but Yet the Lord
gives mercy unto his people. He says he delights in mercy.
Does that comfort your heart to know that our Lord delights
in mercy? He doesn't delight in, he told
us in Psalm, he doesn't delight in sacrifice. They kept bringing
sacrifice after sacrifice in, never putting away the sin. He
delights in mercy. And the only way mercy can be
found is through and by the Lord Jesus Christ. This was her need.
This was her need, that the Lord would be merciful unto her. That's your need as well, isn't
it? And that's my need also. Lord, be merciful unto me, the
sinner. Be merciful unto me, the dead
dog. Be merciful unto me, or I have
no hope. Give me grace. Cause me to see your mercy and
your grace. She would have never came to
Christ if she did not have a need. Only those that come to Christ
have been given a need. Only those who have a need come
to Christ. See, it's the way that the Lord
has ordained it. Now, whether it be circumstance,
or whatever may be going on in your life. This woman's child
was sick, vexed with the devil, the scripture says. I do know
that back in this time, someone could be sick and they would
believe that they were possessed with the devil, but also they
were genuinely people possessed at that time, and I'm sure they
are in this day and time that we live in. So the point I'm
making is, whatever the case may be, this woman could not
fix her daughter. Whether she had asked physicians,
I'm sure she tried everything that she possibly could. I would
do everything I could to help my children, the same as you
would. But she could not do anything. She was powerless. See, only
when you've been made powerless, only when I've been made powerless,
we realize that we're not God. We're a dog. He's God. He's got all the power. He has
the storehouse of mercy. He's full of grace and truth.
I am false and full of sin. This is the revelation of Christ
by his gospel. This is our hope that he would
reveal unto me that I am not God. I'm a dog. I'm a dog. And so how do we come? We come
begging for mercy, don't we? We come begging for His mercy.
We come begging for His truth. We would never come to Christ
without a need, but it's mercy in just giving us a need to begin
with. How did she see her need? How
did she know that she had a need? Well, her need was physical. But the Lord had given her faith
in order for her to approach the Lord. The only way that she
would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is with the faith of Christ.
And so whenever the Lord says, be it unto you, even as thou
will, I've not seen such faith at all. What'd the Lord say? Be it unto thee, even as thou
will. And her daughter was made whole from that hour. A woman
great as thy faith, he says, great as thy faith. Well, that's
the Lord doing, isn't it? See, we can't produce faith,
but the Lord does, and he gives it to his people. We've been
made to know that we are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. We've been
made to see that it's not by works of righteousness, which
we have done, but according to his mercy. According to his mercy,
he saved us. We've been made to have a need.
Isn't that wonderful? Because the Lord is that need.
Yes, we are sin. We are full of sin. We are the
sinner. But our need is the Savior. Our need is for our sin to be
put away. And the Lord had successfully done that for his people. I want you to notice the four
things that this woman says to the Lord. She says, have mercy
upon me, O Lord, son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed.
Then she says, help me. Help me. And then she says, truth,
Lord. Now, initially, the Lord seems
to ignore her, doesn't he? He doesn't answer her word. It
would appear that he's ignoring her. But I would like to bring
to our remembrance all the times that you and I have cried out
for mercy unto the Lord. You and I have desperately sought
him, and we didn't seem to have a response. The Lord doesn't
respond in our time. He responds in his time, doesn't
he? Why? Because he's God. He waits sometime, doesn't he?
He makes us cry out more. In the book of Daniel, Daniel
prays for 21 days. He didn't eat. He didn't drink
other than just water. He had to drink water in order
to live, but he didn't have any good thing coming to his mouth, the
scripture says. And he prayed for 21 days. He was grieving
desperately for the nation Israel. They were in Babylonian captivity.
He was praying, Lord, deliver us. Lord, tell us when you're
gonna bring us back. We wanna worship you in Jerusalem. They're
trying to kill us here. 21 days. And the angel of the
Lord appeared in him on that day. And he said, Daniel, I've
came for thy words. But from the very first time
that you prayed, I heard you. I heard you. The Lord hears the
prayers of his people, but he answers in his time, doesn't
he? Prayer is not for us to change God's mind. Prayer is not for
us to fix anything. Prayer is for us, not for God. Prayer is for us to seek his
will, to seek his face, to beg, Lord, reveal yourself. Make your
will manifest. Make your will known unto me.
By the time the Lord reveals himself, we see ourself as the
dog, don't we? We've been made desperate to
seek after him. And this is all mercy. No, the
Lord didn't ignore this woman. That would be contrary to scripture.
Anybody that's ever approached the Lord asking for mercy, the
Lord gave them mercy. So there's another sense that
we could look at it and say, well, it had to be probably because
the disciples were there. Maybe he was doing it for their
sake, how they should respond or teaching them. What we do
know is it was for their good and His glory, and that's the
exact same thing for you in your life, no matter what it is you're
facing. The Lord pulls the dross of our
unbelief out of us. What mercy it is to be in the
potter's hand. What mercy it is to see that
we're nothing but the clay, and He is the potter. Sunday, I hope
to preach a message on pottering the clay, and I've been watching
some videos on clay. Boy, it's stubborn, especially
the colder it gets, It's almost impossible to start messing with
it. You have to, you must heat it up first. And how do you eat
it? You keep it moving. You keep it moving. You have
to work it. And boy, are we not more and
more stubborn the colder we get? It's just so much like us, isn't
it? What mercy though, the potter just putting us upon his wheel
and just continually molding us into what he would have us
to be. And the scripture says, when we see him, we shall be
made like him. We're gonna be conformed to the image of his
son. Isn't that glorious? Pulling
the dross out of his people, making a vessel for the finer. This woman had to acknowledge
that she was not God. I am powerless, powerless. Now, either you have a little
bit of power and I have a little bit of power, or we're powerless.
Either we have all the power or powerless. There is no other
way to put it. And you and I, the only way that
we're made to see that we're not God, that we're not powerful,
that we're not letting God do something as if he shows us,
we have it backwards. We're the D-O-G. We're not the
G-O-D. We have it backwards, don't we?
From birth. What mercy it is whenever he passes by and he
says, you're a dog. Truth, Lord. Truth Lord, but
I desire the crumbs that fall from your table. I want to be
your dog. That's what she was saying. Lord, make me your dog. Make me your faithful dog. And
the Lord takes a faithful dog, takes a dead dog sinner, turns
them into a faithful dog that's a sheep. That's what he does.
That's exactly how he does it. She was made to acknowledge that
he had all the power. He had all the mercy. She was
made to acknowledge that he was the God-man. She said, Lord,
thou son of David. Now see, the notion of Lord is
the term Messiah. She was acknowledging his deity,
his godness. The only way that you and I will
acknowledge God as God is if he gives us sight to see him
as God, gives us repentance, right? And then he gives us faith
to see that his humanity, the Lord Jesus Christ, And that's
what she meant by the son of David. She had no hope of the
promise of a Messiah. She had no hope of worshiping. And yet that did not stop her
from coming unto Christ. Why? Because she was of the lost
sheep of the house of Israel, by faith, not by bloodline. And
you and I are too, if we're his. We are by the faith of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We are of Israel. The scripture
is very clear on this. It's by faith, it's not bloodline.
They either are of Israel or not all of Israel. What did he
mean by that? Well, it's not a bloodline. It's by the faith
of Christ, isn't it? I love the fact that after she
acknowledges these things, she worships. She worships. Do you know what worship is?
Worship is confessing whatever the Lord has confessed. Whatever
the Lord says, we acknowledge as truth. And that's what she
does. She says truth, Lord. Everything
that you've said about me is true, and you're the only one
that can save me." And what did the Lord do? The Lord gave her
mercy, did he not? The Lord gave her the mercy that
she was begging for, not because she was an excellent beggar,
but because she worshiped. Only the Lord's people can worship.
And how do we worship? In spirit and in truth. She was given repentance and
faith. She said, Lord, help me. Lord,
help me. How often do we come to the Lord
asking for help? Most of the time, most of the
time, I fear, I hesitate to come to the Lord asking for help as
often as I should. We should constantly be coming.
We've been commanded to come into him. We've been commanded
to ask his house of mercy. His storehouse of mercy will
never be depleted or diminished in any way. He's plenteous in
mercy. And yet, in our unbelief, we
don't come to him as often as we should until he leaves us
to ourself for a moment. He lets us return to our abominable
a little bit. He lets us get more mange, if you want to put
it that way, however you want to put it. And he says, seek you
my face. And we say truth, Lord. Truth,
Lord, I'm a dog. I'm a dog, but I want to be your
dog. Lord, have mercy upon me. Lord, help me help my unbelief. Lord, forgive me of my sin. Forgive
me for what I am. I need you to do it because I
can't. I need your mercy because it's
my only hope. I need your grace because it's
my only hope. This is the confession that the
Lord gives to all of his people. Was this not Mephibosheth's confession
when David called? Think about this. When David
called for Mephibosheth, he sent Ziba down to fetch Mephibosheth.
Now, I've used this analogy several times, but Mephibosheth was the
heir to the throne because of his father, Jonathan, meaning
that he was a threat to David's kingship, his lordship. Mephibosheth
was hiding down in Lodabar, my car in Lodabar, the place of
no bread. He had no bread, and he had no
hope of ever coming to the king's palace. He was hoping he was
laying under the radar. He was lame on both of his feet.
And can you imagine the fear that gripped his heart whenever
the chariot rolled up? He knew who the chariot belonged
to. He knew who the horses were. They were the king's horses. Can you imagine the fear that
that man would have felt? He's going to kill me. He's found
me. What are the reasons? would the king have in calling
Mephibosheth unto himself? What are the purpose? Would there
be that Mephibosheth would be called to the king's house other
than to be destroyed? That's had to be what Mephibosheth
thought. He gets to the king's palace. And what does he do? He falls on his face and he says
these words, what is thy servant that thou shouldest look? upon
a dead dog such as I am." See, the King's words when he entered
into the room is, fear not, for surely I will show thee kindness
for Jonathan's sake. This is the same confession of
our sister here, the Seraphim that Mephibosheth had. What is
it? What am I that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as
I am? You know what, David? David didn't say, well, you're
this or you're this or you're that, did he? No. No, he said,
bring the robe, bring the ring. I'm gonna show you kindness for
Jonathan's sake. Is that your hope? That whenever
you fall upon your face, you've seen yourself as lame, unable
to get to the king. You see yourself as a threat
because you've seen yourself as God for so long. And when
you see yourself as a dog, we confess, Lord, I'm not God, I'm
the dog. Have mercy upon me. And what
does the Lord say every time we approach him like that? You've
been robed in my righteousness. Here is the ring, my signet,
my promise unto you. You will eat at my table continually. And I love the table of King
David because it represents the righteousness of Christ covering
the infirmity of Mephibosheth. No doubt he was the first one.
He'd been the first one there at the table every day and everybody
walked in and they would just see Mephibosheth already sitting.
Already sitting there. They couldn't see that Mephibosheth
was any different than they were. They didn't know. Why? Because
in the Lord's eyes, his people have been made perfectly righteous
by his own blood, by his covering, the mercy that he's shown forth
unto us and to his dead dog sinners. He doesn't just allow us to have
the crumbs off of his table. He puts his dogs at his table.
Feasting upon his bread, his body, feasting upon his blood,
his wine, his milk and honey. He gives us the best of the best,
the best, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. This is my body. This
is bread. My body is bread indeed. My blood
is drink indeed. This is what he gives us over
and over. No, it satisfies us, don't it? It satisfies us. We say truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. You're truth and I'm false. but
I wanna be your dog and eat at your table. All dogs go to heaven. This is
why all dogs go to heaven. The reason is because the only
way we believe is if we've been made needy. Calling her a dog
was the greatest insult that the Lord could have probably
done. The greatest insult that you and I have ever heard, if
you can think of that magnified, because it comes from the mouth
of God, But the truth is, is it came from his mouth, therefore
it was the truth. And only the Lord's people will
acknowledge the Lord as truth. Only the Lord's people will say,
truth, Lord, I am whatever you just said I am, and you are truth,
and I need your mercy. I titled the message, God or Dog,
one or the other. There's no other, there's no
middle ground, is there? Either we're dogs or we're, believing
that we're God. I am so thankful that the Lord
shows mercy, the dead dog sinners such as I and such as you. That's
our hope. That's our only hope. Lord have
mercy upon me and make me your dog. Father, thank you for revealing
yourself and revealing what we are. Have mercy upon us. calls us to be found being your
dog, calls us to be found robed in your righteousness. It's in
Christ's name we pray.