About 24 years ago, Brother Charlie Miller
gave Doris and I a lot to build a house on. We just started this
church, and we were living in a rented house up on 45th Street,
and Brother Miller owned a piece of property. that he wanted to
give to us to build a home, on which to build a home. And some
of the men of the church told me that they would help me build
a house. Well, I didn't know anything
about carpenter work. I knew a little bit. My dad was
a carpenter much of his life. But I knew really nothing comparatively
about building a house. Brother Jeff Thornberry was building
a house over in Westwood. He built a lot of houses back
then, and he invited me to work with him, and he'd teach me what
he could. I didn't say what he knew, what
he could teach me about carpentry. Well, needless to say, I had
to learn a lot. I found out Brother Jeff could
get mad. I'd be up on a scaffold and he'd
say, mark that board. And I'd say, hand me up a pencil.
He'd say, drive the nail right there. I'd say, hand me up a
hammer. So the first thing he taught me was I couldn't do the
job without the tools. That's a pretty good lesson to
learn. Don't run until you're sent.
Don't go running until you've got a message. Don't go trying
to do the job until you've got the tools. You got the tools,
you can do the job. And you always got to have them
with you. They can't be on the ground. They've got to be in
your nail apron, you know. Well, there's something else
that I learned that, you say, what's that got to do with the
message? You'll see in a minute. Something else I learned, we
were, I don't know whether we were putting up joists or rafters,
but I think it was rafters. He took his square, and the pitch
of the roof was 10-12, or 11-12, or something like that, and he
made the pattern. Had it cut just right, a pattern.
He wrote on there in big letters, pattern. And laid it down, and
he went up, and I was going to cut the rafters, or whatever
we were cutting, I think it was rafters, and he said, there's
your pattern, now cut them, and hand them up. He said, I'll put
them up there. So I cut one, handed up, and
I cut another one, handed it up, cut a third one, handed it
up, and I think a fourth one. He said something wrong. That
first one fit, and the next one didn't quite fit, and this last
one didn't fit at all. What are you doing? Well, I said,
I'm cutting them. He said, are you using the pattern?
I said, I did on the first one, and then I just used the ones
alternately that I cut, you know. I cut the first one by the pattern,
laid the pattern down, and then I'd use the next one, I'd throw
that one up and I'd use the next one, you know. And each time
that I cut a joist, not using the original pattern, but I cut
it by the one, the next one. You follow me? Cut number two
by the pattern, number three by number two, number four by
number three, number five by number four. Each time I'd make
a little bit of an error, a little bit more error. And he said,
you never throw your pattern away. You can't improve on the
pattern. Stay with the pattern. If you keep on, you'll be so
far off, when you get to the end, it'll look like another
house. And that's what's happened to preachers in this day. They're
studying the books of men. The pattern is Christ. Christ
is our pattern. And we've picked up these methods
of men and messages of men, and it started out all right, you
see. The Lord Jesus Christ gave it to Paul. Paul gave it to Timothy,
and Timothy gave it to Faithful Men, came on down to Polycart,
and Ignatius, and Augustine, and the rest of them. As long
as you look back to Christ, they did all right. But when one began
to study the other, and then the other one began to study
the other one, you wouldn't recognize the Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ today. It's too far away from the pattern.
Each one has changed just a little bit. Somebody said, well, it
works. If it works, it must be okay. That's not so. That's not
so. The pattern. And that's what
I'm trying to do in this message tonight. I think it would be
fitting, it would be well for every one of us who endeavor
to teach, as Ronnie prayed a moment ago, endeavor to witness, endeavor
to say anything for the glory of our Lord, we need to study
and restudy the diary of the Great Physician, the message
of the Great Preacher, the methods of Him who is our Lord. Now that's
what I'm doing tonight. Let's look back here at Matthew
15. The whole world was his hospital. Our Lord, the great physician,
the whole world was his hospital. And those to whom he ministered
were helplessly and hopelessly ill. They couldn't help themselves
and no one else could help them. And his services and healing
was always free. And our Lord never failed. He
never failed. But now watch it. He never gave,
he didn't give every sinner the same pill. He didn't deal with
every man the same way. Now you'll see that through the
scripture. Our Lord didn't deal with a woman at the well like
he did with Nicodemus. Here Nicodemus, the Pharisee,
the religionist, the self-righteous man. Our Lord talked to him about
being born again. He said, you need to be born
again. You'll never understand, let alone enter the kingdom of
God until you're born again. Well, he didn't talk to this
sinful woman at the well about a supernatural birth. He talked
to her about some sins. She knew her condition. Nicodemus
didn't. She knew her corruption. He didn't. Our Lord did not deal with the
rich young ruler like he did the woman at the well. He talked
to the rich young ruler about His selfishness. He had to shut
this man's mouth. This man was talking about having
kept the commandments from his youth up. And our Lord was forced
to show him that he had not kept the commandment, which is, Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, and the Lord thy God with all
thy heart. And he shut his mouth, and he walked away sorrowfully.
So our Lord didn't give every sinner the same pill, and you
can't go to a soul winner's school and learn to deal with men about
Christ. And you can't take a recipe and go out here having graduated
from the school of witnessing and win the world of Jesus Christ
with only one method. You cannot do it. You've got to be, as Ronnie said
in that prayer, spirit-led, spirit-taught. We've got to have a word from
God for a particular situation and a particular person. And
one is dealt with one way and one another way because as the
stars differ in glory, human beings are different. As every
snowflake is different, every person is different. And here our Lord, take the case
before us now. Let's look at verse 21. A woman
came to it. He departed from tired and saddened,
and a woman of Canaan, a Gentile woman, came out of the same coast
and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me! Have mercy on me,
O Lord, thy Son of David!" My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. Now you look at verse 23, "...and
he answered her, not a word." I used to think Roth Barnard
could look a hole clear through you, but I just imagined Our
Lord, standing here, had just come out of the coast of tired
and sad, and this woman came running up, and she cried, Lord,
have mercy on me, thy son of David, my daughter is grievously
vexed for the devil. And she ended her plea, and there
wasn't a word spoken. John, he just turned and looked
at her, never said a word. He never said a word. Generally, our Lord was like
the prodigal's father who rushed to greet the weary son. Generally. But this time, he's quite cold
and quite distant. And he didn't say a word. Generally,
our Lord wept in sympathy with those who wept. He hastened to
the aid of this harlot that was bathing his feet when her accusers
began to charge her. He hastened to the aid of the
one cast in the sand, as the Pharisees would stone her. But
here, not a word. Generally our Lord hastens to
help like the good Samaritan stopped and put oil in the wounds
of the Franks. But not here. She said, O Lord,
Son of David, have mercy on me. Not a word. And then it says
in the next verse, or the next line, "...and his disciples came
running to him." Evidently, she turned from Christ and turned
to Peter, James, and John and said, Somebody help! My daughter
is sick! My daughter is dying! Help me!
Help me! Somebody help me! And these disciples
came to the Lord and they said, Lord, do something about this
woman! She's driving us crazy! She's crying after us! We can't
help her! Do something about this woman!
Shut her up or something! or heal her daughter or get rid
of her. And I want you to look at this next line. He answered
and said, still nothing to the woman. He answered his disciples
and he said, I am not sin, but to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. Our Lord Jesus Christ brought
forth the doctrine of election. as clear and cold and calculated
as it could ever be presented. I am not sent but to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. I came on a mission to save my
sheep. I came from heaven to save a
covenant people. That's what I came here for.
My ministry is to those whom my Father hath given me. That's
what he said. Now, you stay with this story.
Let's stay with the context. Here's a woman in need. Here's
a woman in distress. Here's a woman begging for mercy.
Here's a woman in trouble. And she pleads with Christ, and
He doesn't even answer her. He doesn't even acknowledge her
plea or her presence. He didn't answer a word. And
His disciples came up and said, Lord, do something about her.
She's crying after us. He said, My ministry is to those
that the Heavenly Father has given me. woman was a Gentile. Some people say never preach
election to sinners. Our Lord did. Some people say
never talk of predestination to sinners. Christ did. People
say you're not supposed to preach covenant mercies. I know it's
so, but you're not supposed to preach it to lost people. Christ
did. One of my friends moved to Kentucky
City recently, a preacher. He doesn't have a church. He's
studying for the ministry. He wants to enter the ministry.
So he went around to different preachers in the town to which
he moved to tell them he was a minister. He was living in
town. He's a Baptist preacher. He'd be glad to supply their
pulpits. He'd be glad to preach for them. And he was sitting
in the office of Dr. Carver, who is a Baptist minister. And they talked, and he found
out Dr. Carver found out what the young
man believed. He believed God was sovereign. He believed God
had a people. He believed Christ didn't fail. He believed that
God predestinated a people to be like Christ. And they talked
a while. The young man says, is there
any opportunity for me to preach in this city? And the good doctor
said, not if you're going to preach election and predestination.
No, sir. He said, in fact, young man,
if you preach that, you'll ruin your career. Well, let me tell you something.
Look back at chapter 15, verse 12. Matthew 15. The disciples came and said to
the Lord Jesus, knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended
when they heard your saying? And he answered and said, every
plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted
up. What's that? Election. Sovereignty. If my father didn't plant the
tree, it's going to be rooted up. If my father didn't plant
the plant, it's a tear, and it's going to be bundled and burned.
What about in John chapter 10? We won't turn over there. You
know it by heart. I've used it so much. But the Pharisees came
to him and said, How long do you make us to doubt? If you're
the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told you, but you
didn't believe me because you're not of my sheep. What about what
he said to Nicodemus when Nicodemus was talking to him about the
miracles he did and so forth. And Christ said, The wind bloweth
where it listeth, and you hear the sound thereof, but you cannot
tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth, even so are those that
are born of the Spirit. What's that? Sovereign mercy.
What about to those who murmured in John 6? He said, all that
my Father giveth me will come to me, and him that cometh to
me I'll in no wise cast out. And they began to murmur and
say, who does he think he is? He's the carpenter, we know him.
He turned to them and said, murmur not. I said unto you, no man
can come to me except my Father which sent me draw him. What's
that? Election. Well, that's what he gave her.
The disciple said, send her away, send her away. He said, I got
no dealings with her. I came down here to save my sheep. I came down here to call my sheep. That's exactly, Jay, what he
said. Brethren, if it's so, it's so. I don't know how to cover
it up and make it look any different. A rose is a rose is a rose, was
the poet saying. Election is election is election.
That's what it is. It's right there. I don't know
how to soften it. And then read on. Then she came to the Lord
Jesus and fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. Spurgeon noted this. The more
she prayed, the shorter her prayers got. The first one was pretty
long, Have mercy on me, thou son of David, O Lord, my daughter
is grievously vexed with the devil. When it got down to the
end, she just said, Help me! Lord, help me! But he wasn't
through with her. In verse 26, he answered and
said, it's not meat, it's not right to take the children's
bread and give it to dogs. As I said, this woman was a Gentile.
He said, give not that which is holy to dogs, neither cast
your pearls before swine. She knew what he was saying.
She'd been called a dog by the Jews before. She knew exactly
what he was saying. You're a stranger, you're a foreigner,
You're an alien, you're a Gentile, you're without God, without law,
without Christ, without the Messiah, without a prophet, without a
priest, without an atonement. He makes no bones about the fact
that she didn't belong in God's mercy. That's exactly what he's
saying. And still no mercy. Now most
of us would have been clean gone by that time. And that's what
most folks do. They get the preacher preaching
a little truth, and they get mad and take out. So you just
have to handle people so carefully. You have to be soulful. You have
to walk on eggshells. You have to say just the right
thing at the right time to the right person to get him to make
his decision for Jesus. You just don't dare open the
Word of God and hit them broadside, because they'd be gone. And here
this dear woman came and said, Lord, have mercy! Thou son of
David, she said everything right. She wanted mercy, she called
him the son of David, the Messiah, and she told him her problem,
and he didn't answer her one word. I ain't going back there, they're
not very friendly. You ever heard that? Somebody came to this church
some time ago and quit and wrote me a letter and said, your people
aren't friendly. Well, I'll tell you this, I don't know how friendly
they are, but we do preach the gospel here. And I believe that's
what this place is for, to worship God, to praise God and to hear
his word. I believe that's what we're here
for. I don't think this is a social club. I'm glad for folks to be
friendly. I think folks ought to be friendly.
He that would have friends must show himself friendly. But I'd
heap rather have the gospel than friendliness. I'd whole lot rather
have people coming together not to be seen or to be heard or
to be recognized but to be saved, hadn't you? And if we can dish
that out, I'll be satisfied. But the Lord wasn't very friendly.
He wasn't very friendly. But she hung around. And she
went to his disciples, and they couldn't do anything. And the
disciples came to the Lord to plead on her behalf, and he turned
and threw the doctrine of election at her. I came to save my sheep. I came to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. That's why I came. And she finally
came to him and shortened that prayer to the point she was worshiping
and crying, just help me! And he looked at her and he said,
it's not right to give that which is holy to dogs. All I'll tell you. And you know
I like what she replied. In verse 27, I should like it,
Christ liked it. She said, that's true Lord, that's
true. It's true that you came to the
lost sheep. That's true. It's true that it's
not right to give the children's bread to dogs. It's true that
the dogs are not worthy and have no claim. But I'll tell you something,
Lord, that's true. The dogs eat of the crumbs that
fall from the Master's table. What's she saying? No argument
with God's purpose? No argument when he says she's
unworthy, but Lord, you're Lord of all, you're even the Lord
of the dogs. That's what she said. You're
the master of Israel, you're the master of your sheep, but
you're also the master of the dogs who live on the crumbs that
fall from the master's table. You're my master, dog or child. I like the handful. Oh, that we might have that kind
of faith. For Christ Jesus answered, now
he answered, Oh, now he answered. He answered and said unto her,
O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. Faith is so essential. According
to this and other scriptures, faith is really the essential
thing. Without faith it's impossible to please God. If you will believe,
all things are possible to them that believe. By the grace of
God are you saved through faith. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. The just shall live by faith.
They begin to live by faith, they continue to live by faith,
and they live eternally by faith. It's the first and the last song.
By faith are you saved. Great is thy faith. Well, let's
look at her faith. First of all, I see this about
her faith. This woman had a distinct sense
of her need. Here was a dying daughter. Here
was a daughter who was perishing. There was no vagueness about
it. There was no cloudiness as to her need. Her daughter was
dying. She had one need and one desire. She uttered the true
longing of her heart. This woman knew that her daughter
was beyond anybody's help but this one to whom she had come.
She knew her need. Now, my friends, if we're going
to approach Christ, if we're going to seek mercy, if we're
going to hope for forgiveness, this need is going to have to
be established. And an awareness of it and a
sense of it. Do you have an awareness of your
need? Do you have an awareness of your sins? Do you have an
awareness of just what it means to be LOST? Do we understand
what that actually means? To be a sinner? God to be angry? His wrath to be turned toward
us? The cannons of heaven turned
in our direction? Do we know what it means to be
in sin? Do we know what it means to be
dying in sin? Do we know what it means to face
God at the judgment and be banished from His presence forever under
His wrath, damnation? Do we understand that? This woman
could get so excited over a sick daughter. We need to get excited
over a dead soul, a sinful soul, a damned soul. Oh, do we know
our need. Secondly, she knew where to come
for help. That's the first thing she knew.
She knew her need. She had an awareness of the condition
of this daughter. And she knew where to come for
help. God Almighty has put everything in Christ. Now, you are not going
to receive any help from the church or from the law or from
the ordinances. Your help must come from Him.
My help must come from Him. Other foundations can no man
lay than that which is laid. Neither is there salvation in
any other. There is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. The disciples
summed it up when they said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
only Savior. He's the only one who can help
us. He's the only one who can free us. He's the only one who
can justify us. He's the only one who can give
us a righteousness. He's the only one who can put
away our guilt before God. Do you know that? This woman
knew that. She had a need, a dire need. She had an awareness of that
need. She had a compelling sense of that need. There was no cloudiness
about it. The truth of it had impressed
itself upon her soul. Her daughter, if Christ didn't
heal her, her daughter's going to die. That's all there was
to it. If Christ doesn't redeem me, I'm going to perish in hell.
If I don't have a union with him, if he's not my mediator
and my redeemer, I'm going to perish in hell. I know that.
It's all in him. And I'll tell you this about
her. Gentile or no, she had a clear idea of the Lord's character.
She addressed him by his redemptive name, Son of David, Messiah. That's what she was calling him,
the Son of David is the Messiah. All of the prophecies in the
Scripture talk about him being David's son. You remember he
asked the Pharisees one time, what think ye of Christ? Whose
son is he, the Christ? Whose son is the Christ, the
Messiah? They said he's the Son of David.
That's what they said in the season. They knew he would be
the son of David. And this woman came and she said,
have mercy on me, O Lord, O Deity, O Divine, O God, son of David,
have mercy on me, no fogginess here. I always like to see John Wayne
in these big shoot-em-up westerns. You do too. Or did. But he disappointed me before
he died. I heard his so-called dying testimony. And he said, well, he's just
depending on God, he or she or whoever. Too much fogginess there. This woman didn't have any fogginess
here. Oh Lord, thy son of David, have
mercy. not justice, I don't deserve
it. O Lord of glory, O Messiah, O Christ, O Son of David, recognizing
his deity, his power, his office, and she had a humble faith and
a determined faith, she wouldn't go away. Oh, how I like that,
she would not go away, I would not be denied. O Jacob, O Jacob,
held on to the angel of the Lord, and the angel of the Lord said,
Let me go! The day is breaking. Jacob must have been a strong
man because he held that angel. I don't know whether according
to his will or against his will, but he wouldn't let him go. He
said, I will not let you go until you bless me. I won't do it. Persistence. I tell you, if you
ever get hungry enough, you'll hang around until somebody feeds
you. If you ever get thirsty enough, they can call you what
they want to, but you're going to hang around the water till
you get a drink. If you ever get cold enough and there ain't
but one fire in town, they can call you a bum or a criminal
or soaps can do say what they want to, but you come into the
fire. I don't care if the folks around it ain't friendly. They're
at least getting warm. And when the table, if you're
hungry enough, and the table's spread, I don't care if they
don't do everything like you think they ought to do it, and
they may serve the food in a tin can, but you're going to eat.
They may not be friendly, but they're eating. They're eating. And that's the way this woman
was. She had to determine faith. I know what I need. I know Christ
is my only hope. I know here's where it is. I
know mercy's in Him. And I plan to stay here till
I'm blessed. You know what Charles Spurgeon
said? It took him five years to find peace with Christ. I
don't recommend that. Joseph Hart, the great hymn writer,
he said J took him eleven years, but he never left the table.
He never left. I'm going to stay here because
this is where it is. This is where it is. She had a determined
faith and he could look at her with those piercing, sovereign,
all-seeing eyes and she never moved. He could talk about the
election. He could talk about the covenant.
He could talk about the sheep of Israel. She never moved. He
could talk about her unworthiness and her uncleanliness and her
dog condition. She never moved. She said, that's
all so. That's all so. Now then, Christ
all the time meant to bless her. You see, I know that because
I read the rest of the story. Brother Barnard used to say,
I'm not too much worried because I read the last chapter in the
book, and the Lord's going to win. He used to say, it's going
to turn out all right. He said, I used to read a lot
of Westerns, and he said, I always read the last chapter so I wouldn't
worry about the hero. And this woman here, I know,
wouldn't you? It'd been difficult to live this
experience on her part, but I know, you see, if I'd have been there,
knowing what I know now, and she'd have come up and she begged
Christ to have mercy and He just stood and looked at her, He's
going to bless her. Don't worry, John, He's going
to bless her. What did He do that for? Just hold on now, He's
the Lord. He's going to bless her. She's
one of His own. And when he talked to her about election, just don't
get excited now, he's going to bless her. Because she's going
to hang around until he does. Opportunity, persistence. Ask,
he said. I don't know the Greek, but somebody
told me that says keep on asking. Seek, keep on seeking. Knock,
keep on knocking. Camp at the cross. Because that's
where the mercy is. I don't care what you run into.
I don't care what kind of reception you get, I don't care what trial
you're called upon to go through, I care not how long it takes
you. That's where God's mercy is, at Calvary. Years I spent
in vanity and pride, caring not my Lord was crucified, knowing
not it was for me he died on Calvary. But if I can get to
Calvary, that's where it is. And just camp there. Just camp
there. I'm not going to leave because
there's nothing outside, there's nothing anywhere else. And he
may not answer me a word, not a word. He may not even acknowledge
my presence. He's not obligated to. And I
may run headlong into the doctrine of election, not understanding
it, not comprehending it. But I'll have to say, true Lord,
because all the way through the Bible, he took not on himself
the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham. Our Lord chose
Israel and passed by all the rest of those nations. He said
to his disciples, you didn't choose me, I chose you. It's
true. And he may show me my wretchedness
and my unworthiness and that my nature a dog, but I'm hanging
around right there. I'm camping at the cross because
there's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins
and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty
stains. And this water won't do it, and the wine won't do
it, and the law won't do it, but the blood from Calvary will.
And that's where I'm camping. That's where I want you to go,
to Calvary, and stay there. Now let's see the test of faith
and quit. The Lord had good reasons for answering her not a word.
He knows. I don't. And He knows why He
deals with you like He does. Our Lord has a purpose in everything
that He does. And the way he dealt with this
woman, I suppose, is one of the most difficult tests of faith
I've ever read. The Lord said to Noah, build
an ark. Noah got busy and built an ark.
The Lord said to David, slay a giant. And faith goes forth,
armed for the battle. God said to Joshua, walk around
a city and the walls will fall. And he walked around the city
and tooted the horn. But the hardest test of all. And the test, if it can be endured,
if you can come through it by faith, is silence. Sir Robert Anderson, I don't
know a lot about his writing, but I know one time he wrote
a book on the silence of God. And boy, that's hard. But I tell
you this, he's God. And I'm a dog. And if the master
wants to speak to the dog, it's all right when he pleases. That's where you'll have to stay.
I know today's religionists will never accept this. There's no
way. I know what I'm preaching is contrary to what is believed
and preached and advocated today as black is opposite of white. But I'll tell you this, this
is what it's saying right here in the Word, right here. As important as we think we are,
If we get a little interest in the gospel, everybody's supposed
to drop everything and run to our aid. Did you know that? If
somebody shows up in church who never does come, everybody's
supposed to converge on them like a long-lost daughter, a
long-lost son, and supposed to glad-hand them and beg them to
come back and all this sort of tommyrot. We don't give a sinner
long enough to shut his mouth and for God to strip him, and
God to humble him and break him. We puff him up, and Almighty
God's trying to take the starch out of him. Isn't that right?
We brag on him and we tell him what what we need and what God
needs and what they ought to do and all these things, and
here our Lord stands and a woman comes up, here's a candidate
for church membership, here's a candidate for enrollment in
a Sunday school, here's a candidate for salvation, comes up here,
Lord, I need help! And she turns and walks off. And she comes on crying, the
disciples get all upset, Lord, come on now, do something about
this! God has an elect people and God will save them. And then she comes and worships
still. Lord, help me! We don't have anything for dogs.
We got children's bread here. Children's bread. But that's
just not the way to win souls. It's a way to save sinners. It
ain't the way to win souls. But see, God doesn't save important
people, He saves sinners. And the test of faith here is
to sufficiently shut her mouth, and sufficiently strip her, and
sufficiently humble her, and sufficiently bring her down to
where if He does show her mercy, she'll never leave Him. You see,
folks that come through this kind of test, folks that come
through this kind of test, You don't ever need worry about losing
them again. Because if they can deal with
God, they can deal with you. That's right. They can deal with
God. Let's see the character of her
faith. Faith with regard to Christ is the same as faith with regard
to anything else. I know faith is the gift of God
and it's the work of the Holy Spirit. But when I believe, truly
believe, truly have faith, I act on it. I have faith in an airplane
and I show it by getting on it. I have faith in a bridge by crossing
it. That's faith. And I have faith in Christ when
I commit my soul to Him. Totally and completely, I commit
it to Him. Sink or swim, I go to Him. If
I perish, I'll perish clinging to Christ. Secondly, faith's
foundation is the Word of God. She wouldn't take anybody, not
signs, not miracles, not feelings, not experiences. She was waiting
to hear him say, Thy daughter lives. Nothing else would do
it. She wouldn't leave. She wanted
to hear what he said. Now, that's the only foundation
of faith. Don't you dare let some preacher shake your hand
and say you're saved. That's not good enough. No, siree,
don't you let anybody give you a book, How to be Saved. And
yet you read it and say down to the bottom, now if you have
believed this, sign your name, you're saved. That's not good
enough. You're going to have to hear
Him speak who speaks in His Word. And that Word of faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. When He said, Daughter,
be it unto you as you will, that was it. And when I confined myself
in here, Christ died for the ungodly, Christ died for sinners.
He that believeth hath eternal life. I have His Word for you.
not some soul winner or some preacher, come down here and
shake my hand, I guarantee you God will save you. I don't guarantee
you God will save you if you do anything but believe on Christ.
Now, if you can lay hold on Christ, I guarantee you God will save
you, if you can lay hold on Christ. If you can commit to Him, if
you can receive Him, if you can do business with Christ, I can
guarantee it. And then thirdly, faith does
not think so much about the faith as it does the object of faith,
Christ. This woman, This woman didn't recognize the greatness
of her faith. She just looked to Him. She didn't
say, Lord, I believe. Lord, I have faith. She just
said, Lord, you've got to help me. You see, she wasn't thinking
about the faith or thinking about doing something. She had her
eyes on one object, that was Christ. On one source, that was
Christ. And she just kept on, kept on,
kept on looking to Him and calling upon Him. That's what faith,
you see, the object of faith is Christ. And we must quit trying
to find assurance and quit trying to find so much faith and quit
trying to develop some type of experience and just look to Christ. If it takes 40 years, it will
be worth it just to look to Christ. And you may go through life without
what you call any infallible assurance. You may struggle and
have doubts and fears and troubles and conflicts and all these things,
but I tell you this, just keep on coming to Christ. It's a continual
coming. It's a continual clinging to
him. He's the source of every mercy and every blessing. So
stop measuring your faith and look to the Redeemer. He's the
object of faith. And we can learn a lesson from this dear lady.
No matter what he said, she still looked to him, no matter what
he said. Our Father, we ask Thy blessings
upon this message. It's Thy word that we've read,
the very diary of our Redeemer, the great position. May we, O
Lord, see ourselves as we are as best human eyes and hearts
can understand and see. We know there's no way for us
to understand sin as it really is or for us to see our wicked
hearts as you see them. But allow us to see them enough
to be concerned about it and to be aware of our sin and to
destroy our pride and our arrogance and haughtiness.