A couple of weeks ago, when I
left the office, I was listening to a radio talk show where people
can call in and someone called in asking about animals in heaven,
pets going to heaven. And I mentioned that to my wife
and when, uh, later we were walking and When I asked me, she said,
didn't we know some preacher who preached a message about
dogs going to heaven? And I said, yes, we did. Brother
Henry Mahan, several years ago, preached a message entitled,
All Dogs Go to Heaven. I didn't hear the message. And
I looked in the last week to see if I could find that message
on sermon audio. I was not able to. This was back
in the 1970s. I remember we were still in Mexico
at that time. And I've often wondered as that
message, the title to that message would come to my mind. I've often
wondered what passage of scripture. he was probably preaching from.
And I thought about this in 2 Samuel chapter 9, if you want to turn
and look at this passage. All dogs go to heaven. 2 Samuel chapter 9, beginning with
verse 1. David said, Is there yet any
that is left of the house of Saul, that I may show kindness
for Jonathan's sake? And there was of the house of
Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they had called
him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba? And
he said, Thy servant is he. And the king said, is there not
yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness
of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king,
Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet. And the
king said unto him, where is he? Ziba said unto the king,
behold, he is in the house of Mathur, the son of Ammuel in
Lodibor. Then King David sent and fetched
him out of the house of Mathur, the son of Amiel from Lodibor. And when Mephibosheth, the son
of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell
on his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth.
And he answered, behold, thy servant. And David said unto
him, fear not, fear not. For I will surely show thee kindness
for Jonathan thy father's sake, and will restore thee all the
land of Saul thy father. And thou shalt eat bread at my
table continually. And he bowed himself and said,
what is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon such a dead
dog as I am? This passage of scripture is
a precious passage of scripture which shows salvation. We know that for Mephibosheth
to come, there had to have been a covenant that was made between
David and Jonathan. Mephibosheth had every reason
to fear when he came into the presence of David because it
was common practice when a man came to the throne that he would
execute all of those that might be perceived as threats to him
staying upon the throne. This was King Saul's grandson
who would have been heir to the throne naturally. Of course,
God had changed that and chose David to reign over Israel. But when Mephibosheth came into
David's presence, The first words that David spoke to him were,
fear not, fear not. And then Mephibosheth confessed
himself in his sight before David to be nothing more than a dead
dog. All dogs go to heaven. I wondered
if that was the passage from which he preached. And then there's
another passage in Matthew chapter 15. And I've about decided for my
message, this is the passage that I want to speak from. Matthew
chapter 15. And I'm not sure if he spoke
from this passage or not, but it certainly shows the truth.
All dogs go to heaven. Matthew chapter 15 and verse
21. Then Jesus went thence and departed
into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word.
And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for
she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I'm
not sent but unto 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 made to take the children's bread and to cast
it to dogs. And she said, truth, Lord, yet
the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the master's table.
Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy
faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was
made whole from that very hour. I'm confident tonight to say
that every person who comes to the Lord Jesus Christ like this
woman came will go to heaven. will go to heaven. All dogs go
to heaven. I want to point out several things
about this woman. First, this woman had a great
need. She didn't just have a need,
she had a great need. Her words were, my daughter is
grievously vexed with the devil. Notice that word grievously. She had a great need. Now Matthew here calls her a
woman of Canaan. Mark calls her a Greek. In his
account, a Syrophoenician. Now remember, the inhabitants
of Canaan were especially cursed of God. So to say the least,
this suggests to me that she, like all men, was cursed by the
law of God. All of us come into this world
under a curse. The law of God curses us. One of the Proverbs, Proverbs
26 in verse two, goes like this. As the bird by wandering as a
swallow by flying, now listen, so the curse causeless shall
not come. In other words, if a person curses
another person and there's no real cause for that curse, this
proverb says it's not going to come. It's not going to come. But the curse of the law, which
is death, did come because there was a cause. There was a cause
that each and every one of us, when we come into this world,
come in under a curse. The curse of the law. And the
cause is sin. Sin. Galatians chapter, I believe
it is three, the apostle Paul said that in the fullness of
the time, God sent forth his son made of a woman, made under
the law. And the law under which the Lord
Jesus Christ was made when he came into this world was a broken
law. Man had broken God's law, but
he came into this world made of a woman, made under the law,
that he might redeem us from the curse of the law. This woman
had a great need. My daughter is grievously vexed
of a devil. Bishop J.C. Riles comments here
were a blessing to me. I read this past week and I quote,
trials are intended to make us think. to wean us from the world,
to send us to our Bible, to drive us to our knees. Health is a
good thing, but sickness is far better if it leads us to God. Prosperity is a great mercy,
but adversity is a greater one if it brings us to Christ. Anything,
anything, is better than living in carelessness and dying in
sin. Better a thousand times be afflicted
like the Canaanitess mother and like her flee to Christ than
live at ease like the rich fool and die at last without Christ
and without hope. Amen. Amen. Nothing worse than
unconcern Nothing worse than being in this world under the
curse of God and never, never even considering the fact. This
woman had a great need. And as I've said, all men do,
for we all have our sin. But not all men are made to recognize
the fact that we are sinners. Our Lord said, when God the Holy
Spirit has come, he shall convince the world of sin. Has he come
to you? Has God the Holy Spirit come
to you and convinced you of your sin? That you are a sinner? That you are just like this woman? You and I, we have a great need. It's not a need that can be fixed. easily. We have a great need. Remember that scripture says,
if the righteous scarcely be saved, that is, if the righteous
with difficulty be saved, where shall the sinner and the unrighteous
appear in judgment? The second thing, this woman
sought mercy. First thing about this woman,
she had a great need. And second, she came and she
sought mercy. As far as we are told in this
account here in Matthew's gospel, the very first words out of her
mouth was a cry for mercy. Have mercy on me. Well, if she's looking for mercy, she
came to the right person. Isn't that true? Doesn't that
excite you? It does me, because I know that's
what I need, is mercy. And I say again, if she's looking
for mercy, she came to the right person. In Psalm 145, in verse
8, the scripture says, the Lord is gracious and full of compassion,
slow to anger, and of great mercy. Arthur Pink, in his book on the
attributes of God, introduce the chapter on the mercy of God
with these words. When we contemplate the characteristics
of this divine excellency, that is, his mercy, we cannot do otherwise
than bless God for it. His mercy is great, 1 Kings 3
and verse 6. His mercy is plenteous, Psalm
86 in verse 5. His mercy is tender, Luke 1,
verse 78. His mercy is abundant, 1 Peter
1, verse 3. His mercy is from everlasting
to everlasting upon them that fear him, Psalm 104, verse 17. Well may we say with the psalmist,
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. And with my
mouth will I make known thy faithfulness, O Lord. Now you notice, in asking
for mercy, she addressed him both as Lord and as the son of
David. First, Lord, have mercy upon
me, O Lord. Her calling him Lord shows that
she recognized and she believed that he had power. He had power
over all persons, over all things, and yes, over all diseases. He's the Lord. He's the Lord. Have mercy upon me, O Lord. Everything is under his control. The scripture that was read at
the beginning of the service in Hebrews chapter one tells
us that the scepter is in his hand, that he is the Lord of
Lords and the King of Kings. I want you, yes, and when she
called him the son of David, this showed that she recognized
and believed that he was the promised Messiah No doubt she
had heard, we don't know how, but somehow she had heard of
the promised Messiah. And now she was hearing of this
man, Jesus of Nazareth, who was working miracles, performing
miracles. And so when she hears that he
has come close, he didn't go out of Palestine, but he came
on the very borders. that she comes and she approaches
him, O Lord, have mercy upon me, thou son of David. That's the term, son of David,
that was the most common at that time among the Israelites for
the Messiah, the anointed one, the promised one that God had
promised from the very beginning, the seed of the woman who would
bruise the head of the serpent. She met with silence. He answered her, not a word. I want you to notice in verse 24,
it's easy to read this and not have this to register, but his
words in verse 24 were not to this woman. He answered her,
not a word. She came crying, Lord, Have mercy
upon me, thou son of David.' And he answered her, not a word. Then his disciples came, and
they besought him, saying, Send her away. Send her away. Maybe they were saying, give
her what she is asking. They had seen him do this, heal
others, everyone who came to him, asking for help, no matter
what the disease, no matter what the sickness. Nothing was so
great that he did not have the power as a son of God to heal. Send her away. Give her what
she wants. She's bothering us. She's complaining. She's crying after us. I've often
thought, she really wasn't crying after them. She was crying after
the Lord. But they came to the Lord and
they said, send her away, send her away. That reminds me somewhat
of that woman in the Lord's words in, I believe it's Luke chapter
18, about the woman who came to that unjust judge and she
sought for mercy, mercy for her sons. The judge gave her what
she requested. But his disciples said unto the
Lord, send her away for she crieth after us. And then the Lord speaks
to them. Don't miss that. This next verse,
verse 24. He answered and said, he tells
his disciples, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. When he sent his disciples out,
he told them not to go in the way of the Gentiles, but only
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now he's confessing,
reminding his disciples, I am not sent but to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. I want you to look with me in
Romans chapter 15. See what the Apostle Paul, inspired
of God, wrote concerning this, that he was a minister. He was
sent to the house of Israel. Matthew chapter 15 and verse
8. Now say that Jesus Christ was
a minister of the circumcision. Of course, the word circumcision
here refers to the Jews. That was the identifying mark
of the Jews that identified them as different from the Gentiles. And Paul tells us here that Christ,
he was a minister, not to the uncircumcision. He was a minister. He was a preacher. He was a prophet
sent to minister unto the circumcision for the truth of God. to confirm
the promises made unto the fathers. Who were the fathers? The fathers
were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The promises, in thy seed shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed. He was a minister
to the circumcision, to the Jews. And that's what he told his disciples
here. When they came and said, send
her away, she's bothering us, she's crying after us, the Lord
said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. The third thing. So first we
see this woman had a great need. Second, she came asking for mercy. And third, this woman worshipped
him. Notice that. She worshipped him. Verse 25. Then came she and worshipped
him. worshipped him. This word, which
is translated worship, of course, means to prostrate yourself before
him, to acknowledge him as the Lord, as the giver of life, as
the giver of all things, as he is worthy to be worshipped. She recognized this. Now this
is important. Hear me now. Whether the Lord
heals her daughter or not, he's still worthy of her worship. Let that sink in. Many people
will worship, worship so-called, if God gives them what they want. This woman, Before she received
anything from the Lord, she worshipped Him. She acknowledged that He
was worthy of worship. Who is worthy? That's the question
in Revelation chapter 5, isn't it? Who is worthy to take the
book and unloose the seals thereof? John began to cry, because there
was no man, no angel who was worthy to take the book and open
the seals thereof. And the angel told John, don't
weep. There's one who's worthy, the
Lamb, the Lamb. He's worthy. He's worthy. And this woman recognized that.
Turn back to Matthew 7, just a moment. Or Matthew 8, rather,
Matthew chapter 8. We see the same thing here with
this man. In Matthew chapter 8, when he,
the Lord Jesus Christ, was come from the mountain, the Sermon
on the Mount, chapters 5, 6, and 7, and when he had finished
that message, When he was come down from the mountain, great
multitudes followed him, and behold, there came a leper."
Leper. Leprosy is a horrible disease. I would remind us that leprosy,
especially in that setting, was used by God to pit your sin.
And the thing about leprosy, different maybe from other diseases,
it starts on the inside and works its way out. For many days, maybe years, there's
no symptom, but it's there. And as it works on the body,
it begins to work on the various parts of the body, and the body
begins And I can't think of any better term than to rot, to decay. The toes, the fingers, the nose,
the ears began to fall off. It was an awful, awful disease. And when a man or woman had leprosy,
we know they were put out of the camp of Israel. They could
not come into the camp. And when they approached anyone,
they had to cry out a warning to that person that they were
a leper, because no one wanted to come in contact with a leper. This man was a leper. And the
first thing we are told about him, he worshipped. He worshipped. Saying, Lord, if thou wilt, not
a question is it of his power, not with this man, not a question
of his ability. Lord, if thou wilt, you have the power, thou canst
make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand
and touched him. Can you imagine that? Lovely,
sinless, holy. Lord Jesus Christ touched this
man, all covered with leprosy. And yet he was not contaminated,
that is Christ, because of his holiness. He touched him, saying,
I will. I will, be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. We have cases in the Bible when
Miriam, remember she was struck with leprosy, Moses' sister. We have that king who went into
the temple and immediately they saw leprosy on his forehead. He couldn't see it at first,
but the priest saw it. And so this man, I'm reading
into this, but immediately everyone saw that leprosy. Whatever discoloration
or whatever the flesh had deteriorated, whatever parts on this man's
body was immediately healed, cleansed. The Bible doesn't speak
about leprosy being healed, does it? It speaks about it being
cleansed because it was a disease that God chose to use as a picture
of sin. But this woman, back to Matthew
15, now this woman, she had a great need, she came seeking mercy,
and third, she worshipped Him, and she worshipped Him, confessing
by her request that He was able. Lord, help me. I thought about
the words to the hymn. Kevin was singing just a few
minutes ago. Help, helper for the helpless. That's who he is. The helper
for the helpless. Lord, help me, help me. And here's the fourth thing about
this woman. She took her place. Verses 26 and 27. Now the Lord
did speak to her. And he answered her and said,
it's not me to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. And
she said, truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which
fall from their master's table. In these words, I would just
remind us that by the children, it's not me to take the children's
bread, he's speaking of the Israelites, the nation of Israel. And by
the dogs, he's speaking of those of the Gentile nation. Now that
was a common vernacular of that day. That's the way the Jews
spoke about Gentiles. And our Lord used that same terminology. But I want you to notice that
she caught on to his words. Truth, Lord. Truth, Lord. just like a small dog under a
table, a domesticated animal. And you've got children at the
table and sometimes adults too, but things fall from the table. And before that crumb, that piece
of meat or whatever it is, hits the floor, That small dog has
already latched on to it, and it's his, and you just try to
take it from him. Before the Lord hardly finished
with these words, this woman, she latched on to those words.
Truth, Lord! But even the dogs eat the crumbs
that fall from the master's table. And you see, when she uses the
word crumbs, I think about the fact she knew that a crumb, a
loaf of bread from anyone else's table would not be sufficient. But because of who he is, the
son of God, just a crumb would be sufficient. Just a crumb would
be sufficient. I've read a story many times
over the years I asked a preacher about it the other day because
I knew I wanted to use it. And he said, I think that's in
Spurgeon's checkbook of faith. I don't have that book, but I've
read this and I assume I've read it in Spurgeon's messages over
the years. But the story goes like this,
true story. Napoleon Bonaparte was the emperor
of France. And he was a powerful man at
one time, you know that. He tried to conquer many countries
and did conquer several. But one day on the parade ground,
he was reviewing the troops. He was on his horse and his horse
became unmanageable and reared up and was about to throw the
emperor off of his horse. his horse and this private, now
remember this private, he jumped into action and he grabbed ahold
of the bridle of that horse and steadied the horse. And Napoleon
said, Captain, he's a private, Captain, what's your name? And he responded immediately,
Sir, Captain of what division? Sir, he received a promotion
from a lowly private to a captain. And I think about this woman
like a small dog. She latched on to those words
of the Lord and she took them to her advantage. She had faith. And the scripture says, her daughter
was made whole from that very hour. So I say unto us tonight,
it is true that all dogs go to heaven. All sinners who come
to him with a great need like this woman, take their place
and worship him, recognize who he is. and sue for mercy are
sure to find mercy. No question. Someone said there's
one prayer that is always answered. What is it? It's the prayer of
the sinner. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That prayer is always answered. Well, I pray the Lord would bless
this word to all of us here tonight and give us the grace to recognize
our great need and to go to him. And I know when we do, we will
find mercy. He's the God of all mercy. We're
going to sing for our closing hymn and we will be dismissed
with this hymn. But let me remind us of I made
those