and join the baby. That's sweet. I remember those who've requested
prayer. Head of the prayer list, Fred's brother, Dewey Cochran,
who's basically in hospice, in a hospice situation. So remember
him in your prayer. And also, this Jewel Henley is
a good friend of my sister Sarah, who worked with her for years
in advertising businesses, had a stroke, and she called and
requested prayer. So remember them. Now, as far
as announcements go, the Wednesday evening service is sweet. will
be canceled. We will not have Wednesday evening service. Next
Sunday, I will be preaching in Jackson, Missouri with Brother
Drew Dietz. In my absence, Brother Sam Vance
will be preaching at 11 a.m. service, but at 11 a.m. service
only, no dinner and no afternoon service. That is next Sunday,
so put that down on your list and be sure to come hear Brother
Sam preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think that's all the announcements.
Let's begin our worship service at hymn number six, Come Thou
Almighty King. ? Come Thou Almighty King ? ? Help
us, I name to sing ? Father all-glorious, Lord all-victorious,
come and reign over us, ancient of days. Come Thou incarnate
Word, gird on Thy mighty sword, our prayer attain. ? Come and
thy people bless and give thy word success ? ? Spirit of holiness
on us descend ? ? Come holy comforter, thy sacred witness bear ? ? Now who almighty art, now rule
in every heart ? ? And may from us depart, fear it afar ? ? To
the great one in three, eternal praises be ? ? It's evermore
? His sovereign majesty ? May we in glory see ? And to eternity
love and adore After scripture reading and prayer, we'll sing
at the cross, hymn number 129. If you have your Bibles, turn
with me to Matthew, the 15th chapter. begin reading with verse 21 and
read through verse 28, a familiar passage of scripture. Verse 21, Matthew 15, Then Jesus
went thence, and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon.
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.' And he answered
her, not a word. And his disciples came and besought
him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. And he answered
and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. Then came she and worshipped
him, saying, Lord, help me?" And he answered and said, It
is not meat to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs.
And she said, Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat 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. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
we thank you and bless you for the mercies that are ours new
every morning. We thank you for great grace
for ruined sinners. We thank you for the gift of
faith, which brings us to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ
for all things. We thank you for the peace that
passeth understanding and knowledge. We praise you for your kindness
and tender heartedness and mercy toward us. We pray for those
who are sick. Pray for Ms. Henley as she has
suffered this stroke. Pray for dear Cochran that his
days on this earth will end peacefully. Pray for his family as they minister
to him. Pray for the others on the prayer
list those who are shut-ins we ask lord you to watch over them help us lord to remember each
other in prayer and uphold each other to call out each other's
names in heaven father help us this hour as we've
gathered here that you might be pleased to cause us to worship
as we have seen in what we've just read what true worship is
poor sinners without help, falling at the Savior's feet
and begging for help. We beseech you by the name of
Christ to help us this hour to worship you in spirit and in
truth. Give glory to your name this
day. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Hymn number 129. And did my Savior bleed, and
did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? It was there by grace I received
my sight And now I am happy all the day he groaned upon the tree. Amazing pity, grace unknown,
and love beyond degree. At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by grace I received my sight and now I am happy all
the day. Well might the sun in darkness
hide and shut his glory cross at the cross where I first
saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by grace I received
my sight and of grief can they repay the debt
of love I owe? Dear Lord, I give myself away,
it is all that I can. At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there, my grace, I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. I'm going to ask
Steve and Grandpa to come up here and receive the album this
morning. Let us pray. Father, again, we
praise you and thank you for great mercy. We thank you for
the Lord Jesus Christ who came to this world, took on the likeness
of sinful flesh, who was without sin and knew no sin, yet was
made to be sin for your people. And they were made by his great
sacrifice to you, the very righteousness of God. We thank you for that
unspeakable gift and all the gifts that you give your children
by grace. Let us return unto thee that
which you have given us, for we know that we did not get it
ourselves, but they are gifts, and we are thankful that your
gifts and your callings are without repentance. Help us now to worship
you in this manner, we pray in Christ's name, amen. so so you I invite your attention back
to Matthew the 15th chapter to the story of this Syrophoenician
woman who came to Christ for help because her daughter was
grievously sick and vexed with the devil. Lately I've heard a lot of people
on TV and reading in different articles refer to their faith And they refer to their faith
as if it was something that changed things, moved things. But we just sang a song that
I changed one of the words in the song, From Faith to Grace,
if you noticed. And the reason is, you didn't
receive your sight by faith, you received your sight by grace.
And the sight you received was faith. That's what that happens. People talk about my faith. My
faith got me through this. But rarely, if never at all,
do I hear that faith spoken of in reference to the object of
faith in scripture, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
object of faith. subjectively understood by the
words that are written of Him in the Bible. We believe because
God has granted us faith. The miracle of that faith is
that it happens through regeneration, and that regeneration happens
through the preaching of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
For we are born, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, even
the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. And this
is the word of God, which by the gospel is preached unto you. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God. You do not have faith. You are
not born with faith. Scripture says all men have not
faith. So if you have faith, something
has taken place in your life that had nothing to do with you
GENERATING ANYTHING or WORKING UP SOMETHING or CREATING SOMETHING
IN YOURSELF that is called FAITH. If you have FAITH, you get it
one way. Paul said it this way about FAITH. FAITH CALLS ON GOD. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be SAVED is what it
says, but then it goes on to explain how that takes place.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
But how shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on
Him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? So
then, faith comes by HEARING, and HEARING by the Word of God. This woman in this text, our
Lord, the Author and FINISHER of faith, says of this woman,
she had GREAT FAITH! This is how our Lord described
her. The Lord Jesus Christ, the one
who GAVE her the faith through the preaching of the Word, says
her faith was great. Our Lord said that she had great
faith and honored her request by healing her daughter. Now,
her faith was great in many ways. It was great in that it certainly
did not fit the scheme of what religion calls faith. Religion calls faith great if
it's able to do things, or to get things done, or to get God
to do things. That's the language that's being
used today. If you'll just apply faith, exercise your faith, stir
up your faith, then God will do something. That's a lie, plain
and simple. Religion calls faith great if
a person who has it through a trial and then gives credit to her
faith for getting her through the trial. They say, That's great
faith. Our Lord only called someone's faith remarkable or great twice
in the Word of God. Here, this Gentile Syrophoenician
woman who besought Christ to help her daughter, and a centurion
who besought Christ to help his ailing servant. There are numerous
examples of faith in the Gospels. The woman with the issue of blood
believed that if she touched the hem of Christ's garment,
she would be healed. Blind Bartimaeus cried out, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. The leper who came to
Christ, which we preached on a couple weeks ago, who said,
Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Jairus came to the Lord because
his daughter was dying and was interrupted in the middle of
asking for help by this woman with the issue of blood and her
situation. And once the Lord had showed
him his power, and his virtue, Jeriah says, you don't have to
come to the house and touch her. If you just say it, you just
say it, just say it right where you're at, she'll be healed. And the Lord said, your faith
is great. Your faith is great. These all had faith and there
is no record of any one of them referring to their faith on any
level in all of the Word of God in all of the Word of God Paul
said hast thou faith have it to thyself people say my faith,
our faith, I got faith Paul said if you got it keep it to yourself
keep it to yourself You'll never hear a person in scripture say,
I have faith. You will never hear a person
who's been given faith refer to his own faith in anything
other than to say that it's a gift of God and the fact that it's
a gift precludes all boasting in anything but the God who gave
it. How was this woman's faith and
the faith of the censerion great? Several things are revealed about
these two. First, both of them interceded
for someone else. I'm of the persuasion that have
been for some time. The problem with the people in
the world today, generally speaking, is that everything's about them.
Everything. personal, me, mine, mine, I got
it. Listen, you want to help yourself,
get outside yourself. Help somebody else. That'll help
you more than anything else. You know why? Because you'll
stop thinking about yourself. Introspection never helps. It never helps. These people,
for the love of another, sought help from the Lord Jesus Christ.
And for both of these their faith was manifest in importunity.
They became beggars. They became beggars. They did
not come to Christ with a sense of entitlement. I got faith!
Or looking to impress Christ or to obligate Him because they
had faith. They didn't even know they had
faith. They just knew that they believed He could do something.
They didn't have a NAME for it, probably. They came as beggars
to mercy's door. They both came with an understanding
that if anything was to be done, THEY couldn't do it. If anything
was to be done, the Lord Jesus Christ would have to do it for
them. They both understood that if Christ was so INCLINED They
would receive goodness at his hand if he was so inclined. The thing about being a beggar
is that you're utterly dependent on the kindness of someone else.
We don't have any beggars in this land anymore. We do have
homeless people and things like that who are called panhandlers
and some of them are beggars. But I've been to nations in this
world where people actually, being a beggar is handed down
as a heritage and a lineage of a family. If your grandfather
was a beggar, you're going to be a beggar too. And they have
to get licenses and permits to beg and they know how to beg
and they all do well. A lot of them live in fine houses
and drive fine cars, these beggars. But one thing they're all dependent
upon is for some benefactor to stick his hand in his pocket
and put something in their cup. That's what a beggar is. A beggar
doesn't have any rights. He doesn't have any privileges.
All he has is a need. Many years ago, I've told this
story of a fellow who told me that he and his wife and children
had walked all the way from Tennessee to Cherokee. Had walked up over
the mountain to down the mountain and they were staying at a campground
up in SoCo. And he called me, as sometimes
people do, called the preachers if the preacher helped them out.
And I was more than willing to help him out. He called me and
said he'd walked that way, and I was, I thought, I didn't believe
him, but you know, I thought, he's trying to impress me, so
I see what's going on. He said, we're starving, we're
hungry. I said, okay. I said, you're not far from the
IGA, right there where the IGA used to be. I said, you go to
the IGA, I'll meet you there, and I'll buy you a basket full
of groceries and make sure your family's fed. And he says, well, where's it
at? And I said, it's about a quarter mile from where you're at. He
said, a quarter mile? You want me to walk? I said,
you just walked from Tennessee. Shouldn't be a big problem. He
says, you want me to walk down there? I said, well, beggars
can't be choosers. He said, I'm no beggar. I said,
you ain't getting nothing either. The beggar depends on someone
else. And the real message of faith
in scripture, those who exercise faith, these two, this centurion
and this Syrophoenician woman who exercise faith, when they
exercise faith, it is revealed as great faith when they were
beggars at Mercy Store. This is what faith is? Well,
I thought I could move mountains. Go ahead and give it a shot.
How you do it? When our Lord said your faith is a mustard
seed, you can move mountains, He's not saying you can get that
kind of faith. He's saying you don't have that kind of faith
and you never will and what faith you have can't do it. These both understood that if
Christ was so inclined, sovereignty was attributed to Him that He
could do it. for them. In every case where
faith is manifest and where it's called great, it has a singular
object. Faith comes to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Faith looks to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Faith begs help from the Lord
Jesus Christ. In every faith, every time faith
is exercised in scripture, it comes in weakness, in frailty,
Not in strength. It applies to someone's ability
outside its own. It applies to God's ability and
not its own ability. Faith believes Christ. Faith
ONLY believes. That's what our Lord said. All
things are possible if you only believe. Now, people put the
wrong emphasis only believe. They put the emphasis on believe.
The emphasis is on only. Don't do anything else but believe.
ONLY believe. That blessed comment is distinctively
restrictive. Only means do NOTHING but believe. Do you believe? Wait a minute
preacher, we've got to get out of here. DO NOTHING but believe
because believe will drive you to Christ and He'll fix the situation. We must put feet to our prayers.
ONLY believe. Faith finds Christ when religion
has no idea where He is. This woman Christ was hiding
from the Pharisees. He had been fed up with the Pharisees.
This woman found Him. According to Mark 7, the report
of this, He was hiding, but she found Him because those who are
in NEED and those who BELIEVE will find Christ and nothing
will stop them. Faith's modus operandi is NEED
OF CHRIST. This is where faith rests-always
need of Christ and never presumed power or influence or ability
with God. That's the WRONGNESS and the
SIN of what's called religion today. They believe that if you
have faith, you somehow have POWER with God, and somehow your
faith can get God to do something. They believe that faith is some
kind of spigot of grace, some kind of spigot of blessing, that
you can turn it on and get stuff. That's why preachers in this
world today preach a health, wealth gospel. They preach if
you're sick, just tell that sickness, rebuke that sickness and it'll
go away. My daughter had leukemia. Had three kids and had leukemia. the kind that kills you and I prayed every day and every
night sometimes with my eyes full of tears for my daughter
who's in her forties but she should always be my little girl but I didn't say now I have faith
Lord now you got to do something cause I got faith you know I'd never pray that
nobody prays like that except idiots and liars and blasphemers. And I prayed. I sought the Lord. I said, Lord, you can do something
for us. Something ain't gonna get done. If you don't help her, if you
don't guide those doctors, nothing's gonna help. I knew
I couldn't do anything. I'm a believer. God had given
me faith a long time ago, but I knew my faith couldn't do anything
about it. So my faith drove me to Jesus Christ. There I rested
in Him. And miracle of miracles, she
was healed. She got her brother's blood and her brother's marrow. And now she's got her brother's
DNA. But she don't have cancer no
more. It's a need. When faith is expressed
in these situations, especially when our Lord performs miracles
like this one, it's always out of need. This passage in Matthew
is a record of the disciples' reaction to this woman. And as
the disciples being educated here, the disciples had been walking
with the Lord Jesus Christ for some time. They still didn't
get it. They still hadn't got the message yet. In fact, our
Lord, when He left this world, He says that when the Holy Spirit
comes, He's going to teach you some things that are going to
be hard for you to get a hold of or hard for you to understand. These
disciples had a notion about who were the children of God.
They were all Israelites. They were the chosen nation. They were the people of God.
They knew that they were the elect of God of all the nations
on the face of the earth. They had been raised to believe
that they were true Israel. and that the rest of the world
was just a bunch of dogs and useless curves. This is not a metaphorical appellation
given to describe the character of the Gentiles. They believed
that the Gentiles were not human. They believed that this woman
was not human, but rather were beast of the field. One Jewish writer said the idolatrous
Gentiles are called men, that they are comparable to the
beasts of the field, to oxen, rams, goats, and asses. The fetus in the bowels of a
Canaanite servant, they say, is like the fetus in the bowels
of a beast. They didn't think they were just
less human. They thought they were not human.
The disciples who walked with Jesus Christ this day believed
that the woman who was beseeching help from Jesus Christ this day
was not a human being. She was a dog. She was a dog. The disciples still had that
there were some virtues, some merit in the practice of outward
cleanliness. The first part of this chapter
is cleaning the cup and washing your hands before you eat. That
they believed that the outward cleanliness was next to righteousness. It was a kind of righteousness
or it produced righteousness. That's where we get that old
saying, cleanliness is next to godliness. It's not in the Bible,
by the way. Nowhere in the Bible The disciples needed to know
some things, and divine providence brought this woman to this place
on this day, and get ready, sit down in your school desk, disciples. You're about to go to school.
You're about to learn something about who God came to save. They believe He came to save
them. Israel alone. There are people today who stand
in pulpit and say, Hey, that's where it's happening, folks.
It's all about that nation Israel. It ain't about that nation Israel. It ain't about that nation Israel.
That nation Israel was set aside and divorced in the book of Isaiah.
That nation Israel has NOTHING about it today in its so-called
worship that has anything to do with the Bible that it holds
true from Genesis to Malachi. In order to worship God as a
Jew, as a Jewish person, you must have a PRIEST, a HIGH PRIEST,
You must have an altar, which is the Ark of the Covenant, that
must be there. And you must have a sacrifice,
a lamb, a paschal lamb, a lamb without spite or blemish. You've
got to have those three things. And in all of Jewish worship
today, there's no high priesthood, there's
no tribal identity, There's no altar and there's no sacrifice. There's eggs and dreidels, not
much else. So they who call themselves Israel
don't go by what the Bible says is how Israel worships God. Is that a real nation? It's an
absolute real nation. Is God done with it? Governmentally,
I don't know. But as far as spiritually, true
Israel is something else altogether. something else altogether. They
learned something that day, and they needed to learn. They learned
that the sinner in need, the believer, cannot be offended
by God. People get offended today. I
have never seen so much people getting offended. I saw a woman
yesterday on the news. She was a journalist, and because
people had said things about what she said, she said, I have
PTSD. I've got friends who served time
in Vietnam. I've got friends who served time
in Desert Storm who have PTSD. And they're broken. I got a friend
who's been out of Vietnam for many years. He still suffers
from it. Still suffers from it. And this
silly woman stands up and says, somebody said something against
what I said. I got PTSD. I could think of some other words
to go along with those letters, but I won't say what they are. Some people are offended by the
gospel. When you tell them God doesn't love everybody, they
say, oh, my soul, that can't be right. Well, the Bible says
that. Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated. He hateth
the workers of iniquity. The Bible says that. When you
tell them Christ didn't die for everybody, that offends them.
But the Bible clearly says that by the words of our Lord Himself,
He said, I lay down my life for the sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and they
follow me, and I give to them eternal life. Died for His people
according to the scriptures. When you tell people God is sovereign,
wait a minute, He can't be sovereign. How can God let this happen over
here? Let it happen. God is the first cause of all
things. Just don't try to figure Him
out because your thoughts are not His thoughts, neither are
your ways His ways. As high as the heaven is above the earth,
so high are His thoughts and ways above your thoughts and
ways. Don't try to figure Him out. He's God and you're not. These believers, these so-called
believers, these disciples, they learned that day that religion
can be offended. They were offended. Get rid of
this woman! She's worrying us! Religion can be offended, but
a believer can't be offended with the truth. When this woman
besought Christ with a true need, what'd he do? He didn't speak
to her. Wait a minute! Jesus is always
there. Jesus is not always there. The Lord said to Israel many
years ago in Isaiah chapter 1, He said, Go ahead and pray, I
ain't going to hear it. Go ahead and lift your hand. Go ahead and give the oblations,
your sacrifices. I weigh with them. I hate them.
They ain't nothing to them. Religion believes that because
of what they do and how they live that God is obligated or
obliged to listen to them. I grew up in a religion like
that where they told me if I did certain things more, God would
pay more attention to me, pray and read my Bible. The gospel
is offensive because it lays all of man's doings in the dust
and accounts that man is what the Bible says he is. and that's what our Lord did
to this woman. She comes, she said, Lord, help me, and Lord,
help me, and he just sort of didn't talk. The disciples did. After he turned his back on her,
she ran to the disciples and said, please, tell your Lord
to help me out. Help me out. And they were bothered by this.
Get away from us. They went to the Lord and said,
would you tell her to leave? She's getting on her last nerve.
But here's what your works and your doing and your trying is
to God. Nothing. Just write it down. It means nothing. What means
something to God is Jesus Christ. What recommends you to God is
Jesus Christ alone. Religion is appalled at the idea
that God might not respond to them. They're appalled with that
idea. Many years ago, Henry Mahan was
talking to a man, telling him about the gospel. He said, oh,
I ain't worried about that. I'm going to heaven. And Henry
says, how come you think you're going to heaven? He says, well,
I'll show you. And he reached in his pocket
and pulled out a Shriner's card. He said, there's my ticket to
heaven right there. He said, well, what if you get there before
God and He won't accept that? He said, oh, He will. Henry says, how come? He said,
that's what He's there for, to accept me, because I'm a shrine. That's what He's there for. That's
what the man said. That's what people believe. Why
do you apply? Well, that's what He's there
for. This woman might have had the thought that that was what
He's there for, but I don't think she did, because she had a great
need. She wasn't concerned about that. But she found out quick
that that's not what he was there for because he turned his back
on her and wouldn't speak to her. Wouldn't speak to her. The believer knows
that help comes from the Lord and it comes at his good pleasure. His good pleasure. It's his glory,
you see, to have mercy on whom he will have mercy and be gracious
unto whom he will be gracious. That's the first lesson they
learn. A sinner can't be offended by God. Many years ago, Larry
Perlman was riding in the backseat of a car with a bunch of preachers.
Started talking about predestination. One preacher said, if I preach
predestination, my poor petite will throw me out. He needs to
be thrown out. Right now, kick him to the curb. Kick him to the curb. What God
does is what he pleases in heaven and earth and in the sea and
in all deep places. That's the difference between
the God of Scripture and this man-made God who is at the beck
and call of poor, vile creatures. Standing up there and preachers
everywhere say, well, God wants to do this. God wants to do that.
God wants to help you. God just wants to. Won't you
let Him? If God wants to help you, you
know what you're going to get? Help. Because God does what He
wants to do. Secondly, they learned that natural
Israel is not true Israel. Because he looked at this woman,
he was talking about this woman as they talked to him, he said,
in verse 23 and 24 of our text, he said, but he answered her,
he was talking to her, and his disciples came and sent her away. Then he answered and said, I'm
not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This
probably perked their ears. All right, we can get rid of her
now. We're Israel. She's a Syro-Phoenician dog."
That day they learned what true Israel was. Our Lord spoke these
words to His disciples, not to this woman. By declaring this
woman's faith to be great, He was declaring that she was the
lost sheep of the house of Israel because He came to her. That's
what He was saying. I'm not simply the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. Who's that? Oh, great faithful. That's who the house of Israel
is. That's what the scripture says. Paul said in Romans chapter
9 and verse 6, all that is Israel is not Israel. All that's of
Israel is not Israel. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. Read Galatians, you'll find out what that means. Romans
chapter 2 said, he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, The one
who is inwardly, whose circumcision is of the heart and not of the
flesh, whose praise is of God and not of men. Philippians chapter
3, Paul said, we believers, talking to Philippian Gentiles, we believers
are the circumcision. Well, how do you know? Because
we worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the
flesh. These Jews learned that day who
true Israel was. This was a lesson for them. They learned what true worshipping
was. In verse 25 it says, Then came she worshipping, saying,
Lord, help me. There you go. That's as good
as it's going to get. That's as clear a definition.
It says, This is the way she worshipped him. She came worshipping
him, saying, Lord, help me. You know what all worship is?
It's Lord, help me. People come to church and say,
well, I didn't get nothing out of the worship service. Well,
worship ain't for you. It's to honor Him. It's to say,
Your Sovereign, help me. Worship is honoring God, not
getting something. Honor and glory is due Him, not
us. Not us. They learned that washing
their hands or the religiosity of saying that you have dedicated
your stuff to the Lord, which is what they said in the first
seven verses of this chapter, true worship was beseeching the
Lord for help. In fact, this word worship is
an interesting word. It's a combination of two Greek
words which means this, dog licking. Fred loves his dogs. You ever had a dog? I've had
dogs, had five or six of them here, but they kept getting run
over, so I got tired of burying them, so I don't have dogs no
more. Every dog I ever had, you know what they'd do? I'd fuss
at them. What's wrong with you? They'd
get low, their head would get down, you know what they'd do?
They wouldn't run away. They'd come up and they'd lick my shoes.
What were they doing? They was worshiping me. That's what a dog does for his
master. He worships him. True worship is ascribing to
God the honor that is due him. In fact, in Psalm 29, it says
that this is what the congregation does. All those in the congregation
give glory to God continuously. True worship is born of great
need and expressed in beseeching the Lord for mercy. She worshiped
him saying, Lord, help me. The fourth thing they learn is
that true faith takes the place that God assigns. She said, Lord,
my daughter, my daughter's grievously vexed with the devil. Lord, help
me. She worshiped him saying, Lord, help me. And he said, well,
you know, it's not really right. This is a lesson for the disciples.
Not really right to give the master's meat to the dogs. He's saying she's a dog. Now he didn't mean it the way
they meant it. But he meant it. Because she came as a dog licking
his feet. He said, it's not meat for me. He said, don't you know I've
come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? When you asked
for help, I turned away and wouldn't listen to you. You're not one
of the elect!" That's basically what the disciple said. You're
not one of the elect. But she was. She came to him. He said, it's
not meat for me to give the master's food. to take the children's
bread, what belongs to the children. Remember he said the lost sheep
of the house of Israel is not meat or suitable for me to take
the children's bread and cast it to dogs. This was a tough room that day,
wasn't it? This was a tough room. And what'd she do? My Lord, in no small reference
to the words that mean worship, calls this woman a dog. So she
gladly did what? She took the place of the dog. The Bible says you're a sinner and I'm a sinner. That don't mean that you're bad
but not quite as bad as Joe Blow down the street. or the drunk
that lays in the gutter. It doesn't mean that. It doesn't
mean you fine ladies here this morning are sinners, but you're
not whores on 52nd Street in New York City. Men say, I know I'm a sinner,
but I ain't like them perverts and homosexuals running around
today. I like them. Yes, you are. if you take the
place that God has assigned you. Drinking, iniquity, like water. Vile, unclean, undone, crooked, blasphemous, transgressors, dark in your mind, filthy in
your heart and your soul, wicked to the very cellular structure
of your humanity, impotent, lame, halt, dead, doomed, damned, dying, I had a friend in the service
many years ago. We'd get in arguments. He was
a great big fella. His name was Seymour. He was
about this tall. He was a black man, a basketball
player. We was the best of buddies. They were serving time in England
together. And we'd get in arguments and fuss, and I'd call him all
kinds of things, because my language was kind of salty back then. And he'd look at me and say,
I don't have to be all that. That's what men are saying. when
they refuse to take the place that God has assigned them. It's not meat for me to give
the children bread to dogs. So what did she do? She took
the place of a dog. She bowed like Caleb, whose name
means the fateful dog, Or as Mephibosheth, who sat at the
king's table, but said, I'm a dead dog. You see, a dog waits for what
is left, the crumbs left after the children have eaten. The
other night, we were texting, or not texting, what are you,
Skyping, or FaceTiming with our daughter Sarah out. Las Vegas,
she has this old dog she thought was a basset hound, but he's
bigger than a basset hound. He goes in about 80 pounds, nothing
but solid meat. And while she was talking to
us, she had a cinnamon bud on the table over here. And all
of a sudden, we hear this high-pitched whine. This huge dog's got this
little old teeny whine, almost like a whistle. And she looks
at me. She says, you're not getting
my cinnamon bud. But she got up and left, and he's up there
looking at that cinnamon bun. He's waiting for the crumbs.
They wanted the whole thing, but he knew he'd probably get
to lick that plate anyway. He was a dog. He was a dog. One Jewish writer wrote, a king
provides a dinner for the children of his house. While they do his
will, they eat their And he gives to the dogs the parts of bones
to gnaw. But when the children of the
house do not the king's pleasure, he gives the dogs the dinner
and the bones to them. Even so, while the Israelites
do the will of God, they eat at the king's table, and feast
is provided for them. And they of their own will give
the bones to the Gentiles. But when they do not the will
of the Lord, lo, the feast is for the dogs, and the bones or
theirs. Thou preparest a table before
me, David said, in the presence of thine enemies. Who are the
enemies? The dogs of the table. In this scenario in our text,
who gets to eat at the master's table? Not the hypocrites who
give lip service, but the dog under the table waiting for the
crumb of mercy. That's who gets to eat. I can't
give the children's bread to the dog, but I'm your dog. I'll be your dog. I'm your dog. Have you so learned, Christ? Can you take the place that is
assigned to you in Scripture, where the dog or the maggot or
the dumb hillbagger? Many years ago, Loretta was talking
to a woman. This was probably 30 years ago. And she said, I'm nothing but
a maggot. She said, where'd you hear that? I said, that's what
the preacher told me. Maggot? I'm not afraid of maggots because
I'm not corrupting. See, a maggot only eats corruption.
He doesn't eat real flesh, clear flesh. That's what we are. A
maggot eats corruption. Can you become the beggar at
the door of sovereign mercy? Will you slink off in anger when
you find out that He's chosen a people for Himself? Will you
willingly and gladly take your place beneath the Master's table?
I find this in Scripture. I now know salvation is of the
Lord. It's up to Him whom He saves. It's up to Him whom He
shows mercy. It's up to Him whom He shows
compassion. But I've found this. whoever
sought him for help in this book and who disregarded all but him
has ever been turned away. But they didn't come chewing their blowgum and popping
their blowgum and acting like they were entitled. They came
on their face believing Only believe. Only. Only believe. I pray God give you faith to
do just that. Father, bless us to understand and pray in Christ's
name.