We turn in the Word of God this evening to Matthew 15. Matthew chapter 15. We are going to read tonight the first 29 verses of this chapter. And our text is going to be found in verses 21 through 28. We won't read those verses again. Verses 21 through 28. We begin reading in verse 1. Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother, and he that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition, ye hypocrites. Well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And he called the multitude and said unto them, Hear and understand. Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. Then came his disciples and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Let them alone. They be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding? Do not ye yet understand that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the drought? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashing hands defileth not a man. Now here begins our text tonight. Then Jesus went thence and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. Behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts 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 am 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 meat 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 their 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. And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain, and sat down there. This far we've read God's word tonight. As I mentioned, our text this evening is found in verses 21 through 28 of this chapter, the account of the Gentile woman coming to Jesus. The three and a half years of Jesus' earthly ministry were drawing quickly to a close. The life of our Savior was really in peril. The wicked leaders of the Jews showed open hostility toward Jesus in whatever time that they could. In fact, they had banned people from the various synagogues if they had even mentioned the name of Jesus aloud to others. The wicked Jews in Jerusalem attempted to stone him a couple of different times so that he could no longer walk freely in that city. So Matthew informs us in verse 21 here that Jesus departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. Now, Tyre and Sidon were two major cities in a nation that lay just north of Palestine, Phoenicia. So Jesus, we are told, departed to the coasts of Phoenicia, but evidently he did not depart out of the coasts of Israel or Canaan itself or Galilee. And we say that because this Phoenician woman who came to meet Jesus, we learn in verse 22, came out of the coasts of Phoenicia in order to talk with Jesus. But Jesus had now removed himself, and he had done that sufficiently to get away from the open hostility of the Jews, and that in order to rest for a little while with his disciples. Mark informs us in his gospel account that Jesus now with his disciples resided in a house. Jesus did not want to attract any attention to himself, so he kept himself from the public eye by sitting inside in that with his disciples. Yet, it seems that as much as it was Jesus' desire not to be seen openly among the people, a Syrophoenician woman, or as Matthew describes her, a woman of Canaan, was calling to Jesus from outside of that house where he and his disciples sat. That was drawing attention to Jesus and his whereabouts. And as a result of that, that set on course the events now that take place in the passage that we consider tonight. The daughter of this woman had a devil, or an unclean spirit that had taken control of her. That spirit vexed her grievously, Matthew tells us. It caused distress, frustration, hurt, pain. And the mother of this daughter was concerned for her, whether she might even take her own life because she loved her daughter. So worried was she that she, a Gentile woman, was willing to leave her coasts to go to the nation of Israel and speak to Jesus, a Jew, knowing full well that the Jews would have nothing to do with the Gentiles. We wish to examine tonight the humble attitude of this Gentile woman. It's not so much the miracle itself that to which we're going to direct our attention this evening as much as this woman herself and her humility that she showed before Jesus Christ. What she acknowledges to Christ here is what we are called to acknowledge concerning our own selves. and we only as children of the household of faith. Her assessment of herself must be the same assessment that we must make of ourselves because her acknowledgement, you see, flowed out of faith. And one who truly has faith views himself or herself no differently than what this Gentile woman would view herself. This was the gracious, the divine intent of our Lord, too, in the seemingly harsh way that he dealt with this woman, to lead her to express her faith in him. Our theme tonight, therefore, is in the plural in order to indicate that not only does this instruction of the passage apply to this woman in particular, but to all of us. So we consider tonight mercy upon dogs. Mercy upon dogs. In the first place, a humble confession. Secondly, a blessed gift. And then finally, a divine revelation. The Gentile woman of this passage, we consider, makes the most humble expression of her faith in Jesus Christ. And yet, it is not a confession that she spoke immediately. It was drawn out of her heart, and it was placed upon her lips by means of the actions and the words of Jesus Christ. You see, evidently this woman stood outside of the house where Jesus sat with His disciples. And from there, she shouted loudly to Him as He was sitting in the house. The words that she was now loudly proclaiming to Jesus were words of a plea. We find them in verse 22. Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil." Now, who could resist sympathizing with this woman in her need? Her need, after all, was not her own. The need was that of her daughter, that she loved very much. As we had mentioned, her daughter had a demon in her. A horrible malady that fell upon quite a few different people during Jesus' earthly ministry, it seems. The devil would enter into a person to take over not only her soul, that is now her mind, and her desires, but would take over her body. And a devil within a person caused extreme agony, so much so that a person would groan, oftentimes cutting themselves, because though that devil was inside of them, they were still fully aware that it was the devil in them that was taking control of their actions and oftentimes their words and their deeds. In many different instances, we read of these people that were possessed cutting themselves or rolling around, groveling in the dirt, just groaning because of that possession. So much so that sometimes they even thought of killing themselves. Now that was true of this woman's daughter. And her cry, therefore, was on behalf of this girl. daughter, one that was very dear to her heart. Matthew explains to us in verse 23 that Jesus didn't answer her a word. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. Evidently, the cry of this woman was not just shouted one time, but she repeatedly shouted that from the outside, calling to Jesus within that house. The disciples knew that Jesus really wished to be alone and didn't want really to be bothered or known that he was in that house, so his disciples became rather quickly agitated by this woman calling forth into the house by Jesus. In their minds, because Jesus did not answer this woman, he himself would have preferred to just send her away. So they besought or they asked Jesus to send her away or to order to stop crying out. Jesus responded in this way. We read in verse 24 of our text, I am not sent. but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." He spoke those words not to the woman. He spoke those words to his disciples. He was ignoring the woman. But he did speak those words loudly enough for the woman to hear, as well as his disciples. And in these words, Jesus was teaching, therefore, both his disciples and this woman that it was not his task to go and to preach and perform miracles upon the Gentile people. He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now that statement is striking from two points of view. First, it points out clearly that God at this point had not yet intended to spread the gospel or salvation to the Gentiles, not so long as Jesus yet walked upon the face of the earth. It would happen, but it would happen in God's own time. And it would happen after the death and the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus on the day of Pentecost. That's when the church spread outside of the Jews and the nation of Israel and to the Gentile people. But that was not Jesus' task. Jesus' task was to preach and to bring to faith and repentance the lost sheep of the house of Israel." In other words, his calling as Savior at that particular time was within the realm of the church, within the realm of the house of Israel. And he was sent by God to the lost sheep of Israel. the sheep that were lost. In other words, he was not sent to seek and to save everybody in that nation of Israel, either. He was sent to seek and to save the lost sheep of that house of Israel, those who knew their sin, those who were wallowing in their misery over sin. He came to die on the cross for those lost sheep. That in the first place. Secondly, Jesus spoke this loudly enough for the woman to hear his comments. She, in her heathen nation, stood outside of God's church in this world. To use the words of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2, verse 12, she and her nation were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God. She and her people walked in unbelief and sin, and she and her nation had placed their trust in their pagan gods, their heathen gods, and they did not place their trust in the true God of heaven and earth. She was totally unworthy of any mercy toward her. Why would Christ, who had come to seek and to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel, why would He show her any attention? That was the intent of Jesus when He said those words aloud to His disciples in her hearing. Now, that statement of Jesus sparked, actually, a second exchange of words between Him and this persistent Gentile woman. She now approached the door of the house and perhaps even stepped just inside that door of the house, and she worshiped Jesus, we are told. That is to say, she bowed down before Jesus. Now, she paid homage to him by means of bowing before him, and in humility, She fell to her knees before our Savior and with pleading eyes, she looked up to him and she said, Lord, help me. Help me. Now there's reason to believe that Jesus' response that he gives to this woman is not something that he speaks directly to her once again. In other words, he was still ignoring her in this response that he was giving. He spoke it to his disciples, or at least he spoke it aloud in the house while she knelt there before him, without looking at her. And we say that because, well, in verse 28, of our text, we find that Jesus finally answered and said unto her. In other words, now in the last part of his conversation, he speaks unto her directly. But here in verse 26, we simply read that Jesus answered and said. In other words, Jesus acted if she did not even deserve to have him speak to her yet, even though she was bowing down there before him and looking up at him and saying, Lord, help me. The words that he speaks sound rather hard and calloused, without any pity, without any mercy. No doubt Jesus was still emphasizing her unworthiness as a Gentile unbeliever. So we read these verses, these words of Jesus in verse 26. It is not meat to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. Now that had to sting. people of Israel were God's children. He adopted Israel by His grace out of all of the nations of this world to be His children, children of His household. And these children were the ones who sat about the Master's table, enjoying fellowship with their Heavenly Father, because it was the nation of Israel, the children, who were children of the covenant that God had established now with the nation of Israel. The bread they ate was that of salvation that had now come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So Jesus says basically to his disciples in the presence of this woman who is bowing down before her, It is not meat, that the bread that's given to the children, the household of Israel now, be given to dogs. Dogs. And literally what Jesus meant by that word dogs there, refers to stray dogs. who wandered about the streets of the city as scavengers. They were mongrels, dogs who belonged to no one, who had no home and therefore no business entering into any person's house and eating even the scraps that fall from the table. In other words, Jesus, in essence, was calling this woman a dog, a stray, a no-count, a mongrel that deserved nothing from him because she was not of the household of faith. That certainly does not seem very much in keeping with the instruction that the Apostle Paul gives to Timothy. When he says to Timothy, that one who speaks with others must be gentle toward all men, patient in meekness instructing others. I mean, This was a slap in the face of this woman. But remember, people of God, we're speaking about our Lord here and our Savior. And let's not forget that by means of these harsh words, he was at the same time working by his grace in the very heart of that woman that was now kneeling before him. And the words that this woman now speaks to Jesus surely are a testimony to that work of God's grace that was taking place in her heart at that time. And she said, verse 27, truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. What she said there was at one and the same time clever and shows her extreme humility. Truth, Lord, what you have just said is exactly right. I am not worthy of anything from you. I do not deserve your attention. much less the miracle that I'm asking for. Spiritually, I'm a dog. But when she said that word dog, she said something different than what Jesus said when he said that he would not give the crumbs of the table to dogs. She basically said to him, I'm not astray. And I'm not a mongrel, because the term that she uses here for dog refers to a household puppy, a family pet, who would feed by the feet of the children off the floor when the crumbs were spilled on the floor. I may not be of the house of Israel, I may not be fit or worthy to sit at the table with the children, but I lie on the floor, Lord. I lie on the floor by the feet of those children, and I eat of those scraps that fall there. I will eat of your scraps. Have mercy on me, Lord, and give me a scrap. Beloved Saints, that you and I can be given such humility that we find in the heart and upon the lips of this woman. May we see ourselves as unworthy sinners Saved only by grace. Lord, have mercy on us. Because we, in ourselves, spiritually, are no better than dogs. What a rather fitting description of our own depravity. We deserve nothing from God. We have been given the distinct privilege, you and I, of sitting about the master's table. We are those children who are of the household of faith. But can we lift ourselves up, people of God and pride, and boast that we deserve that place that we have been given about the table of our Father? We certainly cannot boast in ourselves. Our boast is always in our Lord Jesus Christ alone, and the salvation that He has earned for you and me on the cross. Nowhere else can it be found. Nowhere else. Certainly not in us. Not as we are in ourselves. We are spiritual dogs apart from the working of God's grace and spirit in you and me. Apart from the work of that sanctifying Lord who went the way of the cross in order to cleanse you and me of our sins. This humble admission of the Gentile woman flowed forth out of her, out of a heart of faith. And we could say that, of course, because Jesus soon will say that to her, a woman great is thy faith. Notice, notice her faith. First she says, O Lord, thou son of David. She had heard. somehow, somewhere, that Jesus was that Messiah who had now been sent by God to Israel. She was granted by God a certain knowledge, that's faith, a certain knowledge, by which she embraced Christ, Lord, Master, Ruler, thou son of David, that Messiah that has been promised to come and sit upon the throne of David and rule over the nation of Israel. She addresses him as such. Secondly, she worshipped him. She fell down on her knees before him, bowed before him, paid homage unto him. Certainly when we get on our knees before our God, that's what we do. We pay homage unto our God. She recognized the divinity of Jesus Christ. She saw that this man before her was capable of talking to a devil and then Casting him out of that daughter. She believed that. She was confident. There's faith again. Not only did she know, she was confident that this Lord who stood before her could cast out that devil. And then in the third place, she was mindful of her own sin. and of her own unworthiness. We see that in all of her responses. All of that. She realized that the only reason that Jesus would heal her daughter would first be by forgiving her of her own sin. Lord, be merciful to me. Not, Lord, be merciful to my daughter and cast the devil out of her. Lord, be merciful to me. Show me thy mercy. Forgive my sin and my unbelief. And then accept me into your presence. And then answer my plea. That was her faith. A faith, once again, that ought to characterize you and me. We cast ourselves, don't we? on the mercy of our Savior, knowing that He alone is able to transform you and me from those who were spiritual strangers, alienated from God because of our sin, was able to transform us from that to those children who can sit about the Master's table. It is because of God's mercy that we are not consumed. And we thank Him for that mercy. We'll come back to that in just a moment. First of all, we listen now to the response of Jesus to this woman in verse 28. 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. What a blessed gift! This woman received from Christ. Her daughter was made whole, and the devil, at that very moment, was cast out of her daughter. And Mark explains it this way in his account. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon her bed. Christ knew the faith of this woman. Of course he did. Christ worked that faith in the heart of that woman. To the eye, to the ear, It seems that Jesus was very hard on that woman. But through this entire incident, our Savior was working in her heart that faith in Him. And now He acknowledges exactly what He has worked in her heart. O woman, great is thy faith! What a contrast to the people of Israel. to the Jewish leaders who even now sought to kill Jesus for being the Christ. I mean, the verses that we read prior to this indicate the attitude of the Jews toward Jesus. Now this woman stands as a witness, mind you, against the people of Israel. May she not, beloved saints, Stand as a witness against you and me. May we not fail to see the work of God's grace and mercy in our own lives. Now, just because the emphasis here falls on the faith of this woman does not mean that we may overlook the significance of this miracle that Jesus had now performed. Every miracle Jesus performed, and I used to remind my students in catechism of this when we studied New Testament history and all the miracles that Jesus performed, all those miracles pointed to the fact that Jesus was actually the divine Son of God. He cast out a devil from this girl, but more. He cast out a devil from that girl, never having even seen that girl. And yet he knew who that girl was. And he cast the devil out of her. More than that. He didn't cast that devil out of her in person. He did it from a distance. In other words, he even knew the devil himself that was haunting that girl and was able to cast him out of her. Surely, that can only mean one thing. Jesus is the divine Son of God, no doubt about it, who accomplishes our salvation. He's overcome the power of Satan and his minions over you and me, the devils that are sent out to tempt us and to lure us away from our faith. Christ, through His cross, overcame those foes, and He overcame those foes, and He preserves us in our faith. We are His subjects now, and we have been set free from the devil. and Satan and his minions, so that we might be able to serve our Lord. And that miracle stands really in perfect harmony with the very heart of the Word of God before us tonight. Truly, the blessed gift this woman received was not the healing of her daughter as blessed as a gift as that was. But this was the gift. She obtained mercy of God. I said we were going to come back to that whole idea of mercy. That was the gift that she received. Let's not forget what God's mercy is. It is his love and His compassion by which He pities you and me in our saddest state of sin and in all of the misery that sin causes us in our lives. And He reaches forth His almighty hand and His gracious hand. And in His mercy, He draws us forth out of that misery and out of that sin. And He does that by sending forth His Son into this world in order to cover our sins in His blood. Being the Son of God, as He has proved now with this miracle, being the Son of God, Christ is able to do that for us. He bore the eternal wrath of God against our sin. and he's earned for us place in the favor and the fellowship of our God. In his mercy has come to us the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and he has made us worthy partakers of the master's table. So we sit about that table, of the Lord, and we feast upon the salvation that Jesus Christ has earned for us. He has mercy upon us. He has shown us that. And this woman may have been a Gentile, but she walked away from this with the joy of her salvation, too. Joy because she heard Jesus say to her, Oh woman, great is your faith. She was granted a place around the master's table. She was granted freely fellowship with God through the forgiveness of sins. Why? Because God was merciful to her too, just as he is to you and to me. Consider that gift of God once. Can any of us here tonight actually lift ourselves up in pride and say that we are worthy in ourselves to have a seat around the table of our Heavenly Father? We are such sinners. I'm not so squeaky clean that I am somehow impressing God by what I do. We confess together that apart from the work of God's grace in our hearts, apart from the work of God in His love and in His mercy, we are spiritual dogs who must cast ourselves upon our Savior. And we humbly bow before God, and we plead, have mercy upon me, O Lord. And you know what? He shows us mercy. He answers our plea. He grants us the blessed gift of the forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus. And that results in the joy that we can experience now as God's people. Salvation freely received. Christ tells us that though our sins are as scarlet, that in his blood you and I are washed whiter than the snow. What an amazing work. Only in the blood of Christ. Power of the devil is destroyed. I want to come back briefly to the outstanding feature of this account, and then I'll quit. We cannot begin to appreciate, beloved saints, the response of this woman to Jesus' treatment of her. If this woman had come to Jesus in unbelief, just looking for a miracle and nothing more, you can better believe it that she would have turned away from Jesus in anger and frustration. She would have hated him, and she would have hated the Jews all the more, if that's all she came with in unbelief. She comes to Jesus, after all, with a plea, a cry for help, and he doesn't so much as even acknowledge her. He acted as if she wasn't even there. And then when she falls before him on her knees and says, Lord, help me. Jesus ignores her and he answers her so harshly. He shuns her. Now, how many of us would not be hurt if somebody that we came to and started talking to shunned us? Our first impulse, we would retaliate in anger, wouldn't we? This woman did not do that. When Jesus ignored her and spoke to his disciples, she did not turn away in pride. She did not turn away hurt and wounded, even when Jesus insinuated that she was a dog. I think that would have done it for me, to be called a dog. I probably would have stormed off in anger or probably retaliated by saying something back to him. And that would have been my reaction as a child of the kingdom. Now we can see what pride does. If this woman would have come in unbelief, that's exactly how she would have reacted to Jesus. But this woman coming in faith humbled herself low. And the only way that we can explain, the only way that we can explain this is that Jesus Christ had indeed worked in her heart, revealing himself to her. God worked in her by His Spirit to open her heart and then her ears and her eyes so that she now bowed in humility before her Savior and Lord. In other words, that was truly a miracle that was being performed here. The miracle of salvation itself. Divine revelation. God has to reveal Himself in order for one to believe in Him. She wanted the forgiveness of her sin. Only God can work that in the heart of a person by revealing to that person their sin and their need for Jesus Christ. And in that, we find the application of God's Word yet one more time to you and me. It is only by means of a miracle of God's grace that you and I have come to believe in Jesus Christ. It's not something that has come natural to you and me. It's not something that's ours just because we're born into the church. It's a miracle. Every time Every time that you and I come before the Lord and plead for forgiveness and see our salvation in Jesus Christ, it's a work of God's grace in you and me, just as it was in the life of this woman. We bow before the word of God before us tonight. When it points to you and to me of our own sin, we humbly acknowledge that we are sinners as well who need a Savior, just as this woman does. Do we do that, people of God, every day? Do we humbly walk before our God then tonight we examine ourselves, and having done so, we make this plea with the woman. Father, be merciful to me, and give me but a crumb that falls from the Master's table. Amen. Father and God in heaven, we come before Thee, mindful of our sin, but also come before thee in the joy that thou hast revealed to us our Lord Jesus Christ, a work, a miraculous work of thy grace within us. And we are thankful for that, that for Christ's sake we do have a place around thy table, and that we can fellowship with thee, our God, and know that thou art our God and we are thy children. and that thou wilt ever be near unto us, watching over us and protecting us. Father, may it be said of us, too, that we walk as thy children in that faith. Forgive us of our own weaknesses. Forgive us of our own failures in this regard. We're thankful for the blood of Christ that covers that, too. Go with us now in this week to come, that we might humbly walk before thee. We ask this for Jesus' sake. Amen. Number 378. 378, entitled, The Unfailing Mercy of God. Give thanks to God, for good is He. His grace abideth ever. To Him all praise and glory be. His mercy faileth never. His wondrous works with praise record. His grace abideth ever. The only God, the sovereign Lord, whose mercy faileth never. Three stanzas, number 378. is is ♪ His mercy well empowered ♪ ♪ His wisdom made the world to hear ♪ ♪ His grace the wild land clamor ♪ ♪ Peace where the earth above us be ♪ ♪ His mercy well empowered ♪ He held us in our deepest woes, His grace, love, and power. He ransomed us from all our woes, His mercy, grace, and power. ♪ Praise to you, our Lord, we are most humble ♪ ♪ In our death that we fall ♪ ♪ I once was lost but now I'm found ♪ The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.