Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 15. We're on number 10 in our series of Women of Faith. Matthew chapter 15 and beginning to read at verse 21. Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David. My daughter is severely demon possessed. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, Send her away, for she cries out after us. But he answered and said, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then she came and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs. And she said, yes, Lord. Yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, Great is your faith. Let it be to you as you desire. And her daughter was healed from that very hour. Amen. Father, I thank you for this, your word. And I pray that the responses of our heart would continue to be responses of humility and faith and hope and joy and worship. Father, may you build up this people as we study this glorious section of the Gospel of Matthew. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, the story we just read is a story that has troubled many people because it sure seems on the surface as if Jesus is being needlessly rude. and needlessly insensitive, because here is a woman who is in great pain, who has a great need, and yet Jesus ignored her and even insulted her. What is going on? And I'll explain exactly what is going on. But before I do that, I want to point out that this woman illustrates the position that every one of us is in. Every one of us is unworthy of the least of God's mercies, and yet God bestows His mercies on us anyway because we come to Him in faith. Now, the story in the Old Testament that I think parallels in some ways this story on God's sovereign grace is the woman of Zarephath that we looked at three weeks ago. They both came from the same region. They were both Phoenicians. Both were outside the covenant. Neither one had a claim upon God's grace, but God gave it anyway. And to fully understand this story, which I've read a lot of books on this woman, I don't think a lot of them really understand the story, but to fully understand that we've got to go back to the beginning and not ignore the first words. And the beginning tells us about a remarkable journey that Jesus made. Verse 21 says, then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Now he had been in Gennesaret, which is on the. northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee. And if you look at any Bible map in the back of your Bibles and you look at the the old trails that they would go on, and you trace those out to, it would be about 52 miles to halfway between Tyre and Sidon in the region that she came from. That's like walking from Papillion, Nebraska to Lincoln, Nebraska, okay? That's a long walk. Now, here's the interesting thing. The only ministry that he did when he got there was to this Gentile woman, and then he came back. And we know that because verse 29 says, Jesus departed from there, skirted the Sea of Galilee, etc. And the parallel story in Mark says exactly the same thing. He went up there and then he came straight back. Now, to me, this shows that Jesus deliberately made this journey for one purpose, to interact with this woman. Now, of course, he's going to be teaching a number of lessons to his disciples as a result of this interaction, but this was his sole mission. We know from other passages he never went on any journey without having a mission in mind. Well, she was his mission, his only mission, That puts an entirely different spin on the entire story. This woman did not, as so many people claim, change Jesus' mind. He was not a reluctant savior. He went to great lengths to save her. I challenge you to walk from Papillion, Nebraska to Lincoln, Nebraska and walk back again. It's gonna take you a long, long time to do that. His whole trip was devoted to her finding Him. And so rather than this story showing us a reluctant Savior, it shows us a Savior who was testing her faith and drawing it out within an Old Testament, Old Covenant context of how to treat Canaanites, and that is the second remarkable thing that we find in this text. Verse 22 says she is a Canaanite. It starts, and behold, a woman of Canaan, literally it's a Canaanite woman, came from that region. Mark identifies her as a Gentile. That's the way the word Greek is used as a synonym of Gentile in the book of Mark. And then he says, but it was a Syro-Phoenician, which means that this woman spoke the language of Syrian, but she had an ancestry of being Phoenician. Well, who were the Phoenicians in that region? They were the Philistines, right? The ancient Philistines, one of the tribes of the Canaanites. And so there was really no contradiction between Matthew and Mark. She was a Philistine, she was a Canaanite. It's just two ways of saying the same thing. And commentaries point out that the use of the word Canaanite here is highlighting the fact that this woman was from the class of people that God had doomed to destruction, and upon whom his people were commanded to show absolutely no mercy." All Canaanites were under the ban. And keep in mind that this is still going on under the time of the Old Covenant. Christ has not established the New Covenant yet. And in order to be our Savior, He has to keep all of the laws of the Old Covenant. And what did the law command? It commanded war. war against the Canaanites. Well, this is another fact that gives a totally different spin to this story. I think it completely explains Christ's strange behavior. Her entire ancestry had an anti-Christ heritage. And so this means that rather than diminishing God's grace, this story superbly heightens God's grace that is being manifested even to a woman who was under God's curse. And it's not without precedent in the Old Testament. We saw that the widow of Zarephath was also from this region. A number of David's bodyguards were Philistine converts. But the only way such people could be saved was by renouncing their old identity as Canaanites, renouncing it entirely, and becoming full-fledged Israelites. There was a place in the temple for God-fearing Gentiles. but there was no place in the temple for Canaanites, none whatsoever, no place. They had to renounce their Canaanite status and become full-fledged Israelites. And so as we go through this story, keep in mind that she was a descendant of the accursed Canaanites, and for Jesus to pronounce mercy on her without her evidencing a willingness to ditch her identity would have been unlawful. Since he was still in the old covenant, he would have been in sin to show her mercy without her embracing him in faith. He couldn't just assume her faith. Faith had to be demonstrated. It would have been just as unlawful as it was for Mordecai to show any respect for Haman, the Agagite. Mordecai was not allowed to show Haman any respect because he too was one of the Canaanite tribes, or from one of the Canaanite tribes. Mark adds a little note regarding Christ's location that is also remarkable. It says, he entered a house and wanted no one to know it. but he could not be hidden, for a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him." Remarkably, Jesus told his disciples, hide me, don't let anybody find me here." He didn't want people to know where he was staying. It's almost as if he makes it as hard as possible for this woman to find him. And in the process, he draws out the remarkable nature of her faith to anybody who might have had questions about what he is about to do. Despite taking every precaution to be hidden, Mark says, but he could not be hidden for a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. Now, Jesus didn't tell his disciples what the purpose of the hiding was. They may have assumed, hey, we've rented this Airbnb for a vacation, you know, we're gonna get some rest finally. And if that was their purpose, they would have been sorely disappointed because this woman discovers where he is somehow, and Mark says she keeps crying out, keeps crying out, keeps asking, okay? And the title that she uses for Jesus in verse 22 of Mark 15 is also remarkable. Actually, there's a long string of remarkable things in this story. You could understand a Jew claiming the title son of David since that was the title of their prophesied Messiah, of the Jews' prophesied Messiah. But for a Canaanite to do so would be almost self-defeating. Did not the Old Testament anticipate that this Messianic king would declare war on all remaining Canaanites and vanquish them? He did. And those prophecies were fulfilled to a tee when the last remaining vestiges of that were riped out in AD 70. We looked at the fulfillment of that in, in our revelation series. And so if you understand where she is going with this, it may, if you don't understand, it may seem self-defeating. Why appeal to the son of David, who is the sworn enemy of all God's enemies? And the answer is, she's willing to submit to him rather than to buck him. At every point, she comes into agreement with Jesus. Yes, I am a dog. Yes, I deserve your judgment. Yes, the children deserve food, and I in no way want to rob the children of the kingdom. Like the Gibeonites of old, she is willing to become a slave and less than a slave so as to receive a bit of God's mercy. So there's not a point in which she disagrees with Jesus. Listen to her remarkable speech in verse 22. And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David. My daughter is severely demon-possessed. As I mentioned, she's a Canaanite, and Canaanites had no claims to any of God's covenant promises at all, and she seems aware of this. She does not claim any promises from God. She simply asks for mercy. What is mercy? Mercy is a recognition, I deserve the judgments God wants to pour out upon me. I deserve those. And I'm asking for me to get mercy instead of that judgment. Canaanites were under the curse, perhaps another reason for the demon possession. And by way of application, I would say this is a much, much better way to approach God than many Christians tend to do. Many people who come to Christ nowadays seem to act as if God owes them salvation. Not so. Not so. It is a miracle that God would save anyone. It is a miracle that God would listen to the prayers of anyone. OK, so rather than thinking that God is being unfair to us, we should agree we deserve God's judgment. And that's why we're asking for mercy, not fairness, but mercy. But she also knows how helpless she is before Satan and before Satan's demons. Being outside of the covenant, she and her family were under the sway of Satan. That's the expression that 1 John uses, under the sway of the wicked one. She felt helpless in the face of this demonic power, but somehow she had found out that Jesus has power over demons. And it's worth mentioning, I think, that all those who are outside of the covenant, even today, are much more subject to demonic attack. we need all of the covering that God gives to us, all of the weapons that God gives to us, and one of the protective provisions that God gives against the demonic is church membership. Now, I know I'm going to get a lot of backlash on even saying this. People say, that's ridiculous, you know, the church is so messed up. Why would church membership have anything about that? But there's so many references in the New Testament to the fact that when we are not in membership in the church, we are subject to Satan's attacks. Even the non-elect, who are in membership in the church have some protection against the demonic, and in Scripture it says that when people are cast out of the church, They are subject to Satan's attacks. He can have at them any time that he wants, whether they are elect or whether they are non-elect. And so it's not simply attending church, it is church membership that gives this covenantal protection. And Jesus will make an allusion to that in verse 24, where putting lost sheep back into the house of Israel was the goal of his ministry. Lost sheep are vulnerable. They're vulnerable to wolves, right? Well, the analogy is they're vulnerable to the demonic. In any case, it appears that this woman has done some research. She must have heard about the healings and the deliverances that have been done in Israel. And in the process of her research, she came to three correct conclusions about Jesus. First, she knows that Jesus is Lord. Okay. For a Canaanite to admit this is remarkable. Doesn't treat him as her enemy. She treats him as Lord. She acknowledges his lordship. Second, she came to the conclusion that he was the son of David. That's a synonym for him being the messianic king of the Jews. And that too is remarkable because you read through the gospels, many of the Jews had not come to that conclusion. They did not recognize Jesus as the son of David. So for a Philistine to acknowledge this is remarkable in the, in the story of Matthew. And she's in total agreement with his being the son of David. He is the one prophesied to come against all of his enemies. And she says, amen to that. It says, amen. And then third, she recognized that he had authority over demons. All three of those facts were foundational to her faith. Faith is founded on fact. It's not a blind leap in the dark. It's founded upon the facts of the Scriptures. But Jesus still has to draw out her faith a little bit more. Faith needs to be exercised, and in this case, faith needs to overcome obstacles. Before she can have the children's bread, she has to have more than a profession of faith. She has to have a clear demonstration of faith. And so he ignores her. Ignoring her has two functions. It was designed to draw out her faith, and we'll spend a little bit more time on that. But as has already been mentioned, it would have also been unlawful for Jesus to bless one whom God had cursed unless that person had put their faith in Him, in Jesus. When we sing the imprecatory Psalms, people say, how could you pronounce God's curses upon them? Well, if they have faith in Christ, Christ bears that curse in their place, right? And that's what happens when you come to Christ. He is a substitute. He bears your curse. He gives you His righteousness. And this is not, in this case, you know, just any Gentile unbeliever. This was a Canaanite, a special class of Gentiles that Israel was never to be at peace with. Now, there's an interesting verse in Joshua 11, verse 20, that explains why the Canaanites could have no mercy. It was not simply because they were Canaanites. It was because their hearts were hardened. And the implication seems to be if they had repented, well, they could have had mercy too. Joshua 11 verse 20 says, for it was of the Lord to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel and battle, that He might utterly destroy them and that they might receive no mercy, but that He might destroy them as the Lord had commanded Moses. So it says, their hearts were hardened, dot, dot, dot, that they might receive no mercy. The Gibeonites were the one exception. Their hearts were not hardened, right? But they still had to overcome obstacles to enter the covenant. And the same was true of the Philistines who were saved under David's ministry and who ended up being his bodyguards, the Cherethites and the Pelethites. Well, this background information means that the silence of Jesus is not surprising at all. Within an Old Covenant context, it is consistent with the ways that all Jews should have treated Canaanites, even if they asked for mercy. He should have shown no more respect for her than Mordecai did for Haman. Mercy cannot be given without a changed heart that embraces Christ in faith. Verse 23 says, but he answered her not a word, and his disciples came and urged him, saying, send her away, for she cries out after us. They're irritated with her, and they're wondering why Jesus doesn't just heal her and get rid of her, okay? Taking their cue from Jesus, they must have opened up the door to tell her to get lost. Well, rather than getting lost, it appears she actually comes in, but she just keeps repeating herself, crying out the same thing. She would not leave. And commentaries point out that the implication of their words is a positive sending away, not a negative sending away, but it's a sending away, heal her and send her away. But Jesus responds to his disciples, and the commentaries are very clear, he's not talking to the woman here, he's talking to the disciples. And this response is the next remarkable thing about this story. Commentators point out that the connection between verses 23 and 24 shows the disciples want him to go ahead, heal her, send her away. And Jesus indicates, no, there is a condition that has to be met, verse 24. But he answered and said, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now, since this was Christ's response to the disciples, And since it starts with an adversative word, but, it can only mean one of two things. Either he is refusing to heal her because she is not one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, which the context contradicts, or he's challenging them to accept her as a true Israelite if he heals her and to not be dismissive. And I take the second option. Israel is being used as a synonym of the elect for the church invisible. All the elect are lost before they have faith, and Christ has only been sent to the lost elect who constitute the true Israel. Here's how John Lang and Philip Schaff worded in their commentary. They say, in our view, the faith of the woman was tried in order to show that she really was a spiritual daughter of Abraham, in which case she would, in truth, be reckoned one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The faith of the woman was now to be tried and proved. Such a test would show to the disciples that she really was a spiritual daughter of Israel. Well, if this is true, and I am convinced that it is true, then this is an incredibly remarkable statement. It reveals several points of doctrine. First, it points out that Christ's redemptive work is only for the elect. Second, it shows that if you are elect, you are one of the lost sheep, or the found sheep, one of the two, of the house of Israel. Third, it shows that the church invisible, in other words, the true church, is the same as the invisible Israel, the true Israel. And let me just explain that for a bit. In Romans 9, 6, Paul said, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel. So he's saying that just like in the New Covenant, there is a visible church that's made up of all baptized members, you know, that are members of the church visible, and then there's a church invisible, which is the church of the elect that only God knows. There is a Israel composed of all of the members of the synagogues scattered around the world, and then there is a invisible Israel the true Israel composed of only the elect. And then fourth, this means that just as Gentiles became Jews in the book of Esther, this Gentile would become a Jew and a part of Israel after her conversion. So you've got to realize that Israel was not primarily an ethnic issue. Yes, there was a covenant succession from parents to children to grandchildren. So that part is ethnic, right? But there were always new strangers to the covenant being grafted in, and so I think this is just a powerful proof text against dispensationalism. But let me focus on his work with lost sheep. The way Jesus words this shows that salvation only comes to the elect, and that God's sovereign grace is a distinguishing grace. If she is an elect, then she will be a part of Israel and be saved. If not, she won't be. And since Jesus only does the Father's will, he can only save the elect. Father and Son are united in their purposes for salvation. Well, there goes the Amaraldian view of the atonement down in flames. Amaral was a French theologian who believed four points of Calvinism. He dismissed effectual atonement, limited atonement, whatever you want to call it. He dismissed that, but in order to dismiss it, he had to come up with a theory that the Father's election was particular, but the Son's redemption was universal, and therefore the Father's will and the Son's will were at odds with each other. But this indicates otherwise. It's a very strange doctrine. Listen to what Jesus said in John 6. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me." So there's an absolute unity of will. This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up on the last day. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. So that's very, very strong words for particular redemption, limited atonement, effectual atonement is what some people call it. Well, it's hinted at in our text as well. There is a fifth deduction that we can make from this verse. It shows that her only hope is to relinquish her identity as a Canaanite under the curse. God's call is for her to become a daughter of Sarah. and a member of the House of Israel. As long as she stays a Canaanite, she stays under the curse. And the application is the same when people get saved today. Just as there was no such thing as a Canaanite Israelite, there is no such thing as a gay Christian. or a murdering Christian, you know? No, you leave your old identity. Can you fall into sin? Yes, you still can, but that's not your identity. Your new identity is in Christ. And then six, the fact that Jesus healed her is proof positive that she is one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Jesus is quite clear, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now some commentators take this as, you know, a rare exception to Christ's normal rule. No, this does not leave any room for any exception whatsoever. So logically His healing of her proves that she is considered by Him to be one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and after this, she won't be lost. In other words, she won't be treated as a dog. She will be treated as a child, and she will receive the children's bread, which leads us to this woman's remarkable approach. Mark makes clear that Jesus was in the house when she came crying. The disciples no doubt opened the door to get rid of her, and she must have either come into the house to worship him, which is the way I take it, or else he must have come to the door where she worshipped him. But verse 25 of the Mark passage says, then she came and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. This shows more than a historical faith. She worshipped him. This is more than what most Jews would do. She worshipped him. She called him Lord. And so, in effect, she's saying, no matter what you do, Lord, whether you speak to me, don't speak to me, I will worship you. Lord, help me. Okay. But this faith needs to be tested for its genuineness. Jesus presses her even more in what amounts to a remarkable insult. Verse 26, but he answered and said, it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs. Mark adds a phrase that gives a little bit more hope, Mark 7, 27, but Jesus said to her, let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dog. So that word first is not as exclusionary. Yes, she's outside the covenant, and the children that he's referencing are those who are inside the covenant, but the word first gives her some hope. She seizes on both the word first and the fact that Jesus didn't call her a dog. See, the Israelites didn't keep their dogs, their big dogs, in the home. And commentators, almost all of them, point out The little dog that's here is probably the kids are inviting the cute little puppies in, and they're under the table, sneaking food from the table. And so she's getting hope from what Jesus is saying. But by this statement, Jesus is making it clear. Up to this point, this woman is outside the covenant, outside of Israel, outside the covenants of promise. She may be a lost sheep, but she's not yet in the fold, and she cannot be treated as a sheep yet. And this, too, constitutes theology that modern professing believers are not clear on. If you are outside of the covenant, Matthew 18 acknowledges you might still be elect, but you are not to be treated as a child of the kingdom. And that's why we don't allow professing believers who have either lost their membership, never had membership, or been excommunicated, we do not allow them to partake of the Lord's Supper. Only those who re-enter the covenant are so entitled. And some people just bristle at this, and I say, hey, rather than bristling at Christ's statement, we should come into agreement with it like this woman did. This shows humility, and that's the next remarkable thing found in this passage. She has the humility to agree with everything that Jesus says. Verse 27, and she said, yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table. She's willing to be considered a little dog who was invited into the home by the children to eat the crumbs that fall from the children's mouths. This would have been a rebuke to the disciples who are just trying to get rid of her, get her out of the house. But Jesus is giving hope to this woman by saying that the children need to be fed first. And I want to show some remarkable facets of her faith from that statement. First, it was a faith whose mouth could not be closed. It could not be closed despite the protests of the disciples. It could not be closed despite the silence of Jesus. It could not be closed despite the insults of Jesus. It could not be closed despite the the hard doctrine of election. She came into agreement with all of it and yet continues to ask for mercy. And I think we can learn from her on this. Does our faith stop petitioning heaven when the heavens are silent? Or do we keep on petitioning? I think some people give up way, way, way too quickly, too easily. Does our faith give up when we receive negative feedback from other fellow Christians? Or do we just say, no, I'm going to the Lord. My faith is not dependent on what other people think of me. Does our faith give up when the Bible describes the ugly state of our sinful hearts, which really, when you dig into it, is far, far worse than calling us little dogs? You know, the Scripture talks about the hearts of the unregenerate as being not only unworthy, but corrupt, defiled by sin, full of leprosy and pus and putrefaction. Those are some of the images that Scripture gives. False Christians cannot believe that we are as sinful as the Bible makes us out to be. They can't believe that apart from grace, we're little dogs. It's too insulting, and so they give themselves a pass. But men and women of faith come into full agreement with God's word that we are indeed dogs apart from grace. But those who have two faith come into the house anyway, they fall at Jesus' feet and they worship him. Jesus said, you know, we are what we are, sinners, and we say, yes, Lord, we acknowledge we deserve hell. We deserve your disfavor. We don't deserve anything. We deserve you to withhold your grace from us, but we appeal for mercy, have mercy. True faith will not allow its mouth to be closed. Even when Jesus says, you deserve to go with hell, we agree, but I plead for mercy. We cling to him. Second, her faith did not dispute with the Lord. And I know I've already commented on this, but I think it bears repeating in some application. There is not one single disagreement that this woman has with Jesus. True faith must not, cannot sift through the Bible and say, oh, I'm going to receive this from the Bible, but this I reject. True faith does not do that. True faith submits to the entirety of God's Word and affirms that it is true. What's the first word in her response in verse 27? It's yes. And the dictionary defines the Greek word nai as yes, certainly, indeed, it's true that. So she is coming into complete agreement with his harsh and difficult descriptions that he has given of her. And she's basically saying, yes, Lord, I am a dog. Yes, Lord, you have the perfect right to withhold grace from me or to give grace to me. Yes, Lord, I don't deserve what the children deserve. Yes, Lord, I don't want you to give away anything that belongs to the children. Despite all of this, I call you my Lord. All I'm asking is for crumbs that fall from the children's plate. What you put onto the plates of your children is of such infinite value that even a crumb from their plate is of infinite value to me." That's in effect what she is saying. She's saying, all I'm asking for is crumbs. Your crumb of grace is still grace, and your grace is sufficient for all of my needs. I mean, this is how remarkable her face really is. And I think this response is a rebuke to many Christians. I have seen professing believers tell me that they don't believe certain difficult portions of the word of God. Some people dismiss the entire Old Testament. Others dismissed smaller portions of the Old Testament. I had one lady come to me, and say that she did not believe in predestination. And I said, you mean you have a different interpretation than Reformed people do? No, I don't believe in predestination. I said, you do realize the word predestination's in the Bible. And she said, no, it's not. So I turned to Romans and Ephesians, and I showed her the word. And the words out of her mouth was, well, I guess I don't believe those verses. Well, that is not faith. Faith does not dispute with God. It does not throw out portions of what God says just because they are hard to believe. It's calling God a liar. Fuller Theological Seminary used to be good, but several decades ago it started teaching that the Bible has errors. They still claim to believe in inerrancy. They define it as limited inerrancy. And what they mean by that is it's inerrant on salvation and heaven and anything you can't see and measure and touch or evaluate by science. Kind of a strange definition of inerrancy. But that is not faith. And I refuse to acknowledge a person as a Christian who, maybe they're mistaken, that could be one thing, but if they self-consciously say, yes, the Bible has mistakes in it, it is in error, is disbelieve God's word. I don't see how they can have faith. That person fails the test that Jesus gave to this woman. It's disputing with God's word. He's not yet a child of the kingdom. True faith does not dispute with the Lord. The argument of her prayer was built upon the very words that Jesus had uttered. So rather than disputing or disagreeing with Jesus, she took the promises of her argument from his own words. She didn't even try to add any additional premises to her arguments. She simply admits everything. Jesus What you've said is absolutely true. And then she says, here is what I'm claiming based on what you said. So let me just, let me read what I put down in terms of the logic of this. True Lord, I am a little dog. And little dogs are allowed under the table, aren't they? Okay? And as such a dog, dogs have a master, don't they? And I've acknowledged you to be my sovereign Lord. Masters also feed their dogs, don't they? And little children love to feed the little dogs that are under the table, don't they? Like the prodigal son, she is willing to become a servant or whatever He wants her to be. And just as Jesus used a diminutive little dog, in the Greek she uses a diminutive little crumb. For her, this was of inestimable value. The Lord has so much grace that even that little crumb is riches for her if He will deliver her daughter. And here is the application that I would make for us. When we pray, we should never dispute with God or argue against His providences. That was one of the things that displeased the Lord the most about the wilderness generation of Israelites, is that they were constantly grumbling, complaining, disputing against His providences. Hebrews says that it was evidence that they lacked faith. The point is, we deserve the worst that God could throw against us. We tend not to think that, but we do. We deserve the worst that God might throw against us, and we don't dispute against that. We don't grumble against God when we lose our job. a job offer. Every house that we lost when we were looking, and we looked at hundreds of houses, every time the door was slammed in our face, so to speak, we said, thank you, Lord. That's an answer. You didn't want us there, and you've got a perfect place for us. We do not grumble against God's promises. Instead, we pray But we pray using His words and never arguing against His words. And so here would be some of the ways that you could pray. If you are not a believer and you're wondering if you're too wicked for God to save, you plead the Scriptures, that Jesus bore the curses of everyone who puts their faith in Him. And Father, you have said that Jesus did not die in vain, and so I plead the mercies of Christ. Or if you're already a Christian and you need something, you say, Lord, you have promised that you would provide everything that we need if we are sold out for your kingdom. I need X, Y, Z. And as one who is sold out for your kingdom, I ask for X, Y, Z. What you're doing is you're filling your mouth with scriptures. Your arguments are feeding back to the Lord his own word, and the Lord loves his word, okay? So he's not about to deny his word that we give back to him. He loves what we offer back. Finally, we have Christ's remarkable answer to prayer in verse 28. Then Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, great is your faith. Let it be to you as you desire. And her daughter was healed from that very hour. Mark adds a bit of detail saying, and when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out and her daughter lying on the bed. First, Jesus commends her great faith. There are two things that make your heart attractive to the heart of God, humility and faith. And I would urge you to do everything in your power, read books, pray, do whatever it takes to develop faith and to develop humility. Develop the humility of this woman who came into quick, immediate agreement with any convictions that Jesus' words brought to her life. And develop the faith of this woman that refuses to stumble at insults and pointing out of sins or impossibilities. Do not allow Satan or anyone else to divert you from humility or faith. Those are the two things that give you access to miracles and to God's good pleasure. Those are the two things that knit you to Christ's heart. Second, when we align our hearts with his will, as this humble woman of faith did, then God will give us all our desires. And I find this so cool, and there's many other scriptures that say the same thing, but Jesus said to her, Let it be to you as you desire. Let it be to you as you desire. Psalm 37, four says, delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart. So God loves to fulfill our desires when and only when our will is held captive to his will and to his kingdom. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you, right? God loves to delight of people who delight in him. So Jesus said to the one who worshipped him and called him Lord, let it be to you as you desire. I find a great comfort in that. Third, don't give up on your children no matter how far gone they might be. This daughter was severely demon possessed. She couldn't really be any worse than she was and yet by grace she was fully restored. Now God does not guarantee that he's going to restore every prodigal son or every prodigal daughter, and we can come into full agreements. Lord, my prodigal son or my prodigal daughter deserves your judgments. We can be in full agreement, but we can do like this woman and build a case from Scripture using Scriptural argument after Scriptural argument for why the Lord would be glorified in restoring such a son or daughter. And God loves both the humility and the faith that agrees with His Word and pleads His Word. I believe that such prayers are answered. And if you are already in the covenant, you have so much more basis for asking than she did. Fourth, the fact that Jesus says that she had great faith and the fact that he answered her prayers shows to me that this lost sheep was no longer lost. She was included by Jesus into the household of faith, into the true Israel. And from this point on, she will be treated as a sheep and not a dog. And I'm convinced that she would have begun attending synagogue and becoming a member of the Visible Church. They had synagogues in that region, every region. And so that's probably what happened after this story. And it shouldn't actually be thought strange that a Gentile could become part of Israel. It happened all the time. Even the Pharisees were said to travel all over the earth to make converts, right, to Judaism. Now theirs was a false form of Judaism, but Esther 8 verse 17 says that many of the people of the land became Jews. So it's Gentiles becoming Jews. It's no more strange than excommunicated Jews being treated as Gentiles. It's really no different whatsoever. John the Baptist excommunicated Israel, and then family by family, he re-baptized those who converted and embraced the true faith back into the new Israel that was being established. And what John started, the apostles and Jesus continued, and in Acts chapter 2, the Spirit was poured out upon upon this new Israel of God called the church. So the church is Israel. So again, this should not be thought of as strange at all. Fifth, just as Jesus sought the lost to incorporate them into the household of faith, we too should seek lost sheep and have compassion on them. We should long to be used by the Lord to draw the elect to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And just as Jesus made distinctions in how He evangelized, how He treated Gentiles, I mean some He hung out with, or not Gentiles but the lost, some He hung out with and others He did not, so too Jude calls us to make distinctions in our evangelism. Jude 22-23 says, And on some have compassion, making a distinction, but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. So you don't get too close to that type. God still saves some people who are the equivalent of Canaanites today. He saves them out of murderous drug gangs. He saves Rahabs out of prostitution. He saves homosexuals out of their demonic lifestyle. And just as this severely demon-possessed girl was made completely whole, 1 Corinthians 6 says of such people, such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 11. So never doubt the power of God's grace to reach even proverbial Philistine Canaanites. Sixth, Christ's words indicate that we ought not to ignore spiritual warfare. The demonic world is real and it is dangerous. It is not something to be fooled around with. We aren't told how this girl got possessed or what her symptoms are. You'd have to go to other passages to see those kinds of things. But Jesus is clear that demons are real and that Christians do have authority over them if we exercise that heavenly authority. And then finally, this is a call to live by faith. May each one of us do so. Amen. Father, I thank you for your Word. I thank you for the illustration of this woman whose heart you opened up and regenerated and gave faith to. And I pray that each one, each family in this congregation would at some point have the privilege of leading one lost sheep. out of blackness of Satan's kingdom and into the household of faith. Would you, Father, bless us with new converts and bless us with a new people to disciple. But I pray that each one of us would also just be overwhelmed with gratitude for the incredible salvation that you have wrought upon us. Every one of us, apart from your grace, are dogs, and even worse than dogs. And so we bless you that you have not only welcomed us to feed under the table, but you have sat us at your table, and in Ephesians you have said, who is a believer, has been seated with Christ in the heavenlies. What incredible grace you have given to us that you would consider us to be princes and princesses, and we princesses, and we bless you for that, Father. And I pray that each one of us would be strengthened in our faith and in our service to you as a result of looking at this woman of faith. In Jesus' name.