Our last time together, here on earth maybe,
but if I don't have the joy of
seeing you again down here, I pray that
I'll have the joy of seeing you with
him up there.
It has truly been a richly rewarding weekend
for myself.
I can tell you that from the bottom
of my heart that all of you have
been a real encouragement to me this weekend.
I've been so encouraged by the feelings of
friendliness that you've all shown toward myself and
my family, and to see the spirit that
is among us as we're gathered here this
past four days.
I pray that as you've been an encouragement
to me, that I have in the ministry
been an encouragement to you.
It has been a joy for me to
present the Word of God to you, and
I will always hold this time that we've
shared together very dear in my heart.
Most of us in our conversations, you know
that I am not a full-time worker,
commended to the Lord's work, but I know
the Lord full-time, and that's more important.
And we labor for Him out there on
the battlefield.
I thank the Lord for this great work
here at Turkey Hill.
But I would remind us this morning as
we begin to think of the time that
we need to pack up and we've got
to go back down in the valley again.
Back to that place where the rubber meets
the road, where we live.
You know, it's great to be out here
and to kind of have a little mountaintop
experience, isn't it?
A little rest.
It's been great.
But you know, we don't always live here.
Some are fortunate, they do.
Isn't this a wonderful place to stay?
Man, I'm starting to think about retirement sometime,
and I think, hmm.
But anyhow, as we go back, as we
leave this place, we'll carry with us some
good memories and good fellowship, some things from
the Word of God.
But we want to remember to pray for
one another.
Because even here, while we've been here this
weekend and seemingly in a time of sweet
fellowship with the Lord, Satan's been at work.
Satan never gives up.
Wherever there's a work for the Lord going
on, rest assured, Satan's there.
He may use any one of his wiles,
any one of his devices to render you
ineffective for his namesake.
And remember, if he can render you ineffective
but for a short while, it's a time
that you will not be using for the
glory of the Lord, to do his work.
Satan never gives up, and he won't quit.
So as we go forth from this place,
let us always carry with us, what is
the mind of my Lord?
This will be our last study together, our
seventh study.
We're again going to study a woman from
whom just a few verses is written.
But it's a tremendous lesson for us in
the walk of faith.
It's about a woman who had faith.
We'll see some good lessons in this, I
pray.
But for a little preview, let's turn in
our Bibles this morning to Ezekiel.
Ezekiel, the 26th chapter.
Ezekiel, chapter 26.
We'll read the first few verses.
Now it came about in the eleventh year,
on the first of the month, that the
word of the Lord came to me, saying,
Son of man, because Tyre has said concerning
Jerusalem, Aha, the gateway of the peoples is
broken, it has been opened to me, I
shall be filled now that she has laid
waste.
Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Behold, I
am against you, O Tyre, and I will
bring up many nations against you, as the
sea brings up its waves.
Matthew, the gospel of Matthew, chapter 11.
Matthew 11, verse 21.
Woe to you, Chorazin!
Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre
and Sidon, which occurred in you, they would
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
Nevertheless, I say to you, it shall be
more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the
day of judgment than for you.
And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to
the heavens, will you?
You shall descend to Hades.
For if the miracles had occurred in Sodom,
which occurred in you, it would have remained
to this day.
Mark, chapter 3.
And verse 7.
And Jesus withdrew to the sea with his
disciples, and a great multitude from Galilee followed,
and also from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and
from Erumea, and from beyond the Jordan, and
the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon.
A great multitude heard of all that he
was doing, and came to him.
We turn now to the seventh chapter of
this same book.
Mark, chapter 7.
For our study.
And from there he arose and went away
to the region of Tyre.
This is speaking of our Lord Jesus.
And when he had entered a house, he
wanted no one to know of it, yet
he could not escape notice.
But after hearing of him, a woman whose
little daughter had an unclean spirit, immediately came
and fell at his feet.
Now the woman was a Gentile of the
Syrophoenician race, and she kept asking him to
cast the demon out of her daughter.
And he was saying to her, Let the
children be satisfied, for it is not good
to take the children's bed and throw it
to the dogs.
But she answered and said unto him, Yes,
Lord, but even the dogs under the table
feed on the children's crumbs.
And he said to her, Because of this
answer, go your way.
The demon has gone out of your daughter.
And going back to her home, she found
the child lying on the bed, and the
demon having departed.
May the Lord bless to us the reading
of his word, and let us pray.
Again, our Father, this morning we come into
your presence, and truly, our Father, we thank
you so much for the earthly ministry of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
We think of Him who loved ones, and
He worked with them, and He fellowshiped with
them, and He showed them so many lessons,
the twelve that were His disciples.
And we think of the lesson that they
learned the day they met the Canaanite woman.
And our Father, we pray that the lesson
they learned might be ours also this day.
Bless to us now this study as we
ask in the name of Your Son, our
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Now in our opening study, we noticed that
as we went back to the book of
Ezekiel, the Tyre and Sidon, usually when these
places are referred to in Scripture, except with
maybe an exception in the time of David,
judgment, divine judgment.
It was an ungodly area.
It was one of those areas in which
when the people of Israel were to enter,
they were to go in and possess the
land, and they were to kill, destroy everyone,
man, woman, child, and all that was there.
But we see that the people of Israel
were not obedient to the Word of God.
They went in, they took the land, but
they did not do what God had commanded
them.
They did not destroy every man, woman, and
child.
And we see because of their disobedience that
there was a people here that were heathens.
They did not know God.
They did not want to know God.
They did not love God.
Nor did they ever have a desire to
love God.
They were heathens.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, in His three years
of earthly ministry, practically never in His time
here left the region of Israel.
But we notice that one time we have
recorded in Scripture, in the Gospels of Mark
and Matthew, that our Lord Jesus Christ leaves
the area of Israel and makes a journey.
I would bring this to your attention that
Tyre and Sidon from the Sea of Galilee
is not a short trip.
It was a several days journey from the
Sea of Galilee, where He was, to the
area of Tyre and Sidon.
It depends upon where He went.
It is not given to us exactly the
spot where He went, but we can consider
it was very near Tyre or Sidon or
in between.
It would have been a several days journey
for Him.
He left that area.
My question is why did our Lord Jesus
Christ, who Himself said, and even recounted to
the Canaanite woman, I am come to speak
to the household of Israel, not to anybody
else.
These are the ones I come to speak
to.
But yet our Lord Jesus Christ makes a
trip of anywhere from 40 to 50 miles
one way to meet a woman.
I can't see it any other way.
There is no recording of any other acquaintances
that He met at that time.
There is no other examples given to us
or studies given to us of our Lord
Jesus Christ relating with any other people or
interacting with anybody else during this trip.
I am sure He must have, but the
important thing that He wants for us to
study is His relationship with this Canaanite woman.
I would stop and ask you to think
about this.
Here is our Lord Jesus Christ with the
twelve.
He says, My message is to the household
of Israel.
And one day they are by the Sea
of Galilee and He says, We are going
for a walk.
I can see Him saying, Again?
They traveled up and down the Sea of
Galilee to the Dead Sea along the Jordan
River, up and down.
Our Lord's earthly ministry.
Going for a walk, men.
Okay.
Where are we going?
We are going up to Tyre.
Can't you see Peter?
We are going.
Where?
Tyre?
That ungodly area?
Yes.
Why?
Oh.
There is some work to do there.
But Lord, there are no really good Jews
there.
You know, the godly ones are down here
with us.
Well, let's go anyhow.
And can't you see them after they traveled
for a couple of days?
Lord, are you sure you know what you
are doing?
Are you sure we have got to go
here?
And I am sure that as they passed
through the areas of Tyre and Sidon, and
they saw the ungodliness, they saw the idolatry,
they saw the wickedness of this area, that
they looked at their Lord and said, Do
you really want us to go here?
Are we really?
Are we really some purpose for us being
here?
And the Lord continued on.
Now, we notice that during our Lord's earthly
ministry, in this early part of his ministry,
that these disciples, they have a hard time
understanding divine grace and mercy.
And yet, our Lord, he works with them
for three years, teaching them grace and mercy
from God.
And here is to be one of the
finest lessons that they can learn.
And I have often wondered, did they learn
the lesson?
They arrived.
And our Lord does not want to be
noticed because already some people had come down
from this area and had heard him in
his ministry by the Sea of Galilee.
And as soon as he entered, no doubt
the message had gone before him as they
had seen that he had come.
Here is the man that heals.
Here is the man that performs those wonderful
miracles of healing.
And I'm sure the word went out in
the area round about.
There was that day a woman who heard.
A woman who heard of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Who heard of Jesus Christ come to her
area.
She came.
Why?
Because she had a burden.
She had a heavy burden.
A very heavy burden.
For it says that she had a demon
-possessed daughter.
A demon-possessed daughter.
One in whom demons, satans, spirits resided.
A demon-possessed daughter.
This woman, I have no doubt in my
mind, was continually looking for something or someone
who could heal her daughter.
Nothing to me could be more tragic than
to see a body filled with demon spirits.
I'm sure all of you have read many
stories, many encounters.
I'm sure that many of you have had
heard or have had in your presence men
who have worked with demon-possessed people.
I remember hearing Brother Dan Smith from Canada,
not the one at Emmaus, but the one
from Canada who was a long-time missionary
in the area of India and Ceylon, which
is now Sri Lanka.
And I remember him recounting one time when
we were speaking with him of the horror
that filled his life and his encounters with
demon-possessed people.
We read of our Lord's encounter with other
people that were demon-possessed.
We think of the maniac of Gadara who
one day met the Lord Jesus Christ and
the demons were cast out.
And the rejoicing that was in that man's
life.
And our Lord said, Go and tell what
great things God has done for you.
But here was a woman who carried a
burden, but she never gave up hope for
that daughter.
There always was within her, maybe someday I
will find something that will help my daughter.
Why?
She could have taken that daughter and sent
her someplace, exiled her away from her because
she may have been a terrifying spectacle, a
dangerous girl.
We don't know, it doesn't say.
But that woman loved that daughter.
And when you love someone, hope never fails.
Love never fails to hope that somewhere there's
a cure.
Someone to help my daughter.
And when she heard, no doubt she had
heard before of this man of Galilee, and
now he's here in her area.
And she comes immediately.
Notice the intensity of purpose.
She came and noticed that she cried out
purposely.
She cried out, Son of David, have mercy
on me.
Have mercy!
Now we may overlap a little bit from
the same episode that's recounted to us in
Matthew chapter 15.
So if you don't find it in Mark
7, go back and read Matthew 15.
I didn't read it for the sake of
time.
It's the same incident.
Matthew 7, 21 to 28.
But anyhow, he accounts, Mark accounts, that this
woman came.
Here was one in whom possibly, possibly here
is one who had the answer.
But you notice how she came.
She comes and she falls at his feet.
She had been continually beseeching him.
Son of David!
Have mercy!
But then we notice that our Lord is
strangely silent toward this woman.
Now I find it a little bit hard
to understand.
Our Lord has walked somewhere between 40 and
50 miles to encounter this one woman.
I think our Lord purposely left the Sea
of Galilee and went to this one area
because he had an appointment with her, according
to the divine counsels of God.
He came and the woman comes and he's
silent toward her.
And the disciples, you know them, they've got
to protect the Master.
All this riff raff.
They want to get close to our Master.
We're going to stand up there and protect
him.
Get her out of here!
And they say, tell her to get lost.
Tell her to go away.
She's always bugging you.
Lord, exercise a little of your authority.
Tell her to take a hike.
You know, our Lord, I can just see
the smile that comes to his face.
He looks at those disciples and he says,
will they ever learn?
Will they ever learn?
And you know, sometimes I think our Lord
sits in heaven on the throne and he
looks at us in our exercises of faith
and how little they are.
How little we exercise our faith.
And I think sometimes there's a smile on
his face.
He says, will they ever learn?
Will they ever learn?
All that I have for them if they
will partake the step of faith, that they
will walk with me one step at a
time.
We laugh at the disciples, but we're just
like them.
We're just like them.
Get rid of her.
And he's silent.
He's silent toward her for a time.
But then something changes.
It's not son of David anymore.
It's Lord.
Lord.
And then something changes with our Lord.
He says, woman, don't you know?
My message My message is not to you.
He tells the disciples.
My message is to the household of Israel.
They agree.
Yeah, that's right.
Send her away.
But the woman is intense.
She says, I will not leave.
And she comes and prostrates herself before him.
She falls at his feet.
There's the posture of the Christian.
The intensity of purpose and recognition of the
whom we address.
If we're going to walk the walk of
faith, we must recognize, first of all, whom
it is with which we walk.
It is one thing to call him Savior.
Jesus my Savior.
But it's a different thing.
It's a completely different thing to address him
as Lord.
She subjects herself because in a faith walk
there is no pride.
She knows where she should be.
She fell at his feet and she pleaded
for mercy.
Sometimes we need to learn that lesson ourselves.
We need, we so often hear preaching, we
must boldly come into the throne room of
grace and present our petitions before God.
But I would have you to remember that
when you come into the throne room of
grace, it is still him who is the
King of kings and Lord of lords upon
the throne.
And before the throne, we prostrate ourselves.
We fall at his feet and we address
him as Lord.
Lord, he is our Heavenly Father and he
wants us to come as his children.
We came to him as sinners needing mercy
and to be shown grace.
And we addressed him as the lost to
a Savior.
We meet him as servant coming before his
master and Lord.
We come as children before the Father.
But always in the walk of faith, we
never forget whom we address.
He is Lord.
This woman came.
I don't know what revealed it to her
that this son of David was not a
mere man.
But something changed in her outlook.
For she came to him first of all
as a healer.
Just another man of flesh and blood.
But something changed.
She looked at him.
I don't know what was revealed to her.
But it was no longer flesh and blood
son of David.
It was Lord.
And she prostrated herself before him.
And our Lord reaches out to her.
As we look at the context of the
message between the two.
He says to her, let the children be
satisfied first, for it is not good to
take the children's bread and throw it to
the dogs.
You know, as we stop and think about
that, at first glance we say, what in
the world did he mean by that?
It is not good to take the children's
bread.
Let the children be satisfied first.
She understood.
This truly was the Messiah.
This was the son of God made flesh
and come to be the Messiah of Israel.
And he came unto his own.
They must be satisfied first.
His children must be satisfied first.
And she understood that.
It is not good to take the blessings
of the children and throw it to the
dogs.
Can you imagine this woman's position?
What our Lord has just said to her,
as a Gentile, as a Gentile, the Jews
consider them nothing more than dogs.
Jews would go out of their way to
stay away from the Gentiles.
Anything they could do to belittle a Gentile
was perfectly in order.
They wanted no dealings with them.
If they were, it was only to usurp
their power over them.
But nonetheless, our Lord says, we can't take
the blessings of the children and give it
to the dogs.
She says something very strange.
Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the
table feed on the children's crumbs.
Boy, what a dynamic statement.
She says, Lord, I'm not here looking for
the loaf of bread.
I'm not even looking for a slice of
the blessings of Israel.
All I want is a crumb.
Just a crumb.
A crumb because I know that the people
of Israel have not rejoiced in all that
You've given to them.
They're so greedy for the things of themselves
that they've neglected to understand that You've given
them a feast.
And they just more or less clear the
table with their hands and brush the crumbs
aside.
All I want is one of those crumbs
that Israel rejects will You pour it out
on me.
Not a loaf, not a slice, just a
crumb.
In that moment, our Lord Jesus Christ looks
at her and He says, Woman, because of
this answer, go your way.
The demon has gone out of your daughter.
And going back to her home, she found
a child lying on the bed, the demon
having to party.
Man, what power!
I wonder what she thought when the Lord
told her go home.
Go ahead and go home.
Your child's well.
She might have grabbed him by the arm.
Well, it's not that I don't believe You,
Lord.
It's just that I want You to go
with me in case You didn't get it
done long distance.
Maybe if You're closer to her and lay
Your hands on her, then it'll work.
It's not that I don't have faith.
And isn't that just like us?
Isn't that the answer?
So often we want to have Him right
there by the arm.
In case something goes wrong, He can interject
Himself.
It's not that we don't trust, Lord, that
You can do these things.
It's just that, well, you know, in case
something went wrong, I wonder why He referred
to so many in His words, O ye
of little faith.
If He were to come and speak to
us today as a group, would He look
out upon us and say, O you of
great faith?
Or would we hear that striking condemnation that
He gave to others, O ye of little
faith?
I'm here to tell you I'm sorry, but
I probably have to stand among the latter.
Not a great faith.
Unlike the Jews, I'm always looking for a
sign.
I'm always praying, Lord, give me some kind
of sign.
Am I going the right way?
Am I doing the right thing?
Just give me a little reassurance.
And He says, listen, it's a walk of
faith, not by sight.
It's a walk of faith.
You believe in things not seen.
For if we see it is no longer
faith, it is sight.
I'm sure that if I ask you, do
you believe that there is a heaven?
You'd probably say yes.
Ever seen it?
No.
How do you know it's there?
Well, our Lord said so.
He said He was going to prepare for
us a home.
He says, and I will come back and
take you, that you may be with me
forever.
We believe in heaven.
That's a hope.
But when it comes down to the nitty
gritty of life, sometimes our faith is so
small we're afraid to take those steps of
faith.
Maybe it's a step of faith to do
a work for Him.
Maybe it's a step of faith to start
a work for Him, to speak to a
soul.
Any type of step of faith that you
can think of.
All of us have those in our lives.
We say, if I only had the strength
to do this.
If I only had the faith, wouldn't it
be great?
And our Lord comes back and says, oh
ye of little faith.
Can you imagine the disciples as they sat
there that day watching this incident?
What is He doing?
Why did He do that?
What did He say?
Crumbs?
Table?
Dogs?
What's going on here?
Did they understand it all?
I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they
didn't.
I think they probably missed the whole thing.
But I'm sure that on the way back
from Tyre and Sidon to the Sea of
Galilee, I'm sure there was some interesting conversations
between the disciples and our Lord.
When He gets to the point of talking
about faith.
When we have those episodes of faith and
the Lord works with us, do we take
time to savor them and to learn from
them and to grow by them?
We don't know what happened with this woman
after this incident.
But we know she took the step of
faith.
She didn't take the Lord and say, it's
not that I don't believe you.
Come on, go home with me.
I want to check this out and make
sure you're true.
She said she went home.
Did you imagine what she felt when she
walked into that room and there lays her
daughter thrown back on the bed?
It doesn't say that she was lying there
fast asleep like a normal little child.
She was literally thrown back on her bed.
I'm sure the mother with some momentary fear
would walk over and touch her.
And the little girl would open her eyes.
And those eyes would show something completely different
than she'd ever seen before.
They were changed eyes because they were eyes
that had been affected by the words of
the living Lord Jesus Christ.
And I can see her taking her arms
and putting them around Mom.
Hi Mommy.
Where you been?
And I can see the tears streaming down
that mother's face as her child had been
restored to her because she took a step
of faith.
What a challenge we see for us.
Is it the dynamic things that only that
we're willing to take the step of faith
or is it the little things?
And for us it's to learn that the
greater things come because we take the smaller
things first.
We take those small steps of faith.
And then our Lord emboldens us and we
take larger steps and longer steps and greater
steps.
And we say, Lord, I never want to
go back to crawling around as a little
baby.
I want to do as Enoch did.
I want to walk with you.
Dear ones, this morning learn the lesson of
the Canaanite woman.
You must remember to whom you come.
Lord.
And it is with a spirit that is
humbled in his presence to bow down before
him and to do it with an intensity
of purpose day by day, moment by moment.
Not just in times of crisis.
Enoch's life was a walk daily with the
Lord for 300 years.
We need to learn the lessons of faith
that God so richly provides for us in
his word.
May this word that we share this weekend
encourage your hearts as you return again to
your homes and your service for his namesake.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, again our hearts are drawn to
thee.
We thank you for being a great God.
We thank you for giving to us a
faith.
And Father, we would pray that our faith
might be growing day by day for your
namesake.
Lord, for those who are laboring for thee
in the fields, and there are moments of
discouragement and despair.
Father, we pray that thou art the God
of all comfort.
Come in and draw yourself so close to
them.
And to help them remember that thou art
the strength of their life.
Our Father, for those who are saddened, who
are saddened in spirit, Lord, we pray help
them to learn to rejoice that they are
a child of God, that you love them
and that you care for them.
Lord, we pray strengthen us all in our
various walks of faith for thy namesake.
We thank you for all the various areas
that are represented here and for the service
that is going on in each life.
And Father, we pray help us to be
good servants for thy namesake.
We again commend ourselves to you for this
day.
We pray traveling mercies for everyone who is
upon the road.
And our Father, we just again thank you
for this good weekend together.
Bless us now we part.
For we ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.