That true faith, as demonstrated by the Syrophoenician woman, requires humility and perseverance in the face of rejection. Jesus initially appears to ignore her plea for her daughter, and even his disciples suggest sending her away. When Jesus states he was sent only for the lost sheep of Israel, she persists, and he then calls her a "dog." Her humble response, accepting a "crumb" of mercy, reveals her profound faith and leads to her daughter's healing. The message contrasts this with the hypocrisy of religious leaders who disregard God's commands and highlights the importance of mothers grounding their children in biblical truth amidst societal pressures.
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Then came to Jesus' tribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the traditions of the elders or the fathers or ancestors? For they washed not their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandments of God by your traditions? For God commanded saying, Honor thy father and mother, and he that cursed the father or mother let him die the death.
But he says, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It's a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, or I don't have any obligation to you. If I give you anything or do anything for you, it's just a gift. And honor not his father's mother. He shall be free. In other words, he has no obligation. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Ye hypocrite. Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you saying, This people gnaw unto me with their mouth, and honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
but in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines or commandments of men." Notice verse twenty-one. Then Jesus went hence and departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. Behold, there was a woman of Canaan, who came out of the same coast and tried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me. O Lord, thou son of David, my daughter is grievously vexed to the devil, but he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she cryeth 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 worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not me to take the children's bread and cast it at dogs. He 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, greatest I say be it unto thee even as thou wilt and her daughter was made whole from that very hour each year we try to take a passage of scripture or a Bible character concerning a mother I could spend all my time this morning pinning bouquets on the mother to gather their great work and What responsibilities are there, especially in the present day?
It's an awesome responsibility. But I want to bring out some things from the Bible that might support you in days of tests and strain and trials because these things do befall mothers. Something that might stay with you and encourage you and comfort you in days when trials come. You have in this passage in the opening verses, that's why I read it, you have the Lord Jesus rebuking the scribes and the Pharisees or the religious leaders of that day or more or less belittling children's respect and love and honor for their parents.
We're living in a day when our institutions of various kinds are trying to bring in a generation gap between parents and children. In other words, why children today are so much smarter, more alert, better educated, more in the know-how, and the parents, well, they're just old folks. They belong to another generation. And there are those institutions, even our educational systems, is in this game. I'm sure we've all heard about and read about what happened in West Virginia a couple of years ago when the parents rose up in rebellion against the filth that their children were being taught in the schoolrooms.
Likely many of those mothers were saved people, real Christian people. They resented what the children were being taught in the classroom. trained to say, our legal system, our court system, sided with the Sunday school, sided with the teachers and the educational set-up who were teaching things that real decent parents resented children being taught these things in the Sunday school and also in the day school. Well, I think the Bible is very clear. The Lord Jesus brings out an incident here.
Here were the scribes and the Pharisees, and they were changing the Word of God. The Word of God said, now, you children, you are to honor, you are to respect, you are to help your parents. That's what the Bible says. Well, the Lord Jesus said to these people, why, he says, you're making the Word of God the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. And you're trying to tell this, that if any boy or any girl is of any benefit or blessing in helping his parents, why that just a gift? They don't have to help their parents.
They're not obligated. Well, I'll tell you one thing, when I was brought up in the old-fashioned way, one of the first things we thought of as children was going to work to see if we couldn't help our parents. I went to work at the age of thirteen. I knew how my father slaved to bring up a family of six. I know the responsibility my mother had, not pressing a button and the washing was done, why she was going from morning to night. And we thought we had a responsibility toward our mothers and our fathers.
That's what we were taught. But now today they say, well, no. The children, they want to be free from responsibility. If the responsibility of the parents are to take care of the children and when they get of age, they can go to college and do as they like. They have no responsibility. Mother and father can take care of all these financial obligations. And they have to, whether they're able to or not. And I'm going to tell you one thing. I believe we've missed the mark. Our young people today, if every generation of children have a right to think about their parents, the mother especially, it's today.
She's got a thousand things to worry about that our mothers and fathers didn't. The entertainment world and the political world. are all playing for the minds of your children. And unless the mother is rushed in the Bible and schooled in spiritual things, she's going to lack what it takes to help the children through these rough waters. I was talking to a lady this past week. She just recently touched it twice at a stage. In fact, it was last Sunday morning. And I visited in the home. And she says, Brother Wilson, I've got to consider my children.
Now she said, my parents live some sixty miles from here. And my husband's parents were only two miles from where my parents live. We go down there every Sunday, and they're there today. But she said, this has got to change. I see the trend of my children. They've got to be in Sunday school under the influence of the Bible. And we're going to make a ring. We'll leave after the twelve o'clock service at the chapel and drive that sixty miles and spend some hours with our folks and come back on Sunday. I want my children to sit under the influence of the word of God every Sunday morning.
I said, you're a wise mother. You're coping with situations that are very young. You're coping with them. And what you need is something in the heart of your children that's going to be a butthus, a forthus against all these encroaching evils of today. There's nothing like the Bible. It has a moral barrier against what... in the world today, even if you're not saved, the Word of God will put the brakes upon young people going too far. Why is the mother, why is the father who wants their children brought up under the influence of the Word of the Living God?
And so the Lord Jesus answers these, he calls them hypocrisy. He said, You hypocrisy, you're telling the children They are not responsible for their parents. If they get any money, bring it to the temple, bring it to the priest. Never mind your parents. I need you to help your parents make it play, and you're not obligated to. It's just a gift, like a Christmas gift. God's Word makes it very plain that children are to honor and respect their parents. And today parents are not supposed to correct the children, not supposed to discipline their children.
And of course, in schools, especially up north, you're not to discipline a child. Let it do what it's like. That's the way it has to expressing its personality. You'll stunt a child if you tell it it's wrong. You'll give it a gil complex. Let the child do just what it pleases as expressing and developing its personality. In other words, a child can take up a rock and throw it through a store window. Oh, don't tell it's wrong. It's expressing its personality. Well, I know one thing, if I'd have expressed my personality like that when I was a boy, my father would have expressed his personality to my disadvantage. But I'll tell you that.
He'd have laid it off, and that's what the Bible teaches. That's the way to show your love for your child. And God, I'll tell you, makes it plain in his word that young people are to respect children are to respect their parents. And if you don't, the day will come when you'll regret it. Because you're going to be old someday. So the Lord Jesus selects out of this passage after these hypocrites trying to get the children to put their religion and put their duty of giving money to the temple or the church before their parents, he brings in a lovely case of a Sardar Venetian woman.
He left those men and he went up fifty miles to Tar and Sidon where there was a Gentile area. hoping to find up there some lost sheep of the house of Israel. So the Lord Jesus, he gets up to this part of the country, and he's met by the Sardafnishian mother. Her heart's broken. She's a woman of anger and thought. She's got a daughter, and that daughter is possessed with a demon, and Mark's gospel tells us it was an unbeliever. clean spirit. Simply meaning this, she had a moral problem.
A moral problem. Here is this mother's sorrow. And she says, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. Well, it's her daughter that's in trouble. Not you. Ah, but this mother loved her daughter so much that she says, Lord, If you help my daughter, you help me. And if you don't help my daughter, you don't help me. I love my daughter so much that any blessing that comes to her comes to me. Have mercy on me, Lord. Me. My family.
I want my family blessed. Isn't that the heart of a true mother? Lord, I want my family blessed. And mothers are often the key to a family's blessing. Spiritively. And here is this dear woman. And you find her in a region up there in a Gentile region, and then her request, and then her recognition, and then her repulse, and then her resolution, and then her reward. But here you have this woman of Canaan. And she was a Greek, a Canaanite worshipper of idols, Baal.
The Lord Jesus had gone fifty miles up here to this spot, undoubtedly. Like you remember in the fourth of John, he must need go through Samaria. Why? Because he was going to meet a wicked woman. Now this woman in Samaria was not... a true mother. She had had five husbands, and she was living with a man who wasn't a husband then. Nevertheless, the Lord must need to go through Samaria to meet this wicked woman, and there she heard about the living waters, and she was saved. He went out of his way in the plan and purpose of God to meet that woman, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
He went fifty miles in order that he might contact this woman of Tyre and Sidon and bring her the doctor. She had heard about this wonder worker, and she's one of the first ones that we read about. She ran to him, and she says, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. My doctor is exceedingly dexed with the devil. Yes, she had her problem. You know, this woman, when you think about her, she must have heard a lot about the Lord Jesus and what he had done. Being a Gentile, she wouldn't hear as much as the Jews, but she heard that he raised the dead, he healed the sick.
Oh, here's a man that can help us. And she makes her way. And if you compare what you find in Matthew with what you've got in Mark, he was in a house. A Pharisee had invited them into the house. But here this woman comes, and she begs them, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. You see, her faith was manifested because being a Gentile, she had no claim upon him as Son of David. Only Jews had a claim on him as the Son of David. You find that over in Ephesians chapter two, and I'll read the verse, verse twelve. that at that time he were without Christ being alien from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world.
Now this woman was outside the tale of Israel. She could have said in her mind, well I'm not going, he won't pay any attention to me anyway, I'm not a Jew. And I'm an alien from the Commonwealth of Israel. I'm restrained to the wall with promises. The covenant of promises was made to the Jewish nation. Why, he won't give me an audience. She could have reasoned up. But this woman, this mother, was longing so much for her daughter to be blessed and delivered from the power of sin and Satan. I'm going to go to this man, Jesus.
And I'm going to plead mercy. I'm going to ask him to help. It's a remarkable incident how she manifested her faith. Have mercy on me, she said. Do this or anguish in that. Have mercy on us. She is a woman not only exercising faith, being a Gentile and going to the Lord Jesus and Messiah. You see a remarkable thing in even going and even attempting to have an audience with the Lord Jesus Christ and her anguish for her God. Have mercy on me, Lord.
Please have mercy on me. In other words, this woman meant business. It's like Republican you have in Luke A.G. Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. This woman... in her anguish she tried out the one she felt would listen to her regrets and grant her the blessing that she desired and so she of lord have mercy jesus our son of david have mercy on me you'll notice his patience i want you to notice that in verse twenty three he answered her never a word Now that seems unusual for the Lord Jesus, who was a perfect gentleman.
He answered or never the one. Silence. Not being kind or rough, is it not? The perfect gentleman, the son of God, the one who was the very source of all mercy, the dispenser of mercy, and a poor, anguish-broken-hearted woman, comes and put in such a request, thou son of David have mercy on me, and he doesn't even recognize. He doesn't even answer a word. That's exactly what happened. He answers us not a word. Why?
Sometimes the Lord doesn't answer our cries because of sin. There's something in our lives that are preventing his recognition. Maybe it's because he wants to bring about a deeper sense of one's lost condition. And he's silent. He answered her, not a word. You know, Bartholomew cried out to the Lord in the chapter eighteen or seventeen of Luke. He cried out the same thing. Jesus, thou son of David, had mercy on me. And the Lord stopped right then. and responded, why Bartholomew's was a Jew.
But when this Gentile woman called upon him, he answered her, not a woman. And as the story unfold, you see why? You know there are various silences in your Bible in John chapter eight. Here are these scribes and Pharisees, and they bring a woman in who had been taken in adultery in the very act. The very fact that they didn't bring the man in also proved they had something up their sleeve, and they tell the Lord Jesus, as they present this woman, Lord Moses in the loft that used to be stoned.
What are you saying? He didn't answer. He knelt down and he wrote on the ground. There you have the silence of the Lord Jesus, silent as a rebuke of their hypothesis. He knew exactly what they came in for to try and trap them, the silence of their, to rebuke their hypothesis. Then when he stood before Caiaphas, the high priest and the Sanhedrin, they fought all kinds of charges against the Lord Jesus Christ. Once again he answered them, not a word. There you see the silence of the Lord Jesus Christ before those who reviled him that all kinds of untruth about it.
Then on the cross you see the silence of the Lord Jesus. It's that all kinds of things goes around the cross. He saved others himself. He cannot save. Thou be the king of Israel. Come down from the cross that will believe. He was silent. He didn't open his mouth. That was not the case. He was silent with his woman. He answered her not a word. You notice the four setbacks that schoolwoman this mother received. The first one, he answered her not a word.
As much as I'm not interested. She could have got that impression. What a rebut. I'm not trying to this man anymore. I know he heard me. And he didn't even respond. He didn't say a word. The next thing was, Your Lord, the disciples. Because she must have been talking to the disciples outside, and the disciples went in. And they tell the Lord about this woman. What is it they say? Send her away, Lord. They say to the Lord Jesus, send her away, for she's taller of after life.
She's a Gentile. No doubt she has problems, but, Lord, she's bothering her. Send her away. She had to go out and tell them. Well, they had to go out and tell her, rather, that the Lord didn't pay any attention. Oh, well, this is the kind of treatment I'm going to get. This is this. But still she remains. The third rebut was this. They went in and told her, told the Lord about this woman still out there. Well, take this message. I am not sent but unto the lost beast of the house of Israel.
So they tell her that. The Lord says to tell you, he's not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Well, that cut me off. Why waste time? I thought I had enough heartache, enough heartbreak. But here the very man that I thought was able to help me, I heard about his being so gracious, so gentle, so compassionate. I thought, He would be better than that. You heard about the crowd at the end of the preceding chapter, chapter fourteen.
They changed him from every corner, and they touched but the hem of his garment, and they were healed. And if at the end of his garment should bring them such a blessing, what wouldn't his hand and heart bring but greater blessing? I can't understand what I've heard about this man, and his action I'm not sent but under the loft sheet of the house that is there she has another rebuttal you know artists have never depicted at least I've never seen that quite painting are the artists picturing the back of the Lord Jesus they picture him foremost his face well The Lord Jesus in the Bible is not presented as one who turns his back on anyone.
Without a call. You remember Blind Bartimea? She faced Blind Bartimea. And the foaming demoniac in Mark V. He didn't turn his back on him. He faced also the limping paralytic. He faced them. He didn't turn his back on him. The turbulent seas. He faced the situation. Also the three he raised from the dead, the little girl and the widow's son and ladders. He didn't turn his back on these problems and these situations. He didn't. And we think of the dying leper.
He faced that man, the loath of leper. He didn't turn his back on the leper. But he's doing it here. He's turning his back on this dear woman. I wonder why. Turning his back on this suffering, sorrowing woman. But I want you to notice there's another rebuke. She got to Lord's help. He said, it's not me for me to take the children's bread and give it to the dog.
You're a Gentile dog. And the children are the Jewish people. And it's not me that's not proper, who made it me to take the children's bread and give it to the dog. Well, surely that's it. Did she swoon? Did she faint? by such a rebuttal, snow, she did. All the earnestness, the perseverance of this woman, she said, Truth, Lord, but the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's grave.
If you give me the place of a dog, that's what I am. I'm not asking for a loaf. I'm asking for a crumb. Just like the pet dogs gather around the table, sitting up crumb, Lord, I'm not worthy to be sitting at the table. All I am begging like a dog, please give me a crumb. And if her crumb can bring such deliverance from the power of sin and Satan, what can the whole loaf bring? All I want, Lord, is just a crumb for me and my daughter, my daughter's daughter.
Now she gets a different response. If you compare what's here in Matthew with what's in Mark, this is what you read. He says, and he said unto her, For this saying, For this saying, The dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters, they say, Well, for this saying, Go thy way, the devil is gone out of thy job. She was bringing her down, boy. But I want to mention one thing. Yes, sir. There's a principle in the Bible that people forget.
He is a just God, and he's a Savior. Certain things have got to be met. God claims have got to be met now. His justice must be satisfied. To begin with, she addressed them wrongly. He says, Thou son of the... Thou son of David. She had no claim upon him as son of David. Only Jews could be that last. So he didn't answer the words. Not that he didn't love her. He just wanted her to see what she was in the sight of God, outside the tale of Bethlehem.
No claim upon God at all. And so this poor woman She came to and she used the language she thought was right. Thou shalt have mercy on me. And then these four steps of rebuke and blow after blow fell upon this poor woman. But she's determined. I'm not going to give up. After that final rebuke, you're just a dog. That's it. That's it. My feelings have been hurt.
Never had my feelings been hurt for the best. She could have said it, but she didn't. She says, true, Lord, the dog eats the crumbs that fall from their mouth to the face. I'm just what you say. Friend, God's not going to meet your need in salvation. Nor is he going to answer your prayer until you take the place that he gives you. You're unworthy. You're undeserved. If there's any pride in your heart, you're an invalid, look who I am. I think the Lord should do it for me. Look who I am.
Look what I've done. All the good I've done. My life has lived. No. The Lord sees you a lost, guilty sinner. and not till you take that place when he ever sees it. And he says, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee, even as thou wilt. Now she could have turned aside, but she didn't. Why didn't she have lots of faith? She did. She had faith to go to the Lord Jesus when she was a Gentile. He was a Jew. She had faith, she had plenty of anguish in her heart, and she had plenty of patience, she had plenty of perseverance, she kept up.
All four of those noble things didn't amount to a thing in the presence of the Lord Jesus. The last thing he did, she says, truth, Lord, the dogs eat the crumbs. All I want is just a crumb of consideration, just a crumb of compassion, just a crumb of power to deliver my daughter from the grip of satanic injury. She took the place humility. You know, that's what brings the blessing.
He that humblest himself shall be exalted. He that excels themselves shall be humble. No one has ever been saved in nineteen hundred years, but hasn't taken that place before God. Christ died for the ungodly. That's what the Bible says. If there's one percent pride conceit in your heart, then ninety-nine percent of something else, He's not going to save you. One hundred percent, Lord. I'm just lost. God be merciful to me, the sinner.
And for this saying, woman, for this saying, the devil's gone out of thy daughters. The whole situation cleared up. Your daughter's blessed, and so are you. And so is your family. How one can be a blessing, the mother especially in a family, when that sincere woman takes her place, and Lord knows she has enough to humble her in her home today. I was preaching in England one time, and I mentioned the sin of ingratity.
I said, you know, we take so much for granted about our mother. I have been in some homes and it thrilled me when I've heard a young mother, young son say, mother, I enjoyed that. That was a good dinner. Or a daughter, she got, mother, I sure enjoyed that. That was fine. Can I have you do something? Or thank mother for this. Thank mother for that. Thank her for her clothes being washed with all iron barely on. And I was speaking about the sin of insanity. Day after day goes by and children never think of thanking Mother, growing up and putting a kiss on her feet and saying, thanks to Mother.
While I was preaching, a woman got up and left the room in a burst of tears. I said to Dr. Packer, I was saying in his book, Alice, what happened? Brother Wilson, she couldn't think. She is the wife of a drunk. and a family of rebellious children. She's just a servant around the house. She labors from morning to night for her family. She never knows what thank you is. Gratitude. She just couldn't sit. In gratitude. If doing honor to your parents, one thing is to thank them.
I want to say this morning, God wants you as a mother. You say, well, my children don't thank the highly friendly. Now I'm going to bring it home. Do you thank God for his salvation? Look at how he's blessed you, didn't you say. Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and have you thanked him for? Have you thanked God for his love? giving his son to die to you on the cross and shaving his precious blood talk about ingratitude how ungrateful the human race is today but God has so blessed as a nation while other nations are swept with famines and earth freaks and under the slavery of a tyrannical government In this country has not been one foreign bomb dropped on our land, living sumptuously, affluent.
How often do people get down and thank God for our circumstance, our line to fall onto us in pleasant places? We have a goodly heritage, ungratefulness for God. And God has given his son to die for us. And God wants us to accept that gift and thank him. Thank you. So we see the story of this mother, a sorrowing woman and a supplicating woman, how she fled and fled and fled and was robust until finally she hit the cord to cause the Lord to respond.
I'm just a dog, Lord, compared to you. Considering your holiness, I'm just a vile sinner. I don't deserve your salvation. My good life won't merit it. Lord, I'm going to take the place of a sinner who has violated thy holy throne. What we do for this shame, go thy way. Thy sins are forgiven. Humility. This is what God wants in the Roman heart. She was satisfied, mother.
My how she went away rejoicing. Her daughter was healed or her daughter was saved and she was rejoicing for her happy home. All because of a mother who had faith. She knew something of patience and perseverance. Finally, she got in touch with the Lord himself, and it resulted in the blessing in the family. And that's what the Lord wants this morning. For you, Mother, we want to bless you first, and the blessing flows through you to the family. I wonder if you're prepared to receive the Lord Jesus Christ.
I asked you, are you satisfied with a mother? Are you satisfied with all your life what you've done? Oh, no. I could have done better. Yes, you could have set a better example, couldn't you? Yes. No mother in her right mind with a good conscience could say I've been perfect. I haven't found any mother to say, I'm perfectly satisfied with what I've done as a mother, as a wife. Oh, no. You could have done better. Are you willing to settle today for just more of the same? What you've been living?
Your past life. Are you willing to settle for just more of the same, the old Dalton, three meals a day in a bed? Working for morning tonight. Oftentimes it's just said, paid up. Or do you want to be saved? The Lord Jesus Christ can make the big difference in your heart, in your life, and in your home. The very ones who bless this mother and who bless Chapposite will bless you this morning. And you can leave the little chapel same and satisfied.
But he does satisfy me. He satisfied me at the age of nineteen. And I'm not satisfied with my life. Although I've been preaching my fifty years, I'm not satisfied. But friends, I know one thing I'm satisfied with the one who's taken me to heaven. I'm satisfied with the Lord Jesus Christ. Likely he's dissatisfied in me. But I'm satisfied with him. And he's the one that gets the glory from my salvation. From my going to heaven. He did it all. Long, long ago upon the cross, he did it all.
Now you as a mother ready this morning. A mother, yes, you have some faith. A mother with anger. Though you've been patient. You've been persevering, but your prayers haven't been answered. He giveth grace for the humble. When you take that place, it may be hard. When you take the place that he gives you, Lord, I'm unworthy, I'm undeserving. That's when he'll answer your prayers. That's when he'll bless you. And that's when he'll bless others who. Disprone. She left Saturday.
God loves you. The Lord Jesus suffered and bled and died to you on the cross. And the Spirit of God is probing at your heart, your mother's heart. Oh, the love of a mother. What she doesn't go through and suffer for her children. But oh, the love of a Savior. What he went through and what he suffered. For you, mother, and for me, will you accept him and leave with the power in you to be a different mother, a different wife, a different person, because you have the source of strength in your heart, Christ in you, the hope of Lord.
Shall we pray? our father in heaven in the name of our lord jesus christ we come into thy presence we ask thy blessing on thy word we do thank thee for the salvation we have in thy son we thank thee for this story of this dear sara phoenician woman how before she was lifted she was brought down this is thy principle father we thank thee the same one who met her name long long ago will meet the need of anyone here this morning who wants that need met our lord jesus christ is available he's available to all we thank thee for our mother god bless them father a save mother there's someone that thou can't bless in a way thou cannot bless any of